Welcome to the TCS Summit Asia Pacific-2022. The theme this year is Innovating for Sustainable Future. We’re covering the action from Sydney, Australia, to give you a sneak peek into the packed schedule.
Inaugural session
As is the tradition in Australia, the Summit began with an ‘Acknowledgment to Country’ by Anastasya Sagigi of the Indigenous Marathon Foundation. The TCS Asia Pacific President, Girish Ramachandran, gave the opening address, followed by the ‘Future Leaders Forum’ with panel sessions on how we can build a greater future through innovation and collective knowledge and the importance of digital sustainability in delivering a competitive advantage.
The Summit theme, “Innovating for a Sustainable Future”, is very close to our hearts for several reasons. At TCS, we believe sustainability and innovation will be the two key drivers of success for any organisation, irrespective of size and industry, as we try to make sense of an increasingly volatile and fragmented world in the coming years.
Building a greater future through innovation and collective knowledge
The ‘Future Leaders Forum’ started with an excellent panel discussion on Building on Belief: Building a greater future through innovation and collective knowledge. The participants were Lucy Payne, Joint Acting Chief Executive Officer, Food Ladder, Professor Mark Scott, Vice Chancellor, Sydney University and Patrick McCall, Head of IT, Service Management, Services, Operations and Infrastructure, Woolworths Group. The session was moderated by Abhinav Kumar, the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, TCS.
While every organisation is born out of belief, we must build on ambitions and optimism to transform for the better. When we combine our knowhow and innovation mindset, we rapidly multiply what we can do with technology and create the solutions we need to build a greater future.
One of those solutions is Food Ladder, an Australian not-for-profit organisation using hydroponic technology and climate-controlled greenhouses. It provides remote and regional schools and communities with small-scale food-growing systems and specialised education resources so that they can grow their produce.
Food Ladder’s Lucy Payne spoke about how sustainability needs to sit at the core of every business decision. Australia is not immune to the food security problem, with many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities unable to access nutritious foods due to the availability and affordability of produce.
Innovations like Food Ladder help build a more sustainable future, focusing on preventative health and getting kids excited and educated about healthy food choices.
For the Woolworths Group, one of the fundamental values is being a purpose-led organisation, empowering people to do the right thing. If an organisation has a simple purpose, it makes it easier to align and bring people on the sustainability journey. This enables a collective way of thinking, finding solutions and building a sustainable culture. For example, while technology helps reduce an organisation’s footprint, it also increases levels of e-waste, which involves mining critical metals that go into this technology. We need to empower our people to collaborate and tackle these problems without barriers but with a structure.
A great example of combining knowhow and an innovation mindset is the University of Sydney’s approach to contributing to the solutions to significant global challenges. We are facing a once-in-a-century pandemic, regional tensions, a war in Europe, inflation and climate challenges – never have leaders dealt with such an array of issues. Academia is developing the next generation; a generation focused on leadership for good.
Professor Scott believes The University of Sydney’s role is to bring the right team together to solve these challenges. And these teams are cross-disciplinary -- we need to look beyond STEM to solve these great challenges and create societal change.
Leaders and future leaders need to be conscious that they are role models – people look up to them. This means that leaders need to be authentic and operate with integrity and have a clear mindset and vision for what sustainable practices in businesses look like.
Corporates and leaders successfully pursuing sustainability need to balance economic, social and environmental impacts over the long term to attract and retain talent – while contributing to the greater good.
Digital Sustainability: Delivering a competitive leadership advantage
The second panel discussion of the day featured Gerald Mackenzie, General Manager, Innovation & Sustainability, Fletcher Building; Grace Kerrison, Head of Sales Solutions – Asia Pacific, LinkedIn; Michelle Lemmens, Head of Business Sustainability & CTO TCS APAC; and Patrick Mooney, Chairman and Co-Founder, Impact Tech Ventures.
Digital sustainability can deliver a significant competitive advantage — this is a core belief held by organisations leading the conversation on inclusive growth. The panellists agreed that adding sustainability to digital transformation can help us reimagine outcomes, revitalise our planet, create transformational ecosystems, and address inequality. It can help us journey to a more sustainable and resilient future.
