Combatting Disruptive Change

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

   PDF

2. It Is All About Assumptions: The Critical Role of an Applied Epistemologist

   • Ian I. Mitroff

   Pages 1-20

3. Doing What Is Right: The Role of an Applied Ethicist

   • Ian I. Mitroff

   Pages 21-31

4. Think Like a System: Be an Applied Systems Thinker

   • Ian I. Mitroff

   Pages 33-40

5. Thinking Like a Crisis Manager

   • Ian I. Mitroff

   Pages 41-45

6. Wisdom: How the Leaders of Purpose-Driven Organizations Manage from Their Values

   • Ian I Mitroff

   Pages 47-63

7. Applied Epistemology, Part 2

   • Ian I. Mitroff

   Pages 65-79

8. Assumptions and Stakeholders Revisited

   • Ian I. Mitroff

   Pages 81-86

9. Back Matter

   Pages 87-92

   PDF

This book is a critical examination of the main ideas regarding disruptive change and startups. It systematically lays out the full set of challenges and tasks one needs to master in order for existing organizations to weather severe change or make a startup successful. Ian Mitroff outlines the protective actions business leaders must take to ensure their continued existence, providing a clear demonstration of the key roles leaders must assume such as Applied Epistemologist, Applied Ethicist, Applied Systems Thinker, Applied Social Psychologist, and Applied Crisis Manager, and how to perform these roles competently.


Citing cases such as Facebook, Uber, and Airbnb, this book uniquely analyzes the disrupting agent in emerging industries, which is crucial for success in today’s complex and turbulent world. It will be of value to students, academics, and entrepreneurs looking to develop a new product or service.

• Risk management
• crisis management
• disruptive change
• startups
• epistemology
• ethics
• organizations
• stakeholder
• industry studies
• management
• entrepreneurship

• Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, Haas School of Business, Berkeley, USA

  Ian I. Mitroff

Ian Mitroff is Senior Investigator in the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, University of California - Berkeley, USA. He is Professor Emeritus of the Annenberg School of Communication and the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, USA, where he was the Harold Quinton Distinguished Professor of Business Policy. Dr. Mitroff is regarded as one of the founders of the discipline of Crisis Management and founded and directed the USC Center for Crisis Management. Known for his thinking and writing on a wide range of business and societal issues, he is the author of 36 books and is a frequent blogger for the Huffington Post.

Policies and ethics