Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty: Creating The Risk Intelligent Enterprise

A new book to help senior executives and boards get smart about risk management

The ability of businesses to survive and thrive often requires unconventional thinking and calculated risk taking. The key is to make the right decisions―even under the most risky, uncertain, and turbulent conditions.

In the new book, Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty: Creating the Risk Intelligent Enterprise, authors Rick Funston and Steve Wagner suggest that effective risk taking is needed in order to innovate, stay competitive, and drive value creation.

Based on their combined decades of experience as practitioners, consultants, and advisors to numerous business professionals throughout the world, Funston and Wagner discuss the adoption of 10 essential and practical skills, which will improve agility, resilience, and realize benefits:

• Challenging basic business assumptions can help identify "Black Swans" and provide first-mover advantage
• Defining the corporate risk appetite and risk tolerances can help reduce the risk of ruin.
• Anticipating potential causes of failure can improve chances of survival and success through improved preparedness.
• Factoring in velocity and momentum can improve speed of response and recovery.
• Verifying sources and the reliability of information can improve insights for decision making and thus decision quality.
• Taking a longer-term perspective can aid in identifying the potential unintended consequences of short-term decisions.

FREDERICK FUNSTON is a principal with Deloitte & Touche LLP and has more than thirty years of experience working with leaders of numerous global companies. In 2000, Rick created the concept of risk intelligence for value creation and value protection. He is a frequent speaker and writer on leveraging risk intelligence for competitive advantage in complex, global organizations.

STEPHEN WAGNER is a nationally recognized thought leader on corporate governance. In 2009, Steve retired as the managing partner of Deloitte LLP's Center for Corporate Governance, where he led the firm's integrated strategy for governance services. He is a frequent speaker at governance conferences and directors' colleges and has authored or contributed to numerous articles on governance and risk.