Digital Transformation Strategy

Digital Transformation in perspective: Why you need a digital culture

This part of the programme walks you through the range of factors that have lead us to the fast changing environment we find ourselves in, and what this means for management and leadership at work. It explores the technology behind the change and in turn explains what this means for our organisations, including the information and systems required to respond. As well as helping us understand the present, this section also prepares us for a future in which the pace of change will increase, and in which organisations will not survive unless they are prepared for constant change. 

• New channels, tools and business models
• Why organisations really fail at digital
• Research Insights from CMI book of the year “Building Digital Culture” 

Plotting your digital journey

In this part of the training programme, we then start to build the steps we must go through to achieve our journey to implementing an effective digital transformation, focusing on management, governance, and the required capabilities. As well as talking through some of the practical steps that we need to take along the way, the section takes a look at a number of examples from organisation that have already gone through the journey and successfully implemented their digital transformation, including what was required from management. You will connect strategy to management execution, including customer impact, operational priorities, and the information needed to track progress across teams. 

• Digital is dead – What ‘being digital’ means for your business
• Auditing your strengths and weaknesses
• Building your plan: goals and objectives
• The Digital Transformation Strategy framework and toolkit 

5 Game-Changing Technologies for Business

Explore the game-changing technologies that are driving digital transformation across organisations and industries and develop your own strategy to put them to work in your business.

• Automation and Artificial Intelligence (ChatGPT)
• The Cloud and Mobile
• The Internet of Things
• Big Data Analytics
• FinTech and Blockchain

Digital transformation strategy planning session

Each day you will bring together the building blocks of your digital transformation strategy, culminating in your strategy presentations on the final day of the programme, with clear information on what is required for implementation. 

Networking Drinks

Lessons from industry

Alistair Welham explores his extensive experience implementing digital transformations across a wide range of industries, focusing on management lessons and the information leaders need. Alistair will introduce his step by step framework for implementing digital transformations effectively, that can then be used to start building your own digital transformations strategy, and to clarify the management approach required. You will translate the framework into a day-to-day management toolkit, clarifying what is required to deliver change through governance, roles, and measurable outcomes. 

Ethical Leadership in Digital Transformation

The question of leadership – and of how well our current leaders are doing – feels like a particularly salient issue right now. Climate change, Brexit, Covid 19, the war in Ukraine and the economy have all amplified social tensions and divisions in society. As a result, we have seen more calls for “strong leadership” although what it is meant by that can vary dramatically from person to person. Of course, leadership affects all our lives in different ways – not only on a national scale but also at work. Professor Moore’s academic work is driven by a desire to make a difference in how people treat each other in the workplace after working for a “psychopathic boss” who sparked in her an intellectual fascination with “why snakes get ahead”. 

The Role of Data in Driving Change

This session explores the role of data science and the importance of data visualisation, including the management decisions these insights support. Delivered in a highly innovative and hands-on way, the session helps people know not only when they are looking at patterns in data that matter, but also how to put across their findings in a way that moves people. These data visualisations can then be used to drive forward any digital transformation and gain stakeholder buy-in. 

• Data visualisation in digital transformation
• Data science and AI tools hands-on
• Ethics in data science and artificial intelligence 

Digital transformation strategy planning session

Each day you will bring together the building blocks of your digital transformation strategy, culminating in your strategy presentations on the final day of the programme.  

The Digital Transformation Framework

This part of the programme gives you a structured framework of all of the things you’ll need to consider to build an organisation that is operating in a constantly changing environment, including management, systems, and the information required to drive change. The section works as both the core building blocks of your strategy, but also as a reference and guide that you re-visit as you take on the particular challenges involved. You will also review how management practices, core systems, and information flows shape culture and determine whether change can be sustained at scale. Throughout this section over three days you will build your digital transformation strategy plan and constantly test it against industry best practice and learn from the success and failure of other organisations, with a focus on the management actions required. 

The Digital Transformation Framework: Foundations

The Foundations section will help you understand and explore the core things that need to be in place for a successful digital transformation and build the central parts of your digital transformation strategy, including the required management commitments. This section will help you clarify the key objective and vision you will need for your digital transformation and how gaining and keeping leadership buy-in throughout the process is key to success, supported by clear information for management stakeholders. You’ll learn the techniques and methods to create an agile organisation, including agile working methodologies and organisational structure and design. You’ll go on to look at environmental analysis tools and frameworks to understand the environment we are operating in, and build an understanding of the central role of skills and talent throughout the organisation, including what is required from management. This includes defining the required skills across leadership, product, technology, and change roles, and how to build these skills through targeted education and training. 

The Digital Transformation Framework: Readiness

In the readiness section you’ll learn about the technologies, techniques and processes that can make or break your digital transformation, and the management, information, and systems required to deliver them. As well as learning from industry experts, you’ll also have the opportunity to explore Imperial Colleges world leading research into topics like Organisational Architecture, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Blockchain. You’ll use this knowledge to build you digital transformation strategy and understand the risks and opportunities each of these technologies provide, including what is required for management sign-off. You’ll also explore the internal processes, structure and working practices that are often at the heart of digital transformation failures, and you’ll learn from both success and failure case studies so we can avoid these pitfalls. You will assess how customer needs, internal processes, and legacy systems interact, and what is required to improve reliability, speed, and risk management. 

Digital transformation strategy planning session

Each day you will bring together the building blocks of your digital transformation strategy, culminating in your strategy presentations on the final day of the programme.  

The Digital Transformation Framework: Performance

The Performance section of the programme will deep dive into measuring the success of our digital transformation strategy, help us build measurement frameworks for iterative improving and look at how measuring ROI is key to digital transformation success, including management reporting that is required. You will also cover how to provide clear management reporting, including the information leaders need to steer investment decisions and improve performance over time. You’ll learn how to tie digital measurement techniques to your organisations financial success, and in turn how this can help build a culture of innovation and internal entrepreneurship, supported by management processes and information. 

The Digital Transformation Framework: Keeping up with change

In this part of the programme we look at what happens once you’ve been through the process. We explore the techniques and approaches that will prevent you from lapsing back into previous approaches and how you can filter the ongoing change to work out what’s important and what’s not, focusing on management disciplines and the information required to act. Most importantly section chapter will explore how other organisations have dealt with the most common pitfalls and problems, so we can avoid the same challenges. 

• Separating the ephemeral from the enduring
• Distributed development (sharing the load)
• Internal entrepreneurship and collaborative innovation 

Building the Agile Business: How to Lead Digital Transformation in Your Workplace

In this section, Peter Abraham, explores and range of case studies and examples from his wide ranging experience of implementing digital transformations across a huge range of industries and sectors, highlighting the management and leadership skills required. Exploring topics like measurement, people and organisational structure, you’ll learn a range of techniques and insights that you can apply to your own digital transformation strategy plans. The session connects measurement and organisation design to the customer journey and shows what is required from management to sustain change. 

Digital transformation strategy planning session

Each day you will bring together the building blocks of your digital transformation strategy, culminating in your strategy presentations on the final day of the programme.  

Digital Transformation Case Study Exploration

You’ll explore an in-depth industry case study of a successful digital transformation and learn what made the transformation successful, including the management practices and required systems, so you can apply these learnings to your own plans. 

Digital Transformation Strategy Development and Coaching

You’ll now have time to work in groups and with an industry expert to build out your digital transformation strategy plans and start to refine and add detail, developing the management narrative required for stakeholder buy-in. You’ll also carry out a series of ’stress tests’ on your strategies to see how they might perform as they are implemented and you’ll do a series of practice pitches in preparation for your final day presentations, building the required communication skills. Working with other students, you will refine a project plan, clarify what is required for delivery, and practise communicating information to leaders and peers. 

Transformation Strategy Presentations

In the final section of the programme you will pitch your Digital Transformation strategy to your peers for practical feedback and insights. 

Transformation Strategy Refinement and Completion

Complete your strategy with the feedback gained and reflect on your learning over the 5 days. Leave with a completed Digital Transformation Strategy plan and guidance documents on how to implement it. 
You can then submit a refined version of your strategy in video format within 2 weeks of the programme to gain valuable industry expert feedback.