Entrepreneurs and executives face risks daily. Competitors, markets, technology, politics, climate, health — all can dramatically impact a business and career. Here’s a rundown of new, forthcoming, and classic books on recognizing and mitigating risks. The authors are notable researchers, leaders, and risk-avoidance practitioners.
The Art of Uncertainty: How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luck
The Art of Uncertainty
by David Spiegelhalter
Coming in March, this book is already hailed as lively, entertaining, insightful, and witty — not terms often applied to numbers! The author, knighted for his work on medical statistics, illuminates life’s uncertainties — balancing risks and benefits of medical treatments, predicting sports wins and losses, facing the unknowable — with real-world examples and more than 60 illustrations.
Risk-Proof Your Business: The Complete Guide to Smart Insurance Choices
Risk-Proof Your Business
by Michael Gay and Patrick Wraight
The right insurance policies are key to reducing risks such as lawsuits, accidents, and other losses. But how can you be sure you have the right kind and amount of coverage for your situation? Gay and Wraight explain all aspects of insurance clearly, providing an understandable guide to navigating and mitigating business risks.
On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything
On the Edge
By Nate Silver
In his third bestseller, Silver focuses on “professional risk-takers” — poker players, hedge fund managers, crypto mavens, art collectors — and the common traits that have made them wealthy and powerful and how their (sometimes flawed) mindsets are important drivers of technology and the global economy.
Shocks, Crises, and False Alarms: How to Assess True Macroeconomic Risk
Shocks, Crises, False Alarms
by Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak and Paul Swartz
A Financial Times Best Book of 2024, Shocks, Crises aims to help business leaders avoid the contradictory traps of being fooled by false alarms or failing to recognize real changes in local and global markets and economies.
Playing with Reality: How Games Have Shaped Our World
Playing with Reality
by Kelly Clancy
The Economist calls this book “provocative and fascinating” and, along with The Guardian, included it in the Best Books of 2024. Clancy, a neuroscientist and physicist, reviews how games have shaped human culture from the Enlightenment to today, showing that game theory still underlies many assumptions in economics, politics, and technology.
How to Listen When Markets Speak: Risks, Myths, and Investment Opportunities
How to Listen When Markets Speak
by Lawrence G. McDonald and James Patrick Robinson
McDonald is a former Lehman Brothers vice president and author of the bestseller about its collapse, “A Colossal Failure of Common Sense.” In this new book, he challenges old assumptions about economics and offers thought-provoking insights on the factors that will shape the financial future in what he believes is a radically altered world economy.
Management of Political Risks: Fundamentals and Tools for Executives and Entrepreneurs
Management of Political Risks
by Marc-Felix Otto
Geopolitical risks can endanger companies, shake up entire industries, and even threaten national economies. Otto, a strategy and management consultant with international expertise, shares his approach to identifying, avoiding, and managing such risks while finding ways to turn them into competitive advantages.
A Crash Course on Crises: Macroeconomic Concepts for Run-Ups, Collapses, and Recoveries
A Crash Course on Crises
by Markus K. Brunnermeier and Ricardo Reis
Writing clearly on the latest cutting-edge research, two top economists explain what we know about financial crises and how they can spread and intensify, drawing lessons from real-life case studies.
Risk: A User’s Guide
Risk: A User’s Guide
by General Stanley McChrystal with Anna Butrico
The author, a retired U.S. four-star general, presents a system for detecting and responding to risk developed from his extensive military and business experience. Using a simple framework that defines 10 key risk dimensions, he provides practical exercises to help readers address each.
The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
The Biggest Bluff
by Maria Konnikova
After a run of personal bad luck, psychologist Konnikova became a tournament-winning professional poker player. She shares what she learned about human nature, making good decisions, and luck in this acclaimed New York Times bestseller.
Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
Against the Gods
by Peter L. Bernstein
Though published in 1998, this worldwide bestseller still holds the top spot in risk management titles on Amazon. Bernstein’s lively and engaging history argues that the idea of risk propelled humankind from primitive belief in soothsayers and oracles to the creation of today’s sophisticated risk-management methods and tools.
