The best way to see ‘lean’ is as an application of marketing principles, to look not just at products but everything firms do, including their underlying processes and cost structures, from the point of view of the customer. It then sorts the wheat from the chaff: things that customers genuinely perceive as real benefits, and the rest which is just waste.
Lean systems then eliminate any and every process, activity, department or function that doesn’t add value, to focus only on things that do. Net result: much better value customer value, at lower prices, leading to higher volumes and greater loyalty. What real branding was always about, in other words.
Lean is no longer mean in the new brand philosophy
By Alan Mitchell
