Supporting the digital lifestyle

There seems to be no end to what the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Inc. (PLDT) Group aims to achieve for its customers.

According to PLDT Inc. and Smart Communications president and CEO Al Panlilio, between 2017 and now, they have tripled their fiber footprint, more than doubled the number of homes passed, and quadrupled the number of LTE base stations that have been deployed across the country. All these, he said, have been underpinned by a P460.8-billion capital investment in the last 10 years, increasing further to nearly P92 billion this year.

At a recent forum hosted by the Department of Information and Communications Technology, Panlilio revealed that even with Smart’s 5G network now having more than 4,000 sites across the country, the company will continue to roll out more 5G sites, adding that both PLDT and Smart continuously roll out carrier-grade WiFi to more public areas and provide satellite services to the remotest areas.

To date, PLDT has the country’s most extensive fiber infrastructure at more than 511,000 kilometers, which also supports Smart’s mobile network now covering 96 percent of the population.

He reaffirmed the group’s commitment to achieve a future of digitally-empowered Filipinos, providing world-class connectivity as a human right, asserting the Philippines as a key player in the global arena, and actively embarking on sustainable development to secure everyone’s future.

Panlilio earlier said that their investment in fiber is crucial and continuous, adding that complementing their fiber expansion is the ramp up of their fiber installation and repair capabilities as PLDT aims to cover 66 percent of the country by yearend. As of June 20, PLDT has migrated more than 123,000 copper-based subscribers to fiber to enable access to high-speed internet.

This investment, he said, supports the increasingly connected societies, especially in the new normal where the digital lifestyle is powered by connectivity.

On to the next normal

At the recently held Asia Entrepreneurship Forum, leading business and thought leaders discussed a number of pressing issues, including what it takes for businesses to recover and how they should transition towards long-term development.

The virtual forum, with the theme “Great Reset: Towards a Sustainable Recovery,” gathered the region’s key leaders from various fields to explore and share their strategies in readying their organizations for the next normal.

Allianz PNB Life CEO Alexander Grenz said that their success lies in their agility or their ability to rapidly adapt as a response to the changes happening in their environment and their industry, among others.

Digitalization built by and around a diverse and well-trained workforce made speedy recovery possible for Allianz across the Asia-Pacific region just months after the pandemic started. In the Philippines, Allianz PNB Life has expanded by 67 percent. By bringing quality insurance online and making it more accessible to younger clients, the company was able to hit record-breaking sales in the first quarter of this year.

Grenz, along with two other senior executives specializing in building innovative social enterprises, emphasized the value of putting people at the heart of the organization while keeping them with the times.

He attributed human-centered enterprise to the cultural aspect of belonging and working towards a common goal, even as he stressed the need to build a culture where people feel safe, empowered, trained, and prepared as a team for what is ahead.

According to Grenz, design and customer-centric thinking, along with hiring people from different backgrounds, are key to empowering their workforce.

As to their next move in the next normal, the Allianz PNB Life chief executive said that it is about fast decision-making and taking risks, to possibly fail as well, and to adapt on the way forward. The company aims to soon complete its digital ecosystem and welcome fresh talent to further grow the organization as it continues to align with the group’s global agenda of achieving a fully sustainable investment portfolio and net-zero carbon emission by 2050.

Sam Wong, ASEAN markets leaders for Ernst & Young Singapore, meanwhile, talked about prioritizing people over technology and explained that their processes and technology centers around their people to enable them to be more productive. He said that it is not just about generating more work, but also about generating more capacity to change at the individual level. To accomplish this, the company does a lot of sharing, investment, and training for its people, he said.

For his part, IBM ASEAN general manager Martin Chee highlighted the importance of inclusivity and harnessing the full potential of the up and coming workforce, noting that the disruption can come from somewhere one does not expect and that these are the ones that will drive them to the future.

Now’s new leadership

Publicly listed telecommunications, media, and technology firm Now Corp. has undertaken a number of organizational changes to prepare for opportunities offered by new technologies and the expected global economic turnaround post pandemic.

Mel Velasco Velarde was elected Now Corp. chairman, succeeding Thomas Aquino who is now vice-chairman.

During a recent stockholders’ meeting, Henry Andrews Abes was also named president and CEO, and board member. Abes brings with him 30 years of experience in the fields of technology, telecom, broadband, online media, and real estate, including as residential sales group head of SkyCable, as vice president and customer operations head of Nextel Communications Philippines Inc., as general manager of PLDT Subic Telecom, as corporate sales head of Wi-Tribe Telecom, and as vice president for sales and business unit head of DTSI Group (now NTT Ltd. Phils). Also elected to the board was Colin Christie who has held senior executive posts here and in the US, including as executive director of Global Chamber Manila, as director for digital transformation of Enderun College, and currently as president of the Analytics Association of the Philippines.

Last February, two board members were elected, namely T. Bill Torres, considered the father of Philippine internet and former managing director of the National Computer Center, and Francis Manglapus, trustee of the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication and former chairman of Prime Savings Bank.

At a special meeting last July 1, Now Corp.’s board of directors also appointed Velarde and Abes to be nominated and voted in as board members of Now Telecom Co Inc. to occupy the two board seats resulting from the increased shareholding of Now Corp. in NTCI.

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