ABSTRACT
The purpose of this book is to offer a new process for top management decision making. Our process allows consideration of specific market opportunities and validates that the current available capacity, including Capacity Buffers, are adequate to accommodate the expected additional demand. We also expand the boundaries of current TOC decision making guidance beyond the direction provided by Throughput Accounting's focus on the flow of Throughput through the company's current constraint. Many top managers have risen to their places in their companies, and rightfully so, due to their capability to look out into the future to a greater degree than their cohorts, a subject we touched on in Chapter 13. The dizzying myriad possibilities of the distant future do not allow one to understand the details of future demand and capacities with any sort of precision. Choosing an imagined future and making it reality requires understanding systems, peoples' capability to accept change, weighing the necessary management attention required (Chapter 16) and recognizing when to start building which competencies for markets that may not yet exist but should. We find the strong need for understanding the relationships between the potential Throughput and the cost of maintaining enough protective capacity a necessary condition for having the required flexibility to manage uncertainty. This chapter explores the broader aspects of leadership of a CEO as he discovers and reveals his vision of a new and momentous strategic direction without losing sight of the critical details.
