Celebrated Author, Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt, speaks at Great Lakes Institute, Chennai

Celebrated Author, Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt, speaks at Great Lakes Institute, Chennai

"I am a professional killer and my introduction here does not mention that!" This was the opening statement of Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt, the celebrated author of "THEORY OF CONSTRAINS" and of the best-seller book "GOAL". It is a fiction woven around

the theory of constraints. The book goes on to point out the role of bottle-necks in a manufacturing process, and how identifying them not only allows for removing them, but also yields a useful tool for measuring and controlling the flow of materials. Its an industry benchmark and a must for management students all over the world.

Dr. Goldratt recalled those days when Management Science was still a soft science and not a hard science. That was the time when he decided to approach management challenges with a scientific approach like any other research-based hard science. "The problems in Operations Management have to be systematically approached so that the unpredictability of outputs can be contained," he said. This unpredictability is the cause and effect of all chaos in business. He pointed out that when one allows a system to exist with multiple constraints, it results in chaos. Traditionally, the draw-back has been the approach to management problems in an unscientific way. Physicists gain credibility by supporting their concepts with mathematical proofs but management theorists shy away from it. If the bottle-neck problems can be handled with mathematical approaches, he opined that the results will be more effective.

He also talked about the commitment to accept changes in the way one does business. He proposed two hypotheses namely: -

People resist changes. Bigger the change, bigger is the resistance.

People examine the required change. If they find it good for them, they will accept it. If they found it bad, they will reject it.

He gave the example of resistance to lay-off jobs en-masse when companies started adopting Just-In-Time practices. The JIT practise and cost control had no meaning if the lay-offs did not happen.

Dr. Goldratt also talked in detail about the Process Of On Going Improvement (POOGI). He compared the nature of performance growths in terms of the real sense and the management aim. He explained how these were closely related to the balance of stability and growth of a firm. The companies which were "Built-To-Last" realized this and formulated their strategies and tactics accordingly, he observed. He defined strategy as the answer to the question "what for" and tactics as the answer to the question "how". To be effective, he said, these two have to be treated as a couple rather than the usual way of seeing of strategy as top-level approach and tactics as lower-level approach.

Towards the end, he shared with the audience, his view of the current management scenarios and the experiences he had gained during some recent international seminars on "Theory of Constraints". He then took questions from the audience about management problems. His strong advice to the audience was to come out of the traditionally biased knowledge and start thinking creatively with one's own reasoning power. On the whole, it was a great value adding and rewarding experience for the audience present and went out to demonstrate how strong bond GREAT LAKES has with academicians all over the world.

Concluded.

Contributed by -
Nihit Nirmal,
Class of 2008,
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.

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