Of all the business trends to come into focus over the last few years, customer experience is one that has really taken hold. It started as a way for companies to view themselves differently through the eyes of their customers, to go beyond a rigid structure and respond to their needs.

The arena of customer experience now has various terms, such as ‘consumer journey’ and ‘user experience’, but often the effect of high quality leadership on cx is ignored. Leadership is usually thought of as the CEO or Board of Directors, but modern companies have lots of layers of leadership with differing responsibilities. While upper management can create business strategies, define the company culture and chart the ideal customer experience, unless this is also communicated to the lower levels of management, it won’t become a company-wide process.

Leaders also affect customers, not just staff

This makes high-quality leadership absolutely critical to business in a whole new way. Leadership doesn’t just have internal impacts or affect how you deal with employees, but also how those employees represent your business and ultimately how the public perceives your company. The C-suite can define a customer experience, but if the customer doesn’t get the quality of service they expect, they simply take away a bad customer experience.

Effective communication is at the very top of the list for desirable business skills for this very reason. “Big Picture” ideas start on the boardroom table, but unless the aims, reasons and execution are passed through the management chain, the message could be misapplied or even entirely lost. It’s at this point that new ideas and plans from the board are tested to their limits – simply because customers have a habit of making unforeseen requests that take a little creative thinking or a critical approach to solve.

Good customer service is much more than a smile

Every business has always claimed to pride itself on high service standards, but now the customer journey is a key business differentiator. Technology has effectively removed barriers in almost every industry and loyal patrons make a huge difference to companies. If key leaders aren’t supported – or don’t provide support and feedback – then it’s entirely possible that plans won’t reach full potential.

Businesses need candidates and leaders with the necessary skills to communicate, support, problem-solve and feed back to create the difference in the customer journey and therefore to the business as a whole. University of York has three 100% online Masters degrees in Leadership and Management to give you the skills to make the difference to your company.

By taking advantage of the world-class teaching available at the University of York, coupled with the flexibility of learning online when it suits you, you can gain a top-quality Russell Group degree without the need to take a career or study break. We also offer a pay-per-module option to remove the burden of large, up-front payments and we run six start dates throughout the year, letting you begin as soon as you’re ready.

Creating positive customer experiences is one of the key aims for any business looking to ensure its future success, but those that seize the leadership opportunities and the impact they have could be the big players in future.

Very few people can look back on their teens and not, in some way, ask “What was I thinking?”

There are lots of cases where a decision made in youth does have far-reaching effects, and the most common is a career. Most people start their first ‘proper job’ at university leaving age. Some take roles directly related to their degree, others go into a field that seems interesting and some choose careers based on salary. In all these cases, after 15 or 20 years in the same field – or even the same role – the desire to break out to something new can be overwhelming.

Before you begin to make the change

Drastically changing career can be tricky, but with a little planning and foresight, it can be very rewarding. Firstly, consider why you want to change; is it to improve your chances of moving into management or would you like to set up your own company and be the boss? Is there a new and unrelated field you want to try?

Understanding why you want to change helps you assess the extent to which you actually do want to. Getting itchy feet isn’t uncommon, but with big life changes such as resetting your career path, you need passion to take you through. A strong desire is necessary to give you the solid work ethic you’ll need to succeed; when you’re effectively starting your career over, dedication and lots of energy will be needed.

You’ll also need to consider finances. Taking a pay cut is one thing, but you may need a career break, pay to retrain or even fork out for professional accreditations, which can soon add up. Finally, you should objectively assess how successful your new career could be – are your current training courses applicable or do you need new qualifications? There’s little point in leaving one career to find your new dream role hampered due to inapplicable credentials.

A different way to progress

We at the University of York fully understand the implications of taking a leap into a new career, and we have a range of MSc Leadership and Management degrees, delivered 100% online, that allow you to study and prepare for your new career anywhere and anytime it suits you. Thanks to a flexible timetable, you can learn in your spare time and gain a top-class Masters degree from a Russell Group University without having to take extended time of work to study. Our pay-per-module structure removes the need for large, up-front expenses and we run six start dates each year, so you don’t have to wait for a new school year to begin!

By taking advantage of our resources and world class academics at the University of York, you can study online to get a highly regarded MSc and give your leap into a new career the greatest chance of success!

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The internet has become the greatest collaborative tool ever known. What was once a way for academics to share resources without mailing vast quantities of paper research has changed the way every business functions. Processes that previously took weeks are almost instantaneous and the days of ‘fill out in triplicate’ are all but gone.

For many businesses, this created as many challenges as it solved. When even laborious processes like insurance quotes can be done in minutes, it dramatically changes how a business operates. At one time, insurance offices had countless telephones, staffed by teams of salespeople taking down information line-by-line and reporting in to a series of managers. Automating these processes not only made businesses far more efficient, it reduced the need for so much oversight and radically altered the office dynamic.

