Skills for Competitiveness and...

e-LeadershipSkills for Competitiveness

and Innovation

Research fi ndings developed by: Prepared for the European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry

Contents

About the Study

Acknowledgements

During 2012, empirica, IDC and INSEAD

worked together on a study for the

European Commission’s Directorate

General Enterprise and Industry. The

objective of the study, titled “e-Skills for

Competitiveness and Innovation: Vision,

Roadmap and Foresight Scenarios,” was

to develop a vision for Europe’s e-skills for

This project would not have been possible

without the generous participation of many.

We are grateful of the support and

contributions of the Steering Committee,

consisting of Martin Curley, Vice-President

and Director INTEL Labs Europe; Annabelle

Gawer, Assistant Professor in Strategy and

Innovation at Imperial College Business

School; Peter Hagedoorn, Secretary

General of EuroCIO; Elmar Husmann,

Senior Managing Consultant at IBM.

Within the European Commission (EC) our

contact point was André Richier, Enterprise

and Industry Directorate-General, Services

competitiveness and innovation, and to

examine ways to face current and future

challenges. A particular focus of the study

was on e-leadership skills. The resulting

analysis, roadmap and scenarios focus

on how Europe can seize opportunities in

innovation, new technologies and emerging

Industry Directorate, Key Enabling

Technologies and ICT Unit.

Finally, we are very grateful to the many

professionals who took time from their

important efforts at enhancing e-skills to

participate in the project workshops and to

talk with us.

ABOUT THE PROJECT ..............................................................................................................................................................................2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................................................................2

FOREWORD ...............................................................................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................................................................................................4

e-SKILLS FORECASTS AND SCENARIOS ................................................................................................................................................6

THE IMPORTANCE OF e-LEADERSHIP ...................................................................................................................................................10

ESTIMATING DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF e-LEADERS ...........................................................................................................................16

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS .....................................................................................................................................................................20

Recommendation 1: Engage with a broader set of stakeholder groups to sharpen defi nition and metrics for e-leadership skills .........21

Recommendation 2: Regularly monitor demand and supply of e-leadership ..........................................................................................22

Recommendation 3: Develop and apply e-leadership curricula guidelines .............................................................................................23

Recommendation 4: Create new formats and partnerships for teaching e-leadership skills ..................................................................24

Recommendation 5: Align actions to develop e-leadership skills with efforts to foster entrepreneurship across the EU .......................25

Recommendation 6: Foster e-leadership in the context of entrepreneurship and new business creation ..............................................26

Recommendation 7: Build awareness of the relevance of e-leadership skills for innovation, competitiveness, and employability ........27

OVERVIEW ...............................................................................................................................................................................................28

Imprint: This brochure has been prepared by INSEAD eLab on behalf of the European Commission, Enterprise and Industry Directorate General. It is a publication of the study “e-Skills for Competitiveness and Innovation: Vision, Roadmap and Foresight Scenarios,” which was carried out by empirica, IDC and INSEAD eLab.

Legal Notice: Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on its behalf may be held responsible for the use to which information contained in this publication may be put, nor for any errors which may appear despite careful preparation and checking. This publication does not necessarily refl ect the view or the position of the European Commission. © European Union, 2013

Reproduction is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged, save where otherwise stated. For use/reproduction of third-party copyright material specifi ed as such permission must be obtained from the copyright holder(s).

forms of organisation and production, while

maintaining its priority on inclusive growth.

2 E-Leadership: Skills for Competitiveness and Innovation

Foreword

There is a huge opportunity for job creation and growth which Europe should not miss.

There are clear signs from industry and

other stakeholders that the demand for

ICT-related occupations (digital jobs) is

going to grow even greater in the coming

years. However, a drop in the number of

ICT graduates leaving universities and the

retirement of ICT workers over the coming

years are endangering the ICT job growth

potential. There is a huge opportunity

for job creation which Europe should not

miss. Europe, national governments and

stakeholders have the possibility to create

up to 864.000 ICT jobs up until 2015 which

the market would be ready to absorb. This

would close the forecasted e-skills gap

and this was the topic of the high-level

conference “e-Skills and Education” on 4-5

March 2013 at which President Barroso

launched the “Grand Coalition for Digital

Jobs”.

Past developments have shown that

ICT-related occupations are much more

resistant to crises than most other jobs.

The market absorbs more than the annual

output of ICT graduates from educational

institutions. Consequently, today, investing

in e-skills entails even greater opportunities

and fewer risks.

The growing importance of ICT for both

business operations and innovation is

an opportunity for professionals who are

e-skilled - i.e., who are both ICT-savvy

and business-savvy. These competencies

are critical for fostering both jobs created

by existing companies through innovation

and growth as well as self-created

jobs by entrepreneurs (including social

entrepreneurs) who leverage technology

to create new products, services and

business.

antonio Tajani,

Vice-President of the

European Commission

The growing importance of e-skilled

professionals - particularly e-leaders

- also means that a greater number

of stakeholder groups are becoming

interested and involved in ensuring

demand is well defi ned and assessed and

supply is suffi cient. When the Commission

launched initial efforts at ensuring Europe

had suffi cient e-skilled professionals to

be innovative and competitive, it worked

primarily with those most immediately

concerned - specifi cally, the ICT industry

and the ICT services sector. Since then,

as organizations are investing even more

in ICT and are digitizing an even greater

number of business processes, products

and services, efforts have expanded and

we have engaged with Chief Information

Offi cers and their equivalents - i.e., with

leaders who are responsible for ensuring

their organizations (whether in the ICT

sector or not, primarily in medium and

large-size fi rms) are maximizing value

creation from ICT. A greater number of

stakeholder groups is becoming involved.

The launch of the “Grand Coalition for

Digital Jobs” is refl ecting this evolution.

The results of the study of INSEAD, empirica

and IDC demonstrate that e-leaders are

essential to all types of organizations and

Europe already has several successful

efforts at building e-skilled professionals.

The next steps are to collaborate with a

greater variety of stakeholder groups in

the context of the “Grand Coalition” to

implement the recommendations and

rapidly scale-up existing successes. The

Commission looks forward to its continued

contributions to ensure Europe has the

right and suffi cient professionals and

leaders to be innovative and competitive.

3e-Leadership Study

Introduction

Results from a recent study conducted

by INSEAD eLab make this strikingly

clear. They highlight that when firms have

access to e-skilled professionals, such

as enterprise architects, risk and security

specialists, and application developers,

and invest more in new technologies,

the probability of becoming competitive

can double. However when firms with

insufficient e-skills make significant

investments in new technology, do

not increase the likelihood of better

performance—essentially they risk wasting

their investments in new technology and

losing any competitive edge.

