The current economic uncertainty has cast a long shadow over companies’ business outlook for the year ahead, with economists revising their 2023 growth forecasts for the ASEAN region.

Amid a heightened emphasis to “do more with less”, agendas in the boardroom have shifted from growth to efficiency. Yet while 74 per cent of CEOs expect economic conditions to worsen in the short term, 83 per cent of CEOs express confidence in the resilience of their companies to withstand economic jolts. 

This confidence may have stemmed from their trust in their technology investments. Just like how automation and cloud technology helped them to pivot quickly and become more robust during the pandemic, they are applying the same lessons to this new phase of global uncertainty.

These times of change have afforded new opportunities for companies to transform their industry, and the investments they make now will determine their success now and into the future. 

As companies double down on their digital transformation journeys, here are some trends that we expect to see in 2023.

Digital transformation will remain at the heart of ASEAN’s growth

Maintaining a durable, resilient business that can drive success now is increasingly challenging with the economic headwinds we are facing.

Whilst we cannot predict everything that lies ahead in 2023, one thing is sure – digital transformation will remain at the heart of ASEAN’s growth. According to IDC, one in three companies in Southeast Asia will generate more than 15 per cent of their revenue from digital products and services, compared to one in six in 2020.

Also Read: How to start and scale an e-commerce business in 2023

We expect more businesses here to aspire towards becoming data-driven organisations, deploying more digital services to drive efficiency, profitability and competitive advantage.

Investment in automation will surge as companies aim to do more with less

Amidst rising economic uncertainty, enterprises will increasingly move beyond isolated use cases of automation to accelerate digital transformation, drive growth, and achieve cost savings to navigate the disruption better.

As an example, the benefits of automation are evident, with Salesforce’s suite of automation technologies saving organisations over 100 billion hours every month. Low- and no-code automation tools also allow organisations to drastically condense their digital transformation timelines by empowering employees from non-traditional tech roles to automate processes and create new services through drag-and-drop digital capabilities without prior coding knowledge.

In 2023, we expect to see more business technologists use such tools to save valuable time and circumvent bottlenecks. The ability for anyone to contribute towards digital transformation initiatives, regardless of background, provides a strong upside for businesses to remain agile in these changing times.

Companies will prioritise vendor consolidation and rethink their approach to efficiency

The average company uses nearly 1,000 applications to run its business and store customer data. This isn’t efficient, effective, or affordable. What’s worse is that it makes the work environment more complex when the goal of technology should be to simplify things.

In 2023 we can expect to see companies prioritising vendor consolidation and reducing the complexity of their technology stack to give a simple 360-degree view of each customer. They will also rethink what it means to be efficient at every level and department.

Companies must commit to continuous innovation to solve customers’ problems, ensure seamless service from anywhere, and adapt to customers’ changing priorities. This, in turn, will provide opportunities for success in the long term.

Personalisation will be the solution to success now

In this digital-first world, every business needs the capability to reach the right customer at the right time. This is becoming all the more difficult as the amount of data created, captured, replicated, and consumed each year is expected to double by 2026.

As companies race to increase revenue and drive efficiency across their business, personalisation will be the solution for success now.

With a seamless hyper-scale real-time data management platform, connecting, ingesting, and harmonising data from any source – physical and nonphysical, and across locations – engagements will enable companies to continuously adapt to changing customer information and needs in real-time.

Whether patient data for healthcare, telemetry data for manufacturing, or shopper data for retail, personalisation will be imperative to producing the most compelling customer experiences and accelerating time to value from data while reducing complexity across the business.

Companies will invest in total experience strategies

The pandemic has revealed the great disconnect between employers and employees. Organisations are under pressure to deliver growth and revenues amidst external headwinds while employees are craving flexibility, clear goals, purpose and connection.

For much of 2022, leaders have expressed concern over the rise of “quiet quitting” due to its negative effects on performance and productivity. However, the term’s popularity points towards broader issues of employee burnout. Digital tools focusing on communication and culture will continue to play a key role in driving productivity and long-term employee retention.

