I owe a debt of gratitude to many people for their hand in helping this work come to life.
I thank my ChimpWorks home team for their role in this project and for their ongoing effort to keep the system running: Susan Barlow Toll for her extensive fact checking and citations, Michael Lane for his superb editing and conceptual contributions, Taffee Hightower for her happy binders and management of the critical-reader process, Judi Dunckley for her making sure everything balances (and keeping us all very afraid), Vicki Mosur Osgood for her years of service turning the ChimpWorks flywheel, and Kathy Worland-Turner for her cheerful effectiveness serving as my right arm so that I can focus on creative work and teaching.
I thank members of my research team for their contributions to this project: Robyn Bitner for her analyses and fact checking, Kyle Blackmer for his work on Merck, Brad Caldwell for his work on HP and IBM, Lauren Cujé for her work on Nordstrom, Terrence Cummings for his many projects and his contribution to the study-set selection, Todd Driver for his work on financial analyses and IBM and his fact checking, Ryan Hall for his study-set selection analyses and collection of key data, Lorilee Linfield for her work on Best Buy and Circuit City and her fact checking, Catherine Patterson for her analyses, Matthew Unangst for his study-set selection analyses and work on Xerox, and Nathaniel (Natty) Zola for ongoing analysis and criticism.
I thank my editor, Deborah Knox, for her hundreds of hours of dedicated work to challenge, edit, fact check, polish, and improve the manuscript through dozens of iterations, and for her extensive examination into Merck and Fannie Mae.
I thank my critical readers, whose intelligent critiques helped sharpen the concepts and writing immeasurably. Thank you to Bill Achtmeyer, Jerry Belle, Ed Betof, Ann S. Bowers, William P. Buchanan, Scott Cederberg, Dr. Alan G. Chute, Ken Coleman, Alan J. Dabbiere, Brian Deevy, Jeff Donnelly, Salvatore D. Fazzolari, Andrew Feiler, Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, Christopher Forman, Dick Frost, Denis Godcharles, Wayne H. Gross, Eric Hagen, Pamela Hemann, Liz Heron, John B. Hess, Frank Hightower, Phil Hodgkinson, Kimberley Hollingsworth Taylor, John A. Johnson, Alan Khazei, Betina Koski, Kevin McGarvey, Thomas W. Morris, Tom Nelson, Michael Prouting, Bobby Rao, Gloria A. Regalbuto Bentley, PhD, Jim Reid, Neville Richardson, Kevin Rumon, Kim Sanchez Rael, Dirk Schlimm, Roy Spence, Frank Sullivan, Kevin Taweel, Jean Taylor, Tom Tierney, Alan Webber, Jim Weddle, and Walter Wong. I thank Frank Sullivan also for suggesting the title How the Mighty Fall.
I thank Betty Grebe and Carol Krismann at the University of Colorado William M. White Business Library for their able and enthusiastic assistance, helping all my research assistants with their death marches. I thank the Center for Research in Securities Pricing (CRSP) at the University of Chicago for its quality data and excellent service. I thank Dennis Bale and Lori Drawbaugh for their professionalism and for the roving office that allows me to keep doing creative work while in transit.
I thank Frances Hesselbein and Dick Cavanagh for the invitation to speak at West Point that inspired me to dive deeply into this topic. I thank Breck England for coming up with the term “well-founded hope” as a way to describe our research findings. I thank Bob Buford for his continued insistence that I pursue questions that ignite my curiosity and for his belief that less is more. I thank Alan Wurtzel and David Maxwell for their helpful perspectives on the stages framework, and for their continued friendship and belief in our work.
I thank Peter Ginsberg for his years of support, challenge, and professionalism, and for his extraordinary ability to come up with publishing ideas that have never been tried before—and to make them work. I thank Hollis Heimbouch for her editorial instincts, her advocacy, and her willingness to join me in an adventure.
I thank Janet Brockett for her design genius and friendship.
I thank Caryn Marooney for her extraordinary wisdom and creative perspective.
I thank my friend and research colleague Morten T. Hansen, who continues to inspire and challenge me by providing critical feedback and helpful guidance.
I thank my Personal Band of Brothers for their ongoing support and inspiration, and my #1 brother, Michael Collins.
Finally, and always, I thank Joanne Ernst, my life partner and best friend, for inspiring me, for being my most severe critic, and for her unyielding belief in me. After twenty-nine years, which I consider to be a nice start to an enduring marriage, I still feel lucky every single day.