In today’s digital era, management students must possess key digital skills to thrive. Essential skills include proficiency in enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), understanding cybersecurity, data analytics, and software management. These competencies are crucial for navigating and leading in a technology-driven business landscape.
Develop digital literacy: Management students should put considerable effort into keeping themselves updated on the latest offerings in digital tools, software systems, and platforms. Newer systems and software are entering the market to make the life of a manager more productive. If management students fail to keep themselves apprised of the latest happening in the technological world they stand to lose in the race. They should have an understanding of technologies like Hybrid and multi-cloud management, process automation technologies like robotic process automation, low-code development platforms, distributive infrastructure etc.
Data analysis and interpretation: The phrase “data is the new oil” coined by Clive Humby, a British mathematician and data science entrepreneur, is very relevant in the current times. The students of management who don’t master the intricacies of learning to work with data, statistical tools, and data visualizations will find the going tough while managing businesses. We find that companies like Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Facebook have hit the jackpot in terms of business excellence and profits with their mastery over managing the data.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML): We are living in a time when AI/ML is being introduced in a lot of business functions. OpenAI the developer of the leading AI platform ChatGPT was founded in December 2015 and by January 2023 the company managed to be valued at an impressive $29 billion. Such exponential growth in valuation symbolizes the importance of AI/ML in the business domain and a management student cannot ignore acquiring the requisite skills to master the AL/ML software or technologies.
Cybersecurity: As mentioned earlier the incident of CrowdStrike led global outage of information systems is a glaring reality of how vulnerable businesses are to cybersecurity-related risks. A future manager should have sufficient knowledge about the potential cybersecurity threats and their mitigation. In today’s global context, the majority of nations are intensifying their information technology and data protection regulations. Therefore, it is imperative for management students to possess a proficient comprehension of these laws and their application.
To sum up, in the current digital world, to take leadership roles management students should strengthen their knowledge in the important fields related to technology. Some of them are discussed in this article but there exist many more technologies or systems in which management students should focus on acquiring the required skills. Without the right management skills, students will find it extremely difficult to stay on top of the management practice.
The author is the Associate Professor – IB Area, FORE School of Management.