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Title details for Political Risk by Condoleezza Rice - Available

Political Risk

How Businesses and Organizations Can Anticipate Global Insecurity

by Condoleezza Rice
Amy B. Zegart
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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From New York Times bestselling author and former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and Stanford University professor Amy B. Zegart comes an examination of the rapidly evolving state of political risk, and how to navigate it.
The world is changing fast. Political risk-the probability that a political action could significantly impact a company's business-is affecting more businesses in more ways than ever before. A generation ago, political risk mostly involved a handful of industries dealing with governments in a few frontier markets. Today, political risk stems from a widening array of actors, including Twitter users, local officials, activists, terrorists, hackers, and more. The very institutions and laws that were supposed to reduce business uncertainty and risk are often having the opposite effect. In today's globalized world, there are no "safe" bets.
POLITICAL RISK investigates and analyzes this evolving landscape, what businesses can do to navigate it, and what all of us can learn about how to better understand and grapple with these rapidly changing global political dynamics. Drawing on lessons from the successes and failures of companies across multiple industries as well as examples from aircraft carrier operations, NASA missions, and other unusual places, POLITICAL RISK offers a first-of-its-kind framework that can be deployed in any organization, from startups to Fortune 500 companies.
Organizations that take a serious, systematic approach to political risk management are likely to be surprised less often and recover better. Companies that don't get these basics right are more likely to get blindsided.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 1, 2018

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781478914792
      • File size: 246862 KB
      • Duration: 08:34:17

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 12, 2018
      Rice (Democracy), the former U.S. secretary of state and a political economy professor at Stanford's business school, and Zegart (Eyes on Spies), senior fellow at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, and the Hoover Institution, distill the advice they convey to M.B.A. students on how companies should handle political risks ranging from indignant activists on Twitter to hostile foreign states with teams of dedicated hackers. The text offers a detailed framework for responding, illustrated with true stories of corporate nightmares (including those of SeaWorld, which failed to properly respond to a critical documentary film and related viral tweets, and Sony Pictures, which had internal emails stolen, allegedly by North Korea) and risk-management exemplars (notably FedEx, which employs "a bevy of meteorologists working around the clock"). The framework's steps-understand, analyze, mitigate, and respond-are broken down in separate chapters, with useful questions business leaders must ask ("How can we limit the damage if something bad happens?") and actions they should take (forming a crisis team ahead of time with defined roles). Clearly written and timely, this book will interest not only current and future business executives but also would-be whistle-blowers and corporate watchdogs. Agent: Wayne S. Kabak, WSK Management.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Developed from a Stanford MBA course, this well-crafted analysis is made even more accessible by narrator Grace Angela Henry's audible connection with the authors' ideas. Her serious tone fits the topic--global threats to business security and economic stability--but her warm and comfortable delivery keeps the weighty subject matter from sounding too heavy. Political scientists Rice (former secretary of state) and Zegart provide a cogent framework for anticipating, managing, and recovering from business disruptions, which they say can come from grassroots movements--against SeaWorld for its treatment of whales, for example--and from both government and impromptu political forces--such as Venezuela's banning of Coke Zero and the Charlie Hebdo attack. The audio is a shining example of how well-developed thinking and the right narrator can make a complex subject sound immensely absorbing. T.W. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
    • Kirkus

      Starred review from March 15, 2018
      Former Secretary of State Rice (Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom, 2017, etc.) and Zegart (Eyes on Spies: Congress and the United States Intelligence Community, 2011, etc.), both Stanford political scientists, describe how political risk can affect businesses--and what to do about it.SeaWorld is devastated by online social activism over its mistreatment of killer whales. Sony Entertainment loses trade secrets to hackers. Kazakhstan becomes independent, and Chevron faces a nightmare over an oil-and-gas concession in the dissolving Soviet Republic. Such are the new dangers--from geopolitics to cyberthreats and terrorism--facing corporations in the turbulent global landscape of "unprecedented" economic opportunities and political risks of the past 30 years. During this period, societal changes--e.g., supply chain innovations, the communications revolution, and post-Cold War politics--have given rise to potentially harmful actions by individuals with cellphones, local officials using city ordinances, terrorists using truck bombs, and the U.N. imposing sanctions. Now, write the authors, "anyone armed with a cell phone or a Twitter or Facebook account can create political risks." Based on a Stanford seminar taught by the authors, the book examines the "notoriously difficult" job of managing the countless political risks that businesses face. Some firms excel, notably FedEx, Marriott, Disney, and the Lego Group as well as many cruise lines, chemical companies, law firms, tech companies, and others. Some have even created "mini-CIAs." Drawing on research, interviews, and their own experiences, Rice and Zegart provide detailed examples of companies that have succeeded or failed in meeting the new challenges and outline key ways to approach risks: Get good information. Build trusting relationships. Analyze continually. Integrate political risk analysis into business decision-making. As the authors write in closing, "the most effective organizations have three big things in common: They take political risk seriously, they approach it systematically, and they lead from the top."A carefully assembled, thorough book that should be required reading for corporate leaders.

      COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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