Lacking in Canon⁈ How to think to survive in the age of VUCA

2020.02.29 06:00

In a previous article, I pointed out that Canon CEO Fujio Mitarai "definitely lacks the qualities required of a manager in the age of VUCA. As wise Agora readers may already know, VUCA is a military term that is an acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, and became ubiquitous in the United States in the late 1990s. It is said to have become a household word in the U.S. in the late 1990s.

In countries such as the United States and Israel, where new businesses are created one after another, it is not unusual to find former military personnel among the executives of companies and other organizations. For this reason, the term VUCA has been used in the field of business, where the intensity and speed of change is increasing, for about 10 years now.

In my opinion, it will be extremely difficult to survive if we cling to pre-VUCA ways of thinking (such as the "PDCA cycle"), even though we have long since entered the age of VUCA. Because they have not abandoned the old ways of thinking, many Japanese organizations are extremely slow in making decisions and are unable to move before they have sufficient information in an unknown situation.

As a result, they are unable to produce the desired results or incur significant damage. Last fall, a train on the Hokuriku Shinkansen line in Nagano Prefecture was inundated by flooding caused by Typhoon No. 19, and JR East had to post an extraordinary loss of approximately 28.5 billion yen because its employees had not learned how to deal with VUCA.

One of the most effective ways to deal with VUCA is the OODA (pronounced "wuda") loop. In many countries other than Japan, the OODA loop seems to be commonly used not only in the military but also in business, politics, and government.

During the 30 years of the Heisei period, Japan has become a poorer and poorer country. There are multiple reasons for this, but to begin with, few people still know about the existence of the OODA loop itself, and even fewer people incorporate the OODA loop into their daily lives. This is one of the reasons why many Japanese have become poor.

The OODA Loop is a theory proposed by John Boyd, an American military officer, but its origin can be found in the "Book of Five Rings" written by Miyamoto Musashi in the early Edo period. Bushido at that time advocated, for example, to "fight even against superior opponents if you think they are unreasonable.

People today associate "bushido" with "seppuku" and "loyalty," but this image has been transformed by the authorities of the Edo period into something far removed from its original form. The original Bushido was one that abhorred authoritarianism, formalism, and perfectionism.

Since I am writing this article in Japanese, I assume that most of my readers will be Japanese. If you are Japanese, you should have a good affinity with the OODA Loop, which is a development of the philosophy of Musashi Miyamoto, who was Japanese. I have read several books on the OODA Loop, and if you have not yet read it, I recommend "OODA Loop Thinking [Introduction]: The World's Fastest Thinking Manual for Japanese People" written by Hiroyuki Irie. Please note that this article is not an advertisement.

first appearance : AGORA