Figure 1 illustrates one example of

many such complementarities between

technology, skills and performance. In the

total sample upon which these results are

based, 46% of those surveyed were low

investors in cloud-based services (i.e.,

they spent less than 10% of their total ICT

budget on cloud-based services), while

30% were high investors in cloud-based

services, and the remaining 24% (not

shown in the diagram below) did not invest

in cloud-based services. 1

To be innovative and competitive in today’s global digital economy, organisations have little choice but to invest in information and communication technologies (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.

1 INSEAD eLab. (2013). “Building Competitiveness and Business Performance with ICT: How investments in new technology can make companies more competitive.” A research report developed in collaboration with AT&T. Available at www.corp.att.com/bemoreproductive/.

Size of Each Group Type

(% of total sample)

Within group, % of firms that are

competitively agile

36%

46% of participantswere Low Investors in Cloud

42%

72%

46% 13% 17%

Figure 1: The benefits of having sufficient access to e-skills; the risks

of insufficient access

36% were competitively agile



13% of participantswere High Investors in Cloud

with Weak Technical

Talent

17% of participantswere Low Investors in Cloud

with Strong Technical

Talent


Within the group of low investors, only 36%

were competitively agile - that is, compared

to the average, they respond more quickly

and effectively to local opportunities or

threats.

The benefi ts of having suffi cient

technology-focused talent: 17% of the

total survey sample consisted of high

investors in cloud-based services that also

had high technical skills. Of the fi rms in this

group, 72% were competitively agile.

The risks of having insuffi cient

technology-focused talent: High investors

in cloud-based services with insuffi cient

technology-focused talent represent 13%

of the total survey sample and 44% of high

investors in cloud-based services. Survey

fi ndings reveal that these high investors

were statistically no more likely to be

highly agile than low investors in cloud-

based services. In essence, fi rms that were

investing more in cloud-based services to

enhance agility yet had insuffi cient access

to technology skills were at risk of wasting

their investments on cloud-based services.

Having strong e-skills is not simply benefi cial to competitiveness — it is necessary to avoid wasting investments in ICT. This is true for all types of organisations – no matter the size or sector.

This report synthesizes the key fi ndings

from the study “e-Skills for Competitiveness

and Innovation: Vision, Roadmap and

Foresight Scenarios.” The key objective of

this study is to help reduce innovation skills

shortages, gaps and mismatches in Europe,

and to provide sound, unbiased empirical

evidence about supply and demand for

different types of ICT-related skills in

Europe under different socio-economic

scenarios. A special focus of the study is

on higher-level innovation skills (which we

call “e-leadership skills”). After providing a

synthesis of the analysis of the supply and

demand developments for ICT practitioner

and ICT user skills, the remainder of this

document will focus on e-leadership skills

and seven recommendations for action.

Managers, entrepreneurs, and business executives must have e-competences to grow, export and be connected to the global digital markets. In a digital economy, e-leadership skills are essential.

—Michel Catinat, Head of Unit “Key Enabling Technologies and ICT”

at DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission

5e-Leadership Study

Growing Gap: Even with the crisis, demand for ICT workers continues to outnumber the supply. This gap represents an opportunity for job creation which Europe should not miss.

TThe ICT workforce in Europe in 2011

amounted to 6.67 million which is 3.1% of

the overall workforce. It has been growing

over the past decades and will continue to

grow in the future. From 2000 to 2010 the

ICT workforce grew at an average annual

rate of 4.26%. Even at the times of the

economic and fi nancial crisis which Europe

is undergoing since late 2008, growth

remained at 2.65%.

The demand appears to be signifi cant for

e-leaders. Of the approximately 255,000

vacancies for the EU-27 in 2012, we fi nd

76,000 vacancies for “ICT management and

business architecture” skills. Furthermore,

the gap is disproportionately affecting

small and medium-size enterprise: 70%

of vacancies can be found in SMEs which

demand ICT skills in much greater numbers

than large enterprises.

However, interest in pursuing ICT careers

seems to be diminishing among younger

generations. Since 2005, the number of

computer science graduates has been in

continuous decline in Europe. This decline

intensifi es by the growing number of ICT

practitioners retiring from the workforce.

The bottom line is: Europe is not ‘producing’

suffi cient numbers of ICT graduates

to satisfy the demand. The results of a

representative empirica survey of CIO‘s and

HR managers in eight European countries

in 2012 show that the number of expected

vacancies in ICT-related occupations,

extrapolated to the whole of Europe (EU-

27), can be estimated at around 255.000

in 2012.

To be competitive, innovation is critical. There are three key aspects to innovating effectively and efficiently: strategy, skills, and tools. These three are the responsibility of the most senior management team.”

—Federico Flórez, Chief Information and Innovation Offi cer, Ferrovial

e-Skills Forecasts and Scenarios


Future Gaps: Scenario-based forecasting of ‘ICT practitioner and professional skills’ in Europe 2012-2020

The likely future development in e-skills

demand and supply in Europe were

estimated by emprica, based on several

scenario-based forecasts. In a “Cautious

Growth” scenario the e-skills excess

demand or shortage amounts to 372.000

in 2015 compared to 255.000 at present. In

a more optimistic ”Return to Confi dence”

scenario the shortage, i.e. the theoretical

number of ICT vacancies amounts to

864.000 in 2015.

Each scenario infl uences the input and

output factors that make up the model of

future demand and supply. Input factors

consist of such factors as the number

of ICT graduates expected to enter the

ICT workforce as well as the number of

self-trained or industry certifi ed workers.

Output factors include such factors as

retirement trends and other exits patterns.

These scenarios were put to the test

at three workshops, and the experts

there scrutinised the assumptions and

contributed to honing the fi nal model.

Future e-skills demand will increasingly

occur in higher level ICT jobs including the

management, planning and strategy and

ICT development specialist occupations

and less in ICT support, delivery and

operation, i.e., infrastructure type

occupations.

Even under the two most likely scenarios—“Cautious Growth” and “Return to Confi dence” —gaps between demand and supply of e-skills are signifi cant.

2 For a signifi cantly more detailed description of the methodology used, please refer to Chapter 2 of the Final Report, available at http://eskills-vision.eu/

7e-Leadership Study

Results from the scenario “Cautious Growth”The scenario “Cautious Growth” features

economic growth with a slow return to

historical growth trajectories. From 2010

and 2015, GDP growth across Europe

is assumed to have on average a 0.92%

compound annual growth rate.

Moderate IT investments will be reflected

in 2.1% annual growth until 2015, with

an increasing trend from 2014 onwards,

to a growth rate of 4.3% on average

between 2015-2020. IT investments will

build upon a rapid diffusion of mobile

devices, applications, cloud services and

other new IT delivery models. Big data

applications and services are expected

to grow considerably from 2014 onwards.

SME investments in IT innovation will

increase only very slowly because of the

slow recovery and persistence of the credit

crunch.

