2022 international webinar facing vuca, how academics navigate the new normal part 4

VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. In essence, the world of VUCA means the world we live in today, where change is very fast, unpredictable, influenced by many factors that are difficult to control, and truth and reality are very subjective. If we are to survive in today's world, we cannot avoid progress. We can only adapt. As Albert Einstein said, "The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."


Awareness of VUCA theory today encourages many people to adapt more quickly and effectively. If someone resists change, then it is likely that that person will experience various lags that are quite far. Moreover, with the rapid development of information and communication technology as it is now, any change in one place will be very easy and quickly spread to other areas.


STEKOM University as a professional educational institution with a global outlook is also trying to build an academic community that is responsive to the VUCA phenomenon. This reason is one of the reasons that prompted STEKOM University to hold international webinars involving speakers from within and outside the country, specifically discussing various fields related to the VUCA phenomenon. The webinar was titled “Facing the Changing Business World in the VUCA Era”.

The seminar was held on October 20, 2022 with 2 speakers from Malaysia and one speaker from Indonesia. The first speaker at the event was a professor. His full identity is Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ummi Naiemah Saraih. Ummi is a leader at the Center of Excellence for Social Innovation & Sustainability (CoESIS), Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), MALAYSIA. The title of his presentation was “Living in a VUCA World: How Academic Leaders can Navigate the New Normal”.


At the beginning of the presentation, Dr. Ummi explained about the table of contents of her presentation. There are approximately 4 main points that will be conveyed by Dr. Ummi, namely introduction, leader navigating VUCA, role of followers, and conclusion. This news article is a continuation of the material with the same title in part 1, part 2, and part 3 which has discussed the relevance of VUCA today, how to navigate VUCA, and the role of followers.


This article discusses Dr. Ummi about the conclusion of her presentation. The first conclusion of Dr. Ummi is about leaders. The shift in mindset towards VUCA is critical and must be led by academic leaders. An adaptive leader he must be a living example of how a person can thrive with a change in mindset. At the same time, followers must remain open and adaptable to the new normal.


The conclusion of the second presentation from Dr. Ummi is all about followers. According to him, In the world of VUCA, the most important thing is to anticipate the future and to strengthen cooperation between leaders and followers. Decisions and connections are success factors for forming common goals.

After Dr. Ummi added her conclusion and then the presentation from Dr. Umm ended. After the presentation ended, the answer session was not immediately followed. However, participants allowed to ask questions textually via zoom or Youtube to be discussed later when all speakers finished delivering their presentations. During the question and answer session, participants are also allowed to directly ask verbally via zoom media.