Many corporate leaders not fully-equipped for challenges: Survey

NEW DELHI: Many business leaders in the country are not fully-equipped to deal with challenges of volatility and complexity posed by the current business landscape, says a survey.

As per global HR consultancy DDI's survey, which covered more than 1,000 executives, including from HR domain, most corporate leaders are not prepared to deal with volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA).

Less than two-thirds of leaders said they were either "highly confident" or "very confident" in their ability to meet the four VUCA challenges, it said.

"In the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) business landscape expected to continue for 2015, leaders face many challenges, requiring aggressive, sustained talent management strategies to prepare them for success," DDI said.

As per the HR professionals surveyed by DDI, about a third viewed their company leaders as not possessing the capability of meeting challenges in the VUCA world.

Of these 38 per cent felt the corporate leaders were ill- equipped to deal with volatility, followed by 31 per cent who believed that their leaders were incapable of meeting ambiguity in the business environment.

About 30 per cent felt that the company's leaders were not capable of meeting complexities, and 24 per cent did not feel they could deal with uncertainty.

"At best, only about 18 percent identified their leaders as very capable," the survey said.

Moreover, about 39 per cent HR leaders felt that leaders in their organisation are moderately ready or not ready to handle human capital related challenges.

Globally, 25 per cent of the organisations reported that their leaders were not capable across any of the VUCA challenges.