The Hardware

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.

Readers will be left educated, entertained and inspired.

Michael Cloutier is an accomplished Canadian business leader and advisor with over forty years in the Life Sciences sector. He is well respected for his leadership skills, business acumen, coaching and mentoring accomplishments, and is an experienced business school lecturer who spearheaded fundraising for the construction of the Sheridan College Hazel McCallion Campus Student Centre.

Randi Madonik Skurka is a Canadian writer of fiction and nonfiction. After working as a community pharmacist for three decades, she completed an MA in Jewish Studies and began to write about her family history while enrolled at the Humber School for Writers. Her opinion pieces have appeared in national and international media, and she has recently completed a historical novel based on the saga of resistance and survival of two sisters during World War II. Her website can be found at www.randiskurka.com.