When Halfway Toyota acquired the Ngami dealership and repair center in 2013, there were mistrust and fear among staff. The new owners wanted to introduce Lean Thinking but Dealer Principal Sharon Visser met fierce resistance at first. Through her humble leadership and determination to make respect for people a key element of life in the organization, she eventually won over naysayers and kickstarted an incredibly successful lean transformation. To put it in her words, she successfully managed to “harness the dragon”. 

The results achieved at Ngami – which included doubling profit in just two years – are testament to the potential of Lean to improve outcomes in any environment. The fact that this turnaround happened in a place as unique and challenging as rural Botswana makes this story all the more impressive.