APAC EDITION
December 2021 | businesschief.asia
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The Business Chief Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
SCOTT BIRCH CREATIVE TEAM
OSCAR HATHAWAY SOPHIE-ANN PINNELL HECTOR PENROSE SAM HUBBARD MIMI GUNN JUSTIN SMITH REBEKAH BIRLESON DUKE WEATHERILL JORDAN WOOD PRODUCTION DIRECTORS
GEORGIA ALLEN DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ
PRODUCTION MANAGERS
OWEN MARTIN PHILLINE VICENTE JACK THOMPSON JANE ARNETA PRODUCTION EDITOR
JANET BRICE
VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER
KIERAN WAITE SAM KEMP DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS
EVELYN HUANG JACK NICHOLLS
MARTA EUGENIO ERNEST DE NEVE THOMAS EASTERFORD DREW HARDMAN MOTION DESIGNER
TYLER LIVINGSTONE MARKETING MANAGERS
ANDREW STUBBINGS SAJANA SAMARASINGHE PROJECT DIRECTORS
THOMAS LIVERMORE JAMES RICHARDSON MICHAEL BANYARD
JOE PALLISTER JAKE MEGEARY KRIS PALMER MIKE SADR RYAN HALL BEN MALTBY TOM VENTURO STUART IRVING CRAIG KILLINGBACK JAMES BERRY MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR
JAMES WHITE RICHARD TURNER MARK CAWSTON JASON WESTGATE
SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR
JOE MARRITT
MANAGING DIRECTOR
LEWIS VAUGHAN
CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER
STACY NORMAN CEO
GLEN WHITE
FOREWORD
Silver linings “As Greta Thunberg branded it, blah, blah, blah”
Climate crisis conference COP26 finished with a whimper rather than a bang as governments from across the globe were guilty of half-empty promises and, ironically, a load of hot air. As Greta Thunberg branded it “blah, blah, blah”. However, perhaps the highlight of the Glasgow event was the coming together of the two superpowers – the United States and China. Relations between the two countries have been strained in recent years with tit-for-tat trade wars and flexing of military muscles, so for them to come together and agree to cooperate more closely on climate change was a surprise to many. Not only are these two giants the world’s biggest polluters, they are also the most economically powerful. You could argue that all the world needs is for the US and China to make a meaningful difference, and if the environment and impending climate crisis is the force that brings them together, then there is hope – after all.
SCOTT BIRCH BUSINESS CHIEF MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY
scott.birch@bizclikmedia.com
© 2021 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
businesschief.asia
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CONTENTS
Our Regular Upfront Section: 08 Big Picture 10 Trailblazer: Jack Ma 14 Five minutes with... Zainab Bie
22
BI Group
BI Group rises to medical challenges in central Asia
30
Event Review
A successful round of Live Events
42
TPG Group
TPG Telecom is building a smarter, modern 5G network
64
Top 10
Coal consuming countries in APAC
76
UnionBank Banking on the future: Digital services for people
94
Tech Mahindra
Seize the day to create a green business model
108 Mola TV
Transforming customer experience through technology
COMING SOON FO L LOW N OW
E D UC ATE • M OT I VAT E • E L E VAT E
About March8
March8 is an inspiring and informative community for women executives, entrepreneurs, professionals and overachievers. We recognise, celebrate and champion the achievements and contributions made by women in both business and society. Our community offers practical and compelling career, financial and lifestyle resources to help women take their careers to the next level and achieve a work-life balance.
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FO L LOW N OW
BIG PICTURE
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10
December 2021
Could borders open? Australia
With a significant uptake of coronavirus vaccines, Australia is preparing to open its borders. The country has experienced some of the world’s strictest border rules, but as of November—thanks to a successful vaccination programme—inoculated citizens will experience their first sense of global freedom since March 2020. businesschief.asia
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TRAILBLAZER
JACK Ma Job Title:
CEO and founder Companys:
Alibaba and Ant Group
A
s co-founder and former CEO of Ant Group and one of the world’s most prominent billionaires, Jack Ma’s formative years make for remarkable reading. Ranked second in the annual World’s 50 Greatest Leaders’ list by Fortune, he is generally considered an iconic figure in the Chinese business world. But life wasn’t always comfortable for China’s most prominent businessman who recently felt the wrath of the Chinese authorities when his IPO for Ant Group was scuppered by Communist Party officials. Humble beginnings Born on October 15th, 1964, the business magnate and investor’s first home was a humble dwelling in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, in Southeastern China. He lived with his low-income parents, elder brother, and younger sister, and he grew up during the cold war years that saw communist China isolated from the post-war booming economies of the democratic West. It was an unglamorous existence that saw the young Ma - whose original name was Ma Yun, work hard at his local schools, and then at a local hotel that housed international guests. 12
December 2021
$500mn
Donated to charity (2020)
The hotel actually wasn’t that local to Ma. So the story goes, the teenager had to cycle 27 kilometres there every day from his home. But determined to improve on his school-learned English skills, he stayed the course, speaking with guests whenever he could to improve his conversational abilities. It was at the hotel that he started to use the name Jack after hotel guests struggled to pronounce his Chinese name. Employment issues But despite Ma’s keen determination to succeed, good luck evaded in those early years. Teachers who knew him said he was poor at mathematics and it took Ma three attempts (each one held annually) to pass his university entrance exams at the Hangzhou Teacher's Institute - now known as Hangzhou Normal University. Once enrolled, Ma embraced college life and became head of the student council. He eventually graduated in 1988 with a degree in English and took a job as a lecturer in English and International Trade at Hangzhou Dianzi University. However, still determined to improve on his education, he continued to apply for
businesschief.asia
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TRAILBLAZER
higher education degree courses - it has to be said, without much success. Ma today claims he was rejected from Harvard Business School an impressive ten times. During this time, Ma met his wife - Zhang Ying, a teacher at the school they both worked at. Later, they had three children. She once said of him, "[He] is not a handsome man, but I fell for him because he can do a lot of things handsome men cannot do.” 14
December 2021
Zhang was right. Knockbacks did not deter Ma, and upon leaving academia, he faced numerous difficulties in the commercial market and found himself rejected from numerous jobs - one of which was a position at KFC. "I went for a job with the police and they said, 'you're no good," Ma told one interviewer of that time. "I even went to KFC when it came to my city. Twenty-four
What Happened to China's Superstar Entrepreneur Jack Ma? | WSJ
people went for the job. Twenty-three were accepted. I was the only guy they rejected..." But an undeterred Ma was planning on creating an empire of his own making, and during these turbulent times, set up a number of enterprises. In April 1995, Ma finally found the winning formula. He and his friend He Yibing (a computer teacher) opened the first office for China Pages (a company that created websites for US companies), and Ma started his second company. By May of that year, they registered their first domain - chinapages.com in the United States. Within three years, the company had made 5,000,000 Renminbi - the equivalent to US$800,000. After that, Ma began building websites for Chinese companies with the help of friends in the US. Describing the moment when the
first site went live, he recalled, "The day we got connected to the web, I invited friends and TV people over to my house - and on a very slow dial-up connection. We waited three and a half hours and got half a page. We drank, watched TV and played cards, waiting. But I was so proud. I proved the Internet existed.” Stratospheric success From that point on, Ma’s upward trajectory has been stratospheric. He founded Alibaba - and later co-founded Yunfeng Capital, a private equity firm, with equal success. Next came the fintech empire for which he is most famous - Ant Group. Today, the name Jack Ma is synonymous with the words ‘business’ and ‘billionaire’. He is the third richest man in China and has an estimated personal fortune of US$51bn. businesschief.asia
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FIVE MINUTES WITH...
ZAINAB
BIE
At 13, Zainab Bie became aware of poverty and the climate crisis. Now 17, she has completed the United Nations Young Leaders Training Programme and is the youngest person ever to qualify for the LEED Green Associate exam.
HI ZAINAB! HOW DID YOU FIRST LEARN ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY?
“While waiting for my school bus, I used to see some children there, with bags of garbage not school bags. My dad told me that they were working to segregate the waste. I was shocked that children were leaving school to earn money and I thought that maybe in the future, I could do something. “Then I became involved in various school activities from talking about mental health issues to female empowerment. My passion was to actually voice out the social issues and involve more people.”
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR LIFE IN DELHI?
“I'm grateful that I have a park near me. I can walk there, but Delhi is very polluted, if I'm being honest. It actually makes me so sad, considering the large quantity of people being exposed to such harmful chemicals in the air.”
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December 2021
HOW HAVE YOUR PARENTS REACTED?
“They have been very supportive. In our family, we focus on how we can contribute to society.”
“ Some people think that climate change isn't happening. Now, the pandemic has happened, it’s easier to say that climate change can also happen!” YOUNG PEOPLE ARE SOMETIMES TOLD TO STAY OUT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS AND STAY IN SCHOOL - WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS?
“I believe that sustainability is not some extracurricular thing. For me, it is a part of my routine, my passion! Sustainability is actually a part of my life and I'm enjoying it.”
THE PANDEMIC HAS FORCED THE WORLD TO REEVALUATE ITS BEHAVIOUR. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT YOURSELF DURING THIS TIME?
“I believe that the pandemic is actually a positive thing for me, because it is helping me to back up my arguments. Some people think that climate change isn't happening. Now, it is much easier for me to tell them: “See – the pandemic happened, climate change can also happen!”
AT 17, YOU ARE DEALING WITH THE CLIMATE CRISIS, THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC AND ALL YOUR VOLUNTEER ROLES. WHAT DO YOU DO TO RELAX?
“I enjoy playing chess, but sustainability is actually what brings me peace!” businesschief.asia
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FIVE MINUTES WITH...
“ The United Nations Young Leaders Training Programme, made me more aware about the UN and how we can bring about more change to policies”
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December 2021
YOU'VE JUST STARTED THE UNITED NATIONS YOUNG LEADERS TRAINING PROGRAMME, WHAT IS THAT LIKE?
“I was the youngest on the programme! I gained confidence from it, I learned negotiation skills and diplomacy. I met many UN delegates, that was an experience of its own. Now, I'm more aware about the United Nations and how we can bring about more change to policies.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS?
“I believe they should be more mandatory for us. We have no choice. We have to achieve them. Everything is in a single holistic phrase: sustainable development.”
YOU HAVE BEEN RECOGNISED FOR YOUR YOUTH LEADERSHIP, WHAT MAKES A GOOD LEADER? “Empathy – it’s such a powerful quality. When my parents used to ask me, what do you want to be, I said: “I want to lead.” Collaborating, bringing people together, bringing about an impact in society, this is what I actually love.”
WHAT IS NEXT FOR YOU?
