Excellence Unlocked

What keeps you running when winning is no longer possible? In 1964, Sri Lankan Olympic runner Ranatunge Karunananda found the answer in the most unlikely place. Lapped repeatedly in the 10,000 metres final, he kept running long after the winner had finished and the crowd had stopped laughing. He had no medal to win, no position to improve and no applause to chase. He simply refused to stop.

His story offers a powerful lesson for le...

Small inefficiencies are easy to dismiss. One extra piece of paper, one unnecessary approval, one duplicate report or one additional click hardly seems worth worrying about. But frequency changes everything. When a small inefficiency is repeated thousands or millions of times, it becomes significant. 

Worse, efforts to improve efficiency can simply move waste somewhere else. A cheaper paper towel might mean people use two inst...

The best ideas don't fail because they're wrong—they fail because people weren't part of creating them. Leaders often spend weeks refining a change before announcing it, then wonder why they face resistance. The problem isn't the change itself; it's that everyone else is hearing it for the first time. Lasting change comes from involving people early, listening to their concerns and giving them a sense of ownership. 

Befo...

What does it really take to build a world-class factory floor? Mike Allen is a 25-year supply chain veteran who's led operations across Kellogg, a family-owned giant, and Haleon (Panadol, Advil, Sensodyne). Drawing on his time navigating South Africa's distinct operational pace and three separate attempts to establish Kellogg's continuous improvement program, Mike offers his insights on organisational culture, change fatigue, and w...

The greatest untapped asset in most organisations isn’t technology, strategy or even talent – it’s the ideas people never share. Ishan highlights Ferrari's transition to electric vehicles as a subtle leadership challenge: inviting celebrated external designers may broaden perspectives, but it can also unintentionally tell employees that the next breakthrough won't come from them. 

The result is a workforce fu...

The biggest moments of success are rarely won in the spotlight. They’re earned long before anyone is watching. Using NASA’s Artemis program as a powerful case study, Ishan reveals why excellence isn’t built by heroic last-minute efforts, but through disciplined preparation, rigorous thinking and systems designed to withstand failure. 

From testing assumptions to confronting uncomfortable realities, the lesson...

Paul Mason is a mechatronics engineer, computer scientist and CEO of Robotics Australia Group, the peak body for Australia’s robotics and automation sector. He also co-hosts the Manufacturing Tech Australia podcast and has spent more than two decades helping businesses improve manufacturing, design, commercialisation and technology adoption. 

Paul explains why many businesses misunderstand robotics, from assuming it is u...

The biggest breakthroughs rarely come from working harder. They come from removing what no longer serves a purpose. Drawing on Qantas’ remarkable Project Sunrise and the legendary Double Sunrise flights of World War II, Ishan reveals why sustainable excellence is built through simplification, smart design and empowering people, not relentless effort. 

Organisations achieve extraordinary results when they eliminate unnece...

Success is rarely unlocked by adding more. More often, it comes from removing the friction that quietly slows people down every day. 

Behavioural economist Rory Sutherland has long argued that people experience the world psychologically, not objectively. One of his most famous examples involved an airport reducing baggage complaints not by speeding up the process, but by increasing the distance passengers walked to collect the...

Many organisations believe better results come from working harder, adding more resources or finding stronger leaders. In reality, the greatest barrier to performance is often hidden within the system itself. 

Nature offers an unexpected lesson. Canada geese can fly up to 70 per cent further as a flock than they can alone, not because they expend more effort, but because they operate within a highly efficient system. They comm...

The biggest barrier to improvement is not always resistance to change. Sometimes, it is success. When systems appear to be working, people naturally settle into routines that feel reliable, efficient and safe. Over time, familiar ways of operating can become so deeply embedded that they stop being questioned, even when better approaches exist just beneath the surface. 

Ishan explores what drives people to change, why organisat...

Why do some organisations thrive while others slowly lose relevance, despite having smart people, solid products and proven experience? 

Drawing on examples from aviation, research from leading thinkers, and lessons from companies including Amazon, Toyota, Microsoft and Kodak, Ishan explores what separates effective strategy from imitation. He examines why lasting advantage rarely comes from copying best practice or making inc...

Build bridges first and the opportunities follow. The simplest shift in networking is to ask what you can do for others, not what they can do for you, and that mindset shapes careers, leadership and impact. 

That’s according to Stephen Lakey, Chair of the Australasian Supply Chain and Logistics Association and technical specialist with Gamma Solutions. Known for his work in mentoring, communication coaching and industry ...

Excellence rarely breaks down because of a bad idea. More often, it stalls because the wrong people were left out of the conversation. Every project, every initiative and every attempt to improve performance depends on stakeholder engagement, whether that’s the people affected by the change or the individuals with the authority to accelerate it, delay it or quietly kill it altogether. 

One of the best examples comes from...

The biggest problem in most workplaces is not that waste is hidden, but that people gradually stop noticing it. Processes become familiar, inefficiencies become normalised, and teams become so focused on frameworks, categories and terminology that they lose sight of what continuous improvement was originally designed to achieve. 

The debate over whether Lean contains seven wastes or eight completely misses the point of what Ta...

In this special 100th episode the spotlight is on Ishan Galapathy himself. From engineering student in Sydney to global operational excellence leader, consultant, author and speaker, Ishan’s story is built around one central idea: businesses already have more potential than they realise. The challenge is learning how to unlock it. 

Ishan shares the career and life transitions that shaped his thinking, from manufacturing ...

Redundancies are rising, but something more fundamental is being cut. Continuous improvement teams, once relied on to drive efficiency and long-term performance, are being removed under short-term financial pressure. It can feel decisive, even necessary, yet it risks weakening the very engine that helps a business improve.

The thinking behind these decisions is often flawed, confusing cost cutting with cost reduction, dismissing re...

A quiet Sri Lankan kitchen reveals a powerful lesson in leadership. Three simple tasks uncover what many organisations still miss. Cut a pineapple and you learn the discipline of using resources wisely, not wasteful, not careless, just right. Build a fire and you discover that real progress starts small, with preparation, not grand plans. 

Cook a delicate coconut curry and you confront the truth about execution, where success ...

Sustainable operational excellence is built through clarity, consistency and patient investment in people. Tools matter, but results only stick when leaders communicate clearly, build capability and reinforce the right behaviours over time. 

Ishan speaks with Troy May, a senior manufacturing leader whose career spans Goodman Fielder, Arnott’s and now Lion. Drawing on three decades of frontline and leadership experience, ...