Intel CEO’s amazing risk quote

I was amazed to see this quote from Intel’s CEO, Paul Otellini, on the BBC today:

Our business model is one of very high risk: We dig a very big hole in the ground, spend three billion dollars to build a factory in it, which takes three years, to produce technology we haven’t invented yet, to run products we haven’t designed yet, for markets which don’t exist. We do that two or three times a year.

It really does illustrate just how much some very successful business models need to embrace risk

It’s been one of the surprisingly lessons I’ve learned in business - how much you need to learn to accept, evaluate, and manage risk.

Risk in itself offers you a clear choice - the ability to increase revenues/profits if it works, and a potential loss of revenues/profits if it doesn’t.

The big question of how to recognise which risks to take, and how to manage them, probably takes a combination of experience, hard thinking, and gut feeling.

Risk in itself is not inherently bad, and risk aversion isn’t necessary good when applying business strategies.

After all, risk is integral not simply to business, but also success in general, regardless the field.

In fact, taking Otellini comment in context, you could probably say “risk” is just a synonym for “investment”.