DNA on BFM: Are our jobs at risk?

By Karamjit Singh June 2, 2016

Increasing digitisation could pose clear and present danger
Celcom the big loser in Q1; a Big Three results drilldown

DNA on BFM: Are our jobs at risk? IT was the last piece of news on today’s Digital News Asia (DNA) segment on the Tech Talk show on BFM Radio that really hit home for me, and even BFM presenter Freda Liu. It was just the headline from Lum Ka Kay’s article on the thoughts of a Gartner senior vice president!

The research firm’s Dale Kutnick predicts “massive job cuts” from the increasing pace of digitisation.

This dire consequence of automation has been a dark shadow in my mind ever since I heard Singapore’s Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation programme, talk about this inevitable consequence of technology pervading ever more into work and life. That was in mid-2015.

Since then, the warnings have been coming hard and fast. The question is, what do we do about it?

You can listen to the podcast below, towards the last three minutes, to hear our thoughts and possible solutions to keep ourselves and our children relevant in a world where competition for your job now comes from software as well!

One thing that automation and software can never replicate though is human ingenuity and creativity, and this led to a natural segue where I touched on how Malaysia’s creative content industry has seen growth exceed expectations.

Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) is currently hosting a two-day Kre8tif! conference where industry leaders are speaking.

Let me now get to my first talking point, which was about how the ‘Big Three’ of Malaysia’s mobile marketplace – Celcom, Digi and Maxis – did, based on their Q1 2016 results.

There were too many talking points from the article by Goh Thean Eu, but I noted that the Big Three lost 500,000 subscribers from a year ago, and speculated that they probably switched to a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) such as Tune Talk, XOX or Merchantrade.

Who was the big loser in Q1, and who did surprisingly well considering the hammering one telco got from its disgruntled customers?

Staying on the telco theme, I was actually quite excited to talk at length about Telenor Group president Sigve Brekke, and the transformation of the telco into a digital services provider over the next five years.

However, Brekke had coincidentally appeared on BFM’s Breakfast Grill this morning! So I had to keep my comments to one key takeaway.

Wrapping up, I also talked about how private sector executives have been driving an increasing number of government agency initiatives, and today had the opportunity to talk about an interesting roundtable DNA organised with Steinbeis Malaysia, a unit of Agensi Inovasi Malaysia – and from down south, how i2M Ventures Sdn Bhd has evolved to do a better job in creating a vibrant Global Business Services ecosystem in Iskandar Puteri, Johor.

With all these talking points, there was still 90 seconds left over which Liu gratefully grabbed to play a short song!

To listen to the podcast, go here or click below: