ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Among the many executives who have influenced this book, we would like to single out a few who have inspired us, assisted us in the preparation of case materials, or otherwise helped us in ways in which they are probably unaware. They include Colleen Barrett, Jeff Bezos, John Bogle, Scott Cook, Andy Fromm, Diane Hessan, the late Jacques Horowitz, Tony Hsieh, Bill Hybels, John Jamotta, Craig Jelinek, Ingvar Kamprad, Herb Kelleher, Gary Kelly, Arkadi Kuhlmann, Gary Loveman, John Mackey, Lanham Napier, Bill Pollard, Prathap Reddy, Howard Schultz, Carl Sewell, Fred Smith, Tom Watson, Jack Welch, Leslie Wexner, Ed Wise, John Wren, Mabel Yu, and the late Lorenzo Zambrano.

We have learned a great deal in working with two champion developers of case materials, Dan Maher and Dan O’Brien. Our associate Erika McCaffrey provided invaluable help in organizing the data in the appendix, finding obscure information, and otherwise helping us verify facts. Paula Alexander and Jacqueline Archer helped us make our work presentable.

Over the years, we have benefitted greatly from the work of colleagues who examine service phenomena around the world. With the certainty that we will leave someone out, those who have had probably the greatest influence on us include Lerzan Aksoy, Leonard Berry, Mary Jo Bitner, David Bowen, Stephen Brown, Richard Chase, Tom Davenport, Bo Eriksen, Timothy Keiningham, A. Parasuraman, Frederick Reichheld, Benjamin Schneider, Peter Senge, Raj Sisodia, Rohit Verma, Joe Wheeler, and Valarie Zeithaml.

Among colleagues who are or were at Harvard Business School with us, we must recognize the work of Christopher Bartlett, Dennis Campbell, James Cash, Tom DeLong, Amy Edmondson, Tom Eisenmann, Frances Frei, Roger Hallowell, Christopher Hart, Luis Huete, Tom Jones, Robert Kaplan, Nancy Koehn, the late Christopher Lovelock, David Maister, Youngme Moon, Ashish Nanda, Charles O’Reilly III, Jeffrey Rayport, Roger Schmenner, Robert Simons, Michael Tushman, and the late D. Daryl Wyckoff.

We are indebted to the support of the four Harvard Business School deans under which we have done our work: John McArthur, Kim Clark, Jay Light, and Nitin Nohria. We have dedicated the book to John because of his recognition of the importance of the need to understand the service sector at a time when it received little recognition as an accepted field of study and research in academic institutions. It was his foresight and encouragement that motivated us to push ahead.

We have been lucky to partner on this book with a publisher who exemplifies the characteristics of breakthrough service we write about. The people at Berrett-Koehler have worked hard alongside us to produce a book that the reader will value and the authors can be proud of. Special thanks to Neal Maillet who believed in the idea of this book, shepherded us through the Berrett-Koehler organization, and most importantly, introduced us to Nic Albert who has worked hand in hand with us, and substantively improved our manuscript.

Those closest to our work are, of course, our families. We are particularly indebted to our lifelong partners—Marilyn, Connie, and Phyllis—for tolerating our absence and distractions during the preparation of the book.