The Edge, Singapore: Cognizant’s Vice President and Head of Greater China and ASEAN, Says Asia Brands Must Ride the Wave of Digital Innovation
 |
“The growing infiltration of digital technologies across Asia is beginning to play an increasingly important role in regional economies,” writes Jayajyoti Sengupta. “Such is the momentum of technology adoption that the likes of Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines are witnessing a generation jump straight into the digital age. Global brands emerging out of Asia are making it big by creating significant value for shareholders.” Excerpts:
“One key innovation that has come out of Asia in the recent past is around low-cost, high-quality smart products. Xiaomi’s Mi Note phablet, for example, costs only about a third of the leading smartphone brands, but packs in much more. More importantly, it is not about cost alone, as underscored by Xiaomi’s “smart module” that can even be applied on home products such as refrigerators to turn them into connected devices.
A growing range of such innovations scores high both in terms of technological sophistication as well affordability. This value proposition—coupled with a burgeoning, increasingly tech-savvy middle class, and governments ever more proactive in encouraging and supporting home-grown innovations—is amplifying digital adoption across Asia.
Rapid adoption of digital technologies has dramatically increased the reach of businesses across diverse customer groups in Asia. The sudden surge in segmented market opportunities has increased the complexity of providing efficient yet customized experiences to buyers with different habits and preferences.
As it is, customer segmentation is highly complicated even within China or India, let alone Asia, what with its mosaic of several smaller—and unique—economies only adding to the challenge. This is where digital innovations are beginning to make a difference, enabling businesses across industry segments to leverage automation and digital services, next-generation target operating models, and market-centric data analytics to help launch new products, e-commerce portals, mobility services and digital marketing endeavors.
As Asian companies innovate, they are also changing the competitive landscape as superior product quality and stronger brand recognition make them more attractive to local consumers.
The interconnectedness between businesses and consumers in Asia will continue to increase exponentially. Affluent middle class with higher spending power will deviate from the ‘good is good enough’ model towards the ‘great value at right price point’ model. Asia is becoming the center-piece of digital initiatives such as smart banking, social retail, and concept stores.
The amount of data generated by two of the world’s most populated countries—China and India—along with many other countries high on digital adoption, has come to endow the swirl of digital information surrounding people, organizations, products, devices and processes—what we call “Code Halos”— with a richness of business value that far outstrips the value of physical assets that have historically underpinned market leadership. Leveraging this information is becoming critical to building new business and commercial models for differentiation and success.
The powerful combination of Code Halo data and predictive analytics is enabling marketers to create the one-to-one relationships with consumers that will ensure continued prosperity.
Companies, local as well as multinational, will certainly be required to strike a balance between the viewpoints and interests of different governments, clients and advocacy groups, especially around concerns such as data security and privacy, but that is achievable and every bit worth the opportunity that the Asian markets present.”
Click below to read the article.
