Column Pieter Vos: VUCA World

There was a long queue outside cookie shop X; they had gone completely viral on Instagram. The owner quickly bought an additional oven. A month later, the queue has disappeared... Now the crowd is standing hungrily outside fries shop Z because their fries with unusual toppings have become a raging hit on TikTok. We live in a ‘VUCA world.’ Volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. It is not a question of whether your market will change, but when. And how? And in which direction?

Our business reality is chaotic. Import tariffs can suddenly skyrocket tomorrow, leaving your sales market going up in smoke. It reminds me of the famous book ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’ by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard. In the book, a group of mice moves into a warehouse full of cheese. Completely overwhelmed by the amount of food they find there, they think they will never have to do anything again. Some of their fellow mice, however, scratch behind their ears. Is it really that good? How large is the supply really? One day, the cheese is indeed gone. One mouse is paralyzed. Another sees it as a cool challenge.

The cheese supply in the story is, of course, a metaphor for everything that is good, appealing, and successful: that great job, a good relationship, a reliable sales market. But no supply is endless, and nothing stays the same—that is the message. And rather than worrying about how your world will change, it is wiser to consider the question: ‘How do I make sure my company is prepared for it?’

An agile organization is essential for that. Being agile does not mean losing focus on what you are good at. It means being able to adapt to changing circumstances. And that begins—however contradictory it may sound—with a solid foundation: build a team of creative thinkers from different departments within your organization to take the lead. People who are not afraid of change, but see it as a challenge. People who come up with solutions together for the moments when the world once again turns upside down.

Pieter Vos
Consultancy & Interim Management