Tariff situation will not change need for innovation

“You will see that over time in human history; the best innovation will come during the period of destruction and constraint. Tariff or not, the world will continue to evolve as well,” says Laurence Si, Managing Director for Microsoft Malaysia.

For Laurence Si, Managing Director for Microsoft Malaysia, while businesses and partners in the country as well as the region continue to keep a close eye on the tariff situation and how it can impact them, the constant need for change among organizations will remain.

In an interview with CRN Asia, Si commented that the world continues to evolve, with regulations and innovations happening all the time. Throughout this, businesses have remained focused and have been available to overcome all these challenges, coming out stronger in most cases.

“We live in an exciting world. We are definitely observing all the different up and down evolution of tariff. We are observing, listening to the customers and listening to the partner. At this point, I would say my focus is really on where the opportunities are is in front of us in Malaysia. If you look at the last 30 years, the world has gone upside down. But certain things never change.”

“The need for innovation, the need to transform business through time of destruction, through time of constraint and things like that. In fact, you will see that over time in human history, the best innovation will come during the period of destruction and constraint. Tariff or not, the world will continue to evolve as well,” commented Si.

Si believes that businesses will find new ways to reinvent themselves as technology is always a platform to reinvent.

“I'm an eternal optimist where technology, especially Microsoft’s technology, can try changes in good times and in bad times,” added Si.

For Cassandra Goh, Group CEO of Silverlake, they are not directly impacted by tariffs in the short run. A global leader in financial technology, Silverlake provides enterprise solutions to over 370 customers across 80 countries with 100% successful project implementation for more than three decades.

In Malaysia, Silverlake has partnered Microsoft to offer core banking solutions to local banks in the country and is also the partner of choice for three of the five largest ASEAN super-regional financial institutions.

Goh believes that in the long run, the tariff situation will be crucial as it will definitely be changing the way the money flows.

“For us, the tariffs situation is something that we keep an eye on as there’s going to be a lot of Chinese tech companies trying to go outside of China to survive. We can either make them our partner going forward or we have to run faster. If I were to go back to the most basic thing, all these changes are on the way. Most importantly, we must never lose track of what is the outcome, the outcome of success that we need to deliver for the customer and for the partner,” said Goh.