Cox has authored eight books on organizations and management including Confessions of a Corporate Headhunter (1973), which was the first book published on the topic of executive search, to Your Inner CEO: Unleash the Executive Within (2007). He has written a series for the New York Times Sunday business section and Field Newspaper syndicate; articles for Chief Executive, Across the Board, Industry Week, Training & Development Journal, Success, and Advertising Age. From 1986 to 1988 he wrote a weekly column for Los Angeles Times Syndicate entitled “The Achiever.” His 1985 book, The Making of the Achiever, was made into a six-cassette program for Nightingale-Conant and his 1990 book on teamwork...Straight Talk for Monday Morning...led to a four-part video series produced by the Bureau of Business Practice...Straight Talk on Teams.

Half-way through McCormick Theological Seminary, on his way to becoming a Presbyterian minister, Cox changed course and enrolled in what was then called The Alfred Adler Institute of Chicago, a non-degree granting, post-graduate organization, studying Adlerian psychology at night and working by day as a management consultant. He became an executive search consultant with Spencer Stuart & Associates, then the largest global search firm in existence, and served on its management committee. Two years later, he left to found the firm that bears his name. In addition to his writing and consulting work, Cox has also taught career development workshops at Northwestern University's Kellogg School and the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.

Much of Cox’s writing and consulting work are explicitly grounded in Alfred Adler’s theories and practices. For example, Adler’s concepts of “social interest” and “style-of-life” underscore the Foreword he wrote for the book, Leadership by Encouragement, authored by Drs. Don Dinkmeyer and Daniel Eckstein. The same can be said for his chapter, “The Power of Team,” which leads off the human resources section of the anthology, The Best of Chief Executive (magazine), compiled and edited by J.P. Donlon. The November-December, 2007 issue of the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology Newsletter referred to Cox as “Adlerian to the bone,” quoting a Society Past President and Adler scholar, Erik Mansager. [1]