Weekend Musings: The Culture of Kaizen - A Necessity in Today’s World

We all have understood the truth, that times are changing and they are changing fast. I have touched on this in my previous blogs also, especially on the necessity of aligning individual capabilities with the changing environment. The truth of the moment is that people and practices not witnessing change will find it difficult to sustain growth. And this practice is exactly what Kaizen is about.

I have long been a believer of Kaizen, an approach focused on continuous improvement to learn and grow with the times. For me, it is an ongoing quest for self-improvement – be it in our personal, professional, or social life. And in a world changing by the day, it helps stay relevant by staying updated with it.

Kaizen, or continuous improvement, in my opinion, is the driving force behind innovations and progress. It is evident in the products we use today – with each smartphone model an upgrade over the last, each new camera better at capturing, each TV with better viewing experience. With changing times, organizations implement Kaizen to their products to stay relevant in the market.

But shouldn’t this concept extend beyond just organizations and also include the growth of individuals? And given how much every company stands to benefit with well-informed employees, they must take up the responsibility for it – be it by organizing interesting and engaging programs, workshops or even sessions with company leadership. In simple words, for any company to grow, the workforce must also grow.

We recently concluded the 8th season of one of our annual program - Crossfire, as we call it. The program aims to support our employees by enhancing their overall skills which help them fulfil their business objectives when they deal with customers, business partners or even internal stakeholders. It not only helps employees to understand and keep up with the latest technological developments but also focuses on improving soft skills. After all, how to let stakeholders know about the true value of a product is an art. The program instils a healthy competitive spirit amongst colleagues in an engaging way to not only upgrade one’s skill sets but creates higher benchmarks within the groups as well. Through the program, we encourage employees to challenges themselves to think out of the box and inculcate a culture of continuous advancement.

And for me, this is why a program like Crossfire which enables effective communication and skill upgradation is pre-requisite: The advent of E-Commerce is empowering customers with better reach, wider offerings, competitive prices and most importantly, advanced analytics. Simple product demonstration videos, easy comparators with other choices available and reviews & ratings makes the process simple for the customer. On the other hand, we have a large set of customers who still prefer the process of “Touch & Feel” and hence the necessity of providing an equivalent experience at the physical store (Offline as we call) is high. This can only happen when the man dealing outshines machine on all fronts. 

I have come across individuals in my organization who are the products of this program that speaks for its success. And when I say this, I simply mean that it does pay off – for the individual, for the organization and for the society.