The Hardware

<p><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>The Hardware: Leadership Tools and Tales</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> is a memoir-like leadership fable envisioned by Michael Cloutier a retired pharmaceuticals executive and co-written by Randi Madonik Skurka. It addresses contemporary challenges by incorporating fictionalized personal anecdotes in an engaging story in order to demonstrate and teach principles of leadership.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>The story opens with the protagonist Brad a business executive receiving an invitation to be bestowed with an honorary degree by the University of Toronto at the spring convocation of its business school graduates. This is to be in recognition of his contribution to Canadian business and to the university at which he served as an instructor and chief fundraiser for a new student learning centre. Each subsequent chapter contains flashbacks of events in Brad's life and related recollections or conversations about a leadership trait or tool for example trust authenticity integrity and generosity; these are summarized in key takeaways at the end of the chapter. The episodes unfold against the backdrop of his life's trajectory starting with childhood memories of the small town hardware store of his grandfather which is about to be sold.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>Readers will be left educated entertained and inspired.</span></p>