My answer was that he could minimize the risk, but not all the way to zero, by learning the regulator’s perspective about the product’s new features and building a strategy based on the company’s current knowledge and new information they could gather.

Experienced field staff had a different view of the regulatory risks. They made comments like: “It will be difficult because…”, “it will take time, but there’s an approach that might work”, and finally “here’s what I recommend ….” They saw the regulatory and political obstacles very clearly and became problem solvers applying their knowledge to achieving the goal.

Absolute guarantees of success are rare in business and in life. The best prescription for risk is knowledge and clear-eyed decision-making.

Armed with knowledge, you can choose to navigate the minefield or alter the course. On the other hand, you can be certain of not achieving a goal not pursued.

When I was reviewing my investments with my financial adviser, I came across a “fund of funds” within my portfolio of mutual funds – something I bought a few years because it was “balanced”. (I must not have been fully awake at the time!)

Digging a bit, I looked at the individual funds (within the fund of funds), some were performing better than others and there was overlap in their underlying investments. Then I realized … this was too abstract for me; I wanted something more real, more directly connected to actual companies.

Now my favorite funds are with a company with a winning investment strategy. I know it’s winning because their performance is excellent and because they have explained their strategy to me in clearly written updates as well as in person. I’m tempted to put more money with them, except they’re a young company … so that would be too risky.

Sometimes risk measures don’t tell the whole story. I want the added confidence of knowing how the fund managers are investing my money.

It’s time we added a similar notion called the “risk chain”, or to be positive the “safety chain”. Each organization in the chain would take responsibility for the safety of its output. So the farmer takes responsibility for crops he sells to the wholesaler, the wholesaler for the packaged food that he sells to the grocery store or restaurant, and then they take responsibility for what we buy and eat.

Does this mean testing at every step? Maybe. It certainly means that each link in the chain looks backward to the quality of their inputs and forward to the welfare of the end consumer. Not just for food … for health care, electronic gear, for all products and services that carry risks as well as benefits.

We may have the fleeting thought, “shouldn’t government be doing this?” Yes, and all lawmakers and regulators can reasonably do is hold the participants accountable for their parts.

So as the world shrinks and the value chain stretches around it,  a safety chain needs to go with it to protect the consumers far from their many suppliers.