Remote work, responsive leadership

The reduced need for ‘hands-on’ management means each manager can be responsible for more people. Some may rarely even need to set foot in the office, as their entire role can be completed remotely. This could explain why some businesses are concerned about how the digital revolution has impacted their management styles.

An old-fashioned office may well have had 100 desks, divided into ten teams, each with their own Team Manager. Each Team Manager would report to an Office Manager, who would report to a Senior Manager and so on. Many companies favoured this kind of structure as it was felt that there was a high level of support and oversight. To these companies, the idea that employees could work completely from home without a superior to guide or watch over them would be very unnerving.

Solid foundations can be used anywhere

Should companies really be concerned about leaders being responsible for larger numbers or remote workers? While the business environment has changed dramatically over the last few years, the qualities of a good leader remain the same as ever they were.

One of the core capabilities of good leadership is the ability to communicate effectively, and the internet has made sharing information easy and almost instantaneous. While at one time that managers would have to speak directly to the ten members of their team, a good communicator will now use digital tools to make sure that information is sent, received and understood on a much larger scale.

Another highly desirable leadership skill is the ability to objectively assess, address and resolve problems that arise, whether they come from a team member who is physically present in the office or a remote worker several hundred miles away. The internet is the most advanced collaborative tool we have, but it doesn’t provide a fool-proof method of automation; good leadership skills that can identify and resolve issues are still critical to team success.

Transferable skills and knowledge

Becoming a great leader is about developing your abilities so that they can be used in almost any situation. The University of York’s online Leadership and Management Masters degree programmes are an excellent way to develop flexible thinking and leadership skills.

You’ll learn what it takes to exercise the right qualities in any number of situations, all delivered through a 100% online MSc designed by the world-class academics at the University of York. As all learning materials are delivered online, you’re free to study whenever it suits you, meaning that you can complete your course in your spare time and not have to take an extended study break from work. The ability to keep your existing job and earn as you learn is not only very appealing financially, but it also allows you to apply your new skills straight away.

There are no worries about large, up-front costs, with the option to pay for individual modules as you progress. With six start dates throughout the year, this creates an incredibly flexible way to gain a prestigious Russell Group university MSc.

The valuable career skills you will learn mean that whether you work in a traditional setting or a futuristic virtual office, you’ll have solid leadership foundations that will allow you to effectively manage and lead a team, no matter what form it takes.

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Many people aspire to a seat at the board table, either as a company director or head of department, but the path to the top table can feel long, winding and sometimes out of reach. There’s also a Catch-22 situation of not being able to be promoted without showing certain skills, but not being able to master or even know what those skills are without first doing the job.

It’s all about skills and competencies

Traditionally, members of the C-suite would be able to draw upon years of experience in the business world, allowing them to face, assess and form solutions to problems and situations more effectively. What we’ve learned about leadership and management in recent years, however, is that the difference between an effective executive and somebody who’s simply worked in a particular field for a long time is how experiences are used to inform a leadership style and skillset.

We see chief executive, financial, marketing and information officers not only changing companies frequently, but also entire industries. Becoming a leader is partly about making a conscious decision to take control of your own development and directing it towards encouraging, engaging and setting an example for others, to more successfully achieve company goals.

The skills you need

One of the vital skills for a business leader is the ability to identify and prioritise problems, protecting the company by ensuring that small glitches don’t become major issues. This goes hand-in-hand with being able to collaborate, think creatively and critically assess potential solutions, meaning that you navigate towards the best-case scenario that benefits the whole of the company. Sometimes solutions benefit one department more than another and the ability to work alongside and formulate a plan that leaves nobody behind is incredibly beneficial.

This underlines that top leadership needs effective communication. The ability to not only accurately explain complicated situations, but listen to critiques, take on board feedback and use it to determine the right course of action is highly desirable in almost any company – particularly in situations where others may have more knowledge about a certain process or area. Understanding how to deal with people and how to take control of challenging developments are also core to what businesses expect of their C-suite.

Proving your skills before you get the job

The difficulty for many people, however, is that even once they’ve identified the types of capabilities that companies need, they struggle to prove them in a professional setting. An excellent way to do this is with a professional postgraduate qualification- the University of York offer online MSc in Leadership and Management to enable working professionals to do just that.

With three disciplines to choose from, you earn a prestigious Russell Group Masters degree from learning delivered 100% online. This means that there’s no need to attend campus, so you can retain your current role and salary and don’t need to lose out financially by taking an extended study break. The course can be paid for on a pay-per-module basis, so you needn’t save a large sum to pay for up-front costs, and there are six start dates per year, allowing you to begin almost as soon as you like. Best of all, not only can you earn while you learn, but you can use the skills in your current role and begin to display the kind of abilities that could open up the door to the C-suite.

