Most innovation systems fail—not because of ideas, but because of how work flows. Lean principles transform the innovation journey by restoring focus, flow, and value from concept to launch.
Is Innovation Slower And Riskier Than It Should be?
New products take too long to reach market.
Too many projects—and no clear prioritization.
Projects continue even when value is unclear.
Engineering, marketing, and operations are not aligned.
Launch dates slip and development costs increase.
R&D activity is high, but commercial impact is uncertain.
Decisions take too long due to organizational friction.
You don't know your return on innovation investment.
Innovation doesn’t fail from lack of ideas—it fails from lack of focus and execution discipline.
Lean Focus applies a focused set of Lean principles to restore flow and value across the innovation journey.
Rather than consuming resources without results, innovation work is aligned to what creates customer value and moves products to market faster. Within the Innovation Practice, three principles are foundational: Customer Value, Pull, and Waste Elimination. Together, they reduce late launches, accelerate pipeline flow, and increase revenue from new products—transforming overloaded innovation functions into disciplined, market-leading engines of growth.
Principle 1: Customer Value ensures innovation investment follows validated demand—not assumptions.
Instead of funding projects based on forecasts and internal opinion, teams confirm real customer pull before committing significant resources. The result is a focused innovation pipeline, fewer low-value projects, and products that launch with demand already proven—closing the gap between forecasted and actual sales.
Principle 2: Pull replaces pipeline chaos with synchronized flow.
Instead of pushing projects into development based on schedules and assumptions, work advances only when capacity exists and customer demand is clear. This aligns effort to real need, reduces bottlenecks, and accelerates time-to-market—without the overload that causes late launches.
Principle 3: Waste Elimination redirects innovation capacity from non-value-adding activity to what customers actually value.
By removing delays, rework, overprocessing, and unnecessary approvals, organizations concentrate effort on fewer, higher-value products that reach market faster. The result is a higher percentage of revenue from recent launches and a materially more productive innovation engine.
The Lean Focus Business System™ (LBS™) turns innovation principles into execution.
Within the Innovation Practice, Customer Value, Pull, and Waste Elimination are operationalized through proven tools and disciplines embedded in the Lean Focus Business System™. Applied side-by-side with seasoned, senior-level practitioners, LBS™ enables innovation teams to redesign portfolios, accelerate flow, and deliver repeatable results—from concept to launch. The result is a disciplined innovation system that works across industries, markets, and geographies.
Innovation performance improves when the right system is applied with discipline.
A conversation with Lean Focus is a working session—not a sales presentation. Our senior-level LBS™ Experts will show how the Lean Focus Business System™ transforms innovation bottlenecks into repeatable competitive advantage.
Industry Experience of Our Innovation Practice
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Organizations We’ve Helped Innovate
Our Innovation Practice Regional Leaders
About Gaston
Gaston serves as a Senior Vice President of Lean Focus’ Innovation Practice, where his extensive leadership experience across global Engineering, Product, and PMO teams is highly valued. Recognized for fostering a culture of problem-solving and Continuous Improvement, Gaston’s efforts have consistently led to robust and sustainable outcomes. With a career spanning over two decades, Gaston has held influential CTO, VP, and Director positions at companies like Danaher, Fortive, and Vontier. He has been instrumental in Strategic Planning, Strategy Deployment, M&A Due Diligence, and the creation of Product & Technology Roadmaps.
His aptitude for translating strategic goals into tangible achievements has marked his career. Gaston is a pragmatic leader who thrives on direct engagement, or ‘going to Gemba’, ensuring a customer-centric approach throughout the product development lifecycle.
Gaston’s academic background includes a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems from Universidad de Belgrano in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His innovative spirit is further demonstrated by his contributions as an inventor, holding several patents across the Petroleum Retail, Payment, and Test & Measurement sectors.
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.
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.
About Tim
Tim Niewand is a senior operations and business transformation leader with nearly 15 years of global experience driving Lean transformation, strategy deployment, and commercial and operational excellence across diverse and complex environments. A hands-on leader, he embodies true Gemba leadership—personally facilitating Kaizens and leading cross-functional transformation initiatives that deliver measurable, EBITDA-driven results.
Trained by former Toyota plant managers and Danaher Business System leaders, Tim has facilitated more than 80 Kaizen events across 25 companies in 10 countries. He has built a reputation for translating strategy into execution—aligning teams, simplifying processes, and eliminating operational friction to unlock performance.
During his tenure with Danaher, Fortive, and Vontier, Tim held multiple senior leadership roles including Business System Director, Head of Supply Chain, and Head of Marketing. As a Business System Director, he played a central role in driving policy deployment, leading global transformation initiatives, and coaching executive leadership teams to embed Lean thinking across operations, commercial, and functional organizations.
In an operational leadership capacity, he led end-to-end supply chain transformations, delivering significant improvements in productivity, margin, and working capital while simultaneously improving safety, quality, and employee engagement. He has also led M&A integrations, establishing governance, execution cadence, and cross-functional alignment to accelerate value capture.
He serves as Board Vice Chair of Cornerstone College and has previously held Non-Executive Director roles within aged care organizations, bringing governance, financial oversight, and strategic guidance.
Tim holds a Senior Executive MBA from Melbourne Business School, a Bachelor of Engineering in Aerospace (First Class Honours), and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Aviation (Distinction) from RMIT University. He is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).
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1. Challenge
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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]
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P: +61 458 967 510
E: [email protected]
International Phone Number: +1 (630) 800-8519
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