In order to better adapt to the future digital world, many have chart their path to upgrade their digital skills to keep up with the pace, meet the needs of the workplace, and even seek new opportunities in emerging fields.
In order to keep up with market trends, 44-year-old Kelvin Lee has taken a number of short-term courses in the past ten years. He also recently completed the Master of Technology in Digital Leadership Programme (MDL), conferred by NUS.
Said Kelvin Lee who is the Associate Director - Brand, Marketing, & Communications at Ernst & Young Solutions LLP (EY): "There are many things that can be learned from technology and innovation-first firms. I wanted to learn what was the corporate formulae that enables these tech orientated firms to transform the customer experience in a relatively short span of time – and wondered how these pillars then could be applied towards other more traditional businesses.”
It is not easy to balance school work, family and career at the same time. Persistence is the key. Kelvin and his classmates worked hard to complete the capstone project, a key component of the Master's degree programme. Their sponsor company was Bolloré Logistics, one of the world’s top 10 freight forwarding and logistics services company, where their Capstone project aimed to position them as ‘the world’s greenest freight and logistics partner’ by launching a solution as their transformative enterprise strategy.
“The Capstone project stretched my thinking and perspectives by enabling me to apply the academic rigor and process to a real-life challenge faced by an actual company which exists in a sector, completely different from my existing or previous industries,” said Kelvin.
The programme had certainly given Kelvin a much wider and deeper understanding of acting, communicating and being a digital leader to navigate increased complexity and volatility in business.
Kelvin (front row, left) with his batch mates for MDL02 cohort
He attests that the different modules such as digital organisation models, change leadership, digital governance, digital architecture and the Capstone project, learnt over the past two years had increased his confidence in applying the concepts of digitalisation, design thinking, leading change and developing an end-to-end digital transformation strategy into his current work and future projects at EY.
“What made the MDL programme different was the right balance of business and technical content as well the emphasis of the presentations and assignments for me to better understand and apply the learnings to create a sustained digital transformation strategy for any organisation,” adds Kelvin.
Kelvin shares some very practical word of advice to future students thinking of upgrading their skills. “Obtaining a clear perspective on your career and personal aspirations should be the first step. As the learning experience is so critical to the day to day of being part of a Master's degree programme, ensure that you also learn and research on the academic content, style that it is being taught as well as types of assignments/ exams. Most would just speak to the Course Director or the lecturers – but you should also speak to existing and previous students who have gone through the course and experience; and ask about what outcomes (both positive and negative) they have generated to get the most accurate perspective of the programme.”
We wish Kelvin all the very best in his future endeavors!
This article is an enhanced adaptation from the article by 8world.com that first appeared here.
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