Digital Business Leadership

Today, every business is a digital business. In every industry, traditional business models and processes are being transformed by the spread of new digital technologies and the rise of disruptive threats.

If electricity transformed manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution, the impact of digital technology today is even greater. Digital is changing the constraints under which every business, and every domain of strategy, operates. In order to adapt and thrive, organizations need leaders who can think strategically and harness each wave of digital change to create new value for customers and new opportunities for their business.

Columbia Business School’s Digital Business Leadership Program is an intensive, six-month, multi-modular program that prepares global executives to innovate new strategies and business models and lead their organizations to thrive in the digital age.

Executives begin the program with an immersion week at Columbia’s New York Campus where the focus will be on the strategic principles of digital business models. While in New York, they will form teams to work on real-world digital innovation projects, applying the Lean LaunchPad method for rapid innovation. This is followed by an online module on digital marketing and remote work on their team projects with online coaching.

Participants then go to San Francisco to study new disruptive business models and learn from organizations at the forefront of the digital revolution. This is followed by another online module on digital marketing and remote work on their innovation projects. In the final module, participants return to the New York Campus for a week, focusing on organizational leadership and digital transformation.

Case studies will feature both digital trailblazers and traditional enterprises that are adapting to the digital age. Participants will leave with a set of planning tools and strategies to apply immediately in their own companies.

Impact

Key learning themes of the program include:

• Developing leadership abilities to advance digital transformation
• Engaging with customers’ changing needs in the digital age
• Learning to innovate with the speed of digital startups
• Understanding disruptive business models and strategies for mastering them

The Digital Business Leadership program is an exceptional way to:

• Engage with Columbia Business School’s world class faculty around their latest research and deep experience in digital strategy, innovation, and leadership
• Increase your network of connections with experienced business people from a wide variety of cultures, nationalities, and backgrounds
• Understand the latest developments in the digital world and how traditional business models and processes are being transformed as every industry goes digital
• Combine theory and practice by working on real-world projects relevant to each participant
• Establish lifelong connections to Columbia Business School by receiving select Columbia Business School alumni benefits

Program Structure

The program is centered around three key topics — digital strategy, rapid innovation, and organizational transformation — and features project work as well as company speakers and visits.

Digital Strategy

• The 5 Domains of Digital Transformation
• Platforms, Coopetition, and Multi-Sided Business Models
• From Mass Marketing to Customer Networks
• Disruptive Business Models & Asymmetric Competition
• The Value Proposition Roadmap: A Customer-Centric Tool for Rapid Change

Rapid Innovation

• Innovating Through Experimentation and Minimum Viable Prototypes
• The Lean LaunchPad: How Startups Search for Business Models
• Value Proposition Design & Jobs to Be Done Theory
• Building an Opportunity Portfolio

Organizational Transformation

• Leading Organizational Change
• Data-Driven Decision Making & Quantitative Intuition
• Building Data as a Strategic Asset in Your Business
• Surviving Disruption: Six Incumbent Responses to a Disruptive Challenger
• Digital Transformation in the Enterprise

Project Work

• Work in teams on real-world innovation projects submitted by participants
• Apply the Lean LaunchPad methodology used by startups to rapidly test and innovate
• Conduct customer interviews and fieldwork to validate and iterate your business model
• Learn digital innovation by putting theory into practice

Company speakers and visits

• Hear from leading practitioners in both New York City and Silicon Valley
• Conduct site visits to accelerator labs, startups, and enterprise firms
• Past presenters have included: startup founders, venture capitalist, technology giants, corporate innovation officers, chief digital officers, and experts on A.I., blockchain, and other emerging technologies