Acknowledgments

We find it a joy and a privilege to reflect on all those who helped us along this journey.

A number of distinguished thought leaders have really impacted us. The work of author and former US Representative Mickey Edwards as well as Greg Orman and Charlie Wheelan, pathbreaking political innovators and talented writers, thinkers, and doers, shaped much of Katherine’s early thinking on these issues. We are grateful to Alan Murray and Clifton Leaf at Fortune for their early and influential buy-in. We thank Howard Shultz for his engagement with our work and for bringing vitally important visibility to the high barriers to entry for new competitors.

We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to our two lead writing and research partners. The talented researcher and writer Liam Gennari helped us master the literature, and his enormous effort got us through the first draft. The phenomenal Solomon Lieberman joined us not a moment too soon to get us over the finish line. His talent as a writer, his insight as a researcher and strategist, his dedication to excellence, and his passion for the work contributed immeasurably.

Our politics work and outreach has been led by two remarkable women, Sara Eskrich and Alexandra Houghtalin. We can’t ever thank you enough.

We are grateful to a number of other deeply talented researchers from both our teams who have also made important contributions. Harvard Business School’s senior researcher Grant Tudor and research associate Andrew Speen provided invaluable research support. HBS research associates Brad Desanctis, Jacob Clemente, Don Maruyama, and Emily Tedards each contributed along the way.

We could not have done any of this without the essential help of our highly capable support teams, past and present: Katie Boyce, Erin Collins, Kendra Hartman, Jill Hogue, Laura Hennigan, Darlene Ahlstedt, Lauren Dombkoski, Jacob Ringer, Charlotte Cunningham, Stuart Gardner, Angie Koput, Katie Warjas, Julie Costello, and Lori Wernicke.

We are deeply indebted to Harvard Business School for its extensive support and encouragement, in particular to Dean Nitin Nohria for his continued encouragement and leadership. We also draw heavily on Harvard Business School’s U.S. Competitiveness Project. Special thanks to cochair Jan Rivkin for his insights, for hosting an early presentation on politics involving HBS colleagues that provided important feedback, and for his welcoming expansion of the project to include this work. We also thank program director Manjari Raman for her insights and support. With its incredible alumni and reach, Harvard Business School has also provided many enormously valuable opportunities to present this work, and the resulting dialogues have contributed immensely to its improvement. A grateful thank-you as well to the fabulous event and technical staff at the world-class Klarman Hall venue.

We are also indebted to the team at the Social Progress Imperative, especially Scott Stern and Michael Green, who were instrumental in working with Michael to develop data on the social performance of countries that has been essential to our work.

A number of generous academics and thought leaders have provided critical data, ideas, and insights for the book: Lee Drutman, David Moss, Mihir Desai, Jeffrey Green, Kenneth Shepsle, Nancy Unger, Peter Levine, Robert Johnston, Jack Santucci, Maureen Flanagan, Walter Nugent, Laura Philips Sawyer, Hahrie Han, Sara Binder, Robert Boatright, Julian Zelizer, Nolan McCarty, David E. Lee, Maya Sen, Brian D. Feinstein, Jon Jacoby, Sarah Bonk, and David Gilmour. The team at the Leadership Now Project also provided highly useful data and input.

We are very appreciative of reviews and feedback from Scott Page, Austin Ramirez, Daniella Ballou-Aares, Erik Kesting, Margo Weinstein, Greg Orman, Bill Eggers, Adam Corndorf, Brent Gottlieb, Robert Secter, David Epstein, Gabrielle Lieberman, and one anonymous reviewer (you know who you are).

Many others contributed by providing valuable support, input, platforms, and settings that allowed us to speak about and promote this movement. They include the Boston Globe’s Linda Henry, Chrissy Houlahan, the Skoll Foundation and Sally Osberg, Kitty Boone and the Aspen Institute, Bill Ackman, Sarah Longwell, Seth and Beth Klarman, Wendy Dodson, Alan Schwartz, Bill George, Charlie Frankel, Edward Chapman, Theresa Mintle, Anke Faber, Dan Tierney, Steve Schaumberger, Michael Sanchez, Anne Wedner, Jamie Clare Flaherty, Sam Elghanayan, Jason Childress, Ray Carey, and the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Sandy Baruah.

We thank Ike Williams, our literary agent, John Butman, who helped create the book proposal, and Jeff Kehoe, our editor at Harvard Business Review Press. Thanks to each of you for believing in this book and for your patience with the journey, and together with our speakers’ agent Danny Stern, for helping us to spread our urgent message.

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There are also many who helped us beyond direct contributions to the ideas, research, writing, and outreach for the book. We both received tremendous individual and personal support, for which we will be eternally grateful.

I (Katherine) never dreamed of writing a book, and yet here we are. Wow. I definitely didn’t get here on my own—far from it. My deepest appreciation goes to two people: Mickey Edwards and Michael Porter. Mickey turned the proverbial light on for me with his brilliant insight: “Washington isn’t broken—it’s delivering exactly what it’s designed to deliver.” Without Mickey there would be no Politics Industry Theory. And without Michael’s generous contributions to our Gehl Foods strategy project and his later agreement to join me in this work, there would be no book. Thank you both.

The women of WIPI-WTAFN and the patriotic folk of P&P teach, inspire, and motivate me on an ongoing basis.

