Lean Focus Podcast

Peter Kürstein knew Radiometer inside and out.
He had already spent 19 years with the company when Danaher acquired Radiometer in 2004. Peter became CEO at the time of the acquisition and would spend the next 12 years leading the company through its transformation.
He knew the business. He knew the people. He knew the customers.
What he didn't know was Lean.
Then, just two weeks after the acquisition, Peter participated in an Executive Champion Orientation led by then-Danaher CEO Larry Culp.
Peter went to the Gemba and followed a carbon dioxide sensor through production.
What he discovered stunned him:
It took 18 days to do 24 minutes of actual work.
That experience fundamentally changed how Peter saw the business—and how he saw his role as CEO.
In Episode 13 of the Lean Focus Podcast, Damon Baker sits down with Peter to explore the remarkable journey that followed: how Danaher brought the Danaher Business System into an already successful global medical technology leader, and how a CEO with virtually no Lean experience learned to personally lead the transformation.
Peter shares why middle management created some of the greatest resistance, how Lean could thrive in a highly regulated medical environment, why CEOs cannot delegate transformation, and how Radiometer ultimately built a culture where continuous improvement became part of how people worked and developed their careers.
The results were extraordinary. Operating margins grew from approximately 23% to 33%, and Radiometer became a benchmark within Danaher for other operating companies to learn from.
But Peter's story isn't really about the numbers.
It's about what can happen when an experienced CEO has the humility to discover that 19 years of knowing a company doesn't mean you've learned everything the company can teach you.
Sometimes transformation begins with simply learning to see.
 
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When Mithun Ramachandran became President of nVenia, he faced a challenge familiar to many first-time CEOs and presidents: How do you create change without pretending you already have all the answers?
The pressure on new leaders is enormous. Move fast. Make decisions. Prove yourself.
Instead, Mithun chose a different path.
He listened.
 
Before launching initiatives. Before reorganizing teams. Before declaring what needed to change.
He visited customers. He spoke with more than 70 associates. He studied the work. He focused on understanding the business before trying to transform it.
 
What he discovered was surprising:
Customers and employees were often describing the same problems from opposite sides of the same system.
 
In Episode 12 of the Lean Focus Podcast, Damon Baker sits down with Mithun to discuss the lessons learned during his first year as a president, why curiosity can be a competitive advantage, and how organizations move from firefighting and heroics to trust, discipline, and predictability.
 
In this conversation, Mithun shares:
What he learned from customers and frontline associates during his first months as president
Why customer pain and employee pain are often symptoms of the same underlying system
How a first-time leader earns credibility without having all the answers
Why "embracing the red" became an important cultural shift for the organization
The role of a strong say/do ratio in building trust and accountability
How leaders create urgency without creating fear
Why sustainable performance comes from improving systems rather than demanding more effort
 
Mithun also shares one of the most important leadership lessons from his journey:
"Don't walk in as the hero. Walk in as a student of the system."
 
This episode is a masterclass in leadership humility, operational discipline, and the courage to listen before acting.
 
Because great leaders don't build organizations that depend on heroes.
They build systems that allow ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results.
 
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Envista didn't start from scratch.
The company was born out of Danaher.
The tools were there.
The playbook was there.
The talent was there.
And that's what makes this story so fascinating.
 
In Episode 11 of the Lean Focus Podcast, Damon Baker sits down with Brian Huh, Vice President of the Envista Business System Office, to explore what happens when a company that deeply understands Lean slowly drifts away from the discipline that made it successful.
Coming out of COVID, Envista had momentum. Strong growth. Strong EBITDA. Confidence.
Then the dental market softened.
Performance started slipping.
Priorities multiplied.
Focus disappeared.
 
And leadership realized something difficult:
The problem wasn't that the organization didn't know Lean.
The problem was that it had stopped truly operating that way.
 
In this conversation, Brian shares how Envista reignited its business system and rebuilt operational discipline across the company:
Why "working on too many things" quietly destroys performance
How organizations drift even when they have world-class Lean heritage
The power of CEO Kaizens to reset culture and leadership behavior
Why communication is one of the most underestimated tools in transformation
How President Kaizens and localized problem solving accelerated momentum
Why leadership ownership determines whether Lean survives or dies
How Envista rebuilt focus around the critical few priorities that truly mattered
 
Brian also explains the deeper shift that occurred:
EBS stopped being something the organization "did"… and became the way the company operates every day.
 
This episode is a powerful reminder that Lean is not self-sustaining.
Even great organizations drift.
Even strong cultures lose focus.
Even companies with the best business system heritage in the world must recommit themselves to operational discipline.
Because knowing Lean works is not enough.
You have to choose it — over and over again.
 
 
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Fluke didn't have a performance problem.
It had a future problem.
 
In Episode 10 of the Lean Focus Podcast, Damon Baker sits down with Wes Pringle, CEO of Evident Scientific, to unpack how one of the most respected industrial brands in the world made a high-stakes decision: reinvent the business while it was still winning.
 
At the time, Fluke was the clear leader in handheld industrial test tools.
Trusted brand. Dominant market share. World-class hardware.
But the world was changing.
Industrial environments were becoming more automated.
Fewer technicians. More connected systems.
The value was shifting — from the tool… to the data behind the tool.
 
Fluke had a choice:
Protect the core that made them successful.
—or—
Build the future before the market forced them to.
 
In this conversation, Wes breaks down what that transformation really looked like:
The moment he realized success was becoming a constraint,
Why moving into software challenged the identity of the organization,
How internal resistance shows up when people fear what change means for them,
The strategic bet that made the transformation irreversible,
Why speed, iteration, and customer pilots mattered more than perfect planning,
How Fluke built a new growth engine in predictive and preventative maintenance,
What it takes to protect a new venture inside a large, successful company.
 
Wes also shares a reality most leaders underestimate: You are asking your best people — the ones who built the current success — to question the very model that made them successful.
And that's where most transformations fail.
 
This episode is a real-world look at what it takes to navigate disruption from a position of strength — not theory, not hindsight, but leadership in the moment.
Because the biggest risk isn't disruption.
It's believing you have more time than you do.
 
 
 
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GE Aerospace is a world-leading provider of jet and turboprop engines, as well as integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft.  At any given time, there are approximately one million* people flying on GE Aerospace-powered aircraft.
 
In Episode 9 of the Lean Focus Podcast, Damon Baker sits down with Phil Wickler, Chief Transformation Officer at GE Aerospace, to explore how the company is driving operational discipline across a global workforce of more than 57,000 employees.
 
Despite strong results, leadership believed the company could operate with greater clarity, discipline and customer focus. Prior to becoming a standalone company in 2024, GE Aerospace launched FLIGHT DECK, their proprietary lean operating model. FLIGHT DECK is how the team delivers for their customers, with a relentless focus on safety, quality, delivery and cost, always in that order. In this conversation, Phil shares how GE Aerospace is:
Driving a rigorous commitment to continuous improvement across the organization
Offering immersive learning where leaders experience the power of Lean firsthand
Scaling transformation across the business through transformation roadmaps tied to multi-year business objectives
Leveraging Lean tools and behaviors to advance the company's culture
Connecting daily management at the Gemba directly to enterprise performance and customer outcomes.
 
Phil also explains why transformation at scale must be leader-led, and how managing operational drivers creates stronger and more sustainable performance.
 
Because the best companies don't wait to change. They focus on continuous improvement every day to run the business better.
 
* Figures include equipment made by GE Aerospace and Joint Ventures
 
 
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