Some risks you cannot mitigate. Some decisions you can take all the right steps, speak to the right people, do all the research and you still end up with a dud. Sometimes a very costly dud. A few years ago we hired a technology consultant who came to us highly recommended by a high-end technology firm that had recruited some of our best talent. His credentials were as impeccable as his experience. His previous projects were much larger and complicated than the one we chose to embark with his guidance. This guy was a total package: He spoke high-level Geek. He was from out of town. He was tall and confident. He was expensive. He designed a very, very expensive cluster of servers that were supposed to make our lives easier and serve our clients better. It was a failure. A big failure. It was a cluster alright, but not…