New Globonder - Domenico Lepore

Globonder Domenico Lepore is a formidable organizational scientist, businessperson and visionary on a global scale. His career began with research in solid-state physics and evolved into using science-based system theories to improve business performance and generate powerful solutions. His transformational methodology can significantly benefit the growth of Globond’s members who are current or emerging Tectonic Leaders.

Domenico was born and grew up in one of the Mediterranean Sea’s most beautiful spots, Salerno, Italy, where his family has lived for many generations; he was the first among them to leave the city. He received an impeccable liberal-bourgeois upbringing along with a strong formal education. Even with the little money growing up, because of his father’s death, he never felt deprived of anything important.

Domenico studied physics, earning the title of dottore in fisica (Doctor in Physics) from the University of Salerno. His thesis on quantum metrology resulted in a device he had developed becoming the Italian National Voltage Standard. His pursuit of a research program was motivated by the goal of learning a method of investigation that would be applicable to areas other than just the natural world.

Domenico’s outlook on life broadened substantially with his extensive travels to the UK and the United States. The irresistible result was an Anglo-Latin emotional and cultural identity, informed by scientific rigor. In London he met his wife and future partner, Angela Montgomery, who he calls the “guiding beacon of my life”.

In Milan, Domenico joined the Department of Trade and Industry’s management school to teach small companies rational management techniques. In the process, he came across the gigantic contribution to management of two physicists: first the Theory of Profound Knowledge of W. Edwards Deming, and then the Theory of Constraints (TOC) of Eliyahu Goldratt. These approaches confirmed his intuition regarding the applicability of the scientific method to business matters.

Domenico founded ILUT, an international management firm enabling clients to adopt his Decalogue™; a ten-step management methodology representing the rigorous integration of the works of Deming and Goldratt into an algorithm, and combining the systems approach based on understanding variation with the effectiveness of managing an organization around its constraint(s). As a body of knowledge designed for transformational management, the Decalogue™ qualifies as an exemplary work of applied science – solid, rigorous and proven. Its purpose is to design and implement science-based continuous improvement projects to achieve the goal of an organization. He also ran a research group to assess mathematical models for finance, and apply the science of complex systems to business.

For more than 10 years, Domenico’s Decalogue™ methodology has led to the successful improvement and turnaround in management and performance at over 30 national and multinational organizations, primarily in Italy and the United States. Major clients have included small and medium companies in Italy, Italian subsidiaries of multinationals such as Yogogawa, Italy, Federal Mogul, Italy, and multinationals such as Cobo SRL, Streparava SRL, UCAR and Graftech International. The applicability and effectiveness of the Decalogue™ has been demonstrated in a variety of fields – including aluminum, automotive, consumer goods, assembly, education, government, nursing homes, printing, software development, and product design. Its implementation has produced dramatic results: reduced lead times, expanded production capacity previously unavailable, reduced inventories, fewer delivery delays, improved quality, greater access to new markets, and more cash from sales.

On moving to the U.S. in 2006, Domenico became President of Symmetry Holdings Inc., listed on the Amex Stock Exchange, and the first Decalogue™ public acquisition company – with the purpose of finding finance for the acquisition of companies to be managed by utilizing the full methodology. After making presentations with a business partner to more than 100 investors, the target of $150 million was achieved. With the acquisition of Novamerican Steel, Inc., with 22 plants in Canada and the U.S., a major company was converted to Decalogue™ practices. Novamerican Steel was renamed Barzel Industries Inc. Barzel became unique as a steel service center, replacing the previous mentality of hedging and trading steel with a business model founded on speed and transparency. Using sophisticated statistical methods and analytical tools, they drastically reduced inventory and negotiated unprecedented agreements with mills, thus accelerating the speed at which they moved metal through the system, without compromising quality and pricing. They could therefore replenish materials faster than competitors and respond more quickly to urgent market demands.

The global economic crisis failed to affect Barzel’s operations until early 2009. The massive effort of such a large-scale transformation took its toll when demand and the price of steel plunged to a historical low. The banks refusal to offer a credit line to support the company through a difficult transition period forced the company into refinancing, thus creating a new ownership.

The new website www.intelligentmanagement.ws currently under construction covers the most recent developments in the Decalogue approach. Domenico is now working on his second book that charts the vision and also the methods, measurements and tools, i.e. the ‘how to’ of managing businesses in the 21st century. Quality and Synchronization are central to the successful management of organizations, which will increasingly function as integrated networks if they are to be successful in an ever more interconnected and interdependent world. This approach fosters higher intelligence by connecting three faculties of the intellect: intuition, understanding and knowledge and thus enables organizations to generate robust and powerful solutions and practice.

The 21st century organization calls for a new covenant between people and their workplace and therefore a different kind of leadership based not on creating followers but on enabling people’s potential. Underpinning such an organization is an economics founded on the creation of true wealth. This economics rests on the foundational assumption that individuals, organizations, large systems and networks and, ultimately, countries are vessels for the creation and distribution of ideas, products and services that allow the human community to live within its environments more intelligently, meaningfully and harmoniously.

Domenico’s new book is the natural evolution and expansion of his first book, Deming and Goldratt: The Decalogue, co-authored with Oded Cohen, a leading world expert on the Theory of Constraints, and published in the U.S. by Goldratt’s publisher North River Press, 1999. It has been translated into several languages, designated as suggested reading by numerous American universities, and quoted often in academic publications.

Domenico has developed a passionate interest in Jewish philosophy, an interest sparked by a conversation with Eli Goldratt on the roots of the Theory of Constraints. While wary of religious excess, Domenico was open to any serious study of how the human mind can reach greater heights. Thanks to a warm connection with Rabbi Aaron Raskin of Chabad Brooklyn Heights, Domenico began a systematic study of Chassidus, a phenomenal body of knowledge with a transformational message for all mankind. Domenico immediately saw how this higher form of knowledge could be injected very practically into day-to-day business strategy and practice, making business life more rewarding and meaningful.

In his free time, Domenico’s primary passion has always been the cinema, both independent and commercial. He has been keeping a notebook since 1979 containing every film he has seen, the director, and a grade from 1-10. His favorite movies include those of Fellini, Wenders, Truffaut, Tarkovsky, Scorsese, Coppola, Cassavetes, and, much to his wife’s dismay, Steven Seagal.

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New Globonder - Domenico Lepore