IMA_Asia CEO Dialogues_May 2015

ISSUE 4
SPRING 2015
With the support of
The
Productivity
Issue
• Southco’s people-centric
turnaround
• Is your company ready
for the digital world?
• Big data and your
property portfolio Ajit Melarkode
Rackspace
where culture
eats strategy for
breakfast
AB_Spring_2015_Cover_V3.indd 1 28/04/2015 9:42 PM

Editor: Richard Martin
Contributing Editor: Mark Michelson
Publisher: Jerry McLean
Contributor: Shannon Ellis
info@imaasia.com
Copyright © 2015 IMA Asia
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1
IMA AsIA CEO DIAlOguEs
Spring 2015
Dear reaDer,
Welcome to our fourth issue of CEO Dialogues. The last six months have seen some wild swings in oil prices,
currencies as well as billionaire-minting stock markets. While on the political front we have been watching closely
how Indonesia and India are faring with recently installed governments in place.
But the one constant our members face is the challenge of delivering the best corporate results in the face of
complex conditions. We hope that you will find some insight and even some inspiration in this issue.
Our upcOming Overnight events
Twice a year we bring Asia Pacific leaders together for an overnight strategic discussion session. If you haven’t been
to one yet or are returning, then mark Shanghai on October 21 and 22 in your diary. We’ll be emailing you with more
in the coming months.
in this issue
Each of the four articles in this issue tackle the thorny problem of how to boost productivity and get the most
from your firm’s resources. You will find a spectrum of illuminating cases – from the traditional but often hard
to master people-centric, cultural approaches, to the cutting edge and decidedly more hi tech data-centric,
digitally disruptive method.
In our cover story, CEO Dialogues spoke with the inspirational Ajit Merkalode, vice president and managing director
of Rackspace APAC. He reveals the steps he took to build a strong culture that delivers his company’s unique
brand of ‘Fanatical support’ and the laser focus he brought to bear on a regional strategy.
Mike Zhang, managing director of Southco Asia Pacific, also found results were not far behind his initiatives to
take a people-centric approach. Looking to not only return to pre GFC levels of growth but to build a sustainable
organisation to support it going forward, he took a three-step approach that led to meeting and exceeding his goals.
Identifying the prevailing trend affecting businesses today, EY asks businesses to consider: are they ready for
the digital world? The firm makes the important distinction that digital disruption is at its heart consumer driven,
and sees digital technology as merely an enabler. The speed of change in the digital realm, to upload consumer
preferences, will mean companies need to prepare for a continuous cycle of disruption.
And in a similar vein, JLL urges companies to consider the benefits a new world of data and analytics can bring
to strategic real estate portfolio planning. With a wealth of data at their fingertips, the global real estate services
firm shares how bringing business teams and real estate planning to the table together can deliver productivity
boosting results.
Lastly, you will find some key numbers and charts to keep you abreast of asean trade trends.
So, enjoy the read. CEO Dialogues will be with you again later this year as we prepare for our Shanghai Overnight in
October. We hope to see all of you there.
Best,
richard martin
Managing Director
richard.martin@imaasia.com
EDItOr’s HIgHlIgHts /COntEnt
table OF cOntents:
2 rackspace: where culture eats strategy FOr breakFast
5 sOuthcO’s peOple-centric turnarOunD
7 is yOur cOmpany reaDy FOr the Digital wOrlD?
9 the next FrOntier FOr Data analytics: yOur prOperty
pOrtFOliO
12 asean in step with the wOrlD
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COvEr stOry
Spring 2015
COvEr stOry
2
Spring 2015
where culture eats strategy for breakfast
racksPace
Ajit Melarkode
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COvEr stOry
Spring 2015
B
EFORE COMING TO Hong Kong two years
ago to head up Rackspace’s APAC division,
Ajit Melarkode heard a lot of advice. He
was cautioned to be culturally extra sensitive
with employees and customers alike, and to
think about individual cultural strategies for each
country in APAC.
But Melarkode wasn’t worried. “I’ve found that
people are people everywhere,” he said.
