VUCA World and the Future of Corporate Strategy & Leadership’ authored by Dr Victor Abbey, a retired military officer and corporate strategist, has called on corporate leaders in Ghana and other parts of the world to be abreast of change management.
According to the book, corporate leaders must be abreast with change management, be agile and be abreast with prevailing COVID-19 and age-cohort induced circumstances in the corporate environment.
The book, which was launched at the Burma Hall, Burma Camp in Accra last Thursday, 25 November, 2021, disruptively impacts on the prevailing corporate strategy practice and adds a new dimension to the prevailing thinking in corporate strategy management and leadership.
Maj (Dr) Ebenezer Kwakye Agyemang (Rtd), a senior executive of Abosso Goldfields Limited who reviewed the book found it suitable as a desk guide and travelling companion for every knowledge-seeking executive. The language is seamless and very professional.
The Reviewer further added that the challenge in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) world is to find a middle way between implementation and adaptation of a strategy.
To overcome VUCA and remain resilient, one needs another reverse version of VUCA – that is, Vision, Understanding, Clarity and Agility, Dr Agyemang, added.
The 228-paged hardcover book, published by the Advent Press, is a product of more than a decade of Dr Abbey’s experience in defence and security, his involvement in corporate leadership practice, research, interactions with corporate leaders, colleagues and the observed gap in finding a stop shop for a solution to the challenge of corporate strategy and leadership.
The book runs a journey of Six Chapters. These include the VUCA World and its Challenges, Corporate Strategy, Strategic Leadership, Future Success Factors, and Change Management.
Touching on chapters of the book, Dr Agyemang noted that chapter One covers the origins of VUCA and rests with the significance of understanding this disruptively chaotic environment.
Chapter two generally looks at strategic leadership which he found very appealing, especially the aspect which clearly articulates how leaders could re-discover themselves and become effective strategic leaders.
Dr Agyemang further added that the author succinctly isolates and methodically outlines the challenges or impediments to traditional corporate strategy and leadership for the achievement of set goals.
Chapters three and four examine the core of the issues of strategic leadership Challenge. In these chapters, Dr Agyemang found it gratifying to note how Dr Abbey weaves the requirement for effective strategic leadership into the prevailing VUCA environment, and his identification of the prevailing environment as a challenge and therefore submits key processes that could be used to overcome them.
“Interwoven with diagrams and sketches, the author does not lead the reader into despair for solutions to the problem. Rather, the author itemises and methodically provides recommended solutions, for each of the challenges identified”.
According to Dr Agyemang, the six chapter book fulfils the objective of contemporary knowledge addition by walking the reader through the genesis of VUCA, its characteristics and challenges in the corporate world, the tenets of corporate strategy and strategic leadership, and the fundamentals of organizational change management, as the author proffered key strategic factors for adoption by organizational leaders, chief among which is adaptation, change management, and agility to withstand the impact of our complex corporate environment.
Dr Agyemang therefore recommended the book as a handy travel companion. The book is a MUST-HAVE in every corporation, every library, every office, and in every home.
He commended Dr Abbey for a book well written and presented with the clarity of thought, military-style brevity and in a language that is easy to understand
In his remarks during the launch, the author, Dr Abbey noted that “at any point in time throughout human history, specific knowledge sets of leadership competencies are required, which must be well aligned with the demands of the time for organizational success or effectiveness.
Therefore, different economic circumstances, technological landscapes, cultures and social values require or determine different approaches to corporate strategy and leadership”.
He further stated that since the onset of the new millennium in 2001 when the global economy and/or corporate milieu has been characterized by what has been described as VUCA, corporate leaders have been obliged to pursue a new set of operating procedures that have the flexibility to change with each VUCA predicament.
The advancement in the technological landscape with its accompanying digital tools such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and blockchains, as well as divergent dexterity among dichotomous generations at the workplace, have further necessitated the need for different approaches to crafting and executing corporate strategies and provision of quality leadership within the corporate space.
Dr Abbey further indicated that undoubtedly, the unparalleled scale, complexity and severity of the current global COVID-19 pandemic coupled with myriad of issues punching all organizations since its inception is escalating rapidly.
“Not only have the challenges brought about by the pandemic been overwhelming, but have also given birth to a warlike environment with battlefronts evolving faster than can be imagined, and are upending all industries, from banking to retail, media, logistics, manufacturing, education, professional services, and life sciences, digital technologies
These aforementioned realities of the time have made strategic thinking and for that matter, Strategic leadership, even more critical than ever for all leaders across the globe in order to blossom in the choppy waters of the rapid technology and business model changes”.
The author indicated therefore that his motivation to compile this piece of a book titled ‘VUCA World and the future of Corporate Strategy and Leadership’ stems from these very realities of the time, and his personal passion and interest in quality leadership for organizational success.
“It is my utmost expectation and belief that this book provides great insights to the realities of the times, and future to all who acquire my book now and/or all who come across it later, in shaping their professional approach to crafting and executing the appropriate corporate strategies for their organizations through the requisite quality leadership competencies and skills spelt out in the book”, Dr Abbey mentioned.
Dr Cynthia Ayorkor Sallah, Head of Practice at KPMG, Ghana, who chaired the book launch, said the book provides corporate leaders with a toolkit in corporate strategy and leadership.
She therefore urged business executives and others to get copies of book titled-VUCA World and the Future of Corporate Strategy & Leadership.
