is the author or co-author of 19 books.
She recently spoke to Editorial Director Peter Bradley
about her new book.
Q What led you to write about infrastructure?
A It is a very, very important national agenda item that doesn’t get as much attention from the public
as it should. I am part of a project at Harvard Business
School on U.S. competitiveness, recognizing that we are a
global economy. We began digging into what are seen as
the strengths and weaknesses of America, and one of the
big areas of concern was education,
K through 12 education. But next in
terms of concern level was logistics
and infrastructure. … So I said, “All
right, I’ll just convene a summit to
see what business leaders, government
leaders, advocates, and activists have to
say.” The summit was highly successful
because many of those leaders had
not been at the same table together in
the same conversation. They, too, felt
that the general public didn’t understand the magnitude of the problems in
America, that something that was once
an area of strength has been deteriorating badly.
Right after the summit, with the
encouragement of the participants, I
decided to write a book, which became Move. I want it to be
helpful to people in industry, but I also want infrastructure
to be on the agenda for the presidential candidates because
the situation is urgent. I am known for my work on leadership, and I finally decided that although there are a lot of
technical dimensions to the problem, the real key to change
is leadership.
Q What response has the book received so far?
A Well, the response that I have seen is very, very posi- tive. I have had some great reviews of the book itself. I
had the chance on my book tour to speak on national radio
and television, including an appearance with Jon Stewart
on “The Daily Show.” I’m still getting requests. So there is
tremendous interest in the topic, and that gives me hope
that we can get a public dialogue going. It’s a topic that
affects people every day on their commute to work. Yet
people don’t feel there is anything (being done). I hear a
lot of frustration.
I also get a lot of mail, e-mail, in response to the national
media attention. Invariably, I get e-mails of two kinds. One
is people talking about their own frustrations in their local
communities, projects that are not yet finished, goods that
move too slowly, roads that aren’t repaired, the problems
with an airport. They vary in what they think the solutions
are because at the moment, there is somewhat limited trust
in the public sector. Then I get a second kind of e-mail,
where people write me about their innovations. They
have a new road surface material that can be put in faster.
They have a new bridge inspection device that can spot
weaknesses faster and before there’s a
need for really big repairs. I hear from
people who are working on new forms
of personal transportation using rail,
pods that can run along rail lines when
they’re not being used. I see there is a
lot of imagination in this country. We
need to use that imagination to deal
with the frustrations.
Q It does seem, though, that we only pay attention to infrastructure
when something goes terribly wrong.
How do we get a consistent sense of
urgency?
A Well, if that’s a sense of urgency as in, “My gosh, the pain is so bad
we can’t stand it any longer,” I’m not
sure. I mean, we would need a lot of bridges collapsing at
once. You can’t scare people into change. There is a flurry
of reports and then it goes away. Something else takes the
front page.
What you need is people, leaders with a big enough
vision that they can convince people that the benefits are
worth some of the immediate costs. That if they pay a little
bit more to use roads, whether it’s in the gas tax or in the
form of a toll or a vehicle-miles-traveled fee, they’re going
to get enormous benefits—not just relief from frustration,
but real benefits in being able to get to work, being more
productive, finding jobs, moving goods more expeditiously, saving lives, being greener, avoiding the health consequences of breathing bad air, and seeing economic growth
in areas that right now can’t attract business. Those are
benefits that people can see. So you need leaders who can
sketch out that vision, show the connections across modes
of transportation. In your industry, trucks and rail play
