AUGUST 2015 / NO. 2

TAGS: MANAGEMENT, CHANGE, SBM OFFSHORE, VUCA

Top management and change

“Why doesn’t top management see change?”

We frequently ask ourselves “Why doesn’t top management see change?” In 2014, the Dutch financial newspaper, Het Financieele Dagblad, published an astonishing article about another international Dutch company taken by surprise: SBM Offshore. This company is active in the global offshore oil & gas exploration business. The newspaper heading was “Market forces us to lay off jobs”. SBM Offshore had to fire 1,200 out of a workforce of 10,000 people. It was stated that “we anticipate the developments in the oil & gas sector”. But this is incorrect! SBM Offshore didn’t anticipate, they reacted to changes in the market, which they already could have foreseen 12 months previously.

SBM Offshore does not apparently have a corporate radar. Together with many other companies SBM Offshore operates in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world. VUCA has never been more relevant in the military as well as in the business sector. Strategic intelligence professionals are able to “to see around corners” and are able to see something significant about the future that others and thus top management don’t see. Strategic intelligence supports top management in what they want to accomplish, so that the company can better execute its business in the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of today’s global business environment.

“I do not believe you can do today’s job with yesterday’s methods and be in business tomorrow”

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