“I'm applying to the universities this year, my focus will be on economics.”
businesschief.asia
19
The ‘Risk & Resilience’ Conference
2022 27th - 28th April
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Previous Speakers Include:
Ninian Wilson
James Westgarth
Group Procurement Director
Senior Director, Procurement Performance, Systems & Excellence
Vodafone Procurement
Lufthansa
Charlotte de Brabandt
Aurelien Faucheux
Technology and Negotiation Keynote Speaker & Host
Aston Martin
CPO
AMAZON
Robert Copeland
Jacqueline Rock
CPO
CCO - NHS Test & Trace
G4S
NHS
BI GROUP
BI GROUP RISES TO MEDICAL CHALLENGES IN CENTRAL ASIA WRITTEN BY: DOMINIC ELLIS PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE
22
December 2021
COMPANY NAME
businesschief.asia
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BI GROUP
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December 2021
BI GROUP
BI Group has seen a boom in health business during the pandemic and Chief Procurement Officer Darkhan Shildebayev anticipates rising demand
T
Darkhan Shildebayev, CPO, BI Group
he last 18 months have been universally challenging for the construction industry but companies of the size and pedigree of BI Group have weathered it better than most. The COVID-19 crisis actually presented the group – which has 5,000 employees and is ranked as one of the leading globally – with unexpected opportunities, as it was tasked with building 15 hospitals in two months, spanning a total area of 115,000sqm. Meeting the urgent health needs has been an overriding priority for its 160strong procurement team, to the extent that it established a dedicated medical procurement division and even opened its own lab for PCR studies at Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana – the name change was made by Presidential decree in March 2019). This was on top of procuring items for the group’s 180 projects, covering everything from materials and machinery for housing developments to major stadium projects; last year saw the launch of a 7,000-seat athletic complex in the Kazakhstan capital. “There was huge demand for medical equipment last year. We did well, as we never broke any agreement terms or schedules,” said Chief Procurement Officer Darkhan Shildebayev. “We believe businesschief.asia
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BI GROUP
that medical building will be at the heart of construction for the next couple of years for us.” As part of a charitable campaign to help fight the pandemic, BI Group also donated 1,065 oxygen concentrators to hospitals throughout Kazakhstan. The BI-Zhuldyzai Foundation, despite the quarantine measures and economic difficulties, has continued its charitable activities and helped 1,253 children with difficult medical diagnoses. In total, 52,603 rehabilitation services were provided in 2020. Housing drives group growth This year BI Group is budgeting for growth of 15% in development business, and a 26
December 2021
slight growth in contracting and projects – and altogether group growth of around 5%, which is respectable given the precarious economic situation. Housing projects are its main business driver and affordable housing accounts for 10-15% of its portfolio. The main objective is to make sure it doesn’t face challenges with shortage of materials – a universal predicament facing the industry. “The pandemic has had a huge impact on our business. We had our suppliers shut down their production lines, and had to deal with border closures – we had materials stuck but it’s much better nowadays.
BI GROUP
DARKHAN SHILDEBAYEV
“WE BELIEVE THAT MEDICAL WILL BE AT THE HEART OF CONSTRUCTION FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF YEARS FOR US”
TITLE: CPO INDUSTRY: CONSTRUCTION LOCATION: CENTRAL ASIA Darkhan Shildebayev, 34 years old born in Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. He has been with BI Group for a little under six years, and held various positions within the company including, head of competitive intelligence and representative offices in Moscow and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Previously worked at financial institutions and mining companies including Jusan Bank (formerly Tsesna Bank) and Kazakhmys. Holds master’s degree in International Business Management from Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria.
DARKHAN SHILDEBAYEV
“We don’t have much production in Kazakhstan, it’s mostly imported from Russia and neighbouring countries – and they’re trying to develop their economies through construction,” he said. “The fastest way to warm up the economy is construction and there will be huge demand for resources and procurement.” One permanent change will see BI Group set more long-term contracts with its suppliers, and prioritise them, he said. “We’re going to change how we work with our suppliers, making it easier for them to see what they’ll be working on, so they’ll know the projects in advance – so they can allocate their resources much easier than it used to be.”
EXECUTIVE BIO
CPO, BI GROUP
BI GROUP
BI Group rises to medical challenge in central Asia
He foresees sharp growth in construction, anticipating 9% industry growth, which will create challenges with materials, machinery and manpower. Building on supplier relationships BI Group was fortunate as it had embraced digital before the pandemic, so making the switch was painless compared with many companies. Through its supplier relationship platform, BI Partners, suppliers can directly interact through the app. Without going into specific terms, he says that “the more you buy, the bigger your discount.” Last year also marked a real estate services turning point, as apartment units could be bought via the BIG App. Now the plan is to combine all the platforms together, creating one ‘eco-system’ for the whole company. He hopes it will 28
December 2021
be finalised within a year. In 2020, service specialists processed 147,608 client requests. “The idea is to connect what we buy, with those who buy it from us,” he said. “We have sufficient amount of information, in construction and sales, but now the idea is to create a picture to understand what this data says to us.” Out of 10,000 partners, BI Group has 200 main partners, which will be important for the next five years. Suppliers at the top of the list include Danfoss (hydraulic solutions), Kazenergokabel (electrical equipment
BI GROUP
1995
Year Founded
$1.4bn (2015) Revenue
5,000
Number of Employees
supplies), GQ Engineering (low current solutions and electrical equipment supplies), MIT (medical innovation technology and medical supplies), Troya, Fenix, Megasmart (all furniture supplies) and Kazintertech (educational equipment supplies). In another clear example of its attention to detail, BI Group has a special IT department responsible for cybersecurity, which carries out ‘penetration testing’ on an ongoing basis.
RECORD SALES IN 2020 In 2020, more than 10,039 thousand families received the keys to their apartments. The first residential complex Tamerlan Residence was built in Shymkent and the company entered the Uzbekistan market with the construction of the first residential complex from BI Group in Tashkent (NRG Oybek).
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EVENT REVIEW
A successful round of
LIVE EVENTS Reflecting on BizClik Media Group’s latest events, a focus on APAC-specific insights and foresight into the upcoming Sustainability Live conference WRITTEN BY: TOM SWALLOW
T
he rise and fall of businesses over the past two years has provided a lot of insight into how businesses should plan for the future as more sophisticated technology becomes available and fresh solutions providers enter the market. It was a long time coming, but now industry leaders and new business startups are able to continue networking to learn more about the available solutions and how they can be tailored to their businesses. Technology, AI & Cyber Live, Procurement & Supply Chain Live, and FinTech & InsurTech Live were catalysts for sharing knowledge across various sectors and providing much-needed interaction between businesses.
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December 2021
PARUL KAUL GREEN
COS, APAC AND EUROPE, AXA businesschief.asia
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EVENT REVIEW
JACQUELINE TEO
GLOBAL CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, HGC GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS
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December 2021
ASH FINNEGAN
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OFFICER, CONGA
EVENT REVIEW
“Before the pandemic started, we knew that organisations were struggling to get information and manage their supply chains” STUART BROCK
SENIOR DIRECTOR, DOCUSIGN
KAMRAN KHAN
GO TO MARKET LEADER, CX & INTELLIGENT WORKSPACE, NTT LTD.
These events showcased some of the leading business initiatives and the necessary steps that global corporations are taking to become more sustainable. Each event was held over three days, with the third day focussing on regional insights from APAC, EMEA, and North America. Although it was an early start for everyone in the BizClik Media Group events team— the host of all three shows—the early sessions provided great insights for organisations in the APAC region.
used unethically. Teo gives examples of deep fakes and how the use of AI technology enables them to become more sophisticated, which causes significant risks when used to impersonate important figures and blackmail targets. She explains how data poisoning is not necessarily a new concept, but is something that the industry is yet to find an effective solution. Teo believes there are four main ways in which data can be
All things technology, AI and cybersecurity Before discussing the four key skills that are required to manage artificial intelligence, data and security, Jacqueline Teo, Global Chief Digital Officer at HGC Global Communications explains her fascination for the use of deep fakes,how they can open up opportunities for industries, and can also present risks if businesschief.asia
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EVENT REVIEW VIKRAM SINGLA
SENIOR STRATEGY DIRECTOR ORACLE
JACQUELINE ROCK
CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER TEST & TRACE, UK GOVERNMENT
“ The interaction, the networking, the relationships you can build has been phenomenal. And through Test and Trace we can carry on doing more of this” JACQUI ROCK
CCO, UK GOVERNMENT
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December 2021
EVENT REVIEW
R,
poisoned, such as attackers changing algorithms, removing training data, injecting ‘poison data’ into the dataset, and transferring the data that contains poison data. Procurement and supply chain were the primary focal points for the remainder of the APAC-related talks, as Stuart Brock, Senior Director at Docusign, and Jane Liang, Global Head of Procurement at BAT, delve into the procurement journey and how digital transformation plays a key role in managing supplier risks throughout the various processes. “Before the pandemic started, we knew that organisations were struggling to get information and manage their supply chains,” says Brock as he explains data as the ‘untapped resource in contract negotiation and execution’, highlighting some important facts that DocuSign has gained from procurement teams.
JOSEPH MARTINEZ
CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER, BNY MELLON
Procurement becomes the main focus for supply chains We heard from Joseph Martinez, Chief Procurement Officer at BNY Mellon, during the APAC session of Procurement & Supply Chain Live, as he presents a list of disruptive technologies and how they have driven the next wave of change in procurement and supply chain processes. “This time around, the shift towards digital transformation through these disruptive technologies enables companies to manage through uncertainty and to ensure business continuity, while simultaneously building new capabilities and ways of working that deliver exponential value to customers, partners, and ultimately, the shareholders,” says Martinez. Martinez supports the case for technology advancement in supply chains businesschief.asia
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“ It’s been a great audience and there have been some really fantastic speakers” ROBERT COPELAND CPO, G4S
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December 2021
and how it can bring about exciting new opportunities, including a more strategic focus that adds value for suppliers, stakeholders and startups. To achieve this, Martinez says that workshops support the training process and empower the users of technologies to become evangelists and push the boundaries with digital tools. The key points that organisations can take away from the sessions are that businesses need to finalise their transformation agendas, create shared targets, identify and implement the correct governance across digital ecosystems to create a digital culture across the entire business.
