Planet Lean: The Official online magazine of the Lean Global Network
What Toyota and the Green Berets have in common

What Toyota and the Green Berets have in common

Sam MacPherson
April 9, 2015

INTERVIEW - What do the United States Army’s Special Forces unit and Toyota have in common? To find out, we spoke to the Green Berets’ former Director of Training at the LEI summit in New Orleans.


Interviewee: Sam MacPherson, Lean Enterprise Transformation Leader at the Lean Leadership Academy and former Director of Training of the United States Army’s Special Forces unit.



THE INTERVIEWEE

Sam MacPherson photograph
Sam MacPherson is a lean enterprise transformation leader and has dedicated over 28 years to developing organizational leaders, senior leadership teams, and designing lean enterprise management systems

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LEAN TECH VOICES: How can we implement AI the “lean way”?
June 11, 2026
LEAN TECH VOICES: How can we implement AI the “lean way”?

COLUMN – In this column, three lean and technology experts respond to the same pressing question shaping today’s tech/AI debate. This month, we ask what a lean approach to AI looks like.

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Lean thinking unleashes your power to innovate
March 24, 2017
Lean thinking unleashes your power to innovate

OPINION – Our systems to develop new products are slow and inadequate for the ever-changing markets we have to work in. The author describes the three lean elements that will unlock your potential to innovate.

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Using lean as a way to transform your business model
December 5, 2016
Using lean as a way to transform your business model

INTERVIEW – Lean is making inroads in the Middle East! In this interview, a Senior VP of Gerab National Enterprises tells us how the company is using lean to reinvent itself as a project management firm.

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Lean thinking and the challenges it will face
October 14, 2014
Lean thinking and the challenges it will face

ARTICLE - How can creativity and standards coexist? How do we move beyond silos? How do we fully understand the voice of the customer? Dan Jones reflects on three key questions for the lean movement.

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