Hope is not a risk management strategy
I used to tell people - hope is not a strategy but I heard a financial analyst on TV and he added the words risk management and I kind of liked it so now it is - Hope is not a risk management strategy.
Quite simply, if any of your strategy is based on hope then it is time to rethink your strategy. Hope and optimism are good things but you can't rely on them and therefore your strategy(s) need to be far more robust. A client of mine recently experienced a significant change of policy from a key supplier, one that impacted directly on key aspects of their growth strategy. Their reaction seemed to be 'lets carry on and hope they don't implement' mine was to attack and get that policy changed or change our strategy. Hope just isn't enough.
Imagine a military leader writing a report saying 'we were outflanked but we carried on and hoped we would win the engagement anyway'. You would expect, as would his/her troops, that the leader would react to this change and develop a sensible and sound response, one that took positive steps in resting back the advantage. Writing that it reminds me of the trench warfare military tactics of WWI, that seems as though it was essentially a hope based strategy, one that turned young men into dead men at an incredible rate.
Their are two key words in that previous paragraph, react and advantage. Strategy is essentially about gaining advantage relative to your competition and when the environment changes or new information is available that materially effects the situation you must react.
I love the saying - Hope is not a risk management strategy!!!!!!
Quite simply, if any of your strategy is based on hope then it is time to rethink your strategy. Hope and optimism are good things but you can't rely on them and therefore your strategy(s) need to be far more robust. A client of mine recently experienced a significant change of policy from a key supplier, one that impacted directly on key aspects of their growth strategy. Their reaction seemed to be 'lets carry on and hope they don't implement' mine was to attack and get that policy changed or change our strategy. Hope just isn't enough.
Imagine a military leader writing a report saying 'we were outflanked but we carried on and hoped we would win the engagement anyway'. You would expect, as would his/her troops, that the leader would react to this change and develop a sensible and sound response, one that took positive steps in resting back the advantage. Writing that it reminds me of the trench warfare military tactics of WWI, that seems as though it was essentially a hope based strategy, one that turned young men into dead men at an incredible rate.
Their are two key words in that previous paragraph, react and advantage. Strategy is essentially about gaining advantage relative to your competition and when the environment changes or new information is available that materially effects the situation you must react.
I love the saying - Hope is not a risk management strategy!!!!!!
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