Age does not determine our readiness to innovate

“How does one effectively instil an innovation mindset in the workplace, and successfully enable employees to implement innovation strategies?”

This was what Tze Shiong pondered after being appointed in his new role as the Director of Transformation and Quality Assurance at Nexia TS four years ago. Tze Shiong has had extensive work experience in accounting firms for most of his career and yet, he personifies the mindset of lifelong learning as the Director of Transformation.

His role requires him to spearhead initiatives such as the digitalisation of the company’s work processes and drive a culture of innovation. In fact, Tze Shiong feels as if he just embarked on a new learning journey of innovation and transformation within the company. This recent attitude, along with his many years of experience in audit, empowers his ability to identify existing problems within Nexia TS:

“We had a heavy usage of printouts, but we realised that [it] was not sustainable”

The heavy usage of printouts hindered Nexia TS’ growth as a small and medium-sized practitioner as it incurs considerable opportunity costs. With an extremely high attrition rate, commonly observed in accounting firms , and a simultaneous lack of technological tools, it was an opportunity for Tze Shiong and his team, with full support from the Group CEO (and Chief Innovation Officer) to embark on a Transformation Journey for Nexia TS.

“Old ways do not open new doors”

Moving forward as the Director of Transformation, his main objective was to facilitate the firm’s initiative to instil an innovative mindset to equip employees to be more adaptable and receptive to changes. To ease the transition into a paperless workplace, Nexia TS moved to a new office with an open concept to represent the company’s organisational culture of a central goal for innovation. They have adopted the hot-desking system to ensure that no one hordes desk space to store hard copy documents. Other features include the bistro area to facilitate effective communication between employees and senior management on innovative ideas, and a delegated space in the centre of the office for brainstorming sessions.

Tze Shiong emphasises that support from top management is imperative for the implementation and sustenance of innovative ideas. Not only do these innovative ideas have to garner buy-ins from the employees, financial and moral support from top management was equally crucial to the success of inculcating an innovative culture in the workplace.

After sowing the seeds of transformation, it was time to take a step back to see the results of his efforts. Sure enough, with an increase in employer-employee exchange, it has shifted the mindsets of employees in adopting technology and settled their fears to the possibility of losing their jobs. Over time, the employees at Nexia TS realised the practicality of technological tools, which have removed the laborious monotony in their routine work. Now, employees are able to shift their focus to work involving more critical thinking and creativity.

His experience with successful implementation of innovative ideas revealed a correlation between people who were inclined towards the ideas, and the chances of them being able to influence others around them to adopt these ideas. By first convincing the people who were inclined towards the idea of innovation, the chances of them being able to champion and influence others around them to adopt these ideas seem to increase. On top of that, he further added that innovations have to be user-friendly, and that the tools used must always be readily available to staff to ensure buy-ins.

“[Your] mindset is not about how old you are”

To Tze Shiong, this transformation journey was never solely about digitalisation or going paperless. Innovation is a continuous process, and it is never too late to start innovating.