EVENT REVIEW
CHARLOTTE DE BRABANDT SENIOR MANAGER, AMAZON BUSINESS
DIPU KV
PRESIDENT, BAJAJ ALLIANZ
GABINO ROCHE JR, CEO & FOUNDER, STEPHEN ROCHE, PRESIDENT
& FOUNDER, SAPHYRE
FinTechs, banks and digital solutions at FinTech & InsurTech Live One of the largest insurers, Bajaj Allianz is a global renowned company for its insurance offering for healthcare, automotive, travel, and business startups. Dipu KV, President of Bajaj Allianz, joined the virtual platform to discuss the current insurance business landscape and had sourced some great details on current consumer trends, which have changed dramatically since the coronavirus pandemic. The trends show that more individuals in new generations are becoming dependent on technology,
with around 93% of millennials utilising smartphones for online transactions. KV highlights that this adoption has occurred as a result of COVID-19, but also the number of applications from companies and consumer trust in technology are also playing important roles in this. Around 64% of customers believe that their interactions with artificial-intelligence-based (AI) solutions are becoming more human, making it easier for them to interact with their insurance companies through digital tools. businesschief.asia
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In Association With:
SHAPING THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS
2022 February 23rd-24th
STREAMED & IN PERSON TOBACCO DOCK LONDON
REGISTER NOW
Confirmed Speakers Include:
Ben Clifford
Sarah Chapman
Global Health, Safety & Sustainability Associate Director
Global Chief Sustainability Officer
Fidelity International
Manulife Financial Corporation
Roy Cheung
Mary-Jane Morifi
Global Head, Sustainability Solutions, Engineering Plastics
Chief Corporate and Sustainability Officer
Covestro
Tiger Brands Limited
Øistein Jensen
Sandeep Chandna
Chief Sustainability Officer
Chief Sustainability Officer
Odfjell SE
Tech Mahindra
EVENT REVIEW
“ We cannot act like the dinosaurs, we all know what happened to them! That story didn’t end well” JOSEPH MARTINEZ
CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER, BNY MELLON
When asked by Scott Birch, Chief Content Officer at BizClik Media Group, whether he expects to see more technology intervention and less human interaction, KV said, “If you look at the current situation, while people do like the efficiency that bots bring in, they also want to have human-like conversations. Which is why the accent has 40
December 2021
shifted to humanising the digital and how you ensure that bots become more human in their interactions.” At FinTech & InsurTech Live we also heard from Ninon Ulsamer, Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer at StashAway, who provided his thoughts on how to build a successful Fintech company. StashAway is an organisation that began its operation in Singapore, empowering people to build wealth and has identified some of the complexities with consumer investments, such as insufficient advice on products, high costs and lack of quality investment information. Ulsamer expresses the importance of a strong team—as well as other aspects—for creating a new Fintech business and will also incorporate members from diverse backgrounds. He explains that different perspectives within the company are great for diversifying in specialist areas, but the team must also be aligned to the
overarching business objectives. “Because we all have very specific disciplines that we have fair amounts of experience in before we founded the company, we can trust each other a lot,” says Ulsamer. “There is very little potential for conflict actually. We’re pretty aligned on what our company should look like.” Can we expect more? With such a great turn out for the Live events and the state of global affairs, sustainability has become a hot topic in all industries. Therefore, BizClik Media Group is preparing for Sustainability Live, where industry leaders from across the world will join to discuss all areas of environmental, social and governance (ESG), diversity and inclusion, net-zero initiatives and traceability, and there will also be many discussions on how digital transformation has a role to play in bringing the world back from the ever-concerning issue of global warming. Some of the speakers from these three events have already joined the lineup for Sustainability Live, including Ruji Mahmud, Head of Procurement at Johnson Matthey, Sheri Hinish, Global Executive Partner, Sustainable Supply Chain and Circularity at IBM, and we will also welcome new speakers to the stage, such as Ailin Huang, Head of Sustainability at TIER Mobility, and Ben Clifford, Global health, Safety and Sustainability Associate Director at Fidelity International. To find out how to register for the Sustainability Live and keep up to date with the latest entries to the speaker lineup, go to www.sustainabilitymag.com.
Join us at LIVE In a COVID-disrupted era, we understand that travel is not always possible. As such, BizClik Media Group has decided that Sustainability LIVE will offer the best of both worlds through hybrid accessibility. Virtually Our physical Tobacco Dock venue is both historic and stunning, but it has no bearing on the information that you and your peers can gain from the event. Absorb it all, interact with other attendees and enjoy the conference experience on our virtual platform, powered by Brella, featuring live feeds from all of the stages, as well as virtual networking areas and the APAC-specific insights of day three. In Person For attendees who wish to join the event in person, the venue is working to governmentendorsed AEV All Secure Framework, alongside mia’s AIM Secure and ‘Good to Go’ accreditation, to ensure a COVID-secure environment to facilitate all of your networking needs at one of the main sustainability events of 2022.
REGISTER NOW
businesschief.asia
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TPG TELECOM
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TPG TELECOM
TPG Telecom is building a smarter, modern 5G network
businesschief.asia
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TPG TELECOM
Yago Lopez General Manager, Wireless & Transmission Networks, TPG Telecom
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TPG TELECOM
Yago Lopez, GM of Wireless & Transmission Networks at TPG Telecom, talks mergers, COVID-19, and bringing next-generation 5G to Australia’s biggest metros. WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR
T
he 5G rollout has presented a monumental financial and logistical challenge for telecom operators around the world over the past two years. Some carriers, however, have had to contend with greater challenges than others. TPG Telecom’s 5G rollout has occurred at the same time as it executed one of the biggest mergers in the history of the Australian telecom sector, contended with the loss of Huawei as a key equipment supplier following a ban by the Australian Government - and did it all in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s been a challenging time, but when life hands you lemons you make lemonade,” says Yago Lopez, TPG Telecom’s General Manager Wireless & Transmission Networks. “Of course, the rollout has had its challenges, chief among them being the Huawei ban, but it has given us the opportunity to end up with a legacy-free, standalone, 5G-native network.” Now, with the merger complete, and the company on track to outperform its 5G coverage targets for the year, I sat down with Lopez to find out how a skillful integration, a diverse network of talented partners, and a refusal to succumb to the obstacles placed before it has resulted in TPG Telecom bringing a world class, state-of-the-art 5G experience to Australian consumers.
PRODUCED BY: STUART IRVING A “Match Made in Heaven” TPG Telecom is the result of a merger between TPG and Vodafone Hutchison Australia, which itself is a product of the merger between Vodafone Australia and Hutchison - better known in Europe and Asia as Three. Prior to being united, TPG was the country’s second-largest internet service provider (ISP), and was “very strong in the consumer and enterprise fixed line space” but did not have a mobile network. Vodafone, on the other hand, was a mobile network operator with limited assets in the fixed domain. “It was basically a match made in heaven,” recalls Lopez. “From an asset and market point of view, there wasn't much overlap between the two companies. As a merged company, we now have some of the most loved telco brands in Australia under one roof including Vodafone, iiNet, TPG and Lebara. This creates
“ We had to start our 5G buildout from square one” YAGO LOPEZ
GENERAL MANAGER, WIRELESS & TRANSMISSION NETWORKS, TPG TELECOM businesschief.asia
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TPG TELECOM
a great opportunity to cross-sell one another's products. It was two highly complementary businesses coming together to create a much better business than the sum of its parts.” Joining the new company from the Vodafone side, Lopez remarks that “when you're going through a merger, the key thing is to understand the cultures of the companies that are coming together.” Bringing two outlooks, cultures, and “families” together successfully, he continues, is “all about empathy”. “One thing you absolutely cannot do when you're trying to execute a merger is to try and make one company into the other. You need to take the best elements of both, listen to both sides, and choose the right combination to ensure you get the best of both worlds.” 46
December 2021
One year later, and the integration process is nearly complete. “We needed to ensure that we become - and are seen by our customers as - one functional entity rather than two,” Lopez explains. The next step is to leverage the formidable combined capabilities of the brand new TPG Telecom in order to do something remarkable: take a bite out of the NBN. “In Australia, we have a governmentowned company called the National Broadband Network (NBN) and they're the main provider of fixed broadband services for both consumers and enterprises throughout the country,” says Lopez. “One of our key strategies at TPG Telecom is to leverage our 4G and 5G mobile network to deliver home internet services, as we try to
TPG TELECOM
YAGO LOPEZ TITLE: GENERAL MANAGER, WIRELESS & TRANSMISSION NETWORKS
“ In a 5G world, you have got to have strong partners. And our partners have been key to finding solutions to the challenges of our 5G rollout” YAGO LOPEZ
GENERAL MANAGER, WIRELESS & TRANSMISSION NETWORKS, TPG TELECOM
EXECUTIVE BIO
COMPANY: TPG TELECOM Spanish-Australian Yago Lopez’s passion for Science led him to pursue an academic path in Physics at the University of Oviedo (North Spain) where he graduated after joining Tubingen University (Germany) for part of his studies. He started his Telecommunications career in Vodafone Spain as an Engineer. From there, he built and international path which brought him first to Dusseldorf with Vodafone Group providing technical consultancy services to Operators around the world and then to Dublin as Vodafone Ireland Network Performance Manager. Yago moved to Sydney in 2013, joining Vodafone Australia as Head of Radio Networks. Since then, he has held multiple leadership roles in both technical and commercial sides of the industry. He is currently leading the Wireless & Transmission Networks of TPG telecom. Yago is a rugby fanatic and while he is not playing with Waverley RC, it’s easy to find him enjoying the beach with his young family.
A true customer-centric approach Michael Riches, CEO of Axicom, talks about how his company’s unique customer-first approach is helping them move from being a supplier to a true partner. As Australia’s largest independent owner and operator of shared wireless infrastructure, Axicom has undergone a strategy and cultural transformation to place the customer at the heart of everything they do. Their focus to understand their customers’ critical issues, anticipate their changing needs and create innovative infrastructure solutions, continue to help them deliver long-term value to their customers.
predominant focus. Understanding your customer and stepping into their shoes – looking from the outside in – is imperative in any market but critically important in the telecoms sector where the requirements of the customer are changing and evolving so rapidly” explains Michael Riches, CEO of Axicom.
“The principle I seek to instil in my team, and all our employees, is that creating value for our customers should be the first and
As a long-term player in the market, Axicom’s depth of IP and processes as well as their ongoing investment in digital, enables them to provide speed and transparency in delivery.
“We have a strong focus on digital transformation and automating a lot of our processes which allows us to work with our customers in a collaborative and co-ordinated way and deploy faster and more effectively across our sites.” Riches explains. “Creating meaningful customer experiences, not just good service, continues to drive the way we operate”. It is Axicom’s customer-centric approach that has seen them develop true partnerships with their customers, including TPG Telecom. Axicom worked in a highly collaborative and consultative way with TPG Telecom to understand their future network needs and key business objectives and provide solutions that deliver long-term value. Abandoning the traditional dynamic of supplier and vendor, working together, TPG Telecom and Axicom were able to speed up the 5G deployment
process, eliminate procurement delays, and create a better alignment of outcomes oriented towards the overall enhancement of the network. “TPG Telecom’s 5G deployment has gone ahead at a speed that has not been seen in this market and as a key partner we’re proud to be part of that success” says Riches. And there’s every sign that TPG Telecom and Axicom will continue to move forward together as true partners, with the recent extension of the lease term of existing network sites for an initial period of 19 years.
