Damien Wong is Senior Vice President for APAC at Tricentis, the global leader in continuous test automation. In his role, Damien is responsible for all aspects of go-to-market development and growth for Tricentis across the Asia-Pacific and Japan region. Prior to Tricentis, Damien was Vice President for APAC at Confluent where he grew the presence of the company beyond Australia and Southeast Asia into new markets including Japan, Korea, Greater China, and India. Before Confluent, Damien was Vice President and General Manager for Red Hat across the ASEAN, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan markets. Damien joined Red Hat from HP Software, where he was the General Manager for Southeast Asia. Damien has also held technology and business management roles in companies such as META Group and Accenture.
Over his 29-year career in the technology industry, Damien has won numerous awards, including being named Executive of the Year (Computer Software category) in the Singapore Business Review’s Management Excellence Awards for 2018.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with Digital First Magazine, Damien shared his professional trajectory, insights on authentic leadership, personal hobbies and interests, future plans, words of wisdom, and much more. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Hi Damien. Could you share your journey to becoming an expert in your current position?
I’m not sure if I am qualified to be called an expert, but my current position is Senior Vice President and Managing Director for the Asia Pacific and Japan geography for Tricentis, the global leader in software quality engineering and test automation software. I started my career almost 30 years ago, building large mission-critical IT systems for financial institutions at Andersen Consulting, which gave me an acute appreciation for what is required to drive successful business outcomes from complex technology initiatives. I then spent the past 20 years in various leadership roles at enterprise software companies across the Asia Pacific region. I had the opportunity to transition from the sell side to the end-user side of technology early in my career, which provided me a strong foundation for understanding what enterprises hope to achieve from their technology investments. I like to think that the combination of my multi-faceted experience has provided me with the knowledge and competencies to do what I do better.
What do you love the most about your current role?
In my current role, I am responsible for growing the Tricentis business across Asia Pacific. Building businesses are a passion of mine. While it brings along many challenges, especially in a multilingual, multicultural and heavily nuanced geography like Asia Pacific, seeing tangible progress and results is highly satisfying.
Considering the impact of new technologies and the high numbers of enterprise digital transformation programs, when do you think digital skills and experiences will become a must-have?
Digital savviness and competencies are already a must-have in today’s environment! Modern workforces need to be comfortable using different technologies to ensure that they stay relevant.
Take the domain of software quality assurance for example. When I started my career, software systems were built using different technology architectures and development methodologies, and the frequency and speed of change was much slower. Back then, it was possible to adopt manual testing approaches. As technology evolved, script-based test automation came about, significantly speeding up the quality assurance process, although test engineers were required to do the scripting or programming needed for the automation. Think of this as the evolution from running a footrace to using bicycles to race.
However, in today’s world, script-based test automation has become a bottleneck and even a burden, especially for large organisations with complex, highly integrated systems. The attempt to use scripts to automate these test scenarios across different systems results in an accumulation of exponentially-large number of test scripts, skyrocketing maintenance effort and costs. This ironically leads to low quality outcomes (because of the false test positives or negatives, or lack of relevant test coverage), leading to severe software outages.
This is where Tricentis’ disruptive test automation technology offers a solution. Our codeless, fully automated model-based test approach is a game-changer. If we compare the old paradigm of using script-based testing to a bicycle, modern enterprises who are still using such technology are essentially racing against the equivalent of Formula 1 cars in the business world. Imagine trying to win a Formula 1 race using only a bicycle! In a rapidly changing world driven by technology, staying ahead means embracing the latest tech advances. This will help these organisations survive, and hopefully thrive, in today’s hyper-competitive world.
In your opinion, what are the key skills and qualities that a successful digital transformation officer should possess?
To drive successful digital transformation, one must be willing and able to constantly challenge the status quo. The only constant is change, and the ability to adapt quickly to change is the only sustainable competitive advantage. Let’s take software engineering as an example. In 2013, we heard the coining of the slogan “the developer is king”. This reflected the era when success was defined by the speed at which software was being developed. The goal for businesses then was focused around recruiting the best developers they could find. Fast forward to today, GenAI now allows software code to be developed autonomously with natural language prompts. The speed at which code is written has gone up exponentially, and the new bottleneck to delivering digital innovation is now on validating the code, and ensuring its functionality, scalability and security.
