The Hardware: Leadership Tools and Tales 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. 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.
