In a business context, a “black swan” is a high-impact, hard-to-predict and rare event that is beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance and technology. The nature of a black swan is that it represents an event or combination of events that impact the business in a significant manner.

Since we can’t can predict the fue, turhow do we gain an understanding of what we don’t know? In this issue of Board Perspectives: Risk Oversight, we discuss an approach which uses the most critical assumptions underlying the strategy as a context for understanding, preparing for and managing risks related to a black swan.