Tuesday, January 24, 2017 in , ,

Incorporating a Process Oriented Journey

Well, this is weird for some people. Usually, we hear more about RESULT oriented approach rather than PROCESS oriented approach.

I believe that most successful people tend to be a result-oriented leader. Being result-oriented gives them a higher chance to think out of the box, sometimes completely abandoning the current set of bureaucracy and invent new creative ways of doing things. I'm not saying that one set is better than the other set anyway, but I believe that in order for something to work in harmony, you need both of result-oriented people and process-oriented people together.

There is a stigma that hiring a result-oriented people will benefit the most, as they will try their utmost to deliver any results that at least match your target setting. In my opinion, reaching a balance is the best scenario that will deliver the best outcome in the long run. Why? Process-oriented people are those who are contributing more to organizational learning. They possess a better focus on the journey, experience and give more thought on the relationship in general. As a leader, they know the benefits of nurturing people from scratch. Process-oriented people tend to have more patience and more resilience in tribulation days. They tend to have a good foundation and understanding the "why" should we do things specifically. It's not like they don't care about the results at all, but in their mind, a good process is more likely to produce a good result.

If we can balance out the behavior, those who are result oriented will quickly pave the way for company growth, as those process-oriented will make sure that a solid road will be made, ensuring the company to be able to pass the journey comfortably, and might improve it to minimize the risk of stumbling, correcting any mistakes along the way, thus allow the leaders to focus on what's ahead, and keep walking in full speed. The road that was left also makes sure that the whole group at the back can learn quickly and follow those at the front, allowing them to surpass and lead the way in the future.

It will be great if we can have both of that trait in our approach. I believe reaching equilibrium will benefit us more, as Aristotle said: "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

The analogy will be like, if I know that we both will go for the same spot at the top of the mountain, I would prefer to enjoy the sight of every step I took, record every grand scenery that I passed, to savor each cold wind that blown me down and that will allow me to tell a meaningful story to my descendants, inspire them to look for their own story ahead.


I know that many will say that in this world, the top spot is often first come first serve only, but I believe our Creator allows us to grow slowly from a baby into a man for a good reason. Skipping grades at school might give you lots of benefits in terms of time but you also lose lots of memories along the way. Focusing on a goal is important, but you don't want to sacrifice more than what you get at the end of the road, do you? (CBA).

Friday, April 29, 2016 in ,

An Employee Turning Point

Got tired of your job?
Not really an enthusiast of anything in your job?
Fed up with your employer?
Afraid to resign because of no alternative job offer?
Fear that you might not up to par with other company's requirements?
Extremely happy when Friday and very Anxious on Sunday night that you have to go to work on Monday?
Can't see any positive points from what you are doing right now?

You are now in an employee turning point. Decide on which way you would choose.

In the workplace, there always be some employees who are in an employee turning point. How do you know those? It's easy. Not performing, lousy, no energy, lots of negative questions without any actions, more and more complaints and it means, no productivity at all.

It does not depend on how long you've been there, even 30 days old employee could be experienced that, depend on many factors. You are in an employee turning point and read this, of course, most of you will say that it's the company's responsibility to make you feel that way, and when I say the company's, it could be the supervisors, the peer, the owner, the way they operate, their SOP, their work structure, their organizations, etc. etc. it will never end, and I understand your point of view. Period. There are two ways for you to decide on:
#1 Geared up, make your way through up to the top, and change anything you don't like
#2 Quit. Receiving salary while not doing anything not just mean to harm the company, but yourself too

Why do you have to choose? Obviously, because you're way too important to just sitting while doing nothing at your precious time. Imagine all the achievements that you could have if you are willing to try doing something meaningful. It might not happen in an instant, but surely time will come for those who work smart (I don't really like to work hard anyway) and know how to invest in itself.

Look and analyze for your own strengths and weaknesses, that might provide you with the reason why you are stuck in that place, and what should be done immediately to address your anxiety. Sometimes, bold decisions can prove to be salvation. Never hope to change anybody or even the world when you can't change yourself to be a better person. It's not like you are bad, but some positive change that will provide you a new way of thinking wouldn't hurt you, is it?

Every people has their own purpose, I do have mine, and you have yours. What is it? I don't know, you must find the answer by yourself. Why? Because nobody knows you better than you and The Creator Himself. Fact? Sometimes in your life, there must be a time when you said in yourself, "He/She does not understand me at all!". Of course, we are uniquely created without any back-up copy at all. What do you expect?

Don't afraid of failure when you try to do things differently. I know that most of society will judge you based on your results. But hey, enjoying the process can deliver you to somewhere nice when you expect the least, you know? You might find something far more important than you are having right now, who knows? If you have the luxury of the right partnership, that would even better, listening to the right people would provide the right insight, and the right insight would often open up a new road to explore, even better if it could be done together.

Believe it, there is at least one open door when one door is closed for you, just take your time and find that slowly, believe me, the time you spent seriously will not turn to dust. If you keep positive, no hardship will pin you down, you will not be allowed to be tempted beyond what you are able. For every hardship there always a better path opened just for you. You will see the value of it at some point in your life, just be positive and ACT. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. (CBA)

Thursday, April 21, 2016 in ,

Tempus Neminem Manet

Time waits for no one.

Usually, the community will refer a golden age for productive people is between 28 to 32 years old. If that's true, then I will be there in a few months. The question is, do we already perform at our peak performance right now? Or we are currently wasting our time here and now.

From a personal standpoint of view, we might be nowhere near our full performance right now, either due to some sour mistook decisions, bad environment, missing goals, etc. and some of us might already get tired of these unimproved conditions. So what to do?

Like the Latin quote says, time waits for no one. We are the ones who decide how we lost each of our moments every day. Even while we decide to do nothing at all. It might have useful to look back and see what have we done before and reflect on any evaluation points that we can admit to ourselves, but don't you think, to decide on what would you do tomorrow should come first after all?

We can use all the excuses we could find for our laziness or lack of interest to do something meaningful and stay in our so-called comfort zone, but at the end of the day, for whom do we live? Even for those who are alone without any close relatives or friends, you still have yourselves right? Or at least, as a great creation that created by our Great Creator, would we want to make Him proud?

