By Sherilyn Pang
SHAH ALAM, Oct 14 — Adopting technology for business operations has become the mainstay for companies seeking to overcome the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hartalega Holdings Bhd chief executive officer (CEO) Kuan Mun Leong said as the need to go digital arises, small businesses or small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need not be intimidated by the large meaning of ‘digitisation’ and just focus on their business fundamentals that require digitalising or automation.
“My advice to SMEs is, they need to go deep down into their operation lines and listen to the people to find out what their pain points are. Don’t just because of this ‘big’ word called ‘Industry 4.0’ (Industrial Revolution 4.0 or IR4.0), or digitalisation, they expect themselves to leapfrog towards that level. It is not that,” said Kuan.
He said this during a session at the Virtual Selangor Asean Business Conference (SBAC) 2020 today titled ‘Asean and the Promise of Technology’.”
Kuan added that the Malaysian glove industry today contributes 65 per cent of the global market share and attributed to automated production lines as key to its success as Asean remains to be an international glove manufacturing hub.
“Businesses can start digitalising their manufacturing operations before expanding to serve the global market.
“So, it is imperative to go back to the fundamentals, chart out a roadmap and look at what you need to do as a starting point. Think big, start small. That was what happened to us. We lost RM1million in the past which was a painful lesson to learn because we got carried away. So, go down to the production line and listen to your people,” he said referring to the glove manufacturer’s past experience.
Meanwhile, PKT Logistics Group CEO Datuk Michael Tio highlighted how Malaysia can have a competitive advantage by finding its niche and position itself in the region to reach the international market.
“The big picture here would be ‘What is for Malaysia’ as we move into a service economy? For instance, Selangor and Penang both have common strengths in having a comprehensive IT infrastructure and due to international production companies moving away from China because of the US-China trade war, how can we focus on what we can offer at a regional level then scale it to reach the global market?” Tio noted.
“Another example would be, Malaysia can be an Islamic financial hub or a ‘roti canai’ production hub, but other regional partners can focus on their speciality like Thailand who is good in agriculture for export.
“If member countries could find their niche and focus on their respective strengths and collaborate with one another, Asean will be a prosperous region,” he added.
The virtual Selangor Asean Business Conference (SBAC) 2020 is one of three main components of the virtual Selangor International Business Summit 2020 which was launched today by the Selangor Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari.
SIBS 2020 runs from October 14 to 17 and is the first state-led virtual platform to inspire the new ways of doing business.
The four-day of engaging and informative online sessions includes two virtual expositions, webinars, live conference, online networking and business matching opportunities.
