New lean startup program to help fledgling entrepreneurs

The Macomb-OU INCubator is offering a new program this fall for startups and entrepreneurs looking to implement lean practices in their work.

Startup Lean is designed to help startup companies base their businesses on lean principles. Student entrepreneurs can learn methods to incorporate lean practices from the beginning of their projects and use these practices as building blocks toward growth.

Lean professionals Debra Levantrosser Setman and Leon Liu will lead the course, teaching participants about Lean principles and how they can help startups. Topics will include how to increase value-added time, shorten product development and supply-chain processes, measure actual progress and ask customers what they really value.

Completing this series will also teach participants to leverage human creativity, become agile and make processes more efficient.

“Starting a business is challenging,” Levantrosser Setman said. “Establishing a corporate culture is also challenging. Even more challenging is changing that culture down the road. This program is designed to help get your company started on the right foot. Lean allows your company to be innovative from the get-go and establish a focus on problem solving.”

The program will combine lecture and discussion with hands-on activities, to create a dynamic learning experience. This interactive environment will give participants the freedom to direct the class toward topics deemed most important and interesting to them.

Startup Lean will also give participants the opportunity to network with lean professionals and other Michigan startup companies.

“Startup Lean will help your company be a lean organization, while companies who transition to lean later must first try to be lean,” Liu said.

Levantrosser Setman and Liu come to the program with more than 40 years of combined experience in implementing lean practices all over the world with a variety of companies.

This three-part series will run from 8 a.m. to noon once a week on Tuesdays - September 11, 18 and 25.

For more information, visit oakland.edu/diversify or contact Joan Carleton at (586) 884-9324 or macINC@oakland.edu.