For more information, contact Axicom at salesaus@axicom.com.au or visit axicom.com.au
TPG TELECOM
2020
Year Founded
6,000 Number of Employees
A$4.35bn Revenue (2020)
50
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TPG TELECOM
“5G is going to be really important when it comes to letting people have a seamless, work from anywhere experience” YAGO LOPEZ
GENERAL MANAGER, WIRELESS & TRANSMISSION NETWORKS, TPG TELECOM
keep our customers within our own network rather than give up ground to the NBN.” Taking on the state-sponsored ISP is no small thing. However, Lopez is confident that Australian consumers deserve to be offered more choice and better value than a single government-run infrastructure body can provide. “At the end of the day, we are providing choice and value to Australian consumers and enterprises,” he says. “The NBN is kind of a monopoly in that a lot of Australians only have one choice when it comes to their home connectivity, and we want to change that.” Of course, in order to offer the worldclass service that might stand a chance of holding up in direct competition with the NBN for Australia’s home internet market, a successful 5G rollout is critical. 5G, Huawei, and Making Lemonade When the Australian government announced that it would ban Chinese tech firm Huawei from its 5G buildout back in 2018, Vodafone found itself faced with a serious issue. “Before the ban, we were planning to use Huawei as the natural vendor to upgrade our 4G network to non-standalone 5G, because we'd already been working with them for a long time,” recalls Lopez. “When Huawei was banned from supplying Australia's 5G equipment, all of Vodafone's existing radio and transmission network infrastructure was Huawei, which presented a big challenge for us.” businesschief.asia
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Changing the Future of Network Rollouts
Through the development of the innovative Sector Assembly method, Vecta is empowering TPG Telecom’s nationwide 5G rollout. Vecta is a specialist assembly and testing service provider for telecommunications equipment owners and operators. As a key partner of one of Australia’s leading telecom operators, TPG Telecom, Vecta has torn up the rulebook for cell site assembly, testing, and installation, delivering an innovative, proprietary new method that is set to change the process of network rollouts forever. “Through the Sector Assembly concept, we are driving innovation in the construction of 5G networks,” says John Bonello, Executive Director of Vecta. “Radio systems can now be assembled and tested in a factory and, for the first time in the industry’s history, system level testing is being carried out in a precision laboratory.” The results, Bonello explains, are profound. “We’re delivering radio sites that work first time after installation, backed by reduced cost, improved network performance, reliability, health and safety and environmental impact.” Prefabrication of cell site equipment also allows for more effective
testing in controlled factory settings - especially with regard to detecting and eliminating passive intermodulation. “Passive intermodulation is a problem for many telecom networks. It’s an effect that basically creates self-interference, which reduces network capacity and quality of service. It’s something that you don’t want in your mobile network,” Bonello explains. By testing the cell site equipment in controlled conditions using Vecta’s fully shielded anechoic chamber, “We’re currently the only business worldwide that’s able to offer passive intermodulation, or PIM, testing for cellular products to the ISO 17025 accredited laboratory standard.” Vecta was chosen by TPG Telecom to develop and deploy its Sector Assembly method in order to support and speed TPG Telecom’s rollout of a standalone, future-proofed 5G network, contributing to the successful delivery of 5G to 85% of Australia’s largest metros ahead of schedule. “Vecta is adding significant value to TPG Telecom as they fast track the 5G rollout using this innovative process,” Bonello says. “In modern networks, mobile operators face performance, value, safety and environmental challenges that must be overcome. In partnership with TPG Telecom, the sector assembly method was developed to help remove these obstacles, resulting in an incredibly strong solution that meets the TPG Telecom KPIs for their 5G rollout.” He added that “Working in close collaboration with Yago’s team has resulted in a highly successful product with a level of factory assembly, testing and inspection never seen before in a network deployment.”
Learn More
TPG TELECOM
TPG Telecom is building a smarter, modern 5G network
The majority of 5G rollouts around the world - including in 5G ‘leader’ countries like South Korea - eased the transition from 4G to 5G using non-standalone 5G networks. By piggybacking on existing 4G infrastructure, the process of rolling out a 5G network becomes more gradual, reducing costs and potential disruption. However, with 4G infrastructure built using Huawei equipment, a complete network build was required. “Without Huawei's equipment to build on, we had to start our 5G buildout from square one,” says Lopez. “TPG Telecom is probably the only operator in the world where the move from 4G to 5G meant completely ripping apart our mobile network, because all our 4G infrastructure was built by Huawei. Instead of being an incremental expense, building from nonstandalone 5G and slowly rolling it out across the network, we needed to build the entire network from the ground up.” It’s a testament to the dedication and skill of TPG 54
December 2021
TPG TELECOM
“ One thing you absolutely cannot do when you're trying to execute on a merger is to try and make one company into the other” YAGO LOPEZ
GENERAL MANAGER, WIRELESS & TRANSMISSION NETWORKS, TPG TELECOM
PARTNERING FOR SUCCESS “In a 5G world, you have got to have strong partners. And our partners have been key to finding solutions to the challenges of our 5G rollout,” explains Lopez. “TPG Telecom has partnered with Nokia for our radio access and mobile transmission networks and Ericsson for our standalone core. For the optical components on the fixed side we've partnered with Ciena, and we've also been collaborating with Samsung on emerging technologies like V_RAN and Axicom - which is a tower company. We've been working with all of them to help support a 5G rollout with a ‘no legacy’ mentality.” He adds that TPG Telecom has also “relied heavily on a partnership with steel fabricators Site Pro 1 and radio frequency experts Vecta Labs to assemble our new 5G sites in controlled warehouse environments, which is safer, more reliable, and faster – and an Australian first.” Lopez reflects that, in the 5G era, “partner relationships are also changing. You can't just have one-to-one conversations anymore; we want all our partners to be able to collaborate with one another to really create this ecosystem where ideas and skills are shared without TPG Telecom necessarily having to be at the centre of every conversation.” To that end, TPG Telecom recently opened its new Innovation Lab in Sydney. “Together with our partners, the lab allows us to test innovations in 5G network technologies. The lab is driving innovation in our 5G network and allows us to develop and showcase use cases that will enable the digitisation of more industries across Australia,” says Lopez.
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Reäl end-to-end.
Delivering Endto-End Expertise
the build, deployment, and planning, all the way through to optimisation, engineering, and operation. We’re also offering our services across the fibre and fixed wireless network sector, as well as cloud and cybersecurity.”
umlaut continues a decade-long partnership with TPG Telecom, offering specialised, in-depth expertise to support TPG’s 5G rollout.
In Australia, umlaut has been a core partner of TPG Telecom for more than a decade. “Prior to the Vodafone-TPG merger, we were a longstanding partner of Vodafone at a group level where we worked with them on numerous projects over the years,” Ekmen explains. “We had a strong history with Vodafone Hutchison Australia, working with them on infrastructure and security projects, as well as 5G.”
.dne-ot-dne läeR
umlaut is a globally recognised, technologydriven and future-oriented company providing end-to-end consulting, engineering, and testing services to companies across the automotive, aviation, energy, rail, telecommunications industries and beyond. Founded 24 years ago in Germany, umlaut has grown into a multinational, globally active company - recently acquired by consultancy giant Accenture - with more than 4,500 employees delivering specialised consulting, engineering, and network testing services to the world’s largest enterprises. “We are defined by the added value we create for our clients, their companies, products, and their end customers as well,” says Hakan Ekmen, global CEO for umlaut’s telecommunication unit. “Our credo is to always add something on top, like the umlaut from which we get our name.” In the telecommunications industry - where Ekmen has been overseeing umlaut’s operations for the past 14 years - umlaut delivers “services and expertise from end-to-end, starting with
“As the telecom sector continues to innovate and develop new technologies and services, we’re going to see 5G deliver real-time connectivity and faster data speeds. And we’ve been closely engaged with TPG on their own deployment of 5G, as well as the development of new products and services to capitalise on this next generation of telecommunications technology,” says Ekmen. “With our specialised set of skills and in-depth, detailed knowledge of the verticals where TPG is focusing its efforts, I think we can continue to strengthen our partnership, help them adopt and capitalise on new technologies, and drive winwin outcomes for both umlaut and TPG for many years to come.”
Learn more
TPG TELECOM
Telecom’s network engineering department that the company has managed to not only build and spin up an entirely new standalone 5G network in such a short space of time, but this success will also build towards future wins for TPG Telecom. “Every piece of equipment we're putting into our network is 5G ready, and that's something that we're going to be able to continue to leverage for years to come. We're very proud of what we've built in such a short amount of time,” Lopez says, adding that the merger between Vodafone and TPG “came at a great time, because it combined all the expertise and assets of Vodafone with some of the strategic spectrum purchases made previously by TPG - as well as their fibre and fixed assets. When you put the capabilities of our two companies together, and remove all that legacy infrastructure from our network, you end up with something really special.” TPG Telecom’s 5G rollout has been gathering pace. “We're exceeding our rollout targets. We originally intended to cover 85% of Australia's top six metros - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra - by the end of the year,” Lopez says. “Right now, we're on track to also hit that goal in four of the most populated regions in the country - the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, New South Wales Central Coast, and Wollongong - by the close of 2021.” As TPG Telecom’s 5G services reach more of the Australian population, the lower latencies and higher throughput connectivity it delivers is supporting improved video streaming, gaming, and enterprise applications. “The technology is really helping us deliver the kinds of services our customers are going to be requiring in the near future. And we want to be able to offer to Australians the best of those 58
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“ It’s been a challenging time, but when life hands you lemons you make lemonade” YAGO LOPEZ
GENERAL MANAGER, WIRELESS & TRANSMISSION NETWORKS, TPG TELECOM
TPG TELECOM
possible services which 5G is already making a reality,” Lopez explains. “I'm not talking about distant advancements like driverless cars; cloud native, 5G-driven applications for 5G are here already.” Particularly in light of the COVID19 pandemic’s effect on the growth of remote work, cloud migrations, and the consumption of digital services, Lopez argues that “5G is going to be really important when it comes to letting people have a seamless, work from anywhere
experience.” “Our spectrum portfolio is the strongest it has ever been, and was boosted further with recent 5G spectrum acquisitions which will allow us to provide an excellent 5G experience for our mobile and home wireless customers.” In order to expand upon its 5G applications, TPG Telecom is continuing to work with its key partners, including Nokia and the University of Technology Sydney. Recently, TPG Telecom was selected by the Australian Government
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Unleash the full Power of 5G with Samsung networks As a long time innovation powerhouse, Samsung has been inspiring the industry and unleashing the full power of 5G. With our advanced end-to-end solutions, we keep pushing the industry forward for a better tomorrow.
