The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox

Having The Goal assigned to me for Management Class made me cringe. When I saw the cover of the book before ordering it online, I didn’t think it would be an interesting read at all. It was going to be another textbook to sit on my shelf. But man was I wrong. The Goal, written by Eliyahu Goldratt, is very gripping. It is full of managerial information through the life of Alex (the main character and plant manager for his company), and the business he is trying to keep from being shut down. This book applies many different concepts to show the reader how businesses can be ran and managed effectively.

In the beginning of the book, Alex is told by the division-vice president of the company, Peach, that they are planning on shutting down his factory. This is due to a low amount of output and customers being upset over very late shipments from Alex’s branch. Alex decides he is not going down without a fight. He teams up with his old professor, Jonah, and the rest of Alex’s factory supervisors to figure out what needs to be implemented to achieve full productivity and continue to stay in business to their customers.

This book is full of important lessons that can relate to what we have studying thus far in Management class. The first one that I think is relevant is if you don’t have the answer, don’t be afraid to seek out others for suggestions as a manager. Most people in a management position don’t want to others to view them as vulnerable, so they try to work out all problems on their own. I feel like this is a way to not succeed in a leadership position. In The Goal, Alex doesn’t sit around trying to solve the problem of his company lacking in productivity. He gets up and goes to seek out the answer. He uses advice from Jonah, t...

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...l in be more productive and that his plant continued to become better and better at what they discovered. The plant didn’t end up closing in the end. Instead, Alex was promoted to the job position that Mr. Peach had (Division Manager). He is faced with greater goals in taking the new job position. One goal that is very obvious, is to apply what he changed at his old plant to the other two plants he now oversees. With the help of his old team, they come up with a specific plan in bottlenecks to implement at the other two plants.

This book was full of very useful applications to future job positions I will have as a Business Management major. It is also very interesting to see how to be more efficient in a production plant as I have worked in a factory as a temp. I was able to match what I saw and worked on in the factory to things that Alex’s plant struggled with.