It's Not Luck - Eliyahu M. Goldratt [46]
“Common sense, my foot,” Brandon is less forgiving.
“If it were just common sense, how come I didn’t agree with the way we initially wrote the first arrow and it has taken us almost half an hour to reach this stage?”
“Okay, okay,” Jim apologizes, “I didn’t say that to construct common sense was easy. But Alex, what’s the next step? So far we have connected only two of the UDEs, we have thirteen more to go.”
“That is exactly the next step,” I say. “We have a solid nucleus, we have to connect all the other UDEs to it. But slowly, this process cannot be rushed. What other UDE can we easily connect?”
“The next one on the list,” Brandon says. “ ‘The constant introduction of new products confuses and spoils the market.’ ”
I check it. “If ‘In advanced material industries there is the need to launch new products at an unprecedented rate,’ then, ‘In advanced material industries the constant introduction of new products confuses and spoils the market.’ It fits.” I add it to the tree.
“What about UDE number twelve,” Jim suggests. “ ‘Salespeople are overloaded.’ It seems like we should be able to connect it pretty easily.”
Well, it wasn’t so easy. After several trials and errors we found out why. This UDE didn’t stem from one place in our tree but from a combination of two reasons. When we finally finished, it was connected in the following way: If “There is unprecedented pressure to take actions that will increase sales,” then, “There is pressure on salespeople to bring in more sales.” This by itself is not enough to justify an overload, but on top of it there is something else demanding their time. If “In advanced material industries there is unprecedented pressure to promptly develop new products,” then, “In advanced material industries salespeople have to learn about new products at an unprecedented rate.” Now we could put it together. Now it’s clear, why “In advanced material industries salespeople are overloaded.”
“And what about regular industries, industries where advanced materials don’t push them into the rapid race for new products?” I wonder aloud. “We cannot neglect them.”
“As I pointed out,” Brandon says, “even for these industries the starting point is still valid. They too are under unprecedented pressure to increase sales.”
“We know the immediate result of such a pressure,” Jim picks up the ball, “we know it too well. Let’s not forget that a desperate traditional ‘method’ to get an order is to reduce price. Alex, what should we do with it? I thought that we should concentrate only on connecting additional UDEs to our tree.”
“Yes, and there is no contradiction.” Two more post-its and I read the result: “If ‘There is unprecedented pressure to take actions that will increase sales,’ and ‘A desperate traditional method to get sales is to reduce prices,’ then, ‘There is increasing pressure to reduce prices.’ Hello UDE number two, welcome to the party.”
“And this UDE is, unfortunately, correct for almost every industry,” Brandon sighs.
“I think,” Jim is into it, “that we just reached UDE number one; ‘Competition is fiercer than ever.’ What fuels competition more than a price war? Put on top of it the technological war, the launching of new products at an unprecedented rate, and you get the real thing. That is what we see all around us, that’s it.”
I don’t hurry to add it to the tree. Brandon also looks skeptical. “What’s the matter?” Jim pushes us. “Don’t you think that pressure to reduce prices, especially when it is often enhanced by the rat race to introduce new products, is the cause for the fierce competition that we face everywhere?”
“Yes, we do,” Brandon reluctantly admits. “But . . . ”
“But what?”
“But, I thought that the fact that competition is fiercer than ever is the cause for the fact that ‘There is unprecedented pressure to take actions to increase sales.’ ”
“Yup, I see your point.” Jim turns to me. “What are we supposed to do now?”
“What’s the problem?” I pretend not to understand.