By dint of securing each decision, optimizing each process and anticipating each unexpected, we ended up evacuating what has always changed the lines: audacity.
Not pure unconsciousness, not the blind poker. But the intelligent risk, the one who, well measured, opens up opportunities that excessive prudence prohibits us.
“Today, everything is thought to avoid the slightest grain of sand: insurance, committees, multiple validations … We no longer decide, we secure”notes François Lemaitre, former leader who has become an investor in start-ups. “The problem is that in wanting to avoid failure too much, we end up also avoiding success. »»
When the risk was the standard
A few decades ago, set up a business, launching a product, changing career involved a part of bet. The procedures were lighter, the decisions faster, and the social gaze on more indulgent failure – at least in certain sectors.
Claire Bérard, 72, founded her first ready-to-wear company in the 80s: “I didn’t know if it would work, but I started with 20,000 francs and a lot of energy. Today, I wonder if I could redo the same thing: it would take a 40 -page business plan, projections over five years, and an approval committee. »»
The economic world has changed: regulatory pressure, judicialization, globalization and the culture of performance have prompted everything to predict everything. Result: risk has become a suspicious word, and audacity a luxury.
The perverse effects of absolute prudence
In appearance, minimizing the risks seems rational: less unforeseen, fewer losses. But in the long term, this systematic prudence has consequences.
1/ brake innovation
Disruptive projects rarely arise in the corridors of approval committees. Too many validations kill the initiative. The ideas are polished, rounded, sweetened to the point of becoming harmless … and uninteresting.
2/ Decision paralysis
The fear of being mistaken leads to pushing the choices. We expect more data, more tests, more certainties … which will never come.
3/ standardization
When everyone follows the same prudent models, the market fills with interchangeable products. The marks lose their identity.
4/ Erosion of leadership
A leader who never takes risks ends up being perceived as a manager rather than a visionary.
The calculated risk: an endangered competence
The audacity that is discussed here is not a jump in a vacuum, but a prepared jump. It is based on three elements:
- The precise evaluation of the issues and probabilities.
- The ability to absorb possible loss without jeopardizing the whole.
- A clear vision of the target opportunity.
“The risk calculated is to accept to go where the others hesitate, but with a strategy,” explains Sophie Delmas, innovation consultant. “It is an art, because it asks both figures and instinct. And this instinct, it is suffocated by dint of swearing by the spreadsheets. »»
Examples that speak
The launch that changed everything
In 2007, two former Yahoo! Decide to create a microblogging service limited to 140 characters. Twitter was born. “On paper, it was absurd: no clear economic model, an uncertain audience,” recalls François Lemaitre. “But the founders had identified an emerging use, and they agreed to run the risk. »»
The refusal that paid
In an SME Lyonnaise des furniture design, the sales director has declined a giant order of a distributor who imposed too strict conditions. “We could have said yes and secure turnover … but we would have lost our identity,” she says. A year later, this decision allowed them to sign with a partner who shared their vision.
Why are we afraid
Behavioral psychology has documented this bias: loss aversion. We prefer to avoid a loss that achieving an equivalent gain. This trend, reinforced by corporate cultures oriented towards “zero fault”, creates an environment where each risk becomes suspect.
Added to this is the weight of the image: in the era of social networks and instant communication, a failure is visible, commented, archived. “Many leaders do not fear both financial loss as the loss of reputation,” notes Delmas.
The ingredients of an intelligent risk
The experts interviewed agree on a few levers to rehabilitate risk taking:
1/ Limit the vital issue
A calculated risk should not endanger the company’s survival. We are talking about betting 5 to 15 % of its resources on a daring project, not 80 %.
2/ Multiply small experiences
Rather than a single bet, testing several small -scale options makes it possible to quickly identify what works.
3/ Surround yourself with opponents
A good risk calculated includes confrontation with divergent opinions, to flush out the blind spots.
4/ Prepare plan B
Audacity does not exclude caution: knowing how to back down without losing everything is essential.
What if failure was part of the game?
One of the reasons why we have lost the art of risk is that we have demonized failure. However, in many entrepreneurial cultures-especially in the United States-, an assumed and analyzed failure is considered an asset.
Marc, 41, entrepreneur in tech, experienced two failed projects before launching a successful platform: “Whenever I failed, I understood things that I would never have learned otherwise. But in France, we look at you as if you were marked for life. »»
Changing this report requires a more transparent speech on the reverse. Some companies even organize “failure parties” to share the lessons learned from errors. “It is a way of defusing shame and transforming failure into a resource”explains Delmas.
Audacity as a competitive advantage
At a time when the markets are saturated, when products are alike and when global competition intensifies, audacity becomes a differentializer. “If you do what everyone does, you get the same results as everyone,” says Lemaitre.
The investors themselves are starting to seek this calculated audacity. “A project too smooth, too predictable, does not excite anyone,” says a Parisian venture capitalist. “We know that exceptional yields come from Paris that leave the frame. »»
Relearn daring on a daily basis
Rehabilitating the risk does not only go through major spectacular projects. This can start with:
- Say yes to an unusual mission.
- Change an obsolete process despite the habit.
- Test an idea in 48 hours rather than waiting for perfect validation.
- Accept an atypical customer to explore a new market.
These risk micro-prices develop the audacity muscle and make it possible to get out of its comfort zone.
