Human-led, tech-powered solutions, the new reality to transform in Asia Pacific

In today’s world, we are seeing a volatile global landscape with financial market fluctuation, continuation of ‘The Great Resignation’, heightened climate pressures and geopolitical tensions. Against this backdrop, Asia Pacific still stands out as a beacon for growth, buoyed by robust domestic consumption and increased investment. 

However, we cannot take growth for granted. The far-reaching impact of global events will continue to linger and underscore the need for businesses to break away from the status quo and reinvent. Many CEOs and workers in Asia Pacific agree: 53% and 39% respectively believe their company will not survive in the coming decade if it continues on its current path.

The last four years and the pandemic have reaffirmed that change is truly a constant, especially around the key areas of:

1. Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), led by ChatGPT, which has the potential to revolutionise operational paradigms and challenge what we know about productivity

2. Cybersecurity and data privacy, to manage and stay ahead of digital risks that rise from emerging and advanced technology

3. Cloud-first strategies to accelerate digital transformation, move beyond migration and power digital innovation

4. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), which remains a long-term focus for Asia Pacific CEOs to create business and societal value in tandem

In this new era, it is clear that the question is no longer whether we should embrace digitalisation, but rather how. How can business leaders rethink their organisational models and workforce strategy to stay relevant and seamlessly integrate new technologies?

One of the leading regional banks in the ASEAN region is on its transformation journey with a vision to become the world’s most trusted bank, with a clear security advantage over local and regional competitors. 

Faced with increasing cybersecurity challenges, the bank turned to PwC’s regional and international cyber experts and our cyber maturity assessment and benchmarking platform, Connected Risk Engine (CRE). Combining human expertise with a leading digital tool, CRE helped our client achieve the following outcomes:

• Assessment, visualisation and mapping of their maturity state against their peers
• Clear and meaningful cyber maturity benchmark to inform the bank's cyber strategy
• Robust security target operating model and service catalogue for its group security functions

A global manufacturer headquartered in China sought to transform how they can track and analyse emissions, to better identify reduction opportunities and deliver robust, trusted reporting. 

Central to this was PwC’s Emission Tracker, which had been deployed within the client’s business. Our dedicated community of solvers worked closely with the client’s cross-functional project team, with a data-driven methodology collected from hundreds of systems.  

With PwC’s asset-backed approach, the client was able to:

• Obtain verifiable data to drive greater accountability
• Collect and analyse data in a credible manner, aligned to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) accounting methodologies
• Benchmark their current standing against their sustainability goals across all their subsidiaries

Phase two of the project is focused on achieving and cascading a sustainable culture. This will be done by extending the ESG reporting methodology to a larger set of subsidiaries and further enhancing technology infrastructure, data quality and insight and process integration.

1. Start embedding technology in delivery of services and solutions regardless of complexity or scale
2. Ensure your digital assets are not operating in silos, but are tied back to the overall technology ecosystem in the organisation and its stakeholders
3. Tap in to the power of partnerships - strategically leverage market alliances and business relationships with third party technology providers
4. Finally, embrace agility: continuously iterate and modify the asset-based approach, based on your organisation’s business and growth objectives

We will be pleased to share our experience and learnings from adopting an asset-based services approach and what it might mean for you and your organisation - please reach out to us through our contact details below and let’s start a conversation.

*PwC’s Asia Pacific Marketplace is live in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Other territories in the region will soon follow - watch this space!