Event report from the CXO Roundtable Discussion held on the 5th October 2016 at the St Regis, Singapore. Organised by CIO Academy Asia

1. EVENT REPORT
CXO ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
5th October 2016, The St. Regis Singapore

2. DISCUSSION SUMMARY
If the hubbub during the networking breakfast at the event’s start was any indication, participants gathered
for HPE’s CXO Roundtable Discussion were definitely raring to engage and tackle the topic of disruption.
On-going Reverberations
Leading off the event, Glen Francis, President of CIO Academy Asia observed that while Uber kicked off the
ride-hailing landscape, its more recent vehicular acquisitions are further up-ending the status quo for car
dealers and manufacturers. By extension then, other industry sectors may also expect to see further and
on-going reverberations from disruptions, which portend challenging and exciting times ahead for IT and
business leaders. But their relative starting points will matter, as different approaches will apply to
organisations at different stages of transformation despite commonalities in other respects.
Agility, Built on Fundamentals
The two keynote speakers from two distinctly different organizations evinced this. As a relative newcomer
to the scene, 4-year-old start-up Grab has taken a highly nimble approach from the get-go, with bi-monthly
reviews and revisions to business plans and a strong project-orientation as part of their modus operandi,
according to Paul Hadjy, Head of IT and Information Security. Virtually all processes are run on the cloud
on a SaaS basis, with vendor SLAs designed to enable easy scaling and on-boarding of new services or
capabilities as needed. The need for business and operational agility implied certain requirements for
network stability, infrastructural and security, which led Grab to set up and manage their networks from
Singapore. More to the point, Paul stressed that beneath Grab’s high velocity veneer and disruptive
approaches, some things remained fundamental from the cybersecurity perspective e.g. getting the basics
right, having rigorous training for all local users, and running incident response simulations as part of
ensuring readiness and internalizing training.
Meaningful Innovation & Transformation
In contrast, Singapore Post’s traditional underpinnings, institutional history, DNA and culture represented
real constraints to exponential change. Instead, Head of Post Office Network and Digital Services Bernard
Leong related how SingPost approached transformation in a more step-wise fashion even as the urgency of
the need was widely acknowledged. Taking a strong people-centric and bias-for-action orientation,
SingPost focused on empowering users, engendering trust and teamwork, and enabling top execution in
designing a unified customer experience. And to better appreciate field challenges personally, he
recounted his front line stint delivering parcels and mail – an experience that helped to inform his
perspectives on issues faced by delivery staff.
More broadly, he stressed that innovation must be meaningful, problem-focused and not for its own sake.
In practice, this meant that SingPost’s transformation needs drove the IT agenda. Bernard’s financial
accountability for initiatives also made him a strong advocate for P&L responsibilities to reside with IT, as he
related how it helped him articulate the agenda, value and meaning of transformation to the business.
CXO ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION

3. Approaches to Disruption
Reflecting on the organizations’ contrasting approaches, HPE’s Application Services and Industry Solutions
Practice Leader for APJ Andrew Clarke questioned commonplace definitions of digital disruptors that
mainly saw them as asset-lite demand aggregators. Rather, their high connectivity, ability to understand
customers, effective response and ability to enhance customers’ experiences were more likely the key
differentiating criteria. By his reckoning, digital disruptors have wider contexts of awareness for decision
making, which may be the critical difference that equips them to function in the modern zeitgeist and
perform with relevance. He suggested that their advantage may be due to a certain frame of mind or
philosophical stance - after all, not all digital disruptors were actually born in the digital world i.e.
Amazon.com started about 20 years ago. Rather, how or whether organizations thrive today hinges on
clarity as to where they have decided to go and the ability to act accordingly.
He referred to Geoffrey Moore’s disruption framework which categorized organizations’ approaches to
disruption through: (1) introduction of wholesale changes in how products or services are provisioned; (2)
introduction of disruptive change and then have the change trickle through the organization; (3) use of IT to
enable and drive change in the organization, and (4) vesting the mandate for change in growth leaders who
tend to be the ones driving digital change and disruption.
Switching gears, Andrew noted that organizations function within the larger context of their cities and
industries which are also facing transformation challenges. Technology use is changing the ambit and
footprint of cities in terms of their smartness in organizing themselves; those that are low in tech use or
ability to organize themselves and transform thus risk shrinkage and potential decline.
Fundamentally and whether from the perspective of cities or organizations, he stressed that customers,
end-users and citizens are the ones in charge and thus the final arbiters of value. To avoid obsolescence, he
ventured that it would serve IT leaders well to understand end-users and incorporate their perspectives into
organizations’ considerations.
Roundtable Discussions
On that note, the gathering broke for refreshments followed by roundtable discussions among mixed
groups of participants from different industry sectors. The groups were assigned to address four different
topics, and summaries of their discussions follow:
On the question “What does going digital really mean?”, participants assigned to the topic considered it
from the perspective of expectations, in particular the notion of responsiveness and personal enablement
resulting from the convenience and availability of digital services and resources. By extension, these
attitudes also translate into higher performance expectations of organizations, be they services, processes
or overall agility and ability to innovate. An example mentioned were the innovations in retail banking
where the range of digital services available are not only enabling customers but also effectively changing
the mode and culture of interaction. This in turn raises the bar on service offerings in other customer-
facing industry sectors, effecting a broad digital acculturation of the public.
CXO ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION

