Anyone reading the newspapers and seeing the activity of the health & safety organisations might believe it’s possible to live a risk-free existence. Well, common sense tells us it isn’t. Whether you’re crossing a busy road, ordering Sushi, or backing a racehorse, everything in life carries an element of risk.
You might not always be taking your life in your hands but when it comes to business, risk-taking can have far-reaching consequences on the company’s survival, your own income and your employees’ livelihoods.
That’s not to say that everything you do can always be a success. With most entrepreneurs who’ve achieved a runaway success story, there are at least two failed projects they would rather forget. That’s partly because successful business people don’t always rein in their bullish approach to risk management.
Many executives will have signed off business cases in the past 12 months. If every one had actually delivered on its promise then your business would probably be turning over $1 billion a year and costing around 24 cents a month to run. The truth is, we accept that what we are presented with probably won’t come about. This means we’re making decisions based upon something other than promised rewards. We’re making them on risk.
In my next blog, I’ll be discussing a Titanic mistake that can lead to a whole series of bad decisions.
