Leadership Disaster

Are you ready for the leadership moment? Learn valuable lessons from the stories of Merck's Roy Vagelos, who commits millions of dollars to develop a drug needed only by people who can't afford it; Eugene Kranz, who struggles to bring the Apollo 13 astronauts home after an explosion rips through their spacecraft; Arlene Blum, who organizes the first women's ascent of one of the world's most dangerous mountains; Nancy Barry, who leads Women's World Banking in the fight against Third World poverty; and more.

An urgent, transformative guide to dealing with disasters from one of today’s foremost thinkers in crisis management. “In a world marred by preventable miscalculation, Juliette Kayyem’s The Devil Never Sleeps provides a playbook for making it out alive.” —The New Yorker The future may...

Become a better crisis leader while equipping yourself with the tools for every day transformative leadership Managing crisis well is at the very heart of good leadership. Here, the team from the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard University draws on a deep well of research...

A modern cruise liner. Calm seas. Land in sight. And one of the most avoidable maritime disasters in modern history. On 13 January 2012, the Costa Concordia struck rock off the coast of Giglio, Italy. What followed was not simply a shipwreck, but the collapse of command, the failure of truth under pressure, and the exposure of how fragile modern systems become when leadership breaks at the centre. In Costa Concordia: The Disaster That Exposed the Illusion of Safety, Gordon J. MacKenzie tells the full story of the disaster as a study in illusion, risk, and institutional failure. This is not ...

An inspiring true story of one man’s journey of finding his purpose as he overcomes overwhelming obstacles to bring clean water to millions of the world’s neediest people―inviting us all to discover the amazing way that God has designed each one of us to impact this world in a unique way...

What makes an ordinary person step forward when everyone else freezes? In The Quiet Hero, Ralph Scott explores real-life stories of civilians who acted decisively in moments of sudden crisis — passengers who stopped attackers midair, neighbors who ran into burning homes, strangers who formed human chains against disaster, and ordinary workers who saw danger before anyone else did. These are not celebrities. They are not trained first responders. They did not expect to be tested. Yet when catastrophe erupted — on airplanes, in schools, in restaurants, on highways, at sea — they moved ...

A luxury ocean liner becomes an inferno. Passengers wait for direction. Command weakens. Escape turns into survival. In September 1934, the SS Morro Castle caught fire off the American coast. What followed was not just a maritime disaster, but a complete breakdown of leadership, communication, and evacuation under pressure. This book reconstructs the disaster as it unfolded in real time. After the sudden death of Captain Robert Wilmott, command passed to William Warms. But the system never fully recovered. As flames spread and smoke filled the ship, lifeboats were delayed, instructions were...

Crisis leaders never feel completely prepared. From your first response to your hundredth, you feel the same nerves, the same anticipation, and the same desire to serve with each crisis you encounter. But when disaster strikes, you’re there to make a difference—and you’ll need to rely on more than just your good intentions. ***Winner of the 2023 Goodby Business Book Award for Leadership-Team Building***In Promote the Dog Sitter, former FEMA responder and NATO advisor Ed Conley shares ten proven principles for acting decisively and leading dynamically throughout any disaster. Drawing ...

In January 1990, the crew of Avianca Flight 52 told air traffic control, “We’re running out of fuel.” They never declared an emergency. The words were spoken, but the meaning never landed. Seventy-three people died. That gap—between knowing and speaking, and between speaking and being heard—is the subject of Speak Up!. This book examines some of the most consequential failures in modern history across aviation, medicine, aerospace, and corporate leadership. From the death of Libby Zion in a New York hospital to the collision at Tenerife, from the Challenger and Columbia space ...

A darkly humorous collection of history's most spectacular institutional failures, from the nursing school that rejected Rosa Parks to the Dutch admiralty that burned their own fleet to avoid accountability. These 27 tales reveal how bureaucratic blindness, corporate arrogance, and well-intentioned stupidity have shaped our world in ways both tragic and absurd.

