Paul Lillrank
Partner, Professor Emeritus
A scientist who is still fascinated by sparking new ideas.
Paul is Professor Emeritus and Senior Advisor in Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University. He has researched quality in services, particularly in healthcare. In Finland he is known as the father of Japanese quality thinking: his doctoral research on Japanese quality management was carried out in Japan.
A six-month diagnostic process of his own, which could have been handled in a week, led to the idea of the unfinished patient. Nordic Healthcare Group, which Paul co-founded, grew from that idea.
Alongside his academic career he has been involved in start-ups: five bankruptcies and two exits. He has written books and columns and has appeared in the media for decades.
Paul and Olli-Pekka have worked together since the early 2000s and founded N4C in 2011.
Paul says things as he sees them. Not everyone agrees. That usually makes for a good conversation.
The patient’s time costs the service provider nothing. So it is used without any restraint.
Paul Lillrank
What Paul talks about
The unfinished patient
Why the customer’s time costs the provider nothing, and what services can learn from work-in-progress in manufacturing.
Parallel realities
From Japanese quality circles to Finnair’s four cultures. One organisation can live in several realities at once.
Healthcare is a cluster
From prevention to emergency care, from chronic care to multi-provider projects. Each operating logic needs its own business model.
Provocations
Shareholder value, corporate responsibility and questions without easy answers.
Asiakasta vastaan
N4C’s podcast on customer relationships and sustainable growth. In Finnish.
Coming soon. Read more