From the outset Melarkode knew the only way
to succeed would be to bring the beating heart
of Rackspace to the fore — to deliver “Fanatical
Support,” the company’s trademarked brand of
services. He also knew that, to deliver exceptional
support, he would have to cultivate an engaged
workplace, so that employees or “Rackers,” would
want to go the extra mile for their customers, and
for one another.
“As our Chairman, Graham Weston says, ’What
we all want is to be valued members of a winning
team on an inspiring mission’”, added Melarkode.
Fanatical suPPort
Rackspace is ranked as the leading managed
cloud service provider globally. Its approach differs
from the big cloud providers, which essentially
rent out access to raw IT infrastructure and expect
the customers to figure out how to make it work.
The San Antonio-based company has a client
roster that includes Domino’s Pizza, Under
Armour and Tinder. In APAC, the firm lists clients
such as the online retailer LightInTheBox.com,
the world’s largest online matrimonial service,
Shaadi.com, and Australian sportswear designer,
Rip Curl.
Fanatical Support is not only about solving
customers’ IT problems and providing mission
critical hosting, according to Melarkode, “it
is an attitude and culture that permeates the
company.” In traditional companies, Customer
Service is a department while Rackspace creates
an environment where it permeates the whole
company.
altituDe = attituDe + aPtituDe
When you walk into the Rackspace office in
Hong Kong, the company’s vibrant culture is
immediately visible - open plan format, ﬂags for
Rackers to hang above their desks and Nerf guns,
which can be fired at anyone including Melarkode.
The overall soundscape can be best described as
noisy and engaged.
COvEr stOry
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Spring 2015
Rackspace hires for attitude and aptitude, as well
as for technical skills.
The company is known for its exacting standards
and selectivity, making on average one job offer for
every 25 applicants in APAC.
“It means we may spend months interviewing
candidates when it could theoretically be days,” he
says. “We will always go for picking the number one
candidate rather than settling for anything less.”
hoW to Make a racker
Getting employees to deliver Fanatical Support
requires more than just picking the right
candidates. It also involves an inordinate amount
of training: at least three months for every new
hire and a standard on-boarding programme
called “Rookie-O” which everyone attends,
whether it be a director or an intern.
“We spend a lot on training,” Melarkode says.
“The soft stuff — about serving customers,
treating each other right, how we lead teams — is
hard. You can’t cut and paste it. We obviously
have a company strategy and that’s important,
but we believe that culture eats strategy for
breakfast.” For example, Rackers never work
off a preset script and are trained as well as
empowered to find the right solutions for given
situations.
To gain this level of commitment from employees
involves something in return. Citing the inﬂuence
of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick
Lencioni, Rackspace culture actively encourages
‘constructive dissent’ and ‘peer-to-peer’
accountability.
Given that the education system in most Asian
countries discourages anything resembling
constructive dissent, it would seem that this
non-hierarchical approach would be near
impossible to achieve.
living By an oPen Book
Melarkode admits it was a challenge at first to
create a safe environment for being open. “It took
6 months. But once the open exchange of ideas
started, there was no going back.” The key, he
says, is to lead by example, as when he lets his
staff see him openly pose pointed questions to the
executive leadership from the US.
Transparency is another central element. The
company practices an ‘open book’ policy, whereby
each month the company’s strategy and financials

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Spring 2015
COvEr stOry
are shared with the entire office. Rackers are
given the chance to openly challenge and question
Melarkode’s decisions — an experience he says “I
inordinately enjoy.”
After the meeting, every person in the office, led
by Melarkode, chips in to return the 50-plus chairs
back to where they belong. It’s a small example of
the ‘servant leadership’ Melarkode works hard to
deliver. “We all roll up our sleeves,” he says.
We like to say ‘thank you’
When it comes to rewarding employees for
exceptional service, the company excels. It offers
monthly paid vacations for top performers, whether
which countries would most help Rackspace drive
long-term growth and profitability.
His second decision was to whittle down the
company’s focus from many countries in APAC, to five.
