NELSON PHILLIPS | Professor of Innovation and Strategy and Co-Director, Centre for Responsible Leadership, Imperial College Business School, Imperial College


The digital transformation of organizations and society has created a set of novel challenges for leaders. To succeed in this new context, ‘digital leaders’ require new competencies: new technological competencies to lead in organizations where digital technology is inextricably embedded in everyday activity; new organizational competencies to build and lead teams that can utilize new technologies as well as inspire millennial workers who have grown up in a digitally transformed world; and, finally, new ethical competencies to navigate the ethical dilemmas created by the introduction of digital technologies in their organizations. 

Developing digital leaders is, therefore, a key part of the digital transformation of any firm and a failure to develop digital leadership at all levels will limit the impact of even the best planned and executed efforts at digital transformation.