Leading Operational Excellence is a strategic guide for leaders seeking to break free from the cycle of mediocrity in the apparel manufacturing sector. Written by Dr. Charles Dagher, a recognized expert in Lean-Agile transformation, the book exposes how misaligned decisions, outdated practices, and poor leadership continue to erode performance across factories. It challenges the common misconception that success can be achieved through one-size-fits-all Lean tools or superficial improvement efforts. Instead, it presents operational excellence as a leadership-driven journey requiring a complete shift in mindset, structure, and engagement.

Drawing on real-world success stories and decades of transformation work, the book provides a powerful vision of how forward-thinking leaders can restructure their operations, develop critical thinking at all levels, and build a continuous improvement culture that directly enhances financial performance. It highlights how factory leadership must become more financially literate, more systemically aware, and more invested in aligning every function—people, systems, behaviors, and strategies—toward a common purpose.

This is not a book about tools; it is a call to redefine leadership in the apparel industry. Leaders who truly understand the strategic value of operations will find in this book the roadmap to build resilient, responsive, and high-performance factories equipped for the demands of tomorrow. Excellence, the author argues, is not an event—it is a way of leading.