After a year of listening to clients and looking at the
numbers, he whittled down the list again, going after
three major regions: Greater China, India and ANZ.
“I’m often asked,” says Melarkode, “ “are you in so-
and-so country?’’ We have customers we value in
20+ countries in the region, but we choose to focus
our sales and marketing efforts,” he says. “I think
focus is a big advantage in a region spanning nine
time zones.”
they work in sales or operations.
This level of investment pays off in a remarkable
level of organisational commitment from
employees, Melarkode says, “using frameworks
like StrengthsFinder ensure that the right Rackers
are in the right roles and teams are balanced in the
right way for strengths.”
When employees felt more Mandarin-speakers
were needed on the team, two Rackers stepped up
to the challenge and set up a weekly, after-hours,
Mandarin language course for the rest of the office,
completely unpaid.
In these lean times, where productivity is the top
priority for companies, Rackspace shows that
investing in culture, often viewed as a luxury, can
pay handsome returns. However, as much as
Melarkode emphasises culture over strategy, he
has nonetheless developed a very disciplined and
focused approach to Asia and made three vital
strategic decisions.
Focus is everything
One of Melarkode’s first decisions was to determine
His third big decision was to concentrate on
businesses that are exporting to and investing in
the West, a high proportion of which are engaged in
e-commerce.
This decision meant not focusing on just MNC
players, even though Rackspace services almost
70%of the Fortune 500 and 40% of the FTSE 100.
Rackspace decided not to focus on the purely local
players, either, including the big guys.
“Again we took a contrarian call to focus on
westbound businesses, ‘zou chuqu’ ( ) as the
Chinese call it,” Melarkode says, “those coming out
of China or India,” Melarkode explains. “When we
first announced this, the audience was skeptical, but
Ali Baba going west helped”!
It has not been an easy ride for Merlarkode, or for
Rackspace, which in many ways is a David in a field
of Goliaths. But underdogs can have the formula
for success in both APAC and beyond. “The mission
in APAC and the future is about making cloud
computing accessible, real, valuable and fun. I’m
going to be nothing less than Fanatical about it,”
summed up Melarkode. n

5
Spring 2015
Southco’S
people-centric
turnaround
Mike Zhang
F
acing a high hill to climb in the
aftermath of the global financial crisis,
Southco, a privately held US company,
found that it needed to develop a new approach
toward its business and especially its people in
the region. The company had had a bumpy ride
during the crisis, like many other firms with a
global reach, but when the economic recovery
came, Southco aP was still struggling to get back
on track.
Southco executives knew that asia would be an
important growth engine and had invested heavily
in operational excellence. They were in aP for
the long haul. Southco aP had everything going
for it, but the desired business results remained
elusive.
That was the situation the soft-spoken Mike
Zhang encountered when he joined 18 months
ago. he was brought on board to mastermind a
turnaround, and generate the kind numbers the
company had been looking for.
Makers of sophisticated mechanical parts and
systems known as ‘engineered touch-point
solutions,’ Southco’s products can be found
behind the fluid movement of a luxury car
headrest and the quiet, satisfying feel of a glove
compartment box latch that pops open with a
touch.
One-third of its revenues come from new
products. innovation, customer service and
global footprint are key to its ability to stay ahead
of the copycat competition.
it did not take long to determine that
reorganisation or cuts were not a way back to
growth. With the support of hQ and the board,
Zhang decided that the best way forward was
to nurture the company’s best resources: its
people.
“i had strong support from the board,” says
Zhang, “asking me to drive the growth and
saying, “tell us what sort of investment is
needed to get there.””
a company with over 100 years’ history in
the US, the Southco aP story started only
15 years ago. in the beginning, it followed
its clients to the region to better meet their
service requirements. The company later
expanded operations with the establishment of
engineering and manufacturing sites.
although Southco’s most sophisticated factory
is in Shenzhen, the corporate culture within
aPac had some catching up to do to match
with the rest of the company.
“We are so new, we have had to do many things
in a short period of time while also building a
solid foundation in culture, organisation, teams
and people,” said Zhang.