In 2023, organisations will combine customer and employee experience initiatives to increase revenue and retain scarce talent to deliver more agile and resilient business outcomes. With a focus on integration, leaders will seek to connect the systems and processes that support these experiences across the organisation.

Managers will be the greatest connectors between employees and the company

As we continue going through one of the biggest workplace experiments of the century – moving from physical offices to hybrid arrangements powered by digital headquarters – the manager’s role has fundamentally changed.

Also Read: The 5 pillars of digital transformation that meet business objectives efficiently

They are no longer responsible for driving results and productivity but also for supporting employees’ emotional and psychological well-being. With companies grappling with a new reality of work, cultivating great managers will be critical.

They will be the connectors within the organisation to ensure that the needs of employees are heard, so companies can continue to adapt policies per employees’ needs. When managers listen and make their employees feel heard, this brings out the best in employees.

Customers’ preference for sustainable options will drive business decisions

Over the last two years, new expectations have increased in importance to consumers – trust and impact. Salesforce research has found that 88 per cent of consumers now expect brands and retailers to state their values clearly. 64 per cent say they will stop doing business with a company if corporate values don’t align with their own.

This is especially true when it comes to the environment. With the growing impact of sustainability on purchase decisions, companies can no longer afford to see sustainability as just a reporting need. They will need to start making sustainability a core value in their organisation and integrate it into their product roadmap.

Over the coming year, they will also increasingly realise that data-driven insights and improved integration across supply chains will help deliver more efficient and sustainable ways of working. Through investing in digital tools to track emissions, companies will adapt quickly to drive change, supporting the global effort to become net zero.

Companies will invest their training for green and digital roles

As companies across Asia work with their local governments to double down on net zero targets, a severe sustainability talent crunch is emerging, in addition to digital skills.

Salesforce’s digital skills index found that while nearly half of all respondents view digital sustainability skills as important now and in the next five years, only 16 per cent say they have “advanced” digital skills for operating technology that promotes sustainable business activities like tracing, measuring, and analysing climate data within an organisation.

The silver lining for skills in these domains is that they enjoy high transferability. As businesses recalibrate themselves in a post-COVID-19 world, we expect more calls for talent to upskill themselves via various government or company-led initiatives.

An example of that for the Salesforce ecosystem would be our free learning platform, Trailhead. Increasingly, a formal college degree will not be needed to solve enterprise problems.

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Gree Energy, which aims to decarbonise food processors in developing countries by transforming their wastewater into biogas, has secured US$3.2M in a pre-Series A round of investment.

Earthcare Group, a Hong Kong-based single-family office focusing on climate change mitigation, led this round.

This deal comes about eight months after the clean energy firm bagged US$250,000 in funding from Water Unite Impact.

Established in 2013, Gree Energy empowers the food industry to cut methane emissions and treat industrial wastewater by implementing on-site biogas facilities. It makes biogas solutions financially viable by unlocking access to carbon credit markets, green finance, and renewable energy markets.

Also Read: ‘There’s a lack of urgency among companies in achieving net zero targets’: Unravel Carbon’s Grace Sai

Gree’s proof of concept, the Hamparan project already reduces over 30,000 CO2eq emissions annually and generates almost 10 GWh per year of clean and reliable energy for 19 villages in Lampung on Sumatra Island.

More than 1,250 food processors in Indonesia have yet to be equipped with adequate wastewater treatment solutions. This untapped potential represents an opportunity to avoid 50 million tons CO2eq emissions per annum and provide 40 TWh of clean energy.

In parallel, by 2030, Indonesia aims to increase the share of renewable electricity from 13.5 per cent in 2021 to 34 per cent and reduce carbon emissions by almost 32 per cent with its efforts (43.2 per cent with international assistance). Biogas is one of the key cornerstones for addressing this twin challenge.

