Enterprise risk management has always been important. However, the
events of the 21st Century have made it even more critical. The top
level of business management became suspect after scandals at ENRON,
WorldCom, and other business entities. Financially, many firms
experienced difficulties from bubbles. The problems of interacting
cultures demonstrated risk from terrorism as well, with numerous
terrorist attacks, to include 9/11 in the U.S. Risks can arise in many
facets of business. Businesses in fact exist to cope with risk in their
area of specialization. Financial risk management has focused on
banking, accounting, and finance. We have discussed several aspects of
risk, to include information systems, disaster management, and supply
chain perspectives. The bulk of this book is devoted to presenting a
number of operations research models that have been (or could be)
applied to enterprise supply risk management, especially from the supply
chain perspective.