BrazilProgramme helps with turning disruption into opportunities
The internationally renowned Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University has developed a series of short programmes aimed at helping leaders and senior professionals master digital transformation. Consisting of four programmes – Digital Strategy, Digital Innovation, Digital Analytics and Digital Leadership and Change – it aims to help participants turn digital disruption to the advantage of their organisations.
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) is the international business school of Erasmus University Rotterdam located in the Netherlands. Offering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes taught mostly in English, the institution equips students with qualifications such as MBAs, executive education, and PhD programmes. The university is also involved in a number of initiatives to provide training for the professional services sector.
From threat into opportunity
One area in which RSM’s intervention is increasingly important is the intersection of business and technology. In an age of digital disruption, the two concepts have become inseparable, and managers must know how to lead and drive digital transformations in their teams, departments or organisations as a result. In order to cater to this vital need for digital skills in the corporate world, RSM has developed four short digital transformation programmes for business professionals, which aim to help managers provide better advice and turn digital disruption from a threat into an opportunity.
Commenting on the importance of training to deal with a constantly changing environment, Ting Li, Endowed Professor of Digital Business at RSM, said, “We live in a highly connected world that is filled with digital technologies, social media, mobile devices, Internet-of-Things, smart cities, and connected cars… This has created new opportunities across industries as companies innovate to meet changes in consumer demand, and has given rise to new business challenges.”
Ting Li, who has previously worked with consulting industry heavyweights KPMG, PwC and Accenture, among others, will herself be running one of the four programmes. In RSM’s three-day Digital Strategy workshop she will prepare leaders to take advantage of emerging disruptive technologies that are threatening to disrupt their industry, such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and blockchain.
Tools and skills needed to lead digital transformation
During the Digital Innovation module attendees will design their digital business model, paying particular attention to their value propositions in the process. RSM’s expert faculty will look at the best ways of adopting existing innovations and foster the necessary change of mind-set that will let any organisation identify and implement its own competitive differentiators.
RSM’s Digital Analytics module will focus on building a solid understanding of trends and developments, and learning methods to collect, analyse and manage data. The programme covers a range of topics based on a strategic view of data management. Armed with the language of data scientists and engineers, RSM’s data analytics expert Rodrigo Belo will show how to embed big data management practices in an organisation, and to develop a data-driven strategy for a department or organisation that monetises or optimises data assets for growth and innovation.
The three-day course on Digital Leadership & Change is led by Professor of Information Management and Markets Eric van Heck, Martijn Rademakers (Managing Director of consultancy Sollcorp) and Frieda van Belle (former McKinsey & Company project manager and currently a partner at SparkOptimus). The workshop will equip its audience with the ability to evaluate an organisation’s need for change in a digital world, having been developed to provide practitioners with the knowledge, tools and skills needed to lead digital transformation in their organisations.
Commenting on the set of courses, Digital Analytics faculty member Belo, said, “The recent exponential growth in data generation and storage has created major technical and managerial challenges, but has also opened a wealth of opportunities for approaching old and new problems.”
Related: Companies lack leadership capabilities for digital transformation projects.
