I have two expressions of gratitude that rank above the rest. I have flipped a coin on which to start with—heads, my editor, and tails, my coauthors. It was heads!

I owe a twelve-year debt of gratitude to my primary Harvard Business Review (HBR) editor, David Champion. He was assigned to an article I had submitted to HBR in 2009 (and was published in 2010). I had written eight HBR articles previously with a variety of editors, so I assumed that after this article, someone else would be the editor. But it was such an enjoyable and productive experience, I hoped that I was wrong. And I was. HBR kept assigning David to my submissions, and by 2021, we had published twenty together. Eleven of those twenty represent chapters in the book, and a new one in 2022, the twelfth. Plus, he helped me develop and edit the remaining two, one based on my 1993 HBR article and the other an entirely new piece.

David is a terrific editor and a great partner to work with. I generally send him too much prose containing too many ideas, and he helps figure out the most compelling ideas and the best way to present them. He makes me better, which is the best thing an editor can do for a writer.

In addition, the book was his idea. He saw a through line across my articles with him that I think is compelling. So, thank you, David.

Five of the chapters were originally written as HBR articles with coauthors, all of whom were fabulous contributors to the written product.

Two were coauthored with my longtime friend and collaborator, A.G. Lafley. Not surprisingly, given his well-known interests in both subjects, they are “Customers” (chapter 3) and “Strategy” (chapter 4). My relationship with A.G. goes back decades, and it is hard to entirely untangle from whose mind a given idea arose because it probably came from both of our heads.

Chapter 4 had two additional coauthors. The first is Jan Rivkin, who worked with me at Monitor Company and then left to pursue what has turned out to be a fabulously successful academic career at Harvard Business School. He was the inspiration for writing the article. He learned the strategy development process featured in the article from me while at Monitor and taught it to his HBS students to an enthusiastic reception. Based on the success in teaching it, he came to believe that it would make an excellent HBR article. His good friend, Nicolaj Siggelkow, a terrific Wharton strategy professor, also taught the material and became an integral part of the article-writing team. The foursome turned out to be an awesome team, and I am grateful to all three coauthors for their contributions to this chapter.

My coauthor for the original HBR article featured in “Choices,” chapter 5, was Tony Golsby-Smith. I met Tony, an Australian who is the founder of Second Road, an innovation consulting firm in Sydney, through my work in design. During our work together, he convinced me that helping the business world understand Aristotle’s thinking could contribute to better innovation outcomes. In due course, we decided to write an HBR article together. It took a very long time, the longest of all of my HBR articles, but was worth the effort.

My coauthor for the original HBR article featured in “Corporate Functions,” chapter 8, is my longtime colleague and coauthor of Creating Great Choices, Jennifer Riel. Together we worked so often on helping functions do strategy that we thought the world needed its first article on why and how to do functional strategy. It was great to work with Jennifer on an article that lays the foundation for a subject as important as the strategy of functions in modern business.

Last but not least, my coauthor for the original HBR article featured in “Innovation,” chapter 12, is my longtime collaborator on everything design, Tim Brown. We have worked on the intersection of design and strategy for many years, and this was one of the products of that collaboration.

So, thank you, thank you, A.G., Jan, Nicolaj, Tony, Jennifer, and Tim. Your collaborations have been instrumental to this book.

This is my eighth book with Harvard Business Review Press (HBR Press). I have a wonderful team there. Jeff Kehoe has been the acquiring editor for all eight of the books. HBR editor-in-chief and HBR Press publisher Adi Ignatius is always a wonderful supporter of my work at HBR Press and HBR. In addition, the team of Sally Ashworth, Julie Devoll, Stephani Finks, Erika Heilman, Felicia Sinusas, and Anne Starr has been terrific as always.

On this book, I am again working with the publicity team of Barbara Henricks and Jessica Krakoski of Cave Henricks, and it has, once again, been a great pleasure.

Finally, I want to thank my wife, Marie-Louise Skafte. My greatest period of writing and thinking productivity has been since 2013, the year I met Marie-Louise. I do not think that is a coincidence! Thanks, Marie-Louise, for being a great partner, supporter, and muse.

—Roger Martin

Fort Lauderdale, Florida