Risk Intelligence: Learning to Manage What We Don't Know

by David Apgar

Too many executives think risk management is strictly for technical specialists. In Risk Intelligence: Learning to Manage What We Don’t Know, David Apgar challenges this misconception. The author explains how to raise the quality of your risk analysis—-thus enhancing your “risk IQ”—-by applying four simple rules:
1) Recognize which risks are learnable—and reduce their uncertainty by discovering more about them.
2) Identify risks you can learn about the fastest. The higher your learning speed, the more a project is worth pursuing.
3) Take on risky projects one at a time—learning about the risks underlying each before moving to the next.
4) Build networks of business partners, suppliers, and customers who can collectively manage new ventures’ risks by playing distinct roles.

The book provides two tools for improving your risk IQ—the Risk Intelligence Audit and the Risk Scorecard—and concludes with a 10-step action plan for systematically raising your managerial and organizational risk IQ. Your reward? Smarter business decisions over time.

Genres: Management, Business

210 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Scott]

There are some great principles in this book that are worth exploring but the book is not really well written and is not really just risk intelligence but rather business and project risk assessment.

[Matt]

So far only OK - it didn't hold my attention for very long. Perhaps the reason is because the author doesn't really provide anything very practical to base the theories on. The topic seems to be just "risk" in whatever form you choose. I may upgrade my rating after giving the book another shot.