We invite your insights of World4.0. The following is a some background.

In 1998 the United States War College described the VUCA world as “Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous.” VUCA is used to define the challenges executives face in today’s global business world.

Enter World 3.0, economist, Pankaj Ghemawat, challenges the assumptions behind globalization. He calls for a world that can secure their collective prosperity through new approaches to cross-border integration. He suggests businesses, policy makers, citizens , and media can open up flows of ideas, people, and goods across borders, in ways that maximize the benefits and minimize the potential side effects.

Enter Industry4.0 where massive industrial change is fueled by digital technologies. The fusion of physical and virtual worlds into a cyber-physical system disrupt and impact on every element of business operations.

Enter Next Generation (Millennials, Generation Z), the major global demographic immersed in a connected digital culture demanding, consistent values, transparent communications, sustainable outcomes and equity in the workplace. They challenge the status quo.

With the events of Brexit, explosion of nationalism and authoritarian leaders, threats from terrorists and cybercriminals, climate change, potential trade wars, and the adoption of digital technologies, we experience disruption as The New Normal.

Change isn’t new, but the speed, inter-relatedness, complexity and global nature of disruption is at a scale we’ve never experienced. With the aggregation and compounding of these forces, business leaders have entered a new era requiring a values-driven model for leading with unknown consequences. We can no longer use the same assumptions; many of our foundation beliefs are outdated. Traditional management methods are insufficient to address the volume of change and inter-connectedness we are experiencing in business and related ecosystems.

Enter World4.0 where people, events, things and machines connect in the digital world and communicate. Everything is connected to everything in real time via the grid or the cloud. Change is compounded as it builds on changes in related ecosystems. Constant adaptability is a necessity not a choice. Life with constant connectivity and interactivity among people, consumers, employees, and institutions generate exponential change. But the leaders are not prepared.

This is World4.0. It requires a catalytic mindset, an ethical compass and harmonious strategies to navigate and sustain the environment.

World4.0, is a values-driven environment where catalytic changes across all institutions interact, building upon each other to generate exponential transformation with unpredictable outcomes.

Our first task is to define World4.0. We invite your comments and refinements.

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Ira Kaufman, PhD, Strategic Transformation Strategist; Executive Coach; interested in catalytic leadership and digital transformation; co-author, Strategic Harmony… 21 Solutions to our Shattered World and  Digital Marketing: Integrating Strategy and Tactics with Values

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