Embracing the Black Swan: How Resilient Organizations Survive and Thrive Under Geopolitical and Macroeconomic Risks

In a world that is becoming ever more complex, the ability to deal with ’black swan’ events - such as climate change, wars, natural disasters, economic recession, and pandemics - has become critical for business, technical and political leaders. This book, aimed at both academics and practitioners, shows how to create a framework for resilience that will help organizations not only survive but to thrive. The author examines some organizations that are often seen as highly resilient and considers how ’Resilience Thinking’ affects different disciplines and environments, including politics, economy, and technology. His findings are used to demonstrate how resilience works and how it is applied in practice. A discussion on how problems are addressed in practical terms, and of the relationship between resilience and other knowledge areas such as complexity theory, strategy, and risk management - from both top-down and bottom-up perspectives - is included. Situations are identified where there is a particular need for resilience, and an overview of the best ways of implementing a resilience process is offered.

Khalil Dindarian has been an engineering professional and leader at Siemens since 1995. With three decades of experience, leading and executing complex portfolios covering business development & strategy, sales, and project execution, he is an expert in both the theory and practice of a range of critical areas: strategy, organizational resilience, business agility, complexity, project management, and risk-&-uncertainty management. He combined his extensive experience and his deep knowledge of geopolitics and macroeconomics to earn a Ph.D. (University of Manchester, UK) in developing resilience against emerging risks and adverse events.