In the education domain, a slight increase

in the number of ICT graduates and

some labour mobility is expected. Private

funding for education and training will be

at a moderate level. In the social domain,

data-driven commercial services on the

web, also driven by mobile devices, will

imply some “big brother” risks. Politically, a

continuing incremental process of building

Europe step by step is expected. Continuing

negotiations between EU Member States

will bring about gradual and cumulative

progress in European cohesion.

In the ‘Cautious Growth’ scenario, the ICT

workforce in Europe will grow from 6.53

million people in 2011 to 7.09 million in

2020, whereby 5.15 million people will be

ICT practitioners and 1.95 million will be

ICT management level employees.

e-Skills Forecasts and Scenarios

864,000

1,000,000

900,000

800,000

700,000

600,000

500,000

400,000

300,000

200,000

100,000

2011 2012 2013 2014 20150

255,000

676,000

487,000

363,000205,000 222,000 259,000

372,000

510,000

254,000199,000173,000

While a general trends towards practitioner

shortages can be observed, there will even

be some practitioner unemployment in

some countries but only for a few years,

due to little / lacking mobility across the EU.

These countries are most notably Poland

and Spain. Poland sees an oversupply

mainly due to the steady and strong output

of graduates from tertiary and vocational

education, while Spain continues to suffer

from a slump in demand.

In the scenario “Cautious Growth,” the gap between demand and supply is expected to reach 372,000 in 2015. This figure can best be described as ‘demand potential’ or ‘job potential’ for ICT jobs.


Figure 2: Forecasted demand and supply of e-skills according to two scenarios

Vacancies TotalPractitionersManagement & Architects

Scenario: Return to Confidence

Vacancies TotalPractitionersMangement & Architects

Scenario: Cautious Growth

Results from the scenario “Return to Confidence”

The scenario “Return to Confidence” features a

far more optimistic economic growth scenario

with a recovery in Europe expected from

2014 onwards. GDP growth across Europe

is assumed at an average annual growth rate

of 1.3% between 2010 and 2015. Demand

will be particularly high for ICT management-

related jobs and there will be an increasing

number of vacancies for practitioner jobs

The economic recovery sets a favourable

environment for IT investments, growing at

2.9% annually until 2015 and further increasing

to a growth rate of 5.6% between 2015-2020.

In this scenario, there is an increase in

the share and total number of application

development jobs and a slight decrease in

the number of more infrastructure related

jobs. ”Return to Confidence” features a

robust general trend towards practitioner

shortages, whereby if any rates of practitioner

unemployment are observed, they will be at

the natural unemployment rate of about 2%.

In this scenario the demand potential for ICT

workers will reach beyond 7.47 million in 2020

and amount to 8.99 million.

In the scenario “Return to Confidence,” the gap between demand and supply is expected to be 864,000 in 2015.

We are at an inflection point where Europe can really take advantage of ICT to dramatically boost productivity – provided we have the right skills and leadership. This is the only way that Europe can grow its productivity. These new technologies are as a whole creating jobs.”

—Jan Muehlfeit, Chairman Europe, Microsoft Corporation

That the opportunities of a good crisis should not be missed seems to have been missed by some of our leaders. We are doing less with less rather than more with less. We should be focusing on how to reinvent ourselves.”

—Constantijn van Oranje-Nassau, Head of Cabinet of Vice-President

Neelie Kroes, European Commission

9e-Leadership Study

The Importance of e- Leadership

a new type of leadership —e-leadership—is becoming essential to organisational innovation and competitiveness.

To enhance their productivity and

competitiveness, organisations are

increasingly relying on ICT to operate their

business processes, to innovate and to

provision products and services.

As organisations invest more in business

operations and technologies, ICT leaders

are expected to be more business-savvy

while business leaders are expected to

be more ICT-savvy. INSEAD researchers

are fi nding that the strategic roles of CIOs

and their ICT Groups have expanded

considerably. Since 2009, INSEAD

researchers have collaborated with CIOnet,

a European CIO federation, on an annual

survey of CIOs. The results consistently

show that:

• CIOs spend a signifi cant percentage

of their time outside of managing ICT

services;

• CIOs spend about a third of their time

working with non-ICT colleagues,

whereas ICT Groups spend about

a quarter of their time working with

non-ICT colleagues. In both cases,

they anticipate the percentage of time

working with business colleagues to

grow by at least 20%; and

• CIOs and their ICT groups anticipate

spending an increasingly smaller

percentage of their time managing ICT

services and a growing percentage

of their time working with business

colleagues; managing enterprise-wide

business processes; and working with

external customers and partners.

As organisations invest more in business

operations and technologies, ICT leaders

are expected to be more business-savvy

while business leaders are expected to

be more ICT-savvy. INSEAD researchers

are fi nding that the strategic roles of CIOs

and their ICT Groups have expanded

considerably. Since 2009, INSEAD

researchers have collaborated with CIOnet,

a European CIO federation, on an annual

survey of CIOs. The results consistently

CIOs spend a signifi cant percentage

of their time outside of managing ICT

services;

E-leadership in the context of e-skills

The Commission has been at the forefront of tracking

the evolving demand and supply of e-skills. In 2004, the

European e-skills Forum adopted the following defi nition

for e-skills (EC, 2004):

ICT user skills: the capabilities required for the effective

application of ICT systems and devices by the individual.

ICT users apply systems as tools in support of their own

work. User skills cover the use of common software tools

and of specialised tools supporting business functions

within industry.

ICT practitioner skills: the capabilities required for

researching, developing, designing, strategic planning,

managing, producing, consulting, marketing, selling,

integrating, installing, administering, maintaining,

supporting and servicing ICT systems.

E-business skills (also referred to as e-leadership): the

capabilities needed to exploit opportunities provided by

ICT, notably the Internet; to ensure more effi cient and

effective performance of different types of organisations;

to explore possibilities for new ways of conducting

business/administrative and organisational processes;

and/or to establish new businesses.

In the course of this study, a variety of stakeholder groups

and experts have been consulted and the following

defi nition of e-leadership was developed.

e-Leadership is the accomplishment of a goal that relies

on ICT through the direction of human resources and

uses of ICT. Essentially, e-leaders are leaders who draw

on technology to accomplish an ICT-enabled objective.

3 Aral, Brynjolfsson and Wu 2012; Brynjolfsson and Saunders 2010; Hunter and Westerman 2010; and Weil and Ross 20104 For recent examples, see Austin et al. 2009; Fonstad 2011, 2012; Peppard 2010, 2013; Spitze and Lee 2012; Woerner and Weill (2009).5 Fonstad (2012). “Three ways to thrive: How Chief Information Offi cers are enabling their organizations to grow and strengthen in today’s challenging economy.” An annual report on the expanding strategic roles of ICT professionals, developed by INSEAD eLab in collaboration with CIONET


11e-Leadership Study

In showing why the demand for e-leaders is

outpacing the supply, INSEAD researchers

have profi led many organisations that have

become far more competitive because

of their different uses of ICT. Below we

discuss two of them, AkzoNobel and

Coca-Cola Europe.