Compact Macro Massive MIMO Radio/Radio Link Cell for roadsides
for rooftops and towers
for indoors
Samsung and TPG: Building the Network of Tomorrow Samsung is enabling TPG Telecom to transcend the limits of conventional mobile connectivity. As the society transitions into the New Normal era after COVID-19, digital technology will continue to play an essential role in our homes, workplaces and beyond. The pandemic highlighted the importance of connectivity and it will become more prominent in our daily lives. The increasing reliance on and usage of digital technology will bring forward a dynamic transformation, reshaping businesses and industries – unleashing new use cases and services. With the emergence of more complex and diverse use cases, network infrastructure will also become more sophisticated. This means that conventional hardware-based network architecture needs to evolve into a more agile and flexible network to support these use cases swiftly and effectively. Samsung believes virtualisation and openness will be fundamental to this network transformation. These next-generation networks will be equipped to power new services with more efficiency and flexibility, while also ensuring network reliability and quality. “The network of tomorrow will be a platform going beyond the limits of conventional mobile connectivity for future use cases, such as smart factories, smart offices, and smart cities,” says Jonathan Ang, Head of Networks for Samsung
Australia. The key to this era of more flexible, powerful, versatile networks, Ang explains, is network virtualisation. Samsung’s cloud native, fully virtualised Radio Access Network (vRAN) solutions effectively liberate network operators from the static, hardware-bound networks that defined telecom infrastructure in the past. “By using Samsung’s vRAN solutions, operators are able to flexibly allocate network resources based on service patterns, and manage networks more effectively by bringing automated operation one step closer, making the entire network life cycle much easier from design and deployment to operation and optimisation,” he adds. Samsung has been working closely with TPG Telecom to bring virtualisation in Australia. According to Ang, “the virtualisation of TPG’s 5G network is a key step on TPG’s journey towards creating the network of tomorrow.” As TPG Telecom’s 5G network continues to grow and evolve, Samsung’s vRAN will support and enhance that network expansion. “Together with TPG, Samsung looks forward to bringing immersive mobile experiences for users in Australia and to reshape the value of 5G for enterprises,” says Ang. “We are ready. TPG is ready. Let’s virtualise the network today.”
Learn more
TPG TELECOM
“When you're going through a merger, the key thing is to understand the cultures of the companies that are coming together” YAGO LOPEZ
GENERAL MANAGER, WIRELESS & TRANSMISSION NETWORKS, TPG TELECOM
to use its 5G technology in order to develop a better method of counting sheep - a labour-intensive, mission critical job for farmers throughout the country’s massive agricultural sector. As 2021 draws to a close and companies turn their sights towards 2022 and beyond, Lopez is excited for the next phase in TPG Telecom’s 5G journey. “We're focusing on those top 10 most-populated cities and
regions first, and then plan to move forward with our 5G rollout across other areas of the country in the years to come,” he says. “We’ll continue focusing on our key priorities including going hard on 5G home wireless and other products to migrate customers from the NBN.”
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TOP 10
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TOP 10
COAL CONSUMING COUNTRIES IN APAC In the wake of the COP26 climate summit and race to reduce carbon emissions, Business Chief lists its Top 10 Coal Consuming Countries in the Asia Pacific WRITTEN BY: SCOTT BIRCH
I
n the wake of the COP26 climate summit and race to reduce carbon emissions, much was made of countries signing up – or not – to stop burning coal as a source of power. Business Chief lists its Top 10 Coal Consuming Countries in the Asia Pacific.
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TOP 10
10
Malaysia
0.4% Global Consumption
Global Position 24
Malaysia is burning more coal now than it did 20 years ago. This is not a unique story, as developing nations ‘catch up’ with developed nations that have been burning coal for power for more than a century.
09 Thailand
0.5% Global Consumption
Global Position 20
Back in July, Thailand’s stateowned Electricity Generating Authority announced it was not moving ahead with two new coalfired power plants and would instead opt for gas. Since then, global gas prices have increased significantly, so it will be interesting to see if their resolve is tested. 66
December 2021
TOP 10
08 Vietnam
0.7% Global Consumption
Global Position 16
Vietnam is one of the new nations that signed up to the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) at COP26 and it is significant in that it is one of the developing nations that had ambitions to build more coal-fired power stations. Last year, coal accounted for 43% of Vietnam’s electricity generation, and a recent GlobalData report estimated power consumption will rocket by 70% by 2030 – leaving a significant gap to be filled.
07 Taiwan
0.8% Global Consumption
Global Position 14
Taiwan has struggled to keep pace with increasing pressure on demand for manufacturing, including semiconductors, and despite trying to move to other power sources, it has struggled – for instance, the recent drought meant lower hydro output. This shortfall has heightened the need for reliable power, and that currently means coal. businesschief.asia
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TOP 10
05
Australia
1.5% Global Consumption
Global Position 10
06
Indonesia
1.2% Global Consumption
Global Position 12
In the global top 25, only Brazil (132 cubic feet) burns less coal per capita than Indonesia (392 cubic feet), yet it still accounts for 1.2% of global consumption. This is in part down to Indonesia uses around a quarter of the coal it produces to fuel 65% of its domestic needs, with the rest heading to exports. The finance minister has said the country could phase out the use of coal by 2040 – with financial help.
Australia burns more coal per capita than any other country on earth, with 5,343 cubic feet per person compared to 3,055 in China, 2,263 in the US, and a mere 729 in India. With no civil nuclear programme and being the world’s second largest exporter of the black stuff, 54% of Australia’s electricity comes from coal. The government also has ambitions to build more coal power plants.
TOP 10
04
South Korea
1.8% Global Consumption
Global Position 8
South Korea’s ministry of environment announced a complete phase out of coal-fired power stations in the country by 2050. In order to meet 2030 targets, the country will also have to cut its reliance on coal in half, to less than 21.8% (down from 41.9% in 2018). In order to achieve this, renewables will increase significantly – from 6.2% to 30.2%. Like Japan, South Korea is relying heavily on carbon capture to meet these ambitious targets.
“ renewables will increase significantly – from 6.2% to 30.2%” 70
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03 Japan
2.5% Global Consumption
Global Position 6
Fund new coal power plants and will phase out old plants in an attempt to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 46% by 2030. Japan is relying on new technology, in the forms of hydrogen and carbon capture and storage to meet its goals. Nuclear power production has taken a hit in Japan since Fukushima in 2011 but is still part of its future energy mix.
02
TOP 10
India
11.3% Global Consumption
Global Position 2
India, China and the United States make up the three largest consumers of coal and their signatures were all notably absent from any agreements to stop burning coal at COP26. Again, the figures may be distorted by India’s large population, but per capita they burn less than any country in the Top 10 globally. Although PM Modi made a net zero pledge by 2070, expect coal production and consumption to ramp up in the next few decades as India attempts to become more self-reliant and lift millions out of poverty.
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Together we can phase out coal power
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December 2021
TOP 10
Singapore is the first Asian country to join the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA), with the total number of nations involved now standing at 48
China
50.5% Global Consumption
Global Position 1
China burns more coal than all the other countries on the planet combined, and almost 5 times as much as India which takes second place globally. Little wonder therefore that China is reluctant to commit to moving away from this fossil fuel in the near future. Interestingly, when you consider China’s coal consumption per capita, then it’s huge population means it actually burns less coal per person than Germany and several entries on this APAC list (including South Korea and the largest global per capita consumer, Australia).
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BANKING ON THE FUTURE: DIGITAL SERVICES FOR PEOPLE WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND PRODUCED BY: MICHAEL BANYARD
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UNIONBANK
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UNIONBANK
Henry Aguda
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December 2021
UNIONBANK
Union Bank of the Philippines is leading the way in terms of banking innovation in the region. Henry Aguda, UnionBank’s dynamic CTOO and CTO, tells us more
H
enry Aguda hasn’t always worked in finance. In fact, the charismatic banking whizz who is currently both Chief Technology and Operations Officer, and concurrently, Chief Transformation Officer at UnionBank, says that it was his experience as a customer, first, that led him to his career in the banking sector. “I joined the bank five years ago. I'm originally a telco guy, but five years into the banking industry I could call myself an aspiring banker,” he laughs. Aguda spent his former years working as a merger of technology and finance, but mostly in the telco space. He then joined the bank and two years into the banking tenure, the board decided to create the fintech spinoff venture for UnionBank, which is UBX. Since then, he has been able to mix both technical and financial experience to create a unique banking subsidiary that is focused on creating technology innovation around financial services. His innovative leadership within the bank, he explains, has been led by his experience as a bank user. “Well, let's just say I'm a consumer of the financial sector. In the olden days, I avoided going to the bank branch unless it was necessary. I don't like lining up, and like most people, I don't want to be signing documents.” “As a consumer, what has attracted me most about this industry is that I know I can make an impact in terms of making people's lives easier If we apply the digital discipline appropriately.” businesschief.asia
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UNIONBANK
Technical innovation Another aspect that has fed Aguda’s enthusiasm has been Union Bank of the Philippines executives’ willingness to embrace new technical innovations. In just five years, immense and groundbreaking changes have been implemented. These changes have not only digitally transformed the bank’s services, but also led to the ‘work-from-home mandate during the pandemic, operating seamlessly. Currently, Union Bank of the Philippines is known to be number one in terms of profitability, ranking top in terms of ROE and ROI. It is also one of the six biggest banks in the Philippines and has 82
December 2021
won several awards for its services and achievements. Managing the pandemic While many companies and organisations globally had crisis management strategies in place prior to 2020, the unexpected pandemic still managed to throw them into disarray. Having previously implemented innovative technology strategies to handle situations as wideranging as earthquakes, active shooters in the building, floods, and terrorist attacks, Aguda says the transition to the entire organisation working from home, was carried out with relatively few bumps.
