Frederick Funston – författare

A new book to help senior executives and boards get smart about risk managementThe ability of businesses to survive and thrive often requires unconventional thinking and calculated risk taking. The key is to make the right decisions—even under the most risky, uncertain, and turbulent conditions.In the new book, Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty: Creating the Risk Intelligent Enterprise, authors Rick Funston and Steve Wagner suggest that effective risk taking is needed in order to innovate, stay competitive, and drive value creation.Based on their combined decades of experience as practitioners, consultants, and advisors to numerous business professionals throughout the world, Funston and Wagner discuss the adoption of 10 essential and practical skills, which will improve agility, resilience, and realize benefits: Challenging basic business assumptions can help identify "Black Swans" and provide first-mover advantageDefining the corporate risk appetite and risk tolerances can help reduce the risk of ruin.Anticipating potential causes of failure can improve chances of survival and success through improved preparedness.Factoring in velocity and momentum can improve speed of response and recovery.Verifying sources and the reliability of information can improve insights for decision making and thus decision quality.Taking a longer-term perspective can aid in identifying the potential unintended consequences of short-term decisions.

Though America did not join rebellious Cuban forces against the Spanish empire until 1898, Frederick Funston (1865–1917) was so moved by a speech by Gen. Daniel Sickles in 1896 that he went to Cuba as a filibuster in the battle for Cuban independence. When the United States finally went to war against Spain, he took command of a regiment, was sent to the Philippine-American War, and received the Medal of Honor for his daring and skill in crossing a river to turn the flank of the Philippine army at the Battle of Calumpit. Two years later, in 1901, he became a national hero for capturing Philippine president and lead insurgent Emilio Aguinaldo. In such roles, Funston was integral to the successful implementation of U.S. policy. Memories of Two Wars is Funston's firsthand account of his adventures in the Cuban Revolution and the Philippine-American war. Conversational yet informative, Funston's memoir relates his experience with the vigor and joviality of a friend sharing war stories over a drink and a cigar. He describes the guerrilla-style combat necessitated by the lack of weapons, the exotic scenery and vegetation of the islands, and the myriad characters—Cuban, American, Spanish, and Philippine—with whom he worked and fought.