Introduction

There has been an increasing focus on risk management in the wake of some spectacular collapses of major corporations, periodic stock market corrections, and economic recession spurred by a near breakdown of financial market trust garnered with recurring debt crises in major international markets. These events have had significant adverse effects on corporate value creation and societal wealth causing major disruptions to the quality of life of the people that inhabit the exposed economies. Hence, there should be little wonder that both political and business leaders have paid great tribute to these events with steadfast aims of imposing policies, rules, and regulations that would prevent something similar from happening again. However, as we know, it is human nature to do too much when it is too late, and too little when it is time to act. Hence, in hindsight executives and policy makers should act on early sightings of evolving changes that everybody nonetheless seems to ignore despite the warning signals for all to see. As argued by Harrison and Phillips (2014: p. 164): “it was apparent from the serious economic journalism of 2006, 2007 and early 2008 that there were many ‘canaries in the cave’ that anticipated the landscape of the financial crisis of 2008.” In other words, there is a tendency to ignore even the most obvious signs of emergent risk events. With a bit of luck, this is what risk management practices might be able to circumvent by creating more risk conscious organizational settings.