From what I see in a human being, those who are in a pinch can do anything to overcome any disadvantage and break free from any wall, like when you containing water in plastic and squeeze it to the maximum pressure, by the law of physics, water will break through the plastics no matter how strong it is. Well, human beings mostly composed of water, is it? At least we can have some of that trait incorporated into our lives, do we?

If we find that our work is too unproductive, too boring to do, and we are not producing anything good out of it, why don't we just take a look after it once again and ask, what should we do to change this condition? It's nothing to lose as we never like that condition anyway.

No, I'm not pushing anyone here to be an entrepreneur. Those who are lack of resilience will get crushed in the stream anyway. No need to take that extreme road if you know that you can't turn back 180 degrees, sometimes a small change can deliver you to a completely different scenery rather than spending too much effort in a large one. Believe me, even if we just wake up 1 hour earlier, that can do a great favor for our future, or in an extreme way, even your MISTAKES can make you rich! Just ask Percy Spencer's bad experience that turned out to be the first microwave oven or Spencer Silver on how he made Post-It notes when he initially plans to make a stronger adhesive but mistakenly creates a weaker adhesive instead. We never know where God carries us anyway. Just do our best and when the chance comes in, you'll know what to do.

Everything starts as nothing. Some successful business starts out from a small work, In 1901, 21-year-old William S. Harley drew up plans to create a small engine just to power his bicycle in a small wooden shed anyway, no "big dream" there.
One small positive change in your life can do wonder. If you think one is not enough, find another small one to change, too much change at a time can do a disaster though, so small & positive one is always welcomed. Small is big (some say). Remember, Time waits for no one. Start now & be happier at life! (CBA)

Tuesday, April 19, 2016 in ,

Loyalty for Company or Just Ignorant Stupidity?

Mr. A, 37 years old, worked for XYZ enterprise for 15 years, being a manager for 10 years. If we see that profile, surely in nowadays work environment, a Talent Management/Human Resource Management can consider that a great loyalty. Really?

Recently, I've been wondering, what is loyalty? How you define a loyalty?

Some says, loyalty is devotion and faithfulness to a cause, country, group, or person. In this case, a company / enterprise. Then, what is a devotion? Merriam-Webster define devotion as "the use of time, money, energy, etc., for a particular purpose", and faithfulness will defined as "steadfast in affection or allegiance (loyalty)".

When we see someone worked for a longest time ever for a company, it doesn't automatically translate into a loyalty. That's what've been bugging me for long time. Well, we often see that a company give rewards for those with great loyalty towards them based on the employee's service period, and it's interesting to see why do they decide on that.

If a devotion is translated into using their time, money, energy, etc., do working 15 years in a company can be automatically considered into using their time? I don't think so. Some of those who are categorized as a loyal employee jsut being there because they don't know where to go, or too engulfed with their comfort zone, with no one disturbing their inner peace. Have you notice that? No creativity, no challenge, no risk taking, no exploration, and no more passion to achieve something higher. Just working for annual targets, with the same approach, with the same routinity, and with the same excuse when things are going wrong.

In my opinion, loyalty can't be evaluate based on service period only. Surely that is some basis for that, but long service period only not enough to prove a loyalty. When you stop challenging a new limit for the company, then you lost your loyalty to the company, along with your faith for yourself that you can do much better and elevate to the next level.

Being a manager for 10 years or more doesn't sound any good for me. Unless your portfolio increase and varied to some extent, I can say that you are stagnated. How can someone achieve a different achievement when all one's do is "business as usual"?

Even someone who only work for a year, can be considered to have a great loyalty if one's do really dedicated all of one's might, resource, and intellectual to do something meaningful to the company, as the company reward him well, the loyalty can turned into a great asset definitely.

Of course, you can argue that loyalty should be tested over time, like a good sword has to be tempered a lot to be strong enough. I agree, the point I'm making here is, don't consider a sword that have been tempered half-baked for a long time in a same category with other that have been tempered with all perfection in slightly shorter time. Even a mass produced knife would perform better than the former one.

It might unjust to observe a loyalty just from an employee side, we must not forget that a loyalty is created by employers, not something that you take for granted. If employer took a good care for their employees, they will reap the benefits of loyalty. I know that some might try to take advantage over that and switch over to competitor for another small payrise, but if you able to plant a loyalty seed in the right employee, why should you worried over those small fry?

Nevertheless, loyalty is something that is getting harder and harder to find in this gen-x and soon to be in optimum productivity ~ millenial generation. As a gen-x, I too faced with lots of peer pressure when it comes to loyalty. Those millenials are even more likely to job-hop than our gen-x generations. It surely will become a great challenge for any companies in the next 5 years on how to retain your best employees. That's where a loyalty factor become super important, for company and employees altogether.

Can you find your company's loyalty factor? (CBA)

Monday, April 11, 2016 in ,

Startup Party: Missing Link

Indonesia, an emerging startup pool in Asia. There have been lots of startups popping out of nowhere in the last 5 years. That means venture capitals begin to see the potential in Indonesia's emerging market. One thing in the majority, mobile apps.

It surely is an attractive market, digital marketing research agency, Emarketer predicts that Indonesia will be the fourth biggest smartphone user in the world after China, India, and America. Even if I would open my own startup it surely is a mobile app. Sure, Indonesia with approximately a quarter-million people would have many great apps developers, and the market was too great to be missed out. There even someone said that "Anything you sell in Indonesia, even if it's the most stupid thing to sell, sold." It's always great to see how they got an early success, and how they splendidly secure those big shot investments for these past years. Let me cut the chase. More startups mean more investment flow which is good. As long as those startups capable to survive.

The hard truth, according to Statistic Brain, only 37% of startups survive their third year.


There are many reasons why those "great" opportunities failed to make an impact and just wither in time. If you asked those veteran startup owners, they often said 2 reasons to base, for not be able to penetrate the market and not getting enough funds to survive.

