Why I Chose to Write The Decision as a Business Novel

Over the past 30 years, I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of industrial companies. During that time, I have read countless books on maintenance, asset management, reliability, and change management. Many of them were technically excellent. Yet one question kept coming back to me: Why do so many good ideas fail in practice?

That is precisely why I decided not to write another technical book – at least not initially. Instead, I wanted to tell a story. A story about people under pressure. About daily firefighting. About conflicts between Operations and Maintenance. About power struggles, mistrust, and resistance to change. About all the things that are often only briefly mentioned in technical literature and treated primarily as technical challenges, while in reality they determine whether a transformation succeeds or fails. A business novel can often reach a much broader audience than a traditional technical book. Stories engage not only the reader's intellect but also their emotions. Readers experience the challenges alongside the characters. Sometimes they even recognize themselves – or their own organization – in the story. As a result, the lessons conveyed do not feel instructional or preachy, and they tend to stay with readers much longer.

The Core Message of the Book

At first glance, The Decision is the story of a chemical plant on the verge of collapse. In reality, however, it is about something else. It is about decision-making. One of the central messages of the novel is this: Most problems are not caused by the assets themselves, but by the wrong decisions made around those assets.

Every organization makes thousands of decisions every day. Decisions about priorities, budgets, maintenance activities, staffing, and business objectives. Many of these decisions appear insignificant on their own. Yet together they determine the overall performance of a company. The novel demonstrates that sustainable improvement does not come from heroic efforts or short-term firefighting. Ultimately, it comes from making better decisions. The firefighting at Eagle Ridge may save the day, but it does not save the future of the site. Step by step, the characters discover that the greatest opportunities for improvement lie in adopting a new way of thinking and a new approach to managing performance.

The Role of OCM

Readers who are familiar with me and my work will quickly recognize that the idea of Operations-Centered Maintenance (OCM) plays an important role in the background. However, it was never my intention to turn the novel into an OCM textbook. Quite the opposite. Within the story, OCM primarily serves as a vehicle for exploring the challenges involved in developing a new way of thinking. Readers follow Palina, Freddy, Tom, and many other characters on their journey and gradually discover why traditional methods often reach their limits.

For this reason, OCM is intentionally not explained in every detail. The novel is primarily about the story behind the idea of OCM. The OCM framework itself deserves a technical book– not a business novel.

So, What Happens Next for Eagle Ridge and Palina?

Readers who reach the end of The Decision will quickly realize that Palina's story is far from over. The crisis at Eagle Ridge has been overcome, but a new challenge is already waiting for her. In the next novel, Palina will face an even greater test. This time, the success of a highly complex turnaround project is at stake. Political power struggles, manipulated assumptions, personal agendas, and enormous financial risks threaten the FSC site in Lake Charles. And just as in The Decision, the story will be about far more than technology.

It will be about people.

It will be about responsibility.

And ultimately, it will once again revolve around the question every leader must answer at some point: What decision will you make when the consequences truly matter?

So, stay tuned.

Frank