The Goal

I just finished reading a book called ‘The Goal’ by Eli Goldratt.

Its a novel but has become best selling management book. Its a story about one Alex Rogo, who is a plant manger for a manufacturing company. His plant is making losses and going to be closed down if he does not turn it around within 3 months. Needless to say he turns it around into a profit making plant. But it was not simple. He thought, made changes in the plant and did troubleshooting with the help of his teacher cum friend Jonah.

This is simply one of the best books I have read. I learned following things from the book:

1. Many times solutions to problems are plain common sense but we are too tied up with what’s called common practices that we either ignore them or don’t dare to implement them.

2. We should not treat any organisation as something which you can improve by improving efficiencies of each individual of the organisation. Local optimus theory simply does not work. We need to ensure that individuals work well in synchronization. Sometime it even helps a company if certain people are sitting idle than trying to ensure that everybody works full time.

3. The book really gives a very good idea about how a company boardroom functions. How managers interact with their employees and how they manage a big company.

4. Also worth learning is how patiently Alex Rogo handles the family pressures and tries to bring her wife back when she leaves him as he could not give any attention to her.

Whoever among you runs some kind of business should read this book and if you run a manufacturing company or part of such company you must read this book. You can take my words for that. Please let me know your thoughts about the book if you read it or have read it already.