Innovation for Leadership

IT has become a vital part of our daily lives, requiring new skills among today’s leaders, who need to keep up with competitors and meet the needs of employees and customers. This applies to nearly every industry - from clothing manufacturers to logistics companies.
However, many leaders find it difficult to keep up with the impacts of digitalization, but the ability to think and act in a digitally innovative way, is absolutely essential for business leaders. For example, most leaders need to be capable of exploiting the potential of collaborating virtually with employees, customers and business partners.
If companies are not aware of “new digital opportunities” they will fail to provide their employees with the appropriate digital tools that support their daily tasks. For instance, we see the increase of ‘Shadow IT’: Employees use IT that is not officially approved by the company and that they own privately. This does not happen because the employees want to do something “illegal”, but simply because they feel it is necessary to use a more efficient tool (such as Whatsapp or Dropbox) to execute their tasks. This may have negative consequences for the companies. However, leaders who know how to leverage the use of shadow IT and think innovatively can gain a lot for their company.
From September 2017 until January 2019, we tried to inspire the leaders and provide them with an overview of specific methods and tools to exploit digitalization, whilst reducing the risks associated with it.