Book Review - Goldratt's "The Goal"

As a grown-up everybody has to fight certain dogmas that their parents, teachers, predecessors, and whole society might have created. The day you realize that your win can come when you think outside your tiny bubble, there comes a leap of growth. I personally bet on the fact that Goldratt's "The Goal"  represents one such episode in every professional journeys where your wits are your only friends.

You see that guy with that pipe in his mouth. He is no ordinary man. He is Eliyahu M. Goldratt, an Israeli business management legend and a world-renowned author. Yes, he wrote this book a long while ago in 1984 but big-bucks of today like Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, recommend it as a healthy diet for every manager in his organization. Major concepts like Theory of Constraints, still form the basis of modern operational infrastructure.

One might get confused with the title as it seems like a book coming from authors like Robin Sharma or someone.  But no, it is a comprehensive guide for professional managers, engineers, and businesses with optimization of work as its core value. Often in our paths, we hit a huge thick brick wall, especially if you are an entrepreneur. This book trains you how we put a hole in that bloody wall and walk past. 

The book has been written like a NOVEL. Yes! a good, easy, reader-friendly novel. Goldratt puts you in the realistic dimensions of a life story of a plant manager named Alex Rogo whose life is in kind of jeopardy. He lives in a small town in Barrington with his family. Having a troublesome plant with firefighting situations as a new normal for him and so were the late hours of work degrading his marriage every day. His desperate attempts making things worse.

Twist starts when his boss Bill tells him that his plant will be closed. If no results are seen within a few months, everybody asses will be fired without second thoughts. So was this the goal? Reviving his plant? But how? 

Most of the readers don't dare and open this book asking - what is in it for me?

I am not an engineer or something! But the truth is that the book is filled with many obvious and hidden lessons that can change our perspective of observing and managing our professional and personal life. You will realize the value of knowing the real goals of businesses and the importance of having a mentor. If not anything else, you might learn a few tricks from Alex on how to get your love back.

We would like to give a 4 out of 5 to this book. Enjoy reading at Kitabi Chai.