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The Lean Post / Articles / Isao Yoshino Reflects on 40 Years at Toyota

Isao Yoshino Reflects on 40 Years at Toyota with Mark Reich on WLEI

Executive Leadership

Isao Yoshino Reflects on 40 Years at Toyota

By Mark Reich and Isao Yoshino

February 18, 2025

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In this edition of The Management Brief, Mark Reich sits down with Isao Yoshino, a 40-year veteran of Toyota and a driving force behind the company’s success with hoshin kanri. Yoshino shares the impact that hoshin kanri and A3 problem-solving has had on him professionally and personally.

Key takeaways include:

  • Multiple roles over four decades at Toyota shaped Yoshino’s management beliefs and career.
  • Yoshino discusses working directly with Mikio Sugiura, who was instrumental in developing Toyota’s hoshin kanri process.
  • Hoshin kanri can positively impact a company as it has Toyota, notes Yoshino, but it’s not without a few challenges.
  • Delivering bad news first and an earnest desire to learn from failures were commonplace for Yoshino and Toyota executives and fostered the improvement mindset that still thrives in the company today.
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Managing on Purpose with Hoshin Kanri

Learn how to develop strategy and build alignment.

Written by:

Mark Reich
|Isao Yoshino

About Mark Reich

Mark Reich spent 23 years working for Toyota, starting in 1988 with six years in Japan in the Overseas Planning Division, where he was responsible for Product Planning and worked with Chief Engineers to define vehicle specifications for overseas markets. This was at a critical time when Toyota was introducing…

Read more about Mark Reich

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