Managing Turbulences in a VUCA World

The concept of a VUCA World — one that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous — was introduced first by the U.S. military at the end of the cold war era in order to describe the multifaceted dimensions of global turbulences. In the 21st century, the turbulent VUCA world represents the new normal that executives face on daily basis. The purpose of this seminar is to integrate insights from a wide range of business and other fields to enable students to better understand, manage turbulences and to control critical (possibly catastrophic) risks to organizations, and to explore current best practice. Through a series of simulations, case studies, company visits, and selected guest speakers the seminar has the following objectives:

1.) Developing an understanding of and the ability to identify current and future economic, social, technological, and environmental drivers of turbulences.

2.) Learning about best practices in mitigating physical, social/human, and cyber risks.

3.) Obtaining operational knowledge for integrating different turbulence coping techniques into action in daily business life.