About this Presentation
This presentation provided the health context: UK healthcare is the largest employer in Europe with a workforce of over 1.3 million people, many of whom operate as highly qualified front-line staff (doctors and nurses); the largest London teaching hospital employs more staff than, for example, the whole of Hewlett Packard Europe; in a typical teaching hospital, there are more than 400,000 visits to outpatient clinics per year; 60,000 inpatients; 25,000 operations and 75,000 attendances to the accident and emergency department; the 'Number One' pledge of the UK government at the last election was to deliver a breakthrough in performance in healthcare; in the last three years, the national budget has been increased by over 30% and the number of patients treated has increased by 3.7%; there are backlogs of between 9 and 18 months for operations; and many chief executive / senior management posts remain unfilled. The chain of activities in healthcare includes inputs from ambulances, general practitioner referrals and elective surgery patients to admissions and emergency, acute, community hospital, residential and nursing care, and social and healthcare activities. Buffers were placed in the emergency department to identify and eliminate problems through weekly multi-team one-hour buffer management meetings. Results include: hospital '1' treated over 95% of patients in less than 4 hours; hospital '2' achieved 100% performance at 4 hours; therefore, it shifted its goal to three hours and achieved over 95%. Buffer management has been implemented across the full system to identify and eliminate problems, thus reducing task time averages and standard deviations associated with patient care.
What Will You Learn
To help you get the most value from this session, we’ve highlighted a few key points. These takeaways capture the main ideas and practical insights from the presentation, making it easier for you to review, reflect, and apply what you’ve learned.
This presentation appears to focus on TOC sales methodology as a structured process for major sales, emphasizing that long sales cycles require building agreement around the prospect’s problems before presenting the offer. The strongest takeaway is that the salesperson must first establish the significance and magnitude of the prospect’s issues, rather than leading with product features.
A key insight is that objections in major sales are often self-inflicted by the seller. The deck argues that presenting advantages too early or pushing to close too soon increases resistance, while stronger sales progress comes from proving the problem exists and quantifying its damage.
The methodology uses TOC logic to analyze a prospect’s situation through problems, implications, and underlying conflicts. That approach helps prospects see that their symptoms are connected, that current compromises carry risks, and that a real solution must resolve the conflict rather than patch one side of it.
The process then moves from diagnosis to commitment in a disciplined way: define the criteria for a good solution, show how the offer meets those criteria, note obstacles without getting derailed by them, and convert those obstacles into specific next actions that move the deal forward.
Instructor(s)
Alex Knight
ALEX KNIGHT BSc, MBA Alex’s fascination with the Theory of Constraints started with a chance meeting with Dr Eli Goldratt. After meeting Eli, Alex realized the biggest breakthrough needed was in how we run and transform businesses. His first exploration with TOC was when he was at Ashridge Business School and was soon teaching TOC on all major executive open and tailored programs. He became a Board Member and led their international consulting activities for fifteen years. This involved working all over the world with many international businesses including Unilever, Hewlett Packard and American Express. Alex is globally recognized for his close work with Dr Eli Goldratt in bringing the Theory of Constraints to health and social care. His work around the world over the last three decades with leaders in health and wellbeing is encapsulated in his business novel, Pride and Joy. This has been translated into Japanese and French. It not only provides a blueprint for transformational change in health and social care but also highlights the key stages of analysis and innovation that are required to create a breakthrough in any industry. Alex's work is guided by his time spent with Dr Goldratt. It is through a combination of coaching executives in what not to change, laser-like focus on the few key leverage points to change and the development of true innovation in these selected areas that Alex believes leaders can better understand their own assumptions, achieve step changes in their own performance, the teams they work in and the areas they are responsible for. Alex’s passion is to demonstrate that TOC is not a methodology to be carried out by unique individuals but can be a practical process taught to everyone allowing the whole organization to participate in breakthrough thinking.
Eli Schragenheim
Eli Schragenheim is a well-known international management educator, author and consultant active in various fields of management. He worked with a huge variety of organizations all over the world, including public-sector organizations, industrial, high-tech and start-ups.
Since he had joined Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, the famous creator of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) in 1985, Eli Schragenheim had taught, spoke at conferences, and consulted all over the globe.
Eli Schragenheim is the author of several books on various aspects of management. His last book, Throughput Economics – Making Good Management Decisions, together with Henry Camp and Rocco Surace, was published in July 2019.
Eli Schragenheim first book Management Dilemmas (1998) showed a variety of problematic situations in management and the rigorous analysis leading to the right solution. Next he collaborated with William H. Dettmer in writing Manufacturing at Warp Speed. In this book the new concept of Simplified-DBR, now a key concept in production planning according to TOC, was introduced. He collaborated with Carol A. Ptak on ERP, Tools, Techniques, and Applications for Integrating the Supply Chain, and with Dr. Goldratt and Carol Ptak on Necessary but Not Sufficient. In 2009 his book Supply Chain Management at Warp Speed, with William H. Dettmer and Wayne Patterson was published. In March 2015, Eli has opened a blog, now containing more than 140 articles on various topics in TOC that everybody can access.
