• It's Not Luck

  • Marketing, Production, and the Theory of Constraints
  • By: Eliyahu M. Goldratt
  • Narrated by: Rick Adamson
  • Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (915 ratings)

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It's Not Luck  By  cover art

It's Not Luck

By: Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Narrated by: Rick Adamson
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Publisher's summary

Using the unique business-novel format, It's Not Luck continues the story of The Goal protagonist Alex Rogo as he navigates a new set of challenges facing the now over-diversified and under-profitable UniCo, where he has risen to the rank of division manager.

With an engaging voice and dynamic plot, Goldratt shows how to apply his Theory of Constraints (TOC) to achieve ongoing improvement in sales and marketing, inventory control, and production distribution. In addition, he introduces techniques for successful conflict resolution on both a business and a personal level.

©1994, 2014 Original material Goldratt1 Ltd. (P)2014 HighBridge Company

What listeners say about It's Not Luck

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good story. Ok performance

The story so good, but unlike The Goal, this story requires a little more work to follow. Without seeing the diagrams and not having them explained in full detail, it takes a bit of imagination to know what the characters are working on. An accompanying PDF would be great!!!

The narration is mediocre. Every character is whiny. And Alex sounds perpetually angry. I preferred the narration in The Goal significantly more, but the story still shines through. It's not grating, but not as good as it could be.

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8 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Good, but not as good as the original

overall good audio book. what is really frustrating is the narrator speaking for all participants. hearing his voice as Alex Rogo as well as his 14 year old daughter, wife, or coworkers makes it hard to follow who is who. tools and techniques could have been explained better.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Needs extra voices

Would've been nice if a female narrator read the female parts, it was difficult to keep up with which character was speaking sometimes.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Heavy-handed hard sell of a management approach

Pushes one approach to problem-solving as if it were the be-all-and-end-all. An interesting story, though

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Great content and great listening experience

The book is very worth listening. Like other Goldratt's business novels (e.g. The Goal and Critical Chain) the listening experience is so good that it is hard to interrupt listening.
Different from his other novels (which focus more on his findings in applied contexts), this book focuses on his the thinking process and how to apply it in different contexts, such as enterprise management and personal life conflicts.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book. Poor narration.

It's Not Luck is a wonderful book that provides an approachable introduction to the Theory of Constraints and the thinking processes. It is one of my favorite books.

When I first read it twenty years ago, I thought: "Here we go. Another author found one solution and thinks it solves all problems." But, I was wrong. Goldratt -- who I had the honor to meet later - did have something new that can help almost anyone analyze almost any problem. I can't recommend this book (in print form) highly enough.

So, I've been waiting for 20 years for the audiobook. Unfortunately, the narration is not up tot the standards I had hoped for.

The main problem is that pretty much all the characters other than Rogo sound like they are whining all the time, especially the women and children. Many characters sound alike, including the two board members and the plant managers. Even when one character is identified as having a British accent in the text, he has no accent in the narration. UGH!

Finally -- and I know this may be petty -- he pronounces Hilton Smyth's name wrong. I guess I was spoiled by the wonderful narration (dramatization, really) in The Goal.

To give the narrator a little credit, somehow he does describe the diagrams in the book such that you can visualize them. Not an easy feat.

OK. I still highly recommend this book based on it's content. Narration could be improved. You may want a non-audio edition nearby to review the diagrams, but it's really not necessary.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Better Than The Goal

The Goal is far more popular, but this is the book that introduces the thinking processes, which are more applicable, especially to those outside of production environments. However, like the goal, it doesn’t really tell you how to do the processes. It just serves as nice and introduction. But there are many other books that then get into the details.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The overall leadership concepts presented in a very simple way.

I enjoyed the concepts provided in a story format. It’s easy to forget that you are listening to learn the lessons or insight being provided. I would recommend this book if you feel stuck or defeated. Provides the lesson of the Henry Ford Quote; whether you think you can or can’t, either way you are correct.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Better that learning from dry textbooks

This is a much better and more enjoyable way to learn that reading concepts from textbooks.
To bad they went cheep and did not use the same people as the goal or at least a full cast. 1 person trying to Change their voice to sound like different people of different genders is distracting and sometimes difficult to follow who’s who.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excelent

I love this series, very grabbing and entertaining while simultaneously educating. I highly recommend this book.

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