Polaris Consulting & Services Ltd., an innovator in digital transformation for enterprises around the world, and Saïd Business School, University of Oxford announced today the launch of a new executive education programme called the Oxford Polaris Digital Academy.

The collaboration will educate executives across industries on how to thrive in today’s complex world of digital transformation. Saïd Business School will help assess, discuss and debate key challenges facing leaders and the impact this will have on international business.

The era of digital transformation, arguably as significant as the industrial revolution, is affecting nearly every aspect of an enterprise in every industry. How products are conceived, sold, and supported is undergoing a sea change as a result of the confluence of new digital capabilities, most notably the SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud) technologies.

As evidence of the current state of flux, a recent study done by Altimeter Group and reported in Forbes found that while 88% of the companies surveyed said they were undergoing a digital transformation, only one-quarter of them had a clear understanding of what their strategy should be. Further to the point, a MIT study found that 78% of the executives they surveyed think that digital transformation is critical to their organisation; yet 63% believe their pace of change is too slow.

The programme will provide participating executives with the insights and skills they require to better manage the ambiguities related to digital transformation and excel in this fast-moving environment.

Saïd Business School faculty and Polaris experts will facilitate a series of 2 day sessions where executives will learn through a variety of methods including simulations, workshops, roundtables and peer-to-peer learning by sharing personal insights and experiences of operating in high-stakes, high-pressure solution-driven environments.

Andrew White, Associate Dean for Executive Education at Saïd Business School, said: “This programme is highly innovative and visionary in its design. It will ultimately challenge, inspire and stimulate thinking of the highest order creating fresh ideas. The programme engages faculty from a range of disciplines within Oxford University. Executives who have been on similar programmes in the past have gained greater self-awareness of their leadership, creating the energy and emotional commitment to drive change and have brought new perspectives on the internal and external context in which they operate. We are delighted to be working with Polaris on this programme.”

Jitin Goyal, CEO and Executive Director, Polaris Consulting & Services Ltd., commented: "Polaris is widely recognised as a digital transformation leader, particularly in the financial services industry. We have built digital platforms that have helped our clients substantially increase their share-of-wallet and marketshare. We have built proprietary digital technologies like Canvas & Hubs. We have set up cutting-edge Digital Labs in the US and India. The Oxford Polaris Digital Academy is truly special because it will bring together the unique combination of the company's expertise and the university's thought leadership. Executives who participate in the Academy will benefit enormously from this amalgamation, and we are very excited about its potential."

The programme is by invitation only, at the discretion of the two organisations. The two parties will also hold a CIO summit in India to discuss similar themes.

Notes to editors

1. About Polaris Consulting & Services Limited
Polaris Consulting & Services Ltd. (PCSL) are experts in digital transformation, with 25 years of experience and more than 300 clients across the globe, spectrum of industries, and company sizes, with a concentration in the financial services industry. We approach digital transformation as a 360° endeavor - simplifying, digitizing, and automating all internal and external channels, with the goal of optimizing performance.

PCSL has a track record of defining innovative approaches that deliver uncommon results. First among these is our Design Thinking, which seeks to produce a disruptive transformation of business processes and operating metrics when incremental improvements are insufficient. Our Precision Engineering approach is known for its high degree of predictability and assurance, and is based on well-defined development and project management processes. High Performance Outsourcing (HPO) takes a new approach to large-scale projects, and offers clients a substantial increase in vendor productivity, an environment of innovation, and a partnership in the responsibility to deliver meaningful success metrics. Polaris is a conscientious corporate citizen, supporting various corporate social responsibility efforts around the world. The company is headquartered in Chennai, India. For more information please visit our website at www.polarisft.com.

2. About Saïd Business School
Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford blends the best of new and old. We are a vibrant and innovative business school, but yet deeply embedded in an 800 year old world-class university. We create programmes and ideas that have global impact. We educate people for successful business careers, and as a community seek to tackle world-scale problems. We deliver cutting-edge programmes and ground-breaking research that transform individuals, organisations, business practice, and society. We seek to be a world-class business school community, embedded in a world-class University, tackling world-scale problems.

In the Financial Times European Business School ranking (Dec 2014) Saïd is ranked 10th. It is ranked 14th worldwide in the FT’s combined ranking of Executive Education programmes (May 2014) and 22nd in the world in the FT ranking of MBA programmes (Jan 2015). The MBA is ranked 7th in Businessweek’s full time MBA ranking outside the USA (Nov 2014) and is ranked 5th among the top non-US Business Schools by Forbes magazine (Sep 2013). The Executive MBA is ranked 21st worldwide in the FT’s ranking of EMBAs (Oct 2014). The Oxford MSc in Financial Economics is ranked 7th in the world in the FT ranking of Masters in Finance programmes (Jun 2014). In the UK university league tables it is ranked first of all UK universities for undergraduate business and management in The Guardian (Jun 2014) and has ranked first in ten of the last eleven years in The Times (Sept 2014). For more information, see http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/.