Global governments need to take a page out of the venture capitalist playbook and adopt risk portfolios to ensure their successful evolution, said the Executive Chairman of LinkedIn.

Global governments need to take a page out of the venture capitalist playbook and adopt risk portfolios to ensure their successful evolution, said the Executive Chairman of LinkedIn.

Speaking during the final day of the World Government Summit 2017 in Dubai, Reid Hoffman, discussed the significant gaps between business and government, urging for a strategic shift that could help expedite development.

“One of things that a clear majority of government tend have is a natural play and a tendency to want certain plans, but big jumps and evolution – in terms of trying something new – usually involves some form of intelligent risk,” he said. “Instead of having linear procedures you want a more portfolio approach, where you invest in several things and try them, closing off what fails and doubling down on what works.”

Hoffman attributes the potential for great achievements on the government level to the creation of risk portfolios. “Risk taken intelligently is what allows you to create something that’s seriously interesting,” he said. “I haven’t seen very much of that yet on the government level in terms of the creation of risk portfolios as a way of doing evolution.”