“Gree’s vision to reduce pollution in the agriculture and food sector and to replace energy generated from fossil fuels is key to mitigating climate change. Gree’s business model is also highly replicable in most agricultural-based economies with growing energy demands, which is the case in large part of the Global South. The growth potential is tremendous,” said Andre Barlian, Co-Head of Investments at Earthcare Group.

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Bangladeshi transport-tech startup Shuttle has announced raising US$1.5 million in new funding led by South Asia Tech, a growth-stage VC fund focused on logistics and e-commerce startups in the region.

State-run VC fund Startup Bangladesh, investors from Bangladesh Angels Network (BAN), and existing backers, including Accelerating Asia, participated.

The new round brings Shuttle’s total investment to date to US$2.5 million.

Also Read: Bangladesh’s ride-sharing, bus ticket booking app Shohoz raises funding

“The new funding will help us expand our footprint across the country through further investments in tech, product and team,” said Shuttle’s Co-Founder and CEO Reyasat Chowdhury.

Shuttle started its journey in 2018 with pre-seed capital from Robi Axiata.

A ride-hailing startup, Shuttle claims it charges less than one-third the price of regular ride-sharing by clubbing four to ten people in sedans and minivans.

After its initial success with providing women-only services, Shuttle later added unisex and B2B offerings to bring convenient and affordable daily commutes for middle-income people in Bangladesh.

More than 30,000 university students and office-goers are registered on the platform, with the majority being women. The company has also worked with over 50 organisations (B2B clients), including the largest multinational companies.

The firm is set to launch a new service, Shuttle for School, for students in Dhaka.

The startup has a total addressable market of US$13.5 billion in Bangladesh.

Also Read: Earned wage access startup wagely nets US$8.3M pre-Series A to grow in Bangladesh

Shuttle’s other investors are SBK Tech Ventures, South Korean VC firm The Ventures, the BAN, and local/global angels.

In addition, the company also received an impact-matching grant from Biniyog Briddhi, a public-private development partnership between the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh, Roots of Impact, and LightCastle Partners.

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There are many ways an organisation can promote innovation to serve their customers, and intrapreneurship is one that SC Ventures choose to champion.

“The concept of intrapreneurship is anchored in our belief that solutions to seemingly intractable customer challenges often reside within the bank’s workforce itself. No one is more well-placed to solve these challenges than our employees; they work closely with customers and clients daily, and as a result, have a deep understanding of needs,” explains Alex Manson, Head of SC Ventures, in an email to e27.

“However, it isn’t always easy to bring these ideas to life and this is something that intrapreneurship addresses directly. With intrapreneurship, we are putting our people and their ideas first, providing them with everything from mentorship to capital, to help bring these concepts to fruition. Intrapreneurship is also Standard Chartered’s commitment to fast-tracking innovation from within — allowing employees to tap into the bank’s significant resources to sandbox and scale their projects.”

To realise this vision, the company is running the SC Ventures FinTech Bridge, a platform that was initially developed to facilitate the sourcing of tech solutions within Standard Chartered. Designed to bridge the disconnect between startups, experts, and corporates, according to Manson, the programme is now a borderless community that is open to portfolio companies as well as aspiring founders in Standard Chartered.

Since its inception in 2018, the platform has seen over 2,800 members; 34 challenges seeking tech solutions, expertise, or investors; 20 pitches in the Pitch Arena; and more than 140 connections made.

In this interview, Manson explains to e27 how SC Ventures implement intrapreneurship within its organisation and the kind of opportunities it is looking for in 2023.

Also Read: Ascend Vietnam Ventures’s early-stage fund AVV Alpha exceeds US$50M target

A deeper dig into intrapreneurship

Manson explains further about the intrapreneurship model that SC Ventures implemented, starting from the reason behind its founding.

“Our intrapreneurship model is designed to empower employees to solve problems, improve the status quo, and to create new business models. The programme is standardised and modular so business and functional leaders can easily engage with the Intrapreneurship Programme – and engagement of Intrapreneurs and business/functional sponsors speaks to the success of the programme,” he says.

