Thank you for having me here today. It is an honor to be a keynote speaker for the International 7th Knowledge, Economy and Management Congress. At least one of my former doctoral advisees, Dr. Mesut Akdere, is in the audience today. Mesut studied at the University of Minnesota where I served on the graduate faculty for 25 years. I have more recently worked with The University of Texas helping that university start up a new PhD program in Human Resource Development within their College of Business and Technology. Throughout my academic career I have consulted with all types of organizations in the realms of performance improvement at the individual, team, work process, and organizational levels. Before getting into my presentation, it is important to acknowledge the important work carried out by the members of this congress. You have demanding and important challenges in front of you and I have great respect for your work as scholars, policy makers, and practitioners.

Thank you for having me here today. It is an honor to be a keynote speaker for the International 7th Knowledge, Economy and Management Congress. At least one of my former doctoral advisees, Dr. Mesut Akdere, is in the audience today. Mesut studied at the University of Minnesota where I served on the graduate faculty for 25 years. I have more recently worked with The University of Texas helping that university start up a new PhD program in Human Resource Development within their College of Business and Technology. Throughout my academic career I have consulted with all types of organizations in the realms of performance improvement at the individual, team, work process, and organizational levels. Before getting into my presentation, it is important to acknowledge the important work carried out by the members of this congress. You have demanding and important challenges in front of you and I have great respect for your work as scholars, policy makers, and practitioners.