Category: Interview

William heads up JLL’s Workplace Analytics and IOT (Internet of Things) practice in APAC, a full-time multi-disciplinary group dedicated to delivering innovative and ethical Analytical/IOT solutions to drive better design, provisioning and management of real estate through data.

His practice enables real estate owners and occupiers to understand real space needs and take actions to optimize their spaces for cost reduction, workforce efficiency and revenue generation.

William has been managing the strategic use of technology to enable business growth in the Asia-Pacific region for over 2 decades. His experience spans several industries including real estate (since 2003), e-commerce marketplace, technology and product internationalization (I18N).

Since 2016, William’s focus has been on using the Internet of Things (IOT) and data analytics to solve pressing issues in real estate. His work includes advanced IOT sensing platforms (machine vision, radar) and data science to deliver actionable insights from facts. He has successfully delivered solutions to real estate developers, landlords, co-working space managers, and occupiers in the banking, technology, automotive, pharma, services and FMCG sectors.

William holds a Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and a Diploma in electronic engineering with additional certificates in visual analytics design (DataViz), strategic IT planning and Six Sigma.

Interviewer: What do you feel are the biggest challenges IT leaders are currently faced with?  

William: Sprawling mandate. Today, technology leaders can create value in numerous areas of business – perhaps too many. This results in a demand crunch for the best IT leaders and talents. However, there is never enough of these to cover all areas and so those demands end up being filled by pseudo-tech leaders, often outside the span of technology leadership. Apart from the risk of these roles being filled by less-than-qualified candidates, the larger issue is the fragmentation of focus and overlapping roles.

Interviewer: As a leader in the IT industry, what do you feel businesses can work on when it comes to their IT strategy?

William: Focus on business and collaborate with proven technology leaders. The incessant commentary on “Digital Transformation”, “Innovation” and “Technology Disruption” very often drowns out the purpose of it. Sometimes, people end up saying “we need to continuously innovate and digitally transform our business to avoid being disrupted by technology”. That’s all fine and dandy… but what does that mean for your business? What does the to-be or new business look like? What are the chances that new business can be viable? These are areas that business leaders excel in – sensing the market, finding arbitrage between demand and supply to create a profitable business. This, when combined with technological know-how, is how market-beating businesses are created.

Interviewer: Things change so quickly in the IT industry, what does it take to stay on top?

William: Free up time to think about business and get really interested in it. What moves the market, what makes profit, why we are in business. On the flip side, non-tech folks are thinking and talking about technology more than technologists! Many are talking themselves into a tech leaders’ position – when that happens, IT leaders get relegated to “keeping the lights on” roles.

Interviewer: Where do you see the industry headed within the next one to five years and what do you feel will be the biggest game changers?

William: I believe that in the next 5 years, we will see companies where skilled technology leaders collaborate with astute business leaders that have begun to manifest profitable business. These examples will rise above sundry commentary and perhaps give more form and substance for others to follow. As it stands today, very few organisations have successfully transformed a traditional business into a new one. The poster child we hear talk about are mostly digital natives or new businesses that have exploited an imbalance in a traditional industry.

Interviewer: What is the best piece of advice you have received within your job over the years?

William: Never stop questioning and pushing. With wisdom garnered over the years, to do this tactfully and politically.

Interviewer: What advice would you give to someone trying to excel in the IT industry?

William: Be more than the talk. Be great at your craft and learn to be a good businessman.

Interviewer: What do you feel is the hottest topic right now in the industry and what is its effect on the industry?

William: Talent. Because after all the talk and the models and the “5 steps to focus on 3 things and get 8 things right to power your Digital Transformation” are people who make these plans and theories work, and this means course-correcting on the fly.

Interviewer: What do you feel the most passionate about within your business?

William: JLL is a business that is constantly evolving and adapting. Given our size, we continue to innovate and change the market. We’re as focused on our current market as we are in the next market. And we push the boundaries toward those new markets. For example, we’re currently pushing the industry towards a more ethical and efficient way making the office smarter without infringing into personal privacy. The current market norm is to put an IOT sensor under everyone’s desk (see if you have one under your desk). With innovative use of technology, you can do away with these in the majority of cases!

