8 September 2015
By Bryan T. Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
UCC/Cork University Business School and the Irish Management Institute (IMI) have partnered to develop a new ‘Masters in DIGITAL Business’, which was officially launched by Dara Murphy TD, Minister for European Affairs and Data Protection yesterday. The word DIGITAL is capitalised here for a reason – is it a massive leap forward to a University to incorporate that word into the title of an overall qualification.
Yes, there is demand for a Masters, it seems, a big demand.
The Digital Business programme, which commences this October, will be offered initially in Cork to 15 participants, with plans to offer a similar programme in the IMI in Sandyford Dublin in due course.
The Masters in Digital Business will provide executives in Irish companies with a world class learning experience through familiarising them with state of the art methods, best of breed approaches and decision making frameworks in the Digital Business domain. This will enable individuals and their companies to be leading edge innovators towards transforming their business and exploiting the opportunities that the new digital age offers, both for business in Ireland and globally.
Cork based Junior Minister Dara Murphy welcomes the new course
Speaking at the launch of the programme, Dara Murphy TD, Minister for European Affairs praised the collaboration of Cork business leaders including Bob Savage, Vice President and Managing Director, EMC Ireland and David Merriman, Regional Director Bank of Ireland, working in tandem with UCC and the IMI: “I very much welcome this new Masters Programme in Digital Business here in UCC, which will provide employees with the skill-sets to develop opportunities in the E-commerce marketplace and to help Cork based businesses expand further into global markets.”
Minister Murphy continued “There is a real urgency for indigenous companies to exploit international E-commerce opportunities, as only 22% of Irish companies currently make E-commerce sales to the domestic market, while 14% sell online to another EU country. The reality of the Digital marketplace today is that, of online purchases made by consumers in Ireland, 70% of these are done in overseas markets. This is why the development of digital business skills is so important and why the launch of the Masters in Digital Business is so important for Irish businesses.”
UCC explains why the course was created
Dr. Philip O’ Reilly, Programme Director for the Masters in Digital Business said “By 2020, more than seven billion people and businesses, and at least 30 billion devices, will be connected to the Internet. With people, businesses and things communicating, transacting, and even negotiating with each other, a new world comes into being – the world of digital business. Hence we are very excited to be able to offer this new programme exclusively in this autumn.”
He continued “We have some very interesting guest speakers lined up over the coming months. Participants on the programme will have the opportunity to learn from, and work with, world leading experts in the digital business domain. Dr Robert Griffin, one of the world’s foremost cybersecurity experts, will travel to Cork from the US to deliver a cybersecurity workshop to programme participants, towards enabling them to develop a state of the art cybersecurity strategy for their organisation. Other world leading experts in social media and innovation will also be travelling to Ireland from the US and Europe to deliver content on the programme as well.”
Well known firms have welcomed the new course
The programme’s launch was attended by representatives from a number of leading organisations including EMC, Bank of Ireland, Stryker, Abtran, South Western, Dairygold, The Musgrave Group , Cork City Council, Seabrook Research, The Kirby Group, Fexco and Laya Healthcare.
