step up to the digital skills challenge

How can you step up to the Digital Skillschallenge in 2015?

Academy of Digital Business Leaders

ApprenticesIn partnership with


There seem to be more questions than answers when it comes to becoming Digital. And just as one question is answered, another one comes up.

The skills gap exists across all levels of an organisation. How does an organisation acquire a base level of knowledge and skills? It can’t simply be solved by hiring in digital experts.

How do leaders know the right questions to ask about digital? The skills agenda is changing so quickly that this month’s latest insights are out of date very quickly.

How do we stay up to speed when digital opportunities are changing? One-off training programmes will be short-lived if not part of a longer term programme.

What can senior leaders do to address these challenges?

The gap in skills needed to compete in an increasingly digital world is a major issue for most organisations. Recognising this gap is one thing, doing something about it is a much bigger challenge.

This White Paper contains a structured approach that has been learned across different businesses over 17 years within the Blenheim Chalcot Group:

• Digital skills are now an imperative • Get left behind at your peril • To keep up, digital capacity needs to be

developed and embedded across your organisation, not just in a silo

• We have developed a practical 7 element framework to evaluate your digital capacity

• For each element see where you sit on a three stage progression

• Depending on where the gaps are you will have clear priorities as a business

• We have developed a set of solutions to address the capability component of each of these priorities

Contact us to find out how they can help you.

Charles Mindenhall Co-Founder and Chair the ADBL and Blenheim Chalcot

Ben Rowland Co-Founder Arch Apprentices

Digital skills are now an imperative

“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two

years and underestimate the change that will

occur in the next ten.”Bill Gates

When we fi rst got involved in the world of “the internet” in the late 1990s, the promise of digital far outstripped its reality. Like many, we got carried away with the potential that online technologies - and the convergence of devices, broadband, and applications - would have to change the way we bought and consumed products and services and the way in which companies would serve us.

However, as many of us remember, the potential got hyped up, expectations weren’t met, disillusion set in, investors were burnt, and digital became “another” area that became part of business as usual. For quite some time reality lagged behind the potential.

What is remarkable about the last two to three years is the way in which the reality has suddenly stormed past the potential of the late 1990s, often leaving the rhetoric in its wake. Bill Gates once said “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.”

This has been undoubtedly the case, with the convergence of smartphone and tablet growth, broadband, low cost application development and infrastructure leading to disruptive innovations across industries.


86%of 1,322 CEOs

86% of CEOs realise they need to champion the use of digital technologies for their enterprises’ digital investments to succeed.

More enlightened, forward thinking companies have long realised how they can use technology to enhance the ways in which they operate and compete. The travel and dating industries, for example, are now almost inconceivable as ‘off line’ industries. Now the general ‘mass’ of businesses are scrambling to catch up, driven by a growing sense of urgency around the need to adopt digital.

So too are a growing number of charities and Government organisations. PwC’s 18th Annual Global CEO survey of 1,322 CEOs found that 86% of CEOs realise they need to champion the use of digital technologies for their enterprises’ digital investments to succeed.

But this urgency is often driven by a fear of being

Get left behind at your peril

left behind rather than an informed understanding. This means that many companies who want to become digitally savvy are unprepared for, or even simply unaware of, the impact digital can now have on their businesses. There are pockets of good practice in many companies, and individuals who are capable and knowledgeable, but to grasp and execute the opportunity that digital presents requires a fundamental rethinking of the skills across an organisation.


“Businesses, governments and

populations in general need better digital and programming skills…

it’s just as important to recruit Maths Men as it is

Mad Men.”Sir Martin Sorrell

In our experience, the simple fact is that digital is not an institutionalised capability, in the way that, say, fi nance or management is. That is understandable in that it is only now that “digital” is being viewed in the same light, as a capability that needs to exist across organisations and not just a specialist silo. In the same way that a great HR department cannot make a company a great place to work, a great IT or digital team cannot make a company a great digital company.

We have seen this most often to be the case in areas such as marketing and sales - where the digital impact can be huge, but relatively few companies have a full understanding of how they can harness this. One of the problems is the multi-disciplinary nature of the opportunity - which cuts across areas

To keep up, digital capacity needs to be developed and embedded across your organisation, not just in silo

such as marketing, sales, IT - which have not always been comfortable bed-fellows.

None of this is a surprise given the pace at which digital has developed. Companies increasingly recognise that one of the major barriers they face is the lack of skills. Martin Sorrell of WPP recently cited skills as one of the fi ve key ‘principles’ for the digital age: “Businesses, governments and populations in general need better digital and programming skills…. it’s just as important to recruit Maths Men as it is Mad Men.”


HR Directors and L&D departments can play a key role in responding to the need for a step-change in an organisation’s digital skills. They are the ones who are best placed to articulate requirements and turn a fear of being left behind into a practical programme for skill acquisition.

But how do you tackle the (signifi cant) transition that is required and put together the steps that need to be taken along the way?

The ADBL was founded by leaders from the Blenheim Chalcot group which has built a portfolio of over 20 successful digital businesses, ranging from a 2,000 person outsourcing business to a 10 person music channel on Youtube.

We have developed a practical 7 element framework to evaluate your digital capacity

The ADBL uses a 3 level Digital Skills “Maturity Model” across 7 linked elements to help businesses manage the transition of their own digital skills agenda. We have used and refi ned this model across the Blenheim Chalcot portfolio with companies that have been facing and handling the challenges of digital transformation.

On the back of this success, we have turned this into a capability we are off ering, to assess and analyse companies and then put in place a set of actions to move each business up a level.

