Driving Growth

Stand First: Alvaro Celis is the Vice President Sales, Marketing, Services and Support for Asia Pacific. A nineteen year veteran of Microsoft, the native of Venezuela talks to Futures about the opportunities he sees in his new role in Asia.

Having been in his current role for 4 months at the time of writing, Alvaro Celis has had opportunities to visit most of the countries that fall under his leadership. The two words he uses to describe his experiences so far: ‘inspired’ and ‘thrilled’. “You see economies that are doing well, entrepreneurs that are really pro competition and pro technology and are trying to get the best out of the investment that they are making. I see opportunities where we can bring innovation to a country and really make a difference,” he enthuses.

Through the duration of our interview this is the main message that I pick up from Alvaro; he’s really enthusiastic about the positive changes that Microsoft can bring to the region and how technology can be used to accelerate growth and enhance prospects.

Alvaro started his career at Microsoft in 1992 as the eighth employee of the Venezuelan subsidiary. Since then he has worked in a variety of roles in South America and the Caribbean ranging from starting new businesses and opening new offices, through to working with SME’s and building new partner ecosystems.

Now based in Singapore, Alvaro has what he calls “an incredible opportunity, combining the expertise of running the Microsoft business with the opportunity to learn and engage with the dynamics of a region that is in the driving seat of the world economy.”

The potential for combining technology with growth is where Alvaro feels Microsoft can assist countries in achieving success. Many countries in the region have economies that rely on manufacturing and natural resources. The challenge is to combine these more traditional strengths with the capabilities and innovation of a knowledge economy. This will, in very simple terms, involve creating research and development clusters that align with a country’s national agenda and aligning infrastructure and education to meet these objectives to drive the economy forward.

Alvaro is very proud of the “honour and responsibility” that Microsoft has as one of the world’s business leaders. “Around 45 percent of IT spending in any region of the world is based on Microsoft products and services, and in the region, for every dollar Microsoft sells; ten dollars and eighty seven cents is generated for the economy [through taxes and partner income]. And our partners employ two million people,” he explains. When you move further down the ecosystem the other partners of Microsoft Partners generate US$140 billion of income and invest US$110 million in development, and this all generates taxes for the government.

In order for these national agendas to fully realise their returns there are two main areas where Alvaro feels Microsoft and governments can work hand-in-hand to create the ideal environment for growth and national prosperity.

First, by promoting innovation through education. “Education is where we invest the most as a company. We believe that the most important asset in a country is its people and education is unlocking the potential of the people,” explains Alvaro. “When you look at Asia Pacific, it has been recognised worldwide for its progress on primary education, when you look at the statistics there has been fantastic progress in primary education completion rates in the region,” Alvaro goes on. “The big challenge will be the secondary education, which is where Asia is not really on the map. Whilst on tertiary education, we have Korea that is number one in the world, but the rest of the region is quite far behind.”

To help to improve this, Microsoft has programmes in emerging economies that work with teachers and students to teach them how to use PC’s and enable them to be more technology and computer literate. Microsoft also has programmes that embed technology into school curriculums at the secondary and tertiary level and provides students with free software tools. So when they graduate they already have relevant experience with the software that they will use in the workplace.

Then there is the much lauded Imagine Cup. This is a worldwide competition run and funded by Microsoft that each year puts 150,000 students from around the world in a position to try and solve real world challenges using innovative technology solutions they learn at university. “The idea is that we not just give people tools, but we provide a spark for their innovation.” Alvaro says. “If their solution is successful and they decide they want to start their own company then we have programmes that work with start-ups; allowing them to use our technology and software while we provide mentoring to them,” Alvaro continues.

These projects spur innovation and help realize the potential for technology to bring services to people that we are not even aware of today. When you have citizens that innovate and entrepreneurs that are hungry for success, coupled with the right infrastructure and software in an environment where their work is respected and protected, you very quickly foster an ecosystem for tremendous success and growth.

Subsequently, there needs to be sufficient measures in place to protect this innovation. People have less motivation to invest in developing new technology if there is a high software piracy rate in their country; this then leads to brain drain. “People just go and migrate to the mature countries because they have better systems of enforcement and protection. Talent is created and people migrate before they become productive, it makes it very hard for a country to be productive,” Alvaro says. “In countries where IP rights are not well respected local companies do not have the skill or strength to really expand and take their innovation to new countries. When I visit countries where piracy is low, the partners are very strong and are able to expand across the region,” Alvaro explains.

Indeed, research has indicated that for every point that a country improves on patent protection foreign investment can increase by 2.8 percent. When copyright protection increases by 1 percent you can increase investment by 4.8 percent, and for every point of software piracy that you reduce you can generate 900 million dollars of incremental revenue for the country.

Innovation leads to new technologies and services, and on this it is clear to Alvaro what 2012 will hold. “You will see the economics of cloud computing dominate IT investment in ways we’ve not seen before, and this will be at the application, platform and infrastructure level.” Alvaro further predicts that this year will see technology providers, governments and the private sector experience a new level of demand for innovation from their customers and citizens.

Cloud computing is a challenging area for many governments in the region. “We would love to be a part of the conversation with governments on the topics of better architecture for regulation and standards,” Alvaro says. “Having the dialogue about allowing data mobility, better access to technology, open competition and a common infrastructure across countries, where scale can be achieved by partnering are important to achieving greater acceleration of innovation and growth in the region,” Alvaro continues.

“We see technology as a great enabler of education and basic service offering to citizens. Governments need to take those key clusters and - through PPP conversations and national dialogues - they need to see the big bets the country is going to make. Anything we can do to help the company or person who innovates decide when and how he is going to monetise his idea will make the country stronger and more competitive.”

Summing up, Alvaro says, “How do we combine the technology that is changing the world with the region that is leading the world? How do we accelerate their growth and help countries realise their potential? That is the real challenge that we face, and where I will be focusing my efforts.”