Traditional commercial tactics have led to temporary or inconsistent changes to performance – if they actually help at all. The end result is missed orders, wasted resources, ineffective campaigns, and customer churn that continues to limit growth and erode market share. Lean principles of commercial excellence systematically accelerate performance by fundamentally changing how your sales and marketing organization operates.
We use the proven Lean principles of commercial excellence to drive predictable, top-line growth.
These principles ensure every aspect of commercial work—including go-to-market strategy, pricing, value proposition and positioning, demand generation, and sales funnel management—generates maximum value.
The Growth Practice of Lean Focus employs a full spectrum of Lean principles to close more deals, retain more customers, and build predictable revenue engines. Among the hundreds of Lean principles we implement, Customer Value, Standard Work, and Flow represent three core principles that transform underperforming commercial teams into market leaders.
Principle 1: Customer Value builds relationships that convert and retain, while traditional methods chase transactions.
Traditional sales and marketing operations pursue volume: more calls, more pitches, more proposals pushed toward anyone who might buy. This creates bloated pipelines filled with poorly qualified prospects while existing customers drift toward competitors. The Lean principle of Customer Value demands deep insight into customer needs, behaviors, and lifetime value. By using data to identify your best targets and understand what customers truly value, you inform decisions across all commercial functions. The resulting shift improves how your sales team identifies opportunities, engages customers, and closes deals because you’re solving problems customers actually have.
Principle 2: Standard Work eliminates friction, while traditional methods accept lost deals as inevitable.
Traditional commercial operations are fragmented: marketing generates leads that sales dismisses as unqualified, pricing decisions are made without regard to segment differences, and customers experience a disjointed journey that erodes trust. Standard Work demands that you view your commercial operation as an interconnected system—aligning channels, segments, and value propositions into a coherent go-to-market strategy. When marketing efforts align closely with sales activities, when pricing captures value strategically across different segments and situations, and when every function serves the same customer journey, conversion rates rise and customers stay longer.
Principle 3: Flow accelerates revenue by eliminating delays, while traditional methods accept bottlenecks as normal.
Traditional sales and marketing operations are riddled with stalls: leads sit unworked, proposals wait for approvals, follow-ups are delayed, and opportunities grow cold. These bottlenecks are accepted as inevitable—just how things work. The Lean principle of Flow demands that work move continuously through your commercial operation without interruption or delay. When leads are engaged immediately, proposals move swiftly, and handoffs between marketing and sales happen seamlessly, your pipeline velocity increases dramatically. Deals close faster, customers experience responsive engagement, and revenue once lost through delays now flows predictably into your results.
The Lean Focus Business System™ (LBS™) turns principles into practice.
The Lean principles which can be employed to increase top-line revenue—including Customer Value, Standard Work, and Flow—come to life through the proven Tools contained within the Growth Practice of LBS™. These Tools represent systematic activities—Kaizens, workshops, process implementations, and structured improvements—that your Commercial team will undertake side-by-side with our seasoned, senior-level practitioners. The Lean Focus Business System™ is truly among the most respected business systems in the world, providing repeatable, proven solutions that work across industries and countries.
Growth problems won’t fix themselves, and traditional approaches to sales and marketing have already proven inadequate.
Contact the senior-level LBS™ Experts of our Growth Practice today to schedule a conversation about your most important opportunities, the most pressing challenges, and how we can address them.
