Thomson Reuters invited me to share some of my thoughts on corporate readiness for the AEC Asean Economic Community, based upon my blog articles.
The following are my summary points, which shared during a panel discussions.
General thoughts on ASEAN
ASEAN needs visionary leaders who given ASEAN and the community a strong vision. Think Adenauer and de Gaulle, who forged a peaceful and prosperous Europe post World War II. What will ASEAN and the AEC be when it grows up?
Slow market liberalisation through the AEC and also other free trade agreements
Launch and adoption of digital businesses like UBER, GrabTaxi show both the need and that existing players across ASEAN (the globe?) aren’t addressing clients needs
Local companies need to drive scale or excel in a niche to compete, due to market liberalisation
Foreign companies who are having a global operating model can compete easier in some sectors versus locals
Integration drives organizations to expand — competition to head up dramatically
Many “fake” experts on AEC, ASEAN Integration, and Corporate Transformation
Business challenges for ASEAN integration
Asean Conglomerates often prefer to expand horizontally into different verticals versus expand vertical businesses (sense of control within a geographic area)
ASEAN and APAC integration drives competition and hence (verticals) organizations to scale, to regionalize
Expanding vertical business such as banks or telecommunication company, requires operational and technology excellence
Depending on businesses entry cost across the region still high:
Rules of incorporation and shareholder ship
Visa and Labour rules
Easier for large corporation
Languages / it’s not always about english! Why are there no similar institution like Goethe Institute and Alliance Francaise by asian countries? A Thai or Indonesian Institute for language and culture across the region…
Addressing organization readiness
Business Operations
Process and ongoing optimization, goal oriented
Better measurements and metrics
Data driven and flexible
Technology & Digitization
Often outsourcing but not innovation attitude
Innovation and continues evolvement
Adoption of Free and Open Source to drive internal tech skill and innovation
