Both And

“What is the CEO of a Global 500 company to do? Listen to the doom-and-gloom economists and act cautiously, or keep pushing into fast-growing but fragile economies? Smart executives are doing a bit of both, seeking new growth markets with the full understanding that their plans will be shaped and changed by global forces. Some of those trends are huge and long-lasting, like the rise of the global middle class. Others are not: Carrefour, for example, almost had a disaster on its hands when Chinese consumers threatened to boycott the chain over an event it could not foresee or control: A pro-Tibetan protester in Paris assaulted a wheelchair-bound Chinese Olympic torchbearer.

"Robert McDonald, Procter & Gamble's chief operating officer, has borrowed a military term to describe this new business world order: ‘It's a VUCA world,’ he says -- volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. ‘The idea that a butterfly flaps its wings in Africa and an earthquake occurs somewhere else in the world is our reality. It's no longer just a nice book that Thomas Friedman wrote,’ he adds, referring to the New York Times columnist's book on globalization. ‘It's my life.’”

(“The New New World Order.” Barney Gimbel. Fortune: July 21, 2008. Vol. 158, Iss. 2; pg. 156)

NO MORE either-or thinking.

Indeed, we live in a world where the only way to cope with volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity is to develop a fine touch for the craft of balancing through paradox.

This involves a bit of science infused with a very healthy dose of art -- perspective, interpretation, touch and feel.

The ancients comprehended this. Our immediate predecessors tended to forget. We must remember.