Burwash is to tennis what Harvey Penick is to golf. Each man excels at teaching his sport and suggests mastery or improvement in it as a metaphor for personal growth and success. Burwash heads an international tennis management firm, with clubs and resorts in 25 countries, that James O'Toole in Vanguard Management (1985) cited as one of 10 best-managed companies.

Now Burwash lays out what he discovered in making his company a service leader. He lists "the 12 universal principles of great service companies" and "the 25 universal qualities of great leaders," stating each principle or quality simply, illustrating each with a rubric from the likes of Winston Churchill and Confucius, and further explaining each with a meaningful anecdote.