• University of Reading

Digital Leadership: Creating Value Through Technology

Digital technologies are changing extraordinarily quickly. This four-week course will introduce you to the new digital landscape.

27,342 enrolled on this course

Digital Leadership: a graphic of the new technologies available to businesses today
  • Duration

    4 weeks
  • Weekly study

    3 hours

Explore how new digital technologies can help you lead more effectively

As new digital technologies rapidly change, the demand for digital leaders is growing exponentially. Develop your understanding of digital leadership and learn how to apply it to help transform your organisation. Learn from fellow professionals as you explore how digital leaders can leverage and exploit new technologies for innovation and growth. Whatever your background, this course will give you further insight into the digital landscape.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 4 seconds Companies, nowadays, don’t work in isolation. Their partners in the value network. They are members of this digital ecosystem. The pace of change is really exciting, because it gives new entrants opportunities, but it also creates a lot of challenges. There are no one size fits all solutions. Part of the complication is that every business is different. And so much is happening so quickly, organisations are finding it really hard just to keep up.

Skip to 0 minutes and 35 seconds Human psychology is that if you have been successful, you feel like you know everything. But the important thing is you’re successful at that point in time. To continue and maintain your success, you need to keep learning. Even I sign up for loads of online courses. I’m constantly trying to learn about what’s happening. Knowing how to access is some sort of knowledge as well. So using technology is really important to know how to access those knowledge bases. What happens when suddenly instead of having to manufacture it cheaply in China, I can print it down the corridor? And suddenly, the world’s supply chain changes dramatically.

Skip to 1 minute and 12 seconds Digital leadership is to combine the leadership as well as the emergent technologies and how to use information as a resource. So whether you are small companies or you are large companies, you can benefit from this course.

What topics will you cover?

Week 1

  • Digital leadership challenge and experience
  • Three dimensions of digital leadership
  • Industry and occupational differences in digital skills

Week 2

  • Building an efficient Strategic alignment model
  • Factors that constrain an enterprise from using ICT

Week 3

  • Technology leadership
  • Mobile and Cloud computing
  • Big data and business analytics

Week 4

  • Practical use of social media
  • Internet of Things and Internet Plus
  • Debates and group collaboration to use technologies

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Identify the ways in which new technologies can help a business increase sales and return on investment
  • Construct a matrix of the competences needed for an organisation to effectively use new technologies in business practice
  • Explain how digital technologies such as: mobile apps, Internet of Things, Cloud computing and data analytics can be applied to enhance the management and strategy of a business
  • Summarise the importance of aligning business and IT strategies, how this can be applied within the workplace and the constraints and challenges of using IT
  • Benchmark your organisation against others within the industry and identify the key features which enable superior than industry-average performance

Who is the course for?

Although this course is open to all and assumes no prior requirements, it is primarily aimed at senior and middle management with an IT and business focus. Digital Leadership is an ideal taster course if you’re thinking of pursuing an executive education, Master’s degree or MBA.

What do people say about this course?

"Really useful course and one that I will refer back to over the coming months as new digital leadership options appear on my horizon."

Who will you learn with?

I teach Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Henley Business School at the University of Reading. I have spent 10 years studying business startups and entrepreneurial ecosystems in Europe.

Dr Weizi Li (fellow of BCS) is a Lecturer of Business informatics, at Informatics Research Centre (IRC), Henley Business School, University of Reading. Her research focus on business- IT alignment.

Who developed the course?

University of Reading

The University of Reading has a reputation for excellence in teaching, research and enterprise.

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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