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The adoption of computing in both business and everyday life has left us suddenly looking at an incredible, global digital footprint. It took less than a decade for desktop PCs to shrink to handheld devices, making them easier to use – but each instance of usage just creates more information.

Too much information

The size of the data universe is expected to reach 180 zettabytes by 2025, an incomprehensible figure. There is a finite amount of information we can comprehend and assimilate before being overwhelmed, which means that there’s more data out there than any human could ever possibly use.

Oddly, this could provide the answer for businesses looking to make use of big data to guide their future decisions. Although our brains become overwhelmed by data, they have a remarkable ability to take intuitive leaps, or choose the line of best fit to navigate through complicated figures without a definitive ‘right’ answer. Businesses themselves already know that simply having access to the numbers – what used to be termed ‘raw data’ – doesn’t give any insight into your business or customers, it needs context.

Can a computer act as a brain?

This is where big data and artificial intelligence (AI) have been trying to work together for years. There are two types of AI; narrow field AI scans big data for specific correlations or patterns, while general AI tries to replicate human levels of identifying and then learning to improve. The problem with both of these methods is that while they can cope with all of the information that big data provides, they can’t replicate the human levels of cognition, or make the kind of leap that humans can. This means that it’s still up to people to leverage big data, humanise the numbers and provide insight into the analytics.

This creates a unique opportunity for career progression, as everybody from movie-streaming services to road haulage firms need people to take the wealth of information and turn it into a useful business asset. There could be insights into why companies have poor retention rates, information about user experience or even ways to automate and improve services, as well as the efficiency savings that companies strive for, all just hiding in the numbers. According to one Harvard Business Review article, these aims form some of the ‘top priority’ measures for companies.

Seizing an opportunity

Companies need people to make sense of these numbers, but many people don’t feel they have the background in analytics or data collection to successfully transition or start their career in the burgeoning field. This is why the University of York now offers a new 100% online MSc in Computer Science with Data Analytics, designed for graduates or working professionals who may not have a computer science background, but wish to make the most of the opportunities that lie ahead.

Obtaining business critical skills, such as data analytics, data mining and the fundamentals of cybersecurity not only give you a solid grounding in the field, but as all learning materials are delivered online, you have the flexibility to learn in your spare time and still keep your current job role. As you don’t need to take an extended career break, you can earn as you learn and apply the knowledge you gain as you go. There is also the option to pay-per-module, which removes the need for large, up-front payments and there are six start dates per year, which means you can start within weeks and makes obtaining a prestigious Russell Group Masters degree a very flexible option.

Big data is of no use to companies without big insights, and as the skills are currently in short supply, it creates a unique opportunity for those who want to break into a fascinating new career.

Find out more and begin your application.

Just two decades ago ‘cyber security’ was only a concern for Hollywood and multinationals, but in 2019 cyber attacks pose a serious risk to businesses – large or small – and it’s essential that these threats are taken seriously.

According to the annual Cyber Security Breaches Survey from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport only half of UK businesses are implementing all five of the basic steps laid out in the government’s Cyber Essentials scheme. This essentially means 50% of UK businesses aren’t protected from cyber threats. There are obvious technical risks to this, but there are wider implications too.

Savvy clients

No business can survive without clients, but, in the vast majority of cases, clients have a choice of who they choose to do business with. With an increasing focus on security, savvy customers are keen to understand a business’s cyber security strategy and the measures it has in place should a breach occur. Data leaks can have far-reaching effects with clients’ customers suffering secondary breaches – and often the reputational damage caused can be more difficult to repair than the technical aspects.

Organisations that can communicate a strong and concise cyber security approach to potential customers have the opportunity to set themselves apart from competitors that have not yet taken such steps.

Investing in a secure business

Investors, much like customers, are also looking at the security of the companies they’re investing their money with. A business that can demonstrate a high level of understanding of the issues it faces and have both security measures and a plan of action in place to deal with a breach should it occur is a much sounder investment – and is likely to cost it less in the long term.

The need for knowledge

A large part of the issue is that there is very little understanding of cyber security within businesses. Companies have realised they need to employ people with the skills and knowledge to ensure they’re fully protected and understand wider issues such as reputation, client relations and ultimately the bottom line.

This is why the University of York has introduced a 100% online Masters degree in Computer Science with Cyber Security. It offers ambitious career changers the opportunity to retrain in this in demanding field and take the skills and knowledge they gain into the workplace. The course is aimed at those who may not currently have a computer science background. It covers topics such as network and operating systems, security risk analysis and secure software development.

The course offers great flexibility; it’s delivered entirely online so there’s no need to take a career break and you can gain an MSc from a prestigious Russell Group university without ever needing to visit the campus. The course is also offered on a pay-per-module basis, so there’s no large initial outlay, plus there’s a choice of six start dates per year so you can choose a date to suit you, which creates a very flexible approach to launching a career in cyber security.

Find out more and begin your application