Fourteen captains of industry. One hour of intense, candid and often brutal examination with each leader. Courageous Conversations takes the reader on a privileged walk through the corridors of corporate power, on a journey to the centre of leadership.

What is leadership? How have these remarkable individuals steered their companies through times of largesse and, more recently, recession? Has the board become an outdated model? Are visions, values and ethics being sacrificed on the altar of profitability? Has executive remuneration really gone too far?

The ultimate goal: to discover what lessons can be learned and taken on board for the next generation of South Africa?s corporate leaders. David Gleason, a well-known financial journalist and columnist, gets into the minds, and ultimately the hearts, of these celebrated leaders with often surprising and dramatic consequences.

Courageous Conversations is a fearless exposition of real-life leadership. It stands apart from other books in the field of leadership with its dual-analysis format: one analysis written by Gleason and an academic analysis of each interview by Professor Stella Nkomo, with contributions from Professor Derick de Jongh.

Each interview has been transcribed and copied onto a CD, which accompanies the book.

Times of tectonic change call for Courageous Conversations.