Kenneth Hartely Blanchard was born May 6, 1939, in Orange, New Jersey. He married Marjorie McKee, a business consultant, in 1962. He founded Blanchard Training and Development in 1977. Blanchard has cowritten several books on management, including one of the best-selling management books of all time, The One-Minute Manager (1982) with Spencer Johnson. In the book, the authors describe effective and efficient management skills. The basics to good management are setting goals, praising, and reprimanding. Blanchard says that these skills can easily be translated to work in the home as well as the office. Blanchard lives in San Diego, California.
Susan Fowler has over thirty years' experience as a researcher, consultant, and coach in over thirty countries around the globe in the field of self leadership. She is the creator and lead developer of The Ken Blanchard Companies' Optimal Motivation product line as well as the creator and lead developer of Situational Self Leadership, the organization's best-of-class self leadership and personal empowerment program. She is the bestselling coauthor of three books with Ken Blanchard: Self Leadership and The One Minute Manager�, Leading at a Higher Level, and Empowerment. She is also the coauthor of Achieve Leadership Genius, The Team Leader's Idea-a-Day Guide, and Good Leaders, Good… Shepherds. A catalyst for growth, Fowler is a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies and a professor in the Master of Science in Executive Leadership program at the University of San Diego.