Acknowledgments

This book’s focus on human excellence builds on eight of Ed’s other books, and we acknowledge with deep gratitude the help of thousands of leaders and managers of organizations who contributed to that evolutionary history, including Best Buy, Bridgewater Associates, Harris Corporation, Intuit, Levy Restaurants, Investure LLC, Pitney Bowes, Room & Board, Stryker Corporation, Synovous Financial Corp., Sysco Corporation, Tiffany & Co., United Parcel Services, and W. L. Gore & Associates.

We also thank these scholars and researchers who have played key roles in Ed’s work: Lyle Bourne Jr., Kim Cameron, Richard D’Aveni, Robert Drazin, Robert Kazanjian, Gary Klein, and Jeanne Liedtka.

Special thanks to Tommy Battle, Bill Berkley, Rob Berkley, Chris Mattis, Fernando Merce, Dr. Pamela Moran, Marvin Riley, Sean Ryan, and Isaac Vanderburg for sharing some of the content of this book with their teams and providing us with the opportunity to iteratively learn and improve our work.

To Jeanne Liedtka, Randy Salzman, our publisher’s four reviewers, and Dr. Lyle Bourne Jr.: we thank you for your reviews and constructive feedback, which made this a better book.

To Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Managing Director Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, Editorial Director Neal Maillet, and the entire purpose-driven team at BK: we thank you for your partnership.

Likewise, we are honored and thankful for all the support given to this work by our book publicist Barbara Monteiro and by the excellent Communications and Marketing Team at the Darden Business School, led by Julie Daum.

To Darden Business School and Batten Institute leaders, including Dean Emeritus Bob Bruner, Sean Carr, Jim Freeland, Michael Lenox, Jeanne Liedtka, and Sankaran Venkataraman: we thank you for all your research support and encouragement over the years.