Asia Telecommunications Opportunities @ #live11

One of my favorite talks from today was Adrian Ho’s “New Technology Dynamics” presentation. How fascinating to delve into another world, Asia, and learn what counts for the telecommunications market there. Adrian set up this way:

• Generation Y dominating the market; typical profile a 30-something manager, highly intelligent, tech savvy, expecting everything to be virtual, mobile and social. Thinks borderless virtual network should be a given.
• Confident workforce and robust job market; if you don’t get a 25-30% raise, you go to the competition.
• Fast. If you can’t keep up with the speed, i.e. projects that take a few weeks to roll-out instead of months, you’re out!

And as Western companies are trying to figure out how to surf the Asian development wave, they must remember: go local. Think local, employ local people, build local plans. Superposing Western-devised projects and business models won’t cut it.

Big bang IT projects won’t jive either. Asian business culture is to create organically, with one small but well devised and executed project you can learn from, then spreading and adopting to other places.

Cultural diversity consultant and author Fons Trompenaars also spoke on Asia, suggesting that “Europe can build a bridge between Asia and America.” Integration of bi-polar thinking is the trick. And with the incredible ideas and momentum pouring out of Asia, the telecommunications world is turning upside down, getting rethought and reworked.

Said Fons, “The West and East are like mirror images.” This is the challenge, the opportunity, and dare I say yin-yang? ;-)

More tomorrow. Please watch our social event platform for the full story. The bloggers are doing a tremendous job of reporting the event. For example, here’s Glenn giving a VPOD demo. You’ll have to watch to see.

Here is the platform

Best,

Kate