International Business Review spoke with Southeast Asia’s most prominent business leaders from different sectors about the challenges and opportunities facing their industry. We sit with leaders from oil and gas, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, and industrial automation to provide first-hand perspectives on these sectors.
OIL & GAS
SLB AND THE FUTURE OF ENERGY
Since 2022, Schlumberger NV, now known as SLB, has been the world’s largest offshore drilling company by revenue. With a presence in Southeast Asia’s oil and gas sector since 1935, the company operates in Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. SLB’s innovative technologies support sustainability in the region’s energy industry. International Business Review interviewed Amy Chua, in her capacity as SLB’s Asia President, about their sustainable energy efforts amidst global energy challenges.
“SLB has been in the energy industry for nearly 100 years now, but the next 100 years will be very different. We need to do things differently, and we want to be a global leader in the energy transition. Our rebranding represents our vision for the next 100 years. At SLB, we have a three-pronged framework with regards to sustainability and decarbonisation. First, all SLB Managing Directors set annual carbon emission reduction goals and make efforts to reach those targets. Second, we work closely with our clients to help them reach their carbon footprint reduction targets by developing what we call Transition Technologies. Third is our investments in new energy systems, which consists of co-developing technologies and mutual investments in new areas like hydrogen and geothermal energies, critical South East Asian minerals, and long-duration energy storage.”
PHARMACEUTICALS
ASTRAZENECA AND SUSTAINABILITY
A globally renowned pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca has been a strong presence in our region. Their Indonesian operations, for example, were identified as the country’s largest multinational corporation in 2022. While the industry’s impact on improving health and living standards is undeniable, it is faced with serious scrutiny when it comes to sustainability. This is why International Business Review sat down with Chon Sewhan, President Director of AstraZeneca South Korea (previously Indonesia), to discuss the company’s sustainability policies.
“AstraZeneca are committed to planting 20 million agro-friendly trees in Indonesia, four million of which have already been planted. In addition, by the end of 2024, our entire logistics fleet in Indonesia will be electric. On the societal level, besides our continuous efforts to provide access to best-in-class medication and vaccination, our Young Health Programme aims to educate the local youth on non-communicable diseases. The programme has so far educated about 60,000 young Indonesians. We are also collaborating with the government to upskill physicians and make the healthcare system more sustainable.”
NOVARTIS AND IMPACTING LIVES
The world’s sixth-largest pharmaceutical company by market capitalisation in 2023, Novartis takes pride in how they have impacted the lives of patients and the healthcare industry in Southeast Asia. We talked to Dr Mohamed Elwakil, Country President for Novartis Malaysia & Brunei.
“In our 50-year presence in the region, we have been a leading innovative medicine company that aims to improve and extend the lives of people. Besides the 10,000 recipients of patient support programmes from education to diagnoses, there are about 1.7 million Malaysians and Bruneians benefiting from our medicines. We also contributed to the Malaysia’s GDP by about US$228 million, as well as having created over 4,300 jobs directly or indirectly. In terms of partnerships, Novartis has been among the leading R&D and clinical trial leaders in the region.”
INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION
ABB AND TALENT DEVELOPMENT
With offices and manufacturing plants in over 100 countries and a US$30-billion revenue, ABB is without a doubt one of the top players in the manufacturing and automation sector. The company has had a long and fruitful presence in Southeast Asia. ABB’s broad portfolio of technologies for the digital transformation of cities, factories, and industries, underline its commitment to increasing productivity, operational efficiency, and safety. ABB is also well-known for their talent development initiatives, giving back to the communities that host them across the world. Since a large number of their regional and continental operations are headquartered in Malaysia, we sat together with Narayanan Ranganathan, Country Managing Director for ABB Malaysia, to discuss their talent development and partnership achievements that have made positive impacts beyond Malaysia.
“Beside our partnerships with the likes of PETRONAS, Top Glove, Ericsson, Perodua, and Proton, in terms of robotic automation that have contributed to increasing efficiency and decreasing carbon footprint in the entire region, we have also been very actively engaged in talent development initiatives as part of our sustainability efforts. For instance, we have over 350 Southeast Asians employee who receive constant on-the-job training. Likewise, we have the Jürgen Dormann, scholarship which is offered to four young talented engineers annually. ABB also offers internships that may lead to hiring. In addition, we have a Graduate Engineer Training Programme where we develop young talent to be industry-ready. On top of these, ABB also works with SMEs to educate and improve them on the latest technologies in energy efficiency and Industry 4.0.”.
FOOD & BEVERAGE
ARNOTT’S GROUP AND THE ROLE OF R&D
The Southeast Asian food market is growing at an unprecedented rate. The market is expected to double its revenue from 2019’s US$504 billion to about US$1 trillion by 2030. In such a flourishing ground, it is natural to see multinational food companies flocking to or expanding in the region.
One of the companies eyeing rapid expansions in Southeast Asia is Arnott’s Group. Malaysia was chosen as Arnott’s Asia hub, bringing together their five already-functioning businesses across the region, initially Campell Soup Company and its regional subsidiaries.
As a Western company producing Western food on a global scale, one of the first challenges food multinationals may face is adapting to the local taste. We talked to May Lim, Managing Director for Arnott’s Asia about how they tackle this issue.
“Selling Western food to different Southeast Asian markets can be somewhat tricky. This is because, on one hand, we must stay true to our values and original taste, and on the other, we understand the slight differences in different markets’ tastes. To ensure the balance between authenticity and local appeal, we rely on our exceptional R&D team comprising researchers and taste experts with culinary backgrounds. With their acute sense of taste and deep understanding of food trends, our R&D teams not only help us slightly tweak recipes to appeal to local markets, but they are also – as we always say – are three years ahead of the current food market trends. These two attributes make R&D extremely valuable in our business.“
