Leadership in a VUCA World
Like many other concepts in management literature, the term VUCA also owes its origin to the United States defense forces. An acronym that stands for V olatile, U ncertain, Complex and A mbiguous, it was coined by the American military in response to the collapse of the bipolar world order. As long as the Cold War between the two superpowers of the world - the US and the former USSR - lasted, the Americans had an identified enemy. But with the disappearance of the Soviet Union, the US Army became ‘disoriented’ in a way. Now the enemy could be anyone and could come from anywhere. This is what the whole concept of VUCA world is about. It is about the world at large becoming very volatile, susceptible to intermittent explosive eruptions. There is a drastic escalation in the level of uncertainty prevailing in the world. There are cut and dried, simple solutions to the problems of the world, so complex have they become. And, there is complete lack of clarity on almost everything und