Karamjit Singh: My Fave 5 of 2016: Page 2 of 2

Four key takeaways from What's Next 2016

Staying on the O2O theme, or Bricks & Clicks as I prefer, DNA’s anchor event of the year, our annual What’s Next conference yielded a treasure trove of insight, snippets (for example, in one multi-billion ringgit company, R&D is referred to as Rot & Die!) and in the trenches sharing by Brick & Mortar company executives who are facing the disruption caused by digital to their businesses.

The sharing and lessons shared are applicable to all large Brick & Mortar companies as they are all facing the same challenges of retuning the organizational culture to embrace digital, to accept that failure and experimentation are part of the journey to becoming a more digital company that can better serve its customers who are probably becoming more digital attuned and will start demanding the same of the companies that want to keep them as customers.

And then there was our keynote speaker, Vincent Tan, founder and chairman of Berjaya Corp Group, who poured cold water on the notion that fintech startups will be eating the banks for breakfast.

But for sure, in 2017, we are going to see many more Brick & Mortar companies start on their journey’s to become Brick & Clicks.

A services-based business model – from a property developer?

One company that isn’t waiting though is property developer Aspen Group from Penang. It has become the first developer in Malaysia to bet on IoT and introduce a services-based business model that will allow it to earn revenue from its buyers, long after they have bought its properties.

It is backing this up with a US$50 million (RM221 million) investment into smart services over a 10-year period.

Only three years young as a property developer and with a CEO who is a millennial, it makes sense for Aspen Group to try to find a differentiator for its ambitious RM10 billion GDV city it is buiding.

Interesting that its CEO, Murly Manokharan, declared that IoT is not in the future but is already here. And Murly has not let the fact that his company is not tech savvy stop him. He has simply picked a partner, Telekom Malaysia Bhd, with the right skill sets to help him deliver on his promise.

And again, just like with Lim Kim Heng of Senheng, this was a business decision made by Murly based on the belief that betting on IoT will afford him the highest chance of success for his business. You can be sure every property developer in the country is looking at what they are doing and weighing their options as well. And in the process, the development of IoT in Malaysia has received its catalyst.

TM to introduce new business models, usage based pricing within 3 years

Speaking of Telekom Malaysia, it too has announced a new business model in the future where it will start charging consumers based on the bandwidth they use instead of the unlimited usage the market has enjoyed since Unifi, TM’s high speed broadband service was introduced in 2008.

Bandwidth hogs be warned.

But TM’s CEO, Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa (right), reassures us that it’s actually a global trend and consumers will appreciate the choices they get. With two kids who live a large portion of their lives online, I am already worried about the hit to my wallet when usage based pricing hits us.

It was also at this event that Zam, as the TM CEO is called, threw a one liner that I thought was memorable. “30 will be the new 5 in 2017.” Zam was referring to the current Unifi broadband speeds offered, announcing that from 2017, 30MB per second will be the entry level package for Unifi and where all current Unifi customers of 5MB will be upgraded to 30MB.

Seeing how 30MB is already considered slow by my household, I would like to see Zam announce next year “100 will be the new 30 in 2018.” After all most broadband service providers are already offering 100MB services with Time dotcom even offering a 500MB service.

It’s not that big a leap actually for TM, especially when you consider higher speeds also means consumers are eating up more bandwidth. Zam can get his payback in 2020 when usage based pricing is introduced.  

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