As someone who works in a cybersecurity company, would you say the threat level around cybersecurity has increased?

The answer is a resounding yes. The threat level increased over covid for sure, but it was also increasing markedly before that. Partly, this is due to the geopolitical situation– which has led to a higher number of cyber criminals operating–but is also because larger numbers of people are now working from home. This provides a much more fertile ground for cybercrime to take place. We urge all our clients to stay extra vigilant in this new era.

What are some of the main differences you have noticed in the way companies operate in APAC and Europe?

I have worked in Germany and Singapore, which are very similar with high level of efficiency, a well-educated workforce and relatively high levels of wealth. However, Europe and APAC both contain countries whose processes are not quite as advanced. I used to work in Eastern Europe, which is more analogous to Indonesia here; both have great potential but business can be difficult at times. Indonesia in particular could be an extremely successful economy and attract huge amounts of foreign investment were it not for the fact that costs of getting set up there are so high purely because of bureaucracy and red tape. This must be navigated in order to operate there successfully.

The unusual business environment created by the pandemic has been swiftly followed by other shocks. Are you now putting more emphasis on preparing for the unforeseen and, if so, what does this entail?

While this is mostly handled at board level, what I will say is that Palo Alto Networks was excellent in looking after its employees over the pandemic. It made sure everyone had exactly what they needed in terms of food, mental health support and business support. This focus on employee needs has continued post pandemic and is something we are very proud of.

You worked on setting up a shared legal service centre. Can you talk a little bit about that?

This has been a project of mine over the past 18 months or so. I crunched the numbers and pitched to the board that we could save six figures on NDAs alone per year, which is a great cost saving. We do a huge number of NDAs, many of which are bespoke for the client, but this is just one area which we were able to have handled by the Shared Services Centre (SSC).

When putting the SSC together, my basic premise was that if there are more than two to three bullet points per function, it is not something that is suitable for the SSC to handle and must be done by the legal team proper. The SSC should purely work on high-volume, low technical tasks. We now have a headcount of four based in India in our SSC.