From the best-selling author of The Death of Economics and Butterfly Economics, a ground-breaking look at a truth all too seldom acknowledged: most commercial and public policy ventures will not succeed. WorldCom, Enron, Yamaichi, Equitable Life, Andersen, Parmalat, Shell . . . Around the world, corporate scandal - and full-scale collapse - has caught the headlines in a spectacular way, and investors avidly search for scapegoats. We all express surprise at such catastrophes - yet extinction is an inherent fact of life, and failure comes calling at the door of companies both gigantic and small. In his inimitable fashion, Paul Ormerod draws upon recent advances in biology to help us understand the surprising consequences of the Iron Law of Failure. And he shows what strategies corporations, businesses and governments will need to adopt to stand a chance of prospering in a world where only one thing is certain.

Paul Ormerod was for several years Head of the Economic Assessment Unit at The Economist. He was Director of Economics at the Henley Centre for Forecasting from 1982 to 1992, and has been a visiting Professor of Economics at London and Manchester. He has published widely in academic journals, lectures around the world, and is currently a director of Volterra Consulting. He is the author of Butterfly Economics and The Death of Economics.