In an age shaped by volatility, rapid shifts and relentless uncertainty, experts are urging organisations to rethink the very foundations of how they understand and respond to risk. The global business terrain is no longer defined by tidy cycles or predictable patterns.

It has morphed into what analysts now describe as a RUDE world: Random, Unpredictable, Dynamic and Entropic. These forces, once mere academic abstractions, now sit at the heart of every crisis briefing and boardroom conversation.

The consequences of ignoring this reality have been played out repeatedly on the global stage. Companies that cling to reactive strategies find themselves swamped by disruptions that arrive faster and hit harder than anything prior generations endured. Financial shocks, supply chain collapses, cybersecurity breaches and sudden reputational storms have shown that risks rarely stay contained. They jump boundaries, multiply and collide in ways that defy traditional planning.

A growing body of thought argues that the strategic antidote is a CALM response. CALM, which stands for Consistent, Anticipatory, Logical and Measured, offers a deliberate move away from firefighting and towards resilient, disciplined decision making. It urges organisations to stop chasing crises and start building systems that can hold steady even when the world does not.

A new book on the subject crystallises this shift by presenting a panoramic map of organisational exposure: fifty distinct risk categories, grouped into seven interconnected families. Far from being a checklist of threats, this framework functions as a living ecosystem. It invites leaders to stop examining risk as isolated problems and instead see the company as an integrated organism where one failure can cascade into many.

Beyond offering structure, the fifty categories serve as a diagnostic lens that widens an organisation’s field of vision. Each category highlights a particular pressure point, but their real power emerges when viewed together. Patterns surface that no siloed team could detect alone. A technical risk may quietly trigger a reputational issue, which then influences regulatory exposure, which eventually feeds into operational disruption. The framework forces executives to confront an uncomfortable truth: vulnerabilities rarely travel alone. By mapping risks this way, organisations gain an early warning system that sharpens judgment, strengthens preparedness and transforms vague uncertainty into targeted, informed action.

The RUDE characteristics explain why this broader lens is essential. Randomness describes shocks that arrive without pattern, making historical trends all but useless. Unpredictability captures the sudden appearance of new forces, from emerging technologies to cultural shifts, that can upend an industry overnight. The dynamic nature of global systems ensures that a decision made in a single office can send tremors through an entire enterprise. Entropy, the most insidious of the four, reflects internal decay: wasted energy, fading accountability and the slow erosion of organisational purpose.

Each threat finds its counterbalance in the CALM disciplines. Consistency stabilises organisations against random shocks. Anticipation replaces uncertainty with informed foresight. Logic cuts through dynamic complexity with clarity. A measured approach resists the quiet drift into disorder.

The danger of ignoring this interconnectedness is illustrated most clearly in the anatomy of a cybersecurity breach. What begins as a technical problem quickly spirals into a legal battle, a reputational crisis, a financial strain and, ultimately, an internal cultural wound that erodes trust. Treating such a crisis as an IT issue alone blinds organisations to the wider fallout. This fragmentation is the hidden vulnerability of modern business, and it is precisely what the RUDE framework seeks to eliminate.

The authors argue that RUDE creates a shared language for institutions that have long struggled to speak across departmental divides. It exposes the threads that link one risk to another. Most importantly, it embeds foresight into everyday operations, allowing leaders to predict how a small disturbance could morph into a systemic threat.

The message resounding through the research is unequivocal. Risk management can no longer be confined to compliance manuals or crisis playbooks. In a RUDE world, risk is not only a hazard; it is a resource, a source of competitive intelligence and strategic advantage. A mature, integrated risk program becomes less like a brake and more like a steering wheel, guiding organisations with confidence through turbulence that once seemed uncontrollable.

For leaders determined not just to survive disruption but to navigate it with mastery, the shift from RUDE to CALM is emerging as a strategic necessity. The stormy future remains, but with the right framework, it becomes something that can be read, understood and navigated. The waves keep rising, yet the organisation learns how to sail.