Interviewer: What is one key takeaway you hope our CIO audience leaves with after hearing your presentation on site?

William: Be great at your craft, become an astute businessman and be the inspiration for follow-up generation of technology leaders.

About JLL

An autodidact and a polymath, Harish is Singapore’s first local born Professional Futurist. A critical reference point today for other Professional Futurists worldwide in the area of Technological Evolution & Foresight, he is endearingly referred to most commonly as “The Singapore Futurist”, apart from also being referred to as “The Asian Futurist” and “The Millennial Futurist”. His areas of Consulting and Keynotes include, though are not limited to, Industry 4.0, HR 4.0, Organisational Future Proofing, Product Development, Marketing & Growth Strategy, Strategic Foresight, Systems Thinking, Scenario Planning and X Reality (XR).

Harish has spoken at companies like Deloitte, Dimension Data and Unilever. Bringing a focus on the Future, he has opened major conferences for areas as diversely varying as from Hospitality Management to Human Resource Management. The subject that excites him most, personally, is that of Technological Evolution.

Interviewer: “What do you feel are the biggest challenges IT leaders are currently faced with?”

Harish: “Firstly, today, and moving forth, IT needs to be acknowledged as an inseparable core constituent of the very DNA of a business. Adding to that, it needs to be acknowledged that IT is very rapidly becoming an inseparable core constituent of our very human experience itself.

However, at the same time, IT Practitioners will need to acknowledge, that not everyone is wired for the typed of aptitude, capacity or competencies that they, IT Practitioners themselves, are wired with, to comprehend, understand or appreciate, the science, the engineering and the technicalities, to do with IT. In fact, IT Practitioners need to acknowledge and appreciate, that they will always be special, needed and important, because they will always remain a very tiny minority, that the vast majority of people around them will depend upon, for anything and everything, to work or happen. As flattering as this may sound, the truth is, we all serve different purposes in organisations, in business, in industry, in society and in life. IT Practitioners, specifically, amongst much else, serve the purpose of knowing what is required, to build, maintain and evolve IT, to meet the aspirations and expectations, of both themselves and others around them. This is where one of the biggest challenges for IT leaders emerges.

As the technological evolution continues to accelerate all around us, the challenge for IT Leaders is to help the majority of people around them, understand and appreciate, the technical or scientific challenges or complexities of meeting the needs, demands and aspirations of the organisation, especially, the constraints and limitations.

It will also be a challenge for IT Leaders, to help their peers within their respective organisations to make the most, of what evolving technology has to offer, in the greater good of the business. This is a challenge because unlike IT Practitioners, not everyone is as adept or will be as adept, at embracing or picking-up, the rapidly progressing new technologies, or software, or features, or tools, either to do new things or to do things better. All IT Practitioners, not just the Leaders, will have to develop an appreciation, for this difference, between themselves and their peers who are not trained or educated like them, in the IT field.

At the same time, another huge challenge for IT Leaders, is to start thinking, speaking, ideating, implementing, executing and managing aspects of business, that go well outside and beyond, what they may have been academically, technically or professionally trained for, for all their lives, predominantly. They will have to think and get involved in aspects of the organisation, its processes, functions and objectives, that in practical fact, may have nothing to do with software, hardware, network system, etc, at all, whatsoever. Personally, to many an IT Leader out there, getting into the Mental Model as such, to enable them to do all these things, with a vision or perspective aligned with that of all their non-IT peers in the organisation’s leadership, is likely a gargantuan challenge.

The matter of fact is, that the IT of today, and the future, is not about ensuring employees in an organisation have their PCs, their email and access to shared folders up and running uninterrupted. Rather, it is about, supporting the sourcing of consumer needs or aspirations, supporting the product as well as process innovation, and then getting a desired product all the way into a consumer’s hands. And then, it is about yet much more. In fact, it is about everything, inside and around the organisation, as well as all of the organisation’s activities. Therefore, the IT Leader, moving forth, has to also be a strategic Business Leader, that his or her organisation, can rely upon for Profit, from short-term, to long-term.”

Interviewer: “What would you recommend IT Leaders start taking action towards to prepare for the future?”

Harish: “For a start, IT Leaders need to draw their focus upon the subject of learning, on two tiers.

