An Excellent Listen

This is one of those books that will stay with me for the rest of my working life. Whilst the story is based on a manufacturing plant, and how their focus on efficiency was ironically killing their profits, it also has so many overlaps into a whole host of different industries. Since I've read it I always ask myself ' What is the goal here?' whenever I am in a new project or even a business meeting, is it just to complete a project to time and cost? What is the bigger picture, how does this feed into the overall goal of the organisation? One part that really resonated with me was when two workers were idle next to a machine, and their supervisor had them start moving boxes from one side of the factory to the other - for what purpose? Just to they can be 'perceived' to be busy rather than contributing to the goal of the plant. It made me realise that we need to have flex when it comes to capacity, and this is just as true in knowledge work as it is in manufacturing.

The narration is first rate and the voice acting was immersive and sympathetically executed. Is this a must read? Absolutely, few books have had the impact this has on my perspective of management.

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2 people found this helpful

excellent book

excellent book with lot of new insights on manufacturing and business . very nicely narrated made is interesting to go through

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"The Phoenix Project" original source

I think I lost some respect for "The Phoenix Project" while reading this book, because now I see where all the ideas came from. Even the novel plot is very similar.

Although the book is focused on manufacturing, it will be helpful in almost any industry. It shows very fundamental ideas about production process with a use of the Socratic method (great idea!).

The novel is well written and sinks you into it's world. I swallowed it in less than a week. It's amazing that each character has their own voice :)

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Super

Process driven logic and I loved the delivery method. Some parts were a bit far out, like the character winning a discussion with his wife and her apologising 🤣

But this book has a lot of actionable ideas. Understanding stock as both an asset and a liability was the best take away for me.

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Thought inspiring

A great step on my long journey, I only wish it was closer to my first.

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Amazing performance and audio production!

Multiple voice actors + sound effects is a rare treat in a business book.

Fascinating story of turning around a factory's process and profits. The software world has adopted much of this so it's interesting to hear the original thinking.

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Excellent

Really enjoyable book for business & manufacturing
Great voices to narrate & funny & interesting
Highly recommended
Thank you

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Great analysis and insights into how to attain lean thinking

Great story to tell the process and thinking around process and production line technology. The story is similar to other lean based theory

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good insights

loved that it was incredibly practical but think the written version would be more useful in the long run given the ideas and formulas shared which really need to be seen and worked through. worth reading, and listening, me thinks

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Makes me want to go into Plant Management

Great thinkers rarely bring their subject matter to life so eloquently. This piece of work provokes the reader to think, to work things through and Im pretty sure Ill be listening to it a few more times.

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