VUCA Provoking World: The Future

- Shruti Chadha

As the new year rolls out with unseen opportunities, it carries with it a backlog of events that probably no body including the creators would have envisaged in January 2015. Starting with Brexit, demonetization in India and the unexpected US election results, there has been a lot for the industry to adapt. Whenever civilization has gone through one of these disruptive, dislocating technical revolutions-like Gutenberg's introduction of the printing press-the whole world has changed in a profound manner. But, there is something different about the flattening of the world in the next decade, and it is going to be qualitatively different from similar such profound changes; the speed and breadth with which it is taking place. This flattening process is happening at warp speed, and, is directly or indirectly touching a lot more people on the planet at once. The faster and broader the manner of transition to a new era, more likely the potential for disruption.

VUCA: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, or Ambiguity

The notion of VUCA was introduced by the U.S. Army War College to describe the more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, multilateral world, which came into the fore with the end of the Cold War (Kinsinger & Walch, 2012). The acronym itself was not created until the late 1990s, and, the notion and acronym really took hold after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. VUCA was subsequently adopted by strategic business leaders to describe the chaotic, turbulent, and, rapidly changing business environment that has now become the "new normal." For leaders in the military and beyond, the doctrine underscores the importance of strategic decision making, readiness planning, risk management, and situational problem solving.

Understanding VUCA in present day business