In 2012, the CIO of AkzoNobel, Pieter

Schoehuijs, earned the title of European

CIO of the Year for business-process driven

leadership, because of his role in building

a new generation of e-leaders within and

outside the company. About eight years

ago, to compete more effi ciently and

enter new markets, senior management

at AkzoNobel decided to transform the

company from a fi nancial holding fi rm of

separate businesses into a more matrixed

organisation where the business units were

coordinated to improve effi ciency and

obtain synergies.

ICT was fundamental to this transition.

Today, the ICT Group at AkzoNobel has an

annual operating budget of 300mn EUR

and is responsible for all the company’s

systems, including those supporting

functional organisations such as fi nance,

supply chain, HR, and legal. About 930

people work in ICT in 43 countries around

the world. This massive consolidation,

coupled with a greater use of external

service providers, has signifi cantly

changed the skill set needed by the ICT

Group at AkzoNobel. Before, there was

a greater need for technical people who

knew how to perform services such as

install servers, manage systems, and apply

patches. Now, there is a greater demand

for professionals who are more skilled at

service delivery management, systems

planning (e.g., enterprise architecture) and

business processes.

At the Coca-Cola Company, Europe

CIO Sabine Everaet and her team of 45

specialists handle all non-outsourced ICT

needs in Europe. For a global fi rm that

generated revenues of more than EUR

46.5 billion in 2011, Everaet and her group

are considered key business partners for

identifying risks and interdependencies for

complex programs, and have a scope well

beyond that of the classical ICT projects.

They earned their enhanced strategic

roles only after improving ICT operations

and enhancing key business processes.

Everaet has enriched the skills of the entire

ICT team by enabling them to slip easily

into the role of high-level business-ICT

relationship managers. Explains Everaet,

“I am really encouraging my guys to work

with the business units, work with senior

management of the bottlers, work with

corporate, understand what the dynamics

are, see things from their perspective, learn

to connect the dots, and come away with

a holistic view.”

Effective e-leaders are capable of leading teams and managing technology systems in ways that achieve both local and global demands.

The Importance of e-Leadership

In 1961, W.C.H. Prentice published an

article on “Understanding Leadership” in

the Harvard Business Review (HBR), which

proved so relevant that the venerable

journal republished the piece in 2004. In

the article, Prentice offers the following

defi nition of leadership (Prentice 2004:

102-3):

Leadership is the accomplishment of a goal

through the direction of human assistants.

The man who successfully marshals his

human collaborators to achieve particular

ends is a leader. A great leader is one who

can do so day after day, and year after year,

in a wide variety of circumstances.

Ever since Prentice opened up this

exciting fi eld of study, a signifi cant body

of research on leadership has developed

identifying critical activities and skills

that constitute effective leadership and

describing how leadership activities

and responsibilities can be distributed

across several individuals. Research on

leadership consistently highlights four

general activities that leaders must be able

to accomplish well:

• Making sense of a situation (e.g.,

identify interdependencies);

• Building and aligning relationship

across boundaries (e.g., build

relationships within and across

organizations);

• Developing a compelling vision for

an initiative that creates value (e.g.,

identify risks and synergies from

interdependencies); and

• Managing change and Inventing

- access, negotiate, coordinate,

and motivate a variety of resources

throughout the processes of realizing

the initiative and of achieving and

sustaining value from it (e.g., active

experimentation).

In addition to listing activities, scholars

have compared leadership characteristics

to management traits in order to highlight

the differences between the two concepts.

In his 1989 book, “On Becoming a

Leader,” Warren Bennis composed a list

of these differences. What follow are some

examples of his research:

• The manager administers; the leader

innovates.

• The manager maintains; the leader

develops.

• The manager focuses on systems

and structure; the leader focuses on

people.

• The manager relies on control; the

leader inspires trust.

• The manager asks how and when; the

leader asks what and why.

• The manager does things right; the

leader does the right thing.

Drawing on the work of Prentice and dozens

of other scholars, INSEAD researchers

have defi ned e-leadership as follows:

e-leadership is the accomplishment of

a goal that relies on ICT through the

direction of human resources and uses of

ICT.

E-Leaders are especially salient to

digital enterprises. Digital enterprises

are enterprises from all sectors of the

economy that can drive economic and/or

social value by using digital technologies.

They are characterized by a high intensity

of utilisation of new digital technologies

to sharpen their business intelligence,

engage with their customers, improve

their operations and invent new business

models.


• Leadership is the accomplishment of

a goal through the direction of human

resources.

• e-Leadership is the accomplishment

of a goal that relies on ICT through

the direction of human resources

and uses of ICT. e-Leaders are

leaders that draw on technology to

accomplish an ICT-enabled objective.

Figure 3: e-Leaders are leaders focused on using technology and a multitude of resources

to accomplish ICT-enabled goals.

• Entrepreneurship is the

accomplishment of a new

organisation through the direction of

human resources. Entrepreneurs are

leaders who create new ventures.

• Digital entrepreneurship is

the accomplishment of a new

organisation that relies on ICT for

its operations and its products and

services through the direction of

human resources and uses of ICT.

Digital entrepreneurs are leaders who

create new ventures that rely on ICT

for their operations, products and

services.

Digital EntrepreneurLeader

Manager

Entrepreneur

e-Leader


Effective e-leaders have a T-shaped portfolio of skills.

Effective organisations expect that

e-leaders should have a T-shaped portfolio

of skills. Very simply, having a T-shaped

portfolio of skills means that a leader is

both a business-savvy and an ICT-savvy

professional. More precisely, having a

T-shaped portfolio of skills means that a

leader has the following skills:

• Using ICT: A vertical set of skills

that represent expertise or “deep

knowledge” in a specifi c area (e.g.,

science; engineering; ICT; social

sciences);

• A horizontal set of skills that

represent “transversal skills” (e.g.,

negotiation; critical thinking; design

and systems thinking, business and

entrepreneurship, etc.) that enable

collaboration across a variety of

boundaries, and;

• BOTH vertical and horizontal sets of

skills require a basic level of ICT user

skills, as defi ned by the Commission.

Although e-leaders should have a

T-shaped portfolio of skills, the distribution

of expertise may vary, depending on what

sets of activities an e-leader is responsible

for. The table below summarizes eight

general goals and related sets of activities

that successful organisations must be

able to accomplish (whether with internal

or external resources) in order to use ICT

competitively.

