Alex Rogo is a harried plant manager working ever more desperately to try and improve performance. His factory is rapidly heading for disaster. So is his marriage. He has ninety days to save his plant - or it will be closed by corporate HQ, with hundreds of job losses. It takes a chance meeting with a colleague from student days - Jonah - to help him break out of conventional ways of thinking to see what needs to be done.

Described by Fortune as a 'guru to industry' and by Businessweek as a 'genius', Eliyahu M. Goldratt was an internationally recognized leader in the development of new business management concepts and systems. This 20th anniversary edition includes a series of detailed case study interviews by David Whitford, Editor at Large, Fortune Small Business, which explore how organizations around the world have been transformed by Eli Goldratt's ideas.

The story of Alex's fight to save his plant contains a serious message for all managers in industry and explains the ideas which underline the Theory of Constraints (TOC) developed by Eli Goldratt. Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal is the gripping novel which is transforming management thinking throughout the Western world. It is a book to recommend to your friends in industry - even to your bosses - but not to your competitors!

"Critical Chain," a gripping fast-paced business novel, does for Project Management what Eli Goldratt's other novels have done for Production and Marketing. Dr. Goldratt's books have transformed the thinking and actions of management throughout the world.

Deep insights into the thoughts of Eli Goldratt that explain the thinking behind his internationally acclaimed business novels. An original book by the management guru, Eliyahu M. Goldratt, the originator of the Optimized Production Technique, the Theory of Constraints, the Thinking Processes, and Critical Chain Project Management. Clear, engaging and stimulating, this book is an accessible entry point to the complex thinking of the Theory of Constraints.

Takes the fundamentals presented in the bestselling and critically acclaimed The Goal and applies them to a retail scenario. Highly engaging storytelling style is used to bring complex theory and its application to life for the author. An original book by the management guru, Eliyahu M. Goldratt, the originator of the Optimized Production Technique, the Theory of Constraints, the Thinking Processes, and Critical Chain Project Management.

After reading the newspapers and following the sharp oscillations of the stock market, it becomes apparent that hi-tech companies are of a different breed. Never before have the chances of making a fortune been so realistic and never before have large companies been so fragile. What is really going on inside these hi-tech companies? What types of pressures and challenges are they facing? And how do they cope? Computer software providers, especially the ones that specialize in handling the data needs of organizations, are prime examples of these volatile companies. In the dollar giants. No wonder investors were attracted. In 1998 it was easy for such companies to raise as much money as they wanted. But now, investment funds have dried up. Why? And more importantly, is there a way to reverse the trend? This book gives the answers.

Takes the fundamentals presented in the bestselling and critically acclaimed The Goal and applies them to a retail scenario. Highly engaging storytelling style is used to bring complex theory and its application to life for the author. An original book by the management guru, Eliyahu M. Goldratt, the originator of the Optimized Production Technique, the Theory of Constraints, the Thinking Processes, and Critical Chain Project Management.

Deep insights into the thoughts of Eli Goldratt that explain the thinking behind his internationally acclaimed business novels. An original book by the management guru, Eliyahu M. Goldratt, the originator of the Optimized Production Technique, the Theory of Constraints, the Thinking Processes, and Critical Chain Project Management. Clear, engaging and stimulating, this book is an accessible entry point to the complex thinking of the Theory of Constraints.

Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal, a gripping novel, is transforming management thinking throughout the world. It is a book to recommend to your friends in industry—even to your bosses—but not to your competitors.

Alex Rogo is a harried plant manager working ever more desperately to try improve performance. His factory is rapidly heading for disaster. So is his marriage. He has ninety days to save his plant—or it will be closed by corporate HQ, with hundreds of job losses. It takes a chance meeting with a professor from student days—Jonah—to help him break out of conventional ways of thinking to see what needs to be done. The story of Alex’s fight to save his plant is more than compulsive reading. It contains a serious message for all managers in industry and explains the ideas, which underline the Theory of Constraints (TOC), developed by Eli Goldratt.

One of Eli Goldratt’s convictions was that the goal of an individual or an organization should not be defined in absolute terms. A good definition of a goal is one that sets us on a path of ongoing improvement.

Pursuing such a goal necessitates more than one breakthrough. In fact it requires many. To be in a position to identify these breakthroughs we should have a deep understanding of the underlying rules of our environment. Twenty-five years after writing The Goal, Dr. Goldratt wrote “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.” In this article he provided the underlying rules of operations. This article appears at the end of this book.