Industry Experience Of Our Growth Practice
SAAS
DATA ANALYTICS
BUILDING MATERIALS
WATER & WASTEWATER
SPECIALTY CHEMICALS
DIAGNOSTIC EQUIPMENT
ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE
TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT
GENOMICS & PRECISION MEDICINE
AUTO PARTS & COMPONENTS
ENERGY & POWER SYSTEMS
INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY
AUTOMATION EQUIPMENT
BIOPHARMACEUTICALS
PLUMBING PRODUCTS
CONSUMER BRANDS
HVAC SYSTEMS
& MORE
A Selection of Businesses Our Growth Practice Has Served
Our Growth Practice Regional Leaders
EDWARD SMITHWICK
Lean Focus North America
+1 (630) 800-8519
[email protected]
About Edward
Edward is Senior Vice President, Growth Practice for Lean Focus North America. He is a global, commercial leader experienced in sustaining profitable growth through leadership of corporate strategy, commercial planning and execution, product management, new product innovation, organization structure, and talent development. He has broad international experience building global $1 billion+ brands and mid-size businesses in complex markets. For almost 30 years, Edward has held leadership roles in public and private companies, including Danaher, Fortive, Veralto, GlaxoSmithKline, and Waterpik Technologies. He earned his BBA and MBA from Emory University.
Edward has delivered above-market results by architecting growth strategies, cross-functional collaboration, commercial excellence, and the ongoing commitment to continuous improvement. At Danaher, he led a cross-functional team to define, rollout, and sustain the global lead management process for a $1 billion OpCo, installing Salesforce and marketing automation, while establishing standard work for Sales, Marketing, and Commercial Operations. At one of Fortive’s largest OpCos, Edward led redefinition of the new product launch process and drove a breakthrough NPD commercialization initiative that exceeded target by 54% applying deep customer insight, rapid prototyping, and disciplined experimentation. At a Veralto OpCo, Edward led initiatives to increase the new product funnel 3x, grow the impact of demand generation by 7x, and increase revenue from price by 7.5% in a single year.
MANUEL JANS, PHD.
Lean Focus Europe
+49 173 2505762
[email protected]
About Manuel
Manuel has over 20 years of experience in Human Resource Management and Organizational Development. He has initially provided support for lean business transformations at all levels as a HR Consultant and later by leading customer-focused Talent and HR organizations in multi-national companies (up to $2.2B and 40+ locations). His assignments include various Talent leader roles at Danaher´s Water Quality Business and Head of HR positions in Pharma and Biotech. As an entrepreneur he has (co-)founded start-up businesses and professional networks. He is passionate about applying lean and agile thinking to build, improve and sustain impactful HR and talent practices, placing and developing key talent to drive the transformation journey, and building a lean leadership culture at all levels of the organization. Manuel holds a MBA (Diplom-Kaufmann) and Ph.D. in Business Administration (HR focus) from Essen University.
MICHAEL REINHOLT ANDERSEN
Lean Focus Nordic
+45 4030 3080
[email protected]
About Michael
Michael is the CEO of Lean Focus Nordic, bringing over 25 years of leadership experience. His career includes ~18 years at Danaher Corporation, where he held multiple executive roles, including General Manager/Managing Director Dentistry and Biotech businesses, as well as several VP Operations & Supply Chain and VP of Lean Business Transformation. In his role as Danaher Corporate Director, he was responsible for Danaher Business System implementation in EU. Most recently, he led Operations & Supply Chain of a $1B acute care diagnostics business, transforming it into one of Danaher’s most Lean-mature organizations.
An expert in driving transformational change, Michael specializes in implementing Lean practices and applying Lean business systems in large-scale organizations to enhance quality, delivery, innovation speed, and cost efficiency. He has successfully led cross-functional Lean transformations across diverse industries, cultivating high-performing, problem-solving cultures on a global scale.
Michael is renowned for driving radical business transformations and delivering impactful results. He excels in building enduring cultures of Continuous Improvement, anchored in collaboration, empowerment, and mutual respect.
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Growth Practice Today.
Growth Practice Case Study
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Locations Worldwide
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Employees
1. Challenge
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2. Opportunity
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Growth Practice Client Testimonials
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Lean Focus North America
P: +1 (630) 800-8519
E: [email protected]
Lean Focus Europe
P: +49 173 2505762
E: [email protected]
Lean Focus Nordic
P: +45 4030 3080
E: [email protected]
International Phone Number: +1 (630) 800-8519
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