Skip to content
Responsive image
Vendor
Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories

CRASH LANDING

Liz Hoffman

The Inside Story of How the World's Biggest Companies Survived an Economy on the Brink

A gripping chronicle of the financial fallout from the pandemic, revealing the fear, grit, and gambles that drove the economy's winners and losers, and became the ultimate test of leadership and survival for the CEO's of some of the world's most recognized corporations.
In 2018, after a decade-long bull market, the CEO of American Airlines declared, "I don't think we're ever going to lose money again." The U.S. entered March 2020 riding an eleven-year economic high, with unemployment at record lows, the Dow Jones flirting with 30,000, and the good times certain to continue. By the end of the month, ten million people were out of work, iconic firms were begging for bailouts, and countless small businesses were in freefall. Slick consulting teams and country-club connections were suddenly of little use: CEOs were fumbling in the dark, tossing out long-term strategy and making decisions on the fly that they hoped might just save them.

In CRASH LANDING, business journalist Liz Hoffman takes readers into the beating heart of the twenty-first-century economy, via the inside of boardrooms and private jets, revealing how the pandemic exposed its pressure points. Hoffman brings the giants of finance to life and is masterful at getting them to talk - some of the major players include AirBnB, American Airlines, Hilton, Morgan Stanley, Ford, and investor Peter Ackman. She has terrific reporting skills, matched by a rare talent for also being able to create an engrossing narrative. She probes the pandemic's implications for the future of work, corporate leadership, and capitalism itself, asking: Will this remarkable time give rise to newfound resilience, or become just another costly mistake to be forgotten? CRASH LANDING is a Too Big To Fail for this new crisis.

Liz Hoffman was recently named the business and finance editor at Semafor, the new global news startup launching in Fall 2022 backed by over $25 million in initial funding. Hoffman was previously a longtime senior reporter for The Wall Street Journal, where she covered financial markets, corporate dealmaking, and the machinations of Wall Street, breaking numerous front page stories that have driven international coverage of the financial world . A native of central Pennsylvania, she graduated from Tufts University and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and lives in Brooklyn.
Available products
Book

Published 2023-03-07 by Crown

Book

Published 2023-03-07 by Crown

Comments

There is a reason Liz Hoffman is known in journalism circles as a scoop machine: she gets people to talk. In Crash Landing she takes us inside the heads of the business world's biggest power players as they stare at an economic abyss. The result is a riveting chronicle of the boardroom brinksmanship that - mostly - succeeded, but also how this unprecedented era exposed new risks and thrust an uncomfortable spotlight on the role of corporate leaders that will endure.

A well-informed perspective on a devastating crisis.

Crash Landing is a true masterwork. Liz Hoffman's perceptive, well researched, and captivating look at how COVID transformed the business and financial industries should be on the shelf of every student of the business world.

Liz Hoffman offers something fresh and much needed: an insider tale of what it takes to steer a company - indeed, an economy - through a shock that nobody saw coming. The aspiring C-suite class should take note.

A momentous story told with the urgency of Too Big to Fail and the unforgettable characterizations of The Big Short.

CRASH LANDING is named to the SABEW Best in Business Book Awards shortlist!

A rare look inside the split-second, high-stakes decisions at the top of America's corporate giants. This book reflects Liz Hoffman's rare combination of valuable gifts: vivid writing, incredible access and sourcing, and actual insight.

UK/BC: Hodder Studio/Hodder ; Chinese (simpl.): Citic ; Dutch: Uitgeverij Balans ; Japanese: Hayakawa ; Korean: Content Group Forest Corp. ; Portuguese (Brazil): Alta ; Vietnamese: Tre Publishing House

This book reads like a suspense thriller because that's what it is, even though every word is true.

Hoffman takes readers behind the scenes to show how corporate, business and government leaders responded to a once-in-century calamity. Crash Landing is full of drama. Those eager to prepare for the next crisis should read this book and heed its lessons.

Savvy analysis and colorful reportage make this an engrossing boardroom view of an economic cataclysm.

Nice announcement about Liz Hoffman in Axios and her move to Semafor Read more...