Reading randomness

AS TEMPTING as it can be to draw lessons from history, Richard Fenning cautions against doing so blindly - as a one-time student of history himself, and as chief executive officer of global specialist risk consultancy Control Risks.

"Yes, history can teach us things about the future," he says in an interview with The Business Times at the firm's Singapore office.

"But one of the things it can teach us, that's more important than anything else, is the random and unpredictable nature of much of international relations and much of current affairs - and to guard against making too many assumptions that the world will unfold according to a pattern that suits all of our planning and business expectations."