“We had to grow; we are in a growth region and
operate at a certain scale here. But instead
of handing down a top-down directive, saying
asia had to grow by a certain percentage, we
initiated a collaborative process,” he explained.
Tackling the asian diversity challenge was
one piece of the puzzle. Southco has 1100
employees and numerous offices, distribution
centers and factories, including engineering
centers in china, Taiwan, Korea and most
recently Japan. The leadership team is not in
one location, but at sites across the region.
This led to a core issue that had to be
CEO DIAlOguEs
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Spring 2015
CEO DIAlOguEs
overcome: a lack of cross-functional
collaboration, stemming from strong
functions and weak regional management.
There was high employee turnover, low
employee engagement and less than
optimal productivity.
Seeing the Same picture
The first step to a solution was to find a
shared vision for growth that would garner
buy-in and support. Zhang recounts an early
offsite meeting during which the leadership
team was asked what growth they expected
the company to achieve in the next five years.
“There was a huge difference in answers,
ranging from from no growth to a variety of
percentage growth targets,” he said. “nobody
saw the same thing.”
“i asked, “Where are we going to be? how
are we going to get there and an even more
interesting question: What were the key
issues we have to resolve?””
he found the answers varied from one
extreme to another.
participatory change management
Wanting to build ownership into the process
from the outset, Zhang decided not to hire
consultants to deliver a solution. instead,
he found an experienced executive coach
to help facilitate the team to find answers.
Together they came up with targets that were
ambitious and achievable.
“Our thinking was, as a growth engine, we
have lots of opportunity that we were not
previously able to capture,” says Zhang. “We
went through lots of analysis and lessons
learned to identify the gaps, done with key
stakeholders and management.”
Today, he says, from board level to staff level,
the objectives are understood and supported
– in large part because it was a shared
exercise to identify them.
This set the stage for the next big task: to
develop a leadership team strongly aligned
with the global Southco core principals
and culture.
greater alignment with global
The executive coach was brought in to work
one-on-one with executives to develop a
common leadership practice that would be
passed on to the whole organisation.
in came a new routine of regular meetings,
(face-to-face or teleconference) and team
building exercises that brought greater
communication and, with it, trust and
understanding - shrinking the geographical and
functional divides.
“as part of the alignment with global, we
changed how evaluations were done to build
accountability and more clearly reward
achievement,” said Zhang. “also, being
rewarded together, and punished together,
strengthened our regional focus.”
This has led to an improvement in the trust
between members, who today work together
with less conflict, according to Zhang. “We
challenge each other and work through the
issue and try to build that accountability
and commitment.”
a return to double-digit growth…
With these qualitative improvements, Zhang
says that from a business point of view the
execution is more solid and productivity
has improved.
“Overall we grew last year. aP was the fastest
growing region in the company. We had a record
year for both bottom line and top line growth,”
says Zhang. “it was the first full year my team
was leading in the region, and now we have
double digit growth.”
…next up, building SuStainable
growth.
Zhang started out with a three-step plan:
discover a shared vision of growth, develop the
leadership team and improve the organisational
alignment to better manage future growth,
sustainably.
global connectivity is very important to Southco,
which operates SaP and salesforce.com. Zhang
is looking to build alignment to enhance greater
fact-based decision-making in day-to-day
operational execution
“We are looking in the long term to be
sustainable,” Zhang says. “We focus on our
people, which means we want to inspire them,
communicate to them that they have a valuable
role to play and there is a future in which they
can be a part.” n
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Spring 2015
is your company
reaDy for the
Digital WorlD?
Richard suhr, Partner,
Asia Paciﬁc Digital leader at EY
t
HERE IS one question that Richard Suhr,
Partner, Asia Pacific Digital Leader at EY
wants companies to think about: “Is your
corporate strategy fit for a digital world?”
There is a lot at stake. Every industry in every
country around the globe is experiencing some
form of digital disruption: financial services,
consumer products, media and entertainment,
oil and gas, power and utilities and technology.