The first tier, is to embrace and engage in learning for themselves, about business, management and all sorts of organisational functions, outside of the space of technology, such as HR, Marketing, PR, and so on. Then learn how to capitalise their cross-functional knowledge, of their specific area or areas of specialisation, that lands them in the IT Leadership role, and cross-functional knowledge, in different areas of business and management.

The second tier, is to increasingly position themselves, to influence and play a part in the wider or general learning of the organisation, to drive or shape the direction, of plans, investments and so on, in employee or people development, so that employees across all functions, at every level, are trained and continue to be trained, adequately and appropriately, to work with technology, both currently relevant, as well as that foreseeably relevant in the future, for the organisation’s needs and objectives.”

Interviewer: “Things change so quickly in the IT industry, what does it take to stay on top?”

Harish: “To stay on top, you need to stay ahead.

You need to develop your own foresight, or otherwise, resources for foresight, to enable you to stay ahead. And then you need to use that foresight to drive your decisions and strategies.

Mitigate threats, as much as you can, before, they arrive, at your doorstep. Capture and exploit opportunities, before others realise them. You can do this, with effective foresight and Futures Studies.

You cannot predict the future. You can, however, study it, and then, from the findings of your study, prepare for it, adequately. Firstly though, understand the difference, between trying to predict the future, and trying to study it.

All of that said, things are changing rapidly today, with technology, because a lot of changes are happening very frequently. Not all of the changes are lasting, game-changing, ground-breaking or future-defining. The trick is to spot, identify and understand, the ones that will be. Focus on being prepared for those specific imminent changes that are going to matter in the long run and you will do fine.”

Interviewer: “What is the best piece of advice you have received within your career over the years?”

Harish: “When I was an undergraduate, studying Commerce at The University of Western Australia, my Professor for Consumer Behaviour, the late Professor Anthony Pecotich, told the lecture group I was in, to remember, that whenever you pass any subject at school or university, or when you pass out of any course with any certificate or any degree, do not make the foolish mistake of thinking of yourself, or considering yourself, as an expert in that subject area. Always accept, that once you have learnt or passed something, you have come to know just a little bit, that you can then use, to begin learning, a little more out of infinitely more that there is to learn out there, in that subject area, beyond that point in time.

About Stratserv Consultancy

Himanshu and his team are responsible for accelerated delivery of Citi’s Mobile first strategy and driving digital channels to next generation technology capabilities. Responsible for Development and Deployment of Internet and Mobile banking platform, API, ESB and CMR applications for Asia and EMEA Consumer Business. The primary focus for this role is application development, deployment of technology based business critical solutions, standardization of platforms & processes, managing large  teams in diverse geographies, off shoring & outsourcing, vendor management.

Himanshu joined Citi in 2003 as a Manager – Application Development in Business Systems Team of CitiFinancial, India. Since then, he has had many stints within Consumer Business Technology in India and Singapore. He has extensive experience in Product Development, Project Management and Implementation. Product/Solution design using various technologies. He leverages his knowledge of Citi’s systems and technology to deliver solutions to clients.

He holds a Bachelors Degree from the Delhi University specializing in Computer Science, Mathematics and Science & a Masters of Business  Administration from Institute of Management and Technology, Ghaziabad, India (I.M.T.) specializing in Marketing and Technology.

1) What do you feel are the biggest challenges IT leaders are currently faced with within their business?
Biggest challenges I find currently are:
Balancing Speed
Cost and Quality of Solutions being delivered.

2) As an IT leader, what do you feel businesses continue to get wrong when it comes to their IT strategy?
IT is a support function for the business, in fact IT is business now.

3) What are the latest trends and behaviours you predict will be surfacing on the market over the coming 12 months?
AI/ML using Big Data will be BAU.

4) What is the best piece of advice you have received within your job over the years?
Doing is easy, getting it done is difficult.

5) What is one key takeaway you hope our IT audience leaves with after hearing your presentation on site?
Be an ecosystem player to win, and it’s not so difficult if we have the thought.

