Digital Innovation and Transformation
Targeted at executives and managers, the Digital Innovation and Transformation programme gives you the tools to think strategically, build a digital culture, and lead change for business transformation.
Upcoming programmes
Format:
Dates:
Duration:
Fees:
Face-to-face
17-18 Jul 2025
2 days
£3,600 + VAT
Upcoming programmes
Format:
Face-to-face
Dates:
17-18 Jul 2025
Duration:
2 days
Fees:
£3,600 + VAT
Overview
This Digital Innovation and Transformation programme explores how emerging digital technologies, business models, and changes to the business ecosystem are reshaping corporate strategy. Leaders must drive digital transformation, foster a strong digital culture, and overcome barriers to innovation to enhance value in existing and new markets.
The programme covers digital strategy, value creation, and changes to work, in the era of Artificial Intelligence. Emphasising leadership in digital change, it enables executives to navigate the transformational challenges to innovation. Delegates will develop knowledge and skills to tackle real-world barriers, developing digital solutions for business success.
Digital Innovation and Transformation is a dynamic, 2-day programme delivered by Cambridge Judge Business School encouraging you to widen your lens of innovation using emerging digital technologies. Discover how to create digital solutions to suit your customer needs, gain the tools to provide digital services and platform ecosystems, and lead your transformation effectively by building a digital culture.
Benefits and career impact
Lead the transformation. Gain the confidence and skills to implement a roadmap for change and build a truly agile digital workplace.
- Improve your career prospects and bring your skillset up to date – develop your understanding of digital innovation and transformation.
- Learn how to transform your corporate strategy through digital technologies.
- Understand the design of customer-centric services on digital platforms.
- Collaborate with leading members of the University of Cambridge and experience rigorous academic research combined with real-world, professional expertise.
- Become part of an international and ambitious peer support network.
- Receive a digital certificate of completion from Cambridge Judge Business School Executive Education.
- Develop a framework to implement an effective digital strategy within your organisation.
- Change the way your business operates – through digital creativity and innovation.
- Learn how to design digital platforms and services tailored to your customers.
- Establish a culture of agile digital working.
- Develop a strategy to scale innovation.
Welcome. My name is Michael Barrett, and I’m a Professor of Information Systems and Innovation Studies and a Vice Dean at Cambridge Judge Business School. I’ve been researching and consulting on digital innovation and transformation for over 30 years across different industries. And currently, as academic director of Cambridge Digital Innovation, I’ve developed, with a number of colleagues globally, a research programme on the smart hospital of the future. This research explores digital transformation in health care. Technologies such as AI, digital twins, electronic health records, remote technologies, and how they’re transforming care and developing collaborative innovation in health ecosystems across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and Canada.
A second area of my research is in financial services and professional service firms. Currently, we’re looking at in our research generative AI and digital transformation, and how it’s impacting this sector. I’m currently writing a series of articles as editor-in-chief of Information & Organization on AI and creativity, AI and risk, the way in which technology can increase marginalisation, and develop new digital inequalities. We’re also writing about AI for good. How it can enable collaboration and knowledge sharing for social enterprises, such as Ashoka.
Relatedly, a third area of my research is on mobile money for development with a focus on Africa. And in that research, the question we ask is, how is digital innovation helping the 1.5 billion people that are still excluded from the financial system? How might they be financially included? And also, how can we provide social inclusion with digital technology?
Who is the programme aimed towards? And who can benefit from attending the programme?
The audience we have in mind are mid- to senior-level managers who need a digital strategy to lead their business unit or firm through their ongoing digital transformation journey. We’re also interested in attracting innovators who are charged with leading digital in their organisation and who are developing and implementing creative digital solutions in their organisation and across their business ecosystem. And finally, leaders of business units or those who have general management responsibilities and need to develop their digital literacy and know-how.
What is the programme overview?
Well, in the Digital Innovation and Transformation Programme, we ask, what is driving this latest trend in digital and digital transformation? Is it the digital leaders, such as Apple, Amazon, Alibaba, the arms of this world? Or is it the acceleration brought on by COVID and the constant wave of crises which we’re currently in?
We then explore, what’s distinctive about transformation that is related specifically to digital? How is transformation enabled by innovating through digital technologies? What are the challenges? What are the risks?
Why do surveys constantly say that 70% of digital transformation efforts fail, yet at the same time, we know that leaders are constantly recognising digital as being critical for their future success and even survival? In addressing these issues, we’re going to be drawing upon ongoing research at Cambridge Judge Business School, the wider University of Cambridge, the surrounding Silicon Fen, and globally, with lessons that we know from key companies and organisations that give us the latest insights, ideas, lessons learned, and challenges which will help you accelerate your digital transformation journey.
What is the learning journey?
The course starts by introducing key concepts on digital innovation and transformation and provides a framework for developing your digital transformation strategy by widening your lens of innovation. And then, we dig deep into examining issues of culture and leadership, which are critical in developing behavioural change around digital.
Frameworks will be shared with you on diagnosing culture in a digital world. And leading transformation and becoming a digital Organisation, driving cultural change in a way that’s the right level and approach. We’ll then discuss what digital transformation means for how we engage with our customers. How can our organisation draw on service design and design thinking frameworks to provide digital services and solutions that our customers love?
We also examine how digital transformation requires us to increasingly understand the ecosystem dynamics in a data-centric and AI age. We provide approaches, ideas for mapping ecosystems, frameworks for assessing risks, and strategies for overcoming those risks as you try to scale your digital ecosystem.
