If there's one feeling that has been omnipresent for all of us, it must be the sense of uncertainty. The last two years have felt as if there's very little we can be certain about. As a result, many organisations have moved into a state of crisis that is affecting a wide range of decisions. Out of fear, companies forego certain investments, bet on what they know rather than looking for what they don't know (and should focus on), avoid risky decisions and are hesitant in changing the way they want to mobilise and motivate their workforce. All of this makes clear that organisations and the people who populate them do not like uncertain situations. In other words, the collective brain of companies hates uncertain situations and, in reality, is much more conservative than one likes to think in making necessary changes when crisis knocks on the door. Although many executives and business gurus continually stress the need to use a crisis as an opportunity and thus engage in change management to ensure that the company hits the ground running when the crisis is over, the reality is that companies are so averse to uncertainty that they will do whatever is needed to maintain the status quo – at least until they feel they have more control over events again.
A company that in the last few years has weathered much uncertainty about what will happen to their business and which road to take is the Chinese telecom giant Huawei. The company has 195,000 employees worldwide, of which 131,507 – together with the founder, Ren Zhengfei – own the company, which was founded in 1987 in Shenzhen (Huawei never went public; De Cremer, 2018). Huawei rose to worldwide prominence in the early 2010s and continued to grow in terms of profits, impact and
