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The #1 Best-Selling English language book in China — the book that is shaping China’s planning and policy for the future.
THE GRAY RHINO: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore
By Michele Wucker
St Martin’s Press, April 2016
THE GRAY RHINO is available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, and other leading booksellers. Get the audio version on Soundcloud.
NEW: Apply the lessons in THE GRAY RHINO to your personal life with “What’s Your Gray Rhino [Personal Edition]: A Framework for Wrangling Your Biggest Challenges,” a new interactive micro-learning course via the innovative Gnowbe platform.
To purchase bulk copies of THE GRAY RHINO for promotional, educational, or business use, please contact your favorite bookseller or the MacMillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, ext 5442, or via email.
THE GRAY RHINO has been translated in editions in Hungary, Korea, China (simplified characters), Taiwan (traditional characters), Norway, Brazil, and Italy. An international English and Indian edition are also available from Macmillan.
A “gray rhino” is a highly probable, high impact yet all too often neglected threat: kin to both the elephant in the room and the improbable and unforeseeable black swan. Gray rhinos are not random surprises, but occur after a series of warnings and visible evidence.
Why do some leaders and decision makers keep failing to address obvious dangers before they spiral out of control? Drawing on her extensive background in policy formation and crisis management, as well as in-depth interviews with leaders from around the world, Michele Wucker shows in The Gray Rhino how to recognize and strategically counter looming high impact threats.
Filled with persuasive stories, real-world examples, and practical advice, The Gray Rhino is essential reading for managers, investors, planners, policy makers, and anyone who wants to understand how to profit by avoiding getting trampled.
Click HERE for your free copy of the Readers Guide to THE GRAY RHINO to use in your book club, course, or your own explorations.
Professors: if you are teaching THE GRAY RHINO as required reading in your course, send a copy of your syllabus to info@thegrayrhino.com to schedule a free 30-minute virtual Q&A with your students.
Praise for The Gray Rhino:
“A carefully crafted argument in favor of concerted action in the face of our biggest challenges and most obvious dangers.” (An Editor’s Choice selection)
– In the Books, 800-CEO-READ (read full review here)
“Wucker’s wide-ranging observations should succeed in one important way. Any reader is bound to be more aware of his or her cognitive biases and stay more vigilantly on the lookout for big dangers.”
– Reuters Breakingviews (read full review here)
“This helpful guide to getting out of your own way long enough to see the rhino charging over the hill will be useful reading for managers, entrepreneurs, and risk takers of all stripes.”
– Publishers Weekly (read full review here)
“A valuable guide for individuals and policymakers who want to act when they see the lights of an oncoming train.”
– Kirkus Reviews (read full review here)
“The Gray Rhino should be required reading for decision makers in business and policy. Drawing on many examples drawn from politics and business, social and economic policy, Michele Wucker provides amazing insights into how organizations can define and confront their obvious but neglected risks. The Fourth Industrial Revolution will have many Gray Rhinos if we don’t act in time to create the necessary principles and rules to direct technology and progress in a way which deflates the risks but uses fully all the great potential.”
– Professor Klaus Schwab, Chairman, World Economic Forum and Author of The Fourth Industrial Revolution
“We are beset, globally, by unsolved problems that are simply too inconvenient for the political class to address. The rhinos are out there and all we can seem to do is avoid or clean up their dung here and there, as they get closer and closer.”
– Dan Alpert, Founding Managing Partner, Westwood Capital and Author of The Age of Oversupply
“Michele Wucker provides an updated assessment of the challenges that confront society, that need to be addressed, yet we ignore. Public officials would serve us well by getting busy addressing the Gray Rhinos that are out there, rather than waiting for the next predictable surprise.”
– Max Bazerman, Straus Professor at Harvard Business School, Co-Director, Center for Public Leadership, and author of The Power of Noticing
“Equally vital for companies and countries, this highly original book serves as a critical reorientation of crisis management strategy and policymaking.”
– Ian Bremmer, President of Eurasia Group and Author of The J Curve, The Fat Tail, and Every Nation for Itself
“If Black Swans leave one feeling helpless, Gray Rhinos teach us that we do have the power to act. In this original proposal Michele Wucker alerts us to how important it is to wake up to what’s looming before us and make good decisions about how to respond in time.”
– Noreena Hertz, author of Eyes Wide Open
“As Michele Wucker warns us: It’s not if; it’s when. This is a book for our time, when we face multiple, evident existential threats… This book reminds us that denial will not save us, and provides strategies for navigating a way forward to survival by ferreting out the opportunities born of crisis.”
– Mira Kamdar, author of Planet India
“The world urgently needs a risk-management paradigm shift. This book makes a compelling case for fixing the very risks we create, a bit more every day, or decide to ignore. When your eyes cross those of a Rhino, it’s too late.”
– Erwann Michel-Kerjan, Executive Director, Wharton Business School Risk Center and author of The Irrational Economist
“In a lucid and accessible style, Michele Wucker forces us to see the knowns we have been treating as unknowns, and teaches us to see opportunities in crisis. This book is a useful primer for rethinking how we manage everything from our personal life to the global economy.”
– Parag Khanna, author of Connectography and How to Run the World
“Michele Wucker is right. Often we can see crises coming: climate change, terrorism, financial crashes. Yet, we fail to act. This valuable book explains why. It’s a must read for leaders of all organisations, public and private as we prepare for the inevitable challenging times.”
– Kishore Mahbubani, Dean, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (National University of Singapore), and author of The Great Convergence
“Even more important than a Black Swan is a Gray Rhino: the highly-probable, high impact event we often fail to act on. This book offers some easy tips on how to move to action and create competitive advantage.”
– Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever
“The Gray Rhino offers strategies for dealing with the biggest and most dangerous weak spot for organizations, companies, and nations: the willful failure of business and policy leaders to perceive warning signals… This important, insightful, and original book will be a must read for global decision makers and thought leaders.”
– William Saito, CEO of Intecur and author of The Team: Solving the Biggest Problem in Japan
“Why on earth would we need a book to tell us to pay attention to and prepare for obvious, high probability events? Because we resolutely avoid and deny what is right under our noses. The Gray Rhino explains why and lays out a valuable set of steps to become more resilient and realistic about the threats and challenges that will redefine our world.”
– Anne-Marie Slaughter, President, New America
Introducing a framework for dealing with seemingly obvious but nevertheless neglected and very poorly handled Gray Rhino events, I delivered this address at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 26, 2013.