By Daniel Rowles
The current pace of change driven by digital innovation can feel overwhelming. With rapid advancements in generative AI and the sheer volume of new tools, platforms, and techniques on offer, many business leaders feel they’re constantly playing catch-up to simply keep pace with their competitors, never mind pulling ahead of them. The market is loud and overflowing with choices, and simply abstaining from engaging with it, is not an option for any organisation. According to a recent report from KMPG which surveyed more than 500 top executives from major global firms, as many as 98% of Global Business Services have either already deployed or are in the process of launching Generative AI tools within the next twelve months.
The key to maintaining this competitive edge is to build a culture of continuous learning within yourself, and within your organisation, and to combine this with a dedication to exploring transformation, innovation and experimentation.
Providing some small comfort, the same report also shares that 79% of these firms also shared that they lack the tech-savvy skills in-house to provide effective digital services. Such figures, and the reality that the pace of technological change is only going to increase as AI and data capabilities grow means that whether you’re a business leader seeking to ensure your company’s survival, or a professional looking to take the next step up the ladder developing a greater acumen in digital application and strategy is vital for sustained success. It also means that, for those that can get it right, there is a significant advantage to be gained.
However, the secret isn’t mastering every new technology that comes along, it’s about knowing just a little bit more than your competitors and leveraging that knowledge to drive competitive advantage.
The key to maintaining this competitive edge is to build a culture of continuous learning within yourself, and within your organisation, and to combine this with a dedication to exploring transformation, innovation and experimentation.
Why Building A Learning Culture Matters
No matter the sector or the focus, organisations that can encourage continuous learning amongst their staff see multiple benefits. Agility is one such strength – creating teams that can identify when industry trends change and quickly pivot to meet them, and skilled employees with a mindset to explore and take advantage of new tools and techniques early-on, rather than shying away from them.
This, in turn increases the potential for innovation, as a structured learning culture brings with it new ideas developed from fresh knowledge, insights and the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues.
Another benefit is a higher level of employee retention. Staff value professional development opportunities. As a result, not only are they more skilled and fulfilled, they are more likely to stay with an organisation that invests in their growth.
Creating a culture of learning starts with leadership. If senior leaders and executives champion the importance of continuous education, the rest of the team will follow. Leaders should engage in the practices they want to see from their staff, such as keeping up their qualifications and sector knowledge, attending webinars or taking courses. They should also provide staff with access to similar resources, and allow them the time to explore these, encouraging experimentation without worry of reprimand or failure.
However, building such a culture in already established skills and disciplines is altogether a more straightforward prospect that embarking on embedding something new, unexplored and untested, as much digital technology is. The key here is found in the attitudes and actions of leadership – being willing to step into the unknown and break new ground.
To do this, organisations and individuals can find value in reaching beyond their industry and their existing networks to benefit from the knowledge of other organisations and institutions. Short Executive Education courses offer the opportunity to both upskill in a new discipline and gain a network that can help further embed a culture of learning for the future.
At Imperial, the Digital Transformation Strategy programme offers exactly this – a short-term, expert-led deep dive into the most prominent, impactful digital transitions impacting industry.
Gaining A Competitive Advantage Through Executive Education
With solid foundations in both business and technological innovation, Imperial offers learners the advantages of a scientifically solid curriculum that is designed to be instantly applicable to the real needs of industry. This gives them the opportunity to build their knowledge as well a means of actioning it in their professional lives.
Taught over five days, the Business Transformation Strategy programme provides mid-to-senior level leaders with the skills to navigate through the noise of digital innovation. Learners begin by exploring the current technological landscape, understanding its scope and the implications this has on business practice.
With solid foundations in both business and technological innovation, Imperial offers learners the advantages of a scientifically solid curriculum that is designed to be instantly applicable to the real needs of industry.
From here they refine their focus over the following days, identifying the tools, knowledge and techniques to best address their own and their organisation’s needs. To help ensure that learners can be successful in their digital transformation efforts, studies take on a personal approach, auditing strengths and weaknesses and building a robust plan to work from. Learners can build a robust digital transformation strategy for their own organisations with guidance from industry experts.
With academic exploration and a solid grounding in analytics, supported by best practice shared by organisations currently succeeding in this field, the programme is practical at its heart, but instils enough broader knowledge to allow participants to continue learning after the programme’s conclusion.
Crucially, learners also gain an insight into what causes organisations to fail at digital, enabling them to identify potential pitfalls early on in their own work. Here a grounding in data comprehension and analysis can allow organisations to effective measure the success of their strategies and the ROI they offer, helping to tie digital transformations to financial success and identify further opportunities for development and growth. Because of this, data science also forms a core part of the curriculum.
Who Benefits?
Gaining not only an education, but a network of peers navigating the same challenges, the programme not only gives mid-senior-level leaders the skill advantage that so many organisations are lacking, but also the means to continue their learning and growing, as faculty and advisors remain on-hand for learners to provide feedback. Furthermore, access to the expertise of the wider Imperial College is also open.
And in the workplace, the knowledge gained can assist leaders in better curating learning resources for their staff – whether in the form of formal programmes, or free resources such as podcasts, YouTube channels and industry white papers, or building their own through internal workshops with industry experts, peer-to-peer learning sessions where team members share their expertise or mentorship schemes pairing junior staff with experienced professionals to help them share their knowledge across levels and departments. Learning doesn’t have to be an individual task. Fostering collaborative learning environment helps to ensure that knowledge is gained, shared and retained across the team.
It’s not enough to encourage learning – like your digital strategy, you also need to measure its impact. Digital literacy can assist here in demonstrating the return on investment for learning initiatives, tracking how often team members are experimenting with new strategies, tools, or channels, or employee retention rates and satisfaction surveys to see how learning impacts your workplace culture.
Leveraging Learning for Long-Term Competitive Advantage
Digital transformation is about more that digitisation. Research carried out as part of Imperial College’s Digital Transformation Strategy Programme, looking at over 300 real-world transformations, found that there are 14 areas that organisations need to address digital transformation successfully, and technology is just open of them.
But, true digital transformation can drive drives cultural change. By combining our approach to education with a structured approach to innovation and experimentation, we can go beyond just trying to stay up to date and create real competitive advantage.
To find out more about the 5 day programme visit: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/business-school/executive-education/marketing-innovation-strategy/digital-transformation-strategy-programme/
