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as well as to not-for-profit organizations and governments to help them achieve more with less in less time. Alan is also past chairman of TOCICO (2003–2005), Past President of SAPICS (1998–2002), Chairman of the TOC Odyssey Institute and has been a serving judge in the National Logistics Achiever awards for Southern Africa for the last 7 years. Alan obtained his BSc Industrial Engineering degree (Cum Laude) in 1991 and completed his MSc and PhD in the management of technology and information at the Da Vinci Institute of Technology in 2009. The title of his PhD thesis was “How to identify and unlock inherent potential within organizations and individuals using the system’s approach of Theory of Constraints”.

SECTION V

Strategy, Marketing, and Sales

* * *

CHAPTER 17

Traditional Strategy Models and Theory of Constraints

CHAPTER 18

Theory of Constraints Strategy

CHAPTER 19

Strategy

CHAPTER 20

The Layers of Resistance—The Buy-in Process According to TOC

CHAPTER 21

Less Is More—The Buy-In Process According to TOC

CHAPTER 22

Mafia Offers: Dealing With a Market Constraint

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Where are we going and how do we get there? This is the classic question of Strategy. In this section we see how to integrate Strategy with Tactics with a view toward continuous improvement. System constraints are a point of focus in the process. Approaches to implementation, the layers of resistance to change that may be encountered and ways of overcoming them are also covered. The application of the basic concepts of Goldratt’s Drum-Buffer-Rope and Buffer Management are applied to the management of the Sales Funnel to increase an organization’s sales closing rate and Throughput. The TOC approach, the Mafia Offer, is presented: the guidelines for creating an offer, how to present an offer, and how the reader can create their own.

Two successful approaches to strategy development are provided. Both use the Thinking Processes. In the first approach, Boyd’s OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, and act) is applied to the Thinking Processes to provide a proactive approach to strategy. We also see a new paradigm for strategy: the Strategy and Tactic tree. Developed by Dr. Goldratt, this concept links the discrete steps of strategy to the specific tactic each required for success, linking strategy and tactic with assumptions defining their necessary and sufficient interdependence. Strategy and Tactic steps are defined level-by-level to the depth necessary for full and effective execution. Generic strategies are presented here and later in the book outlining recommended approaches for a variety of business environments. “How-to” steps for constructing the Strategy and Tactic tree are described in the next section in Chapter 25.

CHAPTER 17

Traditional Strategy Models and Theory of Constraints

Marjorie J. Cooper

Introduction

Strategy is a difficult concept, and often ill-defined, but the term is used frequently and individuals seem to know at least what they consider a strategy. For example, people have strategies for getting things done, from a simple strategy to avoid heavy traffic on their route from work to home to a complicated strategy for acquiring and saving the funds to pay for their children’s college education. Some people have strategies for avoiding things, such as putting in too many hours on the job, having to listen to a long-winded neighbor, or being caught by one’s spouse while raiding the Godiva chocolates. At the simplest level, strategy is no stranger to most people.

Organizations also have strategies. The processes of developing and implementing these strategies may be detailed and rigorous; often however, strategy development—not to mention the subsequent implementation of the strategy—lacks effectiveness and produces less-than-hoped-for results. Although the field of business strategy within the academic disciplines is comparatively new, theories of strategy conception and implementation have been emerging in business schools and among practitioners for several decades. This chapter will review