European Commission-sponsored research provides ICT insights to strengthen Europe’s long-term competitiveness
INSEAD, the leading international business school, together with empirica and IDC, have concluded a yearlong research contract awarded by the European Commission to identify and support cultivation of the leadership and digital skills crucial to strengthening European innovation, competitiveness and growth potential.
The initiative, called the “e-Leadership Vision Project”, was launched by the Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission in January 2012. The goals were to provide rigorous evidence about how Europe’s supply and demand for information and communications technology (ICT) skills is evolving under different socioeconomic scenarios and to develop a shared and coherent vision on e-leadership to anticipate change and facilitate dialogue between policy makers and stakeholders at the European and national levels. The ultimate objective is to increase the European talent pool and to reduce e-skills shortages, gaps and mismatches in Europe.
These insights are now available in the published final report at http://eskills-vision.eu/home/. It includes a vision on the future evolution of the supply and demand together with recommendations for a long term agenda for actions at EU and national level (2012-2020).
Information generated, which included a high-profile conference hosted by INSEAD on 5 February 2013 (http://www.insead.edu/events/e-leadership-conference/), will help the European Commission and Member States prepare policy dialogue among stakeholders at the EU and national levels. The European Commission already launched a Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs on 4 March 2013 (http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/grand-coalition-digital-jobs-0). Such collaboration aims to address skills gaps and bolster innovation and competitiveness across Europe.
INSEAD’s partners for that study are IDC Europe, a global provider of market intelligence for ICT markets, and empirica, a private global research and consulting firm with expertise in the ICT domain. Spearheading the INSEAD collaboration was the school’s eLab, a global knowledge engine focusing on key IT-based competitiveness.
ICT demand outstrips supply
The findings include evidence for the increasing role of ICT to drive efficiency, competitiveness and innovation among Europe’s leading firms. To be innovative and successful in today’s global digital economy, organisations have little choice but to invest in ICT. However, without the proper skills to put these technologies to effective use, firms are at significant risk of wasting their investments and missing key opportunities for growth and competitiveness. Demand for individuals with the relevant skills to leverage these new technologies for optimal value creation will be at a premium. In fact, the researchers forecasted, these trends will result in great employment potential in Europe: an additional 372,000 to 864,000 digital jobs will be demanded by 2015, depending on the two most likely scenarios, according to experts. Some 70% of the demand for e-skilled professionals will come from small- and medium-sized companies.
Despite the global financial crisis, the ICT workforce continued to grow across Europe in the recent years at a rate of 3%, the study found. Yet, this demand contrasts with the decreasing number of ICT graduates for Europe as a whole since 2006 (i.e. well before the crisis) and a traditionally and persistent low percentage of female students. As a result, job vacancies in this sector are increasing.
This is not just an issue for ICT specialists. “As organisations rely more on ICT, they are demanding a new type of leader: one who is both savvy in managing the traditional aspects of business as well as emerging technology,” said Nils Olaya Fonstad, Associate Director of INSEAD eLab.
Dr. Fonstad noted that – depending on the scenario – in 2012 demand for e-leaders outstripped supply by an estimated 20,000 to 230,000. “These data underscore the importance of preparing managers with the capabilities to harness value from ICT and related tools,” said Fonstad, adding that insights from the report will help a range of stakeholders—from academics to partners in business and government—design policy and education that strengthens European competitiveness.
Michel Catinat, the European Commission’s Head of Unit for “Key Enabling Technologies and ICT”, said the report highlights the crucial link between ITC and overall competitiveness. “E-skills and e-leadership skills are essential,” he said. “Managers, entrepreneurs, and business executives must have the vision and the e-competences to grow, export and connect to the global digital markets.”
E-Leadership for innovation and new business
The VISION project makes several recommendations for closing the skills gap to ensure that Europe has the e-leaders it needs to spark enduring competitive advantage. The research partners say the next steps for all stakeholders are to collaborate to:
- Engage with a greater number of stakeholder to further promote and sharpen the concept and vision on e-leadership within the business community;
- Develop and implement regular monitoring, benchmarking and forecasting of e-leadership skills supply and demand and policies;
- Develop and demonstrate new approaches to deliver e-leadership skills curricula in cooperation with Universities and business schools;
- Support the creation of new formats and larger partnerships for teaching and acquiring e-leadership skills;
- Foster e-leadership in the context of entrepreneurship and new business creation and advance e-leadership skills to improve entrepreneurial learning across the EU;
- Organise a pan-European communications campaign to share critical insights about the skills needed for innovation and competitiveness.
