 Digital disruption is a transformation caused by emerging digital technologies and

business models which can impact the value of existing products and services offered
in the industry.

 Social media, data science, IOT (internet of things), artificial intelligence, big data are
some of the buzz words that have come up in the era of digital disruption.

 Today's dynamic data driven business environment where new technologies plays a
crucial role is primarily responsible for the digital disruption.

 Today's managers should be aware about rapid data accumulation which would be
movable, huge and in different format. To analyse such data, awareness of advance
analytical tools and techniques like big data and social media analytics are essential.

 The primary challenge for any academic leader is to align the vision of the academic
institute with that of the changes caused by digital disruption. The idea is to keep pace
with the changing times and produce graduates who will be employable in the global
market place. The challenge is also to orient the operations strategy of the institute as
well as the thought process of its teaching/ non-teaching staff to the changes brought
about by digital disruption.

 Keeping in mind the idea to create graduates for the global market place, academic
leadership should strive to inculcate courses that train the students on latest
technologies like data science, artificial intelligence, internet of things, social media
and so on. These new technologies can also be integrated into existing courses with the
help of guest sessions / workshops by industry experts and premier academicians.

 To keep abreast with the industry, the academic leadership should also try to get inputs
from leading industry experts/ premier academicians on the existing course curriculum
and seek advice on the introduction of new courses (which will add value).

 The academic leadership should also focus on making the student tech savvy by
integrating online course modules from Coursera / SWAYAM into the regular course
modules, promote the use of digital libraries, arrange for hands on training in advanced
software/ tools/ simulations. These will promote the idea of "flip" classroom where
students will read materials on their own and subsequent discussions will take place in
the classroom.

 Since in the era of digital disruptions data plays a very key role, academic leadership
should stress on training students to access and work with different kinds of data.
Another important step in this regard is the digitalisation of important documents like
certificates. Along with the students, the faculty of an institute should be encouraged/
motivated to float data driven courses and publish data driven research works.

 Smart classrooms along with smart campus have significant roles in orienting the
students/ staff to digital disruptions. Smart classrooms in the form of smart boards,
online access facilities, video conferencing, attendance via smart cards, online course/
exam management software are important steps in this regard.
 Since smart technologies come at a cost, it is also a primary challenge for any academic
leadership to provide latest tech savvy education at low costs. Since some of the
academic institutes have large student enrolments, it is also a challenge to roll out tech
savvy education in bulk.

 But once an institute have developed the necessary infrastructure, it can reap the
benefits. The benefits come in the form of revenues earned by providing training to
industry executives on a mass scale or floating MDP programs. Academic leaders also
can promote internationalization of the institute by partnering with other institutes
across the globe to share learning experiences. Internationalization can also be
promoted by student/ staff exchange programs as well as collaborative projects.