The Other Hero of The Goal

Almost everyone has read (or at least heard) of The Goal written by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. The sequel too turned out to be very popular - though not immediately in India; only when It's Not Luck was re-titled as The Goal II that the sales picked up!

Personally, I think It's Not Luck is a far more important book that The Goal. It's Not Luck discusses a more comprehensive Thinking Process whereas The Goal is a more spoon-feeding kind of solution offer; perhaps that's why The Goal is more popular.

There is, of course, another reason why The Goal is more popular. It is infinitely more readable. It reads like a novel. And the credit to that should go to the co-author of The Goal, Jeff Cox. After having read both the books, I think Jeff's narrative style makes all the difference.

Naturally the next question is: where is Jeff Cox now? Turned out that he is active and doing some good work even now. Here is his website if you want to follow him up.

What you have not read The Goal yet? Sad. Very Sad.

5 Must Read Business Management Books

Why am I publishing this list ... because it is winter vacations for the kids. And if you haven't read these yet, now is your time to catch up. 5 should be sufficient for a short winter break.

1. Managing For Results by Peter Drucker. The mother of all Management Books. A book can be written for every paragraph of Managing for Results and I suspect many are.

2. The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt. A business novel that will teach you a new way of thinking. I like to read this novel again and again and again.

3. The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter Senge. Welcome to Systems Theory. Learn why time is an essential factor in any causal system. Application of its principles will turn your life and organization around.

4. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. A remarkable book, in my mind, only because the units of analysis are events and not companies. And also because CEO's in India use the term Blue Ocean Strategy to describe all their strategy.

5. Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense by Jeffery Pfeffer & Robery I. Sutton. Read this book last. You might not want to read any other management book ever after.

Note: The photograph used belongs to Zsuzsanna Kilián. Please see her galleryfor more such photographs.

The Goal

I first picked up The Goal when I was browsing through my company library about 15 years ago or so.
I had never heard of a 'management novel'.
Wasn't sure what to expect but the concept seemed interesting.
When I finished reading I was blown away.
This was it!
The only way to make anything stick was through a story.
I bet all of us remember many stories that we heard in our childhood.
Since then I must have read The Goal - first by borrowing the same book from the library multiple times and then by actually buying the book when I left the company - at least 15 times, if not more. One may not agree with the Theory of Constraints and denounce it as not very practical in all situations, one cannot deny that the books contain some gems. In any case Goldratt claims huge success using TOC. See here. And it all started with The Goal.
It is a story of a manager trying to save his job and marriage and manages to both (what else do you expect!) using the good old Socratic principles.
I followed up this book with The Critical Chain and It's Not Luck(sold in India as Goal II - shows the impact of the original one). The sequel and The Critical Chain do not leave the same kind of impact as The Goal does. But they are still worth a read.