高清福利片

If you told Ben King when he was a University of Sydney student that one day, he鈥檇 be the managing director at Google Singapore, nobody would be more surprised than him. 聽

聽鈥淚 didn鈥檛 even really know what I wanted to study,鈥� says King of choosing a media and communications degree at the University. 鈥淚 knew I liked languages, history, and writing.鈥�

He鈥檇 also been on campus quite a bit, playing cricket against the University team while in high school. 鈥淎t 18,鈥� he says drily, 鈥淚 was nowhere as deliberate as I am now.鈥�

These days, King says his job is to 鈥渂ring the best of Google to a country.鈥� He heads up a team across South East Asia and the APAC region. This, he says, 鈥渟pans working with customers to help them deliver on their ambitions, working with the government to ensure we have the right programs in place to drive the digital ecosystem forward, and working with smaller teams across the region on influence and alignment and leading two smaller teams focused on travel and media agencies with APAC wide scope". It鈥檚 an expansive role, but King says one of the best parts of working in the local office of a global company is that the approach can be custom.

鈥淗aving a tailored approach to a local market is critical in terms of serving users the right way,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e working to help solve some of the largest challenges in a country, you really need to think local.鈥�

Some of these challenges have included bringing communities online for the first time in Thailand (as well as teaching web safety) and reskilling 3000 displaced Singaporeans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

King came to Google in a circuitous fashion. After taking a gap year with his now-wife, Yvette (also an alumnus and the host of E! 高清福利片 Asia), King played cricket in England for six months (鈥淐an you call that a job?鈥� he asks, laughing). A friend who worked in sports marketing suggested King look into 鈥渘ew media鈥�, or digital media. 鈥淚 searched online, found a job listing in advertising, had a coffee with the managing director and got offered the job on the spot.鈥� Once again, he adds, 鈥渋t was not entirely calculated鈥�. His role at the start-up didn鈥檛 last long, but it did help him leap to another organisation, which was funded by Microsoft. Both roles helped King learn to build relationships, how to position a product for sale and how to be 鈥渟crappy and malleable".

The Kings had been in Singapore for a few years when Ben, who had just turned 30, was approached by the head of Google South East Asia. 鈥淗e asked what I wanted to do, and I said 鈥楪ive me the hardest problem you are trying to solve right now.鈥欌�� King was sent to Thailand, followed by Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, on short 鈥渁pprenticeships鈥�, solving various problems for the tech giant. In 2015 he became country manager of Google Thailand, and when a role in Singapore opened, King grabbed it. 鈥淢y career has been a path filled with risk, mobility, and an appetite to explore difficult problems and vastly different things,鈥� he says.

The most difficult part of his role, says King, is the constant pace of change and growth in the tech world.聽

鈥淭he Google I work in now is fundamentally different to the Google I started at 12 years ago,鈥� he says, 鈥渁nd it will be very different again in another 12 years. Staying abreast of those changes, while managing the balance between short-term execution and long-term business durability is not always easy. We are not alone in this though.鈥� Everything, says King, can turn on a dime - from government regulations to technological advancements to the competitive landscape. 鈥淵ou have to be agile, as well as able to plan for the future,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a balance of long-term investment, continuous learning, managing risk, working with stakeholders鈥�it鈥檚 a rollercoaster.鈥�

Still, he adds, the benefits far outweigh any challenges. 鈥淚 get to work in a company with incredible products that improve people鈥檚 experience of the world,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f we get it right, that can be very powerful.鈥� South East Asia itself 鈥渋s an incredibly exciting region, but also one with a lot of need鈥�, meaning that there is a runway for growth and innovation.

While King鈥檚 road hasn鈥檛 always been straightforward, he says his best advice is, in fact, not being afraid to start at smaller companies. 鈥淎 lot of people want to enter directly into one of the big tech companies, but smaller businesses will equip you well in terms of understanding of fundamentals, and how to succeed without the backing of market-leading products,鈥� he says, adding that 鈥渄evelopment is a lifelong process".

鈥淪o many roles that are critical now didn鈥檛 even exist when I started my career,鈥� he says, listing roles like app developers, cloud infrastructure engineers and social media managers. 鈥淓volving is critical to being successful,鈥� he says, 鈥渁s well as investing in evergreen assets such as critical thinking, reasoning, negotiation or leadership.鈥�

With all that constant progress, one thing King is adamant about is that he鈥檚 actually no tech whiz. At least not on all topics.聽

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the funniest thing about my job,鈥� he says. 鈥淓veryone thinks we know everything about every one of our products and platforms. Mostly my job is to make sure the right people are speaking to the right people, making decisions when I am the subject matter expert, or when I am indeed best person to make them, and more importantly, knowing how to delegate or tie break a decision when I am not the best person in the room to make it. All that doesn鈥檛 help me at a dinner party though, when someone has an issue with their Gmail!"

Ben King recently shared her insights with the Sydney Alumni Community on LinkedIn as part of the 'Ask Me Anything' alumni series. to connect with fellow alumni.