Agility: Competing and Winning in a Tech-Savvy Marketplace

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book would not have been possible without the help of very special people. They have given their best. Credit belongs to them; any omissions or imperfections in this work are mine.

People say what they like best about working in Microsoft are the people with whom they work. It has been an extraordinary privilege to work on Agility with and on contributions of real leaders like Paul Lidbetter, Kyle Langenbach, Stephen Gordon, Ilco van der Bie, Tim Rowe, Roland Zeitler, and many others. Thanks for sharing your insights and experiences as well as providing invaluable contributions and feedback. Also thanks to Bob McDowell and Dan Rasmus, who inspired this project.

The infrastructure optimization team within Microsoft has been essential in developing the customer-focused approach as well as helping me in this process; especially Samm and Lisa, who supported the project to completion. Thanks to Samm DiStasio's leadership, Lisa Downey's invaluable coaching and guidance, Yoav Land's material, and last but not least Mathias Wunderer, who was instrumental in our analysis and insight generation of the IO data.

I am also indebted to the curiosity and dedication of the Boston University team of the Institute for Global Work, which includes Kathleen F. Curley, Stephanie Watts, Andy Corbett, Zachary Halloran, and especially Professor John C. Henderson, whose intellectual and analytic capabilities helped me to find better and better angles to tackle the challenges.

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