PodChats for FutureCIO: Fast tracking the people side of doing business in Asia

Finding and retaining talent poses significant challenges and opportunities in Asia and around the world. One of the main challenges is the increasing competition for skilled professionals in the global job market. As economies grow and industries evolve, the demand for highly qualified candidates often exceeds the available supply. This talent shortage can make it difficult for companies to find, attract and retain the right talent for their specific needs. Additionally, cultural and language barriers, as well as differences in labour laws and regulations, can further complicate talent acquisition and management processes.

These challenges present opportunities for companies to explore innovative solutions such as the Employer of Record (EOR) model. An Employer of Record is a service provider that acts as the legal employer of workers on behalf of client companies. This model can help organizations fulfill their talent needs anywhere in the world by leveraging the EOR's expertise in navigating local labor markets, compliance requirements, and administrative tasks. By partnering with an EOR, companies can access a global talent pool, streamline their hiring processes, and ensure compliance with local employment laws. This not only expands their reach but also enables them to focus on core business activities while leaving the complexities of HR and employment administration to the EOR. Ultimately, the Employer of Record model offers a flexible and efficient solution to finding and retaining talent on a global scale.

Jim McCoy, CEO of Atlas HXM reveals the nuissances organisations will face in the quest to acquire the right talent anywhere in the world, and how EORs like Atlas fill those needs.

1. How would you typify or describe the international expansion activities of APAC companies? Are there any distinct trends that you can observe in markets like Hong Kong, China, or Singapore?
2. In terms of challenges. So for enterprises that are on expansion mode, whether global or regional, there's almost always a shortage, crunch in skilled people. With the hybrid work environment, has it complicated the model of acquiring or are using an organization such as yours, the EOR, to fill in the roles that they need?
3. In terms of similarities, or differences in how enterprises in markets like, like Hong Kong, or Singapore, or the less developed markets, like Malaysia, for example, as they start to look at these expansion strategies that they have, are there any unique elements, traits that you're noticing that are unique in the sense that it's unique to Asia, or it's the doesn't matter whether it's a European company trying to expand even within the same region? 
4. Are there any emerging risks that as an organization, Atlas, encounters these days, as you try and employ become as you already are for other organs for your clients, that you're observing in the market now? 
5.  On technology – you mentioned automation, partly to help with the process, but you still need to have the human interface in there.  These days, there's a lot of chatter around AI, for example. And of course, automation is starting to mature a little bit in software automation. What technologies have you observed are becoming more prominent in us as augmenting IE or supporting your atlases business, globally oriented?
6. When you onboard a new client or new customer, what's the most challenging aspect of onboarding a new client to the Atlas way of doing business?
7. So you said, if you have a large multinational customer, client that's expanding the market. And they have existing systems and processes in place where in terms of talent management, and it doesn't sync very well with the way you've set up? How do you negotiate or make the two compatible? 
8. what's your biggest challenge these days? As you know

In Asia, the importance of inclusion in enhancing customer experience cannot be overstated. With its diverse population comprising various ethnicities, cultures, languages, and traditions, creating an inclusive environment is crucial for businesses to effectively cater to their customers' needs and preferences. 

By embracing diversity and fostering inclusion, companies can better understand the unique perspectives and requirements of their customers, leading to more personalized and tailored products and services.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we look at how inclusive practices play a significant role in building trust and loyalty among customers in Asia. And how by incorporating inclusive strategies in their operations, businesses can tap into new market segments and reach a wider customer base. 

Ultimately, prioritizing inclusion not only enhances the overall customer experience but also contributes to the long-term success and sustainability of businesses in the diverse and dynamic market landscape of Asia.

Joining us on PodChats for FutureCIO is Ms Jacqueline Guichelaar, SVP & GM, Customer Experience, APJ & GC, Cisco.

1.       The IWD2024 theme is inclusion. How would you relate “customer experience” and inclusion?

2.       Specific to IWD2024, to what extent does this sense of belonging, relevance and empowerment exist in your organisation? In your role? In the society/community you live in?

3.       What is the most prevalent obstacle to inclusion (narrowing to CX)?

4.       Drawing from your experience, what can learn in terms of achieving inclusion (narrowing to CX)?

5.       Your role has two faces: internal (marshalling your team) and external (customers and partners) How will you inspire inclusion (in your function/in the enterprise)?

