Tribal Knowledge Series

In a career spanning over 30 years, Len Bertain has coached over 200 CEO’s to help them understand and correct inefficiencies and lost profits in their business. He created the well-known “War on Waste” program, a successful Lean Business tool, to guide leadership teams through the process. As an improvement, he extended the concept of Lean to develop a preeminent problem solving tool with Craig Humphreys. This tool uses their proprietary program "5/67 Problem Solving" to deliver high ROI solutions to business. He is an author of four books on the War on Waste and a frequent speaker to CEO groups. His most recent book with Craig Humphreys, "5/67 Problem Solving...How to Solve Wicked Problems...correctly," explains the process of how his problem solving approach works. Since its inception, the War on Waste program has generated over $1 Billion in first-year profits from over 10,000 ideas, all generated by client company employees. The companies involved in the War on Waste have been as small as 10 people with;l Fortune 100 companies at the other extreme. His books include: How to Win the War on Waste in 90 Days, The War on Waste Paradox, War on Waste Innovation, and The Tribal Knowledge Paradigm. Len's Bookstore can be found at: lenbertainsbooks.com. In 1994, he founded the Institute for Productivity Improvement and, in 1999, CEO University, both based in San Francisco, CA. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Nevada and a B.S. in Physics and Math from St. Mary’s College of California. He lives in California with his wife and has 3 grown sons and 9 grandchildren.