As professionals we’re bold enough to tackle digital organically - as it makes its impact felt on our role in business we educate ourselves as we go along. New apps and new platforms that can help our business come online every day, claiming more hours in the working day if we want to stay up to date. As the number of options grows, and as new companies spring up and old companies struggle to make the change, it’s clear that “making it up as you go along” is not sustainable and, to be brutal, doesn’t help your employer or your career.

There’s a new sense of urgency now: change is happening more and more quickly and being reactive isn’t enough anymore. We have to be properly equipped.

Why do some companies digitalise so successfully and others don’t, to the point of failure? As the dust settles around crashed businesses, it’s clear that people who can see their company’s digital future and have the tools to take it there are essential.

When you digitally transform a business there is a chain reaction within that business itself, its customers, suppliers and yes, even into society at large. The fourth industrial revolution is so powerful, so transformative, because it is not just about the technology revolution sweeping the world, but the transformation of society, and on new ways of doing business and government. It is this intersection between the technology revolution, a transforming society, and radically new ways of doing business and government, that makes the 4IR so disruptive and transformative.

I have the pleasure of being the Professor of the BCX Digital Chair at Wits Business School and we’ve just launched our Master of Management in the Field of Digital Business. The first course starts on 14 January 2019 and will cover a wide range of subjects in a digital context, including Digital Technology Fundamentals; Business Strategy for a Digital World; Applied Big Data and Analytics; Marketing for Digital Business; Digitalising Operations Management; Frontiers in e-Government; and Digital Readiness, Transformation and Change Management. You can find out more here https://goo.gl/y81Tfq

I believe the timing of our new courses is just right. There are simply not enough well-trained people out there to deliver the digital transformation projects that companies need to implement. That is great news for anyone with the necessary qualifications in digital management and anyone planning to obtain them.