6.       How do you plan to elevate your commitment to inspiring inclusion?

KPMG asserts that with all the focus around modernization and/or transformation over the last few years, there is growing recognition that perhaps employees are feeling exhausted. They’re facing one modernizing initiative after another—or multiple initiatives simultaneously—often with competing timelines and priorities.

This is known as digital transformation fatigue, and it’s a growing trend as companies grapple to keep pace with constant change.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Peter Man, General Manager, Red Hat Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, to get his perspective on overcoming digital transformation fatigue.

1.       Why are we seeing digital transformation (DX) fatigue?

2.       What are the signs and symptoms of DX fatigue?

3.       What are the most common causes of DX fatigue?

4.       Name some proven metrics for identifying and measuring DX fatigue particularly on employee morale and productivity?

5.       Name three strategies to prevent or minimize DX fatigue in the workplace?

6.       Speaking of leaders, what role does leadership play in addressing this DX fatigue?

7.       Insert Melinda question here

8.       Into 2024, we anticipate continued acceleration, if not updating, what steps do you recommend leadership implement to counter the development of DX fatigue?

IDC predicts that in 2024, 50% of APAC cities and states will pilot GenAI to improve efficacy in community outreach and customer service, procurement, staff recruitment and training, and software development.

The latest IDC FutureScape report predicts that AI and automation technologies will remain central to tech investment initiatives. 

According to Dr Lily Phan, Research Director, Intelligent Automation at IDC Asia/Pacific AI is needed to lower operational costs, reduce staffing pressure, revamp end-user experience, and democratize decision-making power. The adaptability and efficiency offered by AI and automation solutions can provide the technologies that can mitigate staff shortage and economic challenges," she added.

With AI hype still high, Asia-Pacific businesses that are dipping their finder into the technology, they must ask themselves: how do they move beyond experiments and unlock real business value with AI? 

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by David Irecki, director of solutions consulting for APJ with Boomi, to share with us his views on the “secret path” to practical AI.

1.       What is the problem that organisations will face as they implement AI?

2.       What do we mean by “practical AI”?

3.       Can we use this practical approach generative AI to accelerate current digital transformation initiatives?

4.       What happens when an organisation is integrating AI into their transformation journey only to realise it's not as easy as marketing makes it out to be?

5.       Looking ahead, what key considerations should businesses prioritize to "future-proof" their AI initiatives and remain competitive in the rapidly evolving AI landscape?

6.       This 2024, what are your expectations around AI including how it is evolving, and the approaches organisations are taking to operationalise the technology into current and evolving business processes?

A GitHub report on the growth and impact of AI on software development, including claims pf a 55% faster coding when using an AI-assisted automation tool. GitClear published a separate report to determine how AI Assistants influence the quality of code being written.

Just as important, as development teams start to include automation tools in the development cycle, how can they maintain control over the quality of the software, including keeping code secure.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Kelvin Lim, Senior Director of Security Engineering, Synopsys, to talk about navigating the complexities of AI-generated code.

1.      Give us the state of in-house software development today. 

2.      How is software development evolving in response to the rise in AI-generated code?

3.      What are the primary security vulnerabilities inherent in AI-generated code?

4.      What are the key considerations that teams/organisations should consider when integrating AI-generated code into their software?

5.      How will AI-generated code impact DevSecOp cycle? (report Stanford 2022 – development teams code written by GenAI is less secure)

6.      Given the rapid pace of tech innovation, what do you anticipate in the future evolution of GenAI and its implications for software development practices?

7.      Ask Mel – data poisoning impact AI code generation.

8.      What is your advise for use of Gen AI?

Mordor Intelligence estimates the Asia-Pacific data centre market at around 14.27 thousand MW in 2024, predicting it to reach 23.20 thousand MW by 2029. JLL projects continued increase in rank density particularly among hyperscalers in response the growing demand for computational power. 

With sustainability and climate change high on the agenda for many businesses, a multi-prong challenge of data centres is meeting customers’ net zero emissions goals, and their own targets. What can data centre operators do to save energy while keeping equipment operating on optimum environments?

