Tom Poppendieck has 25 years of experience in computing including eight years of work with object technology. His modeling and mentoring skills are rooted in his experience as a physics professor. His early work was in IT infrastructure, product development, and manufacturing support, and evolved to consulting project assignments in healthcare, logistics, mortgage banking, and travel services.

Tom holds a PhD in Physics and has taught physics for ten years. He is the coauthor of four books: Lean Software Development, 2003. Implementing Lean Software Development, 2006. Leading Lean Software Development, 2009 and Lean Mindset, 2013.

Keynote—Resilience is not a Luxury

Digital disruption has hurt a lot of companies: Film companies like Kodak and Fujifilm, Telecom equipment companies like AT&T and Erickson, mainframe companies like UNIVAC and IBM. The companies that survived – Fujifilm, Erickson, IBM – quickly exited their failing businesses and found ways to redirect their expertise and assets toward new markets. The story was the same during the upheaval of the pandemic: many companies saw their business vanish; the resilient ones rapidly shut down failing operations and directed their smart people and unique assets toward solving new problems.

This talk is about the traits of resilient organizations – the ones that are ready to take the lemons life hands them and make lemonade.