In this groundbreaking book on high-stakes leadership, Co-founder and CEO of Team Rubicon and former Marine Sniper Jake Wood, shows how to apply hard-learned lessons in leadership and teamwork from the battlefield and disaster zone to your professional life. What do elite members of the military...

The lights are gone. The taps are failing. Stonegate has seventeen days to decide who gets to live. The EMP leaves some engines running, many machines dead, and every official promise unenforceable. Daniel Mercer's family has only what remained outside the warehouse he trusted. As water pressure fades and sanitation breaks down, swimming pools, private tanks, and half-remembered claims become the new measures of wealth. Daniel helps build a household roster to protect the vulnerable and hold the neighborhood together. Then Laura's illness worsens. Desperate to keep her functioning, he adds ...

Master digital reputation management and neutralize viral PR disasters before they destroy your corporate leadership. When a single hostile post can ignite global outrage in minutes, traditional slow-moving strategies will leave you exposed. Whether you are commuting to the office or stepping...

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE WORLD'S GREATEST MILITARY GETS IT WRONG? Singapore fell in 72 hours. 85,000 soldiers surrendered. Churchill called it "the worst disaster in British history." It wasn't the only time. British Military Failures takes you inside 16 of history's most devastating military collapses — from the retreat from Kabul in 1842 (only one man survived) to the Falklands, Gallipoli, and modern Iraq. These weren't flukes. They were patterns. Inside this book: 🔴 The Fall of Singapore (1942) — How an "impregnable fortress" collapsed in days, and why the British never saw it coming...

In Station Blackout, Chuck Casto, the foremost authority on responding to nuclear disasters, shares his first-hand account of how he led the collaborative team of Japanese and American experts that faced the challenges of Fukushima. A lifetime of working in the nuclear industry prepared him to manage an extreme crisis, lessons that apply to any crisis situation.

Family businesses thrive in some of the world's toughest environments, providing vital lessons for businesses everywhere. The bulk of the world’s growth in population and economic activity in the foreseeable future will be generated in the developing world. This is precisely where enterprising...

When Accidents Happen introduces how to meet the challenges of being a Family Liaison Officer and offers a reference to help support experienced FLO’s in their role. Backing up suggestions with examples from the field the text maps an approach to being a FLO, acknowledging the potential strengths and weaknesses of the position and defining clear parameters for FLO’s to successfully operate within. For those unfamiliar with the potential of the position it will help establish a blueprint to work from and for the more established program it can be a common reference for the team. This ...

CAN YOU SURVIVE THESE PR NIGHTMARES? Master Crisis Management Without Risking Your Real Reputation In the high-stakes world of modern business, PR catastrophes don't announce themselves with convenient warning bells. They explode onto your calendar, demanding immediate action and flawless judgment. This groundbreaking interactive guide puts YOU in the executive hot seat during five meticulously crafted crisis scenarios drawn from real-world corporate disasters—from exploding product and devastating data breaches to viral hot mic moments and holiday party scandals. As you navigate each ...

In a world increasingly shaped by disruption, uncertainty, and “permacrisis,” the ability to lead through chaos is no longer a niche skill, it is a core leadership imperative. Originally published in the aftermath of major global disasters, The Crisis Leader has guided thousands of leaders across the humanitarian, business, government, and nonprofit sectors through the complexities of crisis response. Now, in this fully updated and expanded edition, Gisli Olafsson draws on more than three decades of experience leading teams through disasters, pandemics, political upheavals, and digital ...

Now a number one international best seller! Half of all new businesses in the US and UK fail within five years. They fail for various reasons, but the main issue is that business owners either don’t face up to their problems at all or when they do, it’s too late. Face It & Fix It is a must-listen audiobook for owners of struggling small businesses; those who don’t have a moment to lose before disaster strikes and their business is lost. It is a hard-hitting and easy-to-understand guidebook that explains how any small business can be transformed into a success.