In today’s PodChats for FutureCIO, we are joined by Terry Miaolo, VP & GM, APAC, OVHcloud, to talk about operational strategies to meet sustainable data centres.

1.       Please give us a State of the Data Centre in Asia today.

2.       Focusing specifically on the operational aspects of data centres, what are the key environmental issues that all data centre operators must overcome?

3.       We’ve seen Governments in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and almost everywhere around the region, including Australia, proposing, if not accelerating national AI strategies. For data centre operators, particularly in Asia, how are they responding to this demand? At the same time, how do you see them fine-tuning their operations so that they can remain on point when it comes to their own net zero emissions targets?

4.       For data centre operators and hyperscalers, what is your recommendation for them to stay ahead, and on course around sustainability practices, while at the same time supporting new business needs and new opportunities such as AI?

5.       What does OVHcloud bring to the table?

6.       For data centres wanting to be more sustainable, what can be their first practical step towards their sustainability journey?

7.       Since we're talking about data centres, the ability to operate them more efficiently and all that, anything that you think we should include?

8.       With the proliferation of new data centres to meet the demands, introduced by a greater need for AI and sustainable operations, what's your forecast like for the data centre market? What will it look like in 2024 and going ahead?

126 business emails (per person) go out daily or 124.5 billion work emails get sent and received every day. The Email Statistics Report of Radicati Group claims that customers are most likely interested in interacting with a brand from the email notifications they receive from brands instead of using email as an interpersonal communication tool, showing value in emails outside of the usual open and reply rates.

At 62.86%, email remains the preferred communication channel among businesses. According to Statista, people check their work emails 172 minutes a day while Harvard Business Review claims professionals check their emails an average of 15 times a day.

With so much information, undoubtedly, many business-critical and with the proliferation of tools to illegally tap or hack those messages, how are companies such critical assets?

In today’s PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Robert Holmes, group VP of sender security and authentication at Proofpoint to talk about once such approach to protecting such assets.

1. In the context of today’s business environment, what is a DMARC? It sounds very technical. What does it mean for the non-technical expert? Why should they care?

2. In your view, what is the percentage of emails currently using this DMARC protocol? 

3. How do we prepare for this evolving digital landscape? 

4. When it comes to emails, who is in charge of border controls?

5. Is incorporating DMARC going to be an expansive initiative?

6. With AI a force for good and bad, can we rely on DMARC alone to protect email?

7. What is your message to technology, security and business leaders in 2024?

Artificial Intelligence continues to drive discussions across the enterprise. From the Board down to the workforce. C-suites are being asked to drive not just the discussion but strategies on how to best tap the technology before the competition does.

Gartner warns that AI poses unique challenges for governance that must be directly addressed to mitigate risks and take advantage of opportunities. How are organizations developing AI governance frameworks, and what benefits and challenges have they experienced around AI governance?

To give us greater clarity on how organisations can safely tap AI now and into the future, we are joined by Ms Heather Gentile, Executive Director of Product watsonx.governance, IBM DATA AND AI.

1.       What is AI governance?

2.       What has given rise to AI governance?

3.       What is involved/included in AI governance?

1. Who should be involved in drafting/managing an organisation's AI governance strategy?

4.       Are all AI governance approaches equal? (i.e., can enterprise use the same template to build their AI governance?

5.       What are the critical components of an enterprise-grade AI governance?

6.       Can you cite notable learnings for C-suite leaders and the Board in the pursuit of an AI governance strategy?

7.       Where does AI ethics fit into an organisation’s AI governance strategy?

8.       Can you elaborate on the urgency to build an AI governance framework?

9.       What does IBM bring to the table when it comes to AI governance?

10.   How would an organisation approach vendors, like IBM, to better plan and manage their AI governance strategy?

11.   What is your advice for C-suite leaders when it comes to AI governance into 2024?

It can be argued that business leaders and organisations face major shifts in the workplace, not the least of which are inflationary pressure on both employer and employee budgets, increased tension over return-to-office mandates, shifting legal and societal landscape concerning DEI initiatives, as well as the impact of client change.

On the topic of sustainability, Gartner says in 2024 organizations will begin to highlight and promote direct climate change protections as a key part of their benefit offerings. Just how will organisations address the concerns of employees while complying with shifting regulations around sustainable business practices, as well as execute and sustain their own net-zero strategies? 

