ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Creating Rocket involved many contributors—case team members, partners around the world at BCG, and many friends from outside the firm. Special thanks go to Simon Targett, a former associate editor of the Financial Times, who provided discipline and original thought to the construction of the book. Thank you, Simon, for your special sense of humor and intelligence. Todd Shuster of Zachary Shuster Harmsworth has been our agent, friend, and counselor. From the beginning, he was our strongest proponent and advisor. Thank you, Todd, for helping us find a very special publisher in the form of Mary Glenn at McGraw-Hill, and for your many suggestions. Carrie Vaccaro Nelkin delivered fast and precise copy editing of the final manuscript.
Our project team was led by Aaron Mass and Chris Prochak. They supplied us with direction, synthesis, and insights. Dave Blowers, a young consultant, provided us with energy, enthusiasm, and connections for interviews, and was deep in research for many of the stories. Shruti Jindal furnished excellent one-on-one interviews with consumers. Special thanks to Ioana Calcev for insightful, original research on many of the companies discussed in the book. Thanks are also due to Nick Ling. Special thanks to Tom Robinson for all his help and insights into making the book come alive in the market. Our gratitude also goes to Eric Gregoire for postproduction support and to Gary Callahan for cover design. Much appreciation to Bennett Siegel for exploring the world of social media on our behalf. We also thank the many people who participated in our interviews and quantitative surveys.
BCG has a strong writing tradition. Our first book was sponsored under the direction of then-CEO John Clarkeson. His successor, Carl Stern, provided sponsorship and encouragement for our second book. BCG chairman Hans Paul Buerkner was the principal sponsor for books three and four. He contributed feedback, insight, and direction. CEO Rich Lesser, who was supportive of Rocket from our first discussion of it, offered substantive suggestions and direction. We thank these four leaders for their help. Former senior partner George Stalk got us writing. He gave us the original suggestion to “write this up,” and we’ve followed his lead ever since. Two practice area leaders stepped up to provide visible support for the project: Tom Lutz from the Consumer practice and Rich Hutchinson from our Marketing & Sales practice.
In addition, a number of partners around the world supplied suggestions, input, and help in securing interviews. They include Mark Abraham, Antonio Achille, Ivan Bascle, Lamberto Biscarini, Lucy Brady, Nicolas Catoggio, Peter Dawe, Jeff Gell, Marin Gjaja, Cliff Grevler, Jeff Hill, Jim Jewell, Mark Kistulinec, Lara Koslow, Jeff Kotzen, Matt Krentz, Megan Lyon, Sharon Marcil, Ivan Marten, Bjorn Matre, Brian Myerholtz, Hans Pichler, Martin Reeves, Sam Ridesic, Abheek Singhi, Janme Sinha, Hal Sirkin, Miki Tsusaka, Karin von Funck, Dan Wald, and Sarah Willersdorf.
Michael’s long-tenure executive assistant, Kristin Claire, rose once again to the challenge of another book on top of the usual client work and global travel. Kristin, thank you for your spirit and your help.
A comprehensive editorial review by Professor Silvia Hodges Silverstein is gratefully acknowledged. Thank you, Silvia, for reading the many drafts and for your insights, clarifications, and wonderful suggestions.