Our Team
First Principles Leadership is a team of transformation advisors and operational leaders dedicated to building thriving, resilient organizations through people-centric improvement and first-principles thinking.
Craig Stritar
Transformation Advisor, Founder
Mark Rosenthal
Friend of FPL; like-minded collaborator on Lean transformation, 3P, “Kata,” and scientific thinking.
Craig brings leadership experience from high-velocity teams in military special operations, as well as organizations in healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and education. He combines this with a foundation in continuous improvement, shaped by close collaboration with manufacturing leaders from Danaher, healthcare innovator and MIT professor Steven Spear, and Fortune 500 CEO and Deming protégé Joseph S. Hood. His approach is rooted in people-centric systems thinking and a passion for developing high-performing, resilient teams.
Craig is internationally recognized for uncovering the true origins of “takt time,” a concept widely but mistakenly believed to have originated in Germany. Through research and translation of early scientific management works, he demonstrated that takt time was first developed in late 19th-century Poland as a means to harmonize human-to-human and human-to-machine interactions. In his own work, Craig has shown that lasting organizational excellence comes from aligning rhythm, teamwork, and human well-being, making harmony a foundational principle for improvement. This focus on harmony continues to shape Craig’s unique approach, where operational flow and human flourishing go hand in hand.
Craig is one of the very few practitioners to have led a measurable, lasting, organization-wide transformation in healthcare, creating a daily learning and improvement culture that continued to thrive long after major leadership turnover. The systems and practices he established, including daily rounding and kata experimentation cycles, are now cited as benchmarks across the Lean and continuous improvement community. In addition, through collaborative work with MIT professor Steven Spear, Craig was the first to test the See2Solve real-time issue-tracking system in a healthcare environment, empowering teams to quickly surface, track, and address operational problems.
Mark is a seasoned transformation coach and lean thinker with decades of experience guiding organizations across sectors—including aerospace, healthcare, consumer goods, and industrial supply chains. As the founder of Novayama Consulting and The Lean Thinker blog, Mark specializes in embedding daily coaching routines and Toyota Kata into organizational culture, helping teams move beyond tools into sustainable, people-led improvement.
Mark’s “Don’t Deploy, Diffuse” philosophy, featured in keynote talks at KataCon, Lean Frontiers, and international conferences, has reshaped how organizations approach continuous improvement. Acknowledged in Mike Rother’s Toyota Kata Practice Guide for his thought partnership, Mark has co-authored influential works, including “Don’t Start with Tools” with Craig Stritar, published by AME Target Magazine and Lean.org. His insights on scientific thinking, leadership, and system design are widely adopted to teach teams how to learn, adapt, and thrive.
A master facilitator of 3P (Production Preparation Process) and kata coaching, Mark has driven measurable transformations, from slashing lead times in manufacturing to enhancing patient flow in healthcare. His approach—rooted in first-principles thinking and human-centric leadership—creates systems where collaboration and curiosity sustain improvement long after consultants depart. Mark’s passion for coaching leaders to foster learning organizations continues to inspire the global Lean community.
Olga Stritar
Consulting Partner (Available for select projects)
Olga is a consulting partner and project advisor with a rare blend of artistic vision, engineering discipline, and Lean process expertise. She holds a Master of Engineering in Landscape Architecture and brings a global perspective shaped by her work across Europe and the United States.
Olga’s early career includes hands-on experience in ceramics manufacturing, where she gained deep knowledge of production processes, workflow optimization, and quality systems. She has since applied her expertise in landscape design and architecture, leading complex projects and integrating systems thinking into multidisciplinary teams.
Beyond design and manufacturing, Olga has built and scaled her own award-winning design business and has helped other entrepreneurs launch and grow startups—advising on Lean methods, operations, and strategic planning. Her consulting work in Lean construction focuses on understanding the needs of the customer, streamlining project delivery, and fostering daily improvement practices at every level.
Olga is also recognized for her pivotal role as translator of Harmonic Leadership, making Karol Adamiecki’s foundational ideas on harmony and organizational excellence accessible to leaders and teams worldwide.