Leading Digital Innovation Units: A Repertory Grid Study about Key Skills for the Digital Age

Abstract

To combat the trend of failing Digital Transformation endeavors, dedicated leadership skills are needed. However, so far there is little knowledge about the skills for successfully leading Digital Innovation Units (DIUs). We, therefore, interviewed 13 DIU leaders from various industries and elicited their skills with the Repertory Grid method. We identified 54 key skills clustered in seven categories: team development, integration of the DIU into the wider context of the organization, innovation management, personal traits, effective communication, hard skills, and visionary thinking and driving change. Furthermore, we found five influencing factors for the application of key skills: Financial support, uncertainty, certainty in tasks, stability of the product, freedom to operate, and degree of collaboration with the core organization. Finally, we report on three skill enhancers (actions, attitudes, conditions) for practitioners. We complement prior research by improving the understanding of the ideal DIU leader skill profile.