Cyberview Sdn Bhd which has been an ardent advocate of tech innovation including providing avenues for startups to accelerate their growth in a conducive environment organised its latest webinar series touching on how Innovation can be measured.
In the series titled, Maximising Return on Innovation for Business Growth, panelists included experts in their respective fields including Angel Low, Principal, The HIVE Southeast Asia; Dr. Afnizanfaizal Abdullah, Chief Technology Officer of Aerodyne and Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Synapse Innovation; and Karamjit Singh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Digital News Asia.
During the session, Angel highlighted that despite businesses turning towards digital transformation, they are not innovating to the extent that encompasses a wide range of areas. According to her, they are innovating to changes in consumer demands, which shows that they are merely being reactive instead of realising the true potential of innovation. She added, that businesses need to look into incorporating innovation to improve operational efficiency, which will enable them to enhance their value chains and ultimately increase market share.
The Hive Southeast Asia, one of the 8 VCs selected by the Ministry of Finance under its Dana Penjana National Programme to manage a Co-Creation and Seed Fund on a 1:1 matching, is targeting to raise and deploy a total of RM50 million or more to facilitate the growth of startups with strategic corporate partners and create an enabling environment to scale and expand their reach on the global stage.
Artificial intelligence and big data expert, Dr. Afnizanfaizal discussed the pivotal role of innovation for businesses to gain a competitive edge. “Under the current economic landscape, being a pioneer does not guarantee market survival, but [being an] innovator enables you to shift and meet the demands. At Synapse Innovation, technology adoption by customers is used as a metric to measure the success of innovation investments. The fundamental aspect of innovation is establishing a clear roadmap, which is one of the key learnings that our company gained from the Cyberview Living Lab Accelerator (CLLA) programme. Having a roadmap enables progress when it comes to the development of innovative solutions while also building business resiliency.”
Media veteran Karamjit commented on the need for having senior leadership in the team that can value innovation and use it to seize opportunities in the market. “Innovation is more than just a buzzword. Innovation is about making things better, and it requires time, patience support as well as a collective effort. Businesses need to cultivate a mindset that innovation will make a difference for a better future. The COVID-19 pandemic has fostered a potent environment for innovation.”
Since its inception in 2013, Cyberview has nurtured 85 start-ups to advance their innovations, raising over RM158 million in total capital, generating over RM276 million in total revenue, and creating over 709 jobs through the CLLA Programme. The CLLA programme provides a launchpad for start-ups and innovators to accelerate their business development and growth in Cyberjaya. Through the programme, start-ups are offered opportunities to network and connect with relevant industry experts during a five-month process mentorship, strategy formulation, and consultancy, guided by Cyberview.
