Santiago Iñiguez - In an Ideal Business: How the Ideas of 10 Female Philosophers Bring Value into the Workplace (IE Business Publishing)

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Over the years, there are moments when the different threads of our personal life seemingly entwine, taking on a special meaning. This book is the result of one of these fortunate syntheses, where a sense of purpose, experience, education and desire converge, shedding light on the path taken, as well as producing a certain calm.

My hope is that the female philosophers I have selected for study in this book, along with the businesswomen and entrepreneurs who have kindly agreed to be interviewed, will inspire other womenand menfrom the business world. I would like to express my admiration and gratitude for their time, generosity and example.

This is a work that has assembled the thoughts, ideas and lessons of a career, and so the list of acknowledgements is infinite, as is my gratitude to the people I have had the good fortune to work with and to know personallymy friends, colleagues and students.

In the first place, I would like to mention Diego del Alczar Silvela for his inspiration, his teachings and his support as mentor and friend over the last three decades during which we have worked together. I would also like to thank his son, Diego del Alczar Benjumea, who has inherited his fathers entrepreneurial spirit and passion for education, and with whom I am fortunate to work alongside in mapping the future strategy of IE University.

I could not have written this book, nor found respite, without the support of the superlative leadership team at IE University: Salvador Carmona, Rector; Juan Jos Gemes, Economic Vice President; Macarena Rosado, Legal Advisor; Gonzalo Garland, Vice President of Development; and Teresa Martn Retortillo, Head of IE Exponential Learning. Similarly, my heartfelt thanks to my comrades at the head of the institutions different schools and units: Martin Boehm, Dean of IE Business School; Martha Thorne, Dean of IE School of Architecture and Design; Javier de Cendra, Dean of IE School of Law; Manuel Muiz, Dean of IE School of Global and Public Affairs; Lee Newman, Dean of IE School of Human Sciences and Technology; Antonio de Castro, Vice-rector of Alumni; Nick Van Dam, Head of the Center for Learning Innovation; and Marco Giarratana, Vice-rector of Research.

Almost two decades ago, anticipating the approach of the academic institutions in our cluster, we began our research and dissemination activities in the vital areas of diversity and inclusion. Celia de Anca has directed the center that coordinates these initiatives at IE University, and I would like to thank her for her dedication and commitment. Additionally, the IE University Center for Social Innovation, led by Concepcin Galdn, has continued with this approach, enriching the curriculum of all our programs. Sustainability is embedded in our institutions culture.

The formidable institutional relations team that works alongside me has helped select the candidates whose stories I hope will inspire my readers. I would particularly like to express my appreciation for their assistance to Ana de la Cruz, Head of Institutional Relations, Felicia Appenteng, Chair of the IE Africa Center, and Geoffroy Gerard, Associate Director of the IE Foundation.

Similarly, the communication department at IE University has always been at my side in advising me in my knowledge-generation and dissemination activities, and I would especially like to mention Yolanda Regodn, Kerry Parke, Igor Galo, Pablo Sun Li, Isabel Macas and Vernica Urbiola.

Nor can I fail to mention my gratitude to Cynthia Fernndez Lzaro, Director of IE Publishing, Irene Jayo Garitocelaya, my Personal Assistant, for their inestimable aid in bringing this book into the world, along with the support and suggestions of my editor at Palgrave Macmillan, Liz Barlow.

I also owe thanks to two of my academic colleagues in my early years as researcher of jurisprudence and moral philosophy, Jernimo Betegn and Juan Ramn de Pramo.

I would like to express a few final words of profound gratitude to three people without whose permanent support I would not have been able to write this book: Jos Flix Valdivieso, my talented friend and chief of staff, who helped me from the first moment to conceptualize this work, while advising me on its focus and contents; Nick Lyne, my translator and English editor with whom I have worked closely on all my books for a number of years; and finally, Juan Ramn Zamorano, to whom I dedicate this book and with whom I have read and corrected all the chapters as they were written.