And finally, this course concludes with a very important experiential component. Participants engage in a fun, creative, and rigorous design sprint for digital innovation, which is custom developed for the Programme. This will give you a taste, as well as a real experience, in agile working. And it will help you build your collaborative potential for innovating within your teams in the Organisation.
The Business School programme on Digital Innovation and Transformation is a tailored one, which brings key ideas and insights on the topic from across different areas of information systems, organisational theory, and innovation to build your competence in a very multidisciplinary way. Another really important reason for coming on the programme is that Cambridge, as you know, is a very special, amazing place, with over 800 years of renowned scholarship, rich in history and culture. I look forward to having you on our programme in the near future.
Learn more about the programme from our faculty, Michael Barrett
Digital innovation and transformation has never been more important. This programme is aimed at managers who want to accelerate digital innovation and transformation. We not only celebrate the potential for digital innovation but highlight the challenges of transforming your organisation through changed mindsets, a digital culture and a roadmap for change. Drawing upon research at Cambridge Judge Business School and elsewhere, we discuss the latest trends, insights and challenges in accelerating your digital transformation journey. Each session – consisting of a lecture, case study or small group exercise – will introduce you to the strategic, organisational and technological dimensions of digital transformation. You will gain an understanding of key concepts around digital; using different frameworks to gain insights into the issues challenging digital transformation programmes.
This programme is certified by the CPD Certification Service. It may be applicable to individuals who are members of, or are associated with, UK-based professional bodies.
Programme content
Draw on the latest case studies to see how real-world companies adapt their strategies to overcome different digital challenges.
Module 1: Your digital transformation strategy
- Gain an introduction to digital innovation and transformation.
- Examine the different types of innovation.
- Conceptualise a framework and then envision your digital transformation strategy.
- Address the potential obstacles to digital transformation.
Module 2: Organising and leading your digital transformation
- Explore digital culture and accelerate digital acceleration within your organisation.
- Learn how to encourage disruptive thinking and instil leadership characteristics within your employees.
- Understand how to build digital momentum and manage the challenges of becoming a digital enterprise.
Module 3: Service innovation and ecosystem leadership
- Understand the customer journey and ‘emotion mapping’ in relation to service orientation.
- Discuss case studies and leverage the power of design thinking to develop digital services.
- Map your emerging business ecosystem.
- Develop a leadership strategy to scale innovation.
Module 4: Innovation and new ways of working for digital transformation
- Learn how to use agile working to support digital change.
- Discover the benefits and challenges of new ways of working.
- Understand how to develop cross-functional teams for successful innovation.
- Learn about key barriers to innovation that can impact your digital transformation.
How you learn
Two delivery styles so you can choose whichever format best suits your needs.
Face-to-face
Enjoy 2 inspirational days in the historic and beautiful city of Cambridge, a world-renowned centre of cutting-edge knowledge creation. Engage with world-leading faculty in digital innovation and peers in person and take time away from home and office to focus on your learning and networking objectives. Join ‘Cambridge Union’-style debates, hear from guest speakers and faculty, interact with carefully selected peers and experience group exercises, role-play and discussion both in and outside class.
Live Online
Experience the best of face-to-face learning, from the comfort of your own home or office. Interact with peers from across the world, enjoy virtual debates, breakout groups, and immerse yourself in the learning experience. Hear from our guest speakers and faculty, and take part in group exercises and discussions with your peers.
Who attends
Digital Innovation & Transformation is targeted at experienced professionals, including:
- leaders tasked with accelerating digital transformation
- managers looking to cultivate agile working in cross-functional teams
- managers tasked with building a digital culture within an organisation
- executives (CIOs, CTOs) in charge of building digital platforms and customer-centric services
- Executives wishing to create digital innovation for ecosystem advantage.
Ideal, just what I was looking for! …Two days to evolve and reflect on what we are doing, informed by leading thinking. Faculty were insightful, content rich, energetic, engaging and overall excellent.
Faculty and speakers
Learn from our world-class faculty who bring fresh insights from their leading-edge research into all of our Executive Education programmes. The Academic Programme Director (APD) for the Digital Innovation & Transformation programme is Professor Michael Barrett.
Vice-Dean for Strategy and University Engagement
PhD (University of Cambridge)
Co-Director of the Centre for International Human Resource Management (CIHRM)
PhD (University of London)
Why Cambridge Judge Business School?
Related programmes
Digital Innovation & Transformation belongs to our Innovation & Technology-topic executive education programmes. Here is a selection of related programmes:
Strategic Management: Creating and Sustaining Competitive Advantage
Enhance your strategic capabilities and understand how to position your organisation to maintain competitive advantage. This programme introduces the fundamentals of strategic thinking, enabling you to identify and act on new opportunities for growth.
Generative Artificial Intelligence: From Hype to Business Impact
Gain a deep understanding of AI and how to effectively integrate it into your organisation, whilst navigating legalities and bias.
Managing Innovation Strategically
Idea generation. Product exploitation. Learn to manage and operationalise greater levels of innovation within your organisation, exploring how innovative strategies and disruptive business models can achieve competitive advantage and help you thrive in the face of rapid change.
Speak to a programme advisor
If you have any questions or would like to discuss how this programme could benefit you or your organisation, please get in touch with the programme advisor.
