The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

Taiichi Ono (1912–1990) was a Japanese industrial engineer and the father of the Toyota Production System (TPS), a groundbreaking manufacturing method that transformed global manufacturing practices and inspired Ries’s concept of The Lean Startup. Ono's innovative principles of just-in-time production and continuous improvement have become foundational in lean manufacturing. He emphasized waste reduction, efficient resource utilization, and employee involvement to enhance productivity.

Shigeo Shingo (1909–1990), also a Japanese industrial engineer, collaborated with Ono to develop TPS. Shingo introduced concepts like Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) to minimize setup times and Poka-Yoke, which focuses on error prevention. His contributions laid the groundwork for modern quality control and process improvement methodologies, influencing diverse industries beyond manufacturing. Together, Ono and Shingo “taught the world the difference between value-creating activities and waste” as a means of building quality products efficiently (18).

The Facebook Company, founded by Mark Zuckerberg along with his college roommates Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz, originated as a social networking platform primarily for Harvard University students in February 2004. Operating under the name "Thefacebook," the website quickly gained popularity within the university community, as it offered students the ability to create profiles, connect with classmates, and share information.

Facebook gradually opened its doors to other Ivy League institutions before extending invitations to colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. By September 2006, Facebook became accessible to anyone aged 13 and above with a valid email address.

Over the years, Facebook incorporated multimedia sharing, a new feed, events, pages, and advertising services, cementing its status as the largest social media network. While innovative, the algorithms that drive these features—especially the advertising and political content—have drawn controversy. The company, now known as Meta, owns Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, among other social media platforms. Ries cites David Kirkpatrick’s The Facebook Effect (2011) in recounting Facebook’s origin story, which has become the startup archetype, and notes Facebook’s use of Lean Startup principles like Lean User Experience (Lean UX) and leaps of faith in value creation and growth.

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) is an American mechanical engineer and the author of The Principles of Scientific Management, published in 1911. Ries derives his theory of management science from Taylor’s principles and argues that Taylor’s concept of scientific management changed the course of business in the 20th century. Taylor is credited with the invention of management as a discipline that studies the efficiency of individual workers, management by exception, standardization of work into tasks, and task-plus-bonus system of compensation (272).

Taylor is best known for his methods of increasing efficiency in the manufacturing industry and applying engineering concepts to managing factory workers for maximum productivity. Ries believes that Taylor’s system of management was corrupted in the decades after he first published his theories. Managers saw only the systems and operations of business and forgot about the creative individuals who run those systems and operations. The Lean Startup takes the principles of Taylor’s management system and reappropriates them for modern economic circumstances and problems.