Let's observe the first reason, "not be able to penetrate the market", or the other words, "they make the product no one wants" is usually a phare used by those so-called "experts", startup analysts, or in my phrase, commentators. I personally always believe that no creation comes without imaginations. "If you can see it, you can have it" thing comes from imaginations, and imaginations are a subtle form of human needs. Basically human is an egocentric being, as human will never think of something that we never need in general. When you are hungry, you will start to imagine all sorts of delicious things to eat, right?

Sometimes, the problem did not lie within the product or the needs. When bottled water first introduced in Indonesia, many people also said: "they make the product no one wants". Lots of things said, like "We are the largest archipelago on earth, waters everywhere, why should we buy bottled water?". Most of the problem comes to not enough marketing effort to create the needs within the market. This is also encompassing what the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs famously said, "A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."

Usually, startup companies are founded by a tech-geek, a great inventor, really know how to create a magnificent UX (User eXperience), and all that you need to make a great product. Sometimes they also do a market research and product concept test to strengthen the product. Well, it's all about the product. They do a customer-centric approach just to end up in a product-centric development.

If you got a great opportunity to found an obvious unmet needs of the market like Go-Jek, then half of the job is automatically done. But please, realize that most startups, start from latent needs and need extra efforts to develop the market. That's where your small-sized capital should be used efficiently to make sure the business stays alive, even for minimum break-even point.

Did anyone aware of the needs of a digital video recorder? Tablet smartphone? Self-driving cars? Google glass, like 15 years ago? When people just caught up in the hype of PDA in the early 2000s, did most of the market think that they need an eCommerce mobile apps?

Even in the early 2010s, mobile apps discoverability is still being the greatest challenge for the developers. Low organic downloads due to the belief of 'the product no one wants' was killing lots of startup companies. The solution? Invest in a mobile marketing campaign.

Yes. The solution seems simple, MARKETING effort. Unfortunately, lots of startup founders read marketing as SALES. If we cite, The American Marketing Association defines marketing as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. I can see that sales (exchanging offerings) is the last mentioned thing in the definition. Sales are the thing that keeps you living, but in order to achieve the sales, you need to pave your way first, and that's what most startup fails to realize.

Through proper marketing, you will know how to properly improve your product without an expensive market research project, you will know where and who to target your resources on, or even an investment you need the most. It's a lifeline that being forgotten, which even some big companies failed to realize this, and keep insisting to read marketing as sales.

Want to make a difference? (CBA)

Thursday, April 7, 2016 in ,

The Stupid Lesson of Reinventing the Wheel

In most cases, everyone will tell you, "Don't reinvent the wheel!" to avoid pointless effort on doing something from scratch. It might be true for most cases, but not always.

Sometimes, no, usually, people tend to fall into a routine, doing the same thing over and over in a play called standard operating procedures. Great SOP, of course. Inline with ISO standardizations, acknowledged as a Key Success Indicators for your business and it feels stupid to "Reinvent the Wheel", right?

Some of you might already guess what I want to talk about. I think most of you will be smarter than me actually. But no, I won't talk about innovation, enhancing creativity, think outside the box or something like that. What I want to point is something simpler than that, which some of you might think it's not worth to think about.

For me, sometimes organizations, even individuals need to reinvent the wheel once in a certain amount of time. When you have been using the perfect wheel over and over and over and forever,  there is a huge risk of forgetting why it has to be done in the first place. Example.

"Good morning, thank you for calling Halo XYZ, this is Carter speaking, may I help you?"

That is an example of a standardize phone call answering line. It has been taught to all of XYZ's customer service team and call center team. It is good, polite and clear, and everyone likes it, so why should we reinvent the wheel?

This line is spoken for thousands of time for a month, nothing goes wrong, except one. Some of the call center attendants begin to think of this as a routine, they lost the essence of the line. Which is to exercise empathy towards the customer, and an eagerness to make the customer feel better from their service. They forgot to smile when receiving calls, they only focused on their target, how many calls do they have to answer, how much sales they have to make, etc.

If that happens, please, reinvent the wheel for them. Reinvent the reason why we need the wheel? What is the purpose of the wheel? How a wheel should be? Why there are certain parts inside the wheel? Is this wheel is still contextually relevant with today's requirements?

When we practice certain things over and over, we tend to act ignorant about that particular thing. We forgot to ask why should I do this, and start doing an "auto-pilot" just because it should have been done in the first place. For me, doing something without a cause is worse than not doing anything. I can compare a business that doing something without a cause with someone who doesn't know why he/she has been born all this time. Pointless. From what I've learned and experienced, this applies to everything that we do, in every aspect of our life, business, and relationships.

Don't feel stupid with reinventing the wheel when it has to be done, being ignorant is the true stupidity in one's life. Keep asking, what is the purpose of doing certain things before start doing that. If we proved to be smart enough, we might find one or more ways to innovate on how it should be done in regards to efficiency, effectivity, or even just for creativity's sake.

This might be small parts, but small things like this can make us face a wall that can't be jumped, stagnant in the peak with nowhere else to aim, or even worse, trigger a snowball effect that crushes us down unconsciously. Back to basic, reinvent the wheel when it has to be done, shall we? (CBA)

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 in

Laziness Over Work

Have you ever been sitting the whole day at your working desk, staring at your computer, doing nothing and hoping that you won't receive anything to do?

Tired of working, no motivations, no vision, but entrapped to a phrase, "those unwilling to work will not get to eat" thing. Spending day by day achieving nothing, do not know any directions to move, and yet refusing to resign from work.

I will not ask whether you are like that or not, but I know some who are like that and suffers from that.

Usually, people will judge that this occurrence is based on your laziness, but I want to try to see from another viewpoint, why are you so unmotivated? For the sake of this thought, let's exclude those who are born lazy.

Needless to say, those who are unmotivated (I prefer to use this word over 'lazy') are underperformed, underachieving, and dragging down the others. What's more? They will get the same monthly salary as those who work diligently (at least until the next pay rise). It's easy to condemn that kind of people, do we?

