About your Hoshin specialists | Breakthrough Partners

Over multiple decades, the Breakthrough Partners team has successfully supported the implementation of Lean Business Systems in 40+ global organisations. Time, and time again, this experience has reinforced the importance, and challenge, of applying Lean at a strategic, not just an operational level.

Whilst there are many advisors who can help you with ‘shop-floor’ lean, our passion, experience and deep Hoshin expertise makes us the natural choice for leaders that want to truly transform their organisations.

Why choose Hoshin training and consulting from Breakthrough Partners?

Breakthrough Partners take lean and hoshin deployment for game changing results

Whilst there a tremendous gains to be realised applying lean principles at the “shop floor” level, it is a fact that those enterprises that build on this foundation by systematically aligning the energy and focus of the whole organisation around a few key breakthroughs are the ones that best survive the test of time and ultimately create the most shareholder value.

The bad news is that there are many ways to get Hoshin implementation wrong. The good news is that most, if not all, of the common mistakes are easily avoided with the right coaching and support.

With over two decades of experience implementing Hoshin, we’ve seen just about every way the process can go wrong. All this learning is embedded into our methodology and training which has been designed with the single goal of helping you get it right first time.

Breakthrough Partners’ hoshin facilitation and solid process leads to success

Breakthrough Partners brings all the hoshin elements together

Successfully scaling and sustaining Hoshin demands more than just a few working sessions with each leadership team to develop an X-matrix.

It demands that we embed the leadership beliefs and habits needed to sustain the process and establish an underpinning infrastructure that avoids the overhead of the process overtaking the value it creates. It also demands that Hoshin becomes fully integrated into the business timetable so it simply becomes a Business as Usual practice within the organisation.

Breakthrough Partners can bring together the training needed to implement the process, with the digital tools and coaching that create and reinforce the leadership habits that sustain it.

Meet our leadership team

Paul Docherty

Managing Partner

Founder of i-nexus and a widely recognised expert in Strategy Execution, Paul has personally guided leadership teams in 10+ global organisations including Nokia, Wesco and Ericsson to implement Hoshin planning.

As the founder of the Strategy Execution Consortium Paul has benchmarked Hoshin best practices across 30 of the top 50 Hoshin adopters.

Michael Howarth

Managing Partner

With over two decades of Hoshin experience, Michael has personally led multiple leadership teams, in a range of companies including Abbott, Amgen, Kerry Group, Takeda and SABMiller, through the deployment and execution of their strategy.

In addition to his Hoshin work, Michael has designed, led and supported multiple transformational change programmes delivering significant business benefits across a wide range of sectors.

Dave Jones

Partner, UK

With 20+ years experience guiding successful lean transformation efforts in global organisations such as Nestle, Magellan and Johnson & Johnson, Dave’s insights into how to scale and sustain lean are highly sought after by Breakthrough Partners clients.

In addition to his experience coaching Hoshin as a consultant, Dave experience includes leading a global deployment of the process in Worldwide Clinical Trials in his role as VP of Business Transformation.

Christian Loyer

Partner, UK

Christian is a seasoned Six Sigma MBB and Lean expert having led teams in successful transformation over 15 years across the Americas and Europe. His ability to speak fluently 4 languages allow him to interact in a very personal manner with the production employees that do lean day-to-day.

In the last 5 years he has led policy deployments in various organisations using the OGSM and Hoshin Kanri methodologies, after spending 3 years running operations himself as a plant manager. Overall a very rounded individual that always aim to pursue perfection.

Dr. Michael Ohler

Partner, Germany

Michael has helped well over 100 business leaders use the Hoshin process. With prior roles in R&D, quality, finance and as member of an executive team, he knows what it takes to “make the rubber hit the road”.

A certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt and sought-after innovation expert, Michael brings along systematic methods for strategy execution. He is also a board member of the European Six Sigma Club in Germany.

Hervé Montifroy

Partner, Germany

20+ years of industry management experience, 15 years of operations and supply chain track record, Sales and Finance functions executive leadership. Hervé has directly led 4 business transformations, a strategy execution initiative for a division of 12,000 employees and led over 250 improvement projects.

He thrives to simplify the complex and lead the change by developing people’s capabilities to achieve measurable bottom line impact and has a strong ability to link operational processes to financial impact.

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