According to Professor Defrenne, the “Labyrinthine Management of Uncertainty” is the proper answer to the negative consequences that the “Labyrinthine Path” and the “Daedalean Experience” may have on the results of any organisation. It is a management technique that makes possible a streamlining and an optimisation of the operations of any organisation in the face of uncertainty.

This management technique offers the organisation an opportunity to adapt effectively to uncertainty by way of minimising its disrupting effects and even, positively, by taking advantage of uncertainty in view of strengthening the efficiency of the organisation. This situation is made possible through the conversion of the “Loss Due to the Feeling of Uncertainty” into the “Gain Deriving from the Feeling of Uncertainty”, hence, into “Management Gain”.

For the “Labyrinthine Management of Uncertainty” to be effective, it has to be implemented in a “Labyrinthine Organisation”. A “Labyrinthine Organisation” is an organisation that is considered to be a complex system that is such that:

ü It is established around a project rather than structures

ü The relationships between the stakeholders can only be partnership-based

ü It rests upon a “Constant Structure of Permanent Adjustment”

The Founder gives a lot of credit to this management technique and to the underlying theoretical body for the reasons as follows:

ü It is relevant to this day – mainly because the central concept of “Technical Ideal” was right on the mark and far-sighted when the theoretical body was developed; the recent Covid-19 crisis is a simple illustration of that rightness

ü It allows a “Paradoxical Strategy” – as the paradoxical management of situations is an important feature of the underlying theoretical body

ü It empowers the stakeholders – as it is a bet on the creativity and initiative that the actors will presumably be able to display with the passage of time

ü It is action-oriented – as it is an invitation to take responsibility through effective and resolute action

The “Labyrinthine Management of Uncertainty”, as a management technique, is noticeably helpful in the field of private equity. It can be used as an effective tool towards winning decisions both in the design of investment processes and in the day-to-day relationships with portfolio companies.