It's Not Luck - Eliyahu M. Goldratt [0]
Other North River Press Books by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
The Race (with Robert E. Fox)
Theory of Constraints
The Haystack Syndrome
It’s Not Luck
Critical Chain
The Goal
IT’S NOT LUCK
Eliyahu M. Goldratt
The North River Press
Additional copies can be obtained from your local bookstore or the publisher:
The North River Press
Publishing Corporation
P.O. Box 567
Great Barrington, MA 01230
(800) 486-2665 or (413) 528-0034
www.northriverpress.com
Copyright © 1994 Eliyahu M. Goldratt
All rights reserved. Except for the usual review purposes, no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.
The North River Press
P.O. Box 567
Great Barrington, MA 01230
Telephone (800) 486-2665
Manufactured in the United States of America
ISBN paperback 0-88427-115-3
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
1
“As for Alex Rogo’s group . . . ” At last, Granby has reached my part. I lean back and concentrate. I enjoy every word. No wonder, as the executive VP in charge of the diversified group, I wrote all of it. Well, not exactly all. Granby has changed some superlatives—his prerogative being the CEO, I guess.
It’s not just the way he reads it, with his deep baritone voice, it’s the music. Who said that numbers can’t be a symphony. Now he reaches the crescendo, “In total, the diversified group has finished the year with an operating profit of 1.3 million dollars.”
Granby paddles on, but now I barely listen. Not bad, I think to myself. Not bad at all, considering that when I took over one year ago, this group was deep in the red. Each and everyone of its three companies. Granby has finished. Now it’s the external directors’ turn to justify their existence. You see, a board is composed of three groups. The top managers of the company—we do our work before the board meeting. The decoration directors, the ones who are (or were) top guns in other companies—they do their work elsewhere. And the professional sharks, the “representatives” of the shareholders—they don’t do any work.
“Well done,” says the pompous ex-CEO of an oil company, “you have succeeded in putting UniCo back on track exactly in time for the upcoming market recovery.”
Well done, I say to myself, a whole sentence without referring to his own past achievements. He’s getting better. Now it’s the sharks’ turn. Who will be the one to start poking holes in Granby’s report, demanding, as they usually do, something more?
“I think that the budget for next year is not aggressive enough,” says one of the sharks.
“Yes,” says another. “The forecasted performance is all based on the expected recovery in the market. There is nothing in the plan that shows real effort on the part of UniCo.”
Exactly as expected. These professional directors are nothing but modern slave drivers; whatever you do is not good enough, they always crack their whip. Granby doesn’t bother answering; but now James Doughty speaks up.
“I think that we must constantly remind ourselves that business is not as usual. That we must put in extra effort.” And, turning to Granby, “Seven years ago, when you got the position of chief executive officer, the shares were traded for sixty dollars and twenty cents. Now they are oscillating around thirty-two dollars.”
Better than the twenty dollars they were two years ago, I think to myself.
“Moreover,” Doughty continues, “this company has made so many bad investments that we have drastically eroded our asset