Leadership in Vuca World: A case of Lenovo

The notion of VUCA was introduced by the U.S. Army War College to describe the more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, multilateral world which resulted from the end of the Cold War (Kinsinger and Walch, 2012). We are moving from a world of problems, which demands speed, analysis and uncertainty to solve, to a world of dilemmas, which demands patience, sense making and an engagement with uncertainty. ’VUCA’ is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous are the characteristics of modern strategic dilemmas which requires a different orientation and a set of skills. Dilemmas span disciplines and frustrate attempts to craft elegant and final solutions. According to VUCA if we wait too long for a moment the moment may pass without our knowledge. It is the recognition that there can be many ways beyond hand-to-hand combat in the marketplace which robs a competitor of its advantage. Management’s version of the use of Special Forces is an effort to switch from a hierarchical into a modular form of organization. Thus, shifting of agency from executive committees to self-managed, multi-disciplinary teams. This is equivalent of the military’s use of allies and proxies is a tendency to form partnerships that verges on the indiscriminate .In this turbulent business environment HR managers must apply VUCA model as a framework to develop agile leaders. Our objective of studying Lenovo is to find the turbulent condition and find the leadership qualities needed to apply VUCA model. Our methodology of study was both by primary and secondary methods. Here we suggest strategic, complex critical-thinking skills which are required of business leaders who can counter volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity with vision, understanding, clarity, and agility.