Modern management science seeks to streamline and rationalise the business process, base decision-making on proven facts, and eliminate risk and uncertainty. Unfortunately, businesses are run by human beings who are irredeemably selfish, greedy, short-sighted and prone to mass delusion. Throughout history, business and society have been blindsided by people's irrational and unpredictable behavior. Even well-respected business executives and their advisors get swept up with euphoria and panic along with the rest of us; they succumb to greed; and they fail to plan for likely crises. Blindsided looks at the history of such outbreaks of irrational behavior at the occurrence of unpredictable but likely events and at changes that have caught even forecasters by surprise. This fascinating book reminds the world of business that it needs to plan for the unexpected and to realise that neither its consumers nor even its own executives must be expected to act with cool rationality at all times.

For the design recipe, our cover cooks boiled down a white knight chess piece wearing blinkers, typically worn by horses to keep them from being distracted or spooked. Much like running a business, chess is a strategic game that requires careful planning and consideration. The addition of the blinkers and the solid black border simultaneously hints at human beings' tendencies to become blindsided through their own irrational behavior and the need for a thought out plan to prevent it.