Blog Posts

The pace of change is moving faster than ever, and organizations are becoming defined by their ability to adapt and anticipate disruption. Growing as an innovative, adaptive organization means supporting a culture of continuous learning. Each year, The Ohio State University Center for Operational Excellence offers an opportunity to get your cross-functional teams in front of the latest best practices in leadership and problem-solving at the COE Summit.

In 2021, COE curated a lineup of experts to speak (virtually) on topics ranging from supply chain, leadership, and the future of work to diversity, lean transformation, and robotic process automation. As the year draws to a close, we wanted to share a selection of books recommended by several of our speakers.

What is Lean and why is it important? We sat down with Eric Olsen, Director for Central Coast Lean and Professor of Industrial Technology in the Orfalea College of Business at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, to discuss the benefits of Lean and his upcoming New to Lean workshop. Check it out here:

The Center for Operational Excellence works alongside our members to foster a problem-solving culture that’s grounded in tried-and-true operational excellence tools, and that’s constant and far-reaching. Through membership, organizations gather actionable insights from industry executives at COE programming, tap into research findings focused on today’s greatest challenges, and connect with Fisher College of Business students poised to become tomorrow’s leaders.

Every business and industry has been impacted by change in the past year and, it is evident that these changes are accelerating. In fact, more change is expected to occur in the next 10 years than in the past 50 years. So, how can businesses keep up? Staying agile in an evolving environment requires a different set of thinking, skills, and capabilities. Below are five strategies your organization can keep up with the ever-increasing pace of change: