Every day I meet people in business, in community, in games, and in family who are talented individuals. These people inspire me to think differently and encourage me to celebrate every moment of life. They are the reason I wrote this book, and for this I am grateful to each of these people.

The idea for this book grew from a suggestion by my former editor Pradeep Jethi, of Financial Times in London. When I submitted to Pradeep the manuscript for my previous book, Management 21C, he urged me to continue my research on the theory of Return on Talent. After that book’s publication in 1999, I received several requests from thought leaders, corporate executives, and above all readers from all over the world who were eager to know how to measure return on investment in Talent. When Pradeep left his editor job to go into entrepreneurial venture, he introduced me to another young and dynamic editor, Richard Stagg. As a result of Richard’s continuous encouragement, I began documenting my thoughts. Pradeep and Richard, thank you for your early visions and continuous support. Your friendships are treasures to me.

A great talent who helped me understand how to take the right thoughts from my brain to the keyboard is Ken Shelton, editor of Executive Excellence. In every conversation I had with Ken I learned something new. I feel a deep sense of gratitude to Ken for his enormous support, his hard work, and his help in refining the manuscript with integrity and a sense of quality.

My colleague and friend Dr. Barry Bebb is a phenomenal researcher. Barry challenged me and helped me to develop the Talent Scorecard. Barry, thank you for your hard work on the manuscript and your continuous challenge.

This is my sixth book in the past five years. In my writing career, I have never met a publisher like Jeff Pepper, who was involved with me on this project from day one. Jeff read every word of this book, working on weekends until 1 AM to challenge my thinking. It is any author’s dream to have a publisher and friend like him. Jeff, I am eternally grateful to you.

Special thanks to my editor at Financial Times Prentice Hall, Jim Boyd, for his constant help and understanding.

I would like to express my gratitude to the editors, authors, and publishers of several prestigious newspapers, magazines, and journals, including Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, Financial Times, Business Week, USA Today, Executive Excellence, Personal Excellence, and Fast Company. People of these organizations are great help to my research.

I am also grateful to my parents, Sushil and Krishna Chowdhury, and to my in-laws, Ashim and Krishna Guha, for their constant demonstration of love.

This book would have never been a reality without the support of my lovely wife, Malini. Her continuous intellectual thoughts are reflected on nearly every page of this book.