GET TO KNOW period . Letting AI do the boring parts and freeing human beings up to make the right decisions based on the insights it generates should be the goal .
It seems like everyone is struggling to re-create or re-engineer their ICT landscapes to drive better customer journeys and experiences .
How do you deal with stress and unwind outside the office ?
Outside of work , I devote almost all my free time to my three-year-old son and I get through a lot of books – 50 to 70 a year , on average . Recent reads include The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman , the co-founder of DeepMind . It was an incredible , eye-opening look at the future of AI . So , in a way , was Charan Ranganath ’ s Why We Remember looking at how and why the brain retains certain things and how you can help it do so .
What are the region-specific challenges when implementing new technologies in APAC ?
Being based in Vietnam , I feel very lucky . The country is full of people who are talented and good at picking up new things . The government here has invested heavily in STEM and that ’ s created a generation of workers who are very practical and very open to technology . Having said , the talent war remains challenging . Organisations in this part of the world need to work really hard to retain talented professionals .
I also do a lot of short courses on everything from gut health to data analytics and I try to spend time on my spin bike every day .
If you could go back and change one career decision what would it be ?
Not spending more time studying mathematics is another regret . I was doing a two-year , online course on it a few years ago but gave it away because I couldn ’ t see a use case for it . I ’ m now trying to pick that back up again . Some of the hiring decisions I made in the past didn ’ t serve me well either . I promoted people into leadership roles who didn ’ t truly believe in what we were trying to accomplish and dealing with the fallout from that was painful .
What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry ?
The desire to improve productivity and reduce costs continue to drive cloud and Digital Transformation initiatives from front-to-back at banks .
Banks , like most businesses , have also become very focused on making sense of the large volumes of data they ’ ve amassed . It ’ s a huge challenge and one a growing number of leaders are determined to resolve . Re-architecting around the customer has also become a very big topic , all around the world .
What changes to your job role have you seen in the last year and how do you see these developing in the next 12 months ?
The pattern of my working life has always been to use technology to solve a business problem and deliver an experience . I ’ ve done that with various different banks and now that I ’ ve joined Backbase I ’ ll be doing it again in a different way . I came on board in June 2024 to drive the development and deployment of AI-powered applications that address practical challenges for banks and that ’ s what my team and I are working on right now .
What advice would you offer to someone aspiring to obtain a C level position in your industry ?
Don ’ t aspire to the C-level for power or status or ego . That doesn ’ t work for me and it ’ s not why I strived to reach the leadership ranks . I went after senior roles because I felt frustrated working for people who weren ’ t committed to delivering better customer experiences and I wanted to be in the position to drive that change . And don ’ t let yourself devolve into a dinosaur as you advance . A lot of C-level people become ‘ excel people ’ and I think that ’ s a mistake . Stay close to technology and keep the customers at the forefront – get out and talk to them and you ’ ll always know what ’ s happening . p
80 INTELLIGENTCIO APAC www . intelligentcio . com