Workshop on Leadership of Service Transformation in the Lifestyle and Service Sectors

“According to the “APO Productivity Databook”, the service sector accounts for a substantial portion of GDP in many APO members. In 2021, services constituted over 60% of GDP in economies like Japan and Singapore, and similar trends were observed in other members. This highlights the sector’s key role in driving economic growth through innovation and high-value services. These sectors face shifting consumer demands, tech changes, and rising competition, making strong leadership vital for post-COVID transformation. In one of the APO’s recent comprehensive studies in 2024, “Best Strategies for Ensuring SME Business Continuity in Advanced APO Economies”, almost all successful SMEs across the ROC, Japan, the ROK, and Singapore adopted agile management practices, digital transformation, and structured strategic foresight leadership, enabling them to recover and grow during the pandemic, with many even exceeding their pre-COVID-19 performance levels”