Can we finally harness the data we are collecting about employees, customers, business partners, and government regulations to create an environment that is supportive of everyone’s interests? 

Joining us today on PodChats for FutureIoT is Haran Shivanan, CEO of iviva.

1.       Describe the modern workplace in the digital present (post-pandemic).

2.       The concept of a more efficient, more user-friendly work environment has been around for years. What is different about the situation facing employers and employees today?

3.       How do you see sustainability and commitments to net zero impact how businesses plan and operate their work environments?

4.       How can landlords and building operators support tenants’ sustainability objectives?

5.       Property consultant Knight Frank says 2024 will continue to favour tenants as companies prioritise optimising space. What is your advice for landlords and building operators?

6.       What questions to ask when evaluating the technology/solutions towards achieving?

From the greek word authentikos, authentication, the act of verifying an identity, continues to evolved. Depending on the context, authentication might involve validating a person’s identity through identity documents, verifying the authenticity of a website with a digital certificate or determining the age of an artefact by carbon dating or ensuring a product is genuine.

For decades passwords have been the most popular mode of authentication when accessing computing resources including applications and data. However, in recent years, its effectiveness has been called into question given its susceptibility to phishing, brute-force attacks and insider threats. 

Today, it is widely recognised that passwords, even the use of multifactor authentication, alone are not enough to secure users, networks and systems.

In this PodChats for FutureCISO, we are joined by Johan Fantenberg, Principal Solutions Architect, APJ, Ping Identity, to talk about how technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence maybe be influencing the evolution of authentication.

 Johan, welcome to PodChats for FutureCISO.

1.      What are the different types of authentication that have a potential to displace or augment current password methods?

2.      Set a baseline: What is passwordless?

3.      What are the challenges with going passwordless?

4.      How do you address concerns about the feasibility and practicality of implementing passwordless security solutions across different industries and sectors?

5.      Is there a role for AI in the passwordless security marketplace? 

6.      How should CISOs incorporate AI-embedded practices and technologies to enhance their security posture?

7.      Can you cite examples of passwordless authentication?

8.      You mentioned FIDO 2 Alliance early on. 

9.      Cost of deploying passwordless authentication technology.

10.  Looking ahead, what trends do you foresee shaping the future of cybersecurity, particularly in the realm of authentication and access management?

A 2023 Deep Instinct report claims that the increased adoption of emerging technologies like generative AI is a cause for concern among cybersecurity professionals with 46% concerned that AI will increase their organisation’s vulnerability to attacks. 

Stress levels are also increased among 55% of respondents to the study, with 86% of respondents who have experienced an increase in attacks over the past 12 months attributing the attacks to the use of generative AI.

To help understand how CISOs and SOC leaders can raise the level of efficiency through insights, we are joined by Nick Lim, VP of APAC for Tanium.

1. In your view, what are the hurdles to SecOps efficiency?

2. Do you see AI (identify which AI variant) can improve SecOps efficiency? Briefly describe how.

3. How does an organisation integrate AI into SecOps without adding further risks with the runaway use of AI tools like GenAI?

4. What are the top 3 areas to consider before bringing AI into SecOps?

5. Summing it up? How do you see AI transforming SecOps?

The WEF Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2024 reveals a divide between those who are resilient and those who aren’t. Emerging technologies will only widen this gap. Vivek Gullapalli, global CISO for APAC at Check Point Software Technologies opines that in the digital world, most “everything is highly interconnected, with the seemingly singular exception of cyber security, which remains locked in isolation, and bridging this gap will be critical to business success.

In this PodChat for FutureCISO, Check Point Software Technologies’ president for APJ, Sharat Sinha, summarises the region’s cybersecurity landscape, its leaders’ concerns and some options for moving forward.

1. How has cybersecurity in Asia evolved since the end of the pandemic?

2. As I understand it, cybersecurity is now an all-of-enterprise concern. And yet, different personas view their involvement and responsibility differently. Among leading organisations in Asia, what is the best practice when it comes to ensuring participation in cybersecurity matters?

3. Given the increased concern around escalating costs (particularly in the use of cloud and now AI), how should CISOs work with CIOs and CFOs to better manage the rising cost of cybersecurity? 

