Fast Track Implementation of Large Projects in Today's VUCA Environment
Authors: Mahajan Aniruddha , Baride Milind 
Published: October 2023

The decade of 2020's started with one crisis after another be it the COVID 19 pandemic which started from Wuhan China and quickly engulfed the world followed by quarantine measures, deglobalization, shipping crisis and the Ukraine war. While COVID 19 had already disrupted supply chains leading to non-availability of finished goods and raw materials causing an unprecedented escalation of prices in a short duration. The traditional commodities cycle has been disrupted due to changes in technology and consumption trends. Further the social issues due to social distancing, health emergencies, death and remote working affected each individual and the effects are still being felt.

The episodes of crisis of late have become frequent with lesser breathing space afforded to businesses to recover, recoup and be future ready. Decarbonization, digitalization, geopolitics, market dynamics, ESG etc. are emerging megatrends that compel sectors and corporates to undertake structural changes and fundamentally alter traditional business models. The decarbonization requirements which require existing facilities to reduce their carbon footprint and the move towards green energies away from traditional fossil fuel requires existing and new facilities to be reconfigured to incorporate current ESG requirement.

Prior to the pandemic while organizations were battling shortages of skilled resources the pandemic accentuated the shortage with quarantine restrictions, social distancing, and remote working. The Hydrocarbon EPC industry's ageing demographics did not help the matter. The conservative Hydrocarbon industry is slowly beginning to adapt to the pace of change of the last few years. Digitization and digital technologies with Cloud computing and artificial intelligence has required that the resources need to be continuously trained and reskilled. With subsequent waves of COVID19 pandemic Force Majeure clauses got triggered in most Contracts impacting the projects and the disruption and delays to projects was at a scale not previously experienced. The requirement of energy and goods also fluctuated widely during pandemic production cuts had to be put in place whereas post pandemic the production had to be quickly ramped up to meet the demand. Thus, more than ever we live in a VUCA environment. VUCA stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.

Volatility is characterized by quick changes which are difficult to predict in terms of their time and duration. This unpredictability makes planning tricky due to the increasing size, nature, pace, and amount of change.

Uncertainty is the inability to predict issues and events. Despite understanding that change is happening, given that the events basic cause is known and possible effects can be anticipated, the exact outcomes are unpredictable. Most of the time the events are unprecedented and hence there are no past experiences to fall back upon. Uncertainty ensures that forecasting and planning becomes a risky game.

Complexity is when there are too many variables at play, too much data available with very little understanding of their relationship and interdependencies.

Ambiguity is difficulty in identifying issues, reality, and possible multiple interpretations. Everything is grey while we need it to be black and white.

While VUCA can make or break businesses it has greatest impact on people and can Destabilize people and make them anxious.Make constant retraining and reshaping a necessity.Take huge amounts of time and effort to fight.Paralyze decision-making processes.Increase the chances of people making bad decisions.Jeopardize long-term projects, developments and innovations.Overwhelm individuals and organizations.Take its toll on internal culture and create VUCA environments within organizations.