Cultural Calamity: Culture Driven Risk Management Disasters and How to Avoid Them

On average, a company will lose 25% of its revenue from an organizational disaster – and that’s the good news. The average cost to have prevented it? Less than one-tenth of 1%. But that’s not the worst of it; in virtually every case, the organization’s leadership will already know this…

Cultural Calamity: Culture Driven Risk Management Disasters and How to Avoid Them presents Joseph W. Mayo's breakthrough theory on the surprising relationship between organizational culture and disaster. Exploring over a century of such disasters, Mayo introduces his groundbreaking Risk Hurricane model, which identifies the perfect conditions for organizational disaster. A must read for both risk practitioner and business leadership, Mayo clearly and concisely describes the solution to risk hurricanes with real-world examples and current industry case-studies.

Cultural Calamity is divided into two parts. Part I "Culture Traits that Foretell Disaster," sets the context for understanding the impact of organizational culture on risk management.

Part II, “Navigating the Risk Hurricane,” examines case studies that illustrate organizational culture problems that led to catastrophic failures resulting in death and billions of dollars in financial impact. Part II also provides recommendations, proven best practices, and techniques that help organizations improve their risk culture and avoid risk management disasters.

“Building on concepts outlined in his first book, “Chaos to Clarity – The Tao of Risk Management”, Joseph Mayo clarifies the application of a few relatively simple concepts and principles to real world situations, some of which fundamentally changed the business world in which we live. His analysis of some infamous calamities such as the Challenger Disaster and the BP Oil Spill and several others show how basic and easily correctable flaws in an underlying organizational culture made these debacles all but inevitable. Cultural Calamity is a very skillful presentation of an elegantly simple but robust framework that can be applied across a surprisingly broad range of corporate and government environments to prevent the types of costly disasters which are discussed.“— Bret M., Associate Director, Environmental Health and Safety, North Dakota State University

"Joe is absolutely spot on with his observations of culture being fundamental to sound risk management. Culture makes or breaks an organization. Storytelling is one of the most effective ways to get your point across and any risk practitioner worth their salt should be able to tell tales, like the ones Joe has collected here, and use them to influence their own audience. The risk management toolkit presented here is contemporary best practice and this book forms a much-needed reference of these concepts in one concise source, which anyone working in risk needs to know." — Rob Hanson MA MSc BBus CISA CISM CRISC CRMA, Senior Research Consultant, Data61 CSIRO

“Cultural Calamity is an accessible yet very solid treatment of the relationships between risk and organisational culture. Focusing too often on the risks which exist outside the organisation we sometimes neglect to acknowledge those which lie within.

Drawing on his many years of experience and a wealth of internationally sourced data, the author presents some very thought provoking real-world illustrations of risk not being managed in a cultural context. He then goes on to give some very good advice and guidance in the field. This is an excellent addition to the discourse, it is a very worthwhile read and one that I can heartily recommend.” — Feargal O’Neill, Vice President

"Cultural Calamity is the risk practitioner’s go-to book: the risk concepts are easy to understand, and the real world examples bring the concepts to life. This book is a must read.” — John Pouey, Information Security Officer Professional

“Whether a seasoned professional or just starting out in the risk profession, this quick read is a must have. Using four repeated risk management problems, Joe examines relevant stories and determines “what went wrong” and why risk matters. 

Cultural Calamity goes on to be a great reference, filled with definitions of common terminology that are often misused by risk professionals. From defining risk by quantitative vs qualitative methodology to understanding risk management strategies, describing types of controls, importance of KRIs and KPIs, and “leading indicators of impending disaster”, this short book is filled with enlightening information to cite and learn from.“ — Diane M. McCarthy, Senior Associate, Advisory-Cybersecurity, Privacy, & Risk, PwC