Acknowledgments  xvii
coauthored by Witold Henisz and Robin Nuttall. The discussion of valu-
ing digital initiatives in the same chapter benefited from collaboration with 
Liz Ericsson.
Over the years, we have valued many companies in Parts Two and Three. 
We would like to thank Wharton graduates Caleb Carter and Daniel Romeu 
for the extensive analysis they have conducted to underpin these sections.
Part Four, “Managing for Value,” adds substantial new insights on how 
companies can improve the translation of their strategies into action and 
aligned resource allocation. We are indebted to Chris Bradley, Dan Lovallo, 
Robert Uhlaner, Loek Zonnenberg, and a host of others for this new mate-
rial. Matt Gage and Steve Santulli provided analysis for the M&A chapter. 
The investor communications chapter benefits greatly from the work of Rob 
Palter and Werner Rehm. In Part Five, “Special Situations,” Marco de Heer’s 
dissertation formed the basis for the chapter on valuing cyclical companies.
Of course, we could not have devoted the time and energy to this book 
without the support and encouragement of McKinsey’s Strategy & Corporate 
Finance Practice leadership—in particular, Martin Hirt and Robert Uhlaner. 
Lucia Rahilly and Rik Kirkland ensured that we received superior editorial 
support from McKinsey’s external publishing team.
We would like to thank again all those who contributed to the first six 
editions. We owe a special debt to Dave Furer for help and late nights devel-
oping the original drafts of this book more than 30 years ago. Others not yet 
mentioned and to whom we owe our thanks for their contributions to the 
sixth edition include Ashish Kumar Agarwal, Andre Annema, Bing Cao, Bas 
Deelder, Ritesh Jain, Mimi James, Mauricio Jaramillo, Bin Jiang, Mary Beth 
Joyce, Jean-Hugues Monier, Rishi Raj, Eileen Kelly Rinaudo, Ram Sekar, Sara-
vanan Subramanian, Zane Williams, and Angela Zhang.
The first five editions and this edition drew upon work, ideas, and analy-
ses from Carlos Abad, Paul Adam, Buford Alexander, Petri Allas, Alexandre 
Amson, André Annema, the late Pat Anslinger, Vladimir Antikarov, Ali Asghar, 
Bill Barnett, Dan Bergman, Olivier Berlage, Peter Bisson, the late Joel Bleeke, 
Nidhi Chadda, Carrie Chen, Steve Coley, Kevin Coyne, Johan Depraetere, the 
late Mikel Dodd, Lee Dranikoff, Will Draper, Christian von Drathen, David 
Ernst, Bill Fallon, George Fenn, Susan Nolen Foushee, Russ Fradin, Gabriel 
Garcia, Richard Gerards, Alo Ghosh, Irina Grigorenko, Fredrik Gustavsson, 
Marco de Heer, Keiko Honda, Alice Hu, Régis Huc, Mimi James, Bin Jiang, 
Chris Jones, William Jones, Phil Keenan, Phil Kholos, David Krieger, Shyan-
jaw Kuo, Michael Kuritzky, Bill Lewis, Kurt Losert, Harry Markl, Yuri Maslov, 
Perry Moilinoff, Fabienne Moimaux, Mike Murray, Terence Nahar, Rafic Naja, 
Juan Ocampo, Martijn Olthof, Neha Patel, Vijen Patel, John Patience, Bill Pur-
sche, S. R. Rajan, Werner Rehm, Frank Richter, David Rothschild, Michael Ru-
dolf, Yasser Salem, Antoon Schneider, Ram Sekar, Meg Smoot, Silvia Stefini, 
Konrad Stiglbrunner, Ahmed Taha, Bill Trent, David Twiddy, Valerie Udale, 

xviii  Acknowledgments
Sandeep Vaswani, Kim Vogel, Jon Weiner, Jack Welch, Gustavo Wigman, David 
Willensky, Marijn de Wit, Pieter de Wit, Jonathan Witter, David Wright, and 
Yan Yang.
For help in coordinating the flow of paper, e-mail, and phone calls, we owe 
our thanks to our assistants, Sue Cohen and Laura Waters.
We also extend thanks to the team at John Wiley & Sons, including 
Bill Falloon, Meg Freeborn, Purvi Patel, Carly Hounsome, and Kimberly 
Monroe-Hill.
Finally, thank you to Melissa Koller, Monique Donders, Kate Wessels, 
and our children: Katherine, Emily, and Juliana Koller; Max, Julia, and Sarah 
Goedhart; and Adin, Jacob, Lillia, and Nathaniel Wessels. Our wives and fami-
lies are our true inspirations. This book would not have been possible without 
their encouragement, support, and sacrifice.

Part One
Foundations of Value