Mastering Catastrophic Risk: How Companies Are Coping with Disruption - Hardcover

Kunreuther, Howard; Useem, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0190499400 ISBN 13: 9780190499402

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2018

Synopsis

A profound and insightful look at how company leaders prepare for and respond to shocks and crises that threaten their business.

Successful firms strategically manage and are more accurate in their assessment of large-scale risks. Doing so is increasingly challenging given the pace of change, whether financial, technological, regulatory, or environmental. Mastering Catastrophic Risk provides real-world practical insights into how large companies are responding to this new reality and develops a framework for smarter thinking about events that can damage a business.

As leading authorities on risk management, strategy, and company leadership, Howard Kunreuther and Michael Useem take us on a groundbreaking tour of firms' decision making process. They demonstrate how improving readiness for and resilience against future shocks is now an integral part of company strategy. Using the "DISRUPT" model they have developed, they highlight the seven primary Drivers of disruption: Interdependencies increase exposure; Short-term focus results in limited vision; Regulations require change and constrain opportunities; Urbanization increases the costs of disasters; Probabilities of disasters have increased; and Transparency has enhanced public awareness of problems and impacts on firms' reputations.

Some disruptions can be anticipated, while others arrive without warning. Their onset stresses decision makers, impairs company operations, and may even put the enterprise at risk. The bottom-line: business leaders and their governing boards face ever more challenging disruptions and must be ever more on guard. If your company is hit tomorrow, will it bounce back, or drown?

About this title

About the Author:

Howard Kunreuther is the James G. Dinan Professor of Decision Sciences and Public Policy and Co-Director of the Center for Risk Management and Decision Processes at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Michael Useem is the William and Jaclyn Egan Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Review:

"Mastering Catastrophic Risk is a timely and indispensable guide for corporate boards and executives contemplating an increasing variety of high consequence risks. Globalization, financial concentration, climate change, and political volatility have heightened the intensity and range of potential disruptions that may impact enterprises. This volume crisply lays out a disciplined and practical set of approaches for identifying and preparing for high impact enterprise risks." --Michael Chertoff, Former United States Secretary of Homeland Security

"This interesting book uses interviews and case studies from the business world to identify 21 categories of risk faced by publicly traded companies and to draw useful lessons about how to prepare for them." - Richard N. Cooper, Foreign Affairs

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0190499400
• ISBN 13: 9780190499402
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 250