Stephen C. Harper - The forward-focused organization: visionary thinking and breakthrough leadership to create your companys future

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The Forward-Focused Organization

Visionary Thinking and Breakthrough Leadership to Create Your Company's Future

Stephen C. Harper

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2001 Stephen C. Harper.

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Printed in the United States of America.

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I want to thank Professor Robert Keating, who has been a friend and colleague since 1985. He is the best-read person who I have ever known. He has provided me with dozens of articles to read over the years. I doubt that I would have written this book without Bob's cross-pollination of ideas, management discussions, and reading assignments.

I want to thank all my students. My undergraduate students remind me what it is like to be young and excited about what tomorrow will bring. My graduate students have been a fountain of ideas and differing perceptions. Their questions about why organizations are so slow to change challenge me during every encounter.

I particularly want to acknowledge my father, the late H. Mitchell Harper, Jr. He opened my eyes when I was growing up to the dynamics of business and the development of people. On numerous occasions, he stepped aside so that I could feel the excitement of having my hands on the throttle. My father and Jim Clarkson, a coach in my formative years, showed me that exciting things happen when you are challenged in a supportive and caring environment.

I want to thank a number of executives who provided interesting leadership role models: Thomas Watson, Jr. of IBM, who sent me a copy of his book, A Business and Its Beliefs, when I was a graduate student. His emphasis on having a few core values, especially superiority in everything you do, left a lasting impression on me. Jack Welch of General Electric came along at a time when there were no role models. He showed the way for U.S. companies to reestablish world leadership. Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines showed how to shake up an established industry and create a company where work can be fun.

I want to thank the following management writers who have

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provided considerable food for thought: Peter Drucker, who is the father of management education; John Gardner, who provided insights into the nature of organizations; Warren Bennis, who has taken leadership to a new level; Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who has provided insights into the dynamics of change; Bob Townsend, who in his book Up the Organization was the first author to show irreverence to management practices; Tom Peters, who has taken irreverence, candor, and high-energy presentations to a whole new level; H. Igor Ansoff, who wrote the first book on planning and strategy that I ever read; Gary Hamel, who combines Drucker-type insights with Peters-type candor to provide the most interesting reading and presentations today on business strategy; and Stephen Covey, who has championed the crusade to reestablish human values in organizations. I would also like to thank the people who put together