Book Talk: Culture is the Key to a Best Seller

We only publish books that we believe will be successful, but we can never predict which will turn into best sellers.

One book that has proven to be extremely successful is Creating a Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions by David Mann. Since its initial publication nearly four years ago, this book has consistently been one of our top performers.

I’ve chosen to write about it this week because I believe a best seller may provide some insights into what concerns people have in the marketplace.

Creating a Lean Culture was one of the first books to address, in a very practical way, the most difficult part of a lean transformation: culture change. Mann moves beyond models and theories of lean management to show how to implement the daily practices that are the key to implementing and sustaining a lean transformation. His book includes many case examples, figures and photographs.

Some of the points he addresses include leader standard work, visual controls, daily accountability processes, maintaining a process focus, managing key HR issues, and much more.

The book won the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing Research in 2006.

Lean is all about creating value for customers, which means understanding what customers define as value. David Mann clearly understood that when he wrote the book.

What lean books have you found to be most valuable? Is there a subject that you’d like addressed in a book, but haven’t seen so far?

Do you have a question or comment about a book(s) that you would like addressed in Book Talk? Email me directly at Ralph.bernstein@taylorandfrancis.com.