Page 37 - HKMA TA2020 Souvenir Programme

Bronze Award Special Award

“Agile Transformation in a Long-established Global Company” Best in Cultural Change

HKT Ltd – PCCW Global

PCCW Global is a leading global telecoms service provider with well-established operations covering 3,000 cities and 160 countries. The company is
supported by over 1,300 staff, has consistently maintained a stable business growth trajectory, and as the international operating division of Hong Kong’s
premier telecommunications service provider, HKT, it has a distinguished business pedigree.
Yet despite steady and incremental growth over many years, in 2018 the company’s executive management team identified growing disruptive forces in
the modern market environment - forces with the power to shake traditional infrastructure-based businesses to their core.
The need to develop a new vision in order to remain globally competitive was identified, and it was soon recognized that fundamental changes to the
business and its culture would be required in order to continue to thrive in the digital age.
The New Vision
The new vision involves fundamentally transforming PCCW Global from a telecoms carrier into a technology company – one with the ability to develop
and embed digital technologies directly into its service offerings, thereby benefiting a much broader community of partners and users. These software-
driven digital technologies will enable the company to respond quickly and to change both its offering and its approach to meet changing market
conditions and demands.
The leadership team recognized that the limitations of the company’s existing organizational hierarchy and past ways of operation would hamper the
development of its new digital capability. Of paramount importance was to implement “Agile Transformation” at the core – the organization and its
people.
Agile Transformation Framework & Guiding Coalition
In recognizing that Agile transformation was needed company-wide, PCCW Global’s management team selected the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) as its
guiding methodology. In addition, a “Guiding Coalition” team reporting directly to the executive management team was formed, which communicates,
supports, monitors and aligns the transformation process globally.
People Development & ARTs
The importance of a staff development program in the transformation journey was recognized as critical, as transformation implicitly required talent with
the right mindset and skills.
In a typical hierarchical structure, people are organized by function, with a defined line of responsibilities, resulting in silo structures and inefficient
handoffs between functional teams, in turn leading to delays in delivery. PCCW Global’s new teams, from cross-functional backgrounds, are organized as
Agile Release Trains (ARTs) - continuously delivering value to the business and its customers while rapidly responding to changes in the environment.
Business Outcome
Assisted by new technology know-how and capabilities, the Agile Transformation programme has already enabled PCCW Global to develop and
implement a game-changing online digital platform that delivers a significant competitive advantage for the company.
While the change process is ongoing, the key critical success factors of continuous learning, culture change, technology, determination and leadership
support already point to the successful transformation of PCCW Global into a more versatile and capable technology company, better positioned to
address the market opportunities presented by a dynamic and evolving new digital marketplace.
Comments from Adjudicators
An ambitious programme which aimed to transform its workforce into an agile, technology-driven business in the long run strategically. The approach
was holistic and orchestrated across from diverse locations that could tackle company-wide transformation on a global scale.
Complimented as a very well-structured programme, it encouraged new ideas to be incubated and experimented within a traditional hierarchical
organization. Staff were empowered to design and deliver the best products and to develop agile solutions. The strategies were well designed and
planned with great measurable results which demonstrated the success of the programme.
All in all, the significant improvements were measured in all categories with commitment of the entire workforce; and tremendous support from senior
management.

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