I recently learned that the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada has closed all of its retail stores. This is a big deal, because they'd been in business since 1670.
But it's an even bigger deal for risk management. That's because the Company pioneered the use of the “Hudson's Bay Start.” That's where they encouraged the fur traders to buy what they needed for the winter. Then, before the fur traders committed to the long journey to find the animals, the Company recommended that they camp a reasonable distance outside of town and live there for two weeks. There, they could trap and live with their supplies.
In the Risk Continuum image attached, a Hudson's Bay Start moves all life-threatening risks to the right, making them more obvious.
For the fur traders, those two weeks exposed the life-threatening risks. Did they realize they would run out of flour, salt, whatever? Go get more when they realized—and then resume or restart the experiment.
That simple Hudson's Bay Start allowed the fur traders to live through a harsh winter. (Living was the first success. Returning with furs was the second success.)
I learned about this risk management approach years ago from Jerry Weinberg. Manage It! has a description and recommendations. This article, How to Use Iteration Zero—Or Not, is all about how to do a Hudson Bay Start. And I recently blogged about how to do an “Agile” Hudson's Bay Start.
Every substantive effort needs risk management. A Hudson's Bay Start is a terrific way to expose and then manage risks.