How To Cope With An Increasingly Uncertain, Complex And Ambiguous Environment???

VUCA is an acronym for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity that is here to stay in the business vocabulary. In other words, it is the way to describe a “crazy situation”.

Developments achieved by society and technology have created a globalized and fast pace world. It is actually a world with more opportunities but in the end, it is a new world with VUCA conditions.

Volatility is probably one of the better-known terms since it is constantly used by the international markets. It also reflects the impact of technology on the global population. For instance, how people is “on-line” 24 hours a day and how they create new cause and effect situations. Leading the world to a permanent volatile state.

On the other hand, the current wide and diverse international market increases complexity. Let’s say if you mix different laws, cultures, peoples, you get a complex melting pot.

Moreover, when you put together volatility and complexity you get Ambiguity. In other words, when it is difficult to link a current situation to previous experiences. Therefore, it leads us to uncertainty. Where you find yourself in a stage difficult to foresee or planning the future as it used to be.

“The information and communication technology era has changed our society.”

Now that we are clear on what VUCA stands for, we could easily deduce that this type of environment is easy to find in the technology industry. Well, actually, it is not. For instance, years ago, we witness in awe, how pioneer companies as Ericsson, Nokia and Blackberry faded away (relatively quickly).It is important to highlight that the information and communication era has changed our society. And as previously mentioned, we live in a constant changing and globalized world. Therefore, this new era has turned our traditional environment into a VUCA environment.

“This new era has turned our traditional environment into a VUCA environment.”

Moreover, all companies-regardless the industry -must adapt to this new environment or they will end up as the aforementioned mobile companies. On the other hand, there are examples of companies that have coped with VUCA environment. For instance, Whatsapp, Amazon or Alibaba represent a “menace” to the establishment (Telefónica and El Corte Ingles).Moreover, the delivery food industry is now affected by El Tenedor (Tripadvisor Company) or the transportation industry by Uber or Car2go. Mass media industry has not figured out, yet, how to strike back at Google and Facebook, while Netflix has definitely changed the way of watching T.V.

Moreover, a store is no longer a place for shopping, they are most likely the place to have a free trial of products, and then buy them on the internet. The new on-line payment options represent a menace to banks just like electric cars to oil companies.

Everything is changing and it is changing fast, these new actors are disrupting in all the different markets, changing the way of doing business through a simple path: relaying on technology to answer society’s new needs.

“New actors are disrupting in all the different markets, changing the way of doing business through a simple path: relaying on technology to answer society’s new needs.”

Before answering the question formulated at the beginning of this article, we will have to answer the following question: Which abilities are necessary to cope with a VUCA environment? (Please see it in our next issue).


  • The largest lodging company has no beds (Airbnb)
  • The largest communication companies have no telephone infrastructure (Skype, WeChat)
  • The largest retailer in the world has no inventory (Alibaba)
  • The most popular mass media does not develop content (Facebook)
  • The largest movie promoter company has no cinemas (Nextflix)
  • The largest software retailers do not develop Apps. (Apple and Google)