We organized our research around 20 detailed case studies of risk culture failure. We
analyzed them from an external perspective and then also interviewed people close to the actual situations.
The case studies included hospital disasters that led to multiple patient deaths,
operational and safety failures that cost lives and large sums of money,
legal settlements in which firms paid significant damages to avoid further reputational harm,
and rogue trading and other banking-related losses.
In each case, we sought to understand the cultural factors that had contributed to each failing and to recognize any common factors or patterns