Digital Leadership

Game Changers of New Age

COMMENTARY

By Özüm Öyküm Katli

Ankara, Turkey

Industry 4.0 or 4^th Industrial Revolution, replaces the traditional industry concept with a world of many technological systems and components, including cyber physical systems, intelligent robots (co-robots, collaborative robots), and Internet of Things (IoT, Internet of Things), to increase productivity, quality and flexibility in industry. In summary, Industry 4.0 is the concept of “intelligent production” in which the traditional production approaches change radically through the collective use of technological developments. This revolution gains enterprises the ability of networking with the use of cyber-physical systems.

Thanks to the industrial revolution, the physical and biological worlds are already beginning to unite with the digital world. Many new technologies are emerging and these technologies will be included in every aspect of life. Digitalization is the main reason for collapse of more than half of the companies in Fortune 500 since 2000. This new and dynamic commercial ecosystem, completely different from the current business and market models, is expected to affect nearly 46% of the global trade volume in the next 15 years. According to the Gartner Predicts 2018 Report, by 2020, it is estimated that the Internet of Things technology will be used in 95% of electronic designs, and by 2020 the value of the Internet of Things technologies is expected to exceed $ 3 trillion. In 2025, this value is estimated to exceed $ 11 trillion. Gartner predicts that the number of devices connected to each other in the world will reach 20.8 billion by 2020, which means that nearly 5.5 million new objects are linked together almost daily.

At the corporate level, the impact of the digital revolution will not only be limited in terms of technology and infrastructure, but this change will support the development of new professional groups, new organizational structures and a new management style. The constantly evolving technology world directs its business model approach to rapid adaptation, to get the most accurate decision in the fastest way and to gain continuous change. In this sense, it is an inevitable fact that company employees need new competencies to adapt to this unusual digital world. For this reason, 16 new jobs are expected to occur in only just a few years.

The human dimension of the digital world will be as compelling as its technological dimension. In this new industry model, the huge burden of knowledge, the interconnection of systems, the radically changing of traditional business models, new technologies that overwhelm the old ways of doing business, and increasing globalization are just a few of the challenges that will emerge. Such a working environment, that constantly changes shape makes it necessary for all employees, especially the leaders, to change the way they do business. Technology alone is unlikely to change our world. However, adopting changes that create value according to the requirements of the new age is the most important factor and this makes the role of the project leader even more important.

While some traditional leadership capabilities are still critical to successfully lead in the digital age, new requirements for leaders at all levels of organizations are needed. More free, more flexible and more agile leaders embracing change will be tomorrow’s “game-changer” leaders.

Identifying qualified leaders is the primary source of concern in the 4^th Industrial Revolution. But who are these leaders and what are the required qualifications? What are the basic skills that leaders need in managing the increasingly complex projects in the digital age?

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Editor’s note: This article was originally published in Turkish in “Proje Yönetim Dünyası” The link to the full publication (in Turkish only) is available at https://lnkd.in/dYtPb27 with the article at page 54.

How to cite this article: A (2019). Digital Leadership: Game Changers of New Age; PM World Journal, Vol. VIII, Issue V, June. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/pmwj82-Jun2019-Katli-Digital-Leadership-Game-Changers-of-New-Age.pdf

About the Author

Özüm Öyküm Katli

Ankara, Turkey

Özüm Öyküm KATLI graduated from the Hacettepe University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering and from Middle East Technical University with an MSc degree in Micro and Nanotechnology. As a project manager, she has more than 10 years’ experience in defence projects with customers and partners in Turkey, UK and NATO Europe  gained broader insights and a wealth of experience in international business and successful management of relationships. She became a volunteer in PMI Turkey in 2015. In addition she has worked as director of governance and finance for PMI Turkey between 2016-2018. She is now assistant director of PMI Turkey Marketing. Her main areas of interest are communications management, risk management, strategic planning and leadership.

She is based in Ankara and can be contacted at oykumyurtseven@gmail.com.  Her portfolio is published at the www.linkedin.com/in/özüm-öyküm-katli-297033116.