It’s probably because, as odd as it may sound, the satisfaction from reading this novel does not necessarily come from following the plot. I’d usually summarise his problems to my boyfriend, rolling my eyes so hard it hurt. For the first half of the novel Alex Rogo, the desperate manager, is an angry man-baby, who not only didn’t see things coming, but refused to see them once they slapped him in the face. The characters aren’t too relatable either. The book has definitely aged a bit: every now and then the characters discuss the possible advantages of this new thingy called “computer”, while the unassuming “data guy”, who kind of knows how to operate this mysterious machine, is trying to figure out how to be useful. Seriously, I even saved a page in my journal to fill it with a long list of my favourite quotes. Secondly, when I finally got around to reading The Goal, I became more invested than a teenage Twilight fangirl. Boy, was I wrong!įirst of all, factories are pretty fascinating: Back then, I was pretty convinced that there’s no chance this book would be up my alley. I remember my university lecturer mentioning the title and saying “It’s a novel about project management… Oh, and there’s a sequel!”. Especially, if they told me that the majority of the plot takes place in a provincial factory in the 1980s and the characters look at spreadsheets and diagrams most of the time. If two months ago anyone told me that a book on project management can be a real page turner, I probably wouldn’t believe them. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement Fortunately enough, this hapless manager is not my friend but a fictional character of Eli Goldratt’s ground-breaking business novel. To make matters worse, my wife left me and I have no idea why.” I’d probably respond with some sympathetic cliché about work-life balance, simultaneously resisting the urge to punch him in the face and tell him that the person who paid for his MBA program should get their money back. Yesterday, our division manager came by to give direct orders to my employees. “Our customer product deliveries are seriously delayed, I get angry calls from the corporate executives all the time.
“It seems that we’re not making any money,” he says. Imagine that a hypothetical, MBA-holding friend starts complaining to you about his well-paid job.
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