If digital transformation was about driving fundamental change within the company, then its next chapter will be far more outward-looking. This is about being digital-first: to build digital businesses that are viable and sustainable in the long term. Rather than just leveraging digital technology to seize new opportunities, such organisations are poised to create operating models for meeting evolving customer needs. In fact, 95% of CEOs globally already see the need to adopt a digital-first strategy.
But what does it mean to be a digital business? Firstly, digital businesses embrace a digital-first enterprise strategy led by the CEO and other C-suite executives. They use technology to stay competitive, shifting their priorities from just driving efficiency. They are fixated on delivering business outcomes at scale with digital innovation programs. They create value through digital technologies.
This change can be seen in how most Asia/Pacific Japan (APJ) CIOs are taking up the role of strategic advisor and partner, collaborating with their business counterparts in operations and product development. And with revenue generation becoming an integral part of the CIO’s breadth of responsibilities, it’s clear that technology is taking on a leading role in value creation.
More and more businesses today have taken root in a digital business model to serve as their stepping stone towards becoming Future Enterprises. The Future Enterprise is the vision of International Data Corporation (IDC) on how enterprises should operate and invest not only to achieve measurable business goals and outcomes, but to participate in the new era of digital businesses. This is where forward-thinking organisations will thrive by attracting digital talent, improving enterprise intelligence, scaling digital innovation, and more.
To celebrate and recognise the APJ leaders and businesses who have challenged themselves to become a digital business, IDC has launched anew the APJ IDC Future Enterprise Awards. Last year, stand out winners include companies and individuals such as:
- Midea Group (China), Future Enterprise of the Year, for deploying AI and advanced digital technologies to enhance its user experience with an end-to-end value chain while providing digital empowerment for all employees and partners to create a flexible and labour- and energy-efficient supply chain.
- Maria Beatriz A. Adversalo of Malayan Insurance Co., Inc. (Philippines), recognized as CIO of the Year in Asia/Pacific, for leading the company’s digital transformation program strategy which includes the deployment of web apps, portals, APIs, OCR, RPA, analytics, and cloud resulting in increased digitalised policy issuance premiums, savings in terms of manhours and software subscriptions.
- James Chen of CTBC Bank (Taiwan), lauded as CEO of the Year in Asia/Pacific, for his forward-thinking leadership to strengthen the bank’s digital technology services by investing over TWD7.67 billion to modernise its information core and transform its technology to better serve digital customers.
- Zuellig Pharma Holdings Pte. Ltd., Best in Future of Intelligence in Singapore, for leveraging data analytics to build a data superhighway that would connect all its current and future digital and data solutions. Anchored in the mission of making healthcare more accessible, it built three main pillars of service—commercial excellence, supply chain analytics, and business intelligence—to deliver actionable intelligence and insights. As a result of improved insights and services, the data analytics team has secured collaborative projects with over 30 principals and generated more than US$8 million in revenue in the last 18 months.
Entries will be judged against these critical capabilities of the Future Enterprise:
- Future of Trust
- Future of Industry Ecosystems
- Future of Operations
- Future of Work
- Future of Intelligence
- Future of Digital Infrastructure
- Future of Connectedness
- Future of Customer Experience
- Future of Digital Innovation
- Future Enterprise of the Year Award
To celebrate the innovative works of individuals and organisations, the Future Enterprise Awards also have these categories:
- CEO of the Year
- CIO/CDO of the Year
- Special Award for Digital Resiliency
- Special Award for Sustainability
This year, to recognise outstanding organisations born in the digital-native era and smart cities projects, IDC will also hand out Special Awards for:
- Digital Native Business
- Smart Cities – Best in Connected City
- Smart Cities – Best in Digital Policies
- Smart Cities – Best in Citizen Wellbeing
The Future Enterprise Awards will also serve as a forum for sharing smart cities’ best practices to aid and accelerate development in APJ. As smart cities catalyse the digital transformation of urban ecosystems towards systemic environmental, financial, and social outcomes, they tap into emerging technologies and innovation to make cities more liveable, while offering new services and economic opportunities.
Nominations are now open for the awards across different regions—APJ, North America, Europe, and Middle East, Africa, and Turkey—with entries reviewed by a select panel of judges, composed of IDC worldwide analysts, industry thought leaders, and members of the academia. Each nomination is first evaluated by IDC’s country and regional analysts against a standard assessment framework, based on IDC’s Future Enterprise taxonomy. Winners of each country will then qualify for the regional competition.
Visit IDC Future Enterprise Awards to learn more. To submit a nomination, complete this form by 16 June, 2023.