4. Given the many options and pathways to securing the business, what is your advice for CISOs and Boards looking at their cybersecurity options in 2024 and beyond?

Securing IoT in the enterprise is complex because of the varying of IoT devices and their diversity in form, function and purpose. While some IoT devices like smart devices may have some form of memory and computing, therefore operating system, others like sensors and telemetry modules merely capture data and pass this to other technologies in the workflow.

It is this diversity of form, function and technology, and the proliferation of multiple standards or protocols that has limited the ability of IT and security teams to integrate the security of IoT technologies into the enterprise.

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is the convergence of connectivity and security helping organizations to achieve a consistent security posture by implementing a decentralised concept where security is provided directly at the source, with the management of all involved components done in the cloud.

SASE promises to bring IoT into the security framework of the organisation. Amit Bareket, VP for Secure Service Edge at Check Point explains the possibility in the following dialogue with FutureIoT.

1. What are the top challenges faced in OT security in 2024?

2. What are the key components of OT security?

3. Should OT security be outsourced? (not sure if relevant to the overall story)

4. For a long time, the security of operational technology has been kept out of the IT’s portfolio. Given the recent rise in attacks against critical and industrial systems, do you see a convergence of IT and OT security and who will lead the charge?

5. How does IoT fit into SASE (and vice versa)?

The Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2024 paints a grim picture: there is a growing inequity between cyber-resilient organisations and those that are not. Among 120 executives attending the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting on cybersecurity, fewer than one in 10 respondents believe that in the next two years, generative AI will give an advantage to defenders over attackers.

It doesn’t help that cyber-skills and talent shortages continue to widen, with 52% of public organisations citing this lack of talent and resources as the biggest challenge when designing for cyber resilience.

In the race to develop the next generation of tools and techniques, FutureCISO spoke to Gil Shwed, founder and CEO, of Check Point Software Technologies, for his thoughts on the next evolution of cybersecurity.

1. In your view, what are the three biggest developments in cybersecurity in 2024?

2. How will these developments impact cybersecurity practice and profession in the years ahead?

3. With the maturing of AI, is it time to practice offensive cybersecurity? 

                a. How will this offensive strategy impact the CISO’s team in the performance of their duties?

4. There is an expectation that AI will be embedded in many of the critical business applications. How will this impact SecOps? Any suggestions for CIOs and CISOs to ready their respective teams for this inevitability?

While the underrepresentation of women in cybersecurity is starting to improve – 20% in 2019 compared to 10% in 2013, that trend isn’t translating in the higher echelons of cybersecurity power. An Altrata report estimates that only 16% of CISOs are women.

FutureCISO spoke to Rupal Hollenbeck, president of Check Point Software Technologies, on the long road for women in cybersecurity.

1. What is your view of women representation in the cybersecurity space?

2. Estimates put women professionals in cybersecurity at 24%. What is driving this inequality in representation in the cybersecurity space?

3. What needs to happen to encourage greater participation of women in the cybersecurity space?

4. For women aspiring to enter the security space, what characteristics must they hone, qualifications do they need to build?

5. What personal risks should those interested in pursuing a CISO career keep in mind?

6. Any advice for those interested in pursuing a career in cybersecurity?

In 2023, the desire to benefit from tech-driven innovation got a boost in the arm, thanks to the perceived potential of emerging AI technologies. Arguably one of the most talked about tech in 2023 was artificial intelligence, specifically Generative AI.

Forrester predicts that enterprise AI initiatives will boost productivity and creative problem-solving by 50% in 2024, and the benefits promised cut across all functions in the organisation, including operations, marketing and sales, customer service, finance and of course IT. 

But exactly how these functions will benefit from Gen AI will likely depend on how well the technology is understood, what types of use cases are adopted, and how well employees embrace the enterprise applications that will eventually be deployed.

What is clear is that the Gen AI honeymoon is fast nearing its end as C-suite leaders get a better handle on the risks that come with unbridled use of the technology. 

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, Leslie Joseph, a principal analyst at Forrester, answers some of the most perplexing questions that GenAI brings to the table.

1.       What do most organisations in Asia, and its leaders, understand when it comes to generative AI?

a.       How would you compare how leadership and the rest of the company feel about GenAI?

