WARNING: The Critical Number, like the rest of the organization’s strategy, cannot be set in isolation from the realities of the company and the marketplace. Employees and customers will think the senior team was smoking something if they come down from the mountaintop with “the tablets” pronouncing the latest strategic plan without having completed the necessary preparation. And as Jack Stack strongly suggests, it’s best if the Critical Number is benchmarked against an external standard (e.g., “If that company can achieve 12 inventory turns, why can’t we?”), so employees don’t think the
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