The table shows how each of the eight

sets of activities demands either strategic

understanding (knowing what is possible) or

practical understanding (knowing how to do

the possible) of a set of skills. For example, a

Chief Marketing Offi cer is expected to have

a strategic understanding of technology

such as social media and analytics and a

practical understanding of measuring and

modelling consumer behaviour. On the

other hand, an enterprise architects need

to have a practical understanding of ICT

systems and how to defi ne and manage

interdependencies (e.g., between ICT,

business processes and data) as well as

functional, product and sector expertise

to ensure that the enterprise architecture

supports an operating model that is best

for the organisation’s given its strategy.

The Importance of e-Leadership

Identifying relevant technology opportunities and influencing organizational stakeholders to capitalise on those opportunities are some of the defining characteristic for modern ICT leadership. Employees – especially recent graduates – often benefit from having a defined structure that will help them evolve and grow as the organization evolves and grows. Intel believes that to attract and retain the best talent, it is important to provide employees with a clear and explicit development path that caters for personal, organizational and industry leadership.”

—Jim Kenneally, principal investigator at Intel Labs, and

Research Fellow at Innovation Value Institute


In large and medium size organisations, e-leadership is distributed across multiple individuals.

In many large organisations, one head

e-leader, such as the CIO, is responsible for

the overall development and management

of ICT systems, while other deputy

e-leaders are accountable for leading a

more specifi c set of activities, such as

one of the eight listed in the table. In

addition to the CIO, many organisations

for example now employ a Chief Enterprise

Architect who is responsible for ensuring

that ICT systems, business processes and

data are all coordinated and aligned to the

organisation’s operating model. In several

organisations, there are also high-level

business-IT relationship managers who

must lead teams of business managers

and ICT developers to ensure the demands

of a particular business unit are prioritized,

aligned and met.

Table 1: To be accomplished well, each of the following key set of activities requires a different mix of strategic and practical understanding of vertical and horizontal expertise.

6 For general research on the importance of distributed leadership see Ancona and Bresman (2007), Ancona et al. (2007), and Ancona et al. (2009).

Literacy &

Basic Skills

Read

ing, w

riting, m

ath,

dig

ital literacy, etc.

ICT

expertise

Functio

n expertise

Pro

duct exp

ertise

Custo

mer &

Secto

r exp

ertise

Manag

ing chang

e &

inventing

Develo

ping

a co

mp

elling visio

n

Build

ing and

aligning

relatio

nships

across b

ound

aries

Making

sense of a

situation

Key Sets of activities

Business development,

sales and marketing

Business process management

Program & project management

Global sourcing management

Enterprise architecture

Solution development and implementation

Information management & security

IT services management & delivery

+++ + + + +

+ + + +

+ + + +

+ + + +

+ + + +

+ + + +

+ + + +

+ + + +

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

+++

Using ICT

(Vertical Expertise)

Developing organisations

(Horizontal/Transversal Expertise)

Global Knowledge Economy Talents

+ = strategic understanding (knowing what is possible)+++ = practical understanding (knowing how to do the possible)


Do European organisations have enough e-leaders to use technology to enhance their competitiveness through better operations and innovation? The simple answer is no, but the reality is far more nuanced.

To estimate the demand of e-leaders,

the research team assumed that some

organisations need more e-leaders than

others, depending on two dimensions.

1. The size of organisation: In terms

of number of full-time equivalents

(FTEs), large (250-99 FTEs) or very

large firm (1000+ FTEs) will have

a greater need and capacity to

distribute key responsibilities across

more individuals than a micro firm

(1-9 FTEs) or a small firm (10-49

FTEs).

2. The ICT-Intensity of a sector: This

is the degree to which organisations

rely on technology for their business

operations, innovations and the

provisioning of their services and

products. The demand for e-leaders

is greater for organisations in the

ICT sector than for organisations in

non-ICT sectors, because the ICT

sector needs e-leaders for internal

operations, innovation and for

external provision of services. Within

non-ICT, there are high ICT intensity

sectors and low ICT intensity sectors.

Estimating Demand and Supply of e-Leaders

Based on these factors, organisations

were assigned into one of three different

groups, differentiated by different colour in

the table below. Within each of the three

groups, demand was estimated.

The overall number of demand for e-leadership in Europe is estimated at 680,000 persons.

Table 2: Summary of estimated e-leadership demand.

Type of Firm & Sector

ICT sector

High ICT intensity sectors

Low ICT intensity sectors

medium

medium

medium

high growth SMEs

high growth SMEs

high growth SMEs

large & very large

large & very large

large & very large

TOTAL ESTIMATED DEMAND OF e-LEADERS

4

8

1

1

1

2

5

1

2

Size of firmEstimated

demand of e-leaders per enterprise

Number of enterprises

Estimated ToTaL demand for e-leaders

by firm type

6,500 26,000

15,000

1,400

15,000

11,000

60,000

30,000

25,000

120,000

30,000

25,000

29,000 145,000

227,000 227,000

42,000 84,000

436,000 680,000


Estimates of the supply of e-leadership skills

The research team made scholarly use of

the valuable data collected by the National

Association of Colleges and Employers

(NACE), which is a highly regarded source

of information on the employment of the

college educated worldwide. Nonetheless,

more research needs to be done in this

area – especially with regards to metrics

(e.g., see first recommendation)

Ensuring we have sufficient e-leaders is a business issue. We need leaders who understand how the business operates, what new and relevant information and communication technologies are emerging, and how can we best take advantage of opportunities enabled by the new technologies to help the business thrive.”

—Daniel Dubreuil, CIO, SAFRAN

In a larger study of the European

management population, NACE created

eight management categories ranging from

top executives in the c-suite all the way

down to assistant managers of product

lines. To estimate the supply of e-leaders

within each of these eight categories,

researchers multiplied the population within

each group by its “e-leadership quota” –

the estimated number of people within

a NACE category who have a sufficient

T-shaped portfolio of ICT and business

skills to serve as e-leaders. The total supply

consists simply of adding up the e-leaders

within each NACE professional group.

as a result of these assumptions, the overall supply of e-leaders at management level in Europe is estimated at around 661,000.

Table 3: Summary of estimated e-leadership supply.

occupation Group

Entrepreneur – Gazelles

ICT service managers(ISCo 1330)

other Managers(ISCo 112, 121, 123, 131, 1332, 134, 141, 142, 143)(selection of examples, below)

Managing directors and chief executives

Business services and administrative managers

Sales and marketing managers

Research & development managers

Managers in agriculture, forestry and fisheries

Professional services managers (other)

TOTAL ESTIMATED SUPPLY OF e-LEADERS

12,000 12,000

260,697 260,697

12,553,845

1,495,180

2,283,360

1,094,997

129,445

109,833

135,759

Population of Each occupation Group

Times (x)e-leadership quota

Equals (=) ICT Population

100%

100%

3%

5%

5%

50%

.5%

.5%

varied(average is about 3%) 389,182

44,855

114,168

54,750

64,723

549

679

661,000


Estimating Demand and Supply of e-leaders

Assumption: 100% of the 260,687 ICT service managers qualify as e-leaders.

