Why Kaizen Breaks Before Enterprise Anatomy Exists — The Da Vinci Moment of CEOs
- Sunil Dutt Jha
- 12 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Let’s start where the real mistake happens.
Leonardo da Vinci was not lacking intelligence.
He was not lacking discipline, imagination, or the ability to improve continuously.
He dissected human bodies.
He studied bone structures and muscle tension.
He observed birds obsessively.
He sketched flying machines with extraordinary precision.
He refined his designs repeatedly.
If anyone in history could have succeeded through continuous improvement, it was Leonardo.
Yet flight did not happen.
Not because his wings were inefficient.
Not because he failed to iterate.Not because his method was wrong.
But because Leonardo was operating in a world where gravity was unknown.
The Distinction CEOs Often Miss
Leonardo lived before the governing laws of motion were discovered.
No amount of:– refinement– iteration– experimentation– craftsmanship
could overcome the absence of the underlying laws that governed motion on Earth.
Isaac Newton did not improve Leonardo’s designs. He discovered gravity, force, mass, and acceleration.
Only after those laws were known did engineering become possible.
This distinction matters far more than most CEOs realize.
What Kaizen Really Assumes
Kaizen is not wrong.
But Kaizen assumes something very specific: that the governing structure of the system already exists and is understood.
Kaizen works only when:
– cause and effect are known
– decision boundaries are clear
– rules are stable
– improvements compound predictably
Kaizen works after physics exists.
Trying to apply Kaizen before physics is known is like:
refining wings without understanding gravity,
polishing gears without knowing torque,
optimizing navigation without knowing
latitude and longitude.
It is improvement applied in a pre-science world.
What Enterprise Anatomy Corresponds To
Enterprise Anatomy is not a management method.
It corresponds to:
– Newton discovering gravity
– Vesalius discovering human anatomy
– Harvey discovering blood circulation
These discoveries did not “improve practice.”
They defined the governing laws of the system itself.
Once gravity was known, flight became an engineering problem
— not a philosophical one.
Once anatomy was known, medicine became repeatable
— not experience-driven.
Once Enterprise Anatomy is known, enterprise execution becomes governable
— not personality-dependent.
The Leonardo Mistake Modern Enterprises Repeat
Most modern management thinking starts with an unexamined assumption:
“We already know how enterprises work. We just need better methods.”
That is the Leonardo mistake.
So organizations apply:
Kaizen,
Lean,
Agile,
Six Sigma,
Digital transformation,
AI-driven optimization.
But none of these define the governing laws of enterprise execution.
They refine behavior inside an unknown structure.
The Exact Parallel
Leonardo designed flight without gravity — no flight.
Pre-anatomy medicine treated patients without anatomy — inconsistent outcomes.
Modern enterprises improve execution without anatomy — escalation and chaos.
This is not a maturity problem. It is not a capability problem. It is not a methodology problem.
It is the absence of governing anatomy.
Why CEOs Feel This Before They Can Name It
This is why CEOs often experience:
– hundreds of initiatives with uneven outcomes
– repeated escalations on “known” issues
– transformation fatigue
– dependency on a few individuals
– execution that slows during leadership changes
Methods keep improving. Execution does not stabilize.
The problem is not effort. The problem is chronology.
The CEO’s Real Da Vinci Moment
Leonardo could not fly because gravity was unknown.
Enterprises struggle to execute because their anatomy is unknown.
Kaizen, Lean, Agile, and AI are not wrong. They are chronologically premature.
They are being applied in a pre-Newton, pre-anatomy world.
What Changes When Anatomy Comes First
When Enterprise Anatomy exists:
– strategy binds to execution
– decision rules become explicit
– systems encode shared logic
– improvements compound instead of fragment
– leadership transitions stop breaking execution
Methods finally work — because the laws are known.
The Quiet Choice Facing CEOs
CEOs face a simple but uncomfortable choice.
Continue refining execution inside an undocumented structure — and rely on experience, memory, and escalation.
Or first make the enterprise’s anatomy explicit — and allow methods to finally do what they promise.
Leonardo did not fail because he lacked improvement discipline. He failed because the governing laws had not yet been discovered.
Enterprises repeat that mistake every day.
