Creating ‘Jiji-con Valley’ – changing the mindset of top executives

Japan’s Centre for Future (information and communications technology) Leaders (CeFIL), which aims to establish a Digital Business Innovation Institute, has developed a partnership with SMU. SMU, which provides courses that focus on developing business executives in Asia, will be able to offer expertise and human capital development know-how to Japanese companies. For a start, a three-day training programme targeted at executives of large corporations will be organised in November this year. On 6 July, SMU participated in CeFIL’s Digital Business Innovation Symposium. At one session, Mr Patrick Thng, Director of Executive Initiatives and Senior Lecturer at the SMU School of Information Systems, said that many industries will be disrupted and many jobs will disappear due to digitisation and the advancement of technology. He added that many companies have lost market share as they missed riding the wave of digitisation. He stressed that the responsibility does not only lie with the IT department, as leaders themselves must take the initiative to cope with the digital era. In another session, Mr Sunil Puri, Head, Research and Insights, Human Capital Leadership Institute, who touched on leadership development in the digital era, stressed the importance of partnerships and collaboration to foster grounds for innovation. In addition to changing the mindset of top executives, Mr Puri also said that to prepare themselves for the digital era, young leaders must gain more overseas exposure and diverse career experiences