There is risk when you climb a glacier, you try & mitigate all risks.
Look at 1000+ years of trade & business history, traders & businesses have taken blessings of rulers, political & spiritual, & administrators.
There were tradition of sending young family members to newer territories, geographies to expand business, either for vertical integration or horizontal expansion. Being from same family or extended family it covered lot many risks, payment default risks, quality risks, price escalation control, currency risks, transportation risks & it reduced overall cost of trade, as trade used to happen two ways. Gujarati’s, Sindhi’s business connection in Africa to Rangoon was one such example. Extended family controlling distribution of products across country or major part of region is one such example, family kept on expanding or kept on taking distribution rights for decades. Some families or firms control distribution rights of even full country. Companies were also happy to give distribution rights to same extended family as it reduced training cost, collections were fast & resulted in quick expansion.
Your local family representative will take care of local relation in assigned geography.
Firms, businesses, started operations same way, replacing family members by trained cadre of professionals. There was always close relation between business & the rulers-administrators as defined earlier. Sometimes businesses became rulers also, East India Company was one such example.
Modern world, Donald Trump is one such example of business heads trying to become rulers, Bloomberg is trying to do same. Locally in each state, country, we find few individuals trying to be in electoral election process to balance business interest & social service interest, Sugar factories, real estate, tobacco industry, APMCs, petroleum industry, are few such examples.
Some industrialists align themselves with political parties, some try to be neutral by balancing ruling & opposition parties. Some try & engage retired or serving burocrats by offering them reasonably high packages. Want to open bank, recruit someone retired from RBI-central bank, want to lay a private railway line, recruit someone senior from Railways. Internationally, politicians are engaged as part of lobbying activities, particularly once they leave high offices.
There are some who try & be in that network by legitimate ways, like getting into Rajyasabha. One can be part of the policy making community without getting involved in direct electoral process. Also, by getting Rajyasabha (parliament upper house) seat nominations from not so mainstream party one can avoid cross firing between mainstream parties. Bigger industrial houses can afford same as one need deep pocket to achieve same but it helps in covering political risks, policy risks. Getting appointments become cake walk, getting clarification on Govt policy becomes easiest & robust, influencing policy making by becoming part of parliamentary committees becomes easier. At least you develop friends who will warn against the arising risks. Though there is no guarantee of success after doing that also, Kingfisher Group was one such case. There are some successful & some controversial examples also.
Think & reflect about such examples, historically & during recent times, locally & globally. Yes, risk mitigation is key part of business, it’s positive action, if done right way.