It's Not Luck - Eliyahu M. Goldratt [43]
Cautiously I said, “Yes, our approach to distribution does fly in the face of common practice. But it is common sense.”
“That’s exactly what bothers us,” Doughty interjected.
Now I was totally confused.
“How did you do it?” Brandon Trumann asked. “What enabled you to ignore tradition so blatantly? Changing what was always done to the extent that you were capable of developing such a simple and powerful system?”
So they did like our solution!
“I didn’t develop it.” I put the credit where it belonged. “It was Bob Donovan and his people.”
“And the sales solution for your printing company? The one that enables you to compete against the fast printers, commanding higher prices for large quantities. That’s not yours either, but Pete and his teams’?”
“Yes, it was developed by them,” I insisted.
Brandon didn’t let go. “And the turn-around in the pressure steam division, bringing it, in just one year, from a bottomless pit to small profits. This, I suppose, was done not by you, but by Stacey and her people?”
“That’s a fact.”
“And to whom are you going to attribute the phenomenal achievements in your previous division?”
I would have been flattered if not for his tone of voice. It came out as if they had something against me.
“What do you want?” I finally say.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Jim Doughty was not less aggressive. “It seems as if you and your people have a method, a system enabling you to break free from the common practices.”
“Thinking Processes that enable constructing and communicating common sense,” I heard myself repeat Jonah’s words.
“That’s what we find so hard to believe.”
“And the alternative,” I started to laugh, “is that I’m some type of management genius. That is even harder to believe.”
It was amusing. Really amusing.
They didn’t seem amused.
“We find it hard to believe that you do have a system, but we cannot afford to drop it.” Jim was serious.
I shrugged my shoulders.
He looked straight into my eyes and said, “Alex, you’ll have to take us through such an exercise.”
And Brandon added, “Frankly, I didn’t believe that you could make any sense out of that pile of problems we dumped on you two days ago. I didn’t take your claims seriously you know, the claim that you can find only one core problem that is the cause of all the problems that we listed. But now I’m not too sure. Maybe you do have a system, as awkward as it sounds.”
So in less than an hour I have to go to Trumann’s suite and show them how to find a core problem. For that I’ll have to build the Current Reality Tree of the most involved subject I ever faced. I don’t stand a chance.
I dress in a hurry. When did I last construct a Current Reality Tree? I have used all other Thinking Processes extensively, and I helped Bob with the work on distribution, but the last time I struggled with constructing a Current Reality Tree myself was more than two years ago. I’m not sure if I even remember Jonah’s guidelines to do it. Me and my big mouth. How do I manage to land myself in such impossible corners?
I take the doily with Brandon’s scribbles. Judging from his handwriting he should be a physician. I can barely decipher what he wrote. First, I’ll have to copy it so that it’s legible. While deciphering, I start to see some connections. Maybe I can do something with it.
UNDESIRABLE EFFECTS
Competition is fiercer than ever.
There is increasing pressure to reduce prices.
In more and more cases the price the market is willing to pay doesn’t leave enough margin.
More than ever the market punishes suppliers who don’t perform according to expectation.
Managers are trying to run their companies by striving to achieve local optima.
Various functions inside the company blame each other for lack of performance.
There is unprecedented pressure to take actions that will increase sales.
There is the need to launch new products at an unprecedented rate.
The constant introduction of new products confuses and spoils