By Kayode Emola

For the umpteenth time, it is worth asking ourselves if our traditional rulers can be trusted to serve the interests of the Yoruba people. We recall how Afonja betrayed the Alaafin and sold Oyo-Ile to the Fulani prince Alimi. One would have thought our Yoruba people would have learnt a lot of lessons from that incident, but it feels like we’ve learnt nothing.

Recently, we have seen reports of villagers fleeing their communities in Babanle and other towns of Kwara State circulating on social media. One would have expected the whole world to be outraged, like in the case of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in France in 2015. Where the whole world rallied round the victims of that shooting, but alas, no one seems to be bothered enough to act. By now, we should have witnessed government forces moving into the communities in Kwara State to restore law and order. Giving the villagers succour in the comfort of their own homes.

However, everyone in Nigeria is silent as is it doesn’t affect them directly, emboldening the terrorists to continue their assaults on Yorubaland unchallenged. For other Yoruba people who do not live in the area, they couldn’t be bothered to cry out because danger seems far away in Kwara state and not in the suburban Yorubaland like Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and other places like that.

Truth be told, if we can’t even cry out and be outraged about the numerous deaths that go unaccounted for, who do we expect to cry out on our behalf? The world will stay silent to our plight since we see the decimation of Yorubaland as the norm rather than something to act about.

The worst of it is the recent revelation that two monarchs in Kwara State are directly involved in the kidnapping and killings going on in the communities. The King of Alabe and Babanla is currently in police custody for their roles in terrorist activities going on in their domain. How can we be sure that several other monarchs are not causing similar havoc in their domains?

If two traditional leaders in Kwara are complicit in the atrocities going around them, how many more of our kings and chiefs are involved in criminal activities elsewhere? We have been crying that the Miyeti Allah cattle herders are killing innocent farmers on their own land and destroying their crops.

Instead of the Yoruba traditional leaders banding together, and looking for a lasting solution for their people, they sat on their hands doing nothing. As though if all the people are killed, they will have no subject to rule over.

Obviously, many of our kings and traditional rulers are in bed with these cattle herders, which is why this problem continues to fester. Many of our kings and their kinsmen are themselves the ones inviting the Fulani cattle herders to raise livestock for them, knowing that it is a profitable business.

Every single day, over eight thousand cows are being slaughtered in Lagos State, let alone other Yoruba states, making the trade one of the most profitable businesses outside of crude oil in Nigeria. Had the cattle herders conducted their business like any other businessperson in Nigeria, there wouldn’t have been any reason for clashes and the killings that go with it.

However, the fact that many Yoruba traditional leaders are the ones collecting bribes from these herders to roam the forest and bushes makes the matter a complicated one. How can a king who is entrusted with the safety of lives and properties in his domain be the same one who is endangering them?

Since we now know that many of our kings are themselves the ones putting the lives and properties of our people in peril. I believe it is time to put the spotlight on the custodian of our traditions and culture in check. We need to know those among them who are putting the lives and properties of their communities in danger and call them out.

As such, maybe we can bring some normalcy into our communities and protect the lives and properties of innocent people. If only we could do a statewide evangelism to see which of the kings and traditional rulers are involved with the cattle herders and the terrorists invading Yorubaland. Then we may be able to rid ourselves of the menace that is currently ripping the social fabric of Yorubaland into pieces bit by bit.

Human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has been released by the Nigerian police after being detained for two days.

Sowore, who confirmed his release on Friday evening, expressed gratitude to supporters, who stood by him during the ordeal.

In a statement on social media, he said: “Nigeria Police Force has capitulated to the demands of the revolutionary movt, I have been released from unjust, illegal & unwarranted detention. However, it is nothing to celebrate, but thank u for not giving up! #RevolutionNow.”

The activist, known for his unwavering criticism of government policies and advocacy for democratic reforms, has previously faced multiple arrests linked to his #RevolutionNow movement, which calls for sweeping political and economic changes in Nigeria.

Sowore, however, thanked human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former presidential candidate Peter Obi, Deji Adeyanju, and all other stakeholders who stood up and called for his release.