- Werner Korte, CEO of empirica, said that “governments and all stakeholders should be even more active with respect to taking actions that close the e-skills gap. Our work on this project aims to produce tangible outcomes that complement the few existing, long-term e-skills strategies—such as the EU’s ‘Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs’.”
Successful ICT innovation requires a broad set of skills, including cross-disciplinary, cognitive, communications and problem-solving skills, in addition to business leadership ability. These skills should be provided in a lifelong learning context to equip all citizens for the knowledge-based economy and society. Such ICT skills work in synergy with other skills, such as literacy and basic math, science and IT literacy, as well as occupational skills.
“One of Europe’s strengths has been its emphasis on lifelong learning,” said Theodoros Evgeniou, Associate Professor of Decision Sciences and Technology Management and Academic Director of INSEAD eLab. “More and more, academic institutions are helping firms and policymakers identify critical success factors and key skills for implementing them, as well as providing a range of opportunities for individuals—whether they are trying to enter the workforce or are already in it—to develop those skills.”
This kind of vigorous collaboration was on display during a daylong summit hosted by INSEAD on 5 February. The European e-Leadership Skills Conference attracted more than 200 senior leaders—including CIOs, COOs, Founders and Director-Generals—from a variety of global organisations, including Booz & Co., HP, Microsoft, McKinsey, World Bank, and the Abu Dhabi Education Council. Participants sought to identify and explore the skills that Europe needs to remain competitive in the global digital economy over the coming decade.
Speakers included Daniel Dubreuil, CIO, SAFRAN; Federico Flórez, Chief Information and Innovation Officer, Ferrovial; Jan Muehlfeit, Chairman Europe, Microsoft Corporation; Michel Catinat, Head of Unit, DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission; Constantijn van Oranje-Nassau, Head of Cabinet of Vice-President Neelie Kroes, European Commission; Christian Pagel, Vice-President of Corporate Business Systems and CIO, SGLCarbon SE; and Jeannette Weisschuh, Director of Sustainability and Social Innovation, Hewlett-Packard GmbH.
“Since its inception, INSEAD has been a leading force for global business knowledge,” said Peter Zemsky, Interim Dean. “The school has always remained close to practitioners in business and government, seeking ways to apply theoretical frameworks to create real value. This wonderful collaboration with the European Commission, and our other partners, is the latest example of how INSEAD is striving to shape the future of business, government and society.”
About empirica, GmbH
Empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH is a research and consulting organisation founded in 1988 and based in Bonn, Germany. It specialises in communications and information technology related research and consultancy to clients in both private and public sectors.
Empirica helps bridge the widening gap between new developments and innovations and their application in ways fully meeting user needs. At the same time, this practical work provides a solid foundation for drawing up realistic proposals for strategic choices to public and private institutions and associations. Its body of expertise ranges from long-term policy and strategy development to rapidly implemented pilot trials and case studies of current practice.
For more than 25 years, empirica has led or been involved in leading edge market and policy research relating to information and communication, focusing on topics in specific ICT application domains such as eSkills, eWork, eHealth, eInclusion, Innovation and eBusiness and other increasingly pervasive features of the information society and knowledge-based economy and has developed an outstanding set of skills in these areas.
Results from research projects have been widely published and referenced and are in widespread use for planning, guiding, monitoring and benchmarking enterprise strategy and government policy in Germany, Europe and globally.
In the e-skills area empirica has conducted a continuous Europe-wide monitoring of e-skills demand and supply, including scenarios and future development forecasts until 2015 and 2020. Further activities include the identification and analysis of e-skills multi-stakeholder partnerships throughout Europe and the evaluation of the EC e-skills Communication from 2007 with the aim to identify how national governments and other relevant stakeholders have responded and implemented national strategies and activities in this area.
In early 2013 empirica has completed two large e-skills projects for the European Commission: VISION - e-skills Vision, Roadmap and Foresight Scenarios and QUALITY - Quality labels for training fostering e-skills and a project including the provision of e-skills consulting services to the ING Bank, Belgium.
Currently empirica is active in three large e-skills projects for the European Commission: e-Skills MONITOR: Monitoring and Benchmarking e-Skills Policies and Partnerships (2013-2014), e-Skills GUIDE: Curricula for e-Leadership skills (2013-2014), and partnering in e-Skills INTERNATIONAL: e-Skills – the International Dimension and Impact of Globalisation (2013-2014).
Besides the European Commission, national government institutions and global ICT players like Cisco belong to the customers in this domain.
Contacts for press/empirica, GmbH :
Werner B. Korte
Tel: +49-228-98530-0
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.empirica.com
