Senior managers will find the volumes in the series to be es-
pecially valuable. Because of the books' readability, top man-
agement can use them to assess whether their key managers
are aware of and using the latest concepts in, for example, mar-
keting, forecasting, financial accounting, finance, strategic
planning, information systems, management of technology,
human resources, and managing multinational corporations.
Given the strong interdependency among the various manage-
ment functions, it is essential that senior executives be aware
of the best academic thinking in the areas for which they are
ultimately responsible.

The qualities that make these books useful to managers should
make them equally valuable as assigned reading in executive
development programs in colleges and universities and man-
agement training programs in industry. They can also be used
as supplementary reading in academic business courses where
their state-of-the-art content should nicely complement theoret-
ical material in standard textbooks.

It is appropriate that this new series should originate in the
Wharton School, the first business school founded in the United
States--and probably in the world. Its faculty is at the top of its
profession, and its graduates fill the management ranks at all
levels in all parts of the world. The school's academic focus is
on the functional areas of management with an analytic and
empirical approach. This quality and approach are clearly evi-
dent in these books.

We, the series editor and the publisher, hope that you, the
reader, will share our enthusiasm for the series and find the
advice of some of the leading scholars in their fields, as pre-
sented in these books, of value to you.

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