VUCA - a four-letter word. How does your company plan to deal with it?

Here's what Deloitte thinks smart companies would need to do to deal with VUCA : a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous world: 

1 ACCELERATE DISCOVERY.
Today’s organizations must create regular, systematic mechanisms to accelerate the pace at which they discover sources of surprise. 

2 Scan Ruthlessly
Any potential source of change won’t be coming with a big sign that says “disruptor.” It won’t be coming from the usual places. And there won’t be just one.

3 Confront Your Biases.
“That will never happen” is the most dangerous phrase in today’s C-Suite. 

4 PREPARE FOR SURPRISE.
When an emergent risk turns into a strategic threat, it’s too late to study the problem. You have to respond like a Navy SEAL, with confidence, clarity, and precision.

Seems to be in close alignment with what I had written in the Harvard Business Review and blogged about a few months ago:

.......that most Disruptions can be prevented from having a Big Bang effect by smart companies by:

- early identification of emerging trends

- what-if /SWOT analysis to identify impact on existing business

- identify opportunities to leverage the emerging trend

- get "co-opted" into the evolution process

- ride the evolutionary wave and reap the benefits.

Companies which do not do so will feel the impact of what was actually an evolutionary process as if it was a "Big Bang". Guys who see an oncoming bus and prepare for it can run alongside it a bit and then board it ; guys who are oblivious will be "hit by a bus".