If the pandemic has taught business leaders, employees, and society anything, it is that even the best-laid plans can be completely derailed by unexpected events. Its occurrence drastically altered consumer behaviours and forced even the most established businesses to pivot their strategic goals to stay afloat. But while most of the world was focused on adapting to the new normal, a visionary few were looking at how to make the best of the situation and where to lay the groundwork for their next move.

For Green Packet, the pandemic offered new opportunities of how the organisation could make the most of this unexpected situation. While many companies were just beginning to digitise their processes to adapt to the changing world of work, Green Packet started their digital transformation journey long before the pandemic struck. Building on the purpose of delivering digital innovations to improve the lives of customers and communities, Green Packet embraced change and realigned its businesses with a new strategic direction to take the business beyond 2020.

Driving total transformation through three strategic thrusts

Green Packet celebrated its 20th anniversary amidst a global lockdown but that did not deter the company from introducing its Green Packet 5.0 strategic roadmap. The roadmap focuses on immediate, mid, and long-term growth and aims to strengthen the Group’s capabilities to tap into more digital opportunities across local and international markets.

As part of the new roadmap, Green Packet reorganised its businesses to focus on three strategic thrusts: Digital Infrastructure and Devices, Digital Services, and Investment. This restructuring saw the Group diversifying its revenue streams and capabilities by venturing into new segments, while continuing to strengthen its established pioneering businesses.

Following this roadmap, Green Packet consolidated their focus on five key business pillars:

1. Smart Devices,
2. Smart City, Urban Tech and HDC, with pillars 1 and 2 falling under the Digital Infrastructure and Devices strategy;
3. Cloud & Enterprise Services,
4. Digital & Financial Services, with pillars 3 and 4 falling under the Digital Services strategy; and
5. Investment, which includes early and late-stage ventures, and emerging investment areas including digital assets management and offshore investment banking.

Image 1: Green Packet’s GP 5.0 strategy realigns its businesses into three strategic thrusts across five key pillars

These business pillars encapsulate the integration of Green Packet’s solutions leveraging core technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, Big Data, the Internet of Everything, and 5G. Coined as the A-B-C-D-E-F-G suite of backbone technologies, they provide the foundation for the Group’s vision of becoming a leading technology solutions provider that can respond agilely to future market disruptions.

Strengthening the profitability of its pioneering businesses

One of the Group’s key strategic focuses is to strengthen the profitability of its pioneering businesses. This includes expanding the reach of Green Packet’s 5G and LTE smart devices to new regions, entering competitive partnerships with established organisations and suppliers, and rebalancing the portfolio of its Communications business to meet the increasing need for application to person (A2P) and data solutions worldwide.

The operationalisation of this strategic direction in 2021 saw both of Green Packet’s pioneering businesses returning to black, with the Smart Devices segment seeing an increase of close to RM10 million in revenue in the second quarter of the year. Green Packet Global, the Group’s Communications business, recorded positive Profit After Tax (PAT) for the third straight quarter in a row increasing by 140% in its second quarter, while also registering a fourth consecutive quarter of positive Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) at RM 520,000.

Diversifying revenue streams through high margin digital businesses

The second part of the GP 5.0 strategy focuses on continued investment into high-margin digital businesses that serve consumer, SME, enterprise and government segments. Encompassing portfolios including e-payment gateways, e-wallets, enterprise solutions and cloud computing, as well as focusing on underserved communities, these businesses have begun to yield positive results.

Green Packet’s Digital & Financial Services’ revenue stabilised in the second quarter of 2021 at RM 3.81 million, sustained largely due to the business’ Electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) license set-up, following its acquisition of Singapore-based Xendity Pte Ltd. This segment was also awarded as a Visa Principal Licensee, enabling it to offer integrated solutions alongside global payment technology company, Visa to support enterprises roll out e-payment platforms five times faster than the usual 24-month lead time.

Expansion into high growth areas

The Group’s third strategic focus is its expansion into high growth areas such as Hyperscale Data Centre infrastructure, offshore investment banking and digital banking. Establishing a foothold in these new businesses ensures Green Packet’s long term competitive advantage, while minimising its reliance on existing businesses.

To date the company has started the groundwork for collaborations with global partners and the RFP process for its future Hyperscale Data Centre, which will also serve as the backbone of its AI City development. The business also established its early and late-stage investment arms – kipleX and GP Capital and received a conditional license from the Labuan Financial Services Authority to provide digital asset portfolio advisory and management services to high-net-worth individuals, institutions and enterprises through its Oasis Capital Investment Bank.

Setting the foundations for Green Packet’s future

Green Packet’s 5.0 strategic roadmap is anchored on the Group’s mission to deliver its Massive Transformative Purpose, that every human must thrive with life-improving digital innovations. The Group is committed to creating digital offerings that not only provide a transformative impact but are also accessible and inclusive of all segments of society. This includes underserved communities, and the Group has taken strides to offer solutions that will improve digital and financial inclusivity aligning to Malaysia’s Shared Prosperity vision.

With 2022 on the horizon and post pandemic recovery initiatives underway to nurture global economic growth, Green Packet’s 5.0 roadmap has already begun to see positive outcomes through strengthened capabilities, focused goals and purpose-driven talent to carry out its mission. Building on this strategic vision, Green Packet is confident in its ability to harness future digital opportunities locally and globally, grow new partnerships to deliver innovative solutions, and respond to the ever-evolving customer needs of the future.