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TUESDAY

In the great tradition of books that draw lessons on corporate leadership from the lives of ruthless powermongers—perhaps you’ve read Purging Failure: Stalin’s Seven Strategies for Corporate Success?—Jeffrey A. Krames brings us The Rumsfeld Way: The Leadership Wisdom of a Battle-Hardened Maverick. Krames examines Donald Rumsfeld’s stints as ruthless White House powerbroker, really ruthless CEO for GD Searle & Co., and super-duper ruthless secretary of defense to show us how we can be more, you know, ruthless in our personal and professional lives. What leadership strategies are to be learned from Rumsfeld, America’s flinty Pentagon head? After all, “liquidating” the enemy may be integral to winning a war on terrorism, but one wonders whether it’s a viable strategy for, say, running a Pizza Hut. Then again, if I ran a Pizza Hut, I’d read it just to be on the safe side. Because God only knows what ruthless strategies the Domino’s people are cooking up. Krames reads at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 3040 M St. NW. Free. (202) 965-9880. (Michael Little)