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xi Acknowledgments The past fifteen years have without doubt been among the most interesting of my working life. In fact, it sometimes feels as if the first sixteen years I spent as a consultant have been a long preparation for the journey I started when embarking on my HPO research. During this HPO journey, I have come across many interesting organizations, a lot of whom became clients of my company the HPO Center, and a lot of fascinating people at these organizations. I thank the managerial leaders at these organizations for their courage in embarking on the transformation of their organization to an HPO and for allowing me to witness their journey and learn from their experiences. Without their involvement and commitment, it would not have been possible for me to write so many academic and managerial arti- cles on HPO in practice or to publish this book. I also thank my “comrades from the first hour” at the HPO Center, Esther Mollema and Marco Schreurs, who never stopped believing in me and my sometimes “wild” research plans. We have come a long way and learned a lot together. In this respect, I am also grateful to my former col- leagues at the HPO Center who accompanied me during parts of my jour- ney you know who you are and what you contributed. Also, thanks go to my agent, Ken Lizotte, who again found an excellent publishing home for this book. Finally, to my wife, Linda, who has stood by my side and went with me to the faraway places the HPO research took me, onward to the next fifteen years, dear!