Posts Tagged ‘ japanese ’

Kaizen for those of you who are not familiar is a Japanese business technique for achieving great and enduring success through taking regular, small steps to reach your goals. Kaizen is actually the Japanese word from ‘improvement’. After the second world war Japan, like Europe, was devastated and much effort  was needed to create a new and properous Japan. Kaizen techniques were used by Japanese companies like Nissan, Honda, Toyota & Sony (to name a few) to change the perception of their products in the West, from low end inferior to high end reliable products. Kaizen techniques were used in the manufacturing process and with the labour force, improving their attitude and making them ‘stakeholders’ in the business. Listening to the workforce and rewarding them for their commitment and input was a primary technique.

Of course, Kaizen goes a lot deeper than surface management techniques by addressing the way that challenges and perceived problems are approached mentally. If used correctly, it can trick the conscious and sub-conscious mind and melt away any negativity that surrounds an issue or hurdle, creating a positive outcome.

To find out more about Kaizen, just do a search engine query. There are plenty of good articles and books out there. I would recommend anything by Robert Maurer.