Consider the following scenario: You are a member of your company's top management team. Performance indicators suggest that your firm's global competitive position is softening. Several long–term customers have left you and are now working with one of your newest competitors, who achieves 20 percent lower costs, higher product quality, and 50 percent faster order fulfillment than you. At the same time, you've realized that your traditional short list of benchmark competitors may no longer be a reliable source of competitive intelligence. At the quarterly gathering of your company's Presidents' Council, the CEO and top team concur that the situation is urgent. To remain successful, your company must take decisive and far–reaching steps. The goal is to become a global leader – and remain one well into the 21st century. The CEO will announce a transformation program, Global Vision 2000, during the annual Leadership Congress next month, when the company's top 500 executives from around the world will listen to motivational speeches from top management gurus and lean about major developments in your industry and your company. During the last decade, this scenario has become familiar. Once–dominant companies all over the world are reeling from relentless changes to the business environment. In their efforts to recapture the magic that once made them great, they have been launching major transformation programs.