My friends Kathryn Flores, Kendra Hartman, Lane Jabaay, D’Ann Adams, and Margo Weinstein keep me sane and happy (through much more than the book). Emily Broadfoot, Jean Gales, Katie Galvan, Fadia Elzingi, Hannah Horwatich, and Scotty Wagner supported me in so many ways that made this effort possible. My father, John Gehl, gave me the opportunity to lead Gehl Foods, without which this work would simply not be happening. My sister, JoJo Neumann, helped me immensely in the early years of my CEO tenure, as did Mike Betzhold, Kendra Hartman, Sherry Majewski, Mike Sowieja, John Shaughnessy, Tim Preuninger, Jeff Chaley, and John Slawny throughout. I am indebted also to Mike Stewart, Rachel Corn Kluge, Steve Barth, and Spencer Moats.

Thank you to Eleanor Estes, Mary Nelson, Chad Boeding, Ben Hamer, Fabienne Tronel, Chris Jackson, Lauri Badar, Donna Wilkerson, Henry Woodruff, Rebecca Gallagher, Kathy Creighton, Deb Leinart, Keith Vallely, Mary Nelson, Dale Bredesen, Julie Kochenek, Jen Brea, Gary Shunk, Julia Stasch, Beth Hamilton, Cheri Knerr, Heidi Pietenpol, Joel Dudley, Cassandra Jackson, Michael Krauss, Tony Komaroff, and Elizabeth Littlefield for all the impact they’ve made. Special appreciation to S.A.C. I will always be grateful to all of you.

To the delights of my life, my children—Alexandra, who gives me all my best laugh lines, makes me laugh more than anyone, and is always supportive of my work, even when it takes my time away. As a mutual friend of ours once said, “It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.” And Teddy, whose birth postponed our original Harvard Business School report and who slept on my lap for much of the first three months of his life while I typed it to completion. I love, love, love you both. And Michael thanks you, too!

Finally, to Jeff Wilmore, who changed my life also—even though he doesn’t know it.

I (Michael) owe my deepest gratitude to my two daughters, Lana Porter and Sonia Smyth, as well as my son-in-law, Peter Smyth, and Boston Book Festival’s Debbie Porter, for their encouragement and moral support throughout this project.

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Lastly, while the lens we bring is unique, we are just one part of a broader community of political innovators and reformers. We are deeply indebted to them, both for what they’ve taught us and for the work they do every day. Many fantastic political reform and innovation organizations are noted on our website, political-innovation.org, but here we want to call out some wonderful individuals whose passion inspires us and from whose work we all benefit. Progressive Era reformer, Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, said it best:

America is not made but is in the making. There is an unending struggle to make and keep government representative. Mere passive citizenship is not enough. Men must be aggressive for what is right if government is to be saved from those who are aggressive for what is wrong.

We are the makers. And every day, these makers are getting the work done: Cara McCormick, Daniella Ballou-Aares, Jeanne Massey, Ruth Greenwood, Nick Troiano, Chad Peace, Peter Ackerman, Kent Thiry, David Crane, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Maya MacGuineas, Kyle Bailey, Larry Lessig, Andrew Shue, Mike Murphy, Betsy Wright Hawkings, David Schoenbrod, Steve Peace, Dan Howle, John Opdycke, Katie Fahey, Marc Merrill, Jason Bertolocci, John Pudner, Sam Reed, Sam Mar, Mark Schmitt, Nancy Jacobson, Adam Friedman, Mac D’Alessandro, JB Lyon, Jim Jonas, Bill Walker, Kaia Los Huertos, Evan McMullin, Matthew Dowd, Stefani Mills, Lenny Mendonca, Mindy Finn, Meredith McGehee, Steven Olikara, Brian Mistrot, Lisa Rice, Drisana Hughes, Kathryn Murdoch, Brooke Russell, Mort Kondracke, Dave Dodson, Emily Cherniack, Jim Pederson, Perry Waag, Josh Silver, Ralph Becker, Alexandra Shapiro, Seth London, Andrew Crutchfield, Phil Keisling, Conyers Davis, Shawn Griffiths, Christian Gross, Joshua Graham Lynn, Cynthia Ritchie Terrell, Gerry Herbert, Nicholas Stephanopoulos, Rob Ritchie, Rye Barcott, Debilyn Molineaux, David Nevins, Neal Simon, and the many others.

The leaders of Democracy Found, and their investment in Wisconsin, gives us real hope that change will happen. They are Austin Ramirez and Heather Ramirez, Lynde Uihlein, Andy Nunemaker, Sarah and Steve Zimmerman, Kathryn Quadracci Flores and Raja Flores, Madeleine and David Lubar, Linda and Greg Marcus, Mary Jo and Don Layden, Sue and Bud Selig, Gus and Becky Ramirez, and Sara Eskrich. We appreciate all of you. The courageous leadership of Mike Gallagher, Dale Kooyenga, and Danny Riemer is so important. Thank you.

While all those we’ve acknowledged deserve our great appreciation, this does not mean to imply that they agree with us. We alone bear full responsibility for our analysis, conclusions, and recommendations. Finally, to anyone we have inadvertently omitted, please accept both our apology and our appreciation. So many have done so much. We feel blessed.

—Katherine and Michael

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