However organisations that have consolidated and centralized their ICT functions

into a shared services organisation have had to dismiss some managers while at the

same time have had to hire new managers.

Assumption: 50% of the 129.445 Research & Development managers qualify as

e-leaders. It could be argued that this too is a generous assumption, as many

scientists working in R&D labs do not necessarily have the ability to inspire and

guide teams of people to create ICT-based solutions.

Assumption: 5% of Business services and administration managers (NACE 1210)

qualify as e-leaders. Some assumptions could be argued as being too limiting.

For example, it could be assumed that twice as many business services and

administrative managers are sufficiently ICT-savvy to be e-leaders.

If this assumption is relaxed from

100% to 80%, then there are 52,000

fewer e-leaders in Europe.

If this assumption is relaxed by half,

from 50% to 25%, then there are

32,000 fewer e-leaders in Europe.

If this assumption is changed from

5% to 10% then there are 114,000

more e-leaders in Europe.

Change in key assumptions related to estimating SUPPLY of e-leaders Resulting change

Changing the assumptions reveals an even greater gap between demand and supply of e-leaders.

The estimates of demand and supply of

e-leaders cited in this report are quite

conservative. When the estimates were

presented to experts from academia,

industry and public policy institutes, most

agreed that the real demand for e-leaders

is probably higher; the real supply even

lower; and consequently, the actual gap

between demand and supply is even

greater.

To develop a better understanding of how

sensitive the estimates are to each key

assumption and in the process, develop a

better understanding of why demand and

supply fluctuate, readers are encouraged

to examine, challenge and change each

assumption to see how it affects the

demand or supply. Table 3 describes how

changing a few key assumptions add or

take away from the original estimates of

demand and supply.

We joined forces with European Commission and some business schools to develop curricula for 2-years programs to earn an IT-MBA and a Masters in Business Enterprises Architecture.”

—Christian Pagel, Vice-President of Corporate Business Systems and CIO, SGLCarbon SE,

Board Member for HR & Education, EuroCIO


Assumption: In the ICT services sector, medium-size firms need only four e-leaders

and large-size firms need eight e-leaders to be productive. It could be easily argued

that this assumption is well off the mark, as firms in the ICT services sector need

e-leaders to build bridges with internal clients and to engage with external customers.

Assumption: Gazelles need only one e-leader to succeed. It could be argued that in

today’s digital economy, any start-up that has succeeded in achieving 20% growth

per annum for its first five years relies heavily on technology for its operations and

its new products and services. As a result, most Gazelles would need at least two

e-leaders, one to lead projects related to operations and another to lead projects

related to new products and services.

Assumption: medium-size firms in high ICT intensity sectors only need two e-leaders.

It could be argued that because they are in high ICT intensive sectors, these firms

need at least four e-leaders, where each could be responsible for two of the eight sets

of activities described earlier.

If this assumption is changed to ICT

services sector firms need twice as

many e-leaders, then demand for

e-leaders increases by 37,000.

If all Gazelles need two e-leaders,

then demand for e-leaders in Europe

increases by an additional 70,000.

If medium-size firms in high ICT

intensity sectors each demand

four e-leaders, rather than two,

then demand increases by 120,000

e-leaders.

Change in key assumptions related to estimating DEMAND of e-leaders Resulting change

When all these assumptions are taken into

account, then demand rises by 227,000

e-leaders to a total of 915,000.

The assumptions used to develop the

estimates of demand and supply of

e-leaders provide important insights

into how academic institutions, policy

makers, and businesses can work together

to forecast demand more accurately

and ensure a sufficient supply. The

recommendations section includes more

specific actions that can be taken to

eliminate the gap.

We understand from our employees and customers that there is a gap. We have developed curricula materials to help build the CIOs of the future.”

—Jeannette Weisschuh, Director of Sustainability and Social

Innovation, Hewlett-Packard GmbH


Recommended Actions

The good news is that Europe has several examples of successful multi-stakeholder efforts that are helping to build a larger supply of e-leaders. The challenge going forward is one of rapid scaling.

This section presents recommendations

from the study “Vision, Roadmap and

Foresight Scenarios for Europe 2012-

2020” for ensuring Europe has suffi cient

e-leadership skills. The intention of

these recommendations is to provide

valuable input for the development of a

comprehensive roadmap for actions at EU

and national levels. The recommendations

are intended for a variety of stakeholder

groups.


The project developed the following seven recommendations, along with a proposed timeline for key actions.

Engage with a broader set of stakeholder

groups to sharpen metrics for e-leadership

skills

Regularly monitor demand and supply

of e-leadership

Develop and apply e-leadership curricula

guidelines and quality labels

Create new formats and partnerships for

teaching e-leadership skills

Build awareness of the relevance

of e-leadership skills for innovation,

competitiveness, and employability

2013 2014 2015-2020

Preparation

Preparation

Implementation

Implementation

First Results

Foster e-leadership in the context of

entrepreneurship and self-employment

Preparation

Implementation

First Results

Align actions to develop e-leadership skills

with efforts to foster entrepreneurship across

the EU

Preparation

Implementation

First Results

First Results

Preparation

Preparation

Preparation

Implementation

Implementation

Implementation

First Results

First Results

First Results

Recommendation

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Engage with a broader set of stakeholder groups to sharpen definitions and metrics for e-leadership skills

8 See Dewhurst, M., Hancock, B. and Ellsworth, D. (2013). “Redesigning Knowledge Work: How to free up high-end experts to do what they do best.” Harvard Business Review. Pp. 59-64.

Further attention needs to be paid to

using these results for the development

of an e-leadership skills framework as an

extension of the European e-Competence

Framework (e-CF) for ICT practitioners.

This would be used by organizations in

the public and private sector to identify

and inventory key skills for accomplishing

their strategic objectives.

