Managing Business Risk.

By Peter C. Young and Steven C. Tippins. Amacom, 443 pages. $69.95.

The authors, two academics from small Midwestern universities, ostensibly set out to write a primer on the current state of risk management, while including a bit of history on its evolution. By and large, they have succeeded. Managing Business Risk is a soup-to-nuts overview that covers areas such as risk assessment and control, asset and liability exposures, risk financing and insurance. A central theme is that organizational risk management has emerged as a best practice standard; ORM takes risk control beyond the finance function and weaves it into the fabric of the organization.

The book has some good, readily understandable charts and diagrams, but it has one odd aspect: At regular intervals, it uses reprinted articles from magazines like Risk Management and Business Insurance. The pieces are generally recent and germane, but it's strange for a business book to devote long stretches to words, and ideas, that are not the authors' own.