Nuts

By Rick Nason, PhD, CFA
Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.

Vaughan Ontario – a suburb of Toronto – is becoming the hotbed of a major issue that is threatening the well-being of Canadians.  The threat is oak trees.

It seems that some parents (well, maybe one parent) is concerned about the health effects for nut sensitive students who may be exposed to dropped nuts onto the property of a school.  They (well, maybe she) wants the oak tree cut down.

I do not want to make light of those with sensitivity to nuts.  I cannot imagine the issues that having anaphylaxis allergies cause.  However I think there are also some arguments to be made about common sense for the bigger picture.

Reading the story in the newspaper, along with the follow-up letter to the editors made me think of some of the similar policies that we put in place at organizations.  In the utopian ideal of eliminating all risks, we may also be eliminating all of the positive upside risks.  I suspect few people truly long for getting a package of peanuts on the plane anymore.  However Canada would be a much poorer country without our oak trees.  How many oak trees have we already cut down in the corporation in the name of risk management?