John Seddon - Management Consultancy

Management Consultancy

Seddon was a management consultant following attacks on current British management thinking including: the belief in economies of scale, quality standards such as ISO9000 and much of public sector reform including 'deliverology', the use of targets, inspection and centralised control of local services. The Daily Telegraph described him as a "reluctant management guru", with a background in occupational psychology.

He adapted the Toyota Production System and the work of W. Edwards Deming and Taiichi Ohno into a methodology called 'The Vanguard Method' for improving performance in service industries. He is critical of target-based management, and of basing decisions on economies of scale, rather than "economies of flow".

John Seddon has published four books. In his 2008 book, Systems Thinking in the Public Sector, he provided a criticism of the UK Government reform programme and advocated its replacement by systems thinking.

Seddon won the first Management Innovation Prize for 'Reinventing Leadership' in October 2010. He spoke on a panel at the World Innovation Forum on 7 June 2011.