Living in a VUCA World: Increase Competitiveness as a Project-Driven Company

By
Dr. Adrian Reisch
February 19, 2021
Living in a VUCA World

We live in a changing world, and our environment becomes increasingly Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. Over the last few weeks, we dove into the VUCA framework and the megatrends that shape VUCA. In the final article of this series, we'll put together the learnings and focus on the companies thriving in a VUCA world: competitive project-driven companies that are lean, agile and digital.

Four megatrends shape VUCA: technology, globalization, demographics, and resource scarcity. To be successful in the next normal, four key questions need to be answered.

  •    Volatility: Who are our customers and competitors of tomorrow?
  •    Uncertainty: How and with whom do we earn our money in the future?
  •    Complexity: How do I combine external flexibility with internal efficiency?
  •    Ambiguity: What new and innovative business models are successful in the market?

By answering these four key questions, you can develop your vision and strategic direction as a project-driven company. It's important to ask yourself what a future VUCA world where you are competitive looks like – and what you need to be competitive. This strategic direction will guide your transformation from the as-is to the to-be as a true north.

For a stepwise transformation, you have to rethink processes and organizational set-up, focusing on optimizing business processes to become leaner and more agile. Correspondingly, develop a project-oriented organization, including establishing continuous improvement processes and structures.

Using the right IT and enabling technologies is essential to cover a competitive project-driven company's digital side, providing the right tools for agile collaboration, process efficiency, planning and decision support.

Establishing KPI-based performance management is vital for fact-based decision-making and steering. With systematic performance management, you get insights into what is going on in your business, make intelligent decisions and make a real impact through execution. For such a transformation, a people and mindset change is the most crucial factor for enabling cooperation between the individual functional areas, suppliers, and customers in the ecosystem.

We support our clients with transformation programs, defining strategies to become competitive in a VUCA world. For instance, the vision we developed with one of our clients for a project-driven company was to efficiently manage the increasing complexity in customer requirements and products through optimized processes and end-to-end digitalization.

Three imperatives were vital in setting up the transformation program.

Creating an end-to-end process and system overview, mapping it against the target state and focus on the key areas of action and their targeted implementation.

Running the program organization, focusing on selected full-time resources and priority one topics, speed-up the implementation with clear use cases in the agile approach and support with aioneers insights from the outside on leading practices.

Focusing on must-haves and a defined hypercare phase with transfer to Operations.

We developed a true north transformation map with a clear focus on the implementation within one year. The integration of product development and manufacturing is thereby crucial for competitiveness. The digital product and real production worlds merge to integrated product development and manufacturing with the digital twin supported by best-of-breed IT architecture.

With a structured program organization and dedicated assignment of contents and responsibilities, we could implement the core topics for a project-driven company in just ten months.

The VUCA world demands us to think about how we do business: from who our customers and competitors are to how we manage our organization. Being a project-driven company allows you to succeed in a VUCA reality, adapting to new developments. If you need help with your transformation program, get in touch with us today.

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Dr. Adrian Reisch

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