53 pages • 1-hour read
The Goal
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Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Alex Rogo, the plant manager for a local branch of UniCo, a manufacturing company, arrives at work one morning to find that Bill Peach, a division vice-president who is not fond of making “subtle statements” (1), has parked in Alex’s spot. Upon entering the plant, Alex discovers a scene of chaos. Bill arrived earlier that morning and demanded to see a specific customer order (#4127), but “everything in this plant is late” (2) so none of Alex’s workers can produce information about the order. Bill has demanded that the shift supervisor drop everything for this order. This leads to a fight between the supervisor, Bill, and a machinist, who threatens to quit.
Alex meets Bill in his office, where Bill rakes Alex over the coals for his history of late orders. Alex concedes that it was “clearly wrong to have let this order slide” (4) but takes issue with how Bill has disrupted the work of his plant. Bill informs Alex that this particular order is merely a “symptom of the problem” (5) at the plant and gives him an ultimatum: unless Alex can produce real change within three months, Bill will advise his own bosses to close down the plant. Alex protests that he needs more time, but Bill is firm.
After Bill leaves, Alex meets with Bob Donovan, the plant’s production manager. Bob informs him that the master machinist has quit, and that a particularly troublesome machine, the NCX-10, is down again. Alex blames Bill for the situation.
Chapter 2 Summary
After work, Alex arrives home to his wife, Julie, who is excited about their planned dinner date. Alex has completely forgotten about this and has only come home to have a quick meal before returning to the plant. Julie is disappointed and upset, but her face “brighten[s]” (11) when Alex reveals that the plant may close. Alex and Julie only recently moved to Bearington, where the plant is located, and she has not yet made friends. Alex himself is a Bearington native and feels great “affection” (12) for the town and great responsibility to the plant. Alex says goodbye to Julie and heads back to the plant. He meets up with Bob near the broken NCX-10, which will need to be fixed if they are to ship the delayed order tonight, as Alex promised Bill they would. By having his employees work overtime “the order ships” (15). Alex and Bob head to a local bar, where Alex laments the inefficient way the factory is run: “I’m all for shipping orders, Bob, but not the way we did it tonight” (16).
After his night out with Bob, Alex tries to determine exactly what the problem with his plant is. He considers different possibilities, such as the competitive nature of the foreign market, lazy workers, and his own lack of education—though he does have an MBA. “What can I possibly do to be more competitive?” (18), he wonders.
Chapter 3 Summary
The next day, Alex drives to a break-of-dawn corporate meeting led by Bill Peach. He has heard that the meeting will be used to inform plant managers just “how badly the division performed in the first quarter” (21). Alex thinks about how Bill, the man who told Alex he “really had a future with this company” (23) has become his adversary. Alex joins other plant managers, including Hilton Smyth, whom Alex loathes, at the meeting. Bill tells those assembled that the quarter has been “terrible” (25) and “the division is now in real danger of a shortfall” (25). Alex begins to tune out. He reaches into his pocket for a pen to take notes but finds a cigar instead. It takes him a moment to remember why the cigar is there.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
In the first three chapters of The Goal, the reader is presented with a man and a company in crisis. Despite his best efforts to be a good manager, father, and citizen, Alex Rogo is constantly coming up short. From the moment we meet him, he is putting out fires and wheedling, negotiating, and compromising to make even the smallest strides at his plant. His plant’s orders are consistently late, and his failures have brought Bill Peach’s wrath down on the plant, something that costs Alex a talented worker. At home, Alex is barely present, forgetting his date night with his lonely and isolated wife. As a Bearington native, Alex also feels that he is failing his hometown, and that if the plant closes, he will be responsible for the many workers laid off and the subsequent economic downturn in what is already “another industrial dinosaur carcass” (13).
Though Alex is at a loss as to why his plant is performing so poorly, he makes several observations that foreshadow the momentous changes he eventually makes. He brainstorms the possible reasons his plant is failing, considering foreign markets, his own lack of skills, technology, and others, but can intuitively sense that none of these are truly the answer. “Something is wrong” (18), he says to himself. “I don’t know what it is, but something basic is wrong” (18). Despite not yet being able to identify the main problem, Alex nonetheless shows a knack for uncovering what is inefficient in the way his company is run. Though order #4127 does eventually ship, Alex sees that this minor success comes with a price, in the form of overtime pay, as well as requiring workers from other divisions. He knows, intuitively, that this is wrong. Furthermore, he can identify when the actions of others cost the company money in small, hidden ways. When Bill Peach calls for an early morning meeting, Alex notes that because it is so early, “half the people attending will have had to fly in the night before” (21). This, he astutely notes, means hotel and car rental bills for the company, all because Bill wanted to add a sense of “discipline and urgency” (21) to the meeting. Alex does not yet have the answers, but he is observant and intelligent enough to see when things are wrong.
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