What are the trends to help establish the "Lean landscape"? What are the drivers of a successful Finance Transformation?

5 trends reshaping the Lean landscape:

1)Lean touches every industry

2)Lean deployment has increasing become part of Global Transformation initiatives

3)Integration of Lean and Six Sigma

4)“Value Stream Thinking” and Value Stream Mapping as a way to manage and improve processes end to end

5)Lean Leadership is the management system technique to sustain gains. Gemba Management is an example of a specific behavioral pattern expected of a Lean Leader. 

Please add your comments and thoughts with more discussion points....

Finance Transformation results in cost reduction -

Despite the desired end goal of freeing up time to focus on value-added activities, finance transformation initiatives are commonly a veiled approach to cost reduction. Decision trees to determine which activities finance should focus on (and where) are measured by metrics, such as cost as a percentage of sales, cost per transaction, or headcount—all in the name of gaining efficiencies. And if we are more efficient, we should have more time to devote to higher-value activities.

But efficiency in and of itself does not drive successful finance transformation. Successful transformation resides at the intersection of people, process, and technology directed at the activities most-aligned with value creation. In our work with clients, we find five bad assumptions that commonly harm transformation projects.