The Next Leap in Productivity: What Top Managers Really Need to Know about Information Technology

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It would be difficult to quantify the amount of original thinking required to produce this book. Suffice it to say that many long hours were spent developing, refining, and articulating the ideas presented on the pages that follow.

I extend my thanks to Mike Barlow and John Sundman for supporting my efforts to create a manuscript that is simultaneously fresh, original, and readable. I also thank Kirsten Sandberg of Harvard Business School Press for suggesting the "quantum leap" analogy to me over breakfast at the Harvard Club while I was at the beginning stages of the writing process.

I also thank Cynthia Dunlop, our lead technical writer at Parasoft, for translating my random thoughts into clear prose. Additionally, I want to thank Wayne Ariola, Erika Delgado, Elizabeth Espinosa, Liz Garcia, Wayne Gillikin, Mark Johnson, Arthur Hicken, Marek Kucharski, Marek Pilch, and Sergei Sokolov.

This book also required many hours of research and old-fashioned journalism. I could not have written it without the knowledge and experience of many expert sources, including Gary Beach, Michael Blake, Andy Chessin, Paul Cosgrave, Rob Gingell, Paul Johnson, Mark Lutchen, Harvey Koeppel, Marjorie Magner, Brian Margolies, Michael Minelli, and Ron Rose.

To them I am indebted deeply. I thank them sincerely for sharing their time, their energy, and their accumulated wisdom.

All writers need many additional pairs of eyes. I was fortunate to work with Edith G. Barlow, whose careful copy ...