Others helped me implement the process and deserve acknowledg-
ment. Rich Richardson helped me attain several implementation oppor-
tunities and has been wonderfully supportive. John Krueger, principal
at Shawnee Mission West High School, provided the opportunity to
implement the success paradigm process in a public education setting
over a several year period. This opportunity to impact the process by
which our children are educated, and to work with educators and
students, has been the most personally satisfying implementation ex-
perience for me. Finally, James Johnson helped the effort to proliferate
and "prove" the success paradigm process's value by implementing the
process in a health care environment. In addition, James helped me
understand the deeper meaning of the success paradigm and why the
process has been so effective. His intellectual and analytical abilities
were critical to the final realization of the product.

My effort to write about the process also has involved many people.
I first attempted to write about the contribution of the success paradigm
process with Vern Beilman. I made another attempt to write about it
with Harold Friesen, my favorite professor at Friends University in
Wichita, Kansas. Kae Chung, chairman of the Department of Manage-
ment of Wichita State University, worked with me on an article that was
published in the Journal of Management Systems. It took James Johnson
to bring this book to reality. Not only did he secure the publishing
contract with the Greenwood Publishing Group, he also provided the
expertise and rigor needed for these concepts to be embraced in the
academic community. Additionally, his staff in the Department of
Health Administration and Policy at the Medical University of South
Carolina conducted much of the background research in quality im-
provement, strategic planning and health care organization. The two
additional contributors to this book, Brian Angevine and Walter Jones,
were instrumental in helping us describe the process's applicability in
education and government.

Throughout this ten-year time frame, Jack Rockart, director of the
Center of Information Systems Research at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, has been very gracious in listening to our ideas and encour-
aging us to continue working with the CSF concept.

I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the importance of my
family. My parents, Karl and Betty Friesen, taught me to dream. My
brothers, Gregory, Russell, and Darrin, challenged me to achieve with
their own incredible achievements. My wife, Dea, taught me to believe
in myself and provided emotional support throughout the entire ten
year effort and my children, Brooke, Anna, and Andrew, inspired me to
finish the book as a gift to them and to their children.

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