Originally coined by the U.S. Army War College, VUCA describes the challenging conditions we face, including global geopolitical instability, the impacts of climate change and headwinds caused by economic uncertainty.
Embracing a VUCA mindset helps organisations navigate turbulent times by fostering adaptability, strategic foresight, and proactive risk management. By recognising and addressing these elements, leaders can enhance decision-making, drive innovation, and build resilience, ensuring we can thrive in a world where change is the only constant.
In line with the need to build resilience, our risk strategy is designed to ensure that we not only identify and manage current risks but also anticipate future challenges across our operations, people, and technology.
Our approach is forward-thinking and comprehensive. We begin by fostering a strong risk-aware culture, where every team member plays a role in identifying emerging threats and opportunities. Through regular risk assessments and scenario planning, we seek to proactively address areas of uncertainty – from regulatory changes and cybersecurity threats to supply chain interruptions and natural disasters.
There are three key pillars to our risk management strategy that help us to navigate the VUCA world:
- Embedding robust risk governance arrangements: Building strong but efficient frameworks for enterprise and operational risk management, along with effective governance arrangements to ensure adequate oversight and engagement.
- Digitising our risk processes: Introducing and embracing digital tools that support our ability to efficiently analyse risk data to learn and improve, respond quickly to emerging and high velocity risks, and actively monitor the health and effectiveness of our controls.
- Strengthening our risk culture: The key to effective management of risk is the engagement and ownership by individuals and teams who need to make risk-based decisions. Building a strong culture for risk ensures we naturally consider both threats and opportunities, and ensures we put in place the right controls to mitigate or exploit.
By embedding risk management into every level of our organisation, we build trust with customers, minimise legal and financial exposures, and position ourselves as an industry leader. As we move forward, our risk strategy remains agile, continuously adapting to an ever-changing world—ensuring we are always prepared for what’s next.
To review our Risk Management Framework helping us navigate these areas, please follow this link.
