First of all, I want to thank the thousands of current and former Red Hatters who are responsible for building the thriving open source culture we have today. I wrote this book to describe the amazing management system that they, not I, have created at Red Hat. This book is a tribute to all of their hard work and risk taking in bucking the traditional rules of business and creating a new way to organize and get work done that I continue to learn and grow from every day.
I have also had the benefit of standing on the shoulders of giants. I have learned so much in following what Red Hat’s founders, Bob Young and Marc Ewing, put in motion. That’s also true of the leadership of Matthew Szulik, my predecessor, who drove the company forward and continued to scale our culture. I owe a deep debt of gratitude as well to my senior management team—Charlie Peters, executive vice president and CFO; DeLisa Alexander, executive vice president and chief people officer; Jackie Yeaney, executive vice president, strategy and corporate marketing; Michael Cunningham, executive vice president and general counsel; Arun Oberoi, executive vice president, global sales and services; and Paul Cormier, executive vice president and president, products and technologies—which has remained remarkably intact since the day I started. But that’s not to diminish the great work done by Brian Stevens and Alex Pinchev in their time with Red Hat as well. Most of my team has been together at Red Hat for more than a decade, and they have been instrumental in shaping our company’s strategy, business model, and culture.
Writing a book is truly a team effort. Many Red Hatters worked to make this book a reality. In particular, I want to thank Leigh Day, Stephanie Wonderlick, and Emily Stancil Martinez, who first had the idea for a book on Red Hat’s unique model for getting things done. I also want to thank Rebecca Fernandez, Máirín Duffy, Thomas Cameron, Jeff Mackanic, Kim Jokisch, and Laura Hamlyn for their time, perspective, and keen memory of many great Red Hat stories. Without your support and encouragement, and in the case of Emily, continuous prodding, this book would literally never have been written. Much credit must go to my assistant Andrea Ferrara, who has been with me since my days at The Boston Consulting Group. Without her stern management of my calendar, this book would never have happened.
I want to thank Darren Dahl, who collaborated with me on this effort. He feels more and more like a Red Hatter every day and continuously pushed my own thinking and understanding of what makes Red Hat such a great place. It’s been a great partnership, and I will miss the many hours we spent together crafting the stories and messages in this book. Thanks also to our agent, Esmond Harmsworth, who has one of the best names in the literary world, and Melinda Merino, our editor at Harvard Business Review Press, and the entire HBR team for believing in our message and helping us share it with the world.
I would like to thank Gary Hamel for his thought leadership on this topic. His book The Future of Management remains the best articulation of the need for a new management paradigm. He has been a great thought partner for me, and I also thank him for his excellent and provocative foreword to this book.
Most importantly, I’d like to thank my wife, Lauren, and our fantastic twins, Jack and Emma, for their support and understanding. Lauren has been my thought partner not only for this book, but in all aspects of my business career and life for more than two decades. I would not be where I am without her. I especially thank my family for understanding when, even after I’ve been away on a long business trip overseas, I’ve had to lock myself away with the computer to work on the words within these pages. And finally my mother, who may have been my harshest copy editor, but also the person who has enabled all of my successes in life.
It’s truly been a team effort, and this book, like the work we do every day, was the product of an open and collaborative effort that is far stronger than anything I could have done on my own.