It's Not Luck

It's Not Luck

Author: Eliyahu M. Goldratt

The story line in the book runs something like this. Being an executive president of three faltering companies in a highly diversified conglomerate UniCo, Alex faces a near impossible task of turning around the companies as the company is facing bad times. Alex and his team are put under tremendous pressure to make the group companies I-Cosmetics, Pressure Steam and Printing Press a success. The key problem area identified in these organizations is that Managers are forced to achieve local optima instead of working for the whole of the organization. The issues addressed include developing products which provide value to the buyers, packaging products differently based on market segments and creating successful competitive advantage for the business so that the competitors won’t be able to replicate.

The book talks about the need for logical and structured thinking processes in times of need. The author highlights the importance of Jonah’s thinking processes in crisis. Also, the idea of Market, business and the concept of value are explained in a very simple manner. The best thing about Glodratt’s books is that they are very simple to read and understand. The book talks about common sense and deals with conflict resolution techniques in personal and professional life. The book gives a new perspective, yet if you are looking to learn new methods, this is not the right one to pick. It is not going to make you a master of the thinking processes. Yet, it will keep you engaged with an interesting story and a glimpse of logical thinking processes being applied at various commonplace situations.