The business operating environment is ever-changing. It is the Volatility, the Uncertainty, the Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) of the business environment that is challenging and even threatening the existence of business organizations. The business planning horizons have become shorter – the time lapse between planning and implementation has become blurred and even non-existent as business conditions are rapidly changing. Businesses are now planning “on the go”. Technological advancements andinnovations are challenging the old ways of doing business – giving rise to new businesses and organizations that had never been envisaged before. Customer preferences are changing and a new generation of consumers is emerging who prefer products and services that are customized to their tastes. Change has always been a part of our lives but the rate of change in themodernworld is unprecedented.

What does this all mean for our organizations? How doorganizations remain relevant and sustainable?How do they compete in such a volatile operating environment?

Organizational review is a process of enhancing organizational success through strengthening its capabilities to deliver. It is an organizational improvement initiative that ensures alignment and sustainability through attunement of organizational infrastructure to changes in the operating environment. Organizational review seeks to continuously identify ways of improving business performance and results. Forces of change informed by Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal and Governance (PESTEL-G) dynamics define the operating environment of business organizations and these exert continual pressure on organizations to align. Organizational review entails the strengthening of re-examination and adjustment of our strategy as well as our strategy-delivery mechanisms. Specifically this entails examination and adjustment of the following:

This process of organizational review should be done continuously so that at any given moment in time the organization is alive to its environment and this should be reflected in its configuration. Many of our organizations in Zimbabwe are faced with a problem of stagnation in such a VUCA environment. Organizations are slow to react to change and most of these organizations are still stuck with the traditional approaches to organizational review. Traditionally the process of organizational review is conducted once a year, and usually half-heartedly as leaders are not so keen to “rock the boat”. This is also done along with the traditionally strategic planning process around November of each year. However the dictates of the VUCA environment demand that organizational review becomes a continuous process – a process which does not wait for a particular time of the year for a review to happen, but a process that ensures that changes areaccounted for in real time. In as much as organizations can do their major organizational review processes once every year, leaders should not be oblivious of the fact that throughout the year changesthat are directly or indirectly impacting on the organization, changes with an immediate and/or long term impact on the organization, are obtaining in the operating environment.

Quite a number of companies in Zimbabwe suffer from this organizational stagnation where organizations become too comfortable in their way of doing things and resist change. This is even more apparent in mature organizations that have reached a certain level of stability. We have even witnessed organizations going for their annual strategy review sessions of irrelevant strategies that have been overtaken by events during the year. This stagnation (slowness to respond to change) has led to the demise of many companies in Zimbabwe and beyond.

Organizational review can be done targeting the whole organization or any of its parts as it is a need-driven process. However, in any organizational review effort, it is important to observe one of the key principles underlying organizational effectiveness – the principle of mutual reinforcement. According to this principle, a significant change in any one part of an organization has got an impact on the other parts, either immediately or in long term. As part of the organizational review process, this impact has to be understood and the necessary alignment done so as to achieve total organizational effectiveness. This is because the different parts of an organization are mutually reinforcing.

In a globalized environment withsucha high rate of change, dynamism and innovation, it is imperative that business leaders review their organizations on the pulse – not to wait for traditional business cycles that may be overtaken by events. It is only through continuous and real-time review and alignment that organizations remain relevant and attuned to the dictates of the operating environment. A culture of continuous improvement has to be inculcated so that stakeholders are always seeking ways of improving their organizations. Organizations have to be as dynamic as the environments within which they are operating – any stagnation or resistance to change leads to extinction of that organization.

Emmanuel Jinda is the Managing Consultant of PROSERVE Consulting Group, a leading supplier of Professional Human Resources and Management services locally, regionally and internationally. He can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.tel: 263 773004143 or 263 4 772778