Singapore firms have their game strong when it comes to facing the brunt of technological adversity, compared to Hong Kong (HK). A report published by Calastone reveals that about 44.6% of companies have a technologist in a leadership position in Singapore, while the figures go down to just 20.3% in HK.
The numbers have certainty gone up if we look back at the report published in 2011.The number for the island state have increased from 17.9 per cent and Hong Kong from 6.3 per cent.
The financial services industry has greatly transformed with the rising technological inventions. They are totally disrupting the way services are offered, and those who keep up tend to outdo others in the race. Naturally, businesses have got to put the things in place can do. This can be done by hiring the right people and gain an appropriate understanding of the technology to put it to the best of use.
The report rightly says that technology should no longer be seen as just a service function within busineses. It, rather, should be viewed as a strategic resource.
The companies should leverage at the most strategic level, and it would be fair for the growth of company to be coupled with the ideal blend of skills and experience in their leadership teams. The boards and leadership teams seemed to be largely filled with accountants, lawyers, and even management consultants. But since technology is playing the major role in the evolution of the businesses, professional technologists, clearly, have a prominent role to play at an executive level. The absence of techies at leadership roles, will certainly put them at disadvantage, as they will lack the appropriate technological vision or long-term view to deal with changing markets and client behaviors.
Even though Singapore surpassed Hong Kong in number of more techies at an executive level, it still has a long way to go. The representation of technologists in leadership roles are not constant across various sectors. The financial services industry witness a higher representation, owing to emerging FinTech sector. The increase in number could, however, be attributed to the friendly regulatory regime in the nation. Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the financial regulatory board of Singapore, has coming up with various schemes and investment plans to facilitate the growth of this industry.
A previous study by Calastone, indicated that UK has progressed more than Singapore and Hong Kong both, with 4% of companies now having a technologist at board level.
