Has Lean delivered its full promise to date? Observing the evolution of the "Lean Thinking" concept in the past 30 years in North America is very interesting. A few years back,  the (yet another new) term "LEAN" was coined and brought forth, which I found fit perfectly in describing the main thrust of the philosophy and what the driving methodology was intended to achieve. 

A Prominent factor of international business today is its strategic direction.  Global firms are competing with a wider variety of business and operational strategies and with more complex operational strategies today compare to 12 years before.

This makes more challenging for global operation to deploy same model for its internal business where economic and market conditions are different. This can resolved by providing a unique national strategy and dedicated modification of key activities for each major country; this facilitates customizing the business around each countries market.

A global business and operational strategy world is considered as signal market where corporate goals are common. This brings international operations to tough spot of performing as stand-alone entity.

There has been a lot of debate lately about the usefulness of BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) to business managers. Some say that it’s too complicated and unintuitive and that it’s better suited to IT people. Others say business managers must spend time learning to read BPMN notation to find it more useful. Then there are those who say they use a sub-set of BPMN symbols to simplify models so that business managers can understand them. What’s more, little is said in the debate about the process modeller’s skills.

Today’s organizations are seeking to improve accountability and put more structure around their businesses, in order to respond more effectively to rapidly changing requirements. While getting those requirements right is important, communication about the requirements is also very important, requiring a dialogue between IT and the business users. For many organizations that is a challenge – but it is a challenge that can be overcome. And there are some tools that, once implemented, can make that dialogue between IT and ‘the business’ a happier conversation.