Steven Spear

Steven Spear is a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and at the Engineering Systems Division at MIT.

Spear is widely recognized for his expertise on how diverse organizations manage complex development, design, and delivery efforts to achieve unmatched rates of internally generated, broad-based improvement and innovation. His significant contributions to the development of the Alcoa Business System and the Perfecting Patient Care system of the Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative have been instrumental in enhancing the quality and safety of care in area hospitals. His consulting work extends to major firms like Lockheed Martin, John Deere, Intel, and Toyota, focusing on supplier development efforts. Spear also supports the Institute for Healthcare Improvement as a Senior Fellow and teaches in the Leaders for Global Operations Program and several executive education programs at MIT.

Spear’s book, "The High Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition," has won several distinguished awards, including the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing Research and the Philip Crosby Medal from the American Society for Quality. His articles, such as “Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System” and “Learning to Lead at Toyota,” are seminal works in the lean manufacturing canon. His article “Fixing Healthcare from the Inside, Today” not only won a McKinsey Award as one of the best Harvard Business Review articles in 2005 but also earned his fourth Shingo Prize for Research Excellence. Spear's insights have been featured in media outlets including Bloomberg TV, CBS News, The New York Times, and Fortune.com.