GoLeanSixSigma Trains Teams Across the Globe to Quickly Improve Processes

2024 SmallBiz Editor’s Choice Award winner: CEO and founder Karlo Tanjuakio operates his successful online training business from its Wai‘anae headquarters.

Karlo Tanjuakio says he is a “problem-solver at heart” and has always been interested in helping people and businesses succeed.

GoLeanSixSigma is the software as a service company he founded to do just that. It offers project-based training modules using the Lean Six Sigma model – a project management method that helps businesses reduce costs and boost productivity.

“We teach people how to be more efficient, like reducing waste in their companies,” says Tanjuakio. “It’s a very Asian mindset, essentially because a lot of Asian cultures didn’t have that many resources – they had to be efficient as possible.”

Tanjuakio was born in the Philippines and moved to the U.S. when he was 4. His father was in the military so the family moved frequently. In high school, he taught himself to code and do web design and after graduating, he moved to California to freelance for businesses in product development, marketing, branding, social media and management consulting.

He founded GoLeanSixSigma in 2011, around the same time that he moved to the Islands.

“Hawai‘i has been a place that helped accelerate my business because I saw so much potential in the people here and it made me want to work harder,” says Tanjuakio, who now lives in Mākaha.

GLSS has served over 6,000 companies in 231 countries and territories, Tanjuakio says. It has ranked among Inc. magazine’s 500 fastest-growing companies in the U.S. and was also ranked in Hawai‘i as a fastest growing company four straight years starting in 2016.

GLSS’ clients include Amazon, Apple, Costco and CVS, according to Tanjuakio, and locally he has worked with the Hawai‘i State Federal Credit Union, Kona Brewing and Farrington and Waipahu high schools.

He offered a couple of specific examples of how his company can help other organizations. The Sheraton and Westin hotels in Kansas City, Missouri, had problems with collecting late cancellation fees from reservations booked through online travel agencies. GLSS helped the hotels conduct a six-month pilot project and managed to improve the collection process by 60%, Tanjuakio says. The Nature Conservancy in Virginia used GLSS training to improve its IT operations by streamlining a coding process by 95%, he says.

GLSS’ training means teams and organizations can pass along better and higher standards and knowledge, Tanjuakio says. “It’s optimizing education for future generations.”