COVID-25: Preparing for the Next Black Swan

Abstract

In this presentation, Professor Cochran discusses how organizations do and should respond to types of major crisis that are often referred to as “Black Swans”. Black Swans are extremely rare events with severe consequences. There are many other potential Black Swans. A current example of a Black Swan the COVID-19 pandemic. This historically happens once every 100 years. Professor Cochran seeks to understand why society ignores Black Swans and how successful organizations respond to them. Current research findings suggest that organizations respond by (1) knowing that such events can occur, (2) engaging in scenario planning, (3) building their organizational resilience, (4) creating redundancy in their supply-chains, and (5) building sustainable business practices.