But how many actually put the true spirit of "KAIZEN" into practice? Not even 1 in 10 brands I know of.*
What is Kaizen? It is a policy of making incremental improvements on a daily basis. You do a process, and realise there is something that can be tweaked for a better performance. So you tweak it the next time. You institutionalise this tweaking-process, and make it a part of your work. That is Kaizen.
The grand (and correct) idea behind this is that over time, the small improvements made on a daily basis add upto big improvements that can be industry changing from several perspectives.
So far so good. But are there really shining examples of Kaizen? Honestly, very few. Let me list one name - a service that always surprises me with their almost daily "tweakings" that I experience as a user.
LinkedIn.
I am amazed at the improvements they make regularly. From improvements in user-interface, to faster "accept request" protocols, to improved visual displays of pending invitations' list - they just seem to be maniacally at getting the product to be a perfect solution. And it was one of the most thoughtfully designed services to begin with.This company truly is a role-model for all those who wish to learn how Kaizen can generate customer delight. But you need to use the service for sometime to realise this. (I am sure there will be many more shining examples of Kaizen in practice, but this is the one that influenced me due to my usage pattern.)
Young readers / students - learn from this. Try to build this habit into your routine. Make a daily target of at least 1 improvement in your work /study practices, howsoever small it may be. Over 1 year, that will be 365 improvements.
Will love to hear from all of you on this!
* There are many reasons for this - organisational apathy, lack of top management's vision and push, poor work-culture, lack of discipline, poor self-esteem in workers, customer apathy etc.
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