Win Your Wedding Photography
We’re delighted to announce that we’ve just launched a competition for one lucky couple to win a wedding photography package worth over £1200. We’re running the competition in conjunction with the popular vintage blog ‘Fifties Wedding’ run by Charlie Tomlinson.
We were fortunate enough to cover Charlie and her husband Ant’s wedding last June. It was a wonderful day, made even better by their vintage 1950’s theme. Charlie subsequently started her own vintage inspired wedding blog, Fifties Wedding, of which we are now an official sponsor.
The competition closes on 30th June, so if you would like a chance of winning please take a look at the blog for more details. Good luck!
Kaizen — A Business Philosophy
We thought we’d share this article that Matt wrote recently for another site about the subject of Kaizen. It’s a really important guiding principle behind how we run our business– It’s also the first time we’ve shared an article that isn’t strictly speaking about photography. We hope you enjoy it:
Kaizen– the Concept
“I first came across the concept of Kaizen when I worked at Canon UK, a Japanese company. It was the first time I had worked for a Japanese organisation and I was extremely impressed by the culture and manner in which it was managed — the emphasis on long term planning, work ethic and of course quality. It amazed me to work at a company that actually had a 20 year plan!
What struck me most though was the underlying philosophy of Kaizen, which put into its simplest form, means ‘continuous improvement’. It essentially means a focus on continuously seeking to improve every aspect of a business or department, from systems and processes, through to product development. The idea is, if you aim to continuously and consistently improve each part of your business by tiny increments over a very long period of time, then each increment builds upon the next, leading over time to a huge increase in total quality and efficiency.
Kaizen also means an unwavering focus on improving the quality of your products and services.
The History of Kaizen
Its ironic that it was actually an American that exported this philosophy to the Japanese– a man by the name of Edwards Deming. In the 1950’s and later, Deming worked very closely with the leaders of Japanese industry to help radically change the way the organisations worked. It was America’s reluctance to adopt this philosophy, and Japan’s complete adoption of it that led to the latter overtaking the former. In fact now, the Deming Award is the most sought after business award available in Japan, such is the contribution that he made to their economy and society as a whole.
In my own line of business, wedding photography, I try to apply these principles to my own company, albeit on a smaller scale. We consistently seek to improve our technical and creative photography skills through training and practise. We constantly re-evaluate our photography workflow to see how we can make it more efficient and effective, and of course, look at ways in which we can market the business more effectively. Customer Service is another area where we seek to constantly improve what we deliver to our customers.
I would wholeheartedly recommend the philosophy of Kaizen, not only as a business philosophy, but also a guiding principle to live your life by. I would challenge you to see how you can adopt the philosophy of Kaizen in your business and life.