They are brave, devoted, and skilled at breaking into a market by reinventing the wheel of a wellestablished domain. Today’s woman leaders have mastered the art of adopting and refining wheel of a well-established domain. One such figure is Haslina Taib, the CEO of Dynamik Technologies and known as “Brunei’s dynamic tech leader”.
Women in technology bring a transformative impact to the companies they lead, driving innovation and success in the digital age with passion. Haslina embodies this influence with her can-do attitude, situational intelligence and dedication to lifelong learning. Haslina is a determined, capable and inspiring leader who nurtures talent to learn and develop for the future.
Haslina’s Inspirational Journey in a Glance
In the key position of Chief Executive Officer, Haslina Taib has spent over 16 years in Brunei under Dynamik Technologies, formerly known as Brunei Accenture Group.
She was a member of the team that investigated the purchase and merger of premier and trophy assets across Europe and North America, tax planning, and corporate structuring for shareholder value prior to her current position. She also contributed to the creation of the Dorchester Group Collection, a collection of hotels with extraordinary individualities. Haslina was able to triple the portfolio’s size and achieve a net 10% cumulative dividend on net assets. She has held a variety of positions in media, forensic science, tax, treasury management, audit, and IT implementation.
She currently serves as the Chair of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (BAC) Brunei and the Chair of the ASEAN BAC Digital Transformation Working Group, proudly representing Brunei. She previously held comparable mandated positions as a member of Brunei’s APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). She has also been appointed as a trustee for pension funds in the UK and Canada, as well as a member of the Brunei Darussalam Accounting Standards Council (BDASC), the University Brunei Darussalam Council, and its Audit Council.
She obtained the titles of “Asia’s Woman Leader” from CMO Asia and the World Women Leadership Congress, as well as “Asia’s Most Inspiring Executive” from MORS Group for her remarkable leadership at the Asia Corporate Excellence & Sustainability Awards. She also received on behalf of the company the International Diamond Prize for Excellence in Quality 2023 from the European Society for Quality Research.
Dynamik: Driving Innovation Through Enhancing Quality of Life
Dynamik Technologies, Brunei’s top IT company, promotes innovation by enhancing people’s quality of life and creating a favourable business climate. Established in 2001 with the mission to help clients enhance performance through excellent IT and business transformation, Dynamik Technologies rebranded from its former identity (formerly known as BAG Networks or Brunei Accenture Group) in October 2018.
Key Differentiating Factors That Make Dynamik Stand Out
The key driving factors for Dynamik Technologies’ successful track record in quality transformation are systems thinking by intent, standardization and sustainability.
This translates to designing and co-creating meaningful solutions to real life problems; institutionalizing tools, methodologies, frameworks, standards and best practices in delivery; as well as ensuring its services give lasting transformation value through continuous improvement.
A significant testament to Dynamik Technologies’ excellence in quality is its third consecutive successful appraisal at Maturity Level 3 by the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)® V2.0, with the most recent re-appraisal in the final quarter of year 2022. This signifies over a period of more than ten years, Dynamik Technologies is operating at a “defined” level with established standards, procedures, tools, and methods continually improved over time. As the only Bruneian organisation achieving this global benchmark, Dynamik Technologies is proven to be on par with world-class organisations in terms of best practices in software and organisational development.
“We have successfully grown the company to over 220 employees, making us the largest IT company in Brunei. Collectively, over the years, we have employed 1,000 IT professionals and interns. Our team is committed to helping deliver digital transformation initiatives and is highly skilled, benchmarked against the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), and globally and industry certified in programming, business process re-engineering, data analytics, and infrastructure. Because of the structure, models, and tools we built and consistently developed in my years of expertise, I believe we have accomplished resource optimisation,” the leading lady mentioned.
Additionally, Dynamik is the first business in the nation to use the innovative and progressive strategy of giving undergraduates both job experience and an industry certification concurrently with their academic degrees. The “Headstart” programme seeks to ensure that chosen graduates are industry ready.
Clientele and Corporate Ethos
Dynamik provides clients with a full range of services to help them achieve their objectives, from the deployment of turnkey solutions to making sure that their systems and operations are well taken care of. These services are appropriate for any size business across various industries that would like to benefit from digitally transforming their organisation.
Dynamik adheres to worldwide frameworks and best practises, such as Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) and IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), to standardise, institutionalise, optimise, and improve procedures for dependable service delivery. In order to benefit all of their clients, a strong emphasis is placed on developing local IT expertise and leveraging the extensive networks of their partner companies.
Haslina’s Take on the Leadership Style
My personality, background, and life experiences all come together to form my leadership style. I have worked with forward-thinking, creative, demandingly agile, inventive, and competitive organisations that have continuously opened up new opportunities for me and helped me grow as a person. I have strong beliefs for myself and my team because I know they are capable of completing the tasks they have set out to complete. Especially for individuals who don’t realise their full potential, I am a leader who develops leaders.
As a leader, I am a driver for change, don’t accept the status quo, and believe in being dynamic. Another aspect of my leadership is focusing on facts and measurable outcomes while being agile. I practise open and transparent communication so that the employees have the information they need to make decisions quickly and with confidence. Together with the team, we remain alert to opportunities that can add value to and grow the company and our people.
A Culture of Learning and Development
Employees at Dynamik Technologies have access to their dedicated Learn Portal, which supports a culture of continual learning and development. Organisational training, business training, functional training, project training, technical training, role-specific training, and soft skill training are all offered to employees. The company also makes sure employees have access to these learning opportunities and encourages them to create proofs-of-concept that can be useful to clients.
Insights on the Gender Pay Gap
Dynamik Technologies prides itself on having a no-gender pay gap policy. They make sure that all employment-related decisions, such as selection, development, promotion, and compensation, are made without taking into account a person’s race, colour, age, religion, gender, national origin, disability, marital status, or genetic information.
Overcoming the Hurdles on the Way
The IT industry is constantly evolving, making it challenging for IT professionals to stay current with the latest technologies and requiring them to upgrade their skills to remain relevant continuously. The demand for skilled IT professionals often exceeds the supply, making it challenging for companies to find and retain top talent. This can lead to higher wages and increased competition for the best candidates. As a result, being adaptable and a quick learner are necessary traits for keeping up with new technologies, trends, and best practices and being surrounded in a team.
A Glance at the Future Prospects
The focus of Dynamik Technologies in the coming years will be twofold, leveraging its people-centric ethos and experience in delivering and maintaining quality.
Firstly, a whole of nation digital services platform catering to mobile centric citizens, and secondly a regional business services and impact investment marketplace for the world’s third largest island. Both projects are being developed rapidly at the time of writing, and Dynamik Technologies welcomes partners and investors to join its journey in transforming Brunei and Borneo.
Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Follow your passion. There are many equal opportunities out there, including the ones you can create, so reframe any self-doubt and look at it from a perspective of no boundaries.