Thu, July 01, 2010 - 9:21:07

Thinking Japanese

In our book, THE POWER OF SMALL: Why Little Things Make All the Difference, we discuss a powerful Japanese philosophy known as “kaizen,” which was used to great success by Japanese automakers in their quest for dominance in the international automotive industry. The kaizen approach, which loosely translates as “improvement,” views success not as a single destination, but as a continuum accomplished in a series of small steps. 

This eastern way of thinking is one that we have used to our own advantage at the Kaplan Thaler Group, where we have evolved from a one-account shop to a billion dollar agency in little over a decade.  Setting accomplishable mini-goals, shrinking our outlooks, and—perhaps most importantly—sweating the small stuff have been vital to our success. So, we were particularly intrigued when we came across an interview with Tadashi Yanai, on The Economist’s blog this week, in which the CEO of Uniqlo and Japan’s richest man discusses how SMALL has been a key factor in shaping his company into a major international competitor.

Across all levels of his organization, Yanai emphasizes the importance of even the most seemingly-trivial details and explains that “sweating the small stuff” is particularly important for effective leadership.

“People often say that the details are everything—that everything shows up in details. So unless top managers are fully committed to paying attention to the details, I don’t think you can call such people good business managers.”

Yanai tells The Economist that growing up in Tokyo as the son of a small shop owner instilled in him from an early age the importance of “thinking small” and approaching each task with precision and focus. And as the CEO of one of Japan’s fastest growing companies, he believes this same approach will be essential to the long-term health of his company.

“No matter if you have ten stores, or 100 stores, or 1,000 stores or 10,000 stores, everything starts from one store, and everything starts from satisfying one customer. And every store needs to sustain its own business…Every customer is buying one particular item of clothing or maybe two—but no one buys 10,000 garments. So each product, each piece in each product, each store and each customer: recognizing the importance of that is essential in the retail business.”

Whether or not you’re in the retail business, that same way of thinking can be applied to achieve winning results throughout your professional and personal life.  In the big-thinking school of Western thought, the “small stuff” is frequently disregarded as trivial and insignificant. But, the truth is, details are the threads that weave together to form the fabric of our lives. So, what material will yours be made of?

Posted by Linda and Robin