UNIONBANK
Henry Aguda
“ They realised that it was actually more convenient than the traditional channels to open an account with UnionBank during the pandemic”
TITLE: SENIOR EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY AND OPERATIONS OFFICER, AND CHIEF TRANSFORMATION OFFICER AT UNION BANK OF THE PHILIPPINES, AND CHAIRMAN AT UBX PHILIPPINES INDUSTRY: BANKING LOCATION: PHILIPPINES
HENRY AGUDA
EXECUTIVE BIO
CTOO AND CTO, UNIONBANK
Henry Aguda is the Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Technology and Operations Officer, and Chief Transformation Officer of Union Bank of the Philippines, and also Chairman of the Board of UBX Philippines, the fintech venture studio of the bank. Currently, he is a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Philippines Diliman Technology Management Center, a Global Faculty Mentor and Director of the Academic Advisory Board of the Asian Institute of Digital Transformation (AIDT), a Board Member of Insular Health Care, Inc. (IHC), and a Fellow Member of the Institute of Corporate Directors (FICD). He is also a former board member of the Philippine Clearing House Corporation (PCHC). Mr. Aguda obtained his degrees in Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Juris Doctor in Law, both from the University of the Philippines. He is the author of the book, “Data Privacy & Cybercrime Prevention in the Philippine Digital Age”. He was recognised as one of the “Top 10 banking and financial technology leaders on Digital Reinvention in ASEAN 2021,” featured in an E-book that The Asian Banker co-published with Backbase. Also just recently, he was awarded “Privacy Advocate of 2021” by the National Privacy Commission and “CTO of the Year – Southeast Asia” by The European Global Banking and Finance Awards 2021.
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UNIONBANK
“ If you give customers a facility that allows them to borrow money with competitive rates, nothing that would prevent them from repaying, that impacts people's lives”
One step ahead of the curve This forward-thinking approach has been applied to all areas of the bank’s services and is yielding extraordinary results. Indeed, Union Bank of the Philippines was the first regional bank to employ the use of enterprise architecture as part of its digital transformation process. Aguda believes this is the biggest innovation he’s brought to the table in terms of creating a better regulatory strategy in the banking sector.
HENRY AGUDA CTOO AND CTO, UNIONBANK
UBX - DIGITAL BANKING FOR THE FUTURE
DID YOU KNOW...
He explains, “In 2017, we started a massive shift to future-proof our business by using emerging technologies. We started retiring most of our desktop computers and started giving laptops to our employees. The world is a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous place even before a pandemic, and we’d prepared for everything from earthquakes, tidal waves, shooters in the building, and terrorist attacks. “We also went into an aggressive programme, giving cell phones with data loads to our employees. And we've created an infrastructure that is scalable as people start using the network. When the pandemic hit, it was just the right disaster that tested all of the readiness that we prepared for. So because of that, 87% of our people immediately were able to work from home, and they can work securely with VPNs and secured connections. This allowed us to ensure that our employees are working safely from their homes while we continue servicing the public.”
UBX is a fully owned subsidiary of Union Bank. The purpose of UBX is to multiply the digital capabilities of the bank. It’s a specialist arm that invests in the fintech industry, helping new startups to grow, and also using technology that is strategically aligned to the vision and aspirations of the bank. UBX is part of UnionBank's transformation B - a comparison would be the way AWS functions symbiotically with Amazon. UBX is also one of the fastest-growing FinTechs in Asia.
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UNIONBANK
1968
Company founded
11.6 Bn
Php Revenue (2020)
3,525
Number of employees
86
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UNIONBANK
Coming from a telco background, his skills were well-honed and he was surprised when he realised such systems were not present yet in the banking industry. He explains, “The biggest innovation that I was able to bring to the banking industry was the use of an enterprise architecture that is standard and internationally accepted. It's called the Banking Industry Architectural Network. It was quite a surprise for me because I thought banks being highly regulated and standardsbased, would already have the discipline locked in. But apparently, they hadn’t come across such a discipline.
“The biggest innovation that I was able to bring to the banking industry was the use of an enterprise architecture, that is standard and internationally accepted” HENRY AGUDA CTOO AND CTO, UNIONBANK
“So in joining the bank, while I was learning banking, I was also teaching my colleagues how a bank can be architected, such that it follows a digital template adopted worldwide.” From there, Aguda orchestrated a technological revolution within the bank, shifting it to technologically innovative systems including AI and robotic process automation, among others. Recently there were also discussions on the metaverse and how UnionBank can use its architecture to explore ways of serving people in Web 3.0. Ultimately, says Aguda, the success of the transformation has been down to the willingness of executives to embrace technology and trust in the new direction. businesschief.asia
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Union Bank of the Philippines utilises cybersecurity as a business enabler in their digital transformation framework Sustaining Security in the Digital Transformation Journey As digital innovators in the Philippine banking sector, UnionBank was committed to finding a cybersecurity partner who would further strengthen their commitment to safe and secure digital banking.
Fortifying Cloud Security with Palo Alto Networks Having seen tangible benefits from deploying Palo Alto Networks’ security solutions, UnionBank wanted to continue this long-standing partnership and ensure its secure migration to the cloud. UnionBank looked to Palo Alto Networks for consistent threat prevention across UnionBank’s cloud deployment and broad security and compliance coverage - for applications, data and the entire cloud native technology stack.
“UnionBank realized a 50% time reduction in conducting real-time threat intelligence after securing our infrastructure with Palo Alto Networks. We are confident that these benefits will extend to our cloud environment” Joey Rufo
First Vice President Chief Information Security Officer, UnionBank
Industry Financial Services Challenge Secure UnionBank’s cloud infrastructure, adhere to regulatory requirements and scale security operations to support innovation Solution Palo Alto Networks’ security platform, powered by a comprehensive suite of modern security detection and protection capabilities, provides threat prevention, cloud compliance and monitoring that enables ease of security governance while scaling their on-premise and cloud native resources. Collectively, the solutions enable for a comprehensive cloud security strategy while addressing organisational objectives and regulatory requirements. Outcomes • Increased visibility and scalability, ideal for cloud environments • Boost compliance and risk management requirements • Ability to secure infrastructure, applications and data across hybrid environments
Boosting Cloud Security Posture Palo Alto Networks was able to provide UnionBank a scalable solution, which was ideal for cloud environments. The consolidated security management enables consistent and advanced threat protection for UnionBank’s deployments, all whilst addressing organisational objectives, compliance and regulatory requirements.
Learn more
UNIONBANK
Banking on the future: Digital services for people
“I was lucky enough that the people I work with are all passionate and forward-thinking. They adapted to the new solutions quite easily.” Addressing the unbanked In 2019, according to an official financial inclusion study, an astonishing 51.2 million people in the Philippines were still unbanked. The pandemic has undoubtedly changed that - but in terms of addressing financial inclusion, the situation remains a challenge. In 2015, for example, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) set a goal to increase the number of digital payments in the country from just 1% to 20% by 2020. “We've exceeded that target and are hitting an estimated 30% in terms of digital transactions. We are still lower compared to our peers in the CN region, but we'll be at parity with them in one to two years’ time,” predicts Aguda.
In part, cultural attitudes to digital banking were responsible for a large number of unbanked people. “Some said, prior to the pandemic that people are used to traditional banking that they will never choose not to go to the branch. But then in the age of social distancing when you remove that option, people just gravitate towards what is available,” says Aguda, who recalls that in early 2020, there was initial hesitation in adopting more digital banking services, but once customers discovered how easy it was, the adoption level increased. “They realised that it was actually more convenient than the traditional channels to open an account with UnionBank during the pandemic, you don't have to leave your house. You just have to download the app, take a selfie of yourself, take a picture of your government-issued IDs, and within three minutes, you already have a bank account.” businesschief.asia
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The pandemic and the ease of use were the biggest contributing factors to customers seeking digital banking alternatives. As Aguda points out, culturally speaking, such services have been welcomed because they have made moving money around so much easier for users. He also believes the pandemic has been instrumental in changing transactional behaviour in the Philippines. “There's a lack of extended family in the Philippines, and there’s a cultural nuance where we take care of our extended families, whether they're living with us or living overseas, or in the rural areas. Because of that need, people had to adapt to the platform that allows them to extend their assistance to those extended family members.”
Cyber security and privacy practices But as with all major digital overhauls, cybercrime is never far behind - and has been instrumental in toppling many large-scale institutions since the pandemic began. It has therefore been at the forefront of many recent discussions by leading banks and institutions. Union Bank of the Philippines has responded to the threat by creating its own cybersecurity operations centre which is so technologically innovative that it has now become part of the banking regulatory framework. “Years before the pandemic, we started making our own cybersecurity operation centre, which has now become a standard required by our regulators for the other banks,” Aguda says. He goes on to explain that as one of the first banks in the region to implement such a programme, the centre,
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“ Engaging in the industry personally, with both people inside and outside of the Philippines, is number one on my bucket list” HENRY AGUDA CTOO AND CTO, UNIONBANK
which can be operated from three different continents, has proved remarkably effective. “We've been consistently recognised by our regulator for the education campaign in the ‘privacy by design’ approach that we take with our systems. You have to be one or two steps in front of the criminals. Otherwise, they will eat your lunch if you snooze. So, that's the approach we’ve taken.” He explains, “Privacy by design is a prescription by the National Privacy Commission. Everything we do from starting off an IP product check to creating a product, to creating an employee programme, has to be built into those programmes from day one, with data privacy protections, whether it's processes or technology implementation. “Often, the problems arise because companies do an IP project or a product development and the privacy compliance comes at the end. In our case, nothing gets started until it has the approval of our data businesschief.asia
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privacy group that says that we're building it according to data privacy regulations.” Strategic partnerships and banking ecosystems While Union Bank of the Philippines has worked hard to create a better climate for the region’s banks in general, it has also relied on the resources provided by a number of strategic partnerships. These working relationships have been critical to the bank’s success. “We value our strategic partners in the same way that we value our employees. We call them UnionBankers with a different company ID. AWS has been essential for our cloud infrastructure, Palo Alto for cybersecurity, VMware for the Virtual computing platform that powers the bank.”
5 of the world’s top 10 banks use Appian. Leading nancial institutions trust Appian to accelerate delivery of new products and services, reduce risk and improve operational eeciency. Discover how Appian connects people, systems and data with exibility and speed.
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He continues, “We collaborate with them in a partnership that is meaningful in the pursuit of a common vision. And for UnionBank, that common vision is financial inclusion for the broadest number of Filipinos in our country.” The system appears to be working because Union Bank of the Philippines has been awarded best digital bank for several consecutive years. “We have the passion for continual reinvention. For example, we recently got our license for a full-blown digital bank that will be called UnionDgital. Our plan is to continue to reinvent the way digital banking is being done.” Aguda explains that the bank’s backroom processes will be reconfigured to herald a new era in digital banking that is based in the metaverse - a new buzzword that has planted Web 3.0 or the spatial internet. “It's the merger of the physical and the virtual world. So UnionBank wants to be the first bank to plant its flag in the metaverse. We're now talking to gaming companies that provide play for pay as entertainment and e-sports, and looking at ways of how we could convert the crypto, immediately to fiat and fiat to crypto. Allowing gamers in the blockchain virtual world to easily participate in the traditional economies and vice versa. So, that's another exciting pursuit of UnionBank.”
