Consolidation, synergising and finding new growth areas while nurturing young blood for the next generation of leaders are the keys to making ECS Holdings become a truly global company, according to Narong Intanate, the longtime Thai IT pioneer who was recently promoted to the CEO position of the Singapore-listed ECS, one of the leading regional ICT companies.
Narong Intanate
With more than 20 years of operational management expertise in the Asean ICT industry and serving as Executive Director of ECS's Asean market over the past three months, the board of directors appointed him as a part of the core management team after the retirement of the former CEO, Tay Eng Hoe, in February.
Narong is responsible for six Asian countries - China, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines - which have 37 branch offices and net profits of $38.2 million and total assets ranked at number 20 in the Singapore Stock Exchange Mainboard.
Narong said his ambition in his new role was to make ECS one of the best regional IT companies and lead it up the ranks to become the third leading IT distributor in the Asia Pacific region.
This new challenge was among the factors that led him to take this role, although he intended to semi-retire from his management role in the Value System, which he has held over the past five years.
He intends to lay the foundation of the ECS Group, preparing to take it into the next decade, especially building up its structure and management, with a view to making the company a truly global operation.
In the next 20 years, he foresees that the Asia Pacific region will become the centre of the global IT business. If ECS can boost its professionalism and be the "best in class" company, it can be truly global IT company.
"Under this new role, there are several challenges, especially leading the group in a direction that will diversify its market, as well as developing a new generation of managers.
"As a Thai citizen appointed the group CEO of a regional company, I am proud that I can act as Thailand's ambassador and represent Thailand's capability and build confidence in the kingdom, creating a strong economic foundation. Even if there is some political uncertainty, this economic confidence will create creditability," Narong said.
One of Narong's priorities will be to find ways to synergise ECS Holdings' various companies. The main focus here will be on centralisation, especially in terms of the back-end operation system, using a single system to make information more integrated.
Moreover, though the company currently has more than a hundred vendors, Narong aims to find more vendors. The underlying strategy is to rationalise and consolidate the fragmented vending system in order to increase the economies of scale and also leverage better negotiating power.
Finding new growth areas is another aspect that can drive sustainable growth. ECS Holdingd will expand existing operations, especially in countries like Indonesia and the Philippines which have high gross domestic product (GDP) and large populations (240 million and 80 million, respectively).
In addition, India and Vietnam are also interesting markets for expansion, but the company will not focus on them this year.
"If we can create a more in-depth relationship with vendors, it will help us prioritise the brand and build up a regional program together and gain a greater comparative advantage while still giving us flexibility for each local subsidy to select its own niche products to fit with their customer needs," Narong said.
The CEO continued that in addition to coverage expansion, new products and service categories are important aspects that offer potential for growth.
Narong also intends to select and groom about 30 outstanding young executive managers for a fast-track program so that they can be leaders of each country and regional level. This is an important part of his plan to step down within the next few years.
He thinks that management aged below 35 years old is ideal for the new leadership due to their aggressive and ambitious attitude in the dynamic and fast-changing IT business environment. Meanwhile, those in their 50s will shift to consulting roles.
"You can see that younger managers in their 40s and early 50s are heading big organisations, which shows a revolution of the business. However, underlying management principles never change," he said.
Under his leadership over the next three years, ECS Holdings, currently number one in the Asean region, will change become the third largest Asia Pacific distributor with $4-5 billion (129-161 billion baht) revenue, Narong said.
