The Kaizen Business

First go checkout these two three good posts:

http://www.jamesbrausch.org/do-large-companies-use-multivariate-testing/

http://www.aaronbrandon.com/can-this-be-tested/

http://www.jamesbrausch.org/testing-for-success/

Now let this message sink in real deep, testing is not just for advertising! People seem to be all hung up that it testing only happens when it comes to sales and marketing and that couldn’t be further from the truth…

In fact the majority of my kaizen background has been in the operations side of things and far far removed from sales and marketing.

The reality is that when you change something about your business you are testing. The problem is that most people either don’t change anything at all or don’t track and audit the results from processes so when they do make a change they dont know if things are better or worse.

Kaizen, continuous improvement, is testing in that you make a change (albeit in a methodical but rapid pace if your performing kaizen events) and then monitor the results… then rinse wash and repeat the cycle for the life of the business.

Often times making changes can be a crap shoot but if you keep plugging away at the process eventually it will become more profitable with less errors and waste.

Businesses that are successful, and I mean really successful, are going to embrace change, testing and continuous improvement from here on out. If you do not the competition will, just ask the floundering American auto industry.

-Jim