“For Intrapreneurs who are looking to create a new business, our model is designed to ensure that our potential founders are given the wherewithal to endure uncertainties and remain resilient in the global economy. SC Ventures ensures that the innovations pioneered by our Intrapreneur Venture Leads will lay the foundation of the new economy,” he continues.

The process of participating in the programme is as follows:

“Our FinTech Bridge programme forms a core tenet of our intrapreneurship model, as we continuously welcome new ideas by having challenges and encouraging individuals and teams to submit their proposals on an ad-hoc basis,” Manson explains.

Once a proposal is submitted to the SC Ventures FinTech Bridge, the intrapreneur induction process kicks off. Individuals or teams with interesting solutions to an existing problem statement are put through a bootcamp to prepare them for a panel pitch. This bootcamp includes rigorous rounds of refinement, research, validation, wireframing, and prototyping processes which will be incorporated into the final panel pitch.

Also Read: How Signal Ventures aims to sail towards new opportunities in global maritime tech scene

Prior to their panel pitch, successful candidates will gain access to SC Ventures’ coaches. Following the pitch, they will have access to additional resources beyond just funding, such as Incubation Coaches and Industry Experts.

A pitch is being reviewed based on the following indicators:
– Does the idea solve a problem for the bank (internally) or the wider industry (externally)?
– Is the idea both feasible and viable?
– Is the idea crazy? Does it have the potential to disrupt the sector?
– What will the intrapreneur learn from this programme? Are they highly committed and engaged?

It is important to note that fulfilling just one of these criteria is enough for an idea to be accepted into the programme. Upon completion of the curriculum, the intrapreneur’s pitch is assessed using the same standards applied to any startup or funding pitch.

The programme has developed successful case studies such as Cardspal, a one-stop daily lifestyle app operating in Singapore.

But like many other initiatives, implementing entrepreneurship in an organisation comes with its own challenges.

“More often than not, intrapreneurship programmes within big organisations fail because of a lack of discipline and structure – the kind that SC Ventures brings to the table. Aside from bringing bank-level expertise and resources to aspiring intrapreneurs, we provide intrapreneurs with certified coaches that guide them through a standardised journey with a proven, tried-and-tested methodology that ultimately results in a VC-ready pitch,” Manson explains.

“Our programme is both standardised and modular, which means that we can flex, experiment and pivot as we learn and the programme evolves. With a more structured approach to managing the programme, we have the ability to look at each aspect of the programme and enhance it.”

Also Read: SEA’s VC landscape will soon get more specialised, says ADB Ventures

What is next for SC Ventures

When asked about what is next for SC Ventures, Manson starts by explaining the organisation’s stance on new, exciting verticals such as Web3.

“SC Ventures sees Web3 as the frontier of the new economy and today, we have several intrapreneurs in our programme tackling the challenges and developing solutions in this space. As the ecosystem surrounding blockchain, crypto, non-fungible tokens, and other digital assets continues to evolve, we have seen promising new ideas revolving around the future of these concepts,” he says.

“In general, we don’t want to narrow our focus on a specific type of innovation and look only at on-trend solutions and technologies. By doing that, we would blind ourselves to opportunities that may come from other areas.”

As the year 2022 draws to a close, Manson also shares plans for the next year.

“We intend to double down on our Intrapreneurship Programme, refining the curriculum to be even more user- and outcome-focused. We want to ensure that the employees involved have a fantastic experience, learn exceptionally valuable skills and feel rewarded for having the courage to join the programme and complete the process,” he explains.

“For 2023 onwards, SC Ventures is exploring offering Intrapreneurship-as-a-Service to Standard Chartered’s clients. We currently have one Proof-of-Concept (PoC) in action and will be kicking off the second in November 2022. Thus far, the first PoC has received excellent feedback from the client and we’re looking to extend this service to more, effectively inculcating a culture of deeper collaboration, co-creation and innovation in the wider financial services sector,” he closes.

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