The Vuca World – An Innovative Concept

Posted by Carlo Marques on 27 Oct, 2017 7:45 pm

The VUCA concept suggests that individuals, families, companies and states should take into account the increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity in their decision making processes. The features of VUCA are, in fact, increasing in today’s world, due to the last decades’ technological developments ( the most remarkable one is certainly  the widespread use of the internet).

Gonçalo Cotta Guerra

But is the idea of applicability of these features in leadership decisions original? Certainly Henry Ford, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, John D. Rockefeller and Henry the Navigator did not had to open 40 e-mails per day and had no satellites, computers or TV sets and were not, therefore, obliged to deal with the fast-flow of information they create. But were volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity variables that were absent of their decision making processes at those times? Hardly, I would say.

The VUCA world always existed, and leaders of all times had to deal with it, mainly whenever any technological development, natural catastrophe or political and social revolution took place. Therefore, my question is : are the main business, economic and social variables so different across the various ages? The world, of course, is not the same anymore, but human nature (the very same nature that takes leadership decisions) remains unchanged. My conclusion is that we must always keep a healthy critical approach to some management jargon that we are confronted with in our lives as students and leaders. This will allow us to separate the really innovative concepts from those that are hardly innovative, in order to avoid unnecessary sources of confusion and chaos and keep our minds focused on what is really important to succeed.  Perhaps it is worth to think about this, and to always raise some question marks.

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