Peter Kürstein knew Radiometer inside and out.
He had already spent 19 years with the company when Danaher acquired Radiometer in 2004. Peter became CEO at the time of the acquisition and would spend the next 12 years leading the company through its transformation.
He knew the business. He knew the people. He knew the customers.
What he didn't know was Lean.
Then, just two weeks after the acquisition, Peter participated in an Executive Champion Orientation led by then-Danaher CEO Larry Culp.
Peter went to the Gemba and followed a carbon dioxide sensor through production.
What he discovered stunned him:
It took 18 days to do 24 minutes of actual work.
That experience fundamentally changed how Peter saw the business—and how he saw his role as CEO.
In Episode 13 of the Lean Focus Podcast, Damon Baker sits down with Peter to explore the remarkable journey that followed: how Danaher brought the Danaher Business System into an already successful global medical technology leader, and how a CEO with virtually no Lean experience learned to personally lead the transformation.
Peter shares why middle management created some of the greatest resistance, how Lean could thrive in a highly regulated medical environment, why CEOs cannot delegate transformation, and how Radiometer ultimately built a culture where continuous improvement became part of how people worked and developed their careers.
The results were extraordinary. Operating margins grew from approximately 23% to 33%, and Radiometer became a benchmark within Danaher for other operating companies to learn from.
But Peter's story isn't really about the numbers.
It's about what can happen when an experienced CEO has the humility to discover that 19 years of knowing a company doesn't mean you've learned everything the company can teach you.
Sometimes transformation begins with simply learning to see.
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