This book is the product of my observations of and discussions with some of the world’s most successful business leaders—people who are not just surviving today’s dizzying speed of change but thriving in it, and in some cases, helping to create the global geo-economic tilt. I am deeply grateful for the time and attention they gave me. Their intellectual engagement stimulated my thinking, and their exemplary leadership is the source of many of the lessons presented in these pages. In particular, I wish to thank Jay Ihlenfeld (retired), Cindy Johnson, Joe Liu, and Inge Thulin of 3M; Kumar Mangalam Birla and Santrupt Misra of Aditya Birla Group; Tom von Krannichfeldt (retired) of AZ Electronics; Sunil Mittal and Manoj Kohli of Bharti Airtel; Mark Garrett of Borealis; Steve Bolze, John Chiminski, John Flannery, Jeff Immelt, and John Rice of GE; and G. M. Rao and Kiran Kumar Grandhi of GMR Group.
I also wish to thank the following highly accomplished business leaders for generously sharing their thoughts and insights: Tripp Ahern, Bob Beckler, Todd Bradley, Dick Brown, Greg Brown, Mike Campbell, Dennis Carey, Bill Conaty, Mohamed El-Erian, Brad Feldmann, Ken Frazier, Gordon Fyfe, Erik Fyrwald, Manoj Gaur, Chad Holliday, Muhtar Kent, John Koster, John Krenicki, A. G. Lafley, John Luke, Stephanie Mehta, Jac Nasser, John Needham, Rod O’Neal, Tony Palmer, Maria Luisa Ferré Rangel, Hellene Runtagh, Ivan Seidenberg, Deven Sharma, Aniljit Singh, and Mirian Graddick Wier.
John Mahaney, my editor at Crown, applied his unsurpassed expertise in ensuring the best possible experience for readers. John is meticulous in his drive for clarity and specificity. He dedicated an enormous amount of mental energy, not to mention time, to bring this book to fruition. I thank him for his intellectual and editorial contributions, served up with a terrific sense of humor.
Geri Willigan made indispensable substantive and editorial contributions to this book. She applied her usual keen conceptual and analytic mind to a tremendous amount of information. For the past twenty years, Geri has helped me enormously as content developer, writer, editor, researcher, and project manager.
Charlie Burck, a former executive editor at Fortune who worked with Larry Bossidy and me on Execution, lent his probing intellect and superb writing skills to this project. He has the rare capability to dig deep into a complex subject and communicate it in a way that is easy to grasp.
Researching this book involved dozens if not hundreds of trips to far-flung parts of the world. Cynthia Burr and Carol Davis are the magicians in my Dallas office who kept me moving and on track. Far more than travel agents, they are the infrastructure that allows me to traverse the globe and still function on a daily basis. I am very grateful for their value-added.
I also want to thank the three fine journalists—Geoff Colvin, David Whitford, and Larry Yu—who gave me helpful feedback, as did Jon Galli and my long-time business associate John Joyce. Last but not least, thanks to Mary Choteborsky, Derek Reed, and the rest of the team at Crown for their help, patience, and attention to detail.
And to you, the reader: I am grateful for your desire to learn and improve. It is people like you who will make a better world.