What makes TOC different from other management approaches, such as Management by Objectives (MBO) or Total Quality Management (TQM)?

TOC takes a system-wide approach; this recognises that all systems are made up of groups of interdependent parts or events, which affect one another. Think of the organisation as a sports team. All team members must work together for the team to win and the team’s weakest link is its weakest player. To make the team more successful, the weakest player, or the weakest link, must be strengthened; there is no point in focusing on improving the stronger players, if the weak player is going to continue letting the team down.

From an organisational perspective, if an organisation is viewed as a chain of dependent events (or dependent departments), and a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, it is wasteful to expend resources strengthening any link other than that weakest link. The organisation will be more successful, and in a shorter space of time, if it is managed from a system-wide perspective rather than a departmental one.

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