Written by Albert Christian Soewongsono – VDMS Alumnus from Nusa Cendana University (UNDANA), Kupang
Young Leaders for Indonesia (YLI) is an intensive leadership development program derived from McKinsey’s leadership development work for its clients. The program uses interactive forums and fieldwork approach to enable the participants to apply their knowledge in appropriate field work projects sponsored by participating companies.
The first thing I did to participate on this training was completing the application form that included personal information, listed achievements, and essay writing on the goals in unleashing Indonesia by 2030 as well as my participation and roles in organizations. Then, I had to wait for about 2-3 weeks before I got a phone call interview. Basically, the interviewer asked information on achievements, current participation in communities, and my plans as a youth to unleash Indonesia by 2030. The result was informed around March through email and YLI Facebook Page. I was very proud to be one of the selected participants with other 59 Indonesian youth across Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and Singapore. It was an honor that I was the only participant from Nusa Cendana University-NTT
On the program itself, it was divided into three forums and separated in two months for each forum. Each forum was conducted in two days at Grand Kemang Hotel in South Jakarta. The first forum was conducted on May 23-24, the second was conducted on August 8-9 and the last forum was conducted on October 31-November 1, 2015.
On the first forum, we had been introduced to some leadership materials given by trainers from Mc.Kinsey & Company, one of the materials that we learned was called DSPA (Defining, Structuring, Prioritizing and Action) Methods, which is used to map and find solution for a problem. Besides that, we also had sharing sessions with various inspirational people like the CEO of MatahariMall.com, Mr. Hadi Wenas and the Founder of Sokola, Mrs. Butet Manurung. On the last day of the first forum, we had to make our own Personal Leadership Project (PLP). It was a two-month project executed by each of us and had to be presented on the second forum. My PLP was focusing on environmental action named MITRA Coastal Care where I collaborated with people in my organization, MITRA Association (Eastern Indonesian Students Foreign Relations Association) to execute this project that took place on a mangrove area in Oesapa, a sub-district in Kupang). Basically, what we did on this project was teaching kids living around that area about the importance of mangrove to the environment and also we involved them to participate in beach clean-up activity after each learning session.
After two months, I had to present my project with other participants in form of a poster. This presentation was like Q&A session. Apart from that, on this second forum, we still learned about some leadership training like, presenting with impact and influencing others and we had more sharing sessions with some Indonesian leaders such as, Ms. Veronica Colondam (Founder & CEO of Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa (YCAB)), Mr. Gunawan Susanto (President Director of IBM Indonesia), and Mr. Budi Sadikin (CEO of Bank Mandiri). On the last day of the second forum, we had been divided into 12 group contained about 5-6 members and had been given projects from real companies such as, Bank Mandiri, Sinarmas group, and Berrybenka to be executed in the next two months and each team also received budgets (IDR 5 millions) to execute the given projects and mentors from Mc. Kinsey & Company to accompany us. My group consisted of 5 people (Vanessa & Teresa from NUS, Alvin from BINUS and Najla from UI) and had been given a project from Juara Skincare, a beauty company based on the United States and was founded by Mrs. Metta Murdaya and her friends selling beauty products mixed with local traditional ingredients from Indonesia. Our project was aimed to create brand awareness for Indonesian markets through campaigns in Social Media. In order to do so, firstly, we conducted an online survey to determine the factors affecting beauty products used; secondly, after we had found those factors, we planned the actions to increase the brand awareness. So what we did was created a Facebook page of Juara and did several campaigns in forms of selfie competition and beauty & health articles. During the implementation of the project we used regular phone calls, Skype and WA group to maintain the communication among the team members, our mentor and Mrs. Metta Murdaya.
On the last forum, we also had other sharing sessions with Indonesian leaders like, Mr. John Riady (Executive Director of Lippo Group) and a panel of community leaders with Aldi Haryopartomo (CEO of RUMA), Mr. Ananda Siregar from Turun Tangan, and Mr. Haryanto Budiman (CEO of J.P. Morgan Indonesia. I was in a group Discussion about Turun Tangan, an initiative founded by Anies Baswedan, Indonesian Minister of Education, to connect people who are interested to drive impact through volunteering activities. I want to gain more knowledge about the kind of activities that they do in Turun Tangan and get contact details in order to develop my organization, MITRA, because I found similarities between the kind of activities conducted by Turun Tangan and MITRA such as teaching program. In MITRA, we have teaching programs like MITRA English Language Club and MITRA Kincir Angin where we teach English to the kids in Oesapa. I see a possibility that we can collaborate in the similar kind of volunteering activity in the future.
Finally, the graduation ceremony had come. We began the ceremony with a reflection session to remember what we have achieved so far and encourage ourselves to be better people in the future. The foundation gave each of the participant a jacket and we took a graduation photo. It was time for each of us to say goodbye but it was not the end. It was just a beginning of many amazing things we can achieve as future leaders who will unleash Indonesia.
For more information about the background history of YLI go to http://yli.or.id/about/history/
For more information about MITRA Association go to http://assosiasimitra.wordpress.com