If a corporate want to try to understand how did this happen, it might prevent these kinds of things to happen. So, why did this happen? In my experience and viewpoint, there are three reasons why employees are unmotivated:

#1 - No Goals
To be honest, corporations, businesses, either small or big ventures, some of them (actually many of them in my opinion) fails to define a goal for their actions or fail to communicate their goals. I know that everyone wants to make a profit in their business, but is that all for it? If a business owner really thinks like that, then he/she certainly has forgotten that those employees have their own life too. Obviously, the majority of human being wants to accomplish something big, something meaningful in their life, and mostly is not related to how much money you make or earn.

#2 - No Care
Those who lead without looking back at their followers bound to have no followers at all. Some of your employees want to take care of, they want to be seen, to be involved, or at least to be asked, "how are you today? anything I could help with?." Just imagine when you have a relationship with someone, and you've been totally ignored, or worse only getting yelled at the things you failed to do, but no praise on what you achieve (no matter how small it is). Pathetic isn't it?

#3 - No Life  
Good service, 24/7, will be great news for your customers or business leaders, but not for your employees. They need to see the world, they need to see what others doing, they need to see that there is more to life than only work. They have their families, obviously, matter more than the job or even the salary. It's the spirit of life that keeps them motivated. Believe me, if your employees have more time to play with their child, they are more than willing to work smarter and do father than anyone else for your business. You don't even need to ask about their loyalty.

We don't need to talk about mentoring, people development, and other complex concepts of management to improve their motivation and work quality. People tend to overlook small and simple things just to overcomplicate the problems.

If you are those who fall into the unmotivated category if you are experiencing this moment for more than 1 year and never try anything to improve the conditions. Please. Do a good deed to move on. It will help you and the company altogether. You might be suited to be an entrepreneur? Maybe there's another door that more suited for you? Sometimes taking a break from doing any job for months could be salvation. Maybe it's time to sort out life priorities and get a breather. Nothing wrong to rearrange one's life rather than hitting a wall over and over again forever.

Why? It's an antithesis, but in my experiences, changing an organization altogether is lots more easier than changing a person. And you know, being different is not always a sin. Just my personal opinion though. (CBA)

Tuesday, April 5, 2016 in ,

Are You a Big Picture or Detail Oriented?

