The Developing World by Fredrik Härén

Author:Fredrik Härén [Härén, Fredrik]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Interesting Organization
Published: 2013-07-31T04:00:00+00:00

Dare to take risks

Padmaja Ruparel is one of the driving forces behind the Indian Angel Network, an organization that brings together a large number of business ‘angels’ – that is, successful entrepreneurs from India and around the world who are interested in investing in start up’s and newly started businesses. She has noticed the fear that exists in the developed world - the fear that something might go wrong. She is convinced that we put too much energy into trying to predict what might go wrong, and then spending even more energy and resources on trying to minimize the risk of something negative happening. Naturally, we should try to prevent bad things from happening, but we should also realize that it is impossible to be sheltered from everything. “It’s the same thing as when your raise a child. You can protect your child but you can’t protect her too much – otherwise, she will become too vulnerable.”

Richard Hassell from the prize-winning design firm WoHa in Singapore agrees with Padmaja. Raised in Australia, he has worked for many years in Singapore. His company has completed building projects in Australia and Singapore and he can compare attitudes to his company’s ideas in both developed Australia and developing Singapore.“We have a project in Sydney that I find immensely limiting and negative. The reason for this is that the customer is afraid of taking risks. Every time we come up with an idea, we always get a negative comment about why it won’t work. So the immediate response is not to get excited about a new idea, but to see it as a problem.” He told me about the time they had suggested that the Australian clients put palm trees on the roof of a skyscraper. Their spontaneous reaction was not that this idea was interesting or good: “The risk of palm leaves blowing off and hitting someone’s car was more horrifying than the delight you would get from seeing palm trees on the roof.” When WoHa suggested that the leaves could be pruned so that they did not blow off, the reaction was fear that the leaves would not be cut back in time. This attitude is a good reflection of the kind of attitude many customers in the developed world have. “What we in the developed world are saying by this is that the value of a safe and completely sanitized environment is higher than the joy and excitement you get from innovation and experimentation. What we are saying is, in effect, that the risks outweigh the benefits.”

In the developing world, people try to manage risks, while in the developed world we try to minimize them. Richard says that we have lost the ability to take risks as we are just too afraid; paralyzed by a fear of the future, of things going wrong; and by the fear of losing what we already have. In a world that is obsessed by trying to identify and minimize risks, there is an even greater risk that you are making the mistake of focusing on the wrong things.

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