Last week, I was lucky enough to ski at Cairngorm Mountain in Scotland. It’s a statement that tends to be quite rare these days. Even in its pomp, skiing in the highlands was unreliable, cold and windy enough to give most cyclones envy. And that was all before climate change. It is now not uncommon for any one of Scotland’s five dedicated hills to go a whole winter without opening. With global warming trending in one direction, it begs the question; how do these fragile businesses expect to survive long term?

The answer lies in a simple philosophy – worry about what you can control, forget what you can’t. On arrival at cairngorm, you can’t ignore the large snow factory containers next to the beginner slopes. Able to pump out artificial snow in temperatures exceeding Scotland’s summer average, these savvy investments aren’t a silver bullet – you can’t use a snow factory to blanket an entire resort in powder. But you can just about keep a strip of snow suitable for beginners open all season long. This reduces uncertainty – you can book a beginner lesson weeks in advance, safe in the knowledge that you will have snow, regardless of the weatherman.

A steady winter revenue secured, most of the hills have focused on the more predictable part of their year: the summer season. Here, during Scotland’s prime tourist months, outdoor activities such as mountain biking, tubing and carting have all seen major investments in the past few years. It’s quite unusual to see any of the hills refer to themselves as ski centres anymore. Most prefer “Mountain resorts” or “Mountain experience”, a reflection of this desire to be seen as more than just a seasonal retreat for winter sports enthusiasts.

At time of writing, most of these “resorts” remain on shaky ground financially. But the remarkable efforts to focus on the elements within their control have given all of them a vital lifeline, and a potential pathway forward in these uncertain times. Soon, a bumper ski season with great natural snowfall will simply represent a quick cash injection for otherwise stable businesses, rather than final shot of adrenaline to an otherwise dying patient. Cairngorm isn’t betting against the climate. They’re refusing to bet the business on perfect conditions. That’s the mindset worth copying. You can’t control the environment - but you can design systems that don’t collapse when it misbehaves.

That’s not optimism - that’s just good old-fashioned error-proofing.