So why is The Goal so popular? I think because it seems that Eli spent time in your plant documenting what was happening. You can find more information on flow and flow based scheduling <– here. You can find a full, how to description of Throughput Accounting <– here. Throughput Accounting – This is the Theory of Constraints approach to accounting and measures including T,I, and OE.You can find a full, how to description of drum buffer rope <– here. Drum Buffer Rope – This is the Theory of Constraints approach to operations and scheduling.There are 3 main Theory of Constraints concepts introduced in The Goal. And if the Rich Dad Poor Dad’s Nielsen data is wrong, as I suspect, this also puts The Goal as the bestselling business book of all time per Nielsen data. If The Goal has sold over 6 million copies up to 2014 and if many copies are passed to 4 other people and there are millions of pirated copies in China and other places, that certainly puts The Goal in the running for the most read business book of all time. Please note that I’ve added the data in red. The data in this table looks suspect since Rich Dad Poor Dad has estimated sales lower than the Nielsen data and the 7 Habits has as huge estimated sales range, but as I said this data is hard to acquire. Here’s some stats compiled by on bestselling business books. The publisher, North River Press, has indicated on the 30 th anniversary edition (2014) that over 6 million copies have been sold. There, of course, is no hard evidence of this. With The Goal, for each one purchased it was passed to 4 different people to read. Eli also explained another phenomenon that occurs – he said that most business books are purchased but only 1 in 4 are actually read. And pirated copies have been found in other languages around the world. I say probably because it’s difficult to track worldwide sales.

The Goal is probably the most read business book of all time - in the world.

This turned out to be a great thing for Eliyahu Goldratt and a big missed opportunity for Jeff Cox.

He also explained that his co-author wanted to get paid a flat guaranteed fee for his work. In the account I heard, he said it took talking to over 30 publishers before finding one that would take the risk. Eliyahu Goldratt or Eli would tell a story about publishers passing on his book because it was a business book and a “love story”, and they did not know what shelf to put it on. The path to publishing The Goal book was difficult.

The goal eliyahu goldratt summary isbn