The upside of disruption: Understanding the VUCA world - Part 2 of 4

拉希德穆罕默德

2024年3月5日

The VUCA from events in 2020 led to a worldwide disruption in supply chains and logistics that ALE successfully navigated.

Since 2020, we have witnessed a number of unforeseen events, 就像全球流行病一样, the war in Ukraine and extreme weather events. Out of this turmoil has come a new concept coined VUCA -- Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity和 Ambiguity – as well as a worldwide disruption in supply chains and logistics and other business challenges. 

像很多公司一样, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise found itself facing new and pressing circumstances that, 如果导航不好, could have had significant consequences for our business, teams, 合作伙伴和客户. 

在我的第一篇文章中Tackle challenges with a business intelligence strategy,” I shared an overview of ALE's situation during this period of time and how we seized opportunity in the face of disruption. Today, I will get into more detail about this key concept of VUCA.

什么是VUCA?

Essentially, VUCA is what we have been living through the past three years – the volatility, uncertainty, complexity和 ambiguity that are the painful outcomes of multiple global crises including:

•地缘政治冲突: leading to a lack of cooperation, and disruption in production and trade

•经济压力: from inflation, recession, and an energy crisis

•天气和健康危机: causing factory shutdowns, port delays, freight availability and a surge in prices

•电子元件短缺: resulting in long lead times, even with more recent improvements

•加强ESG审查: including the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (Scope 3) which extends emissions compliance to include activities from assets not owned or controlled by the organisation

At ALE, we were particularly affected by factory shutdowns, 难以获得运费, price increases and component shortages. To be honest, at times it felt like we were living through a nightmare! Despite this, we persisted in looking for opportunities – even during the hardest times.

在本系列的下一篇博客中, I’ll discuss the opportunities we seized and the approach we took to successfully navigate through VUCA.

与此同时, you can watch me discuss this subject at the Deliver Americas event, held this past September in Las Vegas.