Introduction

Abstract

The past decade will be remembered by business historians for unprecedented destruction. Billion-dollar Wall Street darlings have vanished. Corruption and poor decisions about risk hurt employees, clients, and shareholders. As an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, I have always been interested in how people and companies create value. Earlier, I studied many organizational sciences’ approaches to value creation including Industrial/Systems Engineering, Finance, and Strategy. I traced developments in positive organizational behavior for high-functioning people, especially leaders. But it was new for many, including me, to watch in horror as billions of dollars were obliterated.

The primary purpose of corporate leadership is to create wealth legally and ethically.

—N. R. Narayana Murthy, Founder, Executive Chairman and Chief Mentor, Infosys