Strategically Speaking: Surviving Volatility

One basic tenet of Wall Street thinking is the value of predictability. The investment community rewards the stocks of companies and industries that exhibit steady (not necessarily spectacular) growth in revenues and earnings with appreciated share prices—and punishes those with wide swings in either direction with lower stock prices. More than anything else, the Street hates surprises.
If predictability is a qualification for success, I suggest to you that we are, as an industry, in for a bit of a roller coaster ride for the next several years—as the business environment that has been, for the most part, fairly stable for the past several years undergoes transformational times.