This book represents the collective thought leadership, dedication to client service, and over 100 years of experience in what is now PwC Strategy&, formerly known as Booz & Company. This book would not be possible were it not for the expertise, foresight, and mentorship of partners that came before us and laid the groundwork that formed much of our thinking.
This project also could not have become a reality without the wisdom, vision, and experience of our PwC Strategy& colleagues today. A special thank you to Miles Everson, Mohamed Kande, Ash Unwin, Les Moeller, Joachim Rotering, and Mike Connolly, for believing in our concept and providing what it took to make it happen.
We are fortunate to work with many brilliant colleagues, present and past, whose wisdom and insights have shaped the performance of countless companies and industries. Among these colleagues, several have been working on some of the ideas in this book for years, and have contributed to developing or enhancing them. Gary Neilson has ushered in new thinking on organization design; DeAnne Aguirre and Jon Katzenbach have shown how to evolve an organization's culture in a practical way and enable change; Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi have crystallized the role of capabilities in the success of companies; and Jaya Pandrangi, Matt Mani, and Ashok Divakaran are among the initial leaders on the Fit for Growth idea. They have helped pave the way.
We want to recognize the experts in our firm who contributed their time so generously to supporting the development of this book. Their knowledge and expertise enabled us to provide deep and practical insights into the many different topics that we discuss, and ensured that we provided a global, cross-industry perspective. Special thanks to Eduardo Alvarez, Reid Carpenter, K. B. Clausen, Carl Drisko, Mike DuVall, Andreas Eggert, Kristy Hull, Hasan Iqbal, Seema Malveaux, Tim Pagels, Jason Palmenberg, Josh Peters, Laurens Petten, Caitlyn Truong, and Martha Turner for their contributions to specific chapters.
There is a strong community of hundreds of PwC partners, principals, and directors who help their clients get and stay fit, and who advance the ideas we have shared in this book. These leaders include Peter Bertone, Briggs Briner, Sarah Butler, Ivan De Souza, Eric Dustman, Ben Gilbertson, Jayant Gotpagar, Peter Heckmann, Rodger Howell, Gil Irwin, Ashish Jain, Namit Kapoor, Rich Kauffeld, Anil Kaul, Chris Manning, Kelley Mavros, Carlos Navarro, J. Neely, Yogesh Pandit, Earl Simpkins, Patty Riedl, Thomas Ripsam, Andrew Tipping, Tom Torlone, and Luiz Vieira. While there are many others we cannot explicitly name here, we still would like to recognize their contributions.
We would also like to acknowledge the debt we owe to our clients, who gave us the opportunity to develop our insights by working alongside them and benefitting from their wisdom and experience. A special thank you to the clients who we interviewed and consulted in the course of writing this book.
We want to thank PwC Strategy& editor-in-chief, Art Kleiner, who helped assemble the team to make this project a reality—and who set a standard for quality a firm can be proud of. Thanks to our editing and project management team of Boris Abezgauz, Rob Norton, and Jennifer Zelinsky for their endless commitment to keep us on schedule, and for creating a book that is easy to read for nonconsultants, yet deep enough to deliver value. Writers Tara Owen, Joe Cahill, and Rob Hertzberg, and graphic artist Kris Tobiassen, provided essential assistance in developing the book's content.
We also want to acknowledge our firm's supporting staff for making sure the book meets PwC Strategy&'s standards for quality and independence, including Kiran Chauhan, Ann-Denise Grech, Nadia Kubis, Jeannette Leong, Manish Mahajan, Debra Page, Christina Rockwell, Katrina Sellers, Ilona Steffen, and Linda Watts.
This book would not be possible without the vision and support of our publisher, John Wiley & Sons, and their representatives, Richard Narramore and Tiffany Colon, who provided us with the right balance of direction and guidance, while being flexible enough to let us develop a book we can be proud of, even when it did not confirm to norms.
To others who deserve credit, but whose names were inadvertently left out of this list—thank you.
Finally, we would be remiss if we did not mention how grateful we are to our families, for their never-ending understanding, patience, and inspiration. They were tremendously supportive during the development of this book, making it possible for us to spend late nights and weekends drafting it. Beyond this project, they have been tireless supporters of our careers and our work, taking care of everything else so we can focus on our clients and the firm. We accomplish what we can because of their limitless understanding and unwavering support. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to Lynn and Suhail; Lisa, Ellery, and Nick; and Christina, Jacqueline, and Gerry.
Thank you.