Dr Carl Jones is Managing Director (Southeast Asia) at SAP Concur. He leads a multinational cross-functional team with sales, pre-sales, client success and cloud channel partnerships, ensuring alignment for strategic projects within SAP Concur.
An industry veteran, Jones has held various regional leadership roles in Asia Pacific countries, including Singapore and Thailand. He has 20 years of experience in Asia’s travel and payments industry.
Jones is a regular contributor of articles for e27 (you can read his thought leadership articles here).
In this candid interview, he talks about his personal and professional life.
How would you explain what you do to a five-year-old?
Imagine going to a park with your aunt, and she wants to have some ice cream with you, but she forgot her purse. So, you pay for the ice cream first with your pocket money and expect her to pay you back.
Similarly, I ensure employees get their money back when they go somewhere for work and pay for work-related things.
Note: SAP Concur helps companies manage travel, expense, and invoicing.
What has been the biggest highlight/challenge of your career so far?
My biggest challenge was managing the business through the pandemic and maintaining our business when travel almost completely stopped. It was tough seeing colleagues around the industry, particularly the travel industry, being heavily impacted. Thankfully, I stayed focused and kept my spirits up to motivate the people around us.
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How do you envision the next five years of your career?
I’m fortunate and excited to work at SAP, which gives employees various career options to explore and grow in different roles. For the next five years, I hope to continue to grow as an individual and maintain success for the team I represent and the company.
What are some of your favourite work tools?
I must admit that I didn’t initially appreciate Microsoft Teams when the pandemic struck, but I now love it despite its one or two shortcomings. What I’ve enjoyed most about Teams is its ability to allow us to strike a balance between virtual and hybrid work arrangements. Technology has enabled us to blur the lines between working from home and working from the office, which is very useful.
When I travel, I use Concur TripIt. It is my favourite work tool because it keeps me up-to-date in terms of itinerary changes. It’s especially handy when I am overseas.
What’s something about you or your job that would surprise us?
Most people are surprised to hear that I have been to nearly 100 countries. This includes North Korea. That was a personal trip back in 2005 when I travelled there to watch the World Cup qualifying match between North Korea and Iran.
However, the match was moved to Bangkok at the very last moment. I didn’t manage to catch the game live, but I did spend ten days in North Korea, across various locations and landmarks. It was fascinating.
Do you prefer WFH or WFO, or hybrid?
Hybrid. I love the flexibility hybrid gives me in my role — partly because I have many calls during unsocial hours, such as late at night and when I travel. I like the fact that hybrid has now extended to conferences and webinars, too, meaning in-person and virtual together.
SAP Concur held many online conferences during the pandemic, and we are now running events in a hybrid fashion, where people can choose to attend physically or remotely. Technology has advanced so much in the last couple of years to allow this to be still effective.
What would you tell your younger self?
Always be adventurous and inquisitive. I am where I am because I took risks with my career in my 20s and 30s. For instance, moving overseas from the UK in my late 20s was a risk that I took. I ended up in Asia because I got a one-way ticket to Hong Kong with no firm plans, job, etc.
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From there, I ended up living in China and stayed there for a year, studying the Chinese language. I didn’t know how things would pan out because there wasn’t a plan, but I followed my passion. I did what I wanted to do, and I have been very fortunate with how they have played out.
Can you describe yourself in three words?
Energetic, resilient, and, I hope, fun!
What are you most likely to be doing if not working?
Ideally, hanging out with my wife and dog, Pinot. Pinot is a Singapore special. My wife and I got her from Singapore Action for Dogs four years ago. She was only three months old when she was found on the streets as a stray in Jurong.
We adopted her, and she’s beautiful! I also like to travel with my wife; we just returned from Croatia, having spent a week on a sailboat in the Croatian Islands, which was fantastic!
What are you currently reading/listening to/watching?
I’m currently reading a book titled On Roads that Echo by Charlie Walker, where the author penned his adventures in cycling across Asia and Africa. He spent four years cycling around the world because he wanted to see the world, and I find it inspiring.
I’m a cyclist, too, and a budding adventurer. I cycled 1,600km from Laos to Cambodia a few years ago for three weeks. I aspire to be like Charlie Walker and would like to bike around the world when I retire, particularly the Andes.
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