Following up on the commitment made by its Secretary-General Santhi Kanoktanaporn at the 57th Workshop Meeting (WSM) of Heads of National Productivity Organizations (NPOs) to explore a new approach to driving productivity initiatives in the member countries, the APO Secretariat recently organized a Town Hall meeting to discuss how the organization can take up a myriad of technology-enabled initiatives to push forward the goals of the Roadmap to Achieve Vision 2020.

The format included presentations by different teams and discussion on business and technology trends impacting the APO member countries as well as the world. The Town Hall meeting also encouraged APO members to share their ideas and deliberate on Industry 4.0 trends as well as future of food and the new trends in agricultural practices, including the technology intervention.

Setting the tone for the brainstorming session, Secretary-General Santhi highlighted that there was a need to think out of the box and create programs that can help the member countries “future-proof productivity through innovation. “We need to leverage cutting-edge ICT to strengthen our knowledge management and knowledge networks, improve productivity and deliver more visible results,” he said, adding it was imperative for the APO Secretariat to be nimble and stay ahead of the technology and development curve so that it can respond quickly and effectively to the needs of member countries in the digital era.

“Quality, information and communication technology and sustainable development are the mega trends that we need to focus on while avoiding getting stuck into the successful trap,” he said. “We can do that by following five basic steps: become trend literate, focus on the timing which is critical, leverage tools to map these trends, combine trends to create value, and last but not the least by taking steps that can help shape the future rather than waiting for it,” he stressed.

The town hall meeting concluded by resolving that the APO would be driving more pioneering and cutting edge projects aimed and upstream research on productivity measurement across the key verticals and focus areas. The participants also reviewed the findings of the APO Global Innovation Index and the Global Competitiveness Index and it was decided that the APO team will further analyze the report to identify areas where the APO can benchmark the projects with the respective country need to create maximum impact.