Lean has been defined as a philosophy that will deliver value to organisations through altering the value structure towards a more flexible orientation. The rate of failure of implementations is high and the root cause of such is often put down to a lack of understanding, lack of commitment, or a lack of resources. This research aims to examine the culture of an organisation before the implementation of lean and understand the influence of the pre-existing culture on the adoption of the philosophy and the change in value structure during the implementation process. The methodology used in this research included a retrospective examination of 2 terabytes of historic electronic source material from the organisation coupled with a further four years of surveys taken at 12-month intervals with 70 respondents to each survey throughout the lean implementation period. The research initially establishes a culture dominated by control and an inward focus in delivering operations. As lean tools are implemented, even at an early stage, there is evidence of a change in this orientation towards a more flexible culture. The results of the retrospective examination demonstrate how lean tools, implemented partially, altered the values within the organisation before the formal implementation programme. The research would suggest lean is not a philosophy for all; organisations considering implementing such a strategy need to carefully consider the existing culture before embarking on such an implementation. An empirical evaluation of the existing culture needs to take place before embarking on the implementation of lean. In the event congruence between the existing values and the espoused values of lean is established, the effort associated with the implementation will be considerably less than that required in the event of a lack of congruence.