The Organization Man as a Risk Taker

In an idealized world, societies should promote and protect risk taking.

A farmer in a society can take a risk by planting a new type of grain that may provide better yields.  If it fails, the society -- neighbors -- help to keep the farmer and her family from starving until it is time to plant a new crop.  By herself, the farmer would not have this opportunity, this luxury, this ability to take risks and test something uncertain but possibly better.  Without that luxury, the farmer and society would progress at a much slower pace, if at all.

The same should be true for corporations.  Providing a secure place to conduct R&D, to explore new ideas, to try projects that are unique and off the beaten path, to kill projects when they aren't working, to take a chance against all odds seems to me should be a primary purpose of a corporation.  Corporations should be about soft landings for dreamers, non-conformists and risk takers.

That is not the picture of an entrepreneur most of us have.  The popular literature likes to paint the entrepreneur as someone who maxes out their credit cards and converts the garage to a mini factory on the hope and the prayer that their venture will work out and make them rich.  Like our farmer, there are very few who are willing and able to take such risks with their family's future without the safety net of a society, or a corporation.

Rather, I am suggesting that ideal environment for nurturing entrepreneurial drive should be the corporation.  With all of those resources, with all those support people and systems, the risk-taker wouldn't have to waste time fending off collection calls or waiting in line for government cheese.  The primary purpose of an organization should be to foster creativity and non-conformist thinking and developing the marketing advantage of uniqueness and nonconformity.

Unfortunately, that is not how a many of our corporations and business organizations actually look.  Conformity is encouraged.  Next quarter's bottom line, if not next week's, is often about the only horizon the organization man is allowed to look toward.

Imagine how different things could be, if the button-down organization man could loosen his collar from time to time and take a risk.  A company sponsored and supported risk!