An outfit that fits – finding ways to self-renaissance

About two years ago, I met a friend who was transferred by her company to their office in France. I asked her why she wanted to go. And, she gave me a non- typical answer compared to what I have learned from my fellow Indonesians before (or perhaps I just haven’t talked to enough number of people!). Usually the answer I found was: wanting to learn more, wanting to know what it’s like to work with others with different cultural backgrounds, and wanting to earn more money than what he or she can make here.

This friend of mine, was different. She said, she’s become a big fish in a small pond, her outfit got too snug for her and it made her difficult to move. She wanted to again become a small fish in a big pond, wanted to feel again of what it was like to be afraid coming to office. These feelings she didn’t get anymore. She knew that anything she said or did would not create any criticism anymore, no one would challenge her, even if she was actually talking bullshit.

I was stunned. There she was, a person with enough self-humility to say that she NEEDED to feel afraid again. To me that was such an admirable self-awareness, a refusal to self-complacency, that I do not often find anymore. Many times if someone is already at a certain level – she or he will want to stay there, perhaps out of comfort, perhaps out of a feeling that the unknown is now too risky to explore, or perhaps it is just unthinkable to get out of that outfit.

I ask myself, will I be able to do so when my outfit gets too snug for me?. Not by going off to a place far away – but just to do something that is very challenging, or something that is totally new that it will require a lot of effort for me to ‘be known’ again. My friend did not go to a different industry – she will do what she does well here. But she will do it with a bunch of different people, from a different culture, in a foreign country. To me that required a lot of effort because there is a lot of uncertainty there to face and learn and adjust to.

Talking to her has certainly sparked my spirit to never stop challenging myself. Often we are bound too much to our current lives by our fears and worries, feeling that we would never be able to do something different. While if only we search ourselves hard enough, we actually have learned more than enough to make new steps. And at times, these steps do not have to be huge, little steps will do as long as we do not stop and be lazy to think of the next steps. Little steps, are what making big things evolve.

Well, self-renaissance is a continuous process, or so I believe. And I thank God that in my journey, I have found many intriguing people that have inspired me, and told me indirectly, that stopping is certainly not the way to go. There are more ponds to find, more outfits to try on, so why not – there are always ways to go back to where we were as long as we have enough self-humility to admit mistakes, and enough courage to continue walking.

(R I R I)

Managers, train and promote your employees wisely, it will go back to you!

The issues of training and promotion have always become one of the hot topics, especially in the industry where I work where talents are rare. Training is often treated as ‘on the job’ rather than as a structured activity – with the excuse that understanding market research is not as simple and as client’s problems are various, training becomes more difficult to structure. While promotion is a challenge because in market research, sometimes it is difficult to determine what skills are needed for a certain level, since one role to another sometimes have similar work to do.

That’s why, since day one I started working in this industry, those two issues have always come up in most discussions about human resources. As I moved up the ladder, I have gotten questions around those from my colleagues. I have asked the same question myself and often consulted with either my superiors, or people from HR in the company I worked in. The question around training always revolves around what to give, and how to structure it so that it makes sense to us and the employees and of course at the same time can get them ready for the next level. While the question on promotion is always how can we promote someone according to the skills needed, while at the same time create a differentiation of role between one title to the other.

Amongst the many answers that I have received, one of the best answers was somewhere along the line of: think of your employees as your brand ambassadors. They can either put a bad, or a good name, on you depending on what skills they bring that are supposed to fit that title.

That line of thinking comes from a very simple logic.

However unstructured, training at the end of the day must answer one very simple needs: to enable the person to do the job that he has to do. So, before we even think of training, we must first understand: what is the job. In other words, we have to come up with clear job descriptions. I am sure every person who has read any books on human resources has already known this. But how often have we really adhered to it, or even tried to understand ourselves and make sure that our expectations of that person and the job that he needs to do, fit with the job descriptions?. I am sorry to say that I have seen too many examples where people just don’t do that often enough. Expectations to the person can be too low, or too high, from the actual jobs that he has to do. And hence, training becomes erratic. Or worse, is not done properly.

And this of course affects on how promotion is then done. Without a proper look at job descriptions, promotion can be done haphazardly. Sometimes it is done on reasons that have nothing to do with the jobs, e.g. in order to keep up with the salary increase, to keep up with the years of working, to keep people from leaving, and so many other reasons. While there is nothing wrong with those reasons, but there is a danger in doing so: we forget to look long and hard at what skills have the person equipped with for the next level, does he/she fit enough with the title that requires certain skills to do the job well in that role. And I think we even often forget to ask ourselves if we are the managers: what have I done to equip that person well enough to go up the ladder.

If you notice, that process always comes back to us as managers. Yes, because at the end of the day, it is not just the responsibility of the employee to understand what he has to do, it is also our responsibility as managers to really understand what the job expects the employees to do, and to equip them with skills to do so.

