Bill Gates, computing pioneer and professional philanthropist, is considered a glistening entrepreneurial success. Lewie Ranieri, the entrepreneurial inventor of mortgage backed securities, is a relative pariah. Why the big difference?

Alistair Darling, with a stern glance towards troublesome City types, recently called for a ‘return to good old-fashioned banking’. Innovation in financial products has opened Pandora’s Box: record oil prices, escalating inflation and potential recession all suggest troubling times. Entrepreneurs don’t always succeed, and companies, like politicians, don’t always want them around.

Corporations, fixated on quantifiable risk, don’t like uncertainty. Should employers, therefore, prefer the steady, dependable graduate to the entrepreneurial maverick?

The FT considers:

‘Give us mavericks – just don’t let them run anything’

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cf1e0564-5204-11dd-a97c-000077b07658.html