How Do You Prevent Volcano-Sized Risks? You Don't.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." That's what we were taught in school. An international survey of attitudes towards supply-chain risk carried out by the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics affirms that the adage has sunk in: Professional managers worldwide show a marked preference for prevention over response when it comes to managing risk. But as Iceland's volcano has so vividly shown, we can't prevent — let alone anticipate — all disruptions. Companies need to pay a lot more attention to the response side of the crisis-management equation.