Boss : "Apa yang akan Anda lakukan terkait masalah penjualan kita?"
A      : "Saya akan melakukan kegiatan aktivasi dan branding Pak agar angka penjualan bisa ditingkatkan lagi"
B      : "Saya sore ini akan melakukan mass promotion di kompleks perumahan XYZ dan DEF Pak, dimulai dari jam 4 sore, selain itu pada tanggal O bulan P kita akan mengadakan exhibition promo di Mall JKL."


~~~

Dari percakapan diatas, manakah yang menurut Anda lebih baik? Si Big Picture Thinker (A) atau si Detail Oriented (B)? Setiap dari kita pasti mudah memerankan salah satu dari aktor diatas sesuai dengan kepribadian kita masing-masing.

Big Picture Thinker umumnya adalah orang yang kreatif, berpikir strategis dan visioner, sedangkan counterpart-nya lebih teliti, terencana dan banyak maunya. Oke, lalu kenapa kita harus membahas hal ini? We already know this, so why these things matters?

Kebanyakan orang memang sudah mengetahui, di sisi mana mereka akan berdiri, sebagian kecil orang yang beruntung, memiliki kemampuan untuk berdiri di tengah garis pembatas keduanya, hal ini secara alami sudah menjadi bagian dari kepribadian Anda sejak lahir. Namun ketika kita semakin maju dalam pekerjaan dan karir, kita dituntut untuk bisa mengerti musuh alami kita dan berteman dengannya, either menumbuhkan kemampuan itu dalam diri kita atau jika beruntung kita bisa menemukan partner yang bisa melengkapi kita.

Melengkapi? Memangnya masalahnya apa sampai harus dilengkapi? I'm fine with being me!Well, it's quite stubborn of you, isn't it? Bisa dikatakan tidak ada yang salah dengan kedua pribadi tersebut, masing-masing punya kelebihannya sendiri, tapi jika kedua kelebihan tersebut bisa digabungkan, what a force it is.

Seorang pembuat kue yang memiliki kepribadian Big Picture yang kuat mungkin bisa membuat sebuah kue yang lezat karena mengerti kompleksitas rasa yang diinginkan oleh semua konsumennya, namun kue yang lezat bisa menjadi kue yang luar biasa jika ada si Detail Oriented yang memikirkan bagaimana kue tersebut bisa dihias dan dipercantik agar calon pembeli semakin tertarik untuk membeli kue tersebut.

The thing is, kita harus menerima bahwa ada orang-orang di luar sana yang menggunakan pendekatan dan sudut pandang yang berbeda dengan kita, dan hal tersebut bukanlah suatu kesalahan. Dalam buku Start with Why Karangan Simon Sinek, saya mengadaptasikan Big Picture sebagai why personality dan Detail Oriented sebagai how personality (this is not necessarily a direct comparison). Orang-orang Big Picture, umumnya berorientasi why, berpusat pada tujuan dan alasan dari semua yang dilakukan atau akan dilakukan, fokus pada visi, sedangkan orang-orang Detail Oriented akan berfokus pada perjalanannya, bagaimana sebuah tujuan akan dicapai, jalan mana yang akan diambil, apa konsekuensi dari setiap tindakan yang akan diambil, usually about how. Ketika dua pendekatan ini bisa disandingkan, tentu saja hal-hal menakjubkan bisa saja terwujud dari partnership tersebut. Don't want to spoil the book, tapi inilah yang terjadi antara Martin Luther King Jr. dan Ralph Abernathy, Walt Disney dan Roy Oliver Disney, Bill Gates dan Paul Allen, bahkan banyak contoh-contoh lainnya.

Berita baiknya, setiap dari kita sebenarnya memiliki kedua sisi tersebut, hanya saja satu bagian lebih dominan daripada bagian lainnya. Hal ini memungkinkan kita untuk belajar mengerti apa yang dipikirkan oleh counterpart kita, dan apa yang bisa kita lakukan untuk mendukung mereka. Everyone have their own advantages and disadvantages, the point is how to use that to your benefit?

Big picture helps us to determine what should be done and why it has to be done, Detail Oriented will make sure we do that right and deliver the right results. Which one are you anyway? (CBA)

Thursday, March 10, 2016 in

Brand First or Sales First?

Lots of people ask for this kind of advice lately. Sometimes making a decision between brand or sales will be a tough one to make, especially for those who only have a limited amount of budget to spend.


Let's assume that everybody knows that Brand will be a great asset for a longer run, and sales will ensuring your survival fo the short run. Both are important for a business entity. Unfortunately, not all of us can afford to develop both at the same time, once again due to limited resources.

If you ask me which one to do first, I will ask you first, what kind of product do you sell? In my experiences and opinion, the decision between brand or sales eventually comes to the nature of the product and nature of your target market. Great sales effort won't be much effectual to products that need a lot of trust and credibility to appeal to the customer. (i.e. Medical, Insurance, MLM, etc.), for the other brand only have little impact or even won't have any effect at all.

For that kind of problem, if your competitor has more trust and credibility, no matter how much benefits, discount or promotion you give to your customer, you won't win even half of their customer. For example, did you even consider buying medicine for your kids from the unknown manufacturer that you or your friends never heard of before?

On the other side, if your product is the only player in the market, or you are in a commodity market, without a large budget available, developing a brand first will only exhaust yourself without many results. 

The other side of this question is to look at your customer target. Those who are in middle or higher income spectrum would love to add their value with branded products, while those who are in the lower-income spectrum, fulfilling their needs takes priority than a brand, of course, branded one would be nice, but it still lies on their "nice to have" list.

Another target that we could look over is the youth market. Those who in their journey to seek their values, their goals, are easily tempted with branded items, just to look higher / better spec than their flocks. They don't even consider their financial capabilities. From a social viewpoint, it's a serious problem, but for a business viewpoint, good opportunity indeed.

It could be an interesting field to explore for those who are in the "conversation" commerce market like YesBoss or HaloDiana. in Indonesia It would influence their product offering logic, and it could drive more sales than ever if they could do it right. (Some might said that it's a Human Behavior Data Exploitation, but as long as it's legal and within acceptable ethical boundaries, it's beneficial to do.)

So, which one you decide on, will it be Brand or Sales? Share your thought! (CBA)

Wednesday, December 31, 2014 in

People Vs Technology

This is my end of year's reflection. We shall welcome 2015 in less than 12 hours here.

Well, we all know that technology evolution is maybe faster than light nowadays, it's not exaggerating though. New technologies are perfected every day, we even lost count of it, I'm sure. But, are those technologies are really capable of replacing people?