2.       Some contend that GenAI has the potential to democratise data analytics? Can you elaborate on this? 

3.       GenAI is still relevant young. How do you see hardware, software and solutions evolving as AI and ML techniques mature? 

a.       Is the infrastructure of today ready to support the evolving AI technologies?

4.       What measures/safeguards are needed to ensure responsible use of GenAI? (Level 100?)

5.       Do you see GenAI leading to IT team burnout?

6.       What is the future of GenAI? How do you see it driving the future?

Mary Johnston Turner, research vice president for the Future of Digital Infrastructure — Agenda at IDC says the majority of organizations globally expect to rely on interconnected, hybrid, and multi-cloud strategies for digital infrastructure in the coming years.

In Asia, we are already observing the hosting of business applications and data in the cloud becoming the norm for many organisations. As the trend continues, these same organisations will have to decide whether they can continue to run applications originally designed to run on traditional on-premises infrastructure or to optimise these to run in the cloud. 

Gartner defines cloud-native as something created to optimally leverage or implement cloud characteristics. Such applications share the same cloud characteristics including scalability and elasticity, shared, metered by use, service-based, and ubiquitous because they are built from the ground up as internet technologies.

In this PodChats for FutureCIO, we delve deeper into the value proposition of cloud-native initiatives, why organisations pursue this and how they do so cost-effectively when the mandate is to continue operating a hybrid environment.

Helping us to shed light on key considerations for C-suite leaders on the topic is Vishal Ghariwala, Senior Director and CTO, Asia Pacific, SUSE.

1.       Define for us what SUSE means by cloud-native initiatives.

2.       Given that the observable trend in APAC is to take the hybrid approach, why would an enterprise pursue cloud-native initiatives?

3.       What strategies can IT leaders employ to foster innovation amidst a highly distributed and heterogeneous Cloud Native IT landscape?

4.       A Forrester-HashiCorp study revealed that in Asia Pacific organisations find a shortage of cloud skills, as a major barrier to pursuing multi-cloud strategies. 

a.       Is this IT talent shortage real in Asia?

b.       Within the realm of mission-critical, end-to-end cloud-native architecture, what are the issues CIOs/HRs leaders find as a struggle in identifying, recruiting and retaining these particular talents?

5.       With technology evolving rapidly, how can IT leaders boost the interoperability and adaptability of their cloud-native solutions?

6.       In light of rising security breaches, what can IT leaders do to enhance the security of their cloud-native solutions?

7. It's 2024, what are your top 3 recommendations for how C-Suite leaders can unlock the value of Cloud-Native initiatives?

In 2019, Singapore announced a national blueprint that would direct the use of AI to transform the economy. 

The government reports that since then 150 teams have been working on research and development, and 900 startups are exploring new ideas with AI.

In December 2023, the government followed it with version 2 with a central theme of “AI for the Public Good, for Singapore and the World.” 

To help us understand what this means for businesses in Singapore, we are pleased to have with us Lian Jye Su, chief analyst with Omdia.

1.       Briefly describe for us what is the overall aim of Singapore’s National AI strategy.

a.       The NAIS 1.0 was launched in 2019 to establish Singapore as a leader in developing and deploying scalable, impactful AI solutions, in key sectors of high value and relevance to our citizens and businesses by 2030. How have things changed since then?

2.       For business leaders, what are the opportunities this NAIS present to the industry and the company?

3.       For the CIO, how active should he or she be involved in crafting architectures and roadmaps that would support/enable the organisation’s interpretation of the NAIS?

a.       What are the challenges that CIOs must raise to the C-suite and Board as it relates to rising up to the call to support Singapore’s NAIS?

4.       Given the level of interest that business leaders in Asia/Singapore have on AI, what questions should the CIO be asking to (a) themselves; and (b) to the board/C-suite that will help guide the AI deployment for the company?

5.       What can other economies from Singapore’s approach to becoming an AI hub?

6.       Many emerging technologies take time to get adopted. However, what is maybe unique with AI is that it is fast evolving. How should CIOs architect an AI strategy where the technology is evolving probably faster than the use cases can be identified, tested and integrated into existing systems?

