We are in a moment that is unlike any others we have experienced in our lifetimes. Important questions are being asked about how we move forward and what it will take to get our economy moving and provide safe and stable futures for all of us. In the business world, conversations around "the future of work" often exclude those who work with their hands or who are otherwise classified as essential workers.

While you may not want to be a CEO, developing some basic knowledge about how business works can create more options for employees at all levels. I believe that humans are capable of anything—even performing a job for which they've had no formal training or experience.

I've written this book for people with basic questions about how a company works, but might be afraid to ask. Over the course of my career, I've been committed to explaining complicated concepts to audiences of all kinds. I know that not everyone in the company understands how the company works, why it exists and how it makes money. Most people have never learned these points from their supervisors, and plenty of excellent employees did not learn business concepts as part of any formal educational program. But at least some of the inequities in our society are perpetuated in the workplace when employees remain on a "need to know" basis when it comes to how the company works. In our own small way, we can help to eliminate an invisible ceiling by demystifying some of these concepts that seem more complicated than they actually are.

There are plenty of books and articles written by and for executives and consultants, offering advice to other executives and consultants. But where are all of the books written in plain English for the non-Harvard types? This book is not written for anyone with an MBA—it is purposely written for people who may have never been given the opportunity to learn business concepts in school or on the job. I learned none of these concepts in school. Some of them I learned from others during my years of consulting with companies. Others I made up in urgent situations where we needed to "coin a phrase" to explain complicated scenarios to people with very little experience.