The solutions are delivered in conjunction with Arch Apprentices and Captured, an online personal development tool, both part of the Blenheim Chalcot group.


Innovation Capacity IMPLEMENT THE RIGHT CHANGE WITH CONFIDENCE

IT Responsiveness BUILD EFFICIENT & RESPONSIVE SYSTEMS

Talent Acquisition RECRUIT THE RIGHT TALENT

Learning & Development NURTURE EXPERTISE

Board INFORMED LEADERSHIP

Senior Management EMPOWER CONFIDENT STRATEGICDECISION MAKING

Middle Management EQUIP WITH DIGITAL SKILLS AND UNDERSTANDING

331 2 3

1 2 3

1 2 3

1 2 3

1 2 3

1 2 3

1 2 3

For each element see where you sit on a three stage progression (see following pages for details on each)


Innovation Capacity

LEVEL 1 Growing understanding of a need to become more digital, but no mechanism for prioritising and making it happen; fear of change.

LEVEL 2Growing understanding of what is right for the business, emerging confi dence to pick initiatives and to push through change; change is seen as exciting but daunting.

LEVEL 3Confi dence and experience around picking the right digital projects to pursue, strong programme and project structures (from Board down) to make change happen; change is seen as ‘business as usual’.

LEVEL 1 Occupied primarily with fi re-fi ghting and maintaining usefulness of legacy systems.

LEVEL 2Some projects and initiatives, mainly ‘bolt ons’ to ‘core’ systems.

LEVEL 3 Focus on continuous evolution of core systems to generate new business benefi ts via well designed projects and programmes.

IT Responsiveness


Talent Acquisition

LEVEL 1 Reliant on pockets of self-declared expertise and bought-in consultants.

LEVEL 2 Emerging strategic digital hiring, some assessment of digital capability across recruitment, piloting new talent acquisition programmes.

LEVEL 3 Workforce/succession planning and recruitment have digital as a core component; growing reputation as a good ‘digital employer’; established and continuously developing graduate, intern and apprenticeship programmes

LEVEL 1 Training for digital business not off ered or provided on a formal basis.

LEVEL 2 Some ‘pilot’ courses and/or in response to bottom up demand.

LEVEL 3 Systematic programme tailored for all levels.

Learning & Development


Board

LEVEL 1 Some knowledge of new platforms; unable to question or challenge.

LEVEL 2 Able to ask good questions but unable to make strategic recommendations or lead.

LEVEL 3Able to challenge, suggest and lead.

Senior Management Middle Management

LEVEL 1 No formal digital knowledge or experience; lacking confidence in asking questions and making decisions (deferring to ‘experts’ in the business or consultants).

LEVEL 2 Experience gained from initiatives within the business, able to recognise ‘good’ when they see it, little or no structured training.

LEVEL 3Significant experience, able to shape and lead strategic initiatives, growing amount of formal training/ education.

LEVEL 1 Some managers have expertise in one or two areas; people assume/hope IT and/or marketing have got it sorted.

LEVEL 2 Growing recognition of “digital” as a core skill, recognition of the breadth of skills required, some formal training.

LEVEL 3Systematic embedding of digital e.g. in appraisals and training.


Innovation Capacity IMPLEMENT THE RIGHT CHANGE WITH CONFIDENCE

IT Responsiveness BUILD EFFICIENT & RESPONSIVE SYSTEMS

Talent Acquisition RECRUIT THE RIGHT TALENT

Learning & Development NURTURE EXPERTISE

Board INFORMED LEADERSHIP

Senior Management EMPOWER CONFIDENT STRATEGICDECISION MAKING

Middle Management EQUIP WITH DIGITAL SKILLS AND UNDERSTANDING

3

Depending on where the gaps are you will have clear priorities as a business.We have developed a set of capability development solutions to address each of these priorities and to move from where you are to where you need to be

Apprentices

Apprentices

Capability Solution What it Delivers

Equip your management team with the tools and techniques they need to transform and grow a business in the digital age

A rapid and immersive course to get your management team up to speed on the critical tools and essential skills

Collaborative and immersive 6 month course for Digital marketing leaders

Embedded corporate understanding of how to use Digital to enhance marketing and sales

Broad based and ‘bottom up’ understanding of how the key tools and systems for online business work

Open your talent acquisition strategies to fresh new employees and / or upskill young employees

Ongoing capturing and sharing of key learnings for Personal Development, developed in partnership with Sir Clive Woodward

The ADBL Diploma in Digital Business Leadership

The ADBL Rapid Immersion

Squared Online

IDM Professional Diploma in Digital MarketingOnline CAM and CIM

Arch Digital Business Certifi cate

Arch Digital Apprentices

Captured CPD platform

Apprentices

The Academy of Digital Business Leaders has

developed and proven these diff erent solutions that

support organisations to make their digital transformation

transition across the 7 Elements.

Ongoing access to the latest Digital thinking and learning

Dot Native subscription service for digital marketing bite sized training and up to date information


Next Steps

You’ve taken the first step, would you like to learn more about how to implement digital transformation in your business, and hear fi rst hand from experienced leaders?

The ADBL is a platform for digital business leaders to share knowledge and experience to help other leaders learn and transform their businesses.

The ADBL has assembled the resources, insights, qualifi cations and many years of experience from our founder business leaders, to empower anyone who is approaching business from a digital perspective.

Please call our team on 020 7173 5901 to fi nd out more about how our learning tools and professional qualifi cations can equip your company to succeed in the digital age.

Visit www.theADBL.comor email us on [email protected]