Digital Strategy (5 cr)

Objective

The course equips the students with approaches to digital transformation and building a digital strategy to define organisational priorities and set the direction for an organisation aimed at harnessing the full power of digital.

The student understands digitalisation as a driver of change, and digital strategy as a tool to steer business performance via improving technology and focusing on customer experience, creating new products, and reinventing current processes. The student can analyse and formulate a digital strategy, by identifying its dimensions, and distinguish strategy from tactics and priority initiatives, and in a broad sense, outline how digital transformation can support business goals.

Content

• Digital transformation and its canvas
• Digital strategy as an organisational tool
• Digital transformation roadmaps for planning implementation
• Digital strategies in various organisations

Students complete two assignments during the course: 1. individually by analysing their own organisation's digital strategy (or a well-publicised case) and 2. in teams by brainstorming elements of a digital strategy and roadmaps for implementation in a 2-day seminar event.

Location and time

30.8.2024 - 30.11.2024, ONLINE

Materials

Start by reading and absorbing two recommended articles for your course in autumn 2024:

ARTICLE 1: Harvard Business Review, Analytics Services (sponsored by Red Hat) (2022). Digital Transformation Refocused: New Goals Require New Strategies: Report. (12 pages). Available here; https://www.redhat.com/en/resources/hbr-ditigal-transformation-refocused-analyst-material

This HBR article can be downloaded after pre-registering (for free) via the link above.

ARTICLE 2: PwC (in partnership with Microsoft) (2017). How Finland is Embracing Digital Transformation – Digital Challenges and Successes Showcased. (48 pages). Available here as a pdf-file here: https://info.microsoft.com/rs/157-GQE-382/images/How%20Finland%20is%20embracing%20digital%20transformation2.pdf

The general teaching approach on the course will be to blend up-to-date digital transformation aspects and digital strategy via lectures, discussions and team work, with the final big event on 1-2 November 2024, focused on real-life practices in organizations.

Students will benefit from reading materials from other courses, especially the “Business Modelling” course.

Teaching methods

The course acquaints the students with approaches to digital transformation and building a digital strategy as a tool to define an organization's priorities and set the direction an organization will take to create new competitive advantages, as well as the tactics to achieve these changes via harnessing the full power of digital.

The student understands digitalization as a driver of change, and digital strategy as a tool to improve business performance via improving technology and focusing on customer experience, creating new products, and reimagining current processes. The student can analyze and formulate a digital strategy, by identifying its elements, tactics and priority initiatives, and in a broad sense, outlining how digital technology can support business goals.

The course participants can benefit by taking the “Strategy, Management and Leadership” elective course first, before diving into digital strategy.

Student workload

5 ECTS (appx. 127 hours of work, including attending classes, doing assignments, readings, and self-work, with a strong stress on self-work and team work).

Content scheduling

Contents:
- Digital transformation and its elements
- Digital strategy as a tool for organizations
- Digital strategies in various organizations.

Outline of the course assignments: Students complete two assignments in the course: 1. Individually, by analyzing digital strategy of own organization (or from a well published case), and 2. in teams, by brainstorming the digital strategy elements and roadmaps to implementation in a 2-day seminar event

Further information

The language of tuition is English.

Evaluation scale

0-5

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1)

The student has completed basic requirements to pass the course and has made an attempt to apply and articulate concepts and information both verbally and in writing but has not made enough effort overall. The student has demonstrated little effort, interest and motivation for individual or team activities / assignments and the output is rather weak.

Assessment criteria, good (3)

The student can apply and articulate concepts and information well both verbally and in writing, certain areas of individual or team output require further attention; shows appropriate level of interest and motivation in individual and team activities. Good presentation delivery and analysis.

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

The student demonstrates interest and motivation in individual and team activities and assignments, fully applies and clearly articulates concepts and information both verbally and in writing. The student is able to support their arguments with references to the recommended reading and lecture content. Excellent presentation delivery and analysis.

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

The student has completed basic requirements to pass the course and has made an attempt to apply and articulate concepts and information both verbally and in writing but has not made enough effort overall. The student has demonstrated little effort, interest and motivation for individual or team activities / assignments and the output is rather weak.

Assessment methods and criteria

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1)
Sufficient performance: has completed basic requirements to pass the course and has made an attempt to apply and articulate concepts and information both verbally and in writing but has not made enough effort overall. The student has demonstrated little effort, interest and motivation for individual or team activities / assignments and the output is rather weak.

Assessment criteria, good (3)
Good overall performance: can apply and articulate concepts and information well both verbally and in writing, certain areas of individual or team output require further attention; shows appropriate level of interest and motivation in individual and team activities. Good presentation delivery and analysis.

Assessment criteria, Excellent (5)
Excellent performance in all elements of the course: shows interest and motivation in individual and team activities and assignments, fully applies and clearly articulates concepts and information both verbally and in writing. The student is able to support his/her argument with references to the recommended reading and lecture content. Excellent presentation delivery and analysis.

Assessment criteria, Approved/Failed
Sufficient performance: has completed basic requirements to pass the course and has made an attempt to apply and articulate concepts and information both verbally and in writing but has not made enough effort overall. The student has demonstrated little effort, interest and motivation for individual or team activities / assignments and the output is rather weak.

Qualifications

Completed higher education degree (Bachelor level). The course participants can also benefit from taking the “Strategy, Management and Leadership” elective course first, before diving into digital strategy.

Further information

The language of tuition is English.