AECO Energy’s CEO, Alan Jones, sees electricity deregulation in Singapore as another clarion call to expand AECO Energy’s mission to Singapore – empowering businesses control over their energy purchases and profitability.
As the global pandemic unfolds and continues to pose uncertainty on Singapore’s economic recovery, the man at the forefront of innovation is leading a market disruptor and is taking some time to reflect on his organization’s raison d’etre: Saving Business More.
In 2021, Singapore commercial and business electricity users will finally have a new way of managing electricity purchasing and join the thousands of businesses internationally who have exclusive access to lower costs and improved profitability.
“I would like to believe that AECO Energy will play a part in Singapore’s pandemic recovery and journey from shifting from an ‘analogue’ way of procuring electricity to a modern, cost reducing and market aware ‘digital’ platform and expert-led service,” says Alan Jones, a patent author and SGX listed entity qualified director, who also serves as the Founder and Chairman of AECO Energy and the AECO Group of Companies.
An energy expert on a mission, Alan moved the AECO Group HQ from Australia to Singapore in 2019 to expand AECO’s technology and solutions across Asia. In 2021, after years of development and preparation, and after a delay due to the pandemic, AECO can finally now offer newly created products and services specifically built and designed for the Singapore market and for Singaporean businesses.
Sharing his vision: “AECO’s mission is to make our customers more profitable and run better businesses. With over 2,000 international large commercial and industrial customers, lowering our customers’ costs, business risk and raising productivity through technology and innovation remains our core focus. We are bringing these benefits to Singapore and to our locally based businesses.
“AECO Energy is not an electricity retailer. AECO’s exclusive solutions provide businesses better technology and platform to manage electricity purchasing. We are more like a supercharged ‘stock broking platform’ app or a like ‘large scale investment fund manager.’ It is all about enhancing our customer’s profits and lowering their costs through technology and expertise: to buy when prices are low and realize economies of scale of increased buying power
“We are excited to finally bring our exclusive services and tech to our local businesses in 2021, and for them to finally join our international customers who benefit from lower costs and higher productivity.”
Opportunity amid a global pandemic
Alan, whose 30-year career has spanned the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, is no stranger to working within business adversity. He added: “I’ve been here before. Necessity is the mother of invention. During a crisis is the time for businesses to innovate, to take advantage of changes in the market. I learned this in the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. With 75% drop off in revenue, I had to look for new ways to create value and deliver innovation in new markets. All I had was an idea, a laptop and a vision – to innovate and help businesses to lower costs and increase profits. And that was it, and the rest is history.”
Over 12 years, step-by-step, he was able to organically grow and build a strong, energetic and experienced team of 75. And now, with AECO worldwide HQ office in Singapore: serving all Asian markets and AECO Group’s existing 2,000+ international large commercial and industrial customers, and with the AECO Energy Singapore 2021 launch, AECO can finally bring these benefits to its local market.
Leading a smart, rigorous and trustworthy team
Part of Alan’s playbook are three important corporate values: Smart, Rigorous and Trustworthy.
He points out that these three traits define who they are, how they treat their customers and how they treat one another. There is a reason why it is up there on their office walls. That is why the team always makes sure that they all work intelligently guided with processes that’s been proven and effective while acting with integrity at all times.
“It is important that all of us share the same values and that, we emulate these on the way we work,” shares Alan. Every day, the team is reminded of these corporate values, it is the culture that will build a strong foundation for the company. Alan believes that the ability of his team to align their leadership principles or philosophies with that of the company’s is very important. His leaders including himself must hold their responsibility to “lead by example by upholding these essential corporate values.”