by Jeffrey Ries
This idea model also involves the “train the trainer” method used for growing talent, skills and improvement by spreading a methodology widely. Post-war, the Japanese lost much of their skilled laborers and has to manufacture high-quality goods in massive quantities to make for the shortfall of manpower and growing demand. They had to produce a high quantity of goods at competitive rates to resurrect their economy. This could only be possible by finding more efficient, cost-effective, productive and easier way to do things. They had to optimize their limited resources to produce maximum results.
Vision Boards
Vision boards can also drive the Kaizen philosophy home effectively. They are boards that graphically depict where you want to reach as an organization. You can place a large board in the center of your office to facilitate easy and open access to the board. Team members or employees can keep accessing these boards to stick images of where they want the organization to be. This aspiration-based vision board can have another visual board alongside it to reveal real results accomplished as a result of the aspiration-based improvements.
For example, let us say you want to increase your social media reach a million followers to curb your marketing budget. You mention that on the aspiration based vision board. You graphically or pictorially depict having a million followers for your business page or business niche driven community. Then everyone works towards building a social media following for the page, which in turn reduces your organization’s marketing and promotional costs. You track your progress on the results visual board to include details such as how many followers your business or community page has managed to gain, and how it has helped in reducing your marketing and promotional budget over a period of time.
Conclusion
Thank you for making it through to the end of Kaizen for Small Business Startup: How to Gain and Maintain a Competitive Edge by Applying the Kaizen Mindset to Your Startup Business and Management-Improve Performance, Communication & Productivity, let’s hope it was informative and able to provide you with all of the tools you need to achieve your goals.
Like everything we take up, there will be a learning curve in building and running a successful startup. However, when you create the right environment and culture within the organization, the process can be more rewarding and fulfilling—nothing that’s worth having ever comes easily.
The Japanese Kaizen philosophy has been successfully implemented by thousands of big and small businesses to drive massive results and build an atmosphere, improvement, quality control, as well as employee and customer satisfaction.
Practice these Kaizen management hacks, and make the most of the edge that you are just starting out. The rewards of making small changes and improvements to your business can be tremendous—even though these changes may not be immediately visible.
If you truly enjoyed reading this book, please share your thoughts by writing a review on Amazon. It would be greatly appreciated.