q1. Hi Gerry, You've been involved with TOC for a long time now and you've written some great books (Viable Vision was, in my opinion, a masterpiece - I don't know how you managed to fit so much clearly articluated thought into such a small book). Can you tell us a bit about your TOC background?
Thanks, Clarke. I did spend a couple of weeks with Eli Goldratt in initiating the thoughts on the Viable Vision book and having some of his coaching. But 15 years of practice certainly help. I also received extensive help from my wife, Jackie, who's been practicing TOC since 1993. I started my TOC journey in 1993, reading The Goal and being fascinated. This led to joining the A. Goldratt Institute as an associate, and going through about 80 days of formal training over the first three years (Jonah, Jonah's Jonah, Manufacturing, Distribution and Project applications, management skills, conferences and upgrades). In 1997, I realized that my biggest constraint was in the market. At the time, no TOC consulting organization seemed to have the answer on how to market TOC (a paradigm shift product), so Jackie and I decided to go on our own and build our practice. Over the years, we've done over 100 TOC workshops, worked in Australia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, US and Canada and completed dozens of implementations in all TOC application areas, developing a wonderful client base.
q2. What do you do these days?
I am on the road, every week, either customizing strategy and tactics or implementing. This year, the focus is primarily on Critical Chain, marketing and sales. Over the past year, our work has taken us to Malaysia, Zurich, United States and Canada.
q3. Can you tell us about each of your books?
Do you really want to be that bored? I spent a year writing my first book, Securing the Future, as a novel. My publisher rejected the idea of a novel, saying that there were enough novels on TOC. He claimed that what was really needed were case studies and examples using the TOC Thinking Process. So I rewrote the entire book. My second book, Advanced Project Portfolio Management, came from extensive work in Project Management and being witness to the constant ridiculous fights between traditional project management and TOC Critical Chain. I began doing projects for IBM, my first employer, in 1968. The deterioration in success of projects over the past 40 years fascinated me. I met my co-author, Steve Rollins, at a conference and we identified a major deficiency in project portfolio management. We didn't know how the book would fare, but it took off immediately after publication and has been a bestseller in the Project Portfolio Management space. The Viable Vision concept verbalized by Eli was so intriguing, I couldn't help myself. I forced myself to understand it by writing the book, and have done 5 years of implementations. Soon to be released, The Dentist is a collaborative work between myself and an oral surgeon, Dr. Gary Wadhwa. Written as a novel, it embodies elements of a true story of how TOC, Lean and Six Sigma helped a practice to achieve a Viable Vision.
q4. How would you advise a TOC newbie to learn about TOC?
Must you ask such difficult questions? I think there are two good ways to learn TOC - either by teaching or by implementing. Teaching forces you to really digest the concepts. Questions raised in workshops force you to think more deeply on the subject. However, in the artificial space of a classroom, learning is still limited. So the real way to learn is by doing. We are much more fortunate today than 15 years ago - there are TOC solution companies like Realization Technologies, that hire newbies and have a great intern program to develop skills by working with experienced people on TOC projects.
q5. Can you tell us about your most successful TOC story, from your point of view?
Jackie and I worked with Alcan Quebec, in 1997, using the TOC Thinking Process to overcome a 20 year problem of operational instability - strikes, walkouts, etc. At stake was a $1.6 billion investment which would impact the lives of thousands of people. After a gruelling week with an Alcan senior management team, working through the full Thinking Process, we had facilitated a practical strategy for Alcan Quebec to overcome their 20 year problems and secure the investment money from the parent company. The team began the implementation in the summer of 1997. In February, 1998 we received two press releases and a congratulatory note from Yvon D'Anjou, the VP (later to become President of Alcan Quebec). The first press release documented an 18 year framework agreement signed with their unions - unprecedented in union-management relations not just at Alcan but, as far as I know, with any company. The seond press release announced the $1.6 billion investment in Quebec. TOC can change lives for the better. For me, nothing is sweeter than that.
Clarke: You can read the press release here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ah2b9gg2zgg_282g9cf5zdx
