Cover Story: Dinesh Ratnam shares his view on AI in media and Malaysia’s creative potential

Your career trajectory reads like a masterclass in strategic pivots—from investment banking to streaming platforms to music. What drives this exceptional appetite to build?

Dinesh Ratnam (DR): I don’t see my career as a series of pivots, but as interconnected chapters where each builds foundationally on the next. Every phase has taught me different things that compound together, leading me to where I am today. I’ve been fortunate to have diverse experiences across cities, companies and industries, but this has also been intentional—I’ve deliberately collected these varied experiences and learnings.

Each chapter enriches the next. There’s a particular Steve Jobs quote that resonates with me: ‘you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.’ I’ve been optimising for collecting experiences, and looking back, you realise how it all comes together beautifully. Every aspect of my career—banking, venture building, media—has taught me different things that are ultimately useful in what I’m doing now.

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How have your many experiences taught you to build sustainable media ventures in a market where trends can shift overnight?

DR: My varied experience helps: investment banking taught precision and risk modelling; venture building taught operating at speed with imperfect information—the counterbalance to banking’s perfectionism; media taught listening to audiences and using emotions strategically. All these skills are valuable for building sustainable media businesses.

You’ve previously mentioned learning from seasoned entrepreneurs about bold vision, perseverance and more. In an industry as relationship-driven as entertainment, how important is it for Malaysian business leaders to think beyond traditional networking?

DR: I see entrepreneurship as a mindset, not just starting a business—you can be entrepreneurial within existing organisations. I’ve worked with entrepreneurial leaders at JPMorgan and with regional business builders, learning about dreaming big and persevering through failure.

Traditional networking focuses on quantity—how many people you know, events attended, visibility. It’s breadth over depth, maximising access to as many people as possible. True relationship building is different. It’s about fostering deep connections with people who share your values. This takes time and goes deeper rather than broader, to find common threads with those who share your beliefs.

To do this effectively, you must first know your own values and what you stand for—authenticity is crucial. Once you understand your values, you can easily identify others who share them, creating meaningful, long-lasting relationships that aren’t just transactional.

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The streaming wars have intensified, music consumption has shifted dramatically and AI is reshaping content creation. Which of these trends do you believe presents the greatest opportunity for Malaysian talent and businesses?

DR: These trends have shaped the last decade—how content is consumed, distributed and the variety available. Today, content is global in that hits can emerge from anywhere. People expect on-demand access anytime, anywhere, on any device and not just weekly episodes. This was unfathomable just ten years ago.

The next decade will be shaped by AI, which will disrupt content creation itself by removing barriers and leveling the playing field for creators. This is exciting for Malaysia—creators can now potentially achieve global scale without global budgets and pursue punching above their weight.

Historically, ‘world-class content’ required Hollywood-sized budgets. AI tools now enable world-class creation without massive investment, shifting focus to storytelling—something Malaysians excel at. The next global hit could come from a bedroom in Penang, with AI as the enabler and a creative Malaysian as the driving force behind it.

You’ve seen how different industries approach risk and innovation. What’s the biggest misconception Malaysian entrepreneurs have about scaling creative businesses?

DR: I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that creative businesses can’t operate with discipline. People think creativity and discipline are polar opposites—that structure destroys the creative soul. Actually, the world’s most creative companies are highly disciplined and rigorous in their approach. They know their margins, engagement metrics, maintain strict budgets and relentlessly iterate processes to optimise while keeping operations tight.

Malaysian entrepreneurs need to recognise this balance. Creativity without discipline is chaos and discipline without creativity is empty and unimpactful. The magic lies in managing that tension well to create sustainable creative businesses that can go the distance.

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Having worked across different media verticals, what unique advantages does Malaysia offer as a launchpad for entertainment and media ventures targeting Southeast Asia?

DR: I’m bullish on Malaysia—it’s a complex but fascinating market. The exciting part is its complexity: racially diverse, culturally diverse, a unique east-meets-west blend. We hold strong values while being open and global, and we’re multilingual.

This fragmentation presents two unique opportunities. First, Malaysia becomes a unique test bed for experimentation because Malaysians are open to and represent different cultures. You can cater to each market segment—something impossible in more homogeneous countries. Malaysia is also small enough to experiment in but big enough to create impact when experiments succeed.

Second, if you create a product or content that resonates across these different fragments, you’ve already beta-tested that idea, giving it higher chances of regional scaling success. This uniqueness of being able to experiment across diverse segments and prove cross-cultural appeal makes Malaysia truly special for business and content creation.

What is it about Malaysia’s ecosystem, culture or market dynamics that not only supports innovation but gives you a competitive edge? And what would you tell policymakers about the one change that could unlock Malaysia’s potential as a true innovation powerhouse? 

DR: It’s the Malaysian mindset and mentality. Everyone here is entrepreneurial. My ex-boss Patrick Grove always spoke about the ‘Boleh’ [can do] mindset. This transcends all Malaysians, where we feel anything is possible. We’re multilingual, true to our roots, yet flexible. We know when to hold strong in uncertainty while remaining open to new ideas.

Being a smaller regional market, we operate with constraints, building resilience, hardiness and scrappiness to push forward when things get tough. This unique Malaysian mindset helps us stand out.

Policy-wise, we could afford to be bolder in rewarding courage and risk-taking rather than penalising it. To make Malaysia a great innovation hub and cultural export centre, we need policies that reward risk-taking, because great innovation always involves some measure of risk.

If we stay within boundaries, we’ll stay constrained. Removing constraints allows us to dream bigger, take bolder risks and create regional or even global impact. Creative industry initiatives come with risks, so policies shouldn’t penalise but encourage risk-taking. Frameworks should be in place to manage this, but policymakers should be leading with courage, not just compliance.

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