Much has been said of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s leadership style, but few will deny her enduring skill in the power game and her steely nerves in fighting within that arena. She has repelled impeachment attempts as well as coup attempts. In the past decade, she twice landed in the top 10 of Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s most powerful women.

            But Presidential leadership is not only about political battles. It is more about managing the politics and bureaucracy to get things done in a struggling nation such as the Philippines. This means taking the long view, staying the course and hitting the mark.

             Beating the Odds describes events as they happened, and how the Chief Executive and her team made policies and took action on key issues facing the Filipino people at the onset of the last decade. It takes a close-up of her style of leadership—intuitive, seemingly loosely structured, but highly disciplined and hands-on.

            The stories depict the top-level meetings, crisis tides, consensus taking and conflict-resolution points that marked each relevant policy and operational decision; and shows the milestones when the leader crossed the bridge and took decisive action—then moved forward.

            This book mirrors the best of institutional governance and crisis management in the Philippines, the oldest democracy in Asia.