Book it: best bets for board reading; From a roundup of new books, leadership insights on sudden succession, human capital oversight, being a trusted adviser, greatness in the making, and how to apologize for a tactless remark.

• Position: LEADERSHIP

A Wall Street whack for P & G's new CEO

From The Game Changer by A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan. Copyright 2008 by the authors. Published by Crown Business (www.crownpublishing.com).

IT CAME ON June 6, 2000, a few minutes before a business meeting in California. On the line was John Pepper, former chairman and CEO of P & G.

John got right to the point: "Are you prepared to accept the CEO job at P & G?" I was stunned. Just the afternoon before, I had been speaking with chairman and CEO Durk Jager about our plans for the final month of the fiscal year.

"What's happened to Durk?" I asked.

He resigned.

Why? What happened?

I don't have time to go into that now. I just need to know whether you're prepared to do the CEO job for P & G.

Of course I am.

Then get on a plane as soon as you can and come directly to my office when you arrive back in Cincinnati.

"OK."

I turned to my colleagues and told them something had come up. I had to leave. On the plane, I considered this sudden and totally surprising turn of events.

I tried to put first things first: What would I need to do in the next 24, 48, 72 hours? And what would I need to do in the first week, first month?

Job one was to determine the state of P & G's business. At 6 a.m. on June 7, I began digging into the numbers--business by business, region by region, customer by customer. Unfortunately, we were in worse shape than I suspected. We were 23 days from year-end and there was no way we were going to make the month, the April-June quarter, or the 1999-2000 fiscal year.

After briefing the board on Thursday, June 8, we issued another profit warning. P & G's stock opened more than $3 lower in the morning I was announced as CEO. By the end of the week P & G's stock price was down more than $7 from Monday's close. It was not exactly an early confidence booster for me.

A.G. Lafley is chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble Co. Ram Charan is a consultant to boards and senior management.

A CEO's apology for an offensive remark

From Corporate Reputation by Leslie Gaines-Ross. Copyright 2008 by John Wiley & Sons Inc. Published by John Wiley & Sons (www.wiley.com).

HENRY PAULSON JR., former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs Group, demonstrated how a properly issued and frank apology from the top can help repair a personal and company reputation. During a question-and-answer session at a Salomon Smith Barney conference in January 2003, Paulson seemed to imply that between 80 and 85 percent of Goldman Sachs' employees were irrelevant to the company's success. "I don't want to sound heartless," the CEO said, "but in almost every one of our businesses, there are 15-20 percent of the people who really add 80 percent of the value. I think we can cut a fair amount and not get into muscle and still be very well-positioned for the upturn."

Paulson's comments drew an immediate and overwhelmingly negative reaction. Rather than wallow in explanations as to what he actually intended to say, or suggest that the comment was taken out of context, Paulson took the heat. He did not waiver.

In a voicemail message afterwards to all 20,000 Goldman Sachs Group employees, Paulson acknowledged that his remarks were "insensitive" and "glib." He apologized. He articulated exactly what made his comments offensive and contradictory to the financial services firm's team-oriented mindset...