4. Participants addressing the topic “What digital initiatives are driven by different organizations and
industry sectors?” ventured that the underlying commonalities of the digital initiatives among their sectors
hinged on building trust and digitalizing the value chain. The latter tends to involve transaction automation
along with enhancements to retail experiences, where the focus is less on technology per se and more on
the business and process streams of accomplishing tasks.
Among the public sector participants, they noted that their thrust of innovations centred around
collaborations where challenges pertained to addressing different mind-sets. There was broad agreement
that transformation needs to be at the human level and also attune to internal customers in order to be
effective, just as there was wide agreement that external customers and their needs must be the drivers of
business transformation strategies and initiatives. To that end, external consultants were also seen as
potential sources of influence and new insights who could stimulate thinking within public sector agencies.
Moving on to the question “How to keep up with increasing digital needs of customers?”, group
participants agreed that it was necessary to go beyond merely knowing customers to engaging them
meaningfully and understanding what they truly needed. In the context of education and the younger
generation, more training for teachers and staff was also felt to be necessary to better engage the young;
engagement in this regard pertained to cultural and qualitative dimensions of understanding and
communication that may not necessarily be captured in surveys or broad data analytic approaches.
More broadly, the group also considered the implications of engaging both internal and external customers’
growing and changing digital needs from a global strategy perspective and down to the local level. They
saw story-telling and strong narratives to be increasingly important in building digital experiences, creating
the contexts and dynamic for better digital engagement, and more compelling corporate or brand
reputations built on quality and image. Closer to home, many also agreed that getting this right could also
have useful implications for improving employee productivity.
Addressing the final question “What does the future hold for digital transformation?”, participants were
unanimous in expecting it to be strongly customer-driven, meaningfully experience-driven through relevant
channels e.g. mobile, and more finely attuned to customer attributes or needs e.g. age or lifestyle
considerations. However, more perils in the digital landscape were also expected, as security and other
threats continue to loom large. The recent controversial measure to block Internet access for Singapore
civil servants was mentioned as an example of a type of response to security threats. Acknowledging that
while some might deem it drastic, participants nonetheless recommended looking beyond the controversy
to consider wider implications and weigh its merits.
CXO ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Rounding out the discussions, participants
considered the implications and progress
of digital transformation across a wide
swath of industries and notionally ranked
them on a transformation spectrum.
They concluded that all were struggling to
some degree but notwithstanding their
varying attitudes and progress on the
spectrum, transformation was widely
recognized to be necessary. As such,
questions likely to be raised going
forward would be along the lines of
“What has digital done FOR them?” and
“What has been done TO them by
embracing digital transformation?”