And even within industries — or within single
organizations — digital is transforming business
strategies, operating models and relationships
with customers.
Although a constant barrage of new technology
is partly responsible for driving this disruption,
customers are the real disruptors. Whether it’s
B2C, B2B or B2B2C, customers are demanding
more services and products at an amazingly
fast pace.
The question, says Suhr, is how your digital
strategy is harnessing the value of your entire
business, while also serving as a vehicle to plan
and measure risk.
More so, how is it not only driving benefit for
your business today around customer, brand and
efficiency but also its potential to disrupt and
create new business in the future?
the time is noW - Digital Disruption
Won’t Wait
Every day brings a new level of urgency. Where
digital disruptions used to occur over the course
of years and then months, today’s shifts can
be counted in days. The most disruptive, viral
technologies can now reach 50 million users in
less than 35 days.1
Netflix, Amazon, Uber and Airbnb are only some of
the examples of companies that have completely
altered their industry segments. And even within
these organisations, innovations in technologies
and business models have fundamentally shifted
their own organisational ecosystems.
According to Constellation Research,“digital
disruption has demolished 52% of the Fortune 500
since the year 2000.”2
And according to Cisco’s
chief technology officer, we haven’t even reached
the tipping point of disruption as “only 1% of
what could be connected in the world actually is
connected.”3
The number of internet-connected
“things,” such as RFID chips and sensors,is
expected to be 50 billion by 2020.4
It is likely that organisations that take a wait-
and-see approach to digital will find themselves
on the digitally demolished list. And while
some organisations may be more digitally
mature than others, few, if any, have mastered
1
“Reaching 50 Million Users,” Visual.ly website, visual.ly/reaching-50-million-users, accessed 16 February 2015.
2
Wang, R. “Ray,” “Big Ideas: Dominate Digital Disruption Before It Dominates You,” Constellation Research, 17 February
2014, www.constellationr.com/users/r-ray-wang?page=5.
3
Jennex, Murray, Knowledge Discovery, Transfer, and Management in the Information Age, IGI Global, 2014.
4
Burkitt, Frank, “A Strategist’s Guide to the Internet of Things,” strategy& (formerly Booz & Company), 10 November
2014, www.strategy-business.com/article/00294?pg=all.
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Spring 2015
a holistic digital strategy.
Digital means continuous Disruption
“Digital is a continuous form of disruption to
existing business models, products, services or
experiences enabled by data and technology across
the enterprise,” says Suhr.
He relates the case of a leading retail bank that
outperformed its competitors by being first to
market in offering mobile check depositing. The
service enabled banking customers to connect
to their accounts using their smartphones, take
a snapshot of their check and deposit the money
without ever having to go to a branch or an ATM.
It proved so popular with customers that the bank’s
competitors had to scramble to catch up. Many,
surprised by the disruption, found themselves
unique impact on each organisation. Some will
choose to sustain, making only incremental
improvements to existing solutions and protect
core value propositions. Others will take what
EY calls an adjacent approach, expanding a core
value proposition that may alter the competitive
environment.
But to be truly disruptive, is to redefine, disrupt
the core and potentially deliver an entirely new
value proposition that turns the market on its
head.
Suhr recommends companies taking a holistic
approach when fitting a business strategy to the
digital world. Digital will impact every facet of
an organization. As such organisations need to
break down the silos in order to allow visibility
across business and functions.
EY has developed a four-step process that helps
companies achieve business agility to ride the wave
of digital disruption:
1. Challenge the organisation to define and align
around the real business problem.
2. Create a digital strategy, define the concept and
design the products, services or experiences
that deliver the right solutions and capture
economic value within the business and within
the organisational ecosystem.
3. Incubate recommended solutions through
prototyping; test and validate initiatives
and “de-risk” investments through small-
scale experimentation. Evaluate teaming
opportunities.
4. Activate recommended solutions on a
commercial scale to help clients capture
economic value for the business; continually
sense, monitor and adapt to maximize value.