For decades custom applications were the norm. It allowed organisations to create applications that were designed to the very minute requirements of the business. Of course, the downside is that these applications require more time to build, most likely more expensive to maintain, have questionable transparency practices being applied, and someday run the risk of the original developers no longer being around to maintain them.

With the growing popularity of citizen developers using low-code or no-code platforms, is there a value for custom applications?

Joining us today on PodChats for FutureCIO is Ankit Gupta, practice director at the Everest Group, to shed light on the future of custom applications.

1.       Define for us what we mean by custom applications.

2.       Custom application/coding has decades of practice, particularly during the heady days of mainframes and monoliths. How has it evolved during the era of SaaS and cloud computing?

3.       To what extent do business leaders require IT to continue with custom development (to cater to the perceived uniqueness of business processes) vs using SaaS solutions?

4.       How will standardising on SaaS impact the application team?

5.       What will the adoption of low-code/no-code – the democratisation of programming – mean for the future of application development?

6.       How do you see AI impacting application development? 

7.       Do we still need custom applications in 2024? What conditions?

Fragmentation, uncertainty and volatility are constants. Anywhere you go in Asia (and the world) these are the same constraints that businesses and their leaders face in the race to remain of value to customers, partners, shareholders and employees.

As we begin the new year, how will the constants of 2024 redefine the environment that CFOs, the finance team, and the rest of the organisation must swim in? We invited Adam Scriven, practice leader for finance consulting at KPMG to share with us his perspective on the role of finance in driving strategic imperatives in 2024. 

1.       From the CFO perspective, what is value creation and how is this being achieved by the finance function?

2.       How do you see the finance operating model evolving to meet the future needs of the business?

3.       Given the ongoing challenge of staffing across the finance function, and the job security apprehensions concerning automation and AI, how should the CFO strategize the introduction of AI and automation to deliver on the promises of operational efficiency and effectiveness, while supporting team cohesion?

4.       Some in the enterprise may see the finance function as a black box outputting reports and recommendations. Is there a proven approach to transparency and data/information integrity?

5.       VUCA will continue to exert its influence enterprise-wide. What is KPMG’s recommendation for creating a cost-effective and resilient finance function?

Generative AI may have hijacked its top strategic predictions for 2024, but  Gartner says CEOs must empower a single responsible executive, such as the CISO, to tackle the challenge of misinformation across the organization. By 2027, 45% of CISOs’ remits will expand beyond cybersecurity, due to increasing regulatory pressure and attack surface expansion.

Silvia Ihensekhien,  the director of information security and risk management at Swire Coca-Cola, discusses the strategic imperatives for CISOs in 2024. 

1.       What cybersecurity strategy has proven to be most effective in 2023?

2.       What is the single most significant learning (for you) in 2023?

3.       As a cybersecurity professional, name one thing that keeps you awake at night.

4.       As a cybersecurity professional, what are your top 3 tips/recommendations for staying relevant in your role as viewed from the perspective of (a) your peers; (b) the company; and (c) the industry?

5.       As a cybersecurity professional, which technology is your biggest concern this 2024 (as it relates to cybersecurity)?

6.       What do you see will be the top 3 challenges of the CISO/cybersecurity profession in 2024?

In recent years, the role of chief financial officer (CFO) has never been more challenging as it is fulfilling for those who hold this position. From geopolitical uncertainties to changing market dynamics, from technological innovations that are paving the way for new business models, and from calamitous weather disturbances that are reminding business leaders about the importance of addressing climate change today for a sustainable future tomorrow, the CFO has an important seat in directing the future of the company, the industry and society.

Recognising the differences in regulation and market dynamics, FutureCFO has approached CFOs from around Asia to discover their learnings, experiences and approaches in handling the myriad challenges that they face in 2023 and their expectations and plans for 2024.

In this PodChats for FutureCFO, Hongrui (Max) Mo, chief financial officer for Asia at MET Asia, for his perspective on the changing role of the CFO.

1.                   In describing the CFO’s role in 2023, where is the focus/priority or priorities this year?

2.                   Do you see a trend among CFOs to outsource certain finance functions to keep the team lean?

3.                   For 2024, what do you anticipate will be the expectations of the CFO and the finance team?

4.                   Among the many priorities of the CFO/finance team in 2024, which in your opinion, will be most challenging?

