The art of risk management: Part I

Carmignac's Saint-Georges on managing 'unknown risks'

In the first of a three-part series, Didier Saint-Georges, managing director and member of the investment committee at Carmignac, takes a closer look at why managing 'unknown' risks may be far easier than trying to predict them.

Asset managers and entrepreneurs have one thing in common: the odds are stacked against them. A simple look at the average returns of actively-managed funds, or the failure rates of start-ups, reveals just how self-assured asset managers and entrepreneurs have to be. They take such bold steps because they believe that the future, with all its uncertainty, contains not only perils and challenges, but also - and for those very reasons - lucrative opportunities, provided they can figure out how to navigate the associated risks. How concerned should EM managers be about China fears? ...