The Commission is best placed to

lead on the further development and

sharpening of metrics for e-leadership

skills. Essential to the success of such

an initiative is regular engagement with

a broad set of stakeholder groups, such

as C-level business executives and

digital entrepreneurs. The Commission

may want to initiate such an activity as

an integral part of on-going studies in

which all relevant stakeholders need to

be involved in dialogue. Stakeholders

include industry, education, training and

certifi cation institutions, academia, the

CEN Workshop on ICT skills, Eurostat,

the national statistical institutes, national

employment agencies and staffi ng

industry representatives at national and

European levels.

of a stakeholder dialogue. Initially it could

be funded by the European Commission

for instance though the CEN mechanism.

actions:To accelerate the development of

e-leadership, it is important to engage

with non-IT business leaders, such as

Chief Executive Offi cers, Chief Financial

Offi cers and Chief Marketing Offi cers, as

well as with digital entrepreneurs. During

this project considerable insight and input

has been provided by Chief information

Offi cers. Senior management teams can

identify new critical skills required by their

strategy and create a detailed inventory of

how to access them. The same information

will be necessary form entrepreneurs and

freelancers communities. A trusted neutral

party can collect and synthesize lessons

from applications of e-leadership to ensure

the defi nitions are broad enough to cover all

relevant cases of ICT-informed leadership

in today’s enterprises and precise enough

to be practical and insightful.

Background:There is a need for more precise and shared

defi nitions and metrics of e-leadership

skills and competencies to demonstrate

what kinds of e-leaders are associated with

specifi c kinds of business and social value

creation; ensure curricula and e-leadership

development efforts are relevant; improve

monitoring of demand and supply of

e-leadership skills; and increase the

effectiveness of policy decision making.

Until now, CIOs have played an important

and active role, in large part because they

are part of well-organized European CIO

networks and they have expressed clear

needs and requirements. Now there is a

need to complement their contributions by

involving business line managers, CxOs,

entrepreneurs, and freelancers. However

this will be more challenging as these

groups are less organized and aware of

their e-skills needs.

Recommendation


2Recommendation

Regularly monitor demand and supply of e-leadership

Background:There is still insufficient quantitative data and

relevant statistics to define and anticipate

shortages, gaps and mismatches. Existing

data sets from other sources are scarce

and have limited relevance. The lack of

data significantly restricts the actions of a

broad set of stakeholder groups. New and

better data would help defining priorities

and measuring progress.

actions:Building on the first recommendation (i.e.,

engage broader set of stakeholders and

sharpen metrics for e-leadership skills),

the following initiative would help establish

regular monitoring of demand and supply

of e-leadership skills.

1. Specify data requirements

for establishing meaningful

measurements for use in a monitoring

system consisting of data collected

from two types of surveys: those

of demand side actors (e.g. HR

managers, CIOs in organisations) and

those of suppliers (e.g. universities

and business schools);

2. Identify and analyse secondary data

sources for suitable data (mainly

from Eurostat to ensure homogenous

data across all EU Member States) to

extract information on demand and

supply of e-leadership skills required

by policy makers as a basis for

decision making.

3. Monitor key performance indicators

and scenarios on the supply side

and demand side of e-leadership

skills and benchmark these KPIs

against national policy initiatives and

multi-stakeholder partnerships in all

Member States.

These actions should be started as a

coordinated Europe-wide activity and

carried out by the Commission in close

cooperation with Eurostat and national

statistical institutes. The results, especially

data on expected demand, should be

made available to universities and business

schools in order to initiate appropriate

course development on the supply side.

European industry could then be made

aware of new e-leadership courses at

universities.

Benchmarking will also provide a robust

basis for understanding the impact of the

policies, initiatives and actions launched

at the EU and national level. Such insights

would enable policy makers to propose

and coordinate better ways and more

efficient means to reduce e-leadership

skills shortages, gaps and mismatches

through multi-stakeholder partnerships.


Background:Despite record levels of unemployment

in Europe, the demand for ICT workers

outstrips the supply and this gap will

continue to grow by around 3% per year

(see page 6). The mismatch between the

current skills available and the needs of

the labour market concerns all EU Member

States, even if it affects some of them to

a lesser degree. According to our research

and based on the synthesis scenarios,

the number of expected ICT vacancies

in Europe will be between 372,000 and

864,000 by 2015. More specifically, with

regards to e-leadership, even with the

most conservative assumptions, there are

an estimated 19,000 vacancies. Unless

more is done to attract young people into

computer science degrees and to retrain

the unemployed, many of these positions

will remain unfilled.

By applying e-leadership curricula

guidelines, key stakeholders can accelerate

the scaling of Europe’s successes.

One starting point for the development

and the implementation of the e-leadership

curricula guidelines (with a strong

involvement of pan-European networks of

CIOs) will be initiative launched in January

2013 aimed at a rapid development of

e-leadership skills curricula guidelines

and quality labels. To this end, a select

number of universities and business

schools will take part in a demonstration

of their implementation in 2013/14. In

addition, a multitude of promotion and

dissemination activities are planned to

increase awareness and recognition

of the results and achievements in

2015. Any organisation interested in

participating is encouraged to contact:

[email protected].

actions:Develop e-leadership curricula guidelines

in conjunction with key stakeholders in

Europe: on the supply side these are

universities and business schools, on

the demand side these are ICT using

companies in Europe, the ICT sector in

general, and associations representing

European CIOs and HR Directors etc.

Together, they can develop, demonstrate

and disseminate European guidelines and

quality labels for new curricula fostering

e-leadership skills.

Guidelines and quality labels can build on

the activities of the ICT Skills Workshop of

CEN, and in particular the development of

the European e-Competence Framework

(e-CF). Guidelines and quality labels

should also be compatible with the

European Quality Assurance Reference

Framework for Vocational Education and

Training (EQAVET).

3Recommendation

Develop and apply e-leadership curricula guidelines


4Recommendation

Create new formats and larger partnerships for teaching and acquiring e-leadership skills

Background:Although there are several successful

efforts at developing e-leaders (e.g., IT-

vest in Western Denmark; the Professional

Programme in Business & Enterprise

Architecture in the Netherlands; the

Cranfield IT Leadership Programme in the

United Kingdom), more multi-stakeholder

partnerships are needed to scale these

successes and help individuals entering

and currently in the workforce develop the

portfolio of skills and competences that

e-leaders require.

actions:A greater number of educational institutions

could to team up with industry and roll out a

range of e-leadership curricula and e-skills

courses, while re-defining and enhancing

teaching formats. According to a European

CIO association, many universities want to

add technological depth to their programs

but do not have the resources to do so.

By working with demand side actors,

these schools can have access to these

resources and thus be able to deliver new

content, course and program development.

European universities could consider taking

greater advantage of Massive Open Online

Courses (MOOC) to encourage far more

students to enrol in their e-leadership skills

courses. Despite the challenges presented

by this online format, MOOCs can open

up a whole new range of opportunities for

teachers and students alike. Developed

as entry-level courses, MOOCs can be

designed to attract greater numbers of

students to study e-leadership skills.

In order to kick-start this initiative, the

Commission together with the Member

States could support e-leadership MOOC

demonstrations through a dedicated

project. With some initial funding,

universities could compete in a Europe-

wide competition for the best and most

successful e-leadership MOOC. Such

an initiative could be operated by key

stakeholders such as the ICT industry, ICT

and CIO associations etc., representing

both the demand and the supply side of the

market. This would help in promoting and

raising awareness of MOOCs throughout

Europe on the one hand and their wider

dissemination throughout the educational

sector on the other hand.


