The Goal

In a business text disguised as a novel, a remarkable cast of actors dramatizes a fascinating tale of discovery and redemption. In the story, the manager of a troubled plant learns from a mathematician turned consultant that many of his management practices and economic assumptions are faulty. After he retools his thinking, he convinces everyone else at the factory to get with the new program. The story's flow is slowed by extraneous dialogue and subplots, but it's still a good story and a captivating format for serving up the author's message--that businesses weighed down by archaic habits can be wildly profitable when fresh mathematical methods are implemented with courageous persistence. T.W. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

A novel, business lesson, and wake-up call for leaders whose companies are bogged down by complacency, sloppy thinking, and bureaucratic stupidity, this 1984 text is anchored by the comforting voice of Eric Conger and a strong cast of voice actors who handle the material with immense skill. They deftly balance between the need to jazz up the dry business content and the temptation to succumb to the story's melodrama. The heroic story line seems hindered by extraneous dialogue and subplots, but the voice performances make the production hard to fault as a listening experience. The main point is that companies are profitable when archaic habits are persistently reexamined with fresh eyes for constraints and bottlenecks. T.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine