Nature’s CRO

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

Nature is pretty good at sorting stuff out and managing itself.  Therefore
it is reasonable to assume that if nature had a Chief Risk Officer they would
also be pretty good at figuring things out and at managing things.

It is not beyond reason – if you fall into the camp that all things are
calculable and that the sole goal of risk management is to reduce uncertainty
and risk – to speculate that Nature's CRO would be able to reduce risk
and uncertainty to zero.  However where would that leave us?  Would the
wild flowers grow in my yard?  Would we have changing weather and its
associated change of seasons?  Would we have labradoodle puppies?  Would
plant splicing allow for the creation of more hardy strains of wheat to feed
the world?  Would Darwin be studied in school?

Would nature's CRO embrace the concept that "all things are calculable
and that the sole goal of risk management is to reduce uncertainty and
risk"?  Personally I doubt it.