It's Not Luck - Eliyahu M. Goldratt [38]
“And?”
“And it worked . . . . Surprisingly well.” To justify to myself I add, “What you need is intuition about the subject and the will power to do the meticulous work.”
“How much time does it take?” Jim asks.
“It depends. Five hours, or so.”
“Five hours?” Jim laughs. “That’s less than the sleep that I’m losing in one night over such problems.”
He doesn’t understand the difficulty. It’s not the time. It’s bringing yourself to do it.
“Let’s try it,” Brandon Trumann suggests. “Why don’t we pick a subject we all have intuition about, and then you demonstrate it to us.”
I glance at my watch. It’s almost eleven o’clock. “I don’t think it’s practical. It’s late, and we have two important meetings tomorrow. And besides, what subject can we pick? I don’t think there is one subject that each of us has enough intuition about.”
“Yes, there is,” Trumann says. “You have a lot of experience in running companies and turning them around. We have a lot of experience in controlling companies. And if there is one thing that drives us all nuts, it is the subject of how to increase sales.”
“Yes,” Jim Doughty agrees. “And we don’t have to do it all tonight. We’ll just do the first step; provide you with a list of problems—undesirable effects, to use your terminology. Later you can show us how to connect them to each other, if it is at all possible.”
What can I do? I’m trapped. Brandon Trumann takes out his pen, searches for another napkin, settles on the doily under the chocolates, and announces his undesirable effect.
“ ‘Competition is fiercer than ever.’ I am sick and tired of hearing about it from every company I’m involved with.”
“Yes,” says Jim, “and add to that, ‘There is increasing market pressure to reduce prices.’ ”
“That’s a good one,” Brandon agrees. “No matter how high the demand, you still hear the same excuse. It’s reached the point that we, as external directors, are afraid to ask for more sales. They usually achieve it, but by lowering the prices.”
It’s interesting to see how it looks from their side of the table. “Keep on,” I say. “We need between five and ten undesirable effects.”
“What other excuses do we hear all the time?” Brandon is really into the game. “Ah, I’ve got one, listen: ‘In more and more cases the price that the market is willing to pay doesn’t leave enough margin.’ ”
“You call that an excuse?” I cannot hide my surprise.
“Definitely. I think that the real problem, if you can call it a problem, is that more than ever the market punishes suppliers that don’t perform according to its expectations.”
“Fine,” I say desperately. “Add it to the list.”
“I think that the real problem,” Jim says, “is lack of an overall vision. What I see is ad hoc solutions, fire-fighting, but not a sound overall strategy backed up by a reasonable, detailed, tactical plan.”
“Can I write a whole speech as an undesirable effect?” Brandon asks.
“Okay,” says Jim. “I’ll give it to you as concisely as possible. I think that the real problem is that managers are trying to run their companies by striving to achieve local optima.”
“Yes, that’s a good one.” Brandon is busy writing. “That’s what they are trying to do, and as a result, what we see as outside observers is that the various functions inside the companies are blaming each other for lack of performance. It is always the other departments’ fault.”
“Write that down as well,” I say. “This behavior is definitely a problem.”
“I’m writing,” says Brandon. “Alex, do you want to donate a problem from your perspective?”
“Okay. I’ll give you one, and you know the source of this problem very well. There is unprecedented pressure to take actions to increase sales.”
They laugh, and Jim says, “And judging from the results, not enough pressure.”
“But seriously,” Brandon continues, “we have neglected something that is really troubling. I’m talking about the need to launch new products at an unprecedented rate. Remember the time when products had life spans of more than ten years? Those days are gone. In more and more industries that I am involved in the lifetime