Kaizen means daily one percent improvement

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June 2, 2026 | 12:00am

E-Mart, one of South Korea’s largest supermarket chains, sells a product called Haru Hana Banana (once a day banana) that solves a problem that every banana eater on earth has encountered. Each pack contains six bananas arranged in graduated stages of ripeness, from yellow and ready to eat through green which is several days from peak.

You eat one today. The next one will be ready tomorrow. By the time you reach the last banana in the pack, the last one that was still green when you bought it, has one week to ripen properly.

There’s no technology involved. The bananas are not genetically modified or treated with special chemicals. They are simply selected, picked at different stages, sorted by ripeness, and packed in a single container.

The idea is so brilliant that it raises the question of why it took this long for someone to do it.

My answer? Many people and organizations overlook tiny irritations because they are focused only on dramatic and magical innovation.It’s about those invisible modifications that we do every day. To achieve a one percent improvement every day is to look for those tiny, repetitive annoyances that we’ve all tolerated despite the fact that they’re hemorrhaging our patience.

The power of “marginal gains”

Aside from Haru Hana Banana, there’s another classic example of daily one percent improvement. It’s called the aggregation of “marginal gains.” Improving by one percent daily compounds dramatically over time. After one year, performance becomes about 37 times better.

There’s an interesting YouTube video to support this. It’s about the case of the British Cycling Team coached by Sir Dave Brailsford, the man widely credited for transforming UK’s cycling program from a mediocre team into an Olympic and Tour de France powerhouse.

Use the phrase “marginal gains” in searching for the video.

How to do it

To achieve a one percent improvement every day is to look for the “micro-friction” in your daily operations. Discover those repetitive small irritations that we’ve all learned to tolerate but actually dissipates patience, time and energy. Here’s the cure:

1. Start with waste elimination. In a factory, one percent improvement might be repositioning a tool so a worker doesn’t have to reach for it from another place. In an office, it’s about removing non-value steps in your workflow.

Example: Pick one digital or physical task you do 10 times a day. You can shave off five seconds by using a keyboard shortcut or creating a template. Or, you move a physical file closer to your desk. That’s one percent improvement.

2. Standardize the process. Choose a chaotic work system or procedure. If your method for filing hard copies of a certain transaction is done based on your mood, that means you don’t have a system.

To create a system means writing down a checklist of a recurring task. Follow it strictly for one week or more. Then improve the system by avoiding procrastination.

3. Create an error-proofing system. The Japanese call it Poka-yoke. Example: If you keep on losing your house key, insert it in your car key ring. When you’re using three ballpens with a cap, switch to a tri-color retractable pen to avoid missing the cap and make your life simple.

The goal is to make it impossible or very difficult to do the wrong thing. It’s like the ubiquitous hole in a lavatory sink that prevents water from overflowing.

4. Ask the first “why.” While asking “5 Whys” is the standard tool for deep root-cause analysis, a one percent improvement only requires you to ask it once. Why am I being cc’d or bcc’d of this email?

If you’re the boss, would it be better to send an email to everyone rather than having a lengthy meeting? That’s a one percent improvement benefiting everyone.

The bottom line: A one percent improvement is less about “doing more” but more about “undoing” the small ineptitudes and wasteful activities that accumulate like dust. It’s the art of making the right way the easiest way.

Question: Is the Haru Hana Banana a one percent improvement? No. It’s probably closer to a two-percent improvement, which, under Kaizen terms, is revolutionary.

Rey Elbo is a quality and productivity activist. Share your comment, question, or story to [email protected] or DM him on Facebook, LinkedIn, X or via https://reyelbo.com