He offers five topics that make most leaders feel uncomfortable (the limitations of their own knowledge, the younger generation, diversity, the future, and their own relevance) - and notes how we tend to ignore or avoid those topics, rather than exploring and becoming comfortable with them.
The methods they used to avoid detection were straight out of a crime novel - they wrote cryptic notes using numbers and letters and spoke in code on the phone.
Gerstein notes that the industry is dealing with its fair share of challenges, as customers increasingly avoid brick-and-mortar establishments in favor of shopping online.