Ever wonder what it would be like to run a $1.6 billion business in this global economy?

Thanks to a new book from a former Attleboro man, you can take one out for a test drive. The idea of John R. Lewis's "Vision, Values and Results" (outskirtspress.com/VisionValuesandResults) is to illuminate six fundamental business leadership principles by putting the reader in the position of newly appointed senior vice president for the $1.6 billion Precision Tools, a division of the $8.6 billion Atlas Corp.

Lewis's understanding and appreciation of these principles evolved in a 41-year career with E. I. DuPont de Nemours, during which he rose from chemical engineer to the positions of president of a subsidiary firm and a vice president with the parent company before his retirement, and along the way held down assignments in Germany, Japan and China. They are:

"Vision and Strategy": Where do you want to see your business in the future, how do you think you will get there, what values will guide you, and what financial measures will satisfy you and your shareholders.

"Evergreen Work Processes": how work gets done with outstanding results. "Learning Organization": commitment to externally driven continuous improvement.

"Interdependent Global Teams": how teams can overcome culture, language, and distance.

"Centered Organization": how to align the entire organization around the business plan.

"Individual Centering": unlocking each employee's true potential.

Following them does not lead to the line where you ask for federal bailouts. Indeed, Lewis's work was mainly in the field of coatings - paints, plastic and high-tech coverings and the like - and he worked the "better part of 30 years in support of the auto industry." His take on the Big Three's current difficulties is that they are based in part on a "lack of balance...The leaders were treating themselves too generously," he says. "I'm all for more pay, but there's a limit."

Readers of "Vision, Values and Results" can see how they might do things better. The challenge facing the hypothetical VP of the hypothetical tool company is to turn around a struggling global business, and find a way to produce credible results routinely.

This is no game, however. Lewis's primary target audiences are somebody starting out in a business leadership role, who might use it as a complementary book to "Good to Great" or "Winning," or someone newly appointed to a leadership position looking for help in "how to balance the competing values of the corporation, employees, the community and their own personal lives." He's also hoping though, that general readers will find it of interest. "You don't have to have an MBA to understand it."

As for an MBA, Lewis thought of pursuing one in 1968, when he was discharged from the Army after a two-year hitch that included a year in Vietnam. He had graduated from Attleboro High School in 1961, picked up his chemical engineering degree at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1965 and worked briefly for Dupont before going into the service.

But the folks at Dupont wanted him back and convinced him he'd do OK without an MBA. Instead, Lewis went off to the proverbial "school of hard knocks."

From his old family home at 11 Sturdy St. in Attleboro, Lewis has gone on to a career with Dupont that involved a 15-year stint in Detroit, some time in Toledo, two stays in Germany and 40 to 50 trips to Japan and China. Now living in Philadelphia with his wife Joanne, his first book is hardly a memoir - rather it's the boiling down of a life's business experience into a roadmap for business success that might be followed by others.

That sounds very much like a useful guide in a time when our economic geography appears to be challenging terrain.

MARK FLANAGAN (mflanagan@thesunchronicle.com) is Opinion Page editor of The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0335.