When Is Playing It Safe the Riskiest Option?

Playing it safe in the telecom space, and in the technology sector in general, is actually quite risky.  The speed of advancements and innovations is continuously reshaping the industry.  To stay relevant and competitive, telecom companies can’t remain in their safe and static place of delivering only basic phone services.  Not adapting swiftly to market changes runs the considerable risk of alienating existing clients, as well as new prospects.  Investment into emerging technologies like 5G, IoT (Internet of things) and AI (artificial intelligence) are essential for success in this fast-paced sector.

—Rebecca Schwimmer, Vice President, CompuVoIp

There will always be elements of risk in business. It’s not a day job that gets you a salary and that’s it. When you sell products, you can develop a product that doesn’t sell; in the service industry, you can get a customer who doesn’t pay.

If you are going to play it too safe, you won’t have a product to sell and you won’t have customers. However, with good financial control, you should be able to stay on top of these things.  You will be able to keep tabs on things as they happen and deal with them early on, rather than find out a year later that a certain product is causing a loss, or the customer hasn’t been paying.

—Mendy Jacobs, Managing Director, Jacobs & Co.

Should we really be playing it safe? Often it’s the risk takers who see the greatest success.