Power_ Why Some People Have Itand Others Don't - Jeffrey Pfeffer [112]
My amazingly wonderful agents, Christy Fletcher and Don Lamm, provided support, advice, and encouragement every step of the way. Don also provided unstinting editorial advice and friendship as well as telling me the truth about this project, even when I didn’t want to hear it. Over the years, Don has become a dear friend and I value his wisdom. I have worked with a number of editors over the years, but have never encountered anyone better than Ben Loehnen of HarperCollins. Ben offered support and thoughtful comments and had an uncanny ability to help me produce text that was better than I thought I was capable of writing. Ben deserves enormous credit for helping me see how to improve the early drafts and for providing just the right mix of critique and support.
Charles O’Reilly and Bob Sutton deserve a special place in my heart. Close friends as well as coauthors and colleagues, they are unselfish with their time, advice, feedback, and support. Chip Heath, as always, was insightful and generous with his suggestions about titles. It is an honor and privilege to work with all of these people.
My dear friend and former Sloan student, Stuart Young, provided much indirect inspiration for this book. Stuart, a radiologist already retired for several years in his early sixties, lives in a huge house in Portola Valley and drives a Bentley. Stuart was someone who made his money from biotech companies that not only were never profitable, they never even had revenues. Our “grumpy old men” lunches are a source of continuing delight, and the very fact of his financial success renders an analysis of power in organizations all the more relevant.
When I met Kathleen Frances Fowler at approximately 10 P.M. on January 19, 1985, at a party in San Francisco, it changed my life forever, although I didn’t fully understand in what ways and how much that evening. After we started going out, she wanted to read something I had written. I gave her an autographed copy of my first book on this subject, Power in Organizations, which she found way too academic. On the other hand, she married me on July 23, 1986. It was Kathleen’s encouragement that I write something that regular people could read that produced Managing with Power and many other things such as the various magazine columns I have written over the years. This book will, hopefully, be even more to her liking—if nothing else, it is shorter! Now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of the evening we met, I realize that she has taught me more than I know, or at least act on. Kathleen remains my best friend as well as the most beautiful human being I have ever encountered. This book, like everything in my life, is dedicated to her.
About the Author
JEFFREY PFEFFER is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, where he has taught since 1979. He is the author or coauthor of thirteen books, and has also held visiting professorships at the Harvard Business School, London Business School, IESE Business School in Spain, and other institutions.
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ALSO BY JEFFREY PFEFFER
The External Control of Organizations
Managing with Power
Competitive Advantage Through