This aspect concludes our conversation, a subject that is clearly a passion for Aguda. “What inspires me in banking today is the way that it is affecting people's lives,” he says. “If you give customers a facility that allows them to borrow money with competitive rates, nothing that would prevent them from repaying, that impacts people's lives. So that continues to sustain my interest in the banking industry.” Ultimately though, it all comes down to creating better services for the bank’s loyal customers, whether that is for the unbanked or the latest armchair investors. People, says Aguda, are at the heart of the matter - and as a highly sociable person, he can’t wait for things to get back to ‘normal’ - even if digital transformation has been fun.
Customer-first philosophy The world of play-for-pay is where the future lies in terms of progress for Union Bank of the Philippines, says Aguda, who explains that play-for-pay gamers often struggle to get bank accounts. “And because they don't have bank accounts, the yield on their conversion falls and they end up paying huge transfer fees. But by providing banking services, their earnings are immediately accessible and offer them a way to improve their lives.”
“The first thing I'm going to do is to go out and meet people. I want to have proper meetings. I want to fly to other countries and see our partners and colleagues. Before the pandemic, we travelled a lot. It’s one of the few things I really miss. So engaging in the industry personally, with both people inside and outside of the Philippines, is number one on my bucket list.”
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SEIZE THE DAY TO CREATE A GREEN BUSINESS MODEL WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE
PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE 94
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How sustainable experiences and a connected world drives profitability for Tech Mahindra clients as they embark on their post-pandemic digital journey
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eize the post-pandemic-day to create a green business model. This is the message from Sandeep Chandna, Chief Sustainability Officer at Tech Mahindra a US$5.1bn company - that believes sustainable experiences can power change for good, and not at the cost of profitability. “Climate change has become a reality. All of us have to make a concerted effort to resolve this together, it can't be a one-man show, or a one company show, it has to be a collaborative approach,” said Chandna. “The organisations that succeed in years to come will be those who have embedded sustainability into the core of their operations. Businesses have to be responsive towards moving into a green business model in order to combat global climate change.” As keynote speaker at Sustainability LIVE, Chandna will share further insights from Tech Mahindra on how they are working with global clients to create a future which is both sustainable and profitable. People, plant and profit Tech Mahindra is focused on leveraging next-generation technologies including 5G, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), blockchain, and cybersecurity to enable digital transformation while ensuring their clients incorporate green initiatives to benefit their people, plant and profits.
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Chief Sustainability Officer, Sandeep Chandna,
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A Tribute To The Tech Mahindra Culture
“ The organisations that succeed in years to come will be those who have embedded sustainability into the core of their operations” SANDEEP CHANDNA
CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER, TECH MAHINDRA
Tech Mahindra is a company that practices what it preaches. For instance, when you log on to their website run on dark mode by default – it shows a saving of 10.1 kW since 2020 and read that their ‘Green Marshals ’ have planted 65,000+ trees till date. Despite being one of the fastest growing brands among the top 15 IT service providers globally, sustainability is in the DNA of Indiabased Tech Mahindra, which is driving 98
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connected businesses with sustainable experiences. “We share our best practices with our customers, and we look at how we can share knowledge that brings improvements for both the organisation and its customers” comments Chandna. Founded in 1986, Tech Mahindra is part of the Mahinda group, which is one of the largest multinational federation of companies with more than 2,60,000 employees in 100 countries. How Tech Mahindra is RISING above the ordinary to combine strategy and sustainability to build a green future: • Turning to renewable energy (RE) (from 1.77% in FY 2015-16 to 21.2% in FY 2020-21) to achieve ecological balance • Investments remain in the green • Profitability aligned with principles - the company has saved more than US$2 million through sustainable initiatives
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• Sustainability-approved milestones of becoming Carbon neutral by 2030 and increase sourcing from Renewable Energy to 50% by 2025 and 90% by 2030
Trigger of the pandemic for digital transformation Chandna pointed out that the global pandemic was undoubtedly the biggest driver of technology adoption with most of the Tech Mahindra workforce having to work from home but with “no major customer escalations at any point of time.” “Companies had to be adaptable, flexible, agile, and resilient. Digital working is now a way of life and it is predicted that 65% of the world’s GDP is set to be digitised by 2022 which could be almost 6.8 trillion by 2023,” commented Chandna who pointed out it was now time for companies to seize the
TITLE: CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER INDUSTRY: IT AND SERVICES LOCATION: INDIA
EXECUTIVE BIO
“Tech Mahindra is focused on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) globally. It is enabling both rural prosperity and enhancing urban living with the goal to drive positive change,” said Chandna. “When you hear the name Tech Mahindra, you see a company with purpose both with sustainability and individual social responsibility. We are proud to be recognised among the top 100 sustainable companies in the world this year by Corporate Knights. That gives us the confidence that we are moving on the right track.” Chandna has passionately led the sustainability agenda from the initiation stage at Tech Mahindra for 14 years. “I’ve been very lucky that I got the opportunity to put in these green goals at the grassroots level. Over the years, we have been able to set up a structure, we have seen regular improvements and we have really accomplished something very important ”.
SANDEEP CHANDNA
Sandeep Chandna is a versatile, goal driven, resultsoriented executive leader with diverse background in multiple sectors with a proven track record of 25 years in IT & IT Services, Oil & Gas and Infrastructure industry. With more than a decade of experience in the area of EHS and Corporate Sustainability, Sandeep has led the Sustainability agenda from the initiation stage at Tech Mahindra to its Leadership position today. He has been instrumental in several key policy advocacy initiatives, leading a diverse stakeholder base and is being recognised by the national and international agencies.
TECH MAHINDRA
Pune Windmill
Mahindra Group - driving a RISE for good Tech Mahindra is part of the Mahindra Group, which has a strong focus on renewable energy, agriculture, logistics, hospitality and real estate. Founded in 1945, the Mahindra Group has a clear focus on leading ESG globally, enabling rural prosperity and enhancing urban living, with a goal to drive positive change in the lives of communities and stakeholders to enable them to RISE . It is one of the largest multinational federation of companies with 260,000 employees in more than 100 countries and is the world’s largest tractor company by volume. Solar Power Plant at Pune
DID YOU KNOW? How Tech Mahindra harnesses technology in a sustainable way At Tech Mahindra, growth leading to a sustainable future is a never-ending journey. Nurturing the technologies of the future, such as cloud, 5G and investing in blockchain has helped to net deals in Healthcare and BPS sectors along with acquisitions. BPS, cloud and digital engineering are all driving growth. Tech Mahindra expects double-digit growth from the cloud adoption business, while 5G and blockchain will bring new growth frontiers. The key focus will be on the blockchain-led initiatives such as digital payments, government-to-citizen services, and digital identities. Tech Mahindra formed a Cloud Advisory Board of 30 members divided across EMEA, America and the APAC regions.
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“ Tech Mahindra is focused on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) globally. It is enabling both rural prosperity and enhancing urban living with the goal to drive positive change” SANDEEP CHANDNA
CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER, TECH MAHINDRA
moment to incorporate sustainability into their digital transformation. “The pandemic has triggered a discussion on what we really value and highlighted the extent of local interconnectedness. As a result, we regard the future as an opportunity to rebuild economies with a focus on ESG. COVID-19 has hit almost every industry and it is important every leader believes that clean energy investments could spur recovery from economic devastation that accompanied the pandemic.” “There has been a major shift to clean energy with companies pledging to reduce or eliminate their carbon emissions. Big companies have also announced modifying their executive bonuses to be based on
Hyderabad TMTC
environmental issues of 2021. So, you can see how sustainability is being incorporated into the digital transformation.” Focus on 5G, cloud, AI and IoT for a sustainable future Chandna pointed out technologies like 5G and AI are going to play an increasingly important role in reducing harmful emissions for global organisations. “Companies are strategising ways to decarbonise their business models to create a greener future. Digital transformation powered by 5G, cloud, AI and IoT offers the best ways to meet these goals. Technology has been defining the role to address some of the grievous challenges faced by the planet and humanity, said Chandna who pointed out Tech Mahindra is working on their innovation platform IRS to offer solutions for their customers and society. businesschief.asia
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“Technology will definitely enable the sustainable transformation for most businesses post-pandemic,” said Chandna who provided some examples of how these emerging technologies can reduce carbon emissions: • Implementing 5G solutions in the UK manufacturing sector has a potential to save almost 14 megatons of carbon emissions by 2035 (A Greener Connected Future, O2) • The UK’s NHS reported initiatives of moving email servers to cloud and improving it's digital infrastructure could reduce almost 4,000 tonnes of carbon emissions • Implementing AI solutions during the initial outbreak of COVID-19 - doctors were able to speed up the analysis of data, allowing for quick turnaround of diagnosis and vaccinations • Use of drones to deliver vaccinations to rural communities
“ When you speak of Tech Mahindra you are talking about a company with purpose for both sustainability and individual social responsibility. We are proud to be recognised among the top 100 sustainable companies in the world this year by Corporate Knights. That gives us the confidence that we are moving on the right track” SANDEEP CHANDNA
CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER, TECH MAHINDRA
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Low carbon energy installations 250KWp Solar Power Plant at Pune
1986
Year Founded
US$ 5.1 bn Revenue
141,100+
Number of Employees Operating in
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Global customers including Fortune 500 companies
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“These are just a few examples of how emerging technologies are reducing carbon emissions. At Tech Mahindra we are playing a major role in looking at how we can help our customers reduce their carbon emissions.” Human-centric experience with NXT.NOW framework Tech Mahindra has launched a NXT. NOW framework, which aims to enhance the ‘human centric experience’ for their
ecosystem and drive collaborative disruption with synergies arising from a robust portfolio of companies. “This will allow us to collaborate on creating value and building scale for our joint customers through rapid prototyping and development of next generation low-code, no-code apps across 5G, IoT AI, ML, and the customer experience,” said Chandna. “It will also identify specific opportunities and build industry solutions for keywords, in communication, media and entertainment,
Tech Mahindra – Chennai TMCC
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“ COVID-19 has hit almost every industry and it is important for every leader to believe that clean energy investments could spur recovery from economic devastation that accompanied the pandemic” SANDEEP CHANDNA
CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER, TECH MAHINDRA
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SUSTAINABILITY LIVE EVENT BizClik Media Group – publisher of Sustainability Magazine – is excited to announce the launch of its ground-breaking Sustainability LIVE event. It all takes place on 23-24 February 2022 at Tobacco Dock – London's premier 'upcycled' venue. Indeed, the only thing that will be smoking is Sustainability LIVE's inspirational sessions, speakers and stages. During the two days, the allencompassing event will cover every aspect of Global ESG, Diversity & Inclusion, Global Equality, Net Zero Strategies and Renewable Energy. It will also feature a unique stage entirely dedicated to the most pressing subject within the corporate ecosystem – Supply Chain Sustainability.