Let’s ponder for a while. Have you ever encountered a situation when you have hired an employee, who has worked in other company, and then wonder after sometime: what has this employee got in the previous company in terms of training?. And sometimes even make you wonder: how on earth did this person get to his previous position in the first place? How is training and promotion done in that company?.

I have faced those situations more than once in the 16 years of my career in market research. And that can mean a good sign – that the employee performed even better than I expected. Or, the other flip of the coin, the employee did not know even the basics of what he/she had to already know given the position. And more often than not, those situations did take me to think of where the employee has come from – what company, and sometimes even, who was his/her boss. Which, if you work in an industry as small as market research, the best bet is, everybody will know who everyone has worked with before, who was the boss.

So is it wrong to say then, that as managers we cannot ignore the fact that we will also be judged based on the people whom we have worked with, and supposed to have been trained by us?. You can say that other people’s judgment in that area does not matter. But, let me tell you. I have often heard stories that a company declines from hiring someone for a managerial position because of the reputation that the person does not train people well. So it does, matter.

Even when you think you do not want to leave the company where you work now, it still matters. Because your employees, ARE your brand ambassadors. If they are good in what they do, as the situations that I have given earlier, people will want to know where they have come from, and who they have worked with. And I did not make it up. There are excellent people in the market research industry, who are known as good managers, whom people would love to work with them, and many companies would love to have those people on board. When you have good brand ambassadors, you will also have no difficulties to get good people. Hiring people will not be so much of a challenge because you have the reputation and people will want to learn from you.

So, just like karma I guess, it does go back to us. How we build our reputation does not only rely on how good we are in getting money into our company. But there is something beyond that. How we are contributing to the development of talents, is also an important part of what we should consider, to have a good name in any industry that we work with.

It may sound idealistic, but in the world that keeps on changing, talent development will become a key issue everywhere. And our ability to prepare employees for the changing world, by giving them the right training and prepare them well for the next level, may one day be one of the key skills that companies will look at when judging a manager. And also will become a factor that employees will consider when they wish to move to a certain company. I know, because I’ve been in those situations.

(R I R I)

God, our only True Friend

“Do you believe in God?”, in his broken English, he asked me.

Bewildered, I answered, “Yes, I do”

“That’s good. Do you pray to your God?”

“Yes, everyday”

“Will you pray for me?. I don’t think God will hear me, I have left Him for too long. But will you pray for me?. I am having difficulties in my life and I don’t know what to do”

“OK, I’ll pray that all your problems will go away”

“Thank you. You are a kind person”

“I’ve gotta go now, you take care”. I patted his shoulder, he looked at me briefly, nodded, and stared somewhere far with a blank stare

In most of my travels with Cip, or when I traveled alone, interesting encounters with people always happened.

That conversation took place on a street bench in Paris, in the Latin Quarter around Sorbonne University. I was waiting for Cip who went to buy our lunch at a small and crowded student café. And this man approached me from across the street, sat right next to me, and suddenly asked me those things. It was 8 years ago.

As we walked off, I watched him from across the street. He looked desolate, alone, desperate. At that time, I prayed only one thing for him: that God will not let him kill himself, and that whatever he was facing, went away quickly.

I still remember that encounter clearly until now. For some reason, that hit me right in the face.

It’s true, isn’t it. When our life is good, as we trod happily along, sometimes we forget how much has been given to us. Sometimes we even attribute our happiness to ourselves. That what we have gained and achieved, is because of our own efforts. We often forget that there are basic things that if they are not there, we will not be able to achieve anything.

You know, things like the air that we breathe. The sun on the face. The rain that gives the earth water so we can live. The landscape on which we step on. The body that we use to do many things. Nobody could have invented those. Not even Einstein. But there are times when we feel so great about ourselves that we forget about these things. Forget about where we came from, and where we are heading. Our final destination.

But what happens when we are down and low?. Many times, only then we remember that there is a greater being who MAY have answers for us, because nobody does. We search for It like a headless chicken. Frantic. Praying. Hoping. Wishing.

I don’t know what that man was facing. It was a very short conversation. But whatever it was, it had made him remembered what he has forgotten. It had made him felt the need to go back to the road where he came from. But was too ashamed to go back, too afraid of being rejected.

I really pitied that man. Not because he has left his way to God, but because of how lonely he must have felt at that time. So lonely that he could see a stranger as a beacon, though temporary, to the path where he should have gone himself.

And that struck me, at the end of the day, God is actually our truest friend.

When we are at our lowest point in life, how many times do we experience, or we know others have experienced, that we do not have many friends to rely on. That there is a saying, I think. That you will know who your true friends are when you are at the lowest point in life, because that is when we are alone, truly, alone.

