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  <title><![CDATA[Reaching the Goal: How Managers Improve a Services Business Using Goldratt's Theory of Constraints]]></title>
  <isbn><![CDATA[0132333120]]></isbn>
  <isbn13><![CDATA[9780132333122]]></isbn13>
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  <default-description>&lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt;&#8220;There is no doubt that this is a truly original and groundbreaking work in applying the Theory of Constraints. I run a services company and learned some things about the services business. Anyone involved in large services companies needs to look at what John is proposing. I will definitely quote this material frequently.&#8221;&lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt;&lt;I&gt;Chad&lt;/I&gt;&lt;I&gt; Smith, Managing Partner, Constraints Management Group&lt;/I&gt;&lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt; &lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt;&#8220;The information presented in this book is badly needed by service providers who struggle to balance supply and demand with their resources.&#8221;&lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt;&lt;I&gt;Carol A. Ptak, CFPIM, CIRM&lt;/I&gt;&lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt; &lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt;&#8220;The techniques that John brings to light in this book are the bridge from the vision of Dr. Goldratt&amp;rsquo;s work to the successful implementation in a range of services firms.&#8221;&lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt;&lt;I&gt;From the Foreword by Erik Bush, Vice President, IBM Global Services&lt;/I&gt; &lt;/P&gt;  &lt;UL&gt;  &lt;LI&gt;Discover the powerful Theory of Constraints (TOC), and use it to drive continuous performance improvement in any services organization   &lt;LI&gt;Identify the hidden constraints that are limiting your organization, and manage or eliminate them   &lt;LI&gt;Use TOC to improve the way you manage resources, projects, processes, finance, marketing, and sales   &lt;LI&gt;Determine whether your organization faces an internal or external constraint, manage that constraint accordingly, and anticipate where the next constraint will arise   &lt;LI&gt;Release latent capacity shrouded by common business practices   &lt;LI&gt;Simplify processes that have grown unmanageably complex   &lt;LI&gt;Optimize your enterprise as a whole rather than suboptimizing individual business units   &lt;LI&gt;Get buy-in to fundamental changes in strategy, tactics, and operations&lt;/LI&gt;&lt;/UL&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt; Managing services is extremely challenging, and traditional &#8220;industrial&#8221; management techniques are no longer adequate. In &lt;I&gt;Reaching the Goal&lt;/I&gt;, Dr. John Arthur Ricketts presents a breakthrough management approach that embraces what makes services different: their diversity, complexity, and unique distribution methods.&lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt; &lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt;Ricketts draws on Eli Goldratt&amp;rsquo;s Theory of Constraints (TOC), one of this generation&amp;rsquo;s most successful management methodologies...thoroughly adapting it to the needs of today&amp;rsquo;s professional, scientific, and technical services businesses. He reveals how to identify the surprising constraints that limit your organization&amp;rsquo;s performance, execute more effectively within those constraints, and then loosen or even eliminate them. &lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt; &lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt;This book&amp;rsquo;s relentlessly practical techniques reflect several years of advanced IBM research and consulting with enterprise clients. Step-by-step, Ricketts shows how to apply them throughout your most crucial business functions...from project management to finance, process improvement to sales and marketing. &lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt; &lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt;Whatever your role in improving service delivery, processes, or profitability, this book gives you the tools to reach your goals...and go beyond them &lt;/P&gt;  &lt;UL&gt;  &lt;LI&gt;Identify, manage, and overcome your key constraints &lt;/LI&gt;&lt;/UL&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt;    Five steps to uncovering and addressing the real obstacles to improved performance&lt;/P&gt;  &lt;UL&gt;  &lt;LI&gt;Optimize core business functions, one step at a time&lt;/LI&gt;&lt;/UL&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt;    Improve the way you manage resources, projects, processes, finance, and marketing&lt;/P&gt;  &lt;UL&gt;  &lt;LI&gt;Implement TOC rapidly and effectively&lt;/LI&gt;&lt;/UL&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt;    Get buy-in, deploy infrastructure, and provide the right IT support?&lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt; &lt;/P&gt;  &lt;P style=&quot;MARGIN: 0px&quot;&gt; &lt;/P&gt;</default-description>
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  <original-title>Reaching the Goal: How Managers Improve a Services Business Using Goldratt's Theory of Constraints</original-title>
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