Transformation: Believe, Embrace & Invest

18 Jun 2019 | Yvonne Chung, Head of Business Continuity and Transformation in Gamuda IBS.

Digital advances are driving a structural shift in customer expectations. Modern customers opt to do business with organisations that are able to provide them with a personalised, hassle-free, and complete experience. Catching up with the industry is quite the task but when an organisation is looking to disrupt an entire industry – that requires undertaking a meaningful business transformation. This requires a company to rethink all aspects of how it operates. I’ve experienced transformation myself as I’ve shifted from industry to industry.

CAREER TRANSFORMATIONS

I started my career in management consulting and then transitioned to telecommunications before joining the Gamuda family. Back then, in my consulting period the projects included Manufacturing, Mining, Resources, Oil and Gas, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Telecommunications, Logistics, Consumer Business, Construction, Public Sector, and Utilities. So, when I transitioned into Telco, it wasn’t very difficult.

But as I moved into Gamuda, that posed some challenges. Gamuda was different. Although Gamuda IBS delved more into manufacturing which I was quite familiar with, it is also heavily correlated to construction. That to me, was a steeper learning curve.

Some of my biggest challenges included learning the lingo and abbreviations within the construction industry, learning the machinery, processes and project cycle, and understanding the different roles that exist in the entire chain. Mastering these involved a lot of dialogues with relevant stakeholders and reading a lot. Fortunately, I am blessed with colleagues and mentors who were very patient indeed.

DISRUPT & TRANSFORM

In my previous experience, the transformation was always the driver behind the projects, programmes and initiatives I was involved in. Here with Gamuda IBS, it is pretty much the same in terms of trying to transform our ‘way of work.’ There will always be challenges and in Gamuda IBS, it’s not just about transforming an organisation, but disrupting and transforming the entire industry.

Massive changes to an organisation take up a lot of effort from everyone across the board.

In order for transformation to happen, we need to believe, embrace and fully invest in it. It is also important for everyone to really own initiatives improve the way we work.

Transformation is a tricky business and if you’re trying to disrupt an entire industry, that’s even more challenging. But the thing about transformation is that it doesn’t matter what industry or company you’re in, the formula is the same.

It’s really about stakeholder engagement and dialogue, having solid change management plans with good execution and most importantly, very strong support during and after.

DIG.IT: Disrupt, Innovate, Generate, Inspire, Transform

We started DIG.IT about a year ago. It was an idea we came up with about a year back to provide a more structured platform so that our guys can present their ideas and own the initiatives we have, and push it through. DIG.IT stands for disrupt, innovate, generate, inspire and transform.

We set up this initiative to ensure a high level of performance and to make improvements to existing processes. The key here, I believe is to continuously identify the gaps and opportunities within the organisation and then, planning best-fit solutions.

Through DIG.IT, we also manage projects by defining and communicating scopes, objectives, and direction to team members, and Management to ensure correct technology fit and appropriate strategies are implemented.

Lastly, we recommend performance improvement through innovating and exploring new technology that aligns with Industry 4.0’s aspirations and pillars.

At the end of the day, we cannot just echo our leaders without meaning it or worse still, not actually understanding what it means. It is 80 percent people and 20 percent of processes and technology.

I would like to see the organisation move up to the next level, as a whole, and have disrupted the entire industry. The scope that the team is aligned towards our way-of-work: DIG.IT – Disrupt, Innovate, Generate, Inspire and Transform.