Be Fast or Be Gone

Mike Knight, an executive in a semiconductor firm, learns that his eight-year-old son Tim has a rare form of brain cancer. Tim’s best hope for long-term survival is a drug called Supragrel. Unfortunately, Supragrel is still in early clinical trials and may reach the market too late. Mike makes the agonizing decision to quit his job and go to work for Altus Labs, the developer of Supragrel, in hopes of helping them bring the drug to market more quickly. Mike is in for the challenge of his life as he struggles to keep his family together while racing against time to implement world-class project management in Altus Labs.


Critical Chain Project Management is a superior project management process that has been quietly implemented in some of the world’s best-known companies for over a decade. It is an enterprise solution that incorporates methodology and software tools to help organizations move to a relay-race “faster and better” paradigm. Companies that implement the Critical Chain approach routinely experience off-the-chart returns on investment. Projects in Research and Development, Information Technology, and elsewhere experience double-digit cycle time reductions and a ninety-five percent on-time delivery rate. The Critical Chain approach creates real shareholder value and a better work environment for knowledge workers, without compromising on quality or cost. This book tells you the story of a Critical Chain Project Management implementation. The venue is a major pharmaceutical company, but it could happen anywhere in Corporate America.