ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

From the very beginning, in 1991, every piece in this volume was written with this book in mind. But every single one was also prepublished, intentionally so. It is the reaction of readers—and especially of friends all over the world, former students, present and former clients—that ultimately determines whether a piece is worthy of being included in the final book. Prepublication is, so to speak, my market test.

For the most part, the pieces chosen appear as chapters in this book without any change other than perhaps a new title or a restoration of cuts that had to be made to fit a piece into a magazine or newspaper. But three long pieces in this book are substantially different from the version in which they were published originally—they are much longer. Chapter 21 (“A Century of Social Transformation”) was published only in an abridged version in The Atlantic Monthly and so was chapter 25 (“Can the Democracies Win the Peace?”). Chapter 13 (“Trade Lessons from the World Economy”) was similarly published only in an abridged version in Foreign Affairs magazine. The other long chapters—the two interviews that open and close the book; chapters 1, 7, and 12 (all three first published in the Harvard Business Review); chapter 18 (first published in Foreign Affairs); and chapter 24 (first published in The Atlantic Monthly)—are published in this book the way they first appeared in print. Of the short pieces—reprinted virtually unchanged except for the occasional change in title—all but one first appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Chapter 16 first appeared in the Asian Wall Street Journal under the sponsorship of Citibank. The May 1995 epilogue to chapter 24 was written especially for this book.

This is the fourth book of mine that owes its focus and structure to my friend, editor, and publisher M. Truman Talley, of Truman Talley Books. It was Mr. Talley who fifteen years ago first had the idea that I might organize my articles and essays written over a period of years around a common idea and toward a common objective. Each piece was to be written separately and had to stand on its own. But eventually the pieces would form a unit—as does this book. Prepublication would test them, or rather would allow them to be tested by executives all over the world. Pieces that proved to contribute the most to their readers’ effectiveness would be selected for republication in a book. The idea has proven extraordinarily productive. The three earlier books that resulted from it—published respectively in 1982 (The Changing Work of the Executive ), 1986 (The Frontiers of Management), and 1992 (Managing for the Future)—have been extremely successful, both in their original English editions and in a large number of translations. They have also proven extremely effective as tools, guides, thought-starters, and action-starters for practicing executives and managers worldwide. To M. Truman Talley my readers and I thus owe a large debt of gratitude. And I want to express my gratitude also to Mr. Talley’s associates, the managing editor and the production editor, who worked hard to turn a manuscript into a handsome book.