Affirming the role of technology in driving human progress and transforming lives, Amit Midha, President, Asia Pacific & Japan and Global Digital Cities, Dell Technologies, says Dell is driven by a belief and a passion that everyone should have easy access to the best technology anywhere in the world.
“From multicloud solutions and high-performance computing to ambitious social impact and sustainability initiatives, what we do impacts everyone, everywhere.”
This is why Dell has ambitious ESG targets – focused on advancing sustainability, cultivating inclusion, transforming lives, and upholding ethics and privacy.
From driving the circular economy with Asset Recovery Services to retire 1.1 billion kilograms of used electronics and counting, to guiding the career journeys of women professionals in tech with MentorConnect, a cross-company mentorship programme in Singapore, Dell is building the future of society it envisions.
With operations in over 180 countries and an estimated 133,000 Dell team members – out of which over 35,000 are in Asia Pacific and Japan – Amit Midha believes they have the scale to harness technology to further human progress.
Harnessing Technology to Future-Proof Organisations
With continued innovation that delivers cloud services for data and workload requirements, the company is helping organisations simplify digital transformation while increasing IT agility. Dell’s current clients vary across industries such as banking, logistics, education, healthcare, telecommunications, metaverse and digital twins, with a footprint across the Asia Pacific & Japan region.
“Together, we have helped future-proof organisations by accelerating digital transformation and creating innovative solutions to drive growth,” says Amit.
Championing Innovation in Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ)
“APJ plays a very big role in our global operations and we take pride in ensuring that our company is best in class,” he shares.
“For instance, to drive innovation, we launched our Global Innovation Hub in Singapore in 2021, the first of its kind outside of the United States. It focuses on R&D work in digital transformation technologies, including edge computing, cybersecurity, and data analytics.”
Dell’s Executive Briefing and Solution Centre (EBSC) in Singapore allows businesses to view and explore their end-to-end portfolio of technology, and its newly launched Industry Solutions showcase brings Dell’s innovative technologies to life through a combination of live demos and use case examples across industries such as healthcare, finance and manufacturing.
In Malaysia, the team successfully implemented on-site solar panel installations in 2021 at its Penang facility. This solar photovoltaic system powers more than 25% of the production lines at its facility, lowering its annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 650 tons.
Dell also expanded its industry-first closed-loop recycled plastic supply chain globally since 2015, across 35 products such as its Latitude and Alienware products, using consumer recycled plastics.
Advancing Sustainability in APJ
Dell is also collaborating with its APJ partners to fight climate change in the region. One such collaboration in 2022 with Intel, Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef, and the University of Queensland, saw the partners harnessing technology to conserve and save the Great Barrier Reef.
In 2021, Dell also partnered with Grape Lab in Korea, a sustainable design lab, to create a laptop stand made from recycled paper that was designed to be ready-to-use and ready-to-recycle product.
Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in APJ
“We are a team that values diversity of thought and experience. Through MentorConnect, led by our Women in Action Employee Resource Group, we engage companies outside of Dell to promote diverse leadership development. The program was launched in 2021 in Singapore, in conjunction with the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), and within a year it expanded to include eight companies. In Malaysia, the program is in its fifth edition and has expanded to include 14 companies,” says Amit.
On a personal front, Amit was recognised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore in 2021 with the Ally of the Year award. This was awarded to a top male leader who had taken significant and visible steps to advance women in leadership in the workplace. In his commitment to the cause of youth and women, Amit also sits on the Dell Global Giving Council, Dell Global Diversity Council, and Dell Entrepreneur Executive Council.
“With women making up half of our addressable workforce, it is our role and responsibility to push the boundaries on D&I,” Amit said. From bringing together women entrepreneurs across the region with the Dell Women Entrepreneur Network, to helping leaders navigate unconscious bias and be a catalyst for more change via the Many Advocating Real Change (MARC) program, advancing D&I is always on the agenda. The work does not stop here – it has to be a collective effort by individuals and organisations to move the needle on D&I.”
Cultivating Flexibility in the Workplace
As a company that is enabling organisations to work from anywhere, Dell is also leading the change from within.
“I am the global co-sponsor for our Conexus Employee Resource Group, a group focused on building a connected workforce of the future,” Amit explains. “I strongly believe in the connected workplace – one that is based on the premise that work should be linked to outcomes and not anchored to a specific place or time.”
Recognising the tremendous change that businesses have experienced during the pandemic, Amit says that industries have had to rethink priorities and strategies to ensure people and businesses are future-ready.
It is important for leaders to foster a growth mindset that takes on a more human-centred approach to innovation and drive progress for society.
As he shared during his keynote at Singapore Management University’s Presidential Distinguished Lecturer Series of 2021,“Leadership is about first accepting the change; second about understanding the change; and third, harnessing the change to create exponential benefits.”
“Amit Midha is passionately focused on a future that propels human progress through innovation, partnerships and technology. Through Dell Technologies, he has accelerated the digital transformation journey for governments and corporations through the creation of innovative solutions to future-proof and drive growth. At the same time, Amit is a huge advocate and believer that the future must be sustainable, diverse and inclusive and thus, has set ambitious targets with the organization’s ESG goals as well as led efforts personally in this direction.”
Shanggari Balakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer, MORS Group
