The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

by

Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Goal makes teaching easy.
Bill Peach is Alex’s boss and UniCo’s division manager for most of the story. In the opening of the novel, Peach confronts Alex about his failing plant and tells Alex that if he can’t turn it around in three months, Peach will close the entire plant. Although Peach appears infrequently in the story, Alex recalls that they used to be friends until the division started performing poorly, at which point Peach became high-strung and fearsome. However, Alex learns that just as he is at risk of losing his plant, Peach is at risk of losing the entire division, thus explaining his changed demeanor. Although Peach is slow to recognize Alex’s success, when Alex’s plant has several profitable months in a row, Peach admits that Alex has done a great job and that his methods are clearly effective. At the end of the story, rather than close the plant, Peach elects to keep it open and promote Alex as his new division manager, since he and his staff are moving up the corporate ladder as well.

Bill Peach Quotes in The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

The The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement quotes below are all either spoken by Bill Peach or refer to Bill Peach. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Importance of Goal-Setting Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

So where was I last night, [Peach] asks, when he tried to call me at home? Under the circumstances, I can’t tell him I have a personal life. I can’t tell him that the first two times the phone rang, I let it ring because I was in the middle of a fight with my wife, which, oddly enough, was about how little attention I’ve been giving her. And the third time, I didn’t answer it because we were making up.

Related Characters: Alex Rogo (speaker), Julie Rogo, Bill Peach
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

Halfway to the city, the sun rises. By then, I’m too busy thinking to notice it at first. I glance to the side and it’s floating out there beyond the trees. What makes me mad sometimes is that I’m always running so hard that—like most other people, I guess—I don’t have time to pay attention to all the daily miracles going on around me. Instead of letting my eyes drink in the dawn, I’m watching the road and worrying about Peach.

Related Characters: Alex Rogo (speaker), Bill Peach
Page Number: 21
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“…consistent parameters…essential to gain…matrix of advantage…extensive pre-profit recovery…operational indices…provide tangential proof…”

I have no idea what’s going on. Their words sound like a different language to me—not a foreign language, exactly, but a language I once knew and only vaguely now recall. The terms seem familiar to me, but now I’m not sure what they really mean. They’re just words.

You’re just playing a lot of games with numbers and words.

Related Characters: Alex Rogo (speaker), Jonah, Bill Peach, Ethan Frost, Eliyahu Goldratt
Page Number: 34
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31 Quotes

I start to speak, but Hilton Smyth raises his voice and talks over me.

“The fact of the matter is that your cost-of-products measurements increased,” says Hilton. “And when costs go up, profits have to go down. It’s that simple. And that’s the basis of what I’ll be putting into my report to Bill Peach.”

Related Characters: Hilton Smyth (speaker), Alex Rogo , Bill Peach
Page Number: 260
Explanation and Analysis:

“Hilton, this morning I asked you to sit in for me because we were meeting with Granby. Two months from now the three of us are moving up the ladder, to head the group. Granby left it to us to decide who will be the next manager of the division. I think that the three of us have decided. Congratulations Alex; you will be the one to replace me.”

Related Characters: Bill Peach (speaker), Alex Rogo , Hilton Smyth, Ethan Frost, Johnny Jons, J. Bart Granby III, Eliyahu Goldratt
Page Number: 262
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement PDF

Bill Peach Quotes in The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

The The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement quotes below are all either spoken by Bill Peach or refer to Bill Peach. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Importance of Goal-Setting Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

So where was I last night, [Peach] asks, when he tried to call me at home? Under the circumstances, I can’t tell him I have a personal life. I can’t tell him that the first two times the phone rang, I let it ring because I was in the middle of a fight with my wife, which, oddly enough, was about how little attention I’ve been giving her. And the third time, I didn’t answer it because we were making up.

Related Characters: Alex Rogo (speaker), Julie Rogo, Bill Peach
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

Halfway to the city, the sun rises. By then, I’m too busy thinking to notice it at first. I glance to the side and it’s floating out there beyond the trees. What makes me mad sometimes is that I’m always running so hard that—like most other people, I guess—I don’t have time to pay attention to all the daily miracles going on around me. Instead of letting my eyes drink in the dawn, I’m watching the road and worrying about Peach.

Related Characters: Alex Rogo (speaker), Bill Peach
Page Number: 21
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“…consistent parameters…essential to gain…matrix of advantage…extensive pre-profit recovery…operational indices…provide tangential proof…”

I have no idea what’s going on. Their words sound like a different language to me—not a foreign language, exactly, but a language I once knew and only vaguely now recall. The terms seem familiar to me, but now I’m not sure what they really mean. They’re just words.

You’re just playing a lot of games with numbers and words.

Related Characters: Alex Rogo (speaker), Jonah, Bill Peach, Ethan Frost, Eliyahu Goldratt
Page Number: 34
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31 Quotes

I start to speak, but Hilton Smyth raises his voice and talks over me.

“The fact of the matter is that your cost-of-products measurements increased,” says Hilton. “And when costs go up, profits have to go down. It’s that simple. And that’s the basis of what I’ll be putting into my report to Bill Peach.”

Related Characters: Hilton Smyth (speaker), Alex Rogo , Bill Peach
Page Number: 260
Explanation and Analysis:

“Hilton, this morning I asked you to sit in for me because we were meeting with Granby. Two months from now the three of us are moving up the ladder, to head the group. Granby left it to us to decide who will be the next manager of the division. I think that the three of us have decided. Congratulations Alex; you will be the one to replace me.”

Related Characters: Bill Peach (speaker), Alex Rogo , Hilton Smyth, Ethan Frost, Johnny Jons, J. Bart Granby III, Eliyahu Goldratt
Page Number: 262
Explanation and Analysis: