Former IBM partner and public sector board member Alice Sidhu is one of the experts teaching on Melbourne Business School’s first online program, designed for managers and government professionals.
Leading in the Digital Age will teach participants how to manage innovative digitisation projects as well as think like a customer, and create and implement digital strategies.
“There’s an array of digital opportunities that governments must know how to seize and apply through their services to redefine their relationship with citizens,” Ms Sidhu said.
“Improved insight means an opportunity to deliver personalised services that will meet citizen needs and allow for more effective resource allocation.”
Ms Sidhu was a member of the Victorian Government Purchasing Board as well as Health Procurement Victoria before becoming a Digital Business Transformation Partner at IBM. She is now CEO of By The Way Group and teaches on specialist programs at Melbourne Business School.
Melbourne Business School head of Executive Education, Eddie Tritton, said the subject matter of Leading in the Digital Age was a perfect fit for launching the school’s first online program.
“We wanted to create a program that gave leaders and managers an immersive digital experience, but was flexible enough to fit into any schedule,” he said.
“We’ve made the program accessible from any device with a web browser, to make the content, support and activities easy to get to and engage with.”
The program will include modules on Digital Leadership, Design Thinking and Managing Change, as well as an optional face-to-face Network Lab to bring participants together in person.
“I’m excited about the Network Lab, where participants can hear from companies that have been successful in digital transformations and also continue supporting each other after completing the program,” Mr Tritton said.
Ms Sidhu said Leading in the Digital Age would introduce participants to the core concepts of digital transformation projects in an format that is itself cutting-edge.
“The pressure to respond and adapt to meet digital disruption is significant, and organisations need leaders who know how to navigate uncertain environments, cultivate experimentation and demonstrate customer empathy – which the course will make easy to understand,” she said.
Ms Sidhu said some of the common digital transformation projects the program would address included maintaining business-as-usual while experimenting and adapting growth strategies, setting up channels to expedite digital project delivery, repositioning teams and organisations from commodity-focused to customer-focused, and responding to competitor impact.
“Digital change is important, because it’s happening right now, and momentum from technology advancing means it will only continue. If organisations haven’t started to actively engage and experiment, they will be left behind,” she said.
The first Leading in the Digital Age program will begin on February 25, 2019.