Decades ago, we could find more people who can overcome a PC's calculation time in complex math equations, but nowadays, the computer would finish the calculation before you are able to think of it. You could also ask for anything on the internet and "the internet" will be giving you lots of answers.

So, how this could happen? How could a creation surpass the creator? Is it just me, or nobody really thinks about it and just accept reality?

In my opinion, the only reason technology begins to replace humans is because human tends to upgrade the technology more than they upgrade themselves. Technology means to HELP people, not REPLACE people. I know we are more intelligent than our predecessors, I mean, Hey! I even know things that my parents don't know of their age?

The reality is UPGRADING is not the same as UPDATING. Update means to add the information, just to refurbish, renovate, refresh or whatever it is. The upgrade means to promote, increase, elevate, move up, taking us up to the higher level. You could update your Windows XP to the latest update, but you won't overcome the Windows 8, do you know what I mean?

The fact is, more people upgrading their smartphone than upgrading themselves, and sadly sometimes here I am, doing the same things as people do. We keep promoting the technology level, without really promoting our level, and by the time the world realizes that maybe it's too late. We upgrade the artificial intelligence so much that maybe at one time later we already been depending on the AI to make our DECISIONS. It's funny that we hate other people dictating our lives but we often leave those things to make a decision for us.

I don't say that we should leave all the technologies we made and go back to the old days, the evolution of science & technologies are always a good thing I told you, but the idea of depending on the technology to live is just a bit "funny" though for me. For me, it is HARD TO DO a calculation without at least a calculator or maybe an excel sheet in front of me, but it doesn't mean that I CAN'T DO the calculation myself without them. It's a big difference.

I understand that sometimes we are afraid to make mistakes and push all the things to the machine that hardly makes any mistake. But don't forget that making mistakes is the quality that makes a human become human. Well, Adam was made a mistake, so here we are.

Well, this is my and my reflection, it doesn't mean to judge anybody including you. Simple question for us: Shall we keep updating? Or shall we start upgrading? Goodbye 2014, I'm not gonna miss you though, welcome bright 2015, God Bless. (CBA)

Monday, October 21, 2013 in

Messed up with DATA in DECISION MAKING



Berapa banyak diantara kita yang sudah mulai fed up with data? Pada awalnya data itu ada untuk membantu kita membuat keputusan yang sulit. Dengan adanya data, kita bisa mereka-reka apa yang akan menjadi dampak dari keputusan yang kita buat, merencanakan alternatif katanya.

Masalahnya, jika alternatif itu terlalu banyak, maka keputusan itu semakin sulit dibuat. Fenomena Big Data yang saat ini sudah terjadi dimana-mana membuat semakin banyak alternatif muncul, dan yang semakin memperparah keadaan adalah terkadang perusahaan tidak yakin bahwa data yang dimilikinya itu benar. (You got bummed, man!)

Kita perlu melihat ulang, kenapa kita membutuhkan data tersebut untuk mengambil sebuah keputusan? Secara psikis, Simon Sinek dalam bukunya START WITH WHY, mengatakan bahwa perilaku kita dipengaruhi oleh asumsi-asumsi yang kita buat (perceived truths). Asumsi-asumsi ini akan terbentuk dari segala jenis data yang kita terima, contohnya ketika akan membeli sebuah gadget, kita pasti akan wara-wiri di internet cari tau, berapa kapasitas baterainya, jumlah pixel per inch (ppi) dari layarnya, OSnya, kameranya, dsb. dari "data-data" tersebut kita akan mulai berasumsi (atau sebagian rekan kita mengatakan "berpersepsi") bahwa gadget tersebut bagus dan kudu dibeli (tentunya dengan perbandingan kiri-kanan).

Dalam buku yang sama, Colin Powell berkata "I can make a decision with 30 percent of the information. Anything more than 80 percent is too much." Data yang terlalu banyak akhirnya memiliki tendensi untuk membingungkan. Perlu diketahui bahwa terkadang keputusan yang didasarkan dari feeling kita bahkan lebih tepat dari keputusan yang berasal dari data yang bertumpuk-tumpuk. Apakah Anda pernah mengalami ketika teman Anda / Anda sendiri melakukan sesuatu hal, lalu berpikir "kok, kayaknya ini gak pas deh.." atau "rasanya gak sreg ah!". Hal itulah yang terjadi ketika keputusan yang dibuat tidak sejalan dengan perasaan kita.

Bukan berarti dengan ini kita membuang seluruh data kita dan mulai mengambil semua keputusan berdasarkan hati kita. Menurut saya, keputusan yang baik adalah keputusan yang berdasarkan rasionalisasi data yang baik (dan benar) namun tidak bertentangan dengan perasaan kita. Maksud saya, tidak enak kan mengambil keputusan yang kita pertanyakan sendiri di dalam hati? Namun data yang tepat akan membantu hati kita menjadi yakin dengan apa yang kita putuskan.

Perlu adanya wawasan dan pengalaman yang cukup untuk dapat memilah data-data yang penting diantara kumpulan data yang berlimpah. Tidak semua data yang disajikan perlu kita telaah, dan basis yang paling mudah untuk menentukan mana data yang perlu kita lihat dan tidak adalah berkunjung ke lapangan dan melihat keadaan yang sebenarnya. Jika Anda merupakan seorang marketer, tempatkanlah diri dalam posisi pelanggan, dan mulai berpikir apakah data tersebut dapat membuat Anda mengambil keputusan yang lebih baik bagi pelanggan?

Selain itu, carilah 2-3 orang kepercayaan Anda untuk bertukar pikiran. Diskusi dalam grup kecil dapat membantu Anda untuk mempertajam analisa Anda terhadap data yang dimiliki, karena kasus yang sering terjadi pada orang-orang yang banyak melihat data adalah kesalahan intrepretasi data. Tidak selamanya peningkatan angka revenue merupakan tanda yang baik dan penurunan angka revenue merupakan hal yang buruk. Banyak aspek lain yang harus diperhatikan, misalnya margin revenue, return on investment, dsb. Adanya beberapa asisten kepercayaan Anda bisa membantu Anda untuk melihat hal-hal yang mungkin terlewat atau tidak terlihat oleh Anda.

Well, bagaimanapun kompleksnya pengambilan sebuah keputusan, its always better to make a wrong decision than not making any decision at all. Happy decide! (CBA)

Wednesday, October 2, 2013 in

Promotion Vs Branding

Seringkali para pelaku pemasaran tidak memiliki paham yang sama terhadap dua kata diatas. Ada yang bilang "sama aja, tuh!", yang lain bilang "branding lebih luas dari promotion." Berbagai macam pendapat biasanya muncul kalau membahas topik ini, terkadang makin dibahas makin bingung.

