Showing titles in Insurance

Life is uncertain. We are all the result of an unforeseen and unforeseeable sequence of small occurrences. But what underlies this fragile chain of events? Is it random or just complex? And what role does luck play in our lives? David Spiegelhalter has spent his career crunching data in order to help understand uncertainty and assess the chances of what might happen. In The Art of Uncertainty, he gives listeners a window onto how we can all do this better.

A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives. Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications, The Black Swan will change the way you look at the world.

The Failure of Risk Management provides effective solutions to significant faults in current risk analysis methods. Conventional approaches to managing risk lack accurate quantitative analysis methods, yielding strategies that can actually make things worse. Many widely used methods have no systems to measure performance, resulting in inaccurate selection and ineffective application of risk management strategies. These fundamental flaws propagate unrealistic perceptions of risk in business, government, and the general public.

In this unique exploration of the role of risk in our society, Peter Bernstein argues that the notion of bringing risk under control is one of the central ideas that distinguishes modern times from the distant past. Against the Gods chronicles the remarkable intellectual adventure that liberated humanity from oracles and soothsayers by means of the powerful tools of risk management that are available to us today.

Created for risk professionals and non-risk professionals alike, this easy-to-understand guide helps you meet the increasingly insistent demand to make sophisticated assessments of companies' risk exposure. It provides the latest methods for measuring and transferring credit risk, increasing risk-management transparency, and implementing an organization-wide Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) approach.

Andy Lazris, MD, is a practicing primary care physician who experiences the effects of Medicare policy on a daily basis. As a result, he believes that the way we care for our elderly has taken a wrong turn and that Medicare is complicit in creating the very problems it seeks to solve. Aging is not a disease to be cured; it is a life stage to be lived. Lazris argues that aggressive treatments cannot change that fact but only get in the way and decrease quality of life.

There are dramatic differences in health between countries and within countries. But this is not a simple matter of rich and poor. These health inequalities defy usual explanations. Conventional approaches to improving health have emphasised access to technical solutions – improved medical care, sanitation, and control of disease vectors; or behaviours – smoking, drinking – obesity, linked to diabetes, heart disease and cancer. These approaches only go so far.

Conklin’s audiobook is an interesting and informal discussion with the listener about the five principles of human performance; principle by principle, section by section. These five theories about how humans perform in organizations are principles, the building blocks of human performance, through which we have established a new way to think about safety and reliability in our worlds...and changing the way we think about work is a vital step toward improvement.

After years as a consultant to some of the world's biggest brands and having owned 10 companies himself, Troy Hazard has learned crucial lessons on predicting potential business issues before you experience them. Now Troy offers you the skills to prepare your business for a better future. Along with his stories of what works, he also shares his experiences of what doesn't work.

From the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, the subject of the 2007-08 financial crisis has been well covered. However, the story central to the crisis - that of AIG - has until now remained largely untold. Fatal Risk: A Cautionary Tale of AIG's Corporate Suicide tells the inside story of what really went on inside AIG that caused it to choke on risk and nearly bring down the entire economic system.

Building on its successful predecessors, the third edition of The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error' will show a new way of dealing with a perceived "human error" problem in your organization. It will help you trace how your organization juggles inherent trade-offs between safety and other pressures and expectations, suggesting that you are not the custodian of an already safe system. It will encourage you to start looking more closely at the performance that others may still call "human error", allowing you to discover how your people create safety through practice, at all levels of your organization, mostly successfully, under the pressure of resource constraints and multiple conflicting goals.

In How I Rob Banks: And Other Such Places, renowned ethical hacker FC delivers a gripping and often hilarious discussion of his work: testing the limits of physical bank security by trying to "steal" money, data, and anything else he can get his hands on. In the book, you'll explore the secretive world of physical assessments and follow FC as he breaks into banks and secure government locations to identify security flaws and loopholes.

What will your 100-year life look like? Does the thought of working for 60 or 70 years fill you with dread? Or can you see the potential for a more stimulating future as a result of having so much extra time? Many of us have been raised on the traditional notion of a three-stage approach to our working lives: education, followed by work and then retirement. But this well-established pathway is already beginning to collapse.

A legendary CEO tells the inside story of building the world's largest insurance company - and the dramatic tale of its near-destruction after he left in early 2005, as successors transformed AIG and drove it to the center of the financial crisis of 2008.

Extensively updated, the second edition of Fundamentals of Enterprise Risk Management examines the latest technologies, such as Riskonnect and High Tech Electronic Platform (HTEP), and helps listeners recognize both internal and external exposures, understand crucial concepts such as risk mapping and risk identification, and align risk opportunities with their organizations' business models.

One in five Americans now has medical debt in collections and rising health care costs today threaten every small business in America. Dr Makary, one of the nation's leading health care experts, travels across America and details why health care has become a bubble. Drawing from on-the-ground stories, his research and his own experience, The Price We Pay paints a vivid picture of price-gouging, middlemen and a series of elusive money games in need of a serious shake-up.

Cyber risk management is one of the most urgent issues facing enterprises today. This book presents a detailed framework for designing, developing, and implementing a cyber risk management program that addresses your company's specific needs. Ideal for corporate directors, senior executives, security risk practitioners, and auditors at many levels, this guide offers both the strategic insight and tactical guidance you're looking for.

Real-world war stories from the front lines of D&O Insurance to illustrate the importance of various principles. The book contains a chapter of career advice from more than 60 senior insurance executives, including 25 current or former CEOs.

Hedging Demystified is an essential guide to any business that deals with commodities, debt, international trade, or weather. This primer on hedging brings clarity and direction to make your business more sustainable.

Finance is shrouded in mystery for outsiders, while many insiders are uneasy with the disrepute of their profession. How can finance become more accessible and also recover its nobility? Harvard Business School professor Mihir Desai takes up the cause of restoring humanity to finance. With deft wit, he draws upon a rich knowledge of literature, film, history, and philosophy to explain finance's inner workings.