I picked up MANAGER REDEFINED and put it down 5 hours later. The authors have diagnosed a critical opportunity for improved company performance and have challenged every business leader to rethink his/her definition of and investment in the role of the middle manager in their businesses. With abundant data and clarity, Davenport and Harding shine a bright light on this often missing focus in business planning at the operational and board levels. But, the book gets better: they present a thoughtful,practical blueprint and model to address this critical talent gap. The discussed "going forward" model is both pragmatic and simple to understand and adapt. They also professionally challenge the reader to fully appreciate the amount of hard leadership work and fundamental paradigm shift in approaches to the selection and coaching of the middle manager. I will make this book required reading in all my future business school courses. Current human resources leaders will find this book an excellent platform upon which to launch necessary senior line officer conversations and actions to produce better performance from this historically misunderstood and under appreciated job category.richard sibbernsen, retired executive vice president ATT.