I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THOSE COUNTLESS INDIVIDUALS I have had the opportunity to work with and learn from over many years. Whether in my early military career, my subsequent consulting career, or my federal service career, every job and every encounter has influenced who I am today. To allow that learning and collaboration to take place, however, I must acknowledge my wife of 44 years, Connie. She has been by my side every step of the way, put up with late nights and extended time away from home, and all the other elements of life that test one's patience. The emotional support and love she has provided have been every bit as important as the schools I have attended or the jobs I have held. Finally, I would like to thank my co-author, Gary Cokins. I have developed an approach to my interpretation of value-based management that I wanted to share with others. However, had I been waiting on myself to write such a book, it would likely have been years more to reach fruition. Gary saw the value in this message and agreed to team with me to turn a vision into reality. I clearly recognize that without Gary, this book would not have been written for a long time to come – if ever.

I am forever grateful to my wife, Pam Tower, for tolerating my challenge to balance my work and family life. I would also like to dedicate this book to the late Robert A. Bonsack as a mentor and friend under whom I worked at both Deloitte consulting and Electronic Data Systems (now part of Hewlett Packard). It was a privilege for me to attend two prestigious universities, Cornell University and Northwestern University's Kellogg MBA program, plus gain meaningful experiences with consulting at Deloitte, KPMG, EDS, and SAS. But with privilege comes responsibility, and it is important for me to share what I have learned, some of which is in this book. Finally, I want to thank Doug Webster for co-authoring this book. There are three escalating “ships” – relationship, partnership, and friendship. Doug and I evolved to the third ship – “friendship.”