Axiata is one of the largest telecommunication companies in Asia. It operates in 10 countries, has over 20,000 employees and more than 207 million customers.

Karan, who was invited to give an industry talk on campus, spent a large chunk of his two-hour slot talking about the state of the global economy and how the Internet has changed the way traditional companies do business.

All the things you learn will be obsolete

“We are living in a world that is moving very, very fast,” said Karan to start his presentation. He spoke about the first class he attended in university and how his professor told him to pay more significant attention to learning what to learn and learning what is important.

The point that Karan was trying to drive home is that you do not come to university just to learn facts, but really to learn “how to learn” because whatever you learn in university today will be obsolete when you graduate and it’s important to acquire the necessary skillsets and be able to adapt to change.

“The bulk of the wealth is going to live in Asia”

Karan then moved on to the next topic in his presentation—the future state of the global economy and the key role that Asia will play.

“Asia is on the move,” said Karan. “The world at 2020 will be 40% bigger from an economic point of view and 43% of that weight will be focused on the Asian region.” Of the overall global population, Karan said that 54% will be middle class in 2020 and more than half of this middle class segment will live in Asia.

One outcome from this economic shift will see marketers developing products targeted at the Asian market. This differs from years’ past when Asians were subjected to American advertising and were drawn towards the tendencies of American consumers.

“In seven years’ time, that will no longer be the case. The bulk of the wealth is going to live in Asia.”

He also shared another key finding, saying that 67% of all new employment will be focused in Asia. “67% of all new jobs, and this is basically all these new-age jobs—programmers, the AI scientists and the marketers—will be coming from Asia.”

Karan summed it up as an economic shift that is phenomenal and unparalleled in the history of the world.

The need to innovate

Another point that Karan raised in his presentation was the global transformation that is taking place around us.

He said that one of the key things happening in this global transformation is the fact that you no longer have to be big, the best or operate on a large scale to win the battles.

He used Borders, Tower Records and Blockbuster as examples of businesses that went bankrupt because of their failure to innovate. Borders and Blockbuster were upstaged by Amazon and Netflix respectively—Internet start-ups that realised the huge potential of e-commerce long before it became routine. Tower Records’ demise was brought about by its reluctance to embrace the shifting trend towards digital music.

“One of the key things you need to learn is that huge companies can go bust in a little over 10 years,” said Karan.

He pointed out that “the world has fundamentally changed now” and there is a need for marketers to ask what is changing about his marketing environment and customers.

E-commerce and the Internet

Karan then elaborated on two key economic trends to illustrate the changes taking place: E-commerce and rise in Internet usage.

On e-commerce, Karan pointed out that “the world’s largest e-commerce penetration is going to happen in China.”

“It’s a radical shift of the way you think about the Internet. Most of us, when we think about the Internet, we think about the very American-ized view—the Amazon, the eBay, etc. but if you look at the demographics, China is becoming an e-commerce powerhouse. Ali Baba just announced that they’ve opened up an office in Singapore and they’re opening up an office in Malaysia.”

Karan said that this is a huge radical shift and “the reality is that in five years’ time, you’re probably not going to get your clothes from Zalora or Lazada, but from a Chinese e-commerce shop.”

Moving on to the topic of the Internet, he said, “In the early 2000s, the average teenager would go on the Internet between 8pm and 9pm, download his homework and that was it. The Internet was an activity. In 2002, people spent an average of 46 minutes a day on the Internet. In 2012, it was four hours.

“The reality is that the Internet is no longer a time-specific period in your life. People are connected to the Internet 24 hours a day.”

Using the Celcom broadband as an example, he said, “The reality is that we never, ever designed the broadband to be always on. It was not something that we even thought people wanted.

“With the consumer market today, everybody is online all the time. The Internet is no longer something to plan for. You have to assume as marketers and business people that everybody is online all the time.”

Karan also cautioned the students, saying, “If you do not have an idea on how to apply the Internet to your business situation, or anywhere in your life, your society or country and if you do not start thinking of what is changing in your society, in 2020, if you’re talking about where you want to evolve, you’d be dead. You can’t remain static.”

Internet-enabled devices will pose a new challenge in 2020

“In 2020, 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet. That’s almost six to seven times what it is today. There will be 5 billion Internet users. If you aren’t thinking about your marketing or business strategies in the context of the Internet, you’re going to be like Borders or Blockbuster.

“The phone you have today has more processing power than the high-end PC I had when I was a student. Can you imagine the processing power of a phone in 10 years’ time at 50 bucks? There will be 10 times increase in processor speed and 100 times increase in memory.

“Can you imagine the 100-fold power of what you have in the hands of your future customers and what they want to do with it? Because that’s really a challenge that you guys are going to have. What do you do with this enormous computing power in the hands of your customers? If your customers don’t like you, they will go somewhere else on the Internet. It’s an amazing challenge you have.”

He added that the challenge is even more interesting given that these devices will be affordable and available to 75% of the world’s population.

“A farmer in India, Africa and Southeast Asia will have a smartphone that is 10 times more powerful than yours. How will you market and deliver your value proposition to them?”

The changing nature of the customer

The last part of Karan’s presentation focused on the changing nature of customers and four ways customers have evolved over the years:

• They are making things they used to buy – On the Internet, you can be a customer and producer at the same time. The person who downloads music can also make and upload his own music.
• They are getting used to a business model called “free” – The Internet has brought us a radical new notion of what kind of stuff you can download and use for free. How do you make money from a business model called “free” and compete against services that are free?
• They will tell everyone what they think – The Internet has enabled people to tell everyone what they think. If your customer doesn’t like your service, he will broadcast it to everybody in the world—a marketing nightmare.
• The rise of the activist prosumer – Your customers are going to be producers, consumers and activists. They want stuff for free and they will demand stuff for free.