It’s not a black swan, it’s blinkered planning
In the space of the past 18 months, two mass-scale events have rocked the country – the arrival of Covid-19 and July’s looting. Many have labelled them “black swan” events because on the surface nobody could have predicted they would occur, nor what effect they would have. But ‘Black swans’ shouldn’t be used as a cliché for any bad thing that surprises us. Instead, firms should better understand the causes of events to cover more lateral eventualities. So warns Richard Walker.