Lean management has become a hot topic among venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.

Investors are asking startups to apply Lean manufacturing concepts to reduce waste from day one, thereby cutting both the business's risk of failure and the investor's exposure to loss.

The customer-focused definition of value that is integral to Lean has broad applicability across industries.

However, some leaders have lost sight of the origins of Lean management.

In a Business Insider interview, author and serial entrepreneur Steve Blank admits, "Most people don’t remember that agile development, lean manufacturing, and customer development was actually invented by Toyota in the 1960s." (more…)