This book has been in active development for three years and informally percolating in my mind for at least a couple more. During this time, I talked to executives and managers and interviewed many formally. Though only a small handful of those interviewed are named in these pages, I am grateful to all of them for sharing with me their time and experience-based wisdom about leadership in their companies and/or their parts of the world.
IMD’s faculty research budget funded a good part of the research. This work has undoubtedly benefited from that support.
Five people helped me immensely. Dr. Amitabha Chaudhuri, the chief technology officer of a biopharma company, spent hours explaining to me how the drug discovery process has changed as a result of the sequencing of the human genome. Since he kept cautioning me not to simplify complicated issues too much, any errors that remain are mine alone. My dear friends, retired engineer Vijay Ghei and IMD professor Michael Watkins, served as sounding boards for all my early ideas. They delved deep into their unique bases of experience to improve several of them. The “Principles” in particular benefited from their doing so. Another friend, Todd Rhodes, read the first draft of every chapter and gave feedback. He doesn’t believe it, but his observations helped a lot. Emily Taber, an acquisitions editor at the MIT Press, not only agreed to publish the book but also pushed hard for changes that have made it much stronger. Until a few weeks ago, I had no idea why authors thanked their editors; now I know.
Academic research works because writings are blind peer-reviewed. It is a thankless task, and I applaud those who volunteer to do so, including the four who opined on my ideas.