HEC Paris, one of the world’s top three providers of executive education programmes, held an event to give female business leaders a better understanding of how they can embrace the digital transformation to enhance customer relationships and grow their business.
The women-only event, entitled ‘Harnessing the Power of Digital Transformation’, was attended by 40 female executives and corporate leaders.
HEC Paris associate professor of marketing Kristine de Valck told participants how having a presence online was no longer enough in the changing digital world.
De Valck, an associate professor at HEC Paris since 2004, has been at the forefront of digital transformation since 1999 when she embarked on a PhD about knowledge and friendship networks in virtual communities of consumption.
With women’s empowerment at the centre of the event’s theme, De Valck discussed how digital developments such as big data and ‘The Internet of Things,’ together with mobile technology and social media, are causing fundamental changes not just “in the way we live, but in the way we do business.”
She stressed that with digital now playing a bigger role in business, firms must re-evaluate customer relationships and their internal processes to remain competitive and relevant.
The participants were given an in-depth insight into the current digital transformation landscape and how it is affecting businesses and what companies can do to leverage digital opportunities.
De Valck outlined that in today’s changing world, digital is about much more than having a presence online or straight forward e-commerce.
The session also addressed techniques companies can use to leverage their digital presence to reach out to customers and strengthen relationships.
De Valck, whose research and teaching over the past 15 years has focused on how the internet in general, and social media in particular, have changed consumer behaviour and the marketplace, said: “The digital transformation has changed the way in which we consume news, our favourite TV shows and the way we interact with our preferred brands”.
Professor Nils Plambeck, dean and CEO of HEC Paris in Qatar, said: “With women empowerment featuring so prominently in today’s corporate world, it is great that we have somebody of the stature of professor de Valck to address one of our events”.