In 1643, the undefeated Japanese sword-master, Miyamoto Musashi, wrote a book known as The Book of the Five Rings, in which he described his understanding of what it took to survive life and death duels. In his mid-50s when writing, he had reached a point of clarity where he saw that real expertise was based on mastering of basic principles – that true excellence was founded on using and deeply understanding basic principles. So he decided to share them.
Richard Keegan started his own journey in Lean, World Class Manufacturing, Benchmarking or Best Practice in 1986 with Williams & Woods / Nestlé in Tallaght, Dublin, where he developed his basic understanding of how to work with and through people to get things done in a business context. Having written several books on the subject, he presents his insights – as best understood at this point – in the form of the Five Rings of Lean Business Excellence, to help you on your journey towards your personal and business excellence goal.
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Richard Keegan is the manager of the Competitiveness Department at Enterprise Ireland, where he and his team are responsible for the Lean Business Offer, the Benchmarking Service, Environmental Assessments and the Green Start and Plus Programmes, as well as for the Envirocentre.ie and assisting companies to access European support for environmentally-–based improvement products.