Pada dasarnya, promotion adalah salah satu elemen dari marketing mix selain product, price, dan place. Sedangkan branding merupakan kegiatan untuk mengangkat / memperkuat brand dari sebuah produk/jasa. Satu dengan yang lainnya berkaitan, namun memiliki tujuan yang berbeda secara konseptual.

Jika kita bertanya ke pakar marketing, ada yang berkata bahwa promosi memiliki tiga tujuan dasar, yaitu:
  1. Memberikan informasi kepada konsumen dan masyarakat, 
  2. Membantu meningkatkan permintaan.
  3. Mendiferensiasikan produk.
(Kurtz, Dave. (2010). Contemporary Marketing Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.)

Sedangkan Asosiasi Marketing Amerika (AMA) mendefinisikan brand sebagai sebuah nama, ungkapan, desain, simbol, atau hal lainnya yang bertujuan untuk membedakan antara satu produk dengan produk yang lainnya.

Jadi sebenarnya gimana, sih?

Sederhana saja, keduanya merupakan saudara seiman yang punya tujuan akhir yang sama, yaitu mendiferensiasikan sebuah produk. Tapi jika kita mau melihat dari sudut pandang yang sedikit berbeda, ada satu perbedaan mendasar yang memisahkan antara kegiatan promotion dengan kegiatan branding, yaitu tingkat urgensi dari kegiatan tersebut.

Walaupun sama-sama memiliki tujuan untuk membedakan satu produk dengan produk lainnya, waktu efektif dari masing-masing kegiatan itu berbeda. Branding merupakan satu set kegiatan yang melibatkan banyak channel kegiatan maupun media untuk menciptakan persepsi yang unik terhadap sebuah produk di benak konsumen atau masyarakat dalam jangka waktu yang panjang, sedangkan promotion merupakan kegiatan yang bersifat jangka pendek dan lebih didorong oleh kebutuhan untuk menciptakan angka sales. Tidak mungkin nilai brand equity yang bagus dapat dibangun dalam satu malam, sedangkan untuk menilai apakah sebuah kegiatan promosi yang dilakukan sukses atau tidak bisa langsung dilihat dalam waktu beberapa jam.

Jadi bisa dibilang, promotion dan branding saling mendukung satu sama lainnya, makanya ada perusahaan yang memiliki bagian Marketing Communication sekaligus Sales & Promotion dalam satu departemen marketing.

Namun perlu diperhatikan, bahwa kegiatan promotion yang salah bisa merusak brand dari sebuah produk. Coba bayangkan kalau Apple membuat promosi, beli motor bekas diskon harga iPhone 5s 25%? Nilai brand dari Apple pasti jatuh di mata konsumen setianya bukan? Mungkin angka penjualan iPhone dalam sekejap akan naik, sejalan dengan efek promosi yang berlangsung dalam jangka pendek, namun dalam jangka panjang jika hal ini dilakukan terus-menerus, maka dapat dipastikan bahwa Apple akan kehilangan kalangan konsumen kelas atas yang seharusnya mereka pertahankan sebagai loyalis Apple, kebanggaan dalam menggunakan Apple iPhone yang selama ini ditonjolkan dan dicari akan hilang, dan mungkin Apple akan segera berjejer di etalase toko gadget bersebelahan dan dikerumuni oleh telepon genggam murah antah berantah dari negara seberang.

Well then, which one is more important to you, Promotion or Branding? (CBA)

Thursday, October 4, 2012 in

Internet Access, Internet Mobile Access, Or.. Social Network Access?


Internet Access, Internet Mobile Access, Or.. Social Network Access?

Dewasa ini, seluruh aspek kehidupan manusia banyak dipengaruhi oleh teknologi. Teknologi yang paling banyak mempengaruhi kehidupan saat ini adalah teknologi internet. Indonesia saat ini menduduki posisi 5 besar diantara negara dunia lainnya. Hasil studi Yahoo! Inc. menyatakan dua tren khusus penggunaan internet di Indonesia:

  • Pertama, selama dua tahun terakhir, penggunaan telepon seluler (ponsel) di Indonesia menjadi penggerak utama pertumbuhan penggunaan internet di Indonesia, dimana ponsel menjadi media kedua paling banyak digunakan (55%) setelah televisi (100%).
  • Kedua, pertumbuhan internet juga dikaitkan dengan bergesernya demografi dimana grup dengan usia yang relatif lebih tua (30-50 tahun) mulai ikut menggunakan internet di Indonesia.

Ternyata, di Indonesia yang populer bukan internetnya, tapi mobile accessnya! Bayangkan berapa ponsel yang bertebaran disekitar kita. You even see people who have more than two phones! Percaya atau tidak, Blackberry pun terkadang dianggap produk yang berbeda dari ponsel. Coba deh, Anda bertanya kepada beberapa pengguna Blackberry, “mana handphone lu?” jawaban yang mungkin akan muncul adalah “gue ga pake handphone, sekarang pake Blackberry” Err..

Kalau dulu para anak muda beramai-ramai menggunakan messenger application seperti Yahoo! dan MSN, sekarang aplikasi yang digunakan tidak jauh-jauh dari BBM atau WhatsApp. Tren penggunaan aplikasi mobile ini makin menjadi lebay akhir-akhir ini. Bayangkan, ketika server RIM untuk BBM di asia pasifik mengalami error beberapa saat yang lalu, berapa banyak orang-orang disekitar kita yang membahas, mengeluh, bahkan hingga memaki produsen Blackberry, padahal fitur SMS masih dapat digunakan dengan baik untuk berkomunikasi, somewhat perilaku ini terlihat absurd.

Sebenarnya, tren internet mobile access ini bertumbuh pesat di Indonesia bukan karena adanya gadgets  tersebut, namun munculnya social media-lah yang mengendorse perilaku penggunaan internet di Indonesia. Bayangkan! mbok-mbok di pasar lagi ngomongin temennya via facebook, adik-adik kecil kita asik twitteran di smartphone, bahkan kadang papi mami, ayah bunda, om tante menginformasikan arisan via social media juga, bahkan sekarang jamannya undangan pernikahan via facebook, oh my God! Para perusahaan gadgets tersebut tidak akan pernah sukses di negara kita tanpa adanya para fesbukers, tweeps, dan netizen lainnya yang membutuhkan alat-alat tersebut. Well, saya berani jamin hanya sedikit pengguna Blackberry menggunakan email push, tapi hampir semua pengguna menggunakan aplikasi facebook atau twitter di dalamnya.

Hal ini tidaklah selalu memiliki dampak negatif, meluasnya penggunaan internet dan social media di Indonesia juga merangsang tumbuhnya usaha-usaha kecil masyarakat via internet. Coba Anda hitung berapa jumlah online shop yang muncul setahun belakangan ini, mulai dari penjualan makanan, kosmetik, baju, hingga pakaian dalam! Reputasi yang dibangun via jejaring sosial ini dirasa ampuh menjadi modal bisnis yang menguntungkan, bahkan paper studi dari Stanford University (The Role of Social Networks in Online Shopping: Information Passing, Price of Trust, and Consumer Choice - Stephen Guo, Mengqiu Wang, Jure Leskovec, 2011) mengenai perilaku konsumen di online shop mengatakan bahwa:
  • Komunikasi yang baik antara penjual dan pembeli adalah faktor yang sangat penting dalam aktivitas transaksi
  • Kepercayaan dalam bertransaksi menjadi modal utama dari penjual untuk dapat bertahan dalam persaingan
  • Jejaring sosial menjadi alat utama dalam memprediksi bagaimana konsumen memilih toko yang mereka inginkan