Leading organisations are adapting to this shift by focusing their efforts on quality assurance engineers and embracing codeless AI-powered test automation. Any successful digital transformation leader 10 years ago who will not adapt to the new environment is unlikely to be a successful leader today, proving Charles Darwin right. It’s not the strongest nor the smartest of the species that will survive, it’s the ones most adaptive to change.
Is there a particular person you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are?
I have so many people that I am grateful to who’ve helped me become the person that I am today. No one is born armed with all the knowledge and experience to do their jobs well, nor will they always be given the opportunity to do so even if they do have the ability to do them. There were managers who gave me the opportunity to start a new role, taking some measure of risk in doing so. There were friends who provided good counsel and served as effective sounding boards. And there were also those who were naysayers, who told me I couldn’t do something, or I wouldn’t be able to achieve my goals, and provided me with the grit and determination I needed to prove them wrong. And of course, I am grateful to my wife and family, who have constantly stood by me through thick and thin. They provide me the inspiration I need to do what I do, to always be a better version of myself every single day.
If you could have a one-hour meeting with someone famous who is alive or dead, who would it be and why?
As a Singaporean, I have the greatest respect for the late Mr. Lee Kuan Yew who was the Prime Minister that led Singapore to independence and whom I regard as the founding father of modern Singapore. I never had the chance to speak with Lee Kuan Yew but have been a beneficiary of the wonderful nation he helped to build. How he defied the naysayers to transform a tiny island with no natural resources into one of the most prosperous countries in the world, has been an inspiration to me. While I’ve managed to glean some of his wisdom from biographies, if I were given an opportunity to speak with him for an hour today, I would gladly use it to seek his no-holds barred insights into what I personally can do better, for myself, my family, my team and the world around me.
What does the term “authentic leadership” mean to you?
I’m not even sure what unauthentic leadership means! A long time ago, I learnt the difference between being a manager and being a leader. A manager does things right, while the leader does the right things. But to do the right things, you need to know what the right things are, and have the conviction to do them regardless of whether they are popular or not. So to me, authentic leadership refers to leaders who say what they mean and mean what they say. Their teams follow them because they trust them to always do the right things, even if they are hard. And often, they follow these leaders even if they don’t have any formal need to do so.
What are some of your passions outside of work? What do you like to do in your time off?
To me, family and friendship are most important. At the end of the day, after all you do in your professional career, many things will fade away, but your family will continue to stand by you. And if you have done right by the people you worked with over the years whether they be employee, customer or partner, they will remain friends who will remember you not for your role or your title (which will all fade away one day), but for what you stand for. And as such, I try to spend as much time as I can with my family, enjoying shared experiences together – a meal, a movie, a holiday. And of course, investing time to build relationships, whether it’s networking or having a coffee.
What is your biggest goal? Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?
Anyone who tells you that they know exactly where they will be in 5 years is probably either untruthful or delusional. The world is changing so quickly, companies adapt and evolve (or perish), and jobs change as a result. Just take the advent of GenAI. Who knew that in a space of less than 2 years, our whole world would be facing unprecedented change with this disruptive technology? My goal will be to continue to stay open-minded, continue learning, and remaining relevant. Anyone who thinks their job is done and they’ve reached the pinnacle, thereby not looking actively to adapt and even be prepared to disrupt themselves, will be looking at the beginning of the end. So, my goal is to constantly be asking myself “How can I be a better version of myself tomorrow?”
What advice would you give to somebody who is considering entering your field or has just entered the field?
I will tell anyone entering the tech industry to be prepared to constantly adapt and change. Those who fear learning new things and embracing change are probably not going to enjoy this industry. Will we always be right in the choices we make? Of course not! I’ve made countless mistakes along the way, but the important thing is to have the humility to acknowledge your mistakes, and more importantly what you’ve learnt from them. And then be able to use these learnings to continuously improve. “Better, better but never best” – that should always be the motto to live by.