When sustainability is at the heart of the digital core, it has a multiplier effect on the impact achieved. With sustainability being the most significant challenge the world faces today, how can businesses ensure they continue to innovate with sustainability on the top of their mind?
How do digital and sustainability go together? And where are organisations at in their digital and sustainability journeys? These are some of the questions that cropped up.
Grace talked about how every company has become a tech company in the last two and a half years, and now we are in a hybrid mode. Companies and governments worldwide use data and insights to keep track of progress from a sustainability perspective.
“Digital natives will be 75 per cent of Australia’s workforce by 2025. And for that generation, the use of data and insights come hand in hand.”
This generation has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to consider digital sustainability as part of their skill set.
The number of green entrepreneurs is growing faster than the average entrepreneur. And Australia is leading that. In turn, people considered “green talent” is only increasing by 6%, which means that demand won’t meet the supply in a few years.
Governments and organisations must collaborate to green mainstream roles to bridge current skills gaps.
According to Patrick, investment money is shifting to companies that make an impact, and young talent will prefer a company with a sustainable agenda.
The opportunity for the digital sector is to work directly with hardware sectors to support the transition of high emitters. It’s particularly relevant in industries such as mining, construction, and agriculture, where we see many tech companies providing. solutions to monitor, report and reduce carbon emissions.
But digital sustainability isn’t just a focus for big business Michelle says there is an opportunity to support the digitalisation of small businesses. With 99 per cent of companies considered small to medium, they are an emerging cohort of real economic players in the economies in which they operate.
Small enterprises play a crucial role in the sustainability journey. They are entrepreneurs, business leaders and consumers – but they need guidance around where to start regarding digitalisation and sustainability.
Big business has the opportunity to create an ecosystem where innovators can come in and participate.
Gerald explained that Fletcher Building heavily focuses on bringing innovation and sustainability together to move to a more circular economy. Digital plays a vital role in this, helping understand what is most material for the organisation.
“It allows us to measure and optimise our operations, supply chain and manufacturing. It empowers consumers to make better choices on building materials they use and how they use their homes.”
The panel also shared some practical advice for business leaders regarding sustainability.
Some of the key points are:
Future-focused leaders will consider sustainability more than compliance or risk-based exercise. Instead, they fuse sustainability with their digital and business strategy to create a future-fit business.
Afternoon session
The afternoon marked the official start of the TCS APAC Summit with the keynote address by TCS CEO and Managing Director Rajesh Gopinathan. He set the scene for the summit by unpacking what “Innovating for a Sustainable Future” means for businesses across the region within the current context of global uncertainty and changing consumer behaviour. The keynote uncovered how the core pillars of sustainability, technology, and purpose work together to build future-ready enterprises equipped to unlock the next chapter of growth and build resilience.
CEO panel discussion: Operating Models and Ecosystems for the Future
The future of sustainable business operations was the focus of the panel discussion led by Jeffery Goh, CEO of Star Alliance, Lisa Singh, CEO of Australian Indian Youth Dialogue, and Professor Paul Simshauser, CEO of Power Link. The session delved into the potential for APAC businesses to become strong growth-driver for sustainable operations in the coming years. The discussion was moderated by Krishnan Ramanujam, Business Group President, Enterprise Growth at TCS.
The Asia Pacific region remains poised for growth even as the recovery has been uneven. Governments and companies are pushing ahead with their digitalisation agenda as demand for technology services remains strong. This is despite the triple dark clouds of rising inflation, the structural slowdown in China and the spillover effects from the war in Ukraine.
The discussion explored what organisations can do to stay ahead of the curve and take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the digital revolution. The panellists noted that technology has increasingly become the mainstay – not just a consideration – post-pandemic for companies across sizes and industries.
Jeffery Goh of Star Alliance spoke of the airline industry’s supply-demand challenges and how this has uncovered an opportunity for technology to deliver convenience to the customer experience.
Similarly, Professor Paul Simshauser of Power Link spoke of the potential for Australia and New Zealand to share their industry-leading solutions with the global energy industry.
Lisa Singh of Australian Indian Youth Dialogue talked about the value of diplomacy between Australia and India on leveraging strong business footprints across the region to meet net-zero targets. She also highlighted how business as a sector is ahead of the curve in implementing sustainability. She spoke of the opportunity to engage the next generation of leaders in STEM to drive this transition.
Key insights that emerged from the discussion:
Fireside chat: How Sport can Lead Change for a Sustainable World
We closed the afternoon's discussions with an insightful conversation exploring the future of sustainability in sport, led by Mitch Evan, Jaguar TCS Racing Driver, and James Barclay, Jaguar TCS Racing Team Principal and Managing Director of Jaguar Land Rover Motorsport.
The churning in the automotive industry was the focus of this chat. The speakers discussed topics ranging from the rapid introduction of electric propulsion to data-driven optimisation and how Formula E racing is bringing the future of clean mobility to the public through its unique approach to racing.
During this multi-year partnership, TCS and Jaguar will create a dynamic platform to drive research and innovation while steering towards advanced concepts and electric vehicle (EV) technologies. TCS is leveraging its leadership position in technology transformation and its experience of working with premier players in the EV value chain to help Jaguar TCS push low carbon emissions and sustainable mobility. The partnership will see creative uses of data and insights from the racetracks shape the wider growth, development, and transformation of the EV ecosystem.
As pioneers in Formula E racing, in this discussion, Mitch Evan and James Barclay spoke of the role of electric motorsports in driving technology, safety and sustainability innovation for consumer vehicles. The conversation also tapped into the role of data in Formula E to provide an ever-evolving feedback loop between simulation and real-time racing designed to optimise execution. It explored how this "fail-fast" mentality can be adopted by business leaders to help them learn from previous experiences and better navigate future challenges.
The partnership between Jaguar Land Rover and TCS is the coming together of two purpose-driven brands to create a sustainable future, leveraging innovation and collective knowledge. It is rooted in a shared belief that technological innovation can architect a better world. Innovation and building new technologies will accelerate the adoption of connected, autonomous, electric transportation, driving sustainability and creating better futures for people everywhere. "We are excited about the possibilities this partnership will herald for our joint ecosystem," the panellists agreed.
Welcome to Day II of the TCS Summit Asia Pacific 2022, where the conversation continues in Sydney, Australia, on the importance of innovation in building a sustainable future. Today we deep dive into critical global issues with local insight topics such as empowering communities and maximising ESG. As well as our incredible panellists, we'll also hear from Australian Olympian Emma McKeon for a special fireside chat.
Morning session
The morning began with a recap of Day I, which covered everything from the importance of technology in restoring our economy to sustainability in sports and crashing a race car at 300 miles an hour!
Anastasya Sagigi, Joyrah Newman, and Ethan Mulholland from the Indigenous Marathon Foundation -- a long-term partner of TCS -- opened the day with the traditional 'Acknowledgement to Country'.
The inspirational group spoke about the challenge of running a marathon as an enriching experience for Indigenous communities and why companies need to embrace cultural immersion to fully understand how they can create authentic sustainability and inclusion within their ecosystem.
Vikram Singh, Country Head, TCS Australia and New Zealand, took to the stage to talk about the current state of play in the two countries to set the tone for the day.
The pandemic years have not only been a massive challenge for people and businesses, but this period also brought considerable learning around resiliency and change. This period saw TCS build its workforce locally, expand into new markets in New Zealand and South Australia and develop a young, diverse and culturally reflective ANZ team.
Speaking on the current pressure and focus for the region, Vikram highlighted energy, cost of living and an ageing population, alongside a continued period of uncertainty, against the backdrop of demanding consumer behaviour.
Reflecting on this, Vikram pointed out the need to adapt technology quickly and how TCS has successfully worked on this with major players such as Woolworths and CBA.
The balance of progress leans on business innovation on one side and purpose on the other. Tackling both means working closely with the community and customers.
One of the biggest challenges businesses are facing is the skills shortage. Recognising its importance, Vikram touched upon TCS' work with the government to create a future-ready workforce. He also spoke about how TCS values its role in driving social development and well-being through its Community Innovation Program. TCS partners with half-a-dozen not-for-profit organisations, such as NSW Health, for schemes like the Meals-on-Wheels program.
In his closing remarks, Vikram acknowledged the rising problem of cyber security and the recent cyber attacks that affected 40% to 50% of the population.
TCS is one of the founding members of Cyber CRC. Vikram said the reality of a cyber attack is that it's not a one-time thing; it's real and ongoing. "We can't stop it, but we need to discuss how we can work together to mitigate those risks," Vikram said.
Panel Discussion: Transformation in a hyper-scaled world
Resilience and reliability were the key themes in the panel discussion around transformation in a hyper-scaled world led by K Ananth Krishnan, Executive Vice-President & Chief Technology Officer of TCS.
The panel participants from Placa Premium Group, TPG Telecom, and Westpac Group have all been on their journey within their hyper-scale cloud ecosystem over the past year, experiencing change and transformation at rapid speeds.
They shared their perspective on the cloud and why it marks a fundamental shift in thinking on technology. The panellists also spoke about how business resiliency, digital engagement of employees, customers, and supply chain reliability remain key priorities and drivers of growth.
Olivia Chang, CIO of Plaza Premium Group, said her company is innovating their business model to streamline fragmented airport services into one platform. It will allow a passenger to book and plan a trip from one commonplace at a national and international scale.
"Our mission is to provide passengers with a frictionless and seamless counter to cabin experience by bringing together the fragmented airport services equal systems with digital technology."
Enabled by the Group's technology suite, and supported by homegrown lounge management solutions, leveraging the cloud allowed them to integrate quickly with airline partners, travel members and corporates.
Chief Information Officer of TPG Telecom Giovanni Chiarelle's cloud journey has been one focused on bringing together different companies with different histories and infrastructures following TPG's merger with Vodafone Hutchison Australia in July 2020.
Giovanni broke down TPG Telecom's three-layer approach to bringing two separate entities into a single design.
The first part is checking to see if a cloud solution is already available without reinvesting the wheel. The second part is leveraging its partnership with AWS to deport existing apps to the public cloud. And third is looking at its private cloud infrastructure to add additional elements.
The benefits of this approach and key partnerships TPG Telecom has been able to hyper-scale its core business network, simplify on-ground operations, and enable higher security protocols.
David Walker, Group Chief Technology Officer of Westpac, spoke on the importance of technology and their journey beyond. Built on the acronym BEAD, David asks his software engineers if their work is Built for change, Evergreen, Automated, and Digital to the core.
David emphasised the importance of giving software engineers the choices they need to make the right outcome for the logistics and functionality of the business.
Interestingly, Westpac found that their speed-to-market speed is 56-58% faster when built in a cloud environment, with their engineers working on a mesh engineering platform. This finding has helped Westpac retain talent as they can provide cloud and other modern environments that most engineers want.
The panel concluded with an appreciation of the individual cloud journeys that most businesses are on. Through their own experiences, they agreed on crucial learnings around productivity, cost integration, resilience, cyber security and function simplification. However, in a rapidly advancing digital world, there is still more to come with cloud innovation, and businesses need to stay poised to adapt and react to change.
The second panel of the day featured Veena Sahajwalla, NSW Australian of the Year and Director of Sustainable Materials Research & Technology, University of New South Wales; Teela Reid, Wiradjuri and Wailman First Nations Lawyer in Residence, University of Sydney; and Balaji Ganapathy, Chief Social Responsibility Officer, TCS.
Sustainability and purpose are rooted in community empowerment and engagement. The combination of community and harmony can create large-scale change. It's about learning from nature, living experiences, and culture.
The panellists spoke about their unique upbringing and how it had informed their sense of purpose and understanding of the world and led them to choices focused on creating a better future.
Once people feel empowered and understand their role in society, that is when passion is born and where people can start to make a difference in the world.
During the discussion, Teela Reid challenged the word 'purpose'. Instead, she reflected on her motivation not being based on purpose but a cultural obligation.
Being a First Nations woman, her experience as a child sitting with elders around the campfire informs her sense of personal obligation. It drives her to build a country that also understands its obligation.
For Veena, purpose is born when we turn problems into opportunities to empower communities. The waste industry is a two billion-ton-a-year industry. It's a problem that Balaji said "isn't being solved. It's shipped away", as waste is sent to low-income countries.
Veena flagged that there is a pathway to creating local solutions with locally sourced waste and providing communities with that tangible action creates empowerment.
Veena showed attendees a tile sample used in Sydney Olympic Park. Made from textile and glass, the piece of tile is an example of how waste material can be turned into something purposeful.
The conversation then turned to the power of youth in creating change and how they are the future of society and business.
Teela spoke about young people as some of the fiercest campaigners in the fight for First Nations' voices to be heard. She said this generation has never been afraid to sit around the kitchen table and ask their parents 'why'.
Recalling the differences from her upbringing, Teela recalled having to learn to embrace herself as an Indigenous person walking in two worlds - a black and a white world. Nowadays, young people have to walk in many more worlds, from the Metaverse to all the social media platforms.
Ending the session, Teela recited the Uluru Statement ‘From The Heart’, concluding with the resonating line, inviting everyone to "walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future".
Guests were then treated to a special appearance by Australia's greatest Olympian, swimming superstar Emma McKeon. Emma spoke about her swimming journey, starting at a young age when she decided to swim competitively, like her mum and dad. They were Commonwealth and Olympic Games athletes.
Beyond talking about her weekly training routine and schedule, Emma dived deeper into what it takes mentally to get to the top of the competition. Emma's resilience comes from her ability to overcome tough experiences and setbacks, like when she left the sport in 2012 after a devastating shoulder injury in 2018.
Despite these setbacks, Emma has learnt that the only way to achieve your dreams is through hard work and belief in yourself that you can do it.
Emma took the guests through her 100m final at the 2020 Olympic Games in Japan, where she talked about how she felt at different points of the race. Through a combination of trust, hard work, focus and resilience, she was able to swim to her second 50m of the race faster than her first.
Panel discussion: Why we need to bring more prominence to S and G in ESG
Short for Environment, Social, and Governance, ESG forms the pillars of a stakeholder-centric business.
It's fair to say that until 2020, most companies were preoccupied with just the "E" in ESG, referring to the tangible waste products from business operations.
In recent years we've seen a change in business values, where capitalism and profit are not the only metrics a good corporate citizen should hold. Instead, it's the entire stakeholder relationship that matters. With this in mind, businesses are focusing more on the "S" and "G" to innovate for a sustainable future.
In the third panel of the day, panellists from AGL, Stockland, and PETRONAS discussed why ESG is fundamental to how businesses operate. They also discussed future-proofing growth objectives, providing examples of strategies they've implemented in their organisations.
Jo Egan, Chief Customer Officer, working for a business focused on people, shared how ESG is embedded within AGL and how some don't equally align with each other.
For instance, while it's important for AGL to create a renewable future fast (Environment), they must also balance the affordability and accessibility of their innovation with their customers (Social). Otherwise, it can create unintended consequences where not everyone can afford or access new technology.
Sharmila Tsourdalakis, Stockland's Chief Innovation, Marketing & Technology Officer, spoke on her company's core purpose to create a 'better place to live.' This is important for Stockland, as the environment is foundational in designing and building assets. Sharmilla believes organisations must consider how they can embed ESG in all aspects of the business, particularly in the digital space.
Bringing in a different perspective, Shaharuddin Hamid Mustapha, Head of Digital Excellence, spoke on PETRONAS' ESG strategy focusing on social change through education to build sustainable communities. In collaboration with TCS, their most recent SEEd lab project casts a wider net in tackling communities' pain points across different areas, including food and agriculture, health and hygiene, education and skills, and personal and financial security.
The panel then discussed getting the right people and teams to work on these projects. It noted that businesses must take accountability for asking questions about culture and talent in the recruiting process to promote a diverse and inclusive workforce.
"It's important for an individual's education to take learnings from different social groups. Fostering a filter with a curious mindset provides employees with training and information is critical. We create this through diversity and inclusion in our workplace," said AGL's Egan.
Joining in on the conversation, Sharmila shared that Stockland strives to embed a culture of innovation where employees can test and experiment.
"Innovation is an accelerator of ESG. These are complex problems to solve, so recognising and rewarding the learnings and breakthrough innovation that come through is important."
A key takeaway from the session was that people want to work for purpose-led organisations with impact, and ESG is a critical part of that story. With six out of 10 employees moving to workplaces based on values and beliefs, organisations must implement ESG goals that go beyond industry benchmarks to demonstrate authenticity and a genuine mission for positive change
On the role of the Board, the panellists agreed that it isn't to run the company; it's to understand if the right systems are in place to get the right information to ask the right questions. Directors are a collective of experience from various companies and a collective of life experiences. Well-chaired boards bring together diverse people with diverse ideas, so not everyone will always agree.
Despite this, there needs to be freedom to ask questions. On the other end of those questions are the managers who should be encouraged to bring new ideas to the Board.
In Australia, we must encourage new thinking and newer ways of doing things, the panellists noted.
Boards must give companies the licence to try something new and build a foundation where they're encouraged to fail fast, as that's the only way to rapid innovation and advancement.
The underpinning theme of the session was 'purpose'.
Purpose doesn't always have to be exciting. However, it will prove to be the North Star when making decisions shaped around the right thing to do and how that fits into a company's overall purpose.
John said companies need to look at how their business model generates value to create purpose and how they use capital (human and financial) to achieve that.
On sustainability, the goal isn't to please stakeholders. This thinking can do more harm than good as companies not acting on their promises will get caught out quickly. It's about having a sustainability agenda that aligns with your business model and purpose.
Understanding what you can't do is just as important as what you can do. There's a reason the target is Net Zero and not Zero Zero. Businesses can commit to something achievable that can be put in the right focus for deep, thoughtful and careful disclosure.
Increased regulation needs to be supported by the right culture. Companies must encourage openness, problem escalation, and early disclosure and incentivise employees to tell how something can be done better.
The panel discussed the roadblocks around this, including the nervousness created in organisations as more regulations are applied and the increasing cost of Director's Liability Insurance, which isn't conducive to a culture of disclosure.
Building on this, Jennifer flagged recent situations where companies have been transparent about their problems or issues but have been "hammered" publicly and in the media for it. She could see how this counteracted the willingness of businesses to embrace an open culture on issues and how they are addressing problems.
When asked about preparing for the future of corporate Australia, John called out the role of transparency and accessibility of governance. Using the example of a TCS report, John highlighted the precise way the information can be communicated, allowing it to be understood by everybody.
Asked about the significant trends that Australian companies need to look out for, Jennifer pointed out decarbonisation as both a threat and an opportunity to create long-term value.
She also talked about the importance of people against the backdrop of labour shortages and the impact of long-term retention and rapid reinvention of the economy.
John called out the need for Australian organisations to engage more with the wider region in a post-COVID world, looking again at Indonesia, Singapore and India as a way for Australia to complement what it has to offer.
Jennifer's big future trend was how Australia is entering the consumer age. They are the most important people on the planet. Their access to technology now means they will drive business models in the future.
At the end, the panellists were asked to share their advice with business leadership. John likened the CEO or a Board member's experience to cross-country skiing in a blizzard. "You need a map and a compass to lead the way - much the same as a company needs its values to guide them through uncertainty." Something especially true in the current economic climate. He also said Australia needs to invest in companies with sustainable values because they are the ones that will survive.
Jennifer's advice to business leaders was to ensure decisive action. She said businesses could do this during COVID, and they needed to continue. Those that had to pivot quickly to transform digitally and still align with their values should aim to continue this to support rapid growth and adaptability into the future.
For Anne, "The laws of gravity are the same if you're in the northern or southern hemispheres". The same principles apply no matter what sector or industry you're in. Having the proper governance, clear delegation, purpose and the right culture - along with the right level of flexibility is key.
Closing Remarks
Ending a successful TCS Summit in Sydney, Vikram Singh, Country Head, TCS Australia & New Zealand, summarised the sessions in his closing remarks into key focus pillars for businesses.
Innovation, purpose, cybersecurity, risk and resilience, and sustainability.
These pillars will be the differentiator for companies creating a more sustainable economy and building collective experiences for customers.
