I sometimes hear the phrase 'we are carrying all the risk' which, in the narrow view of the speaker refers to financial risk. And, because of this narrow view, is often followed by 'so we need full control', 'so we have the bulk of the shares' or something similar. When I ask 'but what about the risks that I am taking?' my questions are met with blank stares that continue to remain after the explanation my point of view is complete.

It seems that most business people, when negotiating with individuals as suppliers have the attitude that they have the money and money is all that matters. Individuals do not necessarily share that observation and are concerned about risks that relate to more than money. If you were asked to work on a three year project using technology that was not mainstream or state of the art would you take it? Would you commit to being a Netware engineer on a token-ring network for two years or a cobol programmer on a hierarchical database? Most people in IT that I know would not think about it. Never mind technologies used, what about working on a project that is two years late, four times over budget with a brand new project manager that has promised to 'finally get things sorted out'? It becomes less clear in startup situations where nobody can really assess up front what the final outcome will be but in most cases you can get some gut feeling. 

When assessing an opportunity I try and assess the risk that I will be exposed to personally. Not the kind of personal risk you are exposed to if I run with scissors or handle sharp paper, but the possible risk to my career based on a particular project. The things that I consider include:

• The risk of landing up in a technical dead-end which results in being out of sync with the market demands when the project ends.
• The risk of the project failing completely and landing up with a tarnished reputation.
• The risk of a successful project landing up in a maintenance mode where there is too much dependency on individuals making it impossible to leave gracefully.
• The risk of things that I have learned and created being completely owned by those that took the financial risk (also known as selling your soul)
• The risk of being on a death-march project where I could be burned out or in bad health because I tried to be a hero.

This concept of career risk does not seem to be shared by the average business person even though some industries consider many aspects of risk. For example the banking industry, because of regulations such as Basel II, consider risks such as reputational risk and legal risk. The assertion that the financial risk takers are taking all the risk is completely incorrect and the idea that the financial risk takers should take complete control and realise all the benefits creates a risk-reward imbalance. I am of the opinion that (cheap) money is actually easier to come by than good resources and
it makes me think that maybe the equation should be turned around and the risk that individuals take should be seriously considered.

If I work on a project that leads me down the wrong path for a few years I may never be able to recover and chances are that the organization that put up the cash will still keep going – which begs the question 'Who is taking the most risk?'

Simon Munro