By taking a holistic approach to digital and
developing an agile business strategy that enables
organisations to flex and adapt to a constantly
changing digital environment, organizations can
seize opportunities and manage risks at every stage
of their value chain. n
“analytics are an integral part ofdigital strategy. The process of analysing data
to reveal patterns not only provides the basis for effective decision making, it enables organisations to predict
employee and customer behaviour, improve workforce productivity and reduce operational costs. When managed
correctly, data can change how organisations compete and win in the digital world.”
sunny chu, partner, aDvisory services
having to develop a feature in three months that
the pioneering bank had taken six months or
more to create.
Yet as fast as the trailblazing retail bank
marketed the new service for its customers,
it was facing digital disruption of its own from
challengers outside of the banking industry
offering adjacent business models.
Fortunately for the bank, new entrants had yet
to take on the risks of operating in the strictly
regulated financial services industry, particularly
around the use of data. For as long as it can,
the leading retail bank has decided to use this
advantage to try to insulate itself from the
disruption of external forces.
But given the pace at which change occurs
in today’s digital world, the bank will need to
innovate and adapt again before it gets left
behind, says Suhr. And the cycle of disruption
will continue.
a holistic approach to digital
Determining risk appetite and how corporate
strategy fits in a digital world will dictate digital’s
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Spring 2015
The nexT fronTier
for daTa analyTics:
your properTy
porTfolio David Brown, head of
business intelligence,
AP at Jll
i
t is not news that the hunt for enhanced
productivity is in full swing. there is a slowing
Chinese economy to outrun and mixed
prospects across the Asia Pacific that are hard to
capture. this means executives running MnCs
have to work just that much smarter to squeeze
the most from every resource.
one bright spot for many firms in their quest to
control costs has been data analytics. But corporate
real estate (CRE) departments have been slower to
catch on to this trend - that is, until now.
A 2014 commissioned study conducted by
Forrester Consulting on behalf of JLL, entitled
Mind the Data Gap, found that aspirations are
high to bring the latest advances in data driven
decisions making to bear on real estate strategy.
While today only 28% of companies surveyed
in AP say they use data analytics to shape
corporate real estate decisions, this is expected
to double in the next two years.
it makes sense, given that keeping up with the
furious pace of change in Asian cities requires the
most up-to-date tools.
in JLL’s City Momentum index for 2015, seven
of the world’s most dynamic cities are found in
China, while stalwarts Hong Kong, singapore
and tokyo have fallen off the rankings. With this
much fluctuation, it is the cities where change
is occurring the fastest that need to be the most
closely monitored.
properTy: your Top-3 expense
this is especially true when one considers the
sobering fact that, except for virtual companies
that exist online, “occupancy costs are a top
three expense of any company out there,”
according to David Brown, head of business
intelligence, AP at JLL.
With so much at stake, JLL’s strength is to maximise
corporate productivity outcomes through their
clients’ occupied real estate portfolios. they provide
a range of services for MnCs wishing to outsource
their property requirements – whether these are
offices, factories or retail spaces.
daTa-cenTric real esTaTe
the level of data JLL generates, captures and
stores across all real estate functions has a
practical granularity. For example, through its
lease management business, JLL has access
to information on rental cost, lease terms and
lease expiry dates, while its call centers receive
hundreds of calls daily, enabling it to track repair
and maintenance information. JLL also helps
companies maintain environmentally sustainable
buildings, and holds data on the cost of utilities and
energy spend.
“in servicing our clients, we have captured a wealth
of real estate data across AP on a daily basis.
However, we need additional data sets, such as
demographics, zoning and crime rates. these might
be easily available in the Us; but in Asia, things are
often less transparent,” says Brown.
Finding trustable sources of information in Asia can
be a challenge, although the team sees gradual
improvement.
“We seek data from official, reliable sources, such
as demographic data from government census or
traffic data from transport bureaus. For critical
data that is not available, we will invest to access
it. if a data source cannot be trusted, we won’t use
it because it might lead to poor decisions,” says
William Chong, head of business technology,
AP for JLL.
