Rachna Shah, Ph.D. on Lean in Academia and the Role of Leadership

Habitual Excellence Podcast Cover Rachna Shah

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Welcome to Episode #29 of Habitual Excellence, presented by Value Capture.

Our guest is Rachna Shah, Professor of Supply Chain and Operations — Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. She has a PhD in Management Science from the Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University, an MBA/MHA Business Administration (Finance) from the same, and a BA in Economics from Delhi University, India. Shah was on the PhD committee of Aravind Chandrasekaran, who was our guest in Episode #25.

Today, host Mark Graban asks Prof. Shah about the following topics and more:

  • The seminal work on how to measure what Lean is
  • The state of Lean instruction in academia and research
  • What are some of the missing pieces, including the role of top management?
  • Why is it important to teach the more cultural elements of Lean? What are those?
  • Why did Paul O'Neill make a strong impression on her?

You can see some of her research and publications on her webpage. Here is the seminal paper she mentions: “Defining and developing measures of lean production.”

Video:

Quotes:

"There is no bigger negative impact on employee morale than if you ask them what you could do better and then don't do it."
"I think excellence is not something that you go into at just work or in your role as a manager, but it is really a habit."

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