10 Insightful Quotes From the 6th Enterprise Innovation Forum

Over 500 business and enterprise leaders congregated at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel last October 29 for the 6th annual Enterprise Innovation Forum (EIF) organized by Globe’s corporate information and communications technology (ICT) arm, Globe Business. With the theme “Gearing up your business for the future,” this year’s forum focused on how enterprises can drive competitiveness and relevance in the market through the use of new technologies. Here are some of the inspiring quotes that we gathered from the event:

“Technology touches everything. Tomorrow, less will be more; less face-to-face, more interface. I welcome you all to the future. Expect to see wonderful things.” – Michael Frausing, Senior Advisor for Enterprise and IT Enabled Services Group, Globe Telecom

Michael Frausing has almost 30 years of industry experiences in driving revenue growth partnerships, from the service provider to the vendor side. He delivered the opening remarks to the forum’s main plenary session and left the guests with these insightful words.

“1 in 6 [of web-based applications] is a malware-related app. Imagine that from the time of floppy disk drives where there would be 15 viruses a month, there is now millions of malware being discovered on a daily basis.” – Bill Chang, CEO of Group Enterprise, SingTel

Bill Chang on cyber security | Photo by James Luzuriaga, INQUIRER.net

Being one of the keynote speakers, SingTel Bill Chang was present in both the event’s CEO Breakfast Forum and main plenary. He started off the plenary discussion by presenting the current realities and challenges of cyber-security. The telco executive discussed the business areas that are particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks (identifying the banking sector as most vulnerable), and the specific measures that can be taken to avoid them.

“Leading companies are now embracing and capitalizing on digital trends.” – John Wagner, Partner and Managing Director, Boston Consulting Group

John Wagner kicked off the day’s discussion as he shared his insights on innovations and trends shaping the global enterprise landscape. Over the last decade, he has helped mobile, fixed, and broadband operators in all major Southeast Asian countries develop and implement growth strategies for their core access and digital services businesses.

“Kids are good at doing what innovators do: they ask questions. They observe things. They try things. That’s exactly what we should all do. Innovators ask questions that are catalytic. What’s working? What’s not? Why? It’s not about finding the right answers but finding the right questions.” – Hal Gregersen, Executive Director of MIT Leadership Center

Hal Gregersen of MIT Leadership Center | Photo by James Luzuriaga, INQUIRER.net

Being the Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center and a global authority on building innovative leaders, Hal Gregersen spoke in the main plenary about how individuals can develop the necessary skills to move progressively from idea to impact through disruptive innovation. Gregersen began his talk with a story about the humble beginnings of photography as we know it. Using Kodak as an example, he proceeded to discuss how a once-disruptive innovator can go bankrupt if it doesn’t continue to be an industry leader. He then proceeded to emphasize the importance of asking questions in order to continue the creation of new ideas.

“I believe in the saying that the only way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Gil Genio, Chief Operating Officer for International and Business Markets, Globe Telecom

Prior to being Globe’s Chief Operating Officer for International and Business Markets, Gil has performed many roles for Globe Telecom, including Head of Corporate Strategy and Business Development, Head of Business Customer Facing Unit, Head of Business and International Markets, and Head of Fixed Network Group. He is also the President of Innove Communications Inc and a Managing Director of Ayala Corporation. He concluded the forum’s plenary session with an inspiring talk about moving forward and creating the future in each of the participant’s enterprise.

“We call our values The Globe Way. To us, it’s be fast or be last.” – Pia Marie Reyes, HR Business Partner Integrator, Globe Telecom

Globe Telecom’s Pia Marie Reyes in Inspiring Corporate Culture breakout session | Photo by James Luzuriaga, INQUIRER.net

Having spent more than 25 years in human resource management, Pia has delivered talks on talent management, succession planning, competency management and shared service operations in national and regional conferences. In her talk at the Inspiring Corporate Culture breakout session, she told the story of how she and her team transformed Globe Telecom’s organizational culture into what it is today.

“Thieves are always looking for the easiest way in. Shine light at every corner and they’ll run.” – Michael Cerick, Vice President of Global Managed Security Solutions, Trustwave

Michael Cerick of Trustwave at the Cyber Security breakout session | Photo by James Luzuriaga, INQUIRER.net

Michael Cerick is leveraging 20 years of deep cyber-security domain expertise to assist clients primarily in critical infrastructures like banking, healthcare, and telecom and help them shift focus to using cyber-security as a competitive business advantage. He delivered Trustwave’s Global Security Report at the Cyber Security breakout of the forum.

“There really is value in shifting to mobile when we talk about multiple enterprises.” – Anton Andres, Mobility Solutions Specialist, Samsung

Anton Andres has almost 10 years of IT enterprise experience, with strengths in solution architecture, pre-sales consultancy, and business analysis. Anton has been involved in the development and deployment of software applications for industries like telecommunications, banking and finance, and retail.

“If you are engaged with the customer, the customer doesn’t need to look for you.” – Felix Leong, Regional Manager, Avaya

Having had 18 years of working in IT, Felix has had experience in successfully engaging customers in the telecommunications, financial services, and government sectors in generating top-line and bottom-line targets. He has taken on various roles in IT, comprising business development/sales, consulting, and partner management.

“DDoS attacks are not advance threats. DDoS is a business problem.” –  CF Chui, Solutions Architect, Arbor Networks

CF Chui has over 20 years of working in the network industry within the Asia Pacific region. His expertise lies in internet routing, WAN networking, and network infrastructure security.

Also present to share their expertise in the event’s breakout sessions were Globe Telecom’s Anton Bonifacio, Tata Communications’ Srini Nagaraj, F5 Networks’ Jobert David, and GENBAND’s Tristan Bulandus, among many other experts.

The event began with the CEO Breakfast Forum, a venue gathering over 100 local and international CEOs where keynote speakers Bill Chang, Hal Gregersen, and John Wagner gave a taste of what they later discussed in the main plenary session of the forum. Following a sumptuous lunch were 5 simultaneous breakout sessions namely, Inspiring Corporate Culture, The Internet of Everything, Network Without Limits, Consumerization of the Enterprise, and Cyber Security. Guests were free to attend whichever breakout session they feel would be most beneficial to them.

Within 9 hours, the 6th installment of Globe Business’ annual confab managed to fulfill its aim of providing an avenue for business leaders to explore and harness new technologies that will prime their enterprises for the future taught by experts in their respective fields. The event concluded with the closing remarks by Dion Asencio, Vice President for Enterprise Sales at Globe Telecom.