In the contemporary world, business managers and executives make decisions in the face of uncertainty. The article Strategy Under Uncertainty was written by the authors Hugh Courtney, Jane Kirkland, and Patrick Viguerie. They provide important insights into financial management and decision making in the modern business world. The article was published in November-December 1997. The authors of this article provide the organizational managers in contemporary society how they can manage uncertainty. All the sections in the article provide insights into the business environment's volatility and the need for managing unforeseen uncertainties.
Summary of article
In the introduction of the article, the authors acknowledge the presence of high uncertainty in the modern business world. As the business environment evolves, managers need to develop effective ways to create wealth in their business organizations. When investors' risk is high, business executives prefer investment flexibility to enable their organizations to change rapidly to the changing markets (Courtney et al., 1997) . In some instances, however, the cost of business flexibility is relatively high. As a result, many business executives prefer to postpone huge investments until the level of investment risk is lower.
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The traditional approaches of strategic planning have limited capability to solve contemporary business uncertainties. The traditional approaches tend to underestimate uncertainty resulting in strategies that do not guard against uncertainty or exploit opportunities. However, it is not entirely true that the modern business world is unpredictable. This assumption could limit the ability of business executives to carry out effective planning. Many risk-averse managers in the contemporary business world suffer decision paralysis by overlooking uncertainty. They end up postponing making critical business decisions but rather invest in quality management and reengineering processes.
In the article, the authors call upon the organizational executive t abandon the traditional strategic planning approaches that failed to consider market uncertainty. Internal cost reduction programs, quality management, and reengineering do not comprise strategy substitutes from the article. Managers in the modern business world need to be aware of a wide range of potential outcomes with various discrete scenarios.
In the article, the authors outline four uncertainty levels. In the first level of uncertainty, managers and business executives develop one forecast that is sufficient for developing organizational strategies. In the second uncertainty level, the future is considered as a discrete scenario (Courtney et al., 1997) . The competitor's strategies play a huge role in determining the organization's strategies. In the third uncertainty level, business executives and managers identify some potential futures that are determined by several variables. The final level of uncertainty is true ambiguity. At this level, various uncertainties interact to produce an environment that is nearly impossible to make predictions.
Among the four uncertainty levels discussed above, nearly half of strategic decisions tend to fall in level two and level three. Most of the rest are common in level one uncertainty level. However, the approach is irreverent for the executive who perceives uncertainty from a binary perspective. They tend to deploy the same analysis tools irrespective of the uncertainty they are facing. However, different categories of analysis should be deployed to deal with each level of uncertainty (Wang & Jie, 2020) . Market research is one of the critical analytic tools. This tool can be used to analyze the value chains, capacity, and costs of competitors.
It is essential to tailor the strategic analysis to align with the four levels of uncertainty discussed above. From the article, the contemporary business world managers can use powerful analysis tools to predict the future and make a clear strategic direction.
In the article, the authors have compared the traditional approaches used in strategic development and the changes that have occurred in the modern business world. By outlining these differences, the author manages to emphasize the significance of approach changes and the risks associated with the traditional approaches (Engel et al., 2017) . The authors have tailored the diverse strategic analysis with the four distinct levels of organizational uncertainty in the article. The article outlines the relationship between situational analysis and uncertainty. During times of uncertainty, there is a need to demonstrate a higher level of organizational flexibility. Strategic analysis needs to be tailored to the prevailing levels of uncertainty in an organization.
In the article, the authors have discussed three strategic postures that play a significant role in shaping the future, adapting to the future, and reserving the right to play. Adapters tend to take prevailing industrial structure and evolution as given while reacting to market opportunity offers (Wang & Jie, 2020) . Reserving the right to play can be perceived as a special form of adaptation. This posture is more relevant to levels 2 to four uncertainties. Business executives in the contemporary business world tend to emphasize no-regret moves comprising cost reduction initiatives, collection of competitive intelligence, and skill-building.
In instances where organizations operate in an environment that is more predictable, the organizations tend to become adapters. The analysis is essentially designed to improve predictions of the future of the industry. The adapter strategies in the first level of uncertainty are not incremental.
Article evaluation
This article contains in-depth information about uncertainties in the modern business world and the need for analytical tools in making future forecasts. The authors in the article provide the various levels of uncertainty faced by business executives in the modern business world. The layout of the information in the article is displayed to make it easy to make some quick references. The article states the risk of using traditional approaches that tend to ignore the future, which posed detrimental impacts on the business (Courtney et al., 1997) . In the article, the authors use practical examples, which make the article easy to comprehend. The article is arranged in subtopics that allow readers to comprehensively grasp and understand the article's content. The ideas in the article are articulated in detailed paragraphs.
Conclusion
The article provides modern business managers with an overview of decision making in the face of uncertainty. It also addresses the need for the transition between traditional approaches to modern approaches, which give sufficient priority to uncertainty. The authors warn against traditional approaches that perceive the world to be certain, which results in making precise decisions about the future. The authors eventually outline the significance of analytical tools in the management of finances and decision making during uncertainty in organizations. Analytical tools are very effective tools in facilitating decision making, where many organizations executives rely on data to make real-time decisions. The world cannot be assumed to be predictable. In the modern world of globalization, there are many factors that influence the movement of goods and exchange of goods between various countries. This makes the business environment unpredictable. Managers need to develop skills to cope as the market for various goods and services evolve.
The article is relevant to the current healthcare strategic financial management principles. Healthcare is among the essential services in many economies of the world. Both private and public investments are made into this sector each year. The financial decisions in modern healthcare are made in the face of uncertainty. Many pandemics confront the world, and the emergence of chronic and lifestyle diseases remains on the rise. This makes financial management in the healthcare sector uncertain.
Reference
Courtney, H., Kirkland, J., & Viguerie, P. (1997). Strategy under uncertainty. Harvard business review , 75 (6), 67-79.
Wang, M., & Jie, F. (2020). Managing supply chain uncertainty and risk in the pharmaceutical industry. Health services management research , 33 (3), 156-164.
Engel, Y., Kaandorp, M., & Elfring, T. (2017). Toward a dynamic process model of entrepreneurial networking under uncertainty. Journal of Business Venturing , 32 (1), 35-51.
