ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To some extent, expressing appreciation to a few individuals who helped with this book misses the point: our perspective on value creation and strategy is derived from at least two generations of Booz & Company (now known as Strategy&) consultants who, over time, formed the fundamental ideas behind the capabilities-driven strategy. We especially thank our clients who collaborated with us to discover the essence of advantage. We admire them for their courage in embracing capabilities-driven strategies to boldly transform their companies.

But translating those ideas into this book took great focus and effort, and we must acknowledge those individuals who made it all happen.

Our firm’s editor-in-chief, Art Kleiner—an amazing combination of leading business thinker and gifted storyteller—was our close partner throughout the process. It is difficult to properly express our gratitude to him for his vast contributions to this book; we know it certainly would not exist without him.

The knowledge team at Booz & Company (now known as Strategy&) is world-class, and it is this group that energetically brings these concepts to life. Kate Pinkerton, the project’s director, identified significant content while managing to organize the entire team to produce two books and a Harvard Business Review article within a year. Tom Stewart, the former chief knowledge and marketing officer of Booz & Company (now known as Strategy&), had insight into how these ideas would make a significant difference in the world of strategic thinking, and we thank him for encouraging and facilitating us. We had a first-class editing team supporting this project: Rob Hertzberg and Tara Owen enhanced the clarity of our ideas and helped us push further with their energy and enthusiasm.

There are so many colleagues at Booz & Company (now known as Strategy&) who have contributed to this book. Many of these individuals are highly regarded in their field, and their insights on the topic of strategy have been incredibly helpful. Thank you in particular to Gerald Adolph, DeAnne Aguirre, Jin Ahmed, Shumeet Banerji, Marty Bollinger, Niko Canner, Dave Coleman, Ivan de Souza, Niklas Eidmann, Ken Favaro, Alan Gemes, David Kantor, Per-Ola Karlsson, Jon Katzenbach, Nadia Kubis, Kenny Kurtzman, Steffen Lauster, Dan Lewis, Jack McGrath, Peter Mensing, Jan Miecznikowski, Amit Misra, Lisa Mitchell, Les Moeller, Marcus Morawietz, J. Neely, Gary Neilson, Karim Sabbagh, Samrat Sharma, Kolinjuwa Shriram, Ed Tse, Aurelie Viriot, and Dan West. They all devoted considerable time challenging our ideas, making them better, and helping us to review and improve the manuscript. An expert communications team helped to bring this book to the market; this includes Michael Bulger, Jon Gage, Sharon Harkey, Karen Henrie, Elizabeth Johnson, Frank Lentini, Penny Peters, Alan Shapiro, and Frank Sommerfield.

To our colleagues at Harvard Business Review Press, we learned what it meant to have a “value-added publisher,” with your unending focus on improving the ideas. Thanks to Paul Michelman and Sarah Cliffe, who saw the potential of this project; to Melinda Merino, Jacque Murphy, Christina Bortz, and Erin Brown; and in particular to Ania Wieckowski, our editor for this book.

Judy Luczak and Debbie Page—who both would normally be thanked for keeping us organized—provided so much more support and thus gave us the freedom to think and write.

And most importantly, to our respective families and friends: you were supportive in every possible way. You encouraged us to take on this challenge, you sustained and guided us, and you accepted the time it took away from our personal lives. We return that time to you now, knowing that is what is most essential in life.

Chicago and Cleveland

July 13, 2010