5. Collaboration was seen to be increasingly key to thriving and survival in this landscape but while industries
higher on the transformation spectrum would be readier to do so, legacy or traditional organizations are
likely to have a competitive zero-sum mind-set and would thus either resist or attempt to fight it out. To
that, participants spoke of the value of having an open mind-set and willingness to adjust organizational
strategies to remain relevant.
Questions & Answers
Concluding the session, the speakers from Grab, Singapore Post and HPE took questions from the audience
– the first of which was: How would start-ups like Uber be likely to disrupt the traditional car markets?
Upping the Ante, by Moving Up the Value Chain
Paul Hadjy of Grab remarked that the resulting increase in competition will necessitate greater
collaboration and partnerships with others to improve their offerings and thus retain competitive. Bernard
Leong from SingPost ventured that there could be new ways of looking at it from value chain perspective
i.e. how players in the sector could seek to move up the value chain by offering downstream or upstream
services, leveraging digital interactions beyond the car as an asset, and exploring integrated aspects of
services e.g. data on tracked usage, performance analytics etc.
Asked provocatively as to what they would recommend if approached by a car dealership facing the
aforementioned quandary, Andrew Clarke of HPE responded that a differentiation strategy would be
necessary in the context of competition that threatens to start a race to the bottom. The advantage would
depend on their ability to develop distinctive service models and solution sets that generate value, build
customer trust and loyalty, and create opportunities through digital capabilities. His anecdote about his car
servicing company in Australia was telling, as they were able to advise and provide data-driven predictive and
performance feedback on his vehicle that proved useful when he had to make decisions on car maintenance.
Innovating Under Useful Constraints
On a question about driving innovation in business areas that may not be considered an organization’s
aspects of core competence, Bernard recounted the example of SingPost’s digital platform SAM as an
initiative that was initially ‘co-opted’ under the mantle of a P&L driven business unit. The context for
enabling innovation development and need to demonstrate results with bottom-line outcomes were key
factors driving the value of innovations, said Bernard, not least because the co-optation arrangement forced
innovation managers to work with internal partners and mutually stretched their possibilities.
Paul agreed, noting that many start-ups currently had the luxury of operating without P&L performance
pressures but could face serious challenges as they mature, especially without having experienced the
discipline of P&L accountability. To this point, he suggested there may be a need to co-opt and mentor
young and promising start-up and tech leaders who will need to operate under real market conditions.
Technology IS the Business
He further accentuated the point in response to a question about reconciling perceptions of Technology as
being separate from the Business. As organizations increasingly appreciate technology’s value and
importance to business, there is no better time to make the case that technology IS the business and not
merely a glorified aspect of it. He pointed out that even traditional institutions like Goldman Sachs are
rebranding themselves as a technology company.
Beyond branding, there should be better alignment between technology’s deliverables and business’ P&L
accountability. To be in a position to do so, IT must assuredly deliver and get the fundamentals right, such
as ensuring basic hygiene factors and selecting appropriate technology assets to ensure security for
business operations.
CXO ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION

6. Normalizing Disruptions
The speakers noted that there will come a time when today’s disruptors become tomorrow’s legacy
companies as newer innovations and developments over-take them. Their continued relevance then will
likely be a matter of degree, subject to whether they are fast followers or builders. Bernard intoned that
they would have to balance between being driven by value and having viable business cases for customers.
He was also quick to debunk the widespread notion that fast technology adoption was necessarily a good
thing, as lower tech but more relevant options can be a smarter business choice. As such, business needs
should be the determinants of tech relevance; he also suggested that business could test-drive and invest in
smaller-scale or lower cost technology options as a way to determine to what or if they could develop in-
house and build the capabilities that the business truly needs.
Persuading with a Sharpened Tool
Rounding out the Q&A session was the perennial but no less thorny question of how IT could convincingly
make the case for innovative technology investments or projects in the absence of immediate or clearly
demonstrable ROI. As it stands, IT leaders continue to struggle for resources to deliver strategic IT initiatives
against other competing and more clearly ROI-generating business initiatives. To this, it was noted that
resource justifications for IT tend to be easier when initiatives already had buy-in from other organizational
leaders beyond IT.
The speakers proposed positioning technology as a tool for business i.e. a necessary foundation that can
enable business growth and optimization. Framed as a strategically-directed tool that can provide a business
edge, this view of technology may not be new in itself but as Bernard suggested, a corollary albeit expedient
recourse may be to disrupt the traditional line of P&L responsibility by assigning it to the IT or digital guy.
Aiding & Abetting Disruption
Noting on the side-lines as the event
concluded and in the midst of high-
spirited last minute networking among
attendees, Glen commented that the
range and quality of questions and
discussions were strong indicators that
the complexities and approaches to
disruption are clearly in the forefront of
IT and business leaders’ concerns. As
such, gatherings of this nature among IT
and business leaders will not only be
useful platforms to view how
conversations in this space play out; with
like-minded partners, it would also likely
have a role in informing the courses
taken by disruptors in their midst.
- By Jane Siow, for CIO Academy Asia
CXO ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
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