Philip Holt; Senior Vice President, Operational Excellence, GKN Aerospace.
Release Date: 05/19/2020
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About the podcast
We welcome Philip Holt, Vice President of Operational Excellence at GKN Aerospace, for a conversation. We start off the program discussing Philip’s two books, “Leading with Lean” and “The Simplicity of Lean”; the latter having won the Bronze Medal in the Axiom Book Awards. We take a walk in Philip’s shoes for a spell and follow his journey. It starts with Philip gaining his Undergraduate Degree in Polymer Engineering and afterwards working at a tier-1 automotive supplier. He then moved on to Gillette where he helped to manufacture plastic componentry before moving on to Supply Chain and Procurement. After almost five-years in Gillette, he landed a position at Philips where he started in Continuous Improvement before becoming Head of Operational Excellence. After twelve years at Philips, being based in the Netherlands, he took his present position at GKN Aerospace as Senior Vice President of Operational Excellence.
Come take a stroll along Philip’s journey…
Host: Joseph Paris, Founder of the; XONITEK Group of Companies, Operational Excellence Society & Readiness Institute
Guest: Philip Holt

Philip Holt is Senior Vice President, Operational Excellence, at GKN Aerospace and a Board Member of the Operational Excellence Society. He studied Engineering at Manchester Metropolitan University and Management at the Wharton School of Pennsylvania and the University of Warwick, was an engineer at Gillette and led the Lean Deployment worldwide at Philips for over twelve years. He achieved Lean Master status and has summarized his 30+ years of experience and insights into Lean Leadership in his previous book Leading with Lean and his most recent book, The Simplicity of Lean.
Books:
Leading With Lean
The Simplicity Of LeanThe Simplicity of Lean; https://www.amazon.com/Simplicity-Lean-Complexity-Delivering-Excellence-ebook/dp/B087GD4BT6/