Page 18 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

IntroduCtIon � xv

so diverse. We interviewed senior executives—with titles such as
chairman, EVP, VP, CEO, general manager, or director—of national
or global enterprises, as well as thought leaders, senior consultants,
non-profit CEOs, on-the-ground managers working in the field, and
entrepreneurs. We talked with people from a wide range of sectors,
including technology, transportation, government, health care, edu-
cation, consulting, insurance, finance, manufacturing, and services.
Our interest was to gather information from highly successful leaders
who have established highly effective mobile workforces.
Almost no one we asked to interview turned us down. People were
eager to share their stories and insights, and clearly they were bullish
about the prospects for mobile work, both immediately and during the
next few years. Their enthusiasm reaffirmed for us that this book is
both timely and needed. It has been a heady process!
These interviews led to wide-ranging discussions that we share
throughout this book. We gleaned abundant insights into manage-
ment processes and issues affecting the mobile worker. We heard
stories about how companies developed their mobile workforces. We
learned what worked and what didn’t. We recorded amazing success
stories and case studies from which any manager responsible for mo-
bile workers can benefit. Our interviewees pulled no punches. While
all of the advice and data we collected is valuable, none was more
compelling than what we heard from the executives who believe their
companies could not survive today without a mobile workforce.
We developed an interview guide and used it from start with the
intent of providing some structure to the interviews, giving the in-
terviewees the ability to prepare ahead of time, and to assure that we
were getting the information we needed. However, that guide evolved
as we learned more, and we customized it to target the particular
knowledge and experience of the person we were interviewing. We
shared an interview guide ahead of time with most people, but there
were times when we just used it ourselves to remind us of key ques-
tions we wanted to cover.
Most, but not all, of our interviews were recorded—with the per-
mission of those we interviewed—and then were transcribed. We gave