Strategy in Vuca Times

Many have quit on strategy, as they think the world is changing so quickly that there's no point in planning anything. Go with the flow-surf the wave. Stay alive, and all the rest will come. They're wrong. It's ok to keep driving forward, but at some point, you'd rather know where to go. Or maybe take it from another perspective: your clients like it when they see you have a purpose, clear goals, a direction, values, and principles, whichever they are. And they usually tend to reward that with some loyalty, even though it is only for a while. It's always good to bear in mind key concepts and rules of thumb coming from experience. Some of them are not in the books, but they've been basically the same for ages. In this sense, don't get distracted by the fireworks of technology. Maybe everything is changing, but in many ways, the essential things are only taking new shapes but remaining the same in essence. Keep looking at, and trusting, an updated version of the old concepts: mission, vision, value proposition, competitive advantage, business model, substitutes... At least, they will force you to ask a lot of questions, which in the end will be very good to have a healthier business. In the 20th Century, the keyword was (hashtag) competition; the most important thing was to win, to beat the opponent. The powerful position was the pyramid's cuspid, and the higher you climbed, the harder the wind blew. Things have changed in the 21st Century. The keyword is (hashtag) cooperation, or collaboration. The magic potion is the network. It's time to share and harvest the value of collaboration. The most powerful position is in the nodes of much more horizontal structures. If we called capitalism to the economic system born out of the first Industrial Revolution, the economy and society we are building today should probably be called Networked Technology Era. The Age of Networks, or something similar. And guess what? People will surprisingly remain to be at the center of this new paradigm. Because we're still necessary to make the world go round. At least, for a while, we'll see what the 22nd Century brings.