5.                   Of the many technologies available to finance, which for you offer the greatest value to the function and the company in 2024?

6.                   I understand that talent remains an issue even within the finance function. In your view, which functions within finance are most challenging to fill/retain?

7.                   For those looking to build a career in finance, what is your recommendation?

8.                   What are your expectations for 2024?

There are many words to describe the economic environment of 2023 and dull is definitely not one of them. 

2023 remains a particularly challenging period for many CFOs who must grapple with two local wars, one in Eastern Europe and the other in the Middle East, and their impact on supply chains, escalating cyberattacks, rigid labour markets, efforts to adopt sustained ESG strategies in response to climate change, and the business impact of adopting or not adopting fast enough emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. 

With 2024 just around the corner, we have invited Ho Kok Yong, CFO Program Leader, Deloitte Southeast Asia, to share with us his views around innovations, lessons learned in 2023 and what CFOs and finance leaders can expect in 2024. 

1.       What were the three most distinctive challenges for the CFO and the finance function in Asia in 2023?

2.       Name three lessons learned in response to these challenges.

3.       Coming into 2024, what does Deloitte see will be critical issues/challenges to the finance function and CFO?

4.       What is your top prediction for 2024 (as it relates to the CFO and finance function)? 

5.       What are Deloitte’s recommendations/advice to finance leaders to meet these challenges?

In a joint Harvard Business Review and Google Cloud report 97% of business leaders surveyed believe that democratising access to data and analytics across their organization is important to business success. The same study revealed that only 60% of these leaders believe their organization is very effective at giving employees access to data and analytics tools.

With business leaders now seeing greater autonomy in deciding their technology directions, this may have led to the rising adoption of low-code and no-code methodologies for developing applications. Both approaches use visual programming and automation to create software solutions rather than relying on the IT team to write the code for them.

FutureCIO has covered the economic benefits of low-code and no-code back in September 2020. This time around with the growing influence of artificial intelligence, we look at how AI may impact the use of low-code and no-code approaches when it comes to business applications.

Returning to PodChats for FutureCIO is Leonard Tan, regional director for Singapore and Greater China, OutSystems.

1.       Where are we at as regards low-code/no-code adoption/integration in Asia in 2023?

2.       What have been the positive AND negative consequences of low-code/no-code use to the application development teams? [get access to this OutSystems study]

3.       How do you see AI impacting the future of low-code/no-code use in the enterprise? Please view from the perspective of (a) enterprise citizen developers and the IT function; from the (b) developer team to (c) security.

4.       How should the CIO balance the benefits and risks of AI-powered low-code/no-code platforms?

5.       2024 is here. What is in store for low-code/no-code platforms, and how should the CIO and the enterprise view these developments as part of the overall business transformation?

Gartner’s VP analyst, Bart Willemsen says technology disruptions and socioeconomic uncertainties require a willingness to act boldly and strategically enhance resilience over ad hoc responses. He posits that “IT leaders are in a unique position to strategically lay down a roadmap where technology investments help their business's sustenance of success amidst these uncertainties and pressures.”

Interestingly, five of Gartner’s top 10 strategic predictions for 2024 have an AI influence on them.

Forrester cautions that AI is not the only dynamic that will define 2024. It predicts that the AI hype of 2023 will give way to a year of practical exploration.

Sumir Bhatia, president of the Infrastructure Solutions Group at Lenovo Asia Pacific, joins PodChats for FutureCIO to explore with us how AI will power the growth objectives of businesses in 2024.

1.       How can AI be utilized to enhance productivity and efficiency in various industries to support economic growth in 2024?

2.       In what ways can AI be leveraged to identify and capitalize on new business opportunities and market trends to create new business models?

3.       What are the potential risks and challenges associated with integrating AI into business growth strategies, and how can these be mitigated?

4.       In what ways can AI be harnessed to streamline decision-making processes and drive strategic growth initiatives for businesses?

5.       How can AI be utilized to drive innovation and R&D efforts, leading to the development of new products and services for sustained growth?

6.       Coming into 2024, as the CEO and the rest of the C-suite call for integration of IT into the current technology roadmap, any recommendations for the CIO and his or her IT team to consider as they look to bring in AI without disrupting business as usual?