‘We need even more young leaders’

Ieva Martinkenaite, Director Telenor Research and Innovation, met the NHH master students Simen Kufaas and Luying Yao at their poster session during DIG Summit 2023. To the right: Leader at NewTechLab in DNB Yngvar Ugland and NHH Professor Eirik Sjåholm Knudsen. Photo: Sigrid Folkestad
Ieva Martinkenaite, Director Telenor Research and Innovation, met the NHH master students Simen Kufaas and Luying Yao at their poster session during DIG Summit 2023. To the right: Leader at NewTechLab in DNB Yngvar Ugland and NHH Professor Eirik Sjåholm Knudsen. Photo: Sigrid Folkestad
By Sigrid Folkestad

7 November 2023 10:24

‘We need even more young leaders’

‘If we are to meet the digital needs of future generations of customers, we need more young leaders,’ says Ieva Martinkenaite, Head of Research and Innovation at Telenor.

This week, the research centre DIG – Digital Innovation for Growth – hosted The Dig Summit 2023. Almost 80 business leaders, researchers and NHH students participated in the seminar. The theme was artificial intelligence – and how we can keep up.

Unfortunate age gap

The Head of Research and Innovation at Telenor, Ieva Martinkenaite, was one of the speakers at the DIG Summit. Martinkenaite believes there is an unfortunate age gap between leaders and the young people of today.

‘My daughter is on Tiktok and is into gaming. People like her are our future customers. The big question is: how well do we as leaders understand this? Do we understand our next generation of customers?

‘Is it a problem that so many leaders are of an older generation?’

‘I believe we need a greater number of young leaders. That’s the first thing. Secondly, companies and organisations really need to work on recruitment and developing talent. Thirdly, when leaders recruit new employees, they need to learn from them.’ 

Assistant Professor Aruna Tatavarthy and Director at DIG, Professor Bram Timmermans, both at Department of Strategy and Management.
Assistant Professor Aruna Tatavarthy and Director at DIG, Professor Bram Timmermans, both at Department of Strategy and Management. Photo: Sigrid Folkestad

She believes this is something that all companies need to take on board.

‘That’s why I asked the audience about who was on Tiktok, I wanted to challenge them a bit,’ says Martinkenaite.

Don’t feel like it’s urgent

‘It’s not about age, but about attitude,’

That’s according to Bram Timmermans, Director of the DIG Research Centre. He is a professor at the Department of Strategy and Management.

‘There are, however, a number of studies that suggest that Norwegian senior managers lack the necessary digital know-how. They have less understanding and sense of urgency than their employees and middle managers when it comes to how decisive artificial intelligence and data are to the industries of the future,’ says the NHH researcher.

‘Anything as a service’

Timmermans believes this is now changing and points out that the business leaders associated with the DIG Research Centre are not representative. They have a lot of knowledge and awareness about AI.

‘I believe that this realisation is crucial,’ says Timmermans.

It was precisely this rapidly changing technology landscape that was the theme of the 2023 Summit ‘Anything as a Service’.

‘Obviously, there are a lot of companies that are struggling to keep up. Leaders not only need to deal with technological changes but also their customers’ changing behaviour. That’s why it is so relevant to discuss how we should handle this transition and create a sustained competitive advantage in an increasingly complex competitive landscape,’ says the NHH professor.

Speakers: NHH Professor Eirik Sjåholm Knudsen, Yngvar Ugland (DNB) and NHH Professor Tor Wallin Andreassen.
Speakers: NHH Professor Eirik Sjåholm Knudsen, Yngvar Ugland (DNB) and NHH Professor Tor Wallin Andreassen. Photo: Sigrid Folkestad

Access to new research

The DIG Research Centre helps Norwegian organisations streamline their customer-oriented innovations and develop new business models.

When they meet, such as at this week’s DIG Summit, business leaders acquire access to new research beyond that conducted by researchers associated with the centre.

‘NHH researchers have enormous access to new, international studies on artificial intelligence and digitalisation, which is obviously of great benefit to our partners. They can also follow our own research projects, which they get snippets of along the way.’