Brave new business world (part3) – now we all know how VUCA feels

The idea to present to You in this post the very interesting acronym and thought concept VUCA has arisen in my head tuesday night during my participation in a wonderful online training event organised by the AMCHAM (https://www.amcham.com.br/), to which  our company Vulkan do Brasil – the same as to several other associations, which I will present to You on ocasion of future posts in my blog – is affiliated and where our whole management team participates actively in the different work groups and events, which besides very nice opportunities for networking give us tremendous access to lots of interesting information and experiences from friends and colleagues from other companies in our region. 

This was actually the first of  in total four online training sessions of two hours in the evening each under the title “The negotiation show: Sell like a Rockstar”, conducted by the stunning trainer, speaker and influencer “Rockstar” Gabriel Machado, CEO & Changer @ Oxigena Negócios, a brazilian consulting firm specialised on trainings and recruitment for sales teams. 

The title “Sell like a Rockstar” sounds crazy? Absolutely!  And that was exactly the reason for my interest, to participate in these trainings. Actually in my job as President of Vulkan do Brasil, I am not directly responsable for the sales activities of our company. Vulkan do Brasil has in total four independently and almost autonomously acting Sales Directors for our in total three different product divisions Vulkan Lokring (VL, Mauro Mendonça), Vulkan Couplings (VC, Elisangela Santos) and Vulkan Drive Tech. For our by far biggest and main business Vulkan Drive Tech (VDT), which comprises our full wide portfolio of all types of couplings, brakes and backstops for all kinds of industrial mechanical power transmission applications, which we by the way develop and manufacture almost entirely at our beautiful factory in Itatiba, Sao Paulo, we have split the sales area responsabilities. Tiago Bedani is responsible as Sales Director for our brazilian VDT sales and his colleague Arno Ett is the Sales Director for our latin american VDT sales , means in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and all of South America with the only exception of Brazil. 

But to be true and clear, in the end the result of our company, for which I am fully responsible, for sure is – amongst several other decisive influencing and performance factors – massively depending on the success of our sales. And since more than 20 years, during my time at all the other companies in Brazil, Mexico and Spain, where I have had been appointed formerly as Managing Director, I was always working very closely together with our sales teams, accompanying them constantly and giving them continuously almost unlimited support. Since 2011 I have actively collected experience with the development of own strategies for the exploration of new markets for the introduction and sale of our products  and services and – working permanently very closely together with our sales teams – I myself have become more and more familiar and experienced with the “secrets” of doing sales. 

All sales professionals amongst my readers can confirm this rule: once sales – forever sales. Successful sales professionals are highly motivated and stimulated by their job and would hardly ever exchange their job for any other. I have made similiar experience over time. To work in sales  makes You addicted. You start to need the permanent confrontation and contact with customers and the constant attempt, to help them solve their problems. Today for me to do business has almost become a synonym for working as a salesman. But – as I have explained above – I have never really been working fulltime and purely as a salesman and am still learning about this profession and work discipline. Therefore and for general curiosity I signed up for the “sell like a Rockstar” training sessions at AMCHAM. 

After the short presentation of each of the event participants, Gabriel Machado gave us as a very interesting general overview about what influences sales business nowadays. He showed and explained to us concepts like reverse obedience, experience vs products, authenticity, wellness environment, coherence, DOY (Do it Yourself) and he also gave us a good idea about the cohort concept, which in statistics, marketing and demography describes the different groups (generations) of subjects who share defining characteristics. You all know already these widely used terms silent generation, baby boomers, generations X, Y, Z and alpha (age groups from 2010 on). 

What impressed me the most – I must frankly admit, that I have heard this term earlier, but I have never really understood it in detail – was the introduction to the VUCA concept. VUCA actually is an acronym first used in 1987 by the US Army War College to describe the volatile (V), uncertain (U), complex (C) and ambiguous (A) multilateral world perceived as resulting from the end of the Cold War. Since then it has been widely used in strategic leadership and by many organisations and corporations.

