The Goal

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'Now you're really getting difficult. I knew that this was too good to be true.'

'That's not the point, Johnny. I want to use this deal as a beachhead to penetrate Europe. We can't afford a price war. We must come up with something else besides price, something that will make it very difficult to compete with us. Tell me, what's the average supply time in Europe?'

'About the same as here, eight to twelve weeks,' he answers.

'Good. Promise your Monsieur that if he commits to the quantities per year, we'll deliver any reasonable quantity within three weeks of receiving his fax.'

In astonishment he asks, 'Are you serious?'

'Dead serious. And by the way, I can start to deliver immedi- ately. I have whatever's needed for the first shipment in stock.'

'I guess it's your neck,' he sighs. 'What the heck, in any event you will have full responsibility very shortly. If I don't hear from you, I'll fax him tomorrow. Consider it a done deal.'

Only after we pull out of the parking lot do we let ourselves go; it takes us more than fifteen minutes to settle down. That is, Lou and Ralph dive into polishing the numbers. From time to time they come up with a slight correction, usually not more than a few hundred dollars. Compared to the total deal it's not signifi- cant at all. But Lou finds it relaxing.

I don't let it bother me. I sing at the top of my voice.

It takes us more than half the way home until they are satis- fied. Lou announces the final number. The contribution to the net profit of the plant is an impressive seven digits, a fact that doesn't deter him from specifying it down to the last cent.

'Quite a profitable deal,' I say. 'And to think that Johnny was about to drop it... What a strange world.'

'One thing for sure,' Lou concludes. 'You can't rely on marketing people to solve the marketing problems. They're cap- tured by old, devastating, common practices to an even larger extent than production.

'Try to imagine,' he continues, 'the reaction of people when I start to explain to them they are the ones who believe too much in cost accounting.'

'Yes, I sigh. 'Judging from today I shouldn't expect much help from these guys. Even though, you know, there might be something in Dick.'

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'Hard to tell,' he comments. 'Especially when Johnny is holding him so tightly under his thumb. Alex, how are you going to do it?'

'Do what?'

'Change the entire division?'

That puts an end to my euphoria. Damn you Lou, why did you have to bring it up?

'God have mercy on me,' I say. 'Yesterday we were talking about inertia. We were complaining about the inertia that we have. Compare it to the inertia that we are going to face in the division.'

Ralph laughs, Lou groans, and I feel pity for myself.

This week, even though we made such impressive progress, one thing was definitely proven-I'm still managing by the seat of my pants.

Take yesterday, for example. If it weren't for Ralph's instinct that something was missing, we wouldn't even have noticed the huge, open opportunities. Or today. How close was I to giving up? If it hadn't been for Lou putting us on the right track...

I must find out just what are the management techniques I should master. It's simply too risky not to. I must concentrate on it. I even know where to begin...

Maybe I was holding the key all along. What did I say to Julie in the restaurant? My own words echo in my head: 'When did Jonah have the time to learn so much? As far as I know he never worked one day of his life in industry. He's a physicist. I can't believe that a scientist, sitting in his ivory tower, can know so much about the detailed realities of the shop floor.'

And then, the idea of 'scientist' came up again, when Lou and Ralph were arguing about the usefulness of classifying data. And I myself supplied the answer: How does one go about re- vealing the intrinsic order? Lou asked it as if it is a rhetorical question, as if the obvious answer is that it is impossible. But scientists do reveal the intrinsic order of things... and Jonah is a scientist.

Somewhere in the scientific method lies the answer for the needed management techniques. It is obvious. But what can I do? I cannot read a book in physics, I don't know enough mathe- matics to get through even the first page.

But maybe I don't need it. Jonah stressed that he wasn't

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asking me to develop the methods, just to determine clearly what they should be. Maybe popular science books would be sufficient? At least I should give it a try.

I should go to the library and start digging. The first modern physicist was Newton, that's probably the place to start.

I'm sitting in my office, my feet up on the desk and staring blankly into the room.

The entire morning, I got only two calls-both from Johnny Jons. First he called to inform me that the deal with the French is signed. He was very proud of the fact that he negotiated a better deal than expected; in return for the flexibility and immediacy of our response to their future requests, he succeeded in squeezing slightly higher prices.

The second time he wanted to know if he could approach our domestic clients with the same concept. That is, to shoot for a long-term contract where only the overall yearly quantities are fixed, and we promise three weeks' delivery for any specific re- quest.

I assured him that we don't have any problem responding, and encouraged him to go ahead.

He's excited. I'm far from it.

Everybody is busy. Launching this huge new deal has made them really busy. I'm the only one who has nothing to do. I feel redundant. Where are the days of the telephone ringing off the hook, when I had to run from one important issue to the other, when there were not enough hours in the day?

All those calls and meetings were fire fighting. I remind my- self. No fires, no fighting. Now, everything is running smoothly- almost too smoothly.

Actually, what bothers me is that I know what I should be doing. I need to guarantee that the current situation will con- tinue, that things are thought out in advance so fires will not break out. But this means finding the answer to Jonah's question.

I stand up and leave. On my way out I say to Fran, 'In the unlikely event that anyone needs me, I'll be at the public library.'

'Enough for today,' I say and close the book. I stand up and stretch, 'Julie, join me for a cup of tea?'

'Good idea, I'll be with you in a minute.'

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'You're really into it,' I comment as she joins me at the kitchen table.

'Yeah, it's fascinating.'

I hand her a steaming cup. 'What can be so fascinating about ancient Greek philosophy?' I wonder aloud.

'It's not what you think,' she laughs. 'These dialogues of Socrates are really interesting.'

'If you say so,' I don't try to disguise my skepticism.