In 2010, Supply Chain Quarterly staff reported that consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble (P&G) was revising its supply chain to reflect changes it expects in a VUCA world. Global Product Supply Officer R. Keith Harrison reported on the steps the company was taking to ensure that company’s supply chain could accommodate the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of today’s business worlds. “VUCA is the reality for the foreseeable future, and it affects how we think about supply chains and design,” he told attendees at the 2010 Supply Chain and Logistics conference (Supply Chain Quarterly staff, 2010).
P&G has embraced applied the VUCA concept beyond its supply chain. During a visit with students at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management, P&G CEO Bob McDonald discussed values-based leadership in an increasingly VUCA world
During the speech, he shared his ten rules of successful leadership, among them:
Rule #7: Ineffective strategies, systems, and cultures are bigger barriers to achievement than the talents of people. Recruiting and training are top priorities.
Rule # 9: Organizations must renew themselves. Only nine of the original Fortune 50 companies are still on the list today. The majority of successful companies don’t realize that the world is changing around them. What differentiates those who succeed from those who don’t is the ability to learn.