Kaizen, Kakushin and Kaikaku
April 16th, 2009Over the last week I’ve been trying to put down in writing the lessons I’ve learned from the business world into some solid concepts that I can share with others. People that have worked with me naturally noticed certain phrases or areas of focus that I consistently bring up.
For example I’m often fixated on the need for making progress to the point that I’ve had employees complain that they don’t have enough time to “perfect” their creations. After awhile the people around me begin to mock my “lets just make progress” phrase. But after awhile it becomes ingrained and people accept that moving forward is more important than being perfect.
This is very similar to the Japanese concept of Kaizen. And for me it starts with the self realization that we as humans will never be perfect. Therefore our creations in business can never be perfect. What we need to focus on in our lives and our business is whether or not we are moving forward. Are we making progress or stuck in time worried about unseen potential risk? The focus on progress and self improvement is the most important quality or change I’d like to see in those around me.
For any experienced internet entrepreneur they know that progress is not a option, its a matter of survival. The best way to know if a product works or is acceptable to the public is to get it in front of them. Get feedback and evolve or die. Its rather simple.
And recently I learned the Japanese work Kakushin, innovation. As opposed to Kaikaku, revolutionary change. I’ve had two experiences with revolutionary change starting FON and OtoRevo. Revolutionary change is exciting and great fun, but it rarely makes money or business sense.
Most of the time all you need to do to succeed is tweak an already established business model. Instead of trashing the foundations of a business model, all that is needed is to innovate a little.
A business concept needs to be fundamentally boring and stable. It needs to have a foundation upon which you can build upon. But revolutions rarely have such a foundation. If given enough time a previously established business model will build around a revolution and if you lead the revolution you will have a new huge marketing opportunity open to you. But that is rare, which means you are more likely to lose your shirt trying to create revolutionary change. The best investment is to simply innovate using well proven business models.