ABSTRACT Since the Wonji Sugar Factory in Ethiopia implemented the Japanese Management Strategy, Kaizen in 2011, it has become a model for other companies within the sugar industry. In 2013 alone, the Wonji Sugar Factory was awarded the highest honor by the Ethiopian KAIZEN Institute. To learn more about the Wonji Sugar Factory and the factors that have contributed to the implementation of the Kaizen strategy, about 15 percent (i.e., 341 out of 2311) of the full-time employees who have worked for more than three years were sampled. The study was based on three groups (i.e., Service, Factory and Sugar Development workers) who were asked to give their observations about the implementation of the Kaizen techniques at the Wonji Sugar Factory. Kaizen improvement in quality and productivity requires a continuous assessment of its daily operations. The improvement observed at the Wonji Sugar Factory seems to be laudable. The results of the multiple regressions analysis indicate that of the three groups of employees,(i.e., Service, Factory, and Sugar Development), the Factory workers have successfully implemented Quality and productivity utilizing the Kaizen (Contributions, Tools, Pillars, Philosophy, and successfully tackled the implementation challenges) techniques. Similarly, the Sugar Development employees have significantly implemented Quality improvement using the Kaizen (Fundamentals, Pillars, and Principles); and Productivity utilizing Kaizen (Contributions, Fundamentals, Tools, Philosophy, and Principles). Like the Factory and Sugar Development employee regression model for quality and Productivity, the Service Employees regression model is significant at (p< .000) but does not predict as much variance as the regression models for Quality and Productivity of the Factory and Sugar Development employees of the Wonji Sugar Factory. Thus, the implications that could be brought to the attention of the Wonji Sugar Factory policy makers are that the Service and Administrative apparatus of the Factory need to be restructured and operated at a horizontal level in order to promote direct communications among the employees. By initiating minor hybridization and by designing a synergy between the Japanese Kaizen system and the Ethiopian work ethic, the Service and Administrative Employees of the Wonji Sugar Company could be incentivized to continuously scrutinize their activities and accelerate improvement in quality and productivity for their company. In short, the Wonji Sugar Factory should attempt to establish the Kaizen model that honors positive transformation, making the workers an integral part of their enterprises so that the company could fulfill the constantly changing needs of their domestic and global markets. Keywords Kaizen, continuous improvement, management strategy, hybridization, synergy, positive transformation