Acknowledgments

This book has benefitted from the input of many coauthors, students, research assistants, reviewers, and family members.

To begin with, I thank my coauthors who helped me develop these ideas, collect data, analyze data, write up articles, and get them published in top-notch journals. In the order in which they joined my research, these coauthors include Peter Golder, Rajesh Chandy, Eden Yin, Stefan Stremersch, Deepa Chandrasekaran, Ashish Sood, Jaideep Prabhu, Seshadri Tirunillai, Abhishek Borah, Gaia Rubera, and Stav Rosenzweig. At various times and at various stages of my career, they stimulated my curiosity, expanded my thinking, brought in new ideas, and educated me about the nuances of theories and methods.

Then I thank those assistants that helped in the research for this book: Pongkhi Bujorbarua, Carlos Hernandez-Mireles, Monisha Coelho, Victoria Xie, Abhishek Borah, Om Singh, Abhinav Astavans, and Jeanne Almeida. In particular, Pongkhi Bujorbarua was a tremendous help in all aspects of the research and someone I could call upon at odd hours of the day. Carlos Hernandez-Mireles served as a valuable sounding board in the last stages of the manuscript. Monisha Coelho, Victoria Xie, Om Singh, Abhinav Astavans, and Jeanne Almeida helped with writing some cases.

I thank the large number of executives from numerous corporations who gave me feedback in private discussion and public presentations. Their thoughts and comments helped to refine my thinking. A special thanks to members of the board of advisers of the USC Marshall Center for Global Innovation for their feedback on presentations of various parts of this book.

I thank Vijay Govindarajan for his strong endorsement of this book in his insightful forward. I am also grateful for the generous endorsements of the book by David Aaker, Warren Bennis, George Day, Philip Kotler, Jaideep Prabhu, and Jagdish Sheth.

I thank two reviewers of the book who helped a great deal in strengthening the argument, polishing the layout, and completing the references: Gina O'Connor and Dick Nolan. I am grateful for Warren Bennis's enthusiastic support of my ideas and including the book in his Leadership Series. I thank Kathe Sweeney of Jossey-Bass for accepting the manuscript for publication and her suggestions for the title.

All my family members have been very supportive of my research. I especially thank two of my children, Kethan Tellis and Sonia Tellis, for their feedback on specific chapters.

Above all, I thank my wife, Cheryl Tellis, who has been a loving and enthusiastic partner throughout my research career. On top of that, she generously proofread all chapters of the book, including doing so multiple times for some chapters. Whenever I needed to sound off some argument, phrase, or term, she was prompt and sharp in her response. Her constant companionship and support added greatly to the joy of this journey.

Gerard J. Tellis
Hacienda Heights, California
May 19, 2012