Shozo Hibino
Dr. Hibino is a seasoned business consultant for a large number of clients including Toyota Motors. He has extensive experience working in a large number of business sectors. He is also professor emeritus with Chukyo University and the Chairman of the Japan Planology Society. His joint work with late Dr. G. Nadler resulted in the extremely popular book Breakthrough Thinking which taught people to change away from their old fashioned reductionist thinking which was initially introduced by René Descartes. Hibino-Nadler’s teachings have since received world-wide attention.
Breakthrough Thinking supports a new philosophical approach to problem solving, turning 180 degrees away from conventional thinking. Its impact on thinking is similar to the impact that Nicolaus Copernicus had on heliocentric theory where he challenged what people used to believe as he moved away from the traditional theory of an earth-centered solar system. Similarly, moving away from René Descartes and his followers who advocated a switch from divine thinking to reductionist thinking, Dr. Nadler and Dr. Hibino advocated that mankind should switch away from reductionist thinking to a new kind of thinking, Breakthrough Thinking.
In our contemporary world, solving one problem often generates another problem in a manner similar to the whack-a-mole arcade game. The result is that the number of problems are growing at a geometric rate making people feel like they are facing a brick wall. Descartes’ shift in the sixteenth century which had called for a thinking shift away from divine thinking brought about confusion. Similarly, in our world today we see growing ‘contradiction and confusion’ in our daily lives. Mankind has come to a stage where a transformation to a new type of thinking is needed.
Koichiro Noguchi
Koichiro Noguchi helped to write the history at Toyota. Noguchi, started his career at Toyota after completing his university education. He is a genuine Toyota-man equipped with Toyota’s thinking philosophies. He ‘opened new windows,’ during his studies in graduate school at The University of Southern California in the United States. He was dispatched there by Toyota as one of its overseas business staff to learn a new way of thinking. He systematically received specialized knowledge and obtained his MBA. He is the implementer of a global marketing methodology at Toyota which includes hands-on experience working at the joint venture with General Motors. He was involved in the international procurement of parts from different cultures primarily in U.S. He worked in numerous positions within Toyota including sales planning and product planning. He was a former Executive Director and a vice chairman of the Toyota Industries Cooperative.
Gerhard Plenert
Dr. Gerhard Plenert recently joined the Shingo Prize Institute as the Director of Executive Education. This is a faculty position in the Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. As a consultant, Dr. Gerhard Plenert has been helping organizations execute operational and supply chain transformations for more than twenty years. Dr. Plenert was also a tenured full professor at California State University, Chico, and a professor at BYU Provo, BYU Hawaii, the University of Malaysia, and the University of San Diego
