Leadership 4.0: Leadership Strategies for Industry 4.0

Abstract

We are now breathing and living in an era of “Real Digital World” with high speed and
seamless integration and application of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, Internet of Things
(IoT), Virtual Reality (VR), Blockchain, Augmented Reality (AR), Machine learning into our
day to day normal lives that we typically used to watch only in “Sci-Fi Reel World”. As “Digital
Disruption” seamlessly flows almost in every major industry, unfortunately leadership strategies
are not matching its pace. Though some of the leaders are well prepared to successfully deal with
Industry 4.0 technologies, yet many leaders remain less prepared. Leaders not only need to equip
themselves to retrain and reskill but also the digital talent alongside to effectively grab the
opportunities and tackle the challenges of digital transformation in the era of Industry 4.0 and
VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world. In an era of Industry 4.0, the kind
of leadership strategies to be formulated and implemented simply cannot be read from books nor
gleaned from power point presentations alone. Instead leaders need to follow leadership
strategies which are novel and innovative in nature to reap the benefits of Industry 4.0.
Otherwise, if today’s leaders are armed only with yesterday’s skills they may be recurrently
incompatible to deal with both the opportunities and challenges posed by Industry 4.0. In the era
of Industry 4.0, leaders should not depend solely on leadership playbooks which are relatively
frozen in time and usually command and control in nature. Rather, leaders should also formulate
and implement such kind of much needed strategies like rapid innovation, agility, creativity,
digital societal impact, adequate investments both in talent and technology, coaching,
encouraging diversity etc., thereby not only transforming themselves into digital leaders but also
organizations in to digital organizations to embark in the journey of creating new history in the
era of Industry 4.0.