This year, we have all been hearing and reading a lot about the First World War which, as we are frequently being reminded, began 100 years ago this August. I expect there will be plenty more to come. Now I love history and find a lot of this very interesting, but I know that is not how everyone feels. For some it is like being not interested in football in this World Cup year. Anyway, whatever your attitude, you had better prepare yourself for all the cliches that the media will be bombarding us with, often going over the top, sometimes having a shot at making us shell out for the books, magazines, DVDs and memorabilia that will be coming at us on all sides. It has been said, however, that the main use for the past is for us to learn from it. So even if you do not take much interest in history, I assure you there are lots of lessons to be learnt from the Great War. Not only for soldiers or politicians. It was a classic case of How Not To Do... lots of things, as well as containing just the odd exceptional example that may be worth copying It has often been said too that generals tend to make the mistake of preparing to fight the last war again instead of thinking about the future. I certainly do not want to encourage anyone to be too backward looking, but I do believe there are lessons we can all learn from the errors, and even the occasional moment of insight, that we can see in the Great War. Therefore, I am setting out in this book my thoughts on how to apply some of the lessons of that War to management, especially risk management. But let us remember that risk management cannot be separated from other aspects of life in general, so there will probably be something for almost everyone in this book."