As nicely explained in Wikipedia, the deeper meaning of each element of VUCA serves to enhance the strategic significance of VUCA foresight and insight as well as the behaviour of groups and individuals in organisations. It discusses systemic failures and behavioural failures, which are characteristic of organisational failure.

V = Volatility: the nature and dynamics of change, and the nature and speed of change forces and change catalysts

U = Uncertainty: the lack of predictability, the prospects for surprise,and the sense of awareness and understanding of issues and events

C = Complexity: the multiplex of forces, the confounding of issues, no cause-and-effect chain and confusion that surrounds organization

The particular meaning and relevance of VUCA often relates to how people view the conditions under which they make decisions, plan forward, manage risks, foster change and solve problems. In general, the premises of VUCA tend to shape an organization’s capacity to:

1. Anticipate the Issues that Shape
2. Understand the Consequences of Issues and Actions
3. Appreciate the Interdependence of Variables
4. Prepare for Alternative Realities and Challenges
5. Interpret and Address Relevant Opportunities

For most contemporary organizations – business, the military, education, government and others – VUCA is a practical code for awareness and readiness. Beyond the simple acronym is a body of knowledge that deals with learning models for VUCA preparedness, anticipation, evolution and intervention.

Failure in itself is not a catastrophe, but failure to learn from failure definitely is. It is not enough to train leaders in core competencies without identifying the key factors that inhibit their using the resilience and adaptability that are vital in order to distinguish potential leaders from mediocre managers. Anticipating change as a result of VUCA is one outcome of resilient leadership. The capacity of individuals and organizations to deal with VUCA can be measured with a number of engagement themes:

1. Knowledge Management and Sense-Making
2. Planning and Readiness Considerations
3. Process Management and Resource Systems
4. Functional Responsiveness and Impact Models
5. Recovery Systems and Forward Practices
6. Systemic failures
7. Behavioural failures

At some level, the capacity for VUCA management and leadership hinges on enterprise value systems, assumptions and natural goals. A “prepared and resolved” enterprise is engaged with a strategic agenda that is aware of and empowered by VUCA forces.

The capacity for VUCA leadership in strategic and operating terms depends on a well-developed mindset for gauging the technical, social, political, market and economic realities of the environment in which people work. Working with deeper smarts about the elements of VUCA may be a driver for survival and sustainability in an otherwise complicated world.

What a fantastic way, to describe our actual global situation caused – amongst others – by Covid-19 and our struggle to find land under our feet again ! I have underlined above what the most inspires me for my own life and duties and responsabilities and I am very curious now, to get to know, whether You have already made experience with the VUCA concept and whether You can apply and use it directly to Your live, job and business.

Let me conclude my post with a music recommendation, which for my concerns fits perfectly to the subjects treated here today. The song “Maluco Beleza”, first published in 1977, was written by the famous brazilian “national rock” singer-songwriter and musician, often called “the father of the brazilian rock music”, the late Raul Seixas. I present this song here in a live version (from the album “O Báu do Raul”, 2004)  sung by Caetano Veloso, another very important contemporary brazilian singer, song-writer and musician.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5GBUvW0LP4

This song is about a person, which loves it`s autonomy and therefore is seen by the others as crazy. 

And – last not least – I must explain to You the story and the meaning behind the a little bit scary drawing on the picture above. Actually this drawing reflects a joke, which one of my sales directors at GEA Heatexchangers in Franco da Rocha, Sao Paulo, where I have been working as Managing Director during 2011-2014, and his team members made about me because of my strict and adamant tracking of their sales activities and results. They hung it publicly visible on the wall of their office, besides the KPI indicator board, where they held their daily team meetings. We all laughed about it, because in reality I have never behaved as a “strict dog” but always enjoyed my role as team member. 

Enough. Let`s focus on our today`s agenda and to do list now and meet again here in my blog tomorrow. Wish You lots of fun and success.