Freedom, Inc_ - Brian M. Carney [144]
We often had occasion to remark to each other, in the writing and production of this book, on the myriad ways in which good luck seemed to intervene to drive it forward. But truth be known, it was the goodwill of others more than pure chance—in every case we benefited from the intercession of a worldly angel of fortune who appeared at just the right time to help us over some obstacle. Heather Bushong, Roe D’Angelo, Annette Godart van der Kroon, and Jason Riley, were all, wittingly or not, there at just the right moments to help when we needed it.
Our editor, John Mahaney, pushed us to make what we thought was a good book even better. Both he and our indispensable agent, Kris Dahl, believed in this book and gave us the courage and the opportunity to try to realize our vision for it. They are the godfather and the godmother of this book and we could not have written it without them. Jo “the star” Rodgers, John’s assistant, shined for us every morning, carrying out seemingly endless little chores for us with speed, elegance, and a smile.
Last but not least, Brian could never have finished this book without the support, encouragement, and understanding of his colleagues at the Wall Street Journal, especially Paul Gigot, Robert Pollock, Bret Stephens, and Taylor Buley. Isaac, likewise, would like to thank his institution, ESCP Europe Business School—established coincidentally almost two centuries ago by the business leader and great proponent of freedom Jean-Baptiste Say—for its support. Many of Isaac’s research assistants helped with often tedious tasks during this project. However, the efforts of Marie Elisabeth Holm, who tirelessly read and reread the manuscript as we drafted it, are especially worthy of recognition. Lucy Carney’s eagle eye also caught many typos and omissions throughout the process.
We owe all of you more than we can ever hope to repay. Thank you.
Notes
Introduction
1. Quoted in Richard Florida and Martin Kenney, The Breakthrough Illusion: Corporate America’s Failure to Move from Innovation to Mass Production (New York: Basic Books, 1990), p. 157.
2. Personal interview, May 17, 2008.
3. Robert Townsend, Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits, commemorative ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007), p. 59.
4. In Tom Peters and Robert Townsend, Winning Management Strategies for the Real World (Niles, Illinois: Nightingale Conant Corp, 1986), audio-cassette.
5. Douglas McGregor, The Human Side of Enterprise, annotated ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006), pp. 45–46.
6. Ibid., pp. 65–66.
7. Warren Bennis, foreword to McGregor, The Human Side of Enterprise, p. xx.
8. Seminar given at the ESCP Europe Business School, February 18, 2009.
1: “HOW” COMPANIES AND “WHY” COMPANIES
1. Alan Deutschman, “The Fabric of Creativity,” Fast Company, December 2004, pp. 54–60.
2. Personal interview, March 1, 2006.
3. Peter Marsh and Stefan Stern, “The Chaos Theory of Leadership,” Financial Times, December 2, 2008.
4. Deutschman, “Fabric of Creativity.”
5. Jean-François Zobrist, La belle histoire de FAVI: L’entreprise qui croit que l’homme est bon (Tome 1: Nos belles histoires) [The Nice Story of FAVI: The Company Which Believes That Man Is Good (Vol. 1: Our Nice Stories)] (Paris: Humanisme et Organisations, 2007), pp. 24–25. The book’s back cover explains that its author is a “Favien” who only “kept a quill” for the stories told by other “Faviens.” In fact, the author is Jean-François Zobrist, who compiled the stories he wrote and distributed them to all the company’s employees every week for a dozen years. We thank Zobrist for granting us permission to reproduce some excerpts of his writing in our book.
6. Ibid., p. 26.
7. Personal interview, April 8, 2005.
8. The name “Zobrist” comes from the Swiss-German word zu oberste, which means “one who comes from the top”—presumably of the Swiss Alps. FAVI’s CEO, however, rejected this etymological