Catastrophic Risk - Business Strategy for Managing Turbulence in a World At Risk

Imagine that you are a corporate executive or small business owner in a midwestern city under water after weeks of extreme weather and drenching rainfall. Infrastructure has been damaged beyond repair, transportation arteries are closed, and your supply chain is broken. Families have been driven from homes, food and water are in short supply, and people are becoming unruly. Government agencies are not in a position to help. Declining revenue and partisan antipathy fueled by ideological differences have eroded confidence in government. The city is in total disrepair and unable to deliver desperately needed services. It is edging toward implosion and community leaders have turned to you for help.

Catastrophe that would have been unthinkable in earlier times is a reality in a world coming out of pandemic and facing existential threats such as climate change, inequality and global conflict. Catastrophic Risk: Business Strategy for Managing Turbulence in a World at Risk challenges business to step up and assume a pivotal role with communities under stress due to prolonged exposure to risk. When powerful societal forces meet behavior that deters response to risk, the consequences of risk are exacerbated. The compounding effect of behavior on risk has opened an important role for business in mobilizing people and communities in times of crisis. It is a role that cannot be fulfilled, however, without purpose, strategy and plans sufficiently robust to overcome the threat of risk. To prosper in this environment, business will need to make a significant contribution to society as well as to deliver financial performance. For companies, this will mean involvement in community in ways that significantly depart from current practice. For leaders, it will mean new skills-contextual sensitivity, a greater understanding of behavioral dynamics, and enhanced capacity to relate to people on an emotive basis.

This book is about the relationship between risk, societal forces and human behavior-a relationship informed by the sciences that is critically important for business. Its goal is two-fold: to bring catastrophic risk to the world of business and to further business engagement in service to the common good.

List of contents

PART ONE: SETTING THE CONTEXT Chapter 1. A World at Risk Chapter 2. Deterrents to Action PART TWO: CHALLENGES AND DETERRENTS Chapter 3. The Power and Peril of Pandemic Chapter 4. Climate Change: Default, Mitigation, or Adaptation? Chapter 5. Social Inequality Chapter 6. Polarization: Factions, Filters and Antipathy Chapter 7. Changing Social Norms Chapter 8. Navigating and Falling Behind Change PART THREE: SHAPING THE FUTURE Chapter 9. Rethinking Business Purpose and Strategy Chapter 10. Mobilizing

About the author

Richard Alfred is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the graduate faculty at Michigan in 1980, he served as an executive officer in the City University of New York and the Metropolitan Community Colleges in Kansas City, Missouri. He is the author of numerous books among them Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders: Context, Challenges and Capabilities (2015), Performance: The Dynamic of Results in Postsecondary Organizations (2012), and an award-winning book on organizational strategy, Managing the Big Picture in Colleges and Universities: From Tactics to Strategy (2006). Over the course of a 50-year career in academe, he has consulted with hundreds of organizations in the areas of strategy, organizational effectiveness and performance, and leadership. Foresight into the future—a hallmark of his books and written works—has shaped management and leadership practice in colleges and universities throughout North America.
Dick holds a baccalaureate degree from Allegheny College and masters and doctoral degrees from Penn State University. He and his wife Pat reside in Ocean Park, Maine.

Summary

Imagine that you are a corporate executive or small business owner in a midwestern city under water after weeks of extreme weather and drenching rainfall. Infrastructure has been damaged beyond repair, transportation arteries are closed, and your supply chain is broken.

Additional text

"In Catastrophic Risk, author Richard Alfred provides us the 21st Century version of Silent Spring, which foretold the risk to an earlier generation of the risk of complacency during a time of obvious, pending catastrophe. The world responded and now bald eagle populations are literally soaring. The risks we now face are on a much grander scale than we've ever seen. In this crisis, lies an epic opportunity where people will thrive on what makes us the most human: Creativity, Imagination, Invention and Innovation. These traits will unveil unprecedented opportunities for those who embrace their power on the economic, governmental, social, business, technological and entrepreneurial frontiers."

Richard SheridanCEO, and Chief Storyteller of Menlo InnovationsAuthor, Joy, Inc. - How We Built a Workplace People LoveChief Joy Officer - How Great Leaders Eliminate Fear and Elevate Human Energy
"Catastrophic Risk presents a critical examination of the fragile and perilous world in which we inhabit. Richard Alfred, a researcher, author and professor emeritus of effective leadership, offers us an unvarnished analysis of the COVID pandemic, climate change, growing income and social inequity and other natural and man-made challenges that threaten to upend the social, political, and economic world order. Through his careful and thoughtful narrative, Alfred makes a compelling case that we, as human beings, possess the natural abilities of intelligence, creativity, and survival instinct to both understand, anticipate, and in many cases, prepare for and mitigate risk. Fundamentally, it’s a question of leadership and the ability to build commitment and momentum to effect real and long-lasting change. Those of us in leadership positions with opportunities to influence must take heed of Alfred’s clarion call and mobilize our constituencies and communities to bring about a more just, equitable and sustainable world."

J. Noah BrownPresident and CEOAssociation of Community College Trustees

Product details

• Authors: Richard Alfred, Richard L Alfred, Richard L. Alfred
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.09.2021
• EAN: 9780367423865
• ISBN: 978-0-367-42386-5
• No. of pages: 220
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Business > Miscellaneous