• Merck's Roy Vagelos commits millions of dollars to develop a drug needed only by people who can't afford it
• Eugene Kranz struggles to bring the Apollo 13 astronauts home after an explosion rips through their spacecraft
• Arlene Blum organizes the first women's ascent of one of the world's most dangerous mountains
• Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain leads his tattered troops into a pivotal Civil War battle at Little Round Top
• John Gutfreund loses Salomon Brothers when his inattention to a trading scandal almost topples the Wall Street giant
• Clifton Wharton restructures a $50 billion pension system direly out of touch with its customers
• Alfredo Cristiani transforms El Salvador's decade-long civil war into a negotiated settlement
• Nancy Barry leads Women's World Banking in the fight against Third World poverty
• Wagner Dodge faces the decision of a lifetime as a fast-moving forest fire overtakes his firefighting crew

"One thoughtful work like this is worth a ton of new-age, self-help tomes that are high on fluff and low on scholarship."
   SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"A really good story is a time-honored way to show how leaders respond to extreme challenges [and] that's what Michael Useem delivers."
   USA TODAY