← the founders library

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox

Book content checked: . What this means

Buy a copy
Amazon USAmazon UKAmazon DE

These are Amazon affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Founder connections

  • Jeff BezosExecutive book-club selection
    In Jon Fortt’s account of his September 2013 CNBC interview, Bezos names The Goal as one of three books used in all-day book clubs with Amazon’s top executives that summer. Fortt reports that Bezos used the books as frameworks for thinking about the company’s future.
    Source

Summary

A plant manager, Alex Rogo, tries to improve a factory threatened with closure while his marriage is also in difficulty. With help from Jonah, he questions conventional measures of performance and studies what limits the factory’s output. The business novel introduces the Theory of Constraints through the team’s attempts to understand its process and improve the results.

  • SourceThe Goal — original North River Press edition · 1992 second revised edition description, common terms and bibliographic information; exact ISBN 9780884270614
  • SourceThe Goal — North River Press · Alex Rogo, threatened factory closure, Jonah and Theory of Constraints; later anniversary edition of common original story

Why read it Our view

Useful for examining a process from start to finish. Follow how the team questions its measures and identifies what limits the result. In your own company, ask whether improving one task improves the whole process, and what evidence would show that it does. Use the novel to frame an inquiry into a real constraint, then check that inquiry against your own data.