Human nature is cruel. But when I met that man, I realized one thing. It has to be cruel. Otherwise we never realize that hanging on to one truth, is all it takes to make this life bearable and nicer. I have met people who have faced so many challenges in their lives, and yet they never despair. And their answer tends to be the same. “Why despair, God has made life full of highs and lows. So someday, I will be at my high”. “I know there will be help along the way. I know God will never leave me alone”.

So, are we going to leave our Truest friend especially at our high points in life?. I hope none of us does that. Because we never know when we will need God, at what point in this life will we need to hang on to that one hope. And we all need a friend, a good friend, who will listen unconditionally. And only God can be that ‘person’.

(R I R I)

Balancing hard and soft measures, managing the future of a business

One of the biggest learning that I’ve got from the last organization where I worked with, is how to treat employees with a heart. It sounds lame, and cliché. But until now I still thank that organization (which unfortunately has been banished from the face of the earth under the name of merger), for being a good model for me to learn how to manage people.

It truly was an organization that put its people at the forefront. I still remember the interview I had before becoming the General Manager (yup, though it could have been an internal promotion, but they treated it very carefully, still). The last question, and apparently was the determining question that convinced them to promote me, was: what motivates you to take this job?. My answer was: I owe it to my colleagues to make it work, I believe in them, and I believe that we can continue the journey and even make it better.

I knew a year after that it was that answer that got them convinced. That I would act and behave with the interest of the people at heart. That while business achievement was important, all the hard measures of revenue and all, but without attention to the employees, we would achieve nothing. And for me that question lingers till now - it sticks to my mind.

Years after that interview, they taught me more about how to fulfill that expectation. How to balance business and people decisions. Because like it or not, we are in the industry that is so people heavy. We do not have products to sell. We have people’s skills to develop so it can deliver the best research solutions that clients can get. So in many ways, people should be put at the fore front of our thinking about our business. I know that it is true in many businesses. But in service industries, I think that becomes even more critical.


That is why it always saddens me to see organizations which fail to realize that attention to its people, is as important as attention to business measures. Yes it is hard to measure achievement with people, or what we used to call the soft measures, but it doesn’t mean it’s not measurable. Soft measures, I believe, determine the hard measures or how strong the hard measures can be maintained. Without the soft measures, often times hard measures like revenue and profit, are just fake numbers. Numbers that can lure us to believe that we are successful, but actually have no foundation to keep it growing and becoming stronger.

Sadly, there are people who believe that hard measures can take care of everything. That when money’s at hand, everything else will be fine. Hmmmm…maybe they just don’t understand the saying that money doesn’t buy happiness. And in the case of the working world, it often is very true.

Sometimes the euphoria of achieving financial targets can cover other things which make employees still unhappy about conditions at the workplace. Unfortunately, this kind of euphoria often resides with those who are responsible to manage the business, and who actually are very responsible to take care of the people. It covers up the necessity to look at things with a helicopter’s view, and these managers become myopic and limited in evaluating the actual result of the company. Soft measures are no longer important, and put under the rug. And at the end of the day, forgotten, believing that ‘we are doing just fine’.

And in this current world where options are almost unlimited, I think business managers should even become more careful in NOT to limit themselves to only look at the hard measures. Because what happens when people are unhappy? They leave. And often times, the reasons for leaving an organization is not so much about money.

I have encountered many instances where the reason is most often revolve around how the organization manages its human resources – be it on training and development, day to day work management, conflict management and other issues. Many elements that should actually be included in the soft measures of what a company should achieve, year in, year out. I can safely say that if we are talking about white collar workers, only 1 out of 5 reasons will be about money, the hard measure so highly regarded by many business managers.


In my believe, both hard and soft measures are equally important. Because it is like a cycle: when we are taking care of the people who do the work for the company, then we are taking care of the future of the business because the wheels that need to be moved, will be moved by the right people getting the right treatment. And that will be shown in the hard measures, year in, year out.

And in a service company, this should be strengthened a lot more. Because it relies a lot on how people deliver the high quality service that it needs to deliver in order to achieve the hard measures. And people will deliver high quality work if they feel that they are equipped and rewarded well. And in ‘reward’, we should also look at the ‘softer’ ones.

A pat on the back, sometimes, is what people need to feel that their contribution is acknowledged. The right training, is continuously needed to make them feel that they are ready to face the growing challenges. The right attitude from their managers, is often crucial in making sure that employees feel comfortable in doing their work, and that they are getting the right support that they need. Especially when competition is growing which often times also means hard measures are also getting tougher to get.


