The fact that The Goal was assigned to me for the business class made me cringe. When I saw the cover of the book before ordering it online, I didn't think it would be an interesting read at all. This would be another textbook to sit on my shelf. But man, was I wrong. The Goal, written by Eliyahu Goldratt, is very captivating. It's full of management information about the life of Alex (the main character and factory manager of his company) and the company he's trying to keep from closing. This book applies many different concepts to show the reader how to run and manage businesses effectively. Early in the book, the company's divisional vice president, Peach, tells Alex that they are considering closing his factory. . This is due to low production volume and unhappy customers with very late shipments from Alex's branch. Alex decides he won't go down without a fight. He teams up with his old teacher, Jonah, and the rest of Alex's factory supervisors to determine what needs to be implemented to achieve maximum productivity and continue to stay in business with their customers. This book is full of important lessons that can relate to what we have studied so far in management class. The first one that I think is relevant is that if you don't have the answer, don't be afraid to ask others for suggestions as a manager. Most people in a leadership position don't want others to view them as vulnerable, so they try to solve all problems on their own. I feel like this is a way to fail in a leadership position. In The Goal, Alex doesn't sit around trying to solve his company's lack of productivity. He gets up and goes to find the answer. He uses Jonas's advice, middle of paper ......l to be more productive and for his factory to continue to improve thanks to what they discovered. The factory ultimately did not close its doors. Instead, Alex was promoted to the position Mr. Peach held (division manager). He is faced with more ambitious goals by accepting this new position. A very obvious goal is to apply what he changed at his old plant to the other two plants he now oversees. With the help of his former team, they develop a specific bottleneck plan to implement at the other two factories. This book is full of very useful applications for future positions I will have as a business management major. It's also very interesting to see how to be more efficient in a production factory since I worked in a factory as a temporary worker. I was able to match what I saw and worked on in the factory with the issues Alex's factory was struggling with..