This chapter explores the concepts of harm and risk and translates them to the strategy and culture context. The peer-reviewed and gray literature speak to generic hazards and threats whose consequences might be amplified by cultural and information behaviors and actions. This chapter takes the discussion of hazards and risks one step further by speaking to specific hazards and threats related to organizations' business and information cultures and information strategies. The business literature tells us that the rate of strategic failure is somewhere between 60% and 90%. The authors describe several common risk factors that can be addressed by redefining the strategic planning process. The ISO 31000/31010 risk management process is adapted to account for these factors.
TopManaging Strategic Risk
Strategic risks occur for many reasons (Borek Parlikad and Woodall, 2011; Borek, Woodall and Parlikad, 2011; Borek et al., 2011; Clark, 2013; Hardy and Williams, 2010; Jarvelainen, 2012; Khidzir, Arshad and Mohamed, 2010; Lemieux, 2004; Mitchell, 2009). At this stage in the process, we want to identify the reasons and design a remedy that will reduce the risk to a level we can tolerate. The business literature tells us that the rate of strategic failure is somewhere between 60% and 90%. These levels of failure are neither acceptable nor sustainable in the knowledge economy. It is critical to business success that we identify and reduce the most common risk factors. The authors highlight the most common risk factors referenced in the literature. These risk factors will be very familiar to the reader at this point.