The MTL Professional Development Programme is a collection of 202 PowerPoint presentations that will provide you with step-by-step summaries of a key management or personal development skill. This presentation is on "From Ichiban to Kaizen" and will show you how to adopt customer service strategies that will put you ahead of your competitors.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
From Ichiban to Kaizen
FROM ICHIBAN TO
KAIZEN
Dynamic service concepts from the Far East
MTL: The Professional Development Programme

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
From Ichiban to Kaizen
Attribution: All images are from sources where a Creative Commons license exists for commercial use. All icons are on subscription
from thenounproject. All clipart is from free sources. The MTL Professional Development Programme is copyright of Manage Train
Learn.
From Ichiban
to Kaizen
Introduction: In the late 20th century, Japanese industry stormed the world. Their
approach to new technology left the West struggling to catch up. Instead of sitting back
complacently, like many in the West, Japan showed that by adopting strategies of total
customer service, anyone could start from point zero and beat the world.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
From Ichiban to Kaizen
1. ICHIBAN
https://www.flickr.com/photos/portobaytrade/5515329770/
Whatever you do, do it to your best
Ichiban is a Japanese word which means "a desire
to be the best". Customer-focused organisations
exhibit it throughout their ranks. The
Receptionists want to be the best in town. The
Sales department wants to be the best in the
division. The board wants to be the best in their
industry. The new twist that Ichiban brings is that
being the best can be achieved only by long-term
attention to customers.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
From Ichiban to Kaizen
2.
BENCHMARKING
https://pixabay.com/en/measuring-tape-rolled-tape-length-390791/
Measure everything you do for the customer
Benchmarking means comparing the way you
work to the "benchmarks" set by others. These
could be others in your industry, others in your
profession, or others in your business. There's
nothing complicated about benchmarking. You
simply record what others do and then record
what you do, whether it's your efficiency ratios,
stock holding, or absentee rates. And then you
set about being the very best around.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
From Ichiban to Kaizen
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickharris1/13669692243/
Keep your customer in view at all times
3. EVERYONE
A FRONT-
LINER
No matter what strategy leaders inside the
organisation devise, every customer experiences
your service at the front line. When executives
swap places with front-line staff, they are often
surprised at the difference between the customer
strategy they thought was working and the one
that actually was. If you want to stay in touch
with what your customers experience, you have
to be, and think like, a front-liner all the time.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
From Ichiban to Kaizen
4. QUALITY
FIRST
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ministreiodadefesa/9687373276/
Quality = the best you can make for your customer
Until Japan showed the way in the late 20th
century, the idea that most people had of quality
was flawed. Western businesses believed that
quality was determined by how good you could
make a product or service. Not so, said the
Japanese. Quality was, quite simply, whatever the
customer wanted: at the right time, the right
place, the right cost, the right spec, the right
system, in the right way, and with the right
method.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
From Ichiban to Kaizen
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fudoc/14821077567/
Japan’s greatest resource is its people
5. MOBILIZE
YOUR
WORKFORCE
Japan is a country of few natural resources.
Compared to other parts of the world, she is a
poor country. However, unlike other countries,
Japan is super-rich in the one resource that
matters: her people. Through lifelong attention to
this resource, from school through university and
throughout their working lives, Japanese business
has no choice but to mobilize every ounce of
intelligence from their workers.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
From Ichiban to Kaizen
6.
TRAVELLING
LIGHT
https://pixabay.com/en/architecture-city-clouds-giant-1867880/
Be a flexible customer provider not obdurate
Serving the customer and their changing needs
means travelling light. Organisations that grow
too big, like dinosaurs, lose the fleetness of foot
to adapt and change and so are brought down by
those who are quicker to see and seize the
opportunities. In the words of Rosabeth Moss
Kanter, customer-driven firms have to become
like “giants who have learned how to dance”.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
From Ichiban to Kaizen
7. KAIZEN
https://www.flickr.com/photos/autohistorian/32148030783/
The 1973 Honda Civic – what the customer wanted
In making the Civic car, Soichiro Honda undertook
massive research into what markets across the
world wanted from a family car. He researched
driving habits, dashboard styles, favoured
colours, road conditions, and so on and on, in a
never-ending search for the perfect product. That
is Kaizen. It's a bit like planting a garden. You aim
for perfection. You fail and try again. By trying
and learning, bit by bit, you become an expert.

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
From Ichiban to Kaizen
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn
AFinal
Word
The result of these 7 Japanese-inspired strategies was the demise of many industries in the West.
Fortunately, the lessons were, and are still being, learnt. And that is, that to ensure your survival as
a business, you must turn everything you do into a customer-focused enterprise.