The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, Essay Example

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, by Eliyahu Goldratt and Jeff Cox, is a highly unusual novel.  Essentially, the authors seek to present a logical formula for business success, and one involving all the language of modern business, within a fictional suspense story.  Alex Rogo, the main character, is a kind of detective on a trail, and one facing an urgent deadline.  He is in charge of a production plant, apparently one manufacturing robots, and the novel opens with a crisis; his plant is failing to meet orders and his superior, Mr. Peach, gives Alex exactly three months to reverse the situation. Not long after, in fact, Alex discovers that Peach is under extreme pressure himself, and because the entire company is in jeopardy.  Initially, Alex and all involved in the company’s future go through the standard motions of having meetings and seeking to identify what department or system is failing.  They rely on old means of business, and attack the problem in traditional ways.  The reader understands, however, that none of this  is going to save the day.  This is made very clear when Alex runs into an old physics professor, Jonah, who sets Alex in the right direction of literally re-thinking business. Nothing is going to work because the formulas in place are inadequate, and from here the novel moves on into the lengthy and suspenseful storyline in which Alex, committed to meeting the three-month target, finally comprehends the way the company must alter itself to survive.

As noted, the book is highly unusual in its combining of personal story and business information. To add to Alex’s stress, for instance, more than a few chapters are devoted to his home life and the pressures of doing what is best for his family, which may or may not involve staying with the company.  The effect is strange but it succeeds, and largely because of a smooth fusion of business discussions and genuinely human settings and characters.  The writing is engaging and keeps you with Alex all the way.  For example, while with Jonah at the airport and considering what he does not yet understand, Alex thinks: “In the pit of my stomach, I’m getting this feeling like you’d probably have if you were in an elevator and the cable snapped” (Goldratt, Cox 34). It is inevitable that many sections of the book are “dry,” but the suspense factor remains strong, and critical commercial concerns become almost exciting.

Logically, for example, the core issue of business is addressed, in order to bring Alex to a platform from which to move forward.  Several chapters, in fact, are centered on the question Jonah puts to him, which is to define the ultimate goal of any business.  It’s a “Sherlock Holmes” mystery to Alex, however, as he struggles to find the answer.  He considers employment, for example, in terms of the business providing jobs, and the idea is sound.  Alex then rejects that through logic, however: “The plant wasn’t built for the purpose of paying wages and giving people something to do” (Goldratt, Cox 44).  Nor can the true and single goal be manufacturing products, although Alex has issues in rejecting this solution. Other options, such as sales and staying on the cutting-edge of technology are also entertained.  The authors cleverly move the reader through all of Alex’s thought processes as he wrestles with each possible answer.  Reasons are established, then seen to be inadequate in terms of a single goal for all business.  Ultimately, however, Alex comes to realize the very simple answer, and that the goal of all business is to make money.  Every other consideration, “goal” or otherwise, exists to serve this single purpose.  Moreover, this goal incorporates all the concerns he wondered about earlier.  If the business makes money, people will have their jobs; if money is made, productivity must be strong. It seems no accident that Alex is led to this “elemental” solution through a physics professor’s understanding.

Then, and as Alex comes to understand, three measurements are essential in bringing the business to meeting this goal.  The first is throughput, or the rate at which the system makes money through sales.  Then there is inventory, which is all the money that the business has invested in buying everything it intends to sell.  The final measurement is operational expense, or cash flow.  This is the link in the chain, and is all the money spent by the company in order to convert inventory into throughput (Goldratt, Cox 66).  As presented initially by Jonah, it is a new kind of math for Alex to comprehend. It is also revolutionary, as far as Alex’s company is concerned.  However, and as with the common goal of all business, it is extremely basic.  All metrics here center on money, and come together to create a formula by which the money is consistently monitored.

Lastly, the bottleneck concept is also explained to Alex by Jonah, and as absolutely critical to meeting business goals. It is in fact a dual concept; the bottleneck refers to any resource whose capacity is equal to or less than the demands placed upon it.  Conversely: “A non-bottleneck is any resource whose capacity is greater than the demand placed on it” (Goldratt, Cox 146).  When this is considered, both by Alex and the reader, another form of business simplicity is revealed, and by virtue of the metaphor.  The concept goes to the myriad elements of business, from ordering and sales to productivity. If, for example, orders exceed what productivity can deliver, there is a bottleneck because the resource of productivity cannot satisfy the demands of ordering.  If, however, productivity is expanded to the extent that there is no ceiling on ordering and sales, a non-bottleneck exists. Interestingly, this in itself allows for business expansion, in that the company may reconcile the processes and keep an eye to never permitting the bottleneck to exist.  As with the other concepts, understanding of this changes the ways business may function and succeed.

It may be argued that Goldratt’s and Cox’s The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement requires some serious editing.  It is, in a word, a lengthy novel, and a good deal of personal story could be cut in order to move the business concepts and thinking along more rapidly.  Even in the discussions on procedures, there is a consistent effort to keep the scenes realistic and expressive of human reaction.  At the same time, however, and as noted, business formulas and concerns of productivity  and sales are dry matters, and it is extremely helpful that the authors “humanize” the story.  Consequently, this is a novel with a great deal to offer, in terms of combining a suspense story with a fresh perspective on business.

Works Cited

Goldratt, Eliyahu M., & Cox, Jeff.  The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. Great Barrington: North River Press, 2004.  Print.