Managing Uncertainty: Strategies for Surviving and Thriving in Turbulent Times (The Economist) - Tapa dura

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.

The global financial crisis has ushered in a period of extreme uncertainty leaving major unresolved issues, such as the euro-zone crisis, which may take years to play out fully. Managing this level of uncertainty has introduced a new and complex challenge for managers, for whom there has been no established framework to help them prepare and steer their company through turbulent and unpredictable waters. This book provides such a framework. Through a detailed survey conducted by PA Consulting Group in collaboration with the authors and follow-up interviews by them with senior executives in a range of leading global firms that explored the way organisations reacted to the shock and aftershocks of the financial crisis, the authors have identified six critical characteristics that organisations must display if they are to survive and thrive in these uncertain times. These characteristics are:

• Strategic anticipation
• Navigational leadership
• Agility

Many industries are seeing unprecedented shifts in market share, resulting in a clear separation between winners and losers. The message of this book is that business leaders who act now to develop these six characteristics in their own organisation?facing the possibility of turbulence and planning to emerge stronger from it?will be the winners.

"A book that every CEO should read ? and act on. Doing so may make the difference between winning and losing in the coming crisis."
Sir John Banham, former chairman of Johnson Matthey PLC and Whitbread PLC, and former Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry