Workshops Inspire Fresh Thinking Across the Group

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Perspective

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Through our workshops we wanted to demystify disruptive technology

and, rather than think of it as a threat, explore how

we can use it as an opportunity.

Ben Keswick

A decade ago, social media was practically unknown. Today almost one billion people have Facebook accounts and Tencent has 800 million accounts in China alone, while technologies such as the mobile internet are allowing millions of people in remote areas of developing regions to leapfrog into the 21st-century global economy. The impact of new technologies means that business is changing fundamentally, and the pace of change is accelerating.

Three ‘Knowledge and Innovation’ workshops, held in Singapore, Jakarta and Hong Kong, have highlighted the need for ‘Fresh Thinking’ and provoked initiatives and opportunities that will enable the Jardine Matheson Group to participate in the technological advances that are changing today’s business environment.

Initiated by Group Managing Director Ben Keswick to boost the momentum of Fresh Thinking across Group businesses, the workshops brought together 150 leaders from its different operating companies to explore five technology themes that are disrupting businesses globally and in Asia. These are Digital, Social and Mobile, Internet of Things, 3D Printing, Cloud Computing Technology and Big Data/Advanced Analytics. In each workshop, industry experts together with representatives from regional companies that have embarked on their own digital journeys shared their expertise and experiences.

“The power of new technologies is everywhere. They change how businesses make money and how we live and work, sometimes with amazing speed,”

said Mr Keswick. “Their transformative power can create immense value, but often through a highly disruptive process. Through our workshops we wanted to demystify disruptive technology and, rather than think of it as a threat, explore how we can use it as an opportunity.”

The workshops were themselves innovative, making use of technology to ensure a fully interactive and immersive experience. As well as key learning objectives, they included an ‘experience lounge’ where participants could view, touch and feel technology innovations; a ‘Hackathon’, which demonstrated how new technology can disrupt traditional business models much faster than before; and a facilitated ‘gallery walk’ which focused on demystifying the five main technology themes.

Building upon these workshops, a series of Knowledge and Innovation Forums are being lined up for 2016 that will focus on areas of particular interest to Group businesses. Special Interest groups are also being set up to create a collaborative environment across the Group and bring ideas to life.

“Over the next few years we shall see great shifts in the way we operate. The application of Fresh Thinking is essential to our businesses, and I am pleased to see that centres of excellence are already up and running in a number of our operations,” said Mr Keswick. “Our goal must be to embrace this new technology and make it work for our long-term benefit.”

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Making the Most of Disruptive Technologies

Digital, Social and MobileIn the United States, some 30% of web browsing and 40% of social media use is on mobile devices; in China, wireless mobile internet use already exceeds wired PC-based use. In only a few years, internet-enabled portable devices have become a way of life for the more than one billion people who now own smartphones and tablets. The technology of the mobile internet is evolving rapidly, with intuitive interfaces and new formats, including wearable devices. The mobile internet also has applications across businesses, enabling more efficient delivery of products and services and creating opportunities to increase workforce productivity.

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group (MOHG) has embraced modern social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as Weibo and WeChat in China, to engage with its guests. It also uses a cutting edge system called ‘Brand Karma’ to manage customer satisfaction on platforms such as TripAdvisor. With over half of web traffic now on mobile, MOHG’s sites are optimized for smartphones and tablets.

mandarin oriental was an early adopter of the worldwide web and social media.

7-Eleven Hong Kong’s mobile app, ‘7-Fans’, allows consumers to enjoy the convenience of e-mobile payments, while at the same time earning and redeeming electronic coupons. It has also launched ‘Tap & Go’, a secure service where customers can make payments at 7-Eleven through near-field communication (NFC)-enabled mobile phones.

JLT Sport has developed an app for the Australian Football League (AFL) that allows clubs to complete a pre-game risk management checklist of their grounds and facilities via smartphones or tablet devices, enabling officials to identify safety concerns. The stored information on a central server provides both JLT and the AFL with the ability to analyze the data.

Astra associate PermataBank has been a pacesetter in mobile payment solutions in Indonesia with the development two years ago of ‘BBM Money’. This platform connects to a BlackBerry Messenger app that facilitates e-commerce, bill payments, mobile credit top-ups, and money transfers between BBM Money users or to any bank account across Indonesia.

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Perspective

Internet of ThingsIncreasingly, the connected world includes physical objects – such as machinery, shipments, infrastructure and devices – that are equipped with networked sensors and actuators that enable them to monitor their environment, report their status, receive instructions, and even take action based on the information they receive. Even people can be equipped with sensor-enabled devices – to track their health status, for example. This is the ‘Internet of Things’, and it is growing rapidly.

Hactl has enhanced the temperature-controlled zones in its SuperTerminal 1 facility and is using temperature mapping and 24-hour monitoring to accommodate pharmaceutical products.

More than nine billion devices are currently connected to the internet, including computers and smartphones, and that number is expected to increase dramatically within the next decade. When physical assets equipped with sensors provide information to a system that has the ability to capture, communicate and process the data – and even, in a sense, to collaborate – they create game-changing opportunities for production efficiency, distribution and innovation.

Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited’s (Hactl) fast-track ‘Golden Route’ ensures that all pharmaceutical cargo achieves the speediest possible transit between the apron and handling centre with sensors enabling Hactl to monitor movement as well as the temperature conditions during both the transit and storage in dedicated cooler and freezer facilities.

Hongkong Land took advantage of the Internet of Things with its Centralised Monitoring Centre (CMC), which connects the existing Building Management Systems located within each property in its CENTRAL portfolio, onto a single platform. The CMC connects over 80,000 monitoring points, integrating the lift monitoring, automatic fire alarm, building management and CCTV systems of each building into a single network infrastructure, thereby increasing the efficiency of building controls and online monitoring, and enhancing customer satisfaction.

As a mining and earth moving contractor using some of the world’s largest and heaviest vehicles, Astra subsidiary PT Pamapersada Nusantara is applying a Vehicle Health Management System (VHMS) using wireless technology to monitor the condition of its fleet. The auto download capability of the VHMS provides data on the condition of vehicles and acts as an early warning system for any machinery defects.

3D Printing3D printing enables an idea to go directly from a design file to a finished product, potentially skipping many traditional manufacturing steps. Until recently, the process was largely used for a few select manufacturing applications, but the improving performance of manufacturing machinery, an expanding range of materials and lower prices are bringing 3D printing to a much wider audience of consumers. 3D printing allows on-demand production, which has significant benefits for supply chains and can also reduce the amount of material wasted in manufacturing. It can create objects that are difficult or impossible to produce with traditional techniques, and scientists have even ‘bioprinted’ organs, using an inkjet printing technique to layer human stem cells along with supporting scaffolding.

Gammon leads the way in the construction industry in Hong Kong with its application of 3D printing and scanning. Using 3D printing, Gammon can create a prototype of a complex building structure and ultimately reduce reworks and delays. Areas difficult to access such as tunnels can be easily surveyed and the resulting scanned visuals used to create 3D maps and models. 3D printing is also playing a key role in Gammon’s move into mechanized construction.

Hongkong Land is pursuing the future use of 3D software technology throughout the lifecycle of its residential developments, from 3D visualization in the design development process to a virtual reality experience for potential buyers during the marketing phase. Even after a development is completed, the generated 3D files could serve as a key asset in facilitating the estate management system.

In-house 3D printing technology is playing a key role in Gammon’s drive into automated construction and modularization.

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Our goal must be to embrace this new

technology and make it work for our

long-term benefit.

Ben Keswick

Cloud Computing TechnologyWith Cloud technology, any computer application or service can be delivered over a network or the internet, with minimal or no local software or processing power required. IT resources such as computation and storage are made available on an ‘as-needed’ basis, and when extra capacity is required, it is seamlessly added without entailing up-front investment in new hardware or programming. The Cloud is enabling the explosive growth of internet-based services, from search to streaming media to offline storage of personal data, as well as the background processing capabilities that support mobile internet devices. The Cloud can improve the economics of IT for businesses and provide greater flexibility and responsiveness. It can also enable entirely new business models, including all kinds of pay-as-you-go services.

MOHG has already embraced Microsoft Cloud to handle its global email system, with significant advantages in cost, security, storage and maintenance. It will soon move to hosting its intranet on Cloud creating benefits that will include using workgroups for internal communications to encourage collaboration, enhance transparency and foster creativity.

By storing and accessing data via the Cloud, JEC is improving the efficiency and reliability of its project management operations across its regional offices and Hong Kong headquarters. Cloud-based ‘Office 365’ is also supporting the development of the recent joint venture, Cummins Jardine Energy Solution, in terms of document merging, increasing productivity and simplifying team collaboration.

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Perspective

It is investment in innovation, both in our existing operations and in new activities, that will see us gaining market-

leading positions.

Ben Keswick

Big Data/Advanced AnalyticsAs companies and organizations interact with individuals via social media sites, smartphones, computers and other consumer devices, they generate digital ‘exhaust’ – that is data created as a by-product of other activities. In a digitized world, consumers communicating, browsing, buying, sharing and searching create their own enormous trails of data. The use of all this ‘Big Data’ is creating new growth opportunities and entirely new categories of companies. Many of these are businesses that sit in the middle of large information flows where data about products and services, buyers and suppliers, and consumer preferences and intent can be captured and analyzed. The effective use of Big Data is increasingly becoming a competitive advantage for individual firms in their interface with consumers buying a wide range of products and services, and for those that enable global supply chains, process millions of transactions or provide platforms for consumers’ digital experiences.

Mandarin Oriental uses Big Data to analyze guest preferences, key market segments, trends and sales opportunities. The creation of a global guest database has enabled it to enhance personalized service no matter which hotel guests choose.

Astra Customer Relationship Management unit AstraWorld analyzes customer data to assess customer needs and behaviour patterns, provide recommendations to help business units in the development of products and services, and enhance the customer experience through various channels including Astra call centres, SMS messaging and the internet. AstraWorld is also developing data analytics to help investigate customer activity across the Astra group’s business units, with the goal of measuring the value given to a customer and its contribution to Astra’s bottom line.

E-direct marketing is playing an increasingly important role in engaging Zung Fu’s customers by communicating new products and services, special promotions and event information. Zung Fu uses data-mining to ensure that the right messages are getting through to customers.

Our Way ForwardOne key theme coming out of the Knowledge and Innovation Workshops was the need to create a ‘culture of innovation’ and to allocate sufficient resources in the pursuit of new ideas.

“Under the challenging conditions in which many of our business units currently operate, it is compelling to focus, almost exclusively, on delivering our budgeted targets. However, this is precisely the time that we need to be investing in the innovation of our operations and harnessing available technologies in order to lay a solid foundation for long-term growth,” said Ben Keswick.

“Ultimately, it is this investment in innovation, both in our existing operations to make them smarter and more effective and in new activities, that will see us gaining market-leading positions when the upturn in trading conditions arrives.”

Zung Fu’s e-direct marketing plays an important role in customer engagement and in monitoring customer preferences.

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