The question is, are we ready to balance the two. Of course, it is always easier to keep up with the financial targets. But that often creates a feeling that people need to work more. And if we are asking them to do so, then in actual fact, we need to be ready to provide them with a reason: what’s in it FOR ME if I have to work and achieve more? What can the organization provide?. And if we are relying only on the hard measures, it will become tougher to manage because a company’s financial resources are also limited. And sometimes giving more is not enough when work pressure is increased. This is where I always believe the softer stuff can be done.

We need to audit ourselves and see if our managers, who are in daily contact with the workers, are equipped well to give the kind of reward and appreciation that people need as they face the day to day work pressure. We need to be convinced that these managers are ready to provide the right support. And that, is the responsibility of a handful of people who should be managing the business with the short and long term business vision in their hands.


We need to realize that often times it is the company who needs its people. Yes people need jobs, but there are many options that they can take. And if an industry is known for resource scarcity, arrogance from the side of the company is just going to kill its future. And a manager’s over confidence of the strength of its resources is also going to back fire. Because it leads to one thing: complacency, that everything LOOKS fine, while the fact may not be that rosy.

What we need to do now is to continuously be alert of both: the growing competition which may mean difficulty in achieving the financial results, as well as the options that employees have in hands when it comes to getting satisfaction from in and out of the organization. Because a balance look at these, will help us determining what we should do to make sure that we can achieve the financial target without sacrificing the employees’ happiness and work satisfaction.

I believe that only then, the future of the business can be secured. Because at the end of the day we are still dealing with human beings who have a heart and mind. Until, maybe, there comes a technology which companies can use to control people’s mind and soul. But I for one is praying for that to never happen.


(R I R I)

Mall = entertainment + education place now?. Think again…

One of the side effects of working in a mall, is that you get distracted. I am not talking about brands having their sale, I am talking about the people and their activities.

I was sitting at a café at a mall where Kidzania is located. And I saw so many schools were doing their ‘tours’ to that place. It was fun to see the kids’ excitement and noise as they came down the escalator, bringing with them the half-day’s experience in Kidzania that I am sure is exciting to any kids (or even parents). But then, something tickled me.

Here we are. Living in a big city that can really drive you nuts. And when we are already driven to the wall, we need a place to run. To entertain ourselves. To soothe our bruised souls. And the easiest, most of the time (if not ALL the time), we go to the malls.

Every weekend, I am sure many families come flocking to so many malls in Jakarta. Sometimes, me included. We do not seem to be able to avoid it, do we?. It seems that every mall has a very strong magnet, pulling us with all its force, luring us to walk into its doors. Though sometimes, we know that we will find the same old stuff that we find in any other mall. Cip used to describe these malls as ‘soul-less arrogant buildings’. Because even when soul-less, people still coming no matter what, so they have a reason to be arrogant.

What we do not realize, I think, is that these malls have taken away a lot of other interests. Museums, art centers, zoo ( I know Ragunan zoo is seen as a ‘too low-end entertainment place’ by some people. Geez…get real!. Have you ever asked if your kids care about things that you think are important for you?!), even the not many parks that we have. But worse, I think malls have taken away the power to imagine, explore, and find un-standard experiences.

When I saw those kids going home from Kidzania, I could not help but thought, how many days in their lives are they NOT in a mall?. And I always think schools, is actually a way for kids to experience a totally different experience compared to when they are with their parents, or when at home.

I remember the days when we went to museums, Monas, Taman Mini, on school tours. We were happy with those. I still kept many of those memories in my head till now. So when I saw those kids, I couldn’t help thinking do they still experience that?.

Maybe, since kids nowadays are entertained by so many things, schools also feel that they have to compete with those. Maybe, if not Kidzania, kids will lose interest. But hey, they are kids!. What’s in their minds can still be shaped. And us adults who need to ‘sell’ ideas to them.

I know what Kidzania has to offer: an experience of different ‘jobs’. I have no objection to it. But to see that SCHOOLS think it’s a good place to take kids to for ‘education’…my oh my, I really have to disagree. Their PARENTS can take their kids to Kidzania, while they are shopping. But shouldn’t school provide something that is more rooted in real life?.

Why not arranging a visit to a real factory?, real fire fighter’s office and car?, real police quarters?. I am sure there are ways to arrange that. Cip once talked to a fire fighter in Mampang just to ask if we are allowed to visit and see the car so Tara can see the real thing. And that guy said he was more than happy to show us around (we just have to make it happen amidst Cip’s crazy schedule!). And I’m sure these institutions will love to have schools visiting them – they will feel appreciated, and noted.

Oh well. Call me a cynic. But I am more and more concerned looking at the lives of these city kids. They are deprived of so many ‘real life’ things – from seeing real cows to farmers at work. Do we want to deprive them even more by having them experience a life in a ‘fake city’, in an un-imaginative place called a mall?!. Entertainment, fine. But part of school activity?. Parents, I think we need to be more critical.

(R I R I)