Resilience in the face of volatility – What's the secret?
A new issue of COO Insights asks how management can avoid becoming the art of the impossible.
The Federation of German Industries recently observed that while the frequency and scope of fundamental changes in industry are perceptibly increasing, no clear pattern behind this trend can be identified. In fact, all across the globe, economic cycles are growing shorter, the peaks and troughs are becoming more extreme and each is having a greater impact. Technology is evolving at a frantic pace, and short product cycles in turn are driving more pronounced fluctuations in demand.
Volatility and complexity
In this world of constant and unforeseeable change, volatility (originally a statistical term) has become synonymous with inconsistency and instability in general. Both complexity and volatility are on the rise, especially in the economic sphere. Yet it is still possible to find companies and people who succeed even under unforeseeable conditions. What's their secret? A new issue of COO Insights published by Partners Thomas Rinn and Martin Erharter from our global Operations Strategy CC, poses this very question. The authors spoke to researchers and managers who deal with volatility, both as an academic and an everyday managerial phenomenon.
Resilience – a mix of skill and luck?
Futurist Matthias Horx, an expert on resilience, says these companies and people succeed because they are diverse, flexible and not too efficient. Scientists at the Leipzig Graduate School of Management tell COO Insights is because they base their strategic planning on scenarios that link the advantages of structured, formal strategic planning to the benefits of free strategic thinking.
And Hubert Waltl, Volkswagen board member in charge of production, adds that another ingredient of success is having to reinvent themselves again and again. Right now, Volkswagen Group is tackling the "Modular Transverse Matrix", which could be the car factory of tomorrow.
The Federation of German Industries recently observed that while the frequency and scope of fundamental changes in industry are perceptibly increasing, no clear pattern behind this trend can be identified. In fact, all across the globe, economic cycles are growing shorter, the peaks and troughs are becoming more extreme and each is having a greater impact. Technology is evolving at a frantic pace, and short product cycles in turn are driving more pronounced fluctuations in demand.
Volatility and complexity
In this world of constant and unforeseeable change, volatility (originally a statistical term) has become synonymous with inconsistency and instability in general. Both complexity and volatility are on the rise, especially in the economic sphere. Yet it is still possible to find companies and people who succeed even under unforeseeable conditions. What's their secret? A new issue of COO Insights published by Partners Thomas Rinn and Martin Erharter from our global Operations Strategy CC, poses this very question. The authors spoke to researchers and managers who deal with volatility, both as an academic and an everyday managerial phenomenon.
Resilience – a mix of skill and luck?
Futurist Matthias Horx, an expert on resilience, says these companies and people succeed because they are diverse, flexible and not too efficient. Scientists at the Leipzig Graduate School of Management tell COO Insights is because they base their strategic planning on scenarios that link the advantages of structured, formal strategic planning to the benefits of free strategic thinking.
And Hubert Waltl, Volkswagen board member in charge of production, adds that another ingredient of success is having to reinvent themselves again and again. Right now, Volkswagen Group is tackling the "Modular Transverse Matrix", which could be the car factory of tomorrow.