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energy, and utility, and to accelerate crossindustry adoption.” He also stressed that it was time to focus on carbon pricing mechanisms. “All the green initiatives that we speak about need some kind of funds. It is high time that we bring in carbon pricing mechanisms for these sustainability efforts and see how they progress in green business, so that funds don't become an issue for businesses.” Tech Mahindra shows its green credentials The ultimate goal of Tech Mahindra was to be among the top five IT companies and top three IT companies within India by 2021 which they have achieved. “We were very clear on how we wanted to achieve this with responsible business growth and enhanced operational eco-efficiency along with being recognised by others as a top brand to work for. “Our customers give more preference to the vendors who can show their green credentials,” said Chandna who stressed that Tech Mahindra is the only company which is listed in Carbon Clean 200 and ranked #1 in India in the list of World’s 100 Most Sustainable Corporations by Corporate Knights. . “We are constantly rated among the highest, whether it is for sustainability or for our eco-ideas - that brings an added advantage in the marketplace as this is a company with a good ESG performance, which is dependable, has the right practices and good global policies in place.” Tech Mahindra not only has all the attributes above, but also a passionate advocate and speaker in Chandna who we look forward to hearing from next year at Sustainability LIVE. Come and join us.
“ At Tech Mahindra we are playing a major role in looking at how we can help our customers reduce their carbon emissions” SANDEEP CHANDNA
CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER, TECH MAHINDRA
Extensive landscape and tree plantation
TRANSFORMING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE THROUGH TECHNOLOGY WRITTEN BY: ALEX TUCK PRODUCED BY: KRIS PALMER
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Mola attributes its success in Indonesia to putting the customer first. We look at how they work with technology partners to drive progress
M
ola achieved a breakthrough in Indonesia in June of this year, as it became the first broadcaster to provide 4K matches during its live streaming of the European Championships. A football-mad part of the world, Indonesia has proven an ideal place to provide over-the-top (OTT) services. With speed and quality frequently an issue for football lovers across the country, in a land frequently whose infrastructure is regularly impacted by natural disasters, it isn’t the easiest environment for a broadcaster. Despite this, Mola is the fastest growing entertainment network in Indonesia. CP Lee, Chief Technology Officer for Mola, discussed how the Jakarta-based video on-demand and over-the-top streaming service saw an opportunity: “The OTT market is a very, very competitive environment right now, with all the big studios providing their own direct to consumers platform. It presents an opportunity for Mola, so we can compliment areas the studios are unable to.” businesschief.asia
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Transforming customer experience through technology
Raising the bar through technology As Chief Technology Officer, Lee was given the significant task of rebuilding Mola’s technologies gradually from the ground up over the last 6 months. “In terms of quality, especially from the OTT platform, it is multifaceted. Right from the incoming source, to the encoding process, as well as distribution. This three part process has to be looked not just as separate parts, but also as one interconnected pipeline.” Lee states that three components are necessary for in this pipeline: • Incoming source • Encoding process • Quality distribution to end user He adds: “So what Mola is trying to do is to look into all these three angles, to make sure that we have the best technology in place for it”. 112
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“ The ecosystem is three tier. The provider, the technology partners and the end users. It’s a feedback loop” CP LEE CTO, MOLA
The drive to raise standards in Indonesia is a collective effort, as Lee explains: “The ecosystem is always three tier. From a provider, the technology partners, as well as the end users, all comes back as a feedback loop. The more that we can actually work with all our partnerships, together with supporting the end users, will then make the platform stronger and they can stay with us consistently.”
MOLA
Tackling latency through key partners As Mola operates many of its services live, this brings added expectation of high quality and increases the chances of things going wrong. As a big football fan himself, Lee explains that these reasons, such as
CP LEE TITLE: CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER LOCATION: SINGAPORE
EXECUTIVE BIO
The English Premier League (EPL) has been a cornerstone of Mola’s success, right from the start: “Historically, Mola has provided EPL matches not only directly, but also through our partners as well. We want to serve what we call the ‘football friends’ community in Indonesia, so we introduced the 4K EPL matches on a weekly basis. This comes back to the story of us really wanting to provide the best experience for our users and our subscribers.” said Lee. The expansion into 4K has involved tight collaborations with the television platforms. Lee continued: “Samsung Tizen, upcoming Apple TVs, LG, webOS, and Android TVs. These are all part and parcel of the plan to engage our end users, as wide as possible.”
CP Lee joins Mola as its CTO in 2021, spearheading the Technological Division to drive innovative technological advancement into its video platform, as it bid for success in the competitive landscape. Coming from a series of dynamic multi-faucet roles in various Multi-National Corporations, including Apple and the media house HBO, Lee is our perfect candidate to drive this ambition forward.
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MOLA
a delay to the stream that may cause a key moment in a match to be missed, has led Mola to prioritise speed: “latencies are critical in terms of the video feed reaching the end users. Speed is critical in today's market. On the OTT side, it’s about getting the content up to the users as fast as we can.” A key partner for Mola in this regard has been French-based software company Broadpeak. Lee continued: “We started working with Broadpeak so we can bring the best quality, the fastest, as well as the lowest latency stream to the end user in Indonesia. This is a very tight integration partner between Mola and Broadpeak.” The comprehensive Content Delivery Network (CDN) solution from Broadpeak optimises the delivery of ABR live sports streaming content (including English Premier League football matches). With the CDN, BkM100 video delivery manager and BkS400 HTTP video cache servers, Mola can provide a superior quality of experience (QoE) for fans while reducing the video streaming costs.
Broadpeak Headquartered in Cesson Sevigne, France, Broadpeak designs and manufactures video delivery components for Content Providers and Network Service Providers deploying IPTV, Cable, Satellite, OTT and mobile services, helping operators increase market share and improve subscriber loyalty through quality of experience. businesschief.asia
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“Mola has become a hub for EPL matches and other live sports streaming content, and as our video streaming service grows, we need a scalable video delivery network solution for all screens,” said Lee. “Broadpeak provides us with a scalable, flexible CDN solution that sets a path for seamless OTT growth in the future. With Broadpeak’s CDN, we achieve low latency and reduced buffering, which is critical for live sports,” he added. The 4K delivery is based on ATEME technology, a leader in video delivery solutions, due to its high quality and low latency from source, as well as playout partner Harmonic, which powers the encoding and the vault too. Harmonic's
“BroadPeak’s hybrid private CDN solution brings a high quality, faster and lower latency stream for the end user” CP LEE CTO, MOLA
VOS®360 cloud streaming SaaS introduced live UHD HDR streaming, ensuring the highest level of service reliability and realtime scaling for Mola’s streaming service, simplifying the live streaming workflow from source to screen. Another hidden secret behind Mola’s success is how it’s content works with Tizen, behind the multifaceted offering of the Samsung Smart TV from Samsung Electronics. Tizen is a Linux-based, open-source web operating system (OS) that supports a range of devices including TVs, mobile devices, home appliances and even signage. businesschief.asia
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MOLA
These technologies, Lee explained, have been vital for Mola to introduce 4K to its EPL rights: “We are looking at 4K source so that we can get that high quality bitrate, HDR at the colour contrast to the end users, beyond what they are used to from the HD environment.” Prioritising the customer experience As is typical in the world of subscriptionbased on-demand services, content recommendation plays a significant role in the viewer’s experience. As Lee describes: “Data is important from a platform perspective. We are trying to understand what the user wants, so we provide a superior offering through better content recommendations. And this is not just about content recommendation, it's about acquiring new content.”
He continues: “Data has always been an important part in any organisation. Not just today, but in the past as well. But with the advancement of technologies, data is much easier to collect and faster to analyse. We want to understand our users better. The more we understand what our users love, the better we can give them what they really want.” In addition to the live rights, Mola creates original content – which it labels intoxicatedly as ‘Home Brew’ content – around football, up-and-coming musicians, and even live music shows, providing spots on the platform to showcase new talents. “Another direction for the company going forward is to embrace content creation, to increase our offering from a general entertainment perspective.” businesschief.asia
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Protecting rights holders and thinking long term Given the importance of rights to broadcasters like Mola – as proven with Euro 2022 and the EPL – there is an added responsibility to protect the principle rights holder too. The importance of cyber security cannot be overlooked, according to Lee: “We treat security very seriously. One of the partners that we are working with is Verimatrix, who allow us to protect all our live streams, as well as our video on-demand assets. So that the content that we acquire is adequately protected. This gives assurance to our end users, as well as our providers, that we are in this game in the long run. To me, this is an important message to the potential broadcast rights holders we want to work with.
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We don’t just come in, deliver and disappear. We’re building long lasting relationships with everyone.” Describing the partner ecosystem, Lee says: “We are not a single cell. We work with all partners in one body. These partnerships drive Mola forward. With their technology roadmap, we'll be able to deliver more. It allows us to increase accessibility to more people in our key domestic market of Indonesia and to expand at speed into new markets – it’s an exciting time for the company.” Despite the recent success with 4K, its improved artificial intelligence (AI) platform and the ever-expanding rights deals, Lee is not resting on his laurels when it comes to new frontiers and technology partners: “I think one of the key messages for Mola moving forward is providing a better quality experience, through technology, to enhance overall usage on the platform. That is what we are targeting, to serve our customers, the end users, better and faster.”
“ We can compliment areas the big studios are unable to” CP LEE CTO, MOLA
As Mola continues to raise the bar in it’s own backyard, Lee has big ambitions for the future. Named after a gigantic sunfish commonly found in temperate, tropical oceans around the world, Lee says the company’s vision is to boldly travel into new, more unfamiliar waters: “First and foremost, we must deliver a better experience to our end users and to our subscribers. But secondary is to look at the expansion plan. We must make sure that we are able to bring the platform beyond the shores of Indonesia, into the neighbouring countries as well as the rest of the world.”
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Fusionex Augmented Analytics
GROW YOUR BUSINESS BY HARNESSING THE NEXT DISRUPTOR IN ANALYTICS Explore all the ways digital transformation can help you make future-proof decisions based on existing data. Fusionex Augmented Analytics generates insights using the power of machine learning to accelerate the discovery of new growth areas and revenue streams for your business.
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www.fusionex-international.com