[cycleguy55]

I spent 22+ years working for IBM and one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, and I can tell you IBM (and the subsidiary I worked for) did a risk assessment on every substantial piece of work it bid on. Each of those risk assessments produced a risk rating, with appropriate risk 'premiums' and contingencies applied to those bids or proposals. Having said that, there were situations where the risk assessment produced an extreme or unacceptable risk rating. Under those situations IBM would choose not to bid.

While Brent is dealing with a completely different set of circumstances, products, etc., he's performing his own risk assessment on the business he chooses to accept. If his experience (one of the factors in IBM's risk assessment) tells him the use of aluminum blocks (analogous to IBM's use of 3rd party products) produces an unacceptable risk rating, then he can well choose to decline the work. I completely understand - especially after reading his responses and rationale in this thread.