Kaizen — Oriental Philosophy Applied to Business

Kaizen is a Japanese word that means “change to improve.” In many cultures, change means crisis or exhilaration. As a general rule, people do not usually welcome change. It requires a conscious effort to move from a known, comfortable position, to a new place in life, where new challenges and situations must be met. The thing is, once you get used to the way things normally develop, changes in the line of events, often catch us by surprise, and leaves us unsure as what the best road to make up is. The core situation is that we are normally afraid to make new decisions. When you come to think of it, we make thousands of decisions every day, but the vast majority of them are not made consciously. It is a scary situation when human beings are forced to make choices. No matter how well informed you might be: the result is uncertain. Therefore, change is feared.

But the Japanese culture has managed to take a step further from this first uncomfortable feeling change and crisis forces us to meet and so, the Kaizen philosophy was born. moreover, to Japanese culture, change is not only unavoidable, but also continuous. As a consequence, it is of utmost importance to learn how to properly handle change, not only to minimize suffering and loss, but to be able to capitalise the situation, and end up with a positive consequence for all the parties involved.

The What is Kaizen philosophy has been applied to work, and it has become a quality methodology, based on the belief that personal success–understood as easiness to adjust to new situations, and come out with a positive balance- is the necessary foundation for corporative success. Said in other words, if the individual can adjust to change, and learn in the process, it will necessary bring positive effects on the organization to which that individual belongs to. The core idea is that it is evermore possible to improve the way things are done.

The final goal of Kaizen is to make the individual reduce the level of stress and suffering life usually carries. Once the individual comes to terms with the fact that change is inevitable, and that things can always be done in a better way, a whole new outlook is born. The concept of intelligence is also fundamental to this philosophy. The ideas of rational and emotional intelligence are blended, and the best of each concept is applied to find the exact niche in the productive process for each individual, so that personal characteristics are taken advantage of, hence maximizing results.

Kaizen is one of the main factors that have contributed to the blooming of Oriental delivery, especially after the Second World War. The first areas of production that applied this philosophy were the civilian industries, but in a few years, there were no branches of activities that did not practise this line of thought and to enhance production and minimize costs, taking Japan to the first places in world economy Find out more about striping tape.