Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Little Bets

Rick Nason, PhD, CFA

Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.

www.RSDsolutions.com

info@RSDsolutions.com

 

I just finished reading the book Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries by Peter Sims.  It is a pretty good book which I highly recommend.  (One thing I liked about it was that it was short – it had one idea and did not spend 200 extra pages trying to pretend to be something it was not.)

 

One of the principles of Little Bets is to try things (in a small way) and not to be afraid of making small mistakes.  This strategy in turn will lead to large insights and grand successes.

 

In risk management we do not like mistakes at all, whether they be large or small.  Perhaps it is time that we rethink mindset role of risk management.

 

As readers of my blogs know, I am of the school that believes that risk management departments should help firms make money as well as help prevent them from losing money – as opposed to solely prevent them from losing money.  It is a philosophical stance that not everyone will agree with.  However for those who do agree with me, then little bets is something to seriously consider.

 

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