A business management philosophy that originated in Japan, but which has spread around the world. Kaizen is based on the attitude that business processes should be continually re-evaluated to find possible areas for improvement. Under Kaizen, business process improvements typically are not radical, but they are frequent and cumulative. While no single change may be major, the accumulation of improvements over time can be very significant and may afford a company considerable advantages over its competitors. Sometimes also known as continuous improvement.
Contributed by: Managerwise Staff
key performance indicator
A financial or non-financial measure of a factor that is critical to a company's success. For example, if a company operates in an industry where customers have little or no tolerance for product defects (for example, in a pharmaceutical or medical equipment business), then defects per thousand units produced would be a key performance indicator for that company.
Typically abbreviated as KPI.
Contributed by: Managerwise Staff
key person insurance
An insurance policy taken out by a company (with the company as the beneficiary) on the live of a person considered vital to the company's continued existence and/or success. Traditionally called key man insurance.
A rigorous process or, more frequently, the information systems for gathering, accumulating, storing, sorting, analyzing sharing and reporting knowledge throughout an organization. Abbreviated as KM
Contributed by: Managerwise Staff
knowledge transfer
Strictly speaking, the passing of any knowledge from one group or individual to another group or individual. In practice, knowledge transfer often refers to the practice of a service provider educating and training a customer so that the customer will be able to use the product provided by the supplier or take over the performance of the service provided by the supplier rather than the customer having to contract the services of the supplier indefinitely.
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