Bennis (The Leadership Institute, U. of Southern California) and Thomas (Accenture Institute for Strategic Change) present a model of business leadership based on interviews with successful businesspeople from a range of generations. Terming the older group "geezers" and the younger information-age group "geeks," they seek to understand how life experience shapes the attitudes and actions of business leaders. At the center of their analysis is the notion of the "crucible," in which people can be utterly transformed by hardship. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)