Beyond daTa: acTionaBle insighTs
this information shines when it is brought together
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Spring 2015
and analysed scientifically using analytical and
mathematical models. insights can be distilled
from data to drive real estate decisions that
support business goals, such as deciding where to
acquire, where to renew and where to dispose of
corporate sites.
seeing the growing power of data and analytics,
JLL invested to upgrade their infrastructure
and acquired advanced tools for data analytics,
visualisation, and master data management
(MDM).
to get the most out of the technology, JLL
also invested in hiring experts in the areas
of Big Data, data analytics and data governance.
Many were recruited from outside the commercial
real estate industry, from sectors that have
had transformational success with data
analytics such as banks, cable companies and
consultancies.
Flash-forward to today, and the company is
By analysing these two datasets together along with
external data, insights were uncovered that would
inform location decisions. this included identifying
poor-performing branches with near-term lease
expiries as candidates for disposal; high-performing
branches with mid-term expiries as opportunities
for early renewal; and poor-performing branches in
key locations that were crucial to retain in order to
keep competitors at bay.
Break The silos: Bring real esTaTe and
Business Teams TogeTher
the integration of business and real estate
data does not happen easily. For
competitive reasons, business units are
not often keen to share data such as
revenue and profit outside their group. it
was a challenge that the JLL team had
to overcome.
it is often common for business leaders to
make location decisions based solely on
branch performance factors such as
revenues, which would lead to unnecessary costs,
such as paying penalties for early lease termination.
Worse, the bank would fail to capture insights that
would allow it to capitalise on opportunities.
“When CRE first approached the consumer
banking head about joining data sets, the idea
was summarily thrown out. there was just no
way they were willing to share branch revenue
and profitability data,” adds Chong, “But when we
developed a few analytical models and put it across,
they quickly saw the value and we were off and
running in no time.”
the pilot project was expanded to cover 14 cities and
has succeeded in:
• Maximising Roi by identifying locations that
improve business performance;
• Avoiding unnecessary expenses by optimising
timing of acquisitions and disposals; and
• improving competitiveness by dispelling
competitors’ monopoly in target locations. n
“By connecting the physical portfolio to the wider business strategy
through the use of data analytics, The Bank was
aBle To develop, model and assess
fuTure scenarios,” says chong.
William Chong,
head of business technology,
AP for Jll
positioned to break new ground, bringing data
analytics to large-scale corporate property
planning. “Bringing data analytics to bear is
a natural evolution, as a firm, we make that
investment to drive more insight and value for
our clients,” says Brown.
this is evident in a client case shared by Chong,
of a leading bank managing a large portfolio of
real estate, in the form of bank branches as well
as AtMs.
Explaining the substantial complexity of the task,
he says, “if you have thousands of AtMs in a dozen
cities, you have to pay attention to lease expiries
and pay your rents on time. otherwise, you might
lose that AtM location to one of your rivals.”
But rents are just one part of the picture. Going
into its annual network planning process, the
bank asked JLL to help generate next-level
insights by bringing together real estate data
and business data.
AB_Spring_2015_JLL_V2.indd 10 28/04/2015 10:06 PM

Charts
12
IMA Asia CEO Dialogues
Spring 2015
Source: IMA Asia
ASEAN in step with
the world
180
140
100
60
160
120
80
40
0
20
2.5
1.5
0.5
2.0
1.0
0
-2
4
6
0
-4
2
-20
40
60
0
-40
20
OECD Leading Index vs Asean-6 exports
yoy % chg
ASEAN-6 trade is levelling off
Export outliers: Vietnam soars, while the philippines lags
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
When looking to the future, the OECD composite
leading indicator is a good place to start. It
tends to accurately reflect world economic
activity, with its turning points proceeding those
of the global business cycle by up to six months.

And with ASEAN economies being among
the most open to international trade and
investment, it follows that ASEAN combined
merchandise exports correlate closely with the
OECD composite leading indicator.
