The Edge

Ten vivid you-are-there accounts of chief executive officers who are reinventing leadership, providing insight and tools crucial for moving forward in a world turned upside-down. The tumultuous changes in the marketplace, the impatience of a new generation, the specter of inequality, and, most recently, the simultaneous challenges of a pandemic, economic collapse, and racial crisis all cry out for new thinking to confront a radically changed world. Michael Useem has integrated himself into the life and work of CEOs of major companies-- including Bill McNabb of Vanguard, Jeffrey Lurie of the Philadelphia Eagles, and Tricia Griffith of Progressive--and chronicles their moments of truth, those turning points when chief executives confronted the hard realities of a new, harsher world and faced the fact that what they were doing was no longer working. He explores how they approached fateful decisions on management, retention, hiring, and the bottom line, and provides unprecedented insight into how company leaders reached their most critical decisions. Useem provides a new roadmap for how to reach decisions in any organization as we face the decade ahead--one in which massive disruptions are likely to emerge yet again-- and how to lead when an executive needs to be a 24/7 communicator, crisis leader, and an emphatic voice inside and outside the organization, dealing with employees, customers, officials, non-profits, governing boards, Wall Street, the media, and investors.