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Kaizen Lessons for Small and mid-sized Companies: What We Can Learn from Toyota
posted in Business Coaching
Adam Kreek
Why Kaizen Matters
Every leader wants a motivated team, an innovative culture, and work done with discipline. The challenge? In smaller companies, it often feels like we don’t have the time, budget, or bandwidth for “big system changes.”
That’s where Kaizen comes in. Popularized by Toyota, Kaizen is the practice of continuous improvement. It’s about finding small, consistent ways to improve processes, build quality, and create a culture where everyone owns innovation.
Toyota has used Kaizen to become one of the most respected companies in the world. The good news? You don’t have to be a global car manufacturer to use the same principles.
We share more ideas on how to apply kaisen to your company here.
Video 1: How Toyota Changed the Way We Make Things
This video offers an overview of the Toyota Production System. It shows how Toyota slowed down production—not to be inefficient, but to put reliability above all else.
Takeaway for your company: Speed is not everything. If you focus on getting the process right and making things reliable, your team builds pride, your customers build trust, and long-term performance beats short-term gains.
Video 2: Toyota’s Kaizen System in Action
This video is a favourite. A factory tour host is challenged by Toyota’s Kaizen team to improve a process within hours. By looking for very small, practical changes, they find quick wins that add up.
Takeaway for your company: Don’t wait for big breakthroughs. Create a culture where every employee is empowered to spot inefficiencies and propose small fixes. Over time, those tiny improvements compound into transformational change.
Video 3: The Rise of Toyota
Here we see Toyota’s story told with a strong narrative arc. From humble beginnings to global dominance, the company thrived when it leaned into its core values of reliability, discipline, and continuous improvement. When leadership drifted toward “sexy over reliable,” Toyota stumbled—but always found its way back to its roots.
Takeaway for your company: Stay true to your values. Innovation is not about abandoning discipline; it’s about deepening it. Reliability, service, and care for customers will always outperform flashy short-term plays.
Video 4: Toyota’s Supply Chain and Inventory Management
Kaizen is not just about the production line. This video highlights how Toyota manages supply and inventory, showing how awareness, discipline, and process control create healthier business outcomes.
Takeaway for your company: Pay attention to the flow of work and resources. Whether it’s your marketing funnel, client pipeline, or raw material supply, disciplined management enables innovation and growth.
How SmallER Companies Can Apply Kaizen Today
You don’t need a factory floor to practice Kaizen. Here are a few simple ways to bring Toyota’s lessons into your business:
- Start with daily reflection. End meetings by asking, “What’s one small improvement we can make to this process?”
- Empower your people. Give permission for everyone—from front-line staff to managers—to propose ideas for improvement.
- Celebrate small wins. Improvement doesn’t have to be huge to matter. Recognize and reward even the tiniest changes.
- Create systems. Whether it’s a checklist, a visual board, or a meeting agenda, make it easy to see problems and fix them quickly.
- Return to your roots. Like Toyota, don’t chase shiny trends at the expense of reliability. Stay grounded in what makes you great.
Printable Case Study and Reflection Questions
Feel free to download and print the case study and questions below to get your team thinking more clearly about applying Kaisen to your team culture.
Closing
Kaizen is not about perfection. It’s about steady progress. The Toyota Production System proves that when you make small, consistent improvements, you build a culture that thrives under pressure, adapts to change, and motivates people to do their best work.
Reflection:
Innovation doesn’t come from big leaps—it comes from small steps, taken every day, together.
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Adam Kreek is on a mission to positively impact organizational cultures and leaders who make things happen.
Kreek is an Executive Business Coach who lives in Victoria, BC, near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and Seattle, Washington, USA, in the Pacific Northwest. He works with clients globally, often travelling to California in the San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta, Georgia, Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. He is an Olympic Gold Medalist, a storied adventurer and a father.
He authored the bestselling business book, The Responsibility Ethic: 12 Strategies Exceptional People Use to Do the Work and Make Success Happen.
Discover our thoughts on Values here.
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