Trade orientation has declined 17% in 10 years for the ASEAN-6
economies …
The share of ASEAN country exports to their respective GDP ranges
from Singapore’s’ stratospheric 133% to Indonesia’s 20%. However,
with the exception of Thailand and Vietnam, the ASEAN-6 exports-
to-GDP ratio has receded to 53% in 2014 from a 2005 peak of 70%.
Only Vietnam and (to lesser extent) Thailand have became more
export-oriented economies in the last 10 years.
Expect Vietnam exports to keep soaring
Vietnam’s exports have soared since the early-1990s, both as
a share of the country’s GDP, and as a share of global exports.
A combination of strong demographics, political stability, and
a favourable cost structure has made Vietnam a very attractive
destination for foreign direct investment (FDI), the bulk of which
has been flowing into export manufacturing. We expect this to
continue into 2020.
But ASEAN-6 exports in terms of world share remains steady.
The ratio of ASEAN-6 exports to world exports has settled at a
record high of 0.66-0.67% in 2010-14, having risen from around
0.35% in the early-1980s. Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and
the Philippines have lost some ground in recent years, which was
offset by gains from Thailand and Vietnam.
Philippines exports still lag behind ASEAN neighbours
Despite a favourable population profile, the Philippines has been
ASEAN’s laggard in attracting export-enhancing FDI. Chronic
corruption and inadequate infrastructure have contributed to
a steep drop in global exports over the last 15 years and in the
declining share of exports in the Philippines’ GDP. The outcome
of the mid-2016 presidential election could shape the country’s
prospects for catching up with its ASEAN neighbours.
ASEAN-6 ExportsOECD Lead Index
ASEAN Exports as % of GDP
Vietnam Exports
ASEAN Exports as % World Exports
Philippines Exports
n 1994
n 2004
n 2014
n 1994
n 2004
n 2014
Singapore SingaporeVietnam VietnamMalaysia MalaysiaThailand ThailandPhilippines PhilippinesIndonesia Indonesia
1980
1988
1984
1992
1998
1982
1990
1996
1986
1994
2002
2000
2006
2010
2012
2004
2008
2014
1.0
0.6
0.8
0.4
0.2
% of Vietnam GDP% of World Exports 90
70
50
30
80
60
40
20
10
0.7
0.5
0.6
0.4
0.3
% of Philippines GDP% of World Exports
2000
1980
1988
1984
1992
1998
1982
1990
1996
1986
1994
2002
2006
2010
2012
2004
2008
2014
50
40
30
20
45
35
25
15

Will you go With the
biggest opinion in
the room? or the best
data in the World?
At JLL we favor a scientific approach to real estate strategy.
We’ve upgraded our data governance, analytics and knowledge
sharing, culminating in the launch of RED – a new platform that
combines the best of technology and people. It’s a way of working
developed to give you rock-solid insights, measurable productivity
gains, and a set of instruments for staying ahead of changing
markets. Learn more at jll.com/red
Welcome to data-driven real estate

25+ years
of GuidinG CEo’S
CElEbratinG
未命名-13 2 18/10/2014 10:45 AM

2
IN-TOUCH AND IN-COUNTRY
EVERYWHERE IN ASIA
HELPING TO GUIDE YOU
EVERY STEP OF THE WAY
Our Network Partners are highly-experienced country analysts and advisors, each with at least two decades
of in-country professional experience. They each run local peer group briefings programs and meet with local
business leaders and key government officials daily.
As a network we lead the largest peer group briefing program in Asia Pacific, incorporating over 3,000 members
and running over 500 meetings a year.
Our Network Partners are available for one-on-one meetings with IMA Asia members for an in-country, in-
formed, and impartial perspective on market or management issues. IMA Asia members can also sit in on the
local peer group briefings of our Network Partners when travelling.
Contact service@imaasia.com to learn more.
500 executive briefings a year
3,000 members
One vital network
25+ YEARS
OF GUIDING CEO’S
CELEBRATING
AD_IBC_Network_V3.indd 2 18/10/2014 10:43 AM

IMA_Asia CEO Dialogues_May 2015

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