For the last 40 plus years I have been involved in Martial arts, the last 25 in a very specialist area of Swordsmanship.  Swordsmanship is unique because it has a long-recorded history in many different cultures, and it aligns with the military strategy and tactics of individuals, armies, and nations.  Enormous amounts of information have been generated over millennia and although the context has changed the content is surprisingly similar.

The basis of our current organisations is the church and the military, the church being very stable and hierarchical, the military also very hierarchical but extremely volatile, and I use this term in reference to the context and environment it operates in (leaving out for a moment the periods where the church and the military were one).  The military have always operated in an environment where the possibility of chaos was just around the corner, and the stakes were always high for everyone from the frontline troops to the overall commander.

These days we use a new term to refer to this operating environment; VUCA*.

  • Volatility
  • Uncertainty
  • Complexity
  • Ambiguity

*(The term VUCA comes from the U.S. Army War College)

This is the catch cry of the moment, and it’s as true for the current business environment as it is for the military.  Many businesses are finding their inability to adapt to this new environment leading to a struggle to survive.  On the other hand, businesses than have the inbuilt flexibility to operate in a VUCA world are beginning to thrive.

Looking at how the military has handled VUCA over the years becomes a sensible case study for business and brings me back to my own experiences in this field of study.

It took me quite a while to develop a strategy for my sword school that fitted into a VUCA world.  We needed an overall strategy that described what we do, how we do it and when; a strategy where our activities and actions fitted, and it could be used as a guiding principle for everything we do. The purpose is clear and simple: To Win the battle.

I’ve always known the benefit of having an overall strategy, having worked with many companies in this space, but coming up with one for the sword school that fitted every situation in a chaotic environment took some serious thinking.  So, there are two main components to the strategy;

preparation and execution

 

Preparation consists of:

  • Assets
  • Information (gathering)
  • Systems
  • Training
  • Tactics
  • Attitude
  • Skills
    • Distance
    • Timing
    • Speed
    • Technique

The execution is in the context of this strategy:

“Protect yourself,

then neutralise the opposition,

with the shortest possible time between those two events.”

 

For the student of the sword, the explanation of each of these components is relatively simple, the development of competencies in these areas, however, does take focus and dedication, but the outcome is what’s important: to win in a highly dangerous, Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous environment.

 

So how is your business placed in this new VUCA environment?

  • Are the assets you have, and use fit for purpose, flexible, adaptable? Or are they fixed and solid? Do you have physical and mental investment tied up in stock, building, machinery, hardware, software?
  • Do you understand the overall picture of what is happening in your environment? Are you listening to your customers and stakeholder or are you doing all the talking?  Do you understand what your opposition are doing? Do you know and understand the latest developments in your industry, are you up to date on what’s going on across the board?  As the information you receive changes, can you and are you making the necessary adjustments?
  • Are your systems and processes aligned to the needs of your customers and do they align and fit with your assets, tactics and strategy? Are they streamline, simple, without clutter, easily adaptable to the demands of the environment, are there choices or the one and only way?
  • Are your people trained, not only in their roles, but also in the expectation of their roles and expectations of the organisation, trained to undertake other roles, able to move laterally through the organisation as required, trained to be flexible and mobile? Developed to think and make decisions for themselves at the appropriate level?
  • What are the tactics you use to deploy your goods and services to the market, what is the unique differentiator that separates you from your opposition? How is this planned and deployed?  Does everyone understand the tactics and understand their role?  Are they functional, practical and flexible, or are they ridged and fixed?
  • What is the attitude of your people? Are they engaged, motivated, focused, results driven, supported?  The new world required constant change, are they in the right mindset to be excited by that prospect?  How is the culture, the shared values, are they positive and proactive?
  • Do you have the right supporting skills/‘gut understanding’/instinct, of how to pull it all together at the right time? There is the science and the art of business, I put ‘skills’ squarely in the art section.  Knowing how to pull it all together, the right strategy, using the right assets and processes, understanding yours and the others position and making the right move at the right time.

Only when I have this range of preparations balanced across my business am I ready to step into the VUCA environments.  So, what could my sword school’s strategy look like in the new business world?

 

I protect myself: I have a sustainable and difficult to copy work environment.

Neutralise the opposition: Whether it be a competitor or a challenge or an issue, I move to address it head on comfortable in the knowledge that my preparation and initial step ensure the movement has the highest chance of success.

The shortest possible time between these two events:  I don’t wait to lock down my self-protection before I move, if I do that, I create a space for my opponent, challenge or issue to move as well.  Self-protection can be a fleeting state, you don’t want to be constantly defending yourself you must move quickly.

 

So, what is your strategy for the VUCA world?

 

Thriving in the new context requires a workforce, assets and technology that can be agile and flexible.  With the right focus, the most important of these three; the workforce; can transform your business into an organisation that can deal with an environment that is constantly changing. Someone said to me the other day, not only is the 5-year strategic plan a waste of time, but a one year plan can be damaging if it becomes a document that locks in the business.  My many years in the martial arts, both as a student, teacher and a practitioner has taught me that

 

only those who have the training, a wide range of skills, and the ability to apply those quickly under stressful situations, to be able to change tactics quickly given incoming information, will come out on top,

 

and it’s no different in the business world.  The only difference is the time of confrontation, and in the business world that is getting shorter and shorter by the month.