5Recommendation

Align actions to develop e-leadership skills with efforts to foster entrepreneurship across the EU

Background:To boost entrepreneurial activity in

Europe, the Commission launched an

Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan

(COM (2012) 795 final). This is designed

to “unleash Europe’s entrepreneurial

potential, to remove existing obstacles

and to revolutionise the culture of

entrepreneurship in Europe”. The Action

Plan will also change the public perception

of entrepreneurs and of entrepreneurship

education. An increasingly important

aspect of entrepreneurship is digital

entrepreneurship. It is important that

future efforts from the Commission help

create a digital entrepreneurial culture

and help attract, develop and retain digital

entrepreneurial skills and talent.

actions:Aligning the Entrepreneurship 2020

Action Plan with the actions of DG

ENTR is essential to foster e-leadership

skills successfully across a variety

of firms and sectors. The role of ICT

and e-leadership skills as enablers of

successful entrepreneurial activity needs

to be emphasised in the entrepreneurial

learning initiative. Experience suggests

that becoming a digital entrepreneur has

a strong appeal to highly educated young

people – a fact which should be exploited

for reaching out to the target audience of

the learning initiative.

EU Member States have also been

urged to offer pre-university students the

opportunity to have at least one practical

entrepreneurial experience before leaving

compulsory education, such as running

a mini-company, being responsible for an

entrepreneurial project for a company, or

engaging in a social project. The acquisition

of entrepreneurial abilities enhances

the employability of youth: according to

recent research, 78% of entrepreneurship

education alumni were employed directly

after graduating at university, against 59

% of a control group of higher education

students.

From these activities the Commission

concludes that “EU higher education in

entrepreneurship can boost high-tech

enterprises and high-growth companies

by supporting business ecosystems,

partnerships and industrial alliances.” It

is further proposed to apply the guidance

framework to entrepreneurial schools and

VET institutions, developed by the EC in

collaboration with the OECD and currently

being promoted across Europe. These

schools should take full account of the

essential role of e-leadership skills for 21st

century entrepreneurs.

9 http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=6412&lang=en&tpa_id=0&displayType=news&nl_id=1026


6Background:A widespread consensus haunting

Europe is that its management is old

fashioned and lags behind that of the

new world, notably the USA and parts

of Asia, in its ability to turn innovative

potential into business opportunities.

Among e-leaders, it is important to keep

in mind, that entrepreneurs (not only digital

entrepreneurs) and freelancers will play

an increasing important role. While it is

easier to mobilise groups and associations

of ICT practitioners, CIOs and managers,

it will be crucial to address the needs of

entrepreneurs and freelancers.

Education for entrepreneurship is

already high on the agenda in most

EU Member States, which have put in

place a wide variety of programmes and

activities. Here, e-leadership skills are of

essential importance. The Commission’s

Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan

(COM (2012) 795 fi nal) already includes a

reference to e-leadership skills.

Foster e-leadership in the context of entrepreneurship and self-employment

Recommendation


actions:As a fi rst step, European and national

Member State policy initiatives and

programmes targeting entrepreneurs and

business start-ups should be assessed

as to whether and how e-leadership skills

are taken into account. Then e-leadership

skills should be mainstreamed within

entrepreneur-training programmes and in

the requirements specifi cations for funding:

for example, in the context of structural

funds spending related to business start-

ups in knowledge-intensive parts of the

economy. Secondly, an assessment of

the impact of the identifi ed e-leadership

initiatives could be carried out.

In addition, there is a need to support

cooperation and exchange of information

on European and national Member State

policies initiatives and policy documents,

along with key stakeholder initiatives,

projects, best practices, reports and

studies. This cooperation should be centred

on thematic areas or major initiatives and

where appropriate, the results of an impact

assessment of identifi ed e-leadership

initiatives would be discussed.

7Recommendation

Build awareness of e-leadership skills for innovation, competitiveness, and employability.

Background:Increasing awareness of the attractive

opportunities for people with e-leadership

skills and more generally promoting the

acquisition of e-skills as an excellent

choice for young Europeans has been

at the centre of Commission long term

e-skills strategy. Having organised events

surrounding the e-Skills Week in 2010 and

2012, the Commission is actively planning

further awareness raising activities in the

context of the “Grand Coalition for Digital

Jobs”. To this end, the Commission wish to

involve a larger number of key stakeholders

in a variety of activities throughout Europe

and in all EU Member States.

actions:The Commission, national governments

and other key stakeholders including

relevant associations and federations need

to continue to play a key role in awareness

creation and promotion of e-skills in

general and e-leadership skills in particular.

Formats like the e-Skills Week and the Get

Online Week have proven to be a suitable

format for addressing a broad range of

target groups. It is therefore recommended

to continue to use existing formats but

adapt them to specific new requirements.

Additional formats for awareness raising

and promotion of e-leadership skills, such a

mentorship programs, need to develop and

moreover involve different actors, which

are likely to be the many associations and

federations representing the demand side

of the ICT job market.

Hence, the key actors that need to be

activated are those bodies that represent

European CIOs and HR managers

etc. These include EAPM (European

Association for People Management),

EHRF (European Human Resource Forum),

EURES (EURopean Employment Services),

and eurociett (European Confederation of

Private Employment Agencies). Raising

awareness of e-leadership skills needs to

become an integral part of their European

and national agendas, including those

designed for their annual conferences and

networking events.

networking events.


To create signifi cantly more business and

social value and excel in today’s global digital

economy, organisations of all sizes and from

all sectors are investing in information and

communication technologies. However,

without the proper skills and leadership

to put these technologies to effective

use, organizations are at signifi cant risk of

wasting their investments and missing key

opportunities for value creation, growth

and competitiveness.

Overview

This report synthesizes the key fi ndings

from the study “e-Skills for Competitiveness

and Innovation: Vision, Roadmap and

Foresight Scenarios.” The key objective

of this study is to help reduce innovation

skills shortages, gaps and mismatches in

Europe, and to provide sound, unbiased

empirical evidence about supply and

demand for different types of ICT-related

skills in Europe under different socio-

economic scenarios.

Contact Information:

For further information and to request copies of this report, please contact:

European Commission

Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General

Unti D4 “Key Enabling Technologies and ICT”

1040 Brussels, Belgium

e-mail: [email protected]

This report synthesizes the key fi ndings A special focus of the study is on

“e-leadership skills.” This report provides a

synthesis of the analysis of the supply and

demand developments for ICT practitioner

and ICT user skills, an overview of the

growing demand for and shrinking

supply of e-leadership skills, and seven

recommendations for action.

Skills for Competitiveness and...

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