Begitu banyaknya jejaring sosial yang seliweran di sekitar kita dapat menjadi peluang besar dalam banyak aspek, baik positif maupun negatif, bisa menguntungkan bisnis, sekaligus dengan mudah meruntuhkan bisnis dalam sekejap. Hal ini diibaratkan koin dengan dua sisi, atau pisau bermata dua, tergantung bagaimana cara memanfaatkannya.

Anyway, what is important now, Internet Access, Internet Mobile Access, Or.. Social Network Access? (CBA)

Source Paper: http://goo.gl/Lc4Dwn

Tuesday, July 17, 2012 in

What to Choose? First or Better?!


Persaingan dalam pasar saat ini begitu hectic and crowded, hingga membuat banyak orang menjadi bingung akan produk yang beredar. Hal ini ditambah lagi dengan pesatnya perkembangan internet, dimana setiap orang bisa mengaktualisasikan diri dengan komentar dan perkataannya masing-masing. Begitu banyaknya informasi menyebabkan fenomena Overwhelming Information saat ini.

Situs riset Magnify.net dari amerika melakukan riset terkait fenomena Overwhelming Information tersebut, dimana 64,2% responden menyatakan bahwa mereka menerima 50% informasi lebih banyak dari tahun lalu! Bahkan 73% mengibaratkan kondisi ini dalam kata “roaring river" atau "massive tidal wave." Well, if you are using a BlackBerry device, how much broadcast message that you got every day? It’s begin to annoying recently, eh?

Fenomena ini tentu saja menjadi trend negatif bagi seluruh kegiatan pemasaran. Marketing memiliki kaitan yang erat dengan informasi, dimana penyampaian informasi yang tepat akan menghasilkan respon yang diharapkan dari masyarakat. Hal ini sejalan dengan kalimat Al Rise dan jack Trout, marketing is not a battle of products, it’s a battle of perceptions.” Masalahnya, dalam fenomena Overwhelming Information ini, perusahaan semakin sulit membuat informasi mereka “terlihat” di mata dan pikiran para calon konsumen mereka.

So? Apa yang bisa dilakukan? Penyebaran informasi menjadi suatu kegiatan yang tidak terelakkan lagi dalam proses marketing. Hampir tidak mungkin rasanya menjualn sesuatu tanpa diimbangi dengan informasi yang memadai akan produk tersebut. But how make all of those informations become visible? Al Ries dan Jack Trout dalam buku The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing menceritakan tentang hukum-hukum yang tidak dapat diabaikan dalam proses marketing. Dalam kaitannya dengan fenomena Overwhelming Information ini 3 hukum pertama menjadi kunci persaingan, yaitu:
  • The Law of Leadership: It is better to be first than be better
  • The Law of the Category: If you can’t be the first in a category, set up a new category that you can be first in
  • The Law of the Mind: It’s better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace

Hukum pertama, konsumen cenderung mengingat pelopor dari sesuatu,  mau contoh? UI, ITB, dan UGM sebagai univeritas yang ‘katanya’ terbaik di Indonesia adalah universitas yang pertama kali didirikan di Indonesia. Aqua? The first ‘ridiculous’ bottled water in Indonesia, masih berdiri kokoh di tengah kepungan para pesaingnya saat ini. Asosiasi aqua terhadap produk air minum begitu kuatnya hingga seringkali konsumen mengganti kata air mineral dengan aqua.

Hukum kedua, jika Anda bukan yang pertama, buatlah diri Anda menjadi yang pertama, BINUS University misalnya, sejak cikal bakal pada tahun 1974, menjadi kampus swasta yang memiliki asosiasi kuat dengan komputer, bahkan sampai saat ini mereka belum bisa melepaskan stigma universitas komputer dari benak masyarakat. Contoh lain, jaringan selular bukan hal yang baru di Indonesia, begitu banyak penyedia layanan GSM yang ada, namun Esia menciptakan kategori baru dimana mereka menjadi provider pertama bagi jaringan CDMA di Indonesia, hasilnya? Sampai saat ini, Esia masih merajai pasar CDMA Indonesia.

Hukum yang ketiga menjadi hukum yang paling menarik, sekaligus menjadi kontradiksi bagi kedua hukum pertama. Contoh terbaik untuk hukum ini adalah Sarimi, meskipun menjadi brand mie instant pertama di Indonesia, Sarimi tidak berkembang layaknya pesaingnya. Well, untuk mie instant, jelas donk, siapa pemenangnya? Indomie yang katanya seleraku bahkan sudah menjamah pasar internasional di beberapa negara di dunia.  

Last but not least, dari beberapa contoh diatas, diharapkan para marketeers mendapatkan digest yang baik bagi lini produk atau jasa yang diasuhnya. (CBA)

Well, What to Choose? First or Better?!

in

GLOBAL Vs GLOCAL



Kondisi pasar saat ini mulai bergerak meluas, perusahaan mulai merasa bahwa pasar lokal sudah tidak bisa membuat mereka ‘puas’ akan hasil yang mereka dapatkan. Well, sebentar lagi ASEAN–China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) akan berlaku di Indonesia. Produk-produk yang selama ini hanya berputar di konsumen lokal sudah mulai mempersiapkan diri untuk dapat diterima oleh konsumen global.

Hal ini tentu saja berdampak pada strategi pemasaran yang akan diterapkan. Tetap melakukan domestic marketing atau international marketing. Tentu saja, international marketing menawarkan keuntungan yang jauh lebih besar lagi, namun marketeers harus sudah siap dengan dua atau lebih variabel yang tidak dapat dikendalikan, seperti perbedaan budaya, peraturan, politik, dan sistem ekonomi negara yang berbeda dari satu negara dan negara yang lainnya. Kalau menurut versi Lufthansa, “You don’t learn to fly overseas overnight.”

Tidak banyak perusahaan yang ‘becus’ untuk act global dewasa ini, karena kondisi market makin bervariatif, makin kompleks, makin ‘ribet’ kalau kata orang betawi. Pasar tidak lagi mencari produk untuk memenuhi kebutuhan mereka, namun standar sudah di set pada pemenuhan keinginan mereka. Jeffrey B. Schmidt mengelompokkan produk menjadi 3 kategori besar, core product, actual product, dan augmented product. Saat ini, semua orang berlomba-lomba untuk bisa menghasilkan produk dalam kategori augmented product. Research, research, and more research.

Lalu, apakah produk yang sudah dipaksakan berada dalam lingkup augmented product itu bisa menjamin produk tersebut bisa diterima secara global? Sangat diragukan. Lalu bagaimana?

Patrick Geddes, seorang aktivis sosial, mencetuskan cikal bakal dari kalimat yang berbunyi “Think Globally, Act Locally.” Sebagian dari perusahaan di jepang, seperti Sony Corporation sudah menerapkan kalimat ini dalam setiap strategi branding dan periklanan mereka sejak tahun 1980an. McD Indonesia hampir jadi korban keganasan dunia international jika tidak berlaku lokal. Idealisme mereka dengan burger dan kentang, tidak cocok dengan ‘hukum’ warga Indonesia, ‘ndak makan nasi, ndak makan’, kalau waktu itu mereka tidak ‘mengalah’ dan berpikir secara lokal, Anda mungkin tidak akan menemukan McD saat ini.

So? Belajarlah dari mereka dan tinggalkan ego yang berangan-angan ingin berdiri di puncak dunia hanya dengan pemikiran global tanpa mau menyesuaikan diri dengan kondisi lokal dimana Anda berdiri. It’s not gonna work ayway.Think Global, Act Local, Be GloCal. (CBA)