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<p>I was recently catching up with my friend, who’s an expat in Taiwan and has been trying to start her own startup in the country.</p>



<p>She said Taiwanese companies are often too risk averse and the country needs to become more entrepreneurial. (Note: I’m not sure how much of that is true – it’s one person’s opinion. Also my understanding is that Taiwan is the “Israel of Asia”, with many strong high-tech SMB ventures..)</p>



<p>I joked to her that Korea has an opposite problem. Koreans – the “Italians of Asia” – are taking too much risk, as it seems everyone and their mother are buying meme coins these days 🙂</p>



<p>Jokes aside – some countries or companies (especially big, stable companies) are more risk averse, while their leaders often try to imbue more sense of risk-taking and entrepreneurship.</p>



<p>I think it comes down to a simple fact – if the potential downside of risk taking is bigger than the potential upside, people become risk averse. For example, if a company has a surefire cash cow business that’s printing money, how many teams would want to try launching a new project at the risk of potentially hurting the cash cow business?</p>



<p>That is, unless they have a full endorsement from the management that any short-term negative implications (“the downside”) will be tolerated, while the team will participate in any potential upside.</p>



<p>If leaders want their organizations to become more risk-taking, they should think about how to reduce the potential downside and increase the potential upside for their risk-taking squad.</p>
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Chang Kim's Homepage

I was recently catching up with my friend, who’s an expat in Taiwan and has been trying to start her own startup in the country.
She said Taiwanese companies are often too risk averse and the country needs to become more entrepreneurial. (Note: I’m not sure how much of that is true – it’s one person’s opinion. Also my understanding is that Taiwan is the “Israel of Asia”, with many strong high-tech SMB ventures..)
I joked to her that Korea has an opposite problem. Koreans – the “Italians of Asia” – are taking too much risk, as it seems everyone and their mother are buying meme coins these days 
Jokes aside – some countries or companies (especially big, stable companies) are more risk averse, while their leaders often try to imbue more sense of risk-taking and entrepreneurship.
I think it comes down to a simple fact – if the potential downside of risk taking is bigger than the potential upside, people become risk averse. For example, if a company has a surefire cash cow business that’s printing money, how many teams would want to try launching a new project at the risk of potentially hurting the cash cow business?
That is, unless they have a full endorsement from the management that any short-term negative implications (“the downside”) will be tolerated, while the team will participate in any potential upside.
If leaders want their organizations to become more risk-taking, they should think about how to reduce the potential downside and increase the potential upside for their risk-taking squad.

Potential Upside Vs Potential Downside

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