Surina Shukri, CEO of the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, has spent the last few months of the COVID-19 crisis finding ways to mitigate the pandemic's impact on businesses and entrepreneurs. MDEC, a government-owned institution, was founded in 1996 to drive digital transformation and adoption across the Malaysian economy in both the public and private sectors. Up to now, its mission has been to grow the digital economy and the surrounding ecosystem—which, at this point in time, includes supporting businesses through the transition to a digital model that will help them survive.

In an interaction with People Matters, Surina shared her thoughts on how COVID-19 is accelerating digital transformation and how MDEC is fulfilling its role during this period.

"The pandemic has forced businesses to either evolve or perish"

"MDEC is gearing up to manage the large demand for digital transformation," Surina said, pointing to how businesses are seeking ways of remaining operational and afloat during the movement control order that has seen almost all of Malaysia's non-essential business premises closed. "Local businesses are hungry for new ideas of innovation or diversification and the government has committed to support them post-movement control order."

As part of that support, it will be MDEC that goes down to the ground and talks to the industry to figure out how to do that, and a great deal of cross-industry, cross-ministry, and cross-agency collaboration will be involved.

"Digital must be a national agenda, and I have conveyed this to the Prime Minister and the Economic Action Council recently," she said.

MDEC is working on several fronts to help businesses stay afloat. It recently initiated a virtual platform recently to bridge local startups with global investors, and set up partnerships to virtually match investors with local startups. Most of its activities and events have been migrated to online platforms, including education and outreach efforts that target micro-SMEs and startups—the business demographic most vulnerable to the downturn.

"The digital technologies and digital adoption that we have been strongly advocating are ever more valuable in testing times like these," Surina said. "We are witnessing hard proof how the use of digital is playing a significant role in helping the people of Malaysia cope and survive this adversity."

Stakeholder preparedness presents a challenge

Surina shared that one of the top challenges MDEC faces is the fact that some of its stakeholders and target audience—from government to industries to individuals—are not sufficiently digitally equipped to make the leap to virtual business. This was even the case for some MDEC employees. But MDEC being the organization it is, with the mandate that it carries, the management team had already anticipated the need to take work virtual. Back in February, well before Malaysia's movement control order went into force, they began to seriously explore options and prepare staff with tutorials and briefings, and so when the lockdown actually began, they were largely ready for it.

"As we all begin to adapt to the new norm, most of us are now better prepared to work remotely," she said. "Remote conferencing, digital correspondences and virtual collaborative platforms are no longer foreign to us. Rather, they are essential to an organization’s business continuity."

Like many other leaders during this period, Surina and her team have turned to regular updates—a weekly newsletter—and town hall meetings to address staff concerns.

"What I like most about townhalls is that we can give shout-outs to teams to recognise their contributions toward helping our stakeholders to sail through this difficult time," she remarked.

"We need to lift each other up."

People remain the priority, today and in the future

What will change, and what will stay the same? The acceleration of digital adoption is one thing that has emerged from this crisis and the government lockdown measures, Surina believes. "The pandemic has fast-tracked a digital way of life via fundamental behavioral changes like remote working and learning, wide reliance on eCommerce and social distancing to ensure the effective containment of COVID-19," she summarized.

But at the same time, the human aspect of daily life has been highlighted and brought to the forefront. She said:

"During this crisis, I think it is first and foremost important that we keep ourselves and our families COVID-safe, while staying calm, kind and civil. This would be a real test of our humanity."

And amid the uncertainty and challenges that will mark the coming months, one way to stay focused, Surina suggested, is to bear in mind one's organizational mandate. "I have urged my team at MDEC to continue to accomplish what every person at MDEC is set out to achieve: a better life for Malaysians," she said. "Insyaallah. It is our hope that COVID-19 may precipitate a better world for all of us."