Careers in Infocomm

Scaling new heights: You have to continuously deepen your vertical problem-solving skills, while taking on new challenges and responsibilities to grow the horizontal skills with different exciting projects, says Mr Foong Sew Bun.

Armed with a Diploma in Electronics Communications from the Singapore Polytechnic and a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin, Mr Foong Sew Bun developed a distinguished 25-year career in IT spanning academia, end-user organisations and major IT multinational corporations. Today, he is the Chief Technology Officer for IBM ASEAN, Singapore and the ASEAN Software Group, an IBM Distinguished Engineer, and an Adjunct Associate Professor with the National University of Singapore.

What sparked off your interest in infocomm?
Since young, I have had a strong interest in applying science, mathematics and engineering to improve efficiency in daily activities. For example, when I was working part-time in a paper manufacturing factory and in NTUC Fairprice during my school holidays, I was already mulling over information-centric systems that could help increase productivity or improve services.

But I think the interest was really ignited during my university days when I was exploring the intelligent use of information for improving daily living. Today, infocomm can be found in every aspect of everyday living, and it also plays an important role in transforming us into a better society, transforming businesses and creating more sustainable cities.

What was your first job in infocomm?
I had two concurrent first jobs in infocomm, both in United States. I was a contract software consultant with Dowell Schlumberger (Tulsa, Oklahoma) and the first Head Teaching Assistant in the Computer Science Department of the University of Texas at Austin. I held these jobs during my university days in the late 1980s - part-time during school term and full-time during school holidays.

What are some of the other roles you have held since then?
My initial infocomm career was a good experience of different roles: as a “customer” (banking, oil and gas), systems integrator (defence and IT vendor), lecturer and researcher (universities), and entrepreneur (healthcare).  I took on these roles because I was offered new challenges which interested me, for example, improving healthcare delivery using infocomm as Directory Technology of Dr. World (Raffles Medical Group); working as Principal Engineer with local systems integrator ITS Technologies to design complex military simulators; transforming and innovating banking services as Assistant Vice President with OCBC Bank, pioneering computational intelligence and object orientation as an Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering Specialist at the Institute of Systems Science, et cetera.

The second stage of my infocomm career has been with IBM. I started off as the first software architect in ASEAN-India and developed my expertise into my current role as the CTO and first Singaporean and ASEAN-grown IBM Distinguished Engineer.

In 2008, I also joined the National University of Singapore as Adjunct Associate Professor, teaching Service Science. After 20 years in the IT Industry, where I had benefited tremendously from many wonderful mentors and friends, I felt this was the time to contribute and train the next generation of infocomm professionals.

The same year, I took on the additional role of chairing the National Infocomm Competency Framework Steering Committee (NICF SC) to help transform the NICF.  We set out to develop a comprehensive NICF which would address competency requirements for the delivery of high value-added services with advanced technologies, provide a closer skills match for the recruitment of high-value infocomm professionals, and provide a career roadmap for infocomm professionals in jobs and skills upgrading.

What were some of the challenges you faced as you went from one role to another?
With each of these milestones, I had to learn different skills and experiences as I refined and improved myself.  Besides deeper and broader technical skills, I had to improve my teaming and leadership skills, collaborating across diverse teams, countries, cultures and time zones. I also had to build up business skills, sales and marketing skills, new industry skills, and other technical but non-infocomm skills.

It is not sufficient to only possess technology skills; your best technologies and design ideas will not get adopted unless one is able to communicate and market/sell these ideas effectively to different parties - internally to your users and colleagues who could come from any corner of the earth in this global economy, and externally to your clients and investors.

Describe what you do in your current role as CTO with IBM.
I provide overall leadership to the IBM ASEAN technical community and spearhead projects for strategic clients. These include first-of-a-kind initiatives, advanced cloud computing, research, service science management engineering, smarter city, analytics and other new growth areas.

There are lots of challenges with these strategic projects and clients that mandate multi-disciplinary skills, for example, teaming with my Managing Director to convince internal and government stakeholders to establish an IBM research collaboratory and a global IBM Cloud Lab in Singapore; working with various ASEAN government agencies on urban solutions; pioneering new areas of business growth through innovation and undertaking global strategic technology studies.

What are the important skillsets required for your role?
The most important would be T-shaped professional skills, which, as the name suggests, consists of vertical skills and horizontal skills. Vertical skills are problem-solving skills in one discipline, such as computer science or business, and one industry domain (for example, banking or telecommunications). Horizontal skills include communication skills across different disciplines and industry domains, as well as team-oriented leadership skills.

In the current service economy, it no longer suffices to possess just vertical skills. We need to lead as well as team with many other experts to solve complex business challenges. Without horizontal skills, our ability to communicate, understand, co-innovate and team with other experts is greatly reduced and hence we will not be able to serve our clients and businesses well.