Christopher J. Bujak received his bachelor of science, mechanical engineering from Lafayette College in Easton, PA. He is the global director of continuous improvement (CI) for Air Products, Allentown, PA. Mr. Bujak was one of the principle developers of a truly integrated CI model including lean enterprise, Six SigmaTM and critical enabling elements such as learning and people involvement. He is currently focused on the continued global rollout of the integrated approach including development of CI plans for various businesses, coaching organizations through deployment, developing people and sharing learning. Mr. Bujak has held a broad range of engineering and leadership positions including general manager for Process Systems Manufacturing, lean enterprise manager for the Gases Group and manager of the CryoMachinery and Manufacturing Design organizations.

This presentation will provide participants an understanding of what true transformation means and what accomplishing it requires of them and their businesses. Why do almost many business transformations fail? This is a perplexing question. Clearly, every business owner or leader would want his or her enterprise described as "producing extraordinary results for all stakeholders” and “serves as a benchmark against which other companies compare themselves." This is the end status that world-class business transformations promise. Yet, few business leaders undertake transformations and it is questionable that true transformation has been achieved in any well-known enterprise. This presentation explores one likely reason for these facts— namely, that people seek the results of transformation without understanding how those results are produced and what it takes to make them happen. It will engage the audience in exploring each of these questions and clarify that the benefits transformations deliver come from the implementation of a business model and that the business model these transformations assume is far from the comfort zone of most businesses. It also clarifies that the level of adoption required of the chosen business model challenges business people to make adjustments they generally find unappealing. The talk will draw on a review of over 70 articles and books addressing business transformations that create high performing organizations and more recent experiences with the pursuit of lean transformations (Womack & Jones) and the real-world applications of the lean model.