PLDT executive vice president Eric Alberto talks about digital disruption and and how it changes the industry landscape during the 12th Asian Carriers Conference on Tuesday.
The 12th Asian Carriers Conference (ACC2016) echoes what the technology industry has been preaching—and embracing—the past few months: digital disruption and how it changes the industry landscape. Disruption has long started and any enterprise who fails to recognize the need to be disruptive will be left behind.
This year’s theme is “The Digital Revolution: Navigating Through the Seas of Disruption.” ACC is an annual telecom conference hosted by PLDT, and supported by Smart Communications and Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (Digitel/Sun Cellular). Guests and participants are industry leaders from the telecommunications industry, including wholesale fixed and mobile carriers, network and infrastructure providers, applications and service developers, handset and equipment manufacturers, and entertainment and content distributors meet to network, conduct business, and build relationships.
“Certainly the road of transformation stretches further; the waves of disruption continue to crest,” said Eric Alberto, PLDT executive vice president and head of international and carrier business, in his welcome remarks.
He stressed how PLDT transformed from being “just” a telephone company to a digital company.
“We are no longer telephone carriers in the traditional sense, and hopefully, should not remain to be just pipes,” he said. “After 12 years, we have acted wisely and evolved along with the challenges and demands of transformation.”
“Being telephone companies and carriers at our core, we had to undergo the rather painful shift away from our legacy roles. We must continue to press on with reinvention. We must continue to lose the sentimental baggage—the deceptive warmth and safety of what used to be our comfort zones,” Alberto told the participants of ACC who came from different parts of the world.
Alberto said digital transformation also means abandoning a legacy that had propelled companies to the top. There’s a price to pay but the returns are worth it.
“Being telephone companies and carriers at our core, we had to undergo the rather painful shift away from our legacy roles. We must continue to press on with reinvention. We must continue to lose the sentimental baggage—the deceptive warmth and safety of what used to be our comfort zones.”
PLDT experienced its own digital disruption by changing its name to just “PLDT,” abandoning “Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company.”
“We had to do it to demonstrate our commitment and resolve to vigorously and aggressively pursue our mission and aspiration to be this country’s leading digital enabler,” Alberto said.