Infrastructure & Cities

Hub of Business Continuity: How Asia-Pacific cities are managing during global disruption

December 03, 2020

Asia, Australasia

Hub of Business Continuity

December 03, 2020

Asia, Australasia
Charles Ross

Asia editorial director

Charles Ross is Principal of Policy and Insights in Asia-Pacific and leads the region's technology and society practice. Prior to this role, he was editorial director for The Economist Intelligence Unit overseeing all thought leadership research in Asia. Charles combines a deep understanding of how technology trends are reshaping business and society with excellent research and editorial skills, to create impactful and award-winning research programmes for clients. Charles is currently based in Australia and has led many projects analysing the implications for business of new technology trends such as blockchain, fintech, smart cities, cloud computing, sustainability and the internet of things, for Google, Stripe, SAP, Telstra, Microsoft, Prudential, Westpac and the Singapore government. He is a contributing industry expert to the UN Science Policy and Business Forum on the Environment and a frequent speaker at finance and technology events across the region. Charles holds a master of business administration, focusing on strategy and organisational change, from the University of Oxford and a certificate in public policy analysis from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Hub of Business Continuity: How Asia-Pacific cities are managing during global disruption

Hub of business continuity: How Asia-Pacific cities are managing during global disruption is a report from The Economist Intelligence Unit, commissioned by BlackLine, which explores the future of business hubs in the Asia-Pacific region, especially as it relates to challenges during the current covid-19 pandemic.

Kim Andreasson is the author and Charles Ross the editor of this report. The analysis is based on a survey of 250 people conducted in June and July 2020 with 50 executives in each of these five cities in the Asia-Pacific region: Auckland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo.

Half of the respondents represented the IT function with the rest in accounting and finance. Roughly 15% of survey takers were board members or C-suite with the remaining 85% at the director level and above. Technology (10%) and financial services (10%) were the most represented in terms of industry, followed by healthcare (8%), manufacturing (8%) and professional services (8%). One-half of survey takers represented companies with revenues between $50m and $100m while the other half revenues of $100m or greater.

We would like to thank all interviewees and survey respondents for their time and insight. The following experts gave their perspective for the report (listed alphabetically by surname): 

  • Tooran Alizadeh, associate professor, urbanism and telecommunication planning, University of Sydney
  • Wai Fai Lee, group chief financial officer, UOB
  • Jimmy Ng, group chief information officer and head of group technology & operations, DBS
  • Silvia Thom, chief technology officer, Zalora
  • Thomas Zipperle, chief financial officer, South-East Asia, SAP