On 9 November 1960, Robert McNamara was named president of the Ford Motor Company, the first person outside the Ford family to hold the job. He was one of a group of ex-military analysts, known as the Whiz Kids, who had brought statistical management to Ford after World War II. But he stayed only about a month: the newly elected president, John F. Kennedy, asked him to join his administration, and McNamara left to become the US secretary of defense. He held that job from 1961 to 1968, longer than anyone else, and became a key figure in expanding American involvement in the Vietnam War. His career is often used to illustrate both the power and the limits of managing by numbers.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.