OBGP 3215 - Digital Transformation and Innovation Management

Today's society is being shaped by technology. Businesses and entire companies are being redefined because of that. Even governments are redesigning and digitalizing their services with the power of IT (in the US as well as in African countries). COVID-19 has shown how important digital transformation is for public sector – yet only a few governments have proven to be “digital ready”.
Also, researches show that the majority of digitalization initiatives (both in private and public sector) do not achieve their results and some are a complete failure. One of the reasons is that organizations (and teams) do not revise their structure and way of working, which is a premise for the digital aspects to work properly. Digital transformation doesn't just involve technology – it is an ongoing process of changing the way we do business, starting from the way people work. Therefore, 21st-century organizations require a new type of management – agile – that would allow them to make their digital initiatives successful
This course will be then structured in two interconnected parts: the first part will cover the “digital transformation” that is shaping for-profit businesses as well as governments.
The second part – the core of this course - will uncover some of the structural premises for the digital transformation to work. It will look at successful examples of organizations (from Netflix to the government of Singapore) and teams that change the way of “doing business”, before digitalizing their services.
The course will be a mixture of theory (i.e. management frameworks) and practice with many concrete examples so that students can better understand how theory works in practice.

Learning Trip and Policy Challenge
Students will have the chance to engage with policy and industry stakeholders at high-level events. In 2025, they will participate in a day-trip to Brussels to join the Flagship Event of the Centre for Future Generations. This year's conference will focus on Control/Alt/Lead, which will take place in Brussels on 28 October. The optional learning trip will be sponsored by SciencesPo's Tech and Global Affairs Innovation Hub.
More about the conference below and the 2024 learning trip on Managing in the Age of AI:
Global political and economic tensions have upended the world order we once knew — but there is opportunity for Europe amidst the uncertainties. This is our chance to rediscover what Europe needs to shape tech governance, and how to lead with coherence, not just conviction. Control/Alt/Lead explores how Europe can move from reacting to shaping the next chapter of the global tech landscape, and how policymakers can bridge the gap between insights and action, between values and practice.

Learning Outcomes

1. Improved understanding of digitalization - by the end of the course, students will be able to identify digitalization trends, advantages, challenges etc.)

2. Improved knowledge of public sector innovation - by the end of the course, students will be able to better understand how governments and International organizations do innovation

3. Critical thinking skills increased – by the end of the course, students will be able to break down complex problems

4. Intuitive thinking skills increased – by the end of the course, students will be able to develop and implement innovative ideas and solutions

Professional Skills

• Project management

• Team Work

• Change Management

• Oral communication

• Critical thinking

• Problem solving

• Creative thinking

Tommaso BALBO DI VINADIO,Leonardo QUATTRUCCI

Séminaire

English

• In Class Presence: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
• Online learning activities: 1 hour a week / 12 hours a semester
• Reading and Preparation for Class: 4 hours a week / 48 hours a semester
• Research and Preparation for Group Work: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
• Research and Writing for Individual Assessments: 12 hours a semester
• Other: Policy Challenge: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester

Autumn 2025-2026

Performance is assessed on the basis of a written mid-term test (30%) and a final group project accompanied by 15 minutes class presentation (50%) to be held at the end of the seminar, and interaction with the other students and with the teacher (20%)*

Part of the assessment will be based on a Policy Challenge, where students write an essay/deliver a presentation that responds to a real-word problem, owner by an organization. One of these year's challenges will be Control/Alt/Lead: Adapting Policy to a Tech-Driven Word, hosted by the Centre for Future Generations. As part of the course, students are invited to participate in the Flagship conference hosted by the CFG think tank on 28 October in Brussels, as part of a learning trip sponsored by the SciencesPo Tech and Global Affairs Innovation Hub.

* However, this will take into account that the classes will be held online

The course will be interactive and will challenge and engage students. At times, it will consist of a one-hour lecture and a one-hour dedicated to student discussions. However, mostly the course will be based on the “learning by doing” approach in that students will be the main drivers of their own learning – they will work in groups from the beginning (based on their skills) to experiment and test management tools and approaches but they will also do their own research (based on their interests as well) to dig into the topics of each class.
There will be a “challenge” that will be inaugurated the very first class and that will go through until the end of the semester. The challenge will be to improve the patient experience also through digital tools in a hospital in Greece.
There will also be speakers from World Bank, public sector officials etc.