The Changing Shape of Technology Growth Across APJ

These themes emerged from a recent Odgers lunch in Sydney, hosted by Alistair Clark and Johan Uittenbogaard, bringing together senior technology leaders with perspectives from Australia and Japan. While priorities differed across markets and business models, several considerations stood out as leaders look towards 2027.

1. Customer needs shape the right operating model

For technology businesses operating across APJ, a central organisational question is how country-based structures sit alongside businesses organised by industry or customer segment. Geographic accountability offers local market understanding and clarity about delivery. Industry-led approaches can allow more consistent engagement with customers who operate across borders or require specialist expertise.

These structures are not necessarily alternatives. They can coexist, and the challenges become most apparent where responsibilities overlap: who leads the customer relationship, how businesses allocate specialist resources and where investment decisions sit.

The appropriate balance may vary widely. An approach that suits an enterprise software provider serving global accounts may be less effective for a services business built around local delivery. 

2. Assessing the Returns from AI 

Assessing AI investment means looking beyond capability to practical application: automating established processes, lowering operating costs and supporting commercial teams.

Some applications lend themselves to relatively direct measurement. Other opportunities require more extensive changes to working practices and systems. Existing technology, access to reliable data, and implementation costs can materially affect the outcome. Similar tools may therefore deliver quite different results across customers and businesses.

AI also raises questions about how technical roles may evolve. As AI takes on certain programming tasks, some work may shift toward designing workflows and integrating solutions. The extent and pace of that development remain uncertain. For technology providers, a related commercial issue is how customers measure the value of new capabilities and how suppliers share in that value.

3. Staying close to the Customer

Understanding the customer’s business remains essential to proposing the right solution. New capabilities can generate interest, but buying decisions also depend on the problem a customer is trying to solve, the expected benefit and the practicalities of implementation.

This has implications for commercial teams. More complex opportunities may require technical specialists to engage earlier in the sales process and closer cooperation between sales, product and delivery teams. Other businesses may continue to favour a more standardised approach. Existing customer relationships and technology platforms can help introduce new offerings, although they do not guarantee adoption.

‘Earning the right’ to a broader customer conversation means understanding the customer’s priorities before assuming which technology or service will meet them.

4. Balancing Global Priorities with Local Judgement 

Perspectives from Japan highlighted how attitudes towards AI, established workflows and access to data can differ between markets. Such differences also appear across industries and individual customers, making broad regional generalisations difficult.

Global technology businesses have sound reasons to seek consistency in systems, investment and commercial priorities. Regional teams may still need flexibility in how they engage customers, form partnerships, or implement solutions. The appropriate degree of local discretion depends on the business and the decisions involved.

Regional leaders therefore need to manage those competing considerations and make the case for local requirements within global structures.

5. Leadership experience needs to match the regional remit

These commercial and organisational demands directly affect leadership capability. Regional leaders combine performance responsibility with senior customer relationships, team development, and the demands of working across different markets.

Some roles require leaders to stay personally involved in major customer opportunities. Others place greater weight on developing managers, building commercial capability and establishing consistent ways of working. Often the role includes both, although the balance differs with the maturity and business model of the company.

These considerations extend to succession and talent development. Deep product knowledge and local experience remain valuable. Exposure to other markets, partnerships and operating models can broaden a leader’s judgement. Rather than pointing to one ideal background, these demands underline the importance of matching leadership experience to the particular remit.

What this means for technology leaders

There is no single formula for technology growth across APJ. Leaders need to judge how best to organise around customers, where AI can deliver a worthwhile return and how to balance global scale with local requirements. Those choices also shape the leadership capabilities businesses need. The appropriate approach will depend on the business, its customers and the markets in which it operates.

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