Risk, Opportunity and Performance. The Art of Taking Worthwhile Risks by Clive Deadman (28 June 2025)

Summary

Risk, Opportunity, and Performance explores the realm of strategic risk-taking from psychological, personal, and business perspectives, tracing 8,000 years of human evolution to the present day.

To drive growth and performance, regulators, board members, local leaders, and front-line staff must decide their level of ambition, manage risks, and learn from acceptable losses. Coordinated and controlled risk-based systems, processes and organisational cultures are essential for this. The approaches used by high growth enterprises, banks, property and infrastructure, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, medicine and fraudsters can be very different. We explore why this is so and how different industries can learn from other sectors.

Through extensive research and inspiring and sometimes tragic case studies the book examines how visionary leaders have used modern risk management systems and emotionally intelligent leadership styles to succeed in an increasingly risk-averse environment. With the rise of modern information systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning it explores how risks can be better managed, allowing us to focus more on identifying and seizing opportunities.