Consultant Guy Thinks Lying About His Own Website is “Lean”

Meet Mark Kaganov, a Russian émigré who runs Lean ISO Management Systems because, sure, why not. Apparently, he was born in Russia, moved to the US, but now claims he lives in … Jalisco, Mexico? I dunno, it’s complicated.

Kaganov started spamming me and the LinkedIn ISO 9001 group in an attempt to get people to join his own Lean ISO group. It’s not considered polite to spam one group to get people to defect to yours, but it’s also not explicitly prohibited. And it’s not like these groups compete, LinkedIn members can join a lot of groups all at once. So, I allowed some of his posts to get published, but behind the scenes, I spent a few days deleting his nearly hourly attempts to spam. It was getting annoying.

A few weeks later, he posted some silliness about a radical Lean idea: if you use the phrase “procedure” instead of “standard operating procedure,” you saved two whole words.

I’m not making that up:

I thought “Lean” was a bit more complex than that, but I guess not. At least he didn’t pretend to be Japanese by using the word “muda” like a cringelord.

“Free” Sure is Expensive

Anyway, it went decidedly downhill from there after Kaganov posted an ersatz poll, once again bemoaning “wordy” procedures. In that post, he offered a “free” gap analysis tool. Knowing that there was no way this guy was giving anything away without getting something in return, I checked his website and was a little surprised by what I saw.

First, Kaganov is selling expensive ISO 9001 template kits. In fact, they run $240 a pop, and then you have to pay another $120 for a “process interaction matrix table,” and $120 more for a “context matrix.” I have no idea how Kaganov can provide a process matrix if he doesn’t know your processes, but whatever. But if you want all of them, you’re out nearly five hundred bucks.

Then I noticed something even more worrying. Rather than merely harvest folks’ email addresses in return for the “free” gap analysis, Kaganov invites people to send them their company QMS procedures, and promises a free review. But he doesn’t enter into a nondisclosure agreement first, he just asks you to upload your company’s intellectual property without any protections whatsoever.

This should set off warning alarms to anyone with a functional brainpan. You don’t send your company’s internal documents to some random Russian guy —  who may or may not live in Jalisco Mexico — from the internet. Whenever I get someone’s documents for quoting purposes, I first ensure I sign an NDA to protect their intellectual property. I won’t let anyone send me anything until the NDA is in place.

We have no idea what Kaganov is doing with all these company documents. First, he can be using them to bulk up his bullshit template kit. Or, he could be selling them to competitors. You have no idea, and you lose all rights if you go and send him your documents!

I’m Not Selling, I’m Offering

When I confronted Kaganov about this, he did what any plucky Lean guy would do… he just full-on lied about it.

Does he think we can’t see his own website? The one he literally linked to in his spam post?

When I screenshotted it and posted it, Kaganov went even further off the deep end and denied it again.

So I banned him. I mean, what else can I do? He was obviously harvesting companies’ internal procedures for some reason, and then openly lying about it despite the evidence presented on his own website. Then he claimed he wasn’t selling templates, while linking to the website which literally sells templates.

“Lean” has become a weirdo cult that attracts a low-rent, barrel-bottom kind of consultant who, generally, can’t be trusted. Maybe there are some good ones out there, but I haven’t found them yet. But there are enough dupes out there to keep them in work, so I guess there’s not much that can be done about it.

Due diligence, people! And for heaven’s sake, don’t pay for template kits!