Risky strategy : understanding risk to improve strategic decisions

Cover -- Contents -- 1 Introduction: A tale of two cities -- Working with the tensions -- What this book offers you as a leader -- My story and my sources -- 2 When strategy gets risky -- Crossing a road -- Why strategies don't make choices -- Linear strategic thinking -- The problem is in the implementation, or is it? -- Risk management as an afterthought -- A closer look at success and failure -- SMaC's deliver results -- Strategy is reducing risk or is it? The core process story -- Strategy for managers, risk for experts -- Risk is taboo -- Avoid the polarizing errors -- Choose when to risk -- 3 From strategy to character -- Introducing the Blonay Profiler -- Modelling character tensions -- Organizational character at the heart of strategy -- Researching modern slavery -- The impact of major UK retail brands -- 4 Understanding risk -- The psychology of definition -- Risk as variability -- Risk as crisis - a public management view -- Understanding variables -- Risk as cause and effect -- Whose risk is it? -- Risk plays uncertainty -- Working with risk - Ashridge research -- Tigers and elephants -- Fast and slow thinking -- 5 Elephants and formal risk management -- Generic forms of mitigation -- Risk-return -- Risk-return in strategic decision making - 'Make' or 'Buy' -- Break-even and financial gearing -- Ansoff Roulette -- The dangers of misunderstanding risk-return -- The impact of risk on the value of capital -- 6 Tigers and informal risk -- Elephants are 'Be perfect' -- tigers are 'Hurry up' -- Tigers, elephants, the drivers and the character profiler -- Tigers and information -- Tigers enjoy working with variability -- Physiological factors -- The testosterone winner effect -- What makes you come alive -- 7 Games of the mind -- Risk management -- Risk compensation -- Black swans and turkeys -- Confirmation bias -- Cognitive inertia.