Ramesh Munamarty is the Group Chief Information Officer for International SOS. He leads the technology function for the Group that includes the engineering functions for the leading digital products that the company offers. International SOS is the world’s leading Medical and Travel Security Assistance Company and is in the business of saving and protecting lives from more than 1000 locations in 90+ countries. The Group companies also include Aspire lifestyles which inspires the extraordinary in lifestyle services for leading financial institutions and high-end retail businesses. MedAire provides medical and travel safety services to leading commercial airlines, corporate aviation and yachts.

1) What do you feel are the biggest challenges IT leaders are currently faced with within their business?
One of the challenges that the leaders have is balancing innovation with growth. The advent of new technologies such as AI, ML and Blockchain can be a gamechanger to enter to new domains, however the growth with current strategy may prevent organizations being agile to fuel innovation for the next growth wave. The other challenge is driving organizational change management to make the enterprises be more agile. The third challenge is providing superior customer experiences with talent well versed in modern technologies and getting appropriate funding.

2) As an IT leader, what do you feel businesses continue to get wrong when it comes to their IT strategy?
Companies don’t link IT strategy with customer needs and don’t have clear metrics that link the KPIs of IT to the Enterprise KPIs. Many companies are also inward looking and don’t consider IT to be a strategic function that can be a differentiator and gain competitive market share.

3) What are the latest trends and behaviours you predict will be surfacing on the market over the coming 12 months?
One of the key behaviour change will be the agile way of working and leveraging modern technologies such as AI, ML and blockchain. In addition, data analytics will be a key focus area for several companies. There will be an increase in Cloud Adoption and network transformation to be ready for Cloud such as SD-WAN.

4) What is one key takeaway you hope our IT audience leaves with after hearing your presentation on site?
Drive digital transformation by organizing agile teams into pods, reusing tech patterns and focusing on business outcomes.

Steve Ng is the Lead for Digital Platform Operations (Digital Group) in Mediacorp, with a keen interest and vision in adopting new technologies and solutions to improving the work environment. In Mediacorp’s Digital Transformation journey, Steve is instrumental in upgrading its cybersecurity using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), behavioral and pattern recognition with the intent to quickly identify, isolate and neutralize threats. Steve is also leading the Blockchain initiative in Mediacorp, developing use cases and applications, and building up the blockchain technology ecosystem to enhancing customer experience, corporate governance, and streamlining business systems.

1) What do you feel are the biggest challenges IT leaders are currently faced with within their business?

Cybersecurity threats, unknowns in their environment, and widening skill gaps are three of the key challenges faced in my opinion.

Cybersecurity threats landscape is continuously evolving, getting more sophisticated in design and our reaction time is shortening. All these factors combined caused IT leaders to scramble for quick fixes and reprioritise IT budget on the fly.

Acquiring cybersecurity talents with relevant skills and experience is also another challenging task. Most of the time, candidates do not have the necessary skills and credentials, as well as sufficient work experience to be competent on the job. Besides hiring, we are also upgrading our own people’s skill set with a long-term approach.

2) As an IT leader, what do you feel businesses continue to get wrong when it comes to their IT strategy?

Generally, the lack of strategy and execution of plans due to pressure to fire fight any immediate issues aka knee-jerk reactions. We may be solving urgent issues but may not be the important and strategic tasks.

Resource planning is another factor, with a mid-term strategic plan, IT leaders need to identify the skill gaps, develop existing staff to take on new roles, and identify new partners to supplement the team.

3) What are the latest trends and behaviours you predict will be surfacing on the market over the coming 12 months?

Doing more with less is the common theme here. Business and IT leaders need to identify and acquire new solutions and skills for their organisation to better manage the dynamic global environment.

Knowing your data is another important trend. Having visibility and insights into our systems and operational environment can give us early warning signs of stress and potential issues. Big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning are critical platforms to help us achieve the goal of spotting the potential issues amongst the ocean of data.

4) What is the best piece of advice you have received within your job over the years?

Build a strategic vision, communicate the plans, develop the people and partner ecosystems to support the execution. This is a collection of advice from many wise mentors in my career, each adding a layer of wisdom to my thought processes, people management skills and foresight.

5) What is one key takeaway you hope our IT audience leaves with after hearing your presentation on site?

Collaboration is the key ingredient to successful outcomes. Learn from other people’s experience and journey, identify how to improve your own journey, and collaborate.