Managing Uncertainty: Strategies for Surviving and Thriving in Turbulent Times

Managing Uncertainty: Strategies for Surviving and Thriving in Turbulent Times

by Michel Syrett, Marion Devine
Released November 2012
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781118103197

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Book description

A guide to understanding and responding to business uncertainty in the twenty-first century

Managing uncertainty has become a new business imperative. Technological discontinuities, regulatory upheavals, geopolitical shocks, abrupt shifts in consumer tastes or behavior, and many other factors have emerged or intensified in recent years and together conspire to undermine even the most carefully constructed business strategies. Managing Uncertainty: Strategies for Surviving and Thriving in Turbulent Times addresses these new challenges, assessing the sources of business turbulence, how to classify uncertainty, and the different ways in which uncertainty can be embraced to allow greater innovation and growth.

Drawing on examples from around the world, the book presents the most recent ideas on what it means to manage uncertainty, from practitioners, academics, and consultants.

  • Addresses the challenges of managing uncertainty in business

  • Presents a step-by-step guide to managing business uncertainty

  • Draws examples from major international companies, including Intel, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Boeing, Philips, Ford, Apple, and many more

  • Written for business leaders and managers looking for new ways to ensure that their businesses continue to thrive in a world of increasing complexity, Managing Uncertainty presents new and innovative ideas about reducing risk by understanding difficult-to-predict shifts.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Acknowledgements
  7. Preface
  8. Chapter 1: Introduction: managing in an uncertain world
    1. The uncertain world order
    2. Speed and multiplication
    3. Convergence and interconnectivity
    4. Looking ahead
    5. New patterns of uncertainty
    6. The essence of this book
  9. Chapter 2: Strategic anticipation
    1. Flexible planning
    2. Integrating strategy determination and execution
  10. Chapter 3: Navigational leadership
    1. Inspiring confidence
    2. Ensuring transparency, accountability, good governance
    3. Encouraging speedy and well-informed decision-making
    4. Involving and engaging staff
    5. Conclusion
  11. Chapter 4: Agility
    1. New rules
    2. Competing through agility
    3. Financial agility
    4. Operational agility
    5. Portfolio agility
    6. Organisational agility
    7. Conclusion
  12. Chapter 5: Resilience
    1. Developing more resilient managers and businesses
    2. Developing resilience in managers
    3. Developing a more resilient organisation
    4. Provide stability through a sense of shared identity
    5. Conclusion
  13. Chapter 6: Open collaboration
    1. Internal collaboration
    2. Business-to-business collaboration
    3. Collaboration with customers
    4. Cross-industry or system-wide collaboration
    5. Open collaboration: an emergent capability
    6. GlaxoSmithKline’s strategy of “externalisation”
  14. Chapter 7: Predictive learning
    1. Analytics
    2. Data mining and categorisation
    3. Double-loop learning
    4. Abduction
    5. Adopting an integrated approach
  15. Chapter 8: Conclusion: creating an integrated approach
    1. Reconfiguring businesses to manage uncertainty
    2. Developing a capabilities framework
    3. Plotting a pathway
    4. Conclusion
  16. Appendix
  17. Index

Product information

  • Title: Managing Uncertainty: Strategies for Surviving and Thriving in Turbulent Times
  • Author(s): Michel Syrett, Marion Devine
  • Release date: November 2012
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781118103197