Steve Bell began his career in the early 1980s as an accountant, where he learned to appreciate the underlying information and systems needed to run a business. When IBM introduced the first PC, he joined the world of IT at the very beginning of the ERP industry evolution. He first became acquainted with Lean principles and practices in the early 1990s, when he quickly realized that the key to creating effective IT systems was engaging employees in the simplification and continuous improvement of business processes before investing in information systems. He applied this philosophy to ERP and software development projects, which led to his first book, Lean Enterprise Systems (Wiley, 2006). The success of this book led him more deeply into the practice of Lean IT, where he began facilitating kaizen events and strategy deployment initiatives, while integrating Agile software development and IT Service management with the fundamental Lean principles. This led to his second book, Lean IT (Productivity Press, 2010), which received the 2011 Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence research award. Steve serves on the faculty of the Lean Enterprise Institute. He travels worldwide presenting workshops, leading gemba walks, and advising clients on applying Lean IT principles and practices to solve their daily business challenges, including fast and effective governance and portfolio management, continual IT service improvement, end-to-end application development lifecycle management, ERP agility and continuous improvement, and the design of effective measurement systems that help teams focus on the right things. In addition to his work leading Lean IT transformation, Steve and his wife Karen are actively involved in the nonprofi t and nongovernmental organization (NGO) community. As founders of Lean4NGO (http://www.Lean4NGO.org), their mission is to bring Lean practices to humanitarian aid organizations, improving operational efficiency (use of scarce resources) and effectiveness (improved outcomes) to benefit the three billion people living at the bottom of the pyramid on less than $2 a day. Steve may be reached through his website at http://www.LeanITStrategies.com.
