Teng Chan Leong, CEO of Skribble Me, shares his thoughts on the inevitability of digitalisation, the push from mandates, the adoption crunch and how businesses can compete and transform amidst challenges.

A Digital Unleashing

Digitalisation is an inevitable tradition. But, the narrative in the market is one of two things. First, should businesses adopt technology as a baseline to survive? Or should businesses adopt technology to transform?

Take social media for example. The technology of people chatting online, sharing messages and images; and talking with friends are actions fundamental to social interactions. However, one company took it further to put the entire face-to-face experience online. Facebook used technology as a way to differentiate and 19 years on, it is the world’s largest social media site. Manufacturing lines today are run by Artificial Intelligence (AI), to a large extent because automotive companies saw and used technology as a differentiator.

There is a lot of push to adopt the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Mandates from the United Nations and the Association of Asian Nations (ASEAN) are very well spelt out. On the home ground, there are policies, strategies and implementation plans for the adoption of 4IR. So why the lag? In April, Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said that Malaysian Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) contribute 34 per cent to manufacturing GDP. His focus was not just on the quantum, but the fact that the percentage has been stagnant for a few years.

But change often comes with crisis. The pandemic has forced more SMEs to adapt to digital solutions and remote working, and to get comfortable with technology. The next crisis could come in the form of competition from regional counterparts, another global-scale event, recession, or AI. Whatever the crisis, it is unwise to fall back to yet another round of “wait and see” approach. Changing, in this case adopting a true digital approach, may be the difference between survival or extinction.