The 30th Anniversary edition represents the first time the narrative in The Goal has been substantially updated. Goldratt’s Five Focusing Steps have been added, and his essay, “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants,” is included. The Fortune Small Business interviews (known by some as the “case studies”) that appeared in the 20th and 25th Anniversary editions have been removed from the book, but are available on this website.

After reading the newspapers and following the sharp oscillations of the stock market, it becomes apparent that hi-tech companies are of a different breed. Never before have the chances of making a fortune been so realistic and never before have large companies been so fragile. What is really going on inside these hi-tech companies? What types of pressures and challenges are they facing? And how do they cope? Computer software providers, especially the ones that specialise in handling the data needs of organizations, are prime examples of these volatile companies. In the nineties we witnessed their growth from small businesses into multi-billion dollar giants. No wonder investors were attracted. In 1998 it was easy for such companies to raise as much money as they wanted. But now, investment funds have dried up. Why? And more importantly, is there a way to reverse the trend? This book gives the answers.

This fast-paced business novel does for project management what The Goal and It's Not Luck have done for production and marketing. Goldratt's novels have traditionally slain sacred cows and delivered new ways of looking at processes which seem like common sense once you read them. Critical Chain is no exception. In perhaps Eli's most readable book yet, two of the established principles of project management, the engineering estimate and project milestones, are found wanting and dismissed, and other established principles are up for scrutiny - as Goldratt once more applies his Theory of Constraints. The approach is radical, yet clear, understandable and logical. New techniques are introduced, and Project Buffers, Feeding Buffers, Limit Multitasking, Improved Communications and Correct Measurements make them work. Goldratt even handles the complicated statistics of dispersed variability versus accumulated variability so deftly you won't even be aware of learning about them - they ll just seem like more common sense! Critical Chain is critical reading for anyone who deals with projects. If you use block diagrams, drawings or charts to keep track of your activities, you are managing a project - and this book is for you.

This fast-paced business novel does for project management what The Goal and It's Not Luck have done for production and marketing. Goldratt's novels have traditionally slain sacred cows and delivered new ways of looking at processes which seem like common sense once you read them. Critical Chain is no exception. In perhaps Eli's most readable book yet, two of the established principles of project management, the engineering estimate and project milestones, are found wanting and dismissed, and other established principles are up for scrutiny - as Goldratt once more applies his Theory of Constraints. The approach is radical, yet clear, understandable and logical. New techniques are introduced, and Project Buffers, Feeding Buffers, Limit Multitasking, Improved Communications and Correct Measurements make them work. Goldratt even handles the complicated statistics of dispersed variability versus accumulated variability so deftly you won't even be aware of learning about them - they ll just seem like more common sense! Critical Chain is critical reading for anyone who deals with projects. If you use block diagrams, drawings or charts to keep track of your activities, you are managing a project - and this book is for you.

There has been a shift of policy at board level. Cash is needed and Alex Rogo's companies are to be put on the block. Alex faces a cruel dilemma. If he successfully completes the turnaround of his companies they can be sold for the maximum return: if he fails they will be closed down. Either way Alex and his team will be out of work. It looks like lose-lose, both for Alex and for his team. And as if he doesn't have enough to deal with, his two children have become teenagers. As Alex grapples with problems at work and at home, we begin to understand the full scope of Eli Goldratt's powerful techniques. It's Not Luck reveals more of the Thinking Process-techniques that consistently produce win-win solutions to seemingly impossible problems.

The Choice, revised edition, by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Efrat Goldratt-Ashlag

Goldratt presents his thought provoking approach, this time through a conversation with his daughter Efrat, as he explains to her his fundamental system of beliefs. The revised edition includes Efrat's own notes and maps (charts) she made during her conversations with her father, helping the reader determine the true essence of the book.

From the original publication:

TOC has been successfully applied in almost every area of human endeavor, from industry to healthcare to education. And while Eli Goldratt is indeed a scientist, an educator and a business leader, he is first and foremost a philosopher; some say a genius.

He is a thinker who provokes others to do the same. Often characterized as unconventional, and always stimulating a slayer of sacred cows Dr. Goldratt exhorts his readers to examine and reassess their lives and business practices by cultivating a different perspective and a clear new vision.