DNA on BFM: The UEM tender, talents and … virgins

By Karamjit Singh July 2, 2015

UEMs big RM100 mil RFP attracts attention
A lot of hot air about talent and virgins

DNA on BFM: The UEM tender, talents and … virgins THE big request for proposal (RFP) from the UEM Group for its technology transformation project was my kickoff for this week’s show with Freda Liu on BFM’s Tech Talk segment at noon.

I spoke about how, as a conglomerate with operations in over 10 countries and 15,000 staff spread across 20 corporate entities, UEM’s management wanted greater visibility across the entire group, so that they would be able to identify opportunities and threats, and to enhance decision-making by all executives.

In essence, the project will see the elevation of IT to being a strategic enabler for the group, rather than acting as just a support function.

With an estimated tender value of at least RM100 million (about US$27 million), it also is a spot of bright light in a cloudy tech market so far in Malaysia with many, if not most, of the top tech vendors reportedly not meeting their Q1 and Q2 numbers.

I also spoke about how MyEG Services Bhd has stopped pretending to be a private venture capitalist (VC) and has reverted to being a typical corporate VC. It will now take majority stakes in the startups it invests in, instead of the minority stake it has taken over the past three years.

The reason is simple enough: It wants more of a say in the decision-making process and plans to get more involved in the companies it invests in. Will this help its companies do better?

Talents. Listening to their needs and treating them like they actually were an organisation’s top asset was the next topic I spoke on. This arose out of an article Goh Thean Eu wrote from a panel session that shared the results on the Malaysia findings of the Cisco Connected World Technology Report 2015.

There seems to be a disconnect, according to Talent Corporation Malaysia Bhd (TalentCorp) chief executive officer Johan Mahmood Merican, because the same companies which say that talent is the most important tend to be still focusing on their customers and markets.

Companies are also not listening to employees who increasingly want to have the flexibility to work from home. In fact, more than half of Gen X (those born between the early 1960s and the early 1980s) and Gen Y Malaysians said they would take a pay-cut for greater workplace flexibility, much higher than the global average of 26%-29%.

I also pondered over this data point from the Cisco survey: That 58% of Gen Y Malaysians (those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s) would give up sex for a month, rather than their smartphones.

What exactly did I say that had Freda Liu laughing? Catch the podcast from the show! You can listen to these and other stories. And, do catch the next show live if you can on July 16. Meanwhile, click below to listen to today's show: