Strategic Risk and Crisis Management: A Handbook for Modelling and Managing Complex Risks

From natural disasters to cyber-attacks to global pandemics, the modern risk environment is highly complex and challenges our fundamental understanding of risk and crisis management.

All senior risk and crisis managers face a similar challenge: maximizing their organization’s ability to prepare for a potential high-impact event. Blending practical insights with rigorous research, Strategic Risk and Crisis Management provides a range of realistic solutions for any operational environment. It introduces concepts, frameworks and processes that will allow businesses to not only survive but respond and recover at a time of maximum chaos and confusion.

Authored by a recognized global authority on the strategic management of complex events, the book covers the integration of multiple stakeholders and the importance of information exchange and critical decision-making under pressure at strategic, tactical and operational levels. It also includes material on leadership, sense-making, resilience, wicked problems and the challenges of global urban resilience, as well as case studies with detailed analysis of organizational failures and the lessons learned, including COVID-19, the WannaCry attack, the Texas snowstorm, and the Gatwick Airport Drone Incident. Strategic Risk and Crisis Management is an essential read for professionals working in security, risk, crisis management and emergency response. It will also be a valuable text for university students taking modules on security, risk, emergency response and crisis management.

Dr David Rubens is Executive Director of The Institute of Strategic Risk Management and the CEO of Deltar Training Solutions Ltd, based in London, UK. He is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth and a Visiting Lecturer on Strategic Leadership at Cranfield University. He is a recognised authority on the strategic management of complex events. He is a member of the UK Critical Infrastructure Resilience Executive Steering Committee and has served twice as a Main Board Director of the UK Security Institute.

Simon Rüegger is Assistant Director at Ernst and Young (EY) and is based in Zurich, Switzerland. At EY, he leads the corporate security functions for Switzerland and Austria and sits on the working groups for strategic global resilience and security initiatives. He is also a member of the Europe West CBS Young Leadership Board.