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GA 136 | How to Create Value with Michael Mindes

Avatar photo By Jessica Bush Updated on September 16th, 2020

This week’s guest is Michael Mindes, Founder and CEO of Tasty Minstrel Games. Michael shared his experiences with lean thus far, and how he applies what he learns to his business. An MP3 version of this episode is available for download here.

In this episode you’ll learn:

  • Michael’s background (3:14)
  • About Tasty Minstrel Games (5:32)
  • The quotes that inspire Michael (6:38)
  • About Michael’s lean journey (7:55)
  • A lesson about creating value (12:25)
  • Why everything that isn’t value is waste (17:39)
  • What self-organization means (20:03)
  • Why autonomy is challenging both to give and to receive (25:19)
  • How Michael does and doesn’t add value as the CEO (34:10)

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What Do You Think?

Do you consider waste to be everything that isn’t value? Why or why not?


  1. Robert Baird

    November 10, 2016 - 10:05 am
    Reply

    Hi Ron and Michael
    Loved this interview, as it provided some interesting discussion on what is Value. Would like to see more discussion on this critical topic.
    Customer Value is really the basis for continuous improvement and for improving employee engagement. If I could, would like to offer my thoughts:
    Value must first be defined by the Customer, not by the Leadership team, they might get it right but what if they are wrong? The traditional explanation are the three that were mentioned 1) What the customer will pay for 2) There has to be an element of transformation of material/product or service 3) Done right the first time. But this really comes after the Customer has defined their desired value. For example, what if the process transformed the product, it was done right the first time, and the customer paid for it, but the customer was not happy? Why were they not happy, because their desired value was fast delivery and flexibility which was not provided, why, because the Leadership team defined value for this customer to be quality and low cost and that was their competencies. How long would this customer be loyal?

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