Denica Flesch: Founder of SukkhaCitta

Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Denica, and I’m the founder of SukkhaCitta. We’re a social enterprise based in Jakarta that connects artisans in villages across Indonesia with the modern global market.

With a background in Economics, I worked for the World Bank when I first returned to Indonesia. There, I got quite frustrated as I didn’t feel like what I was doing made any direct impact. This led me to do my own research, I wanted to understand what poverty looks like so we can find what works.

When going from village to village, I found an interesting trend. That is, poverty tends to be clustered around economic activities, on what people do. I started to narrow down my focus, and it led me to the craft industry – the second largest employing industry in rural Indonesia, especially for women.

I found out that the current system, the craft industry itself, is kind of broken. The economics seem to be upside down. People earn more from simple jobs like working in Indomaret or as a waitress then being an artisan. Artisans are aging and none of the daughters want to continue. Why would they? And yet, without regeneration, how can the craft survive?

Now, this really intrigued me. I realized that the last thing the world needs is another fashion brand. We do not need more pretty things when the way it was made is ugly. Something needs to change. A bridge needs to be built – and that’s exactly why I started SukkhaCitta. To leverage craft as a viable mean of poverty alleviation – while at the same time sustaining our craft through our modern reinterpretation.

Besides the economic aspect, what drew you to crafts over everything else?

It was also a personal attraction. As an economist, you are trained to judge production based on scale and efficiency. Yet, there I was living with the women in these villages. They would tell me how their mothers, grandmothers, shared stories through the fabrics that they made by hand. Batik was their mean of saying a prayer to their families, of meditation.

There, I realized how much stories and values get transferred like this in our culture – and how much is lost today with the rise of mass-produced clothes. With the pursuit of fast, everything becomes homogeneous. In craft, you find the story of our culture, of our humanity. And I believe it has its place in today’s time, not only in museums. We just have to make it relevant again.

Fashion has the reputation of being environmentally destructive. How can fashion be ethical while also being sustainable at the same time?

You’re right. Through my research, I was shocked to see just how dirty the craft industry is – both on the people and on the environment. In fact, it’s the 2nd most polluting SME sector in Indonesia! I feel that part of the problem is that currently, there is simply no transparency whatsoever. There is no traceability, no way to see how a fabric was made for customers like you and me.

Now, we do things quite differently. Our impact model is based on our own transparency standard: #MadeRight. It is a promise that this fabric provided a living wage, is environmentally sustainable, and at the same time sustains culture. Working with Villages, not factories, means that we are even more careful when it comes to our environmental impact because otherwise, production causes a lot of negative externalities for the community.

The price of fabric is very unique because fabric uses a lot of water and dye. Villagers will use synthetic dyes because it’s very cheap, and then they will dump it in their waterways. The problem is the community lives with the water from the rivers. That’s why in our work we use a lot of natural dyes; we actually spent almost IDR 50 million just doing capacity building so that all of our villages understand how to do natural dyeing.

At the same time, the production of clothes itself produces waste. So even if your fabrics were made ethically and sustainably, the production of fabrics into clothes produces waste. That’s why we have a lot of upcycling and zero waste programs as well — we’re turning our waste scraps into paper now, so all our tags are made from our waste as well. Our aim is not to cause unnecessary damage.

Ultimately, we believe that the way forward is not only about production, but also about consumption. So in our marketing, we focus a lot on storytelling, because we believe if you have a connection with your clothes, you’re not just going to wear a piece for two weeks and throw it away but you’re actually going to take care of it. If it’s broken you’re going to repair it, so it’s a complete and holistic cycle. If you produce ethically sustainable clothes, but you promote fast consumption — it doesn’t work as well.

In the craft industry, do you see a greater movement towards that holistic sustainable model, or are you guys going against the current?

The current for fast fashion is definitely very strong. Really. What I see in Indonesia is that of course you have this positive trend of brands trying to bring light to this issue, but the problem lies in how they go about doing it. Because you have to make sure that your solution is 10 times better than conventional practice, so you can actually contribute to solving the issues.

One of the things I saw is definitely the hype towards natural dyes. For us, it’s a natural choice. Again, because we work with Villages, not factories, we need to be very mindful to ensure our production causes no externality to the community. From this, I learnt that there is actually a difference between natural dyeing with natural process – or natural dyeing with chemical process. Unfortunately, most brands that I see in Indonesia don’t really take this into account. We need to be careful that we do not actually add to the problem.

Why is it important to empower these rural women in the first place? Why do we need to care about this demographic?

Because there’s a lot of potential for impact. What I’ve found is that nobody has ever taken the time to believe in these women. In the beginning, when I started this journey, I noticed a very strong sense of inferiority that people living in rural areas feel compared to someone from the city. The women wouldn’t look me in the eye; the prevalent mindset is that they can’t. They’ve worked as artisans for 20 to 30 years and have always been exploited, so they don’t believe that they can actually change their lives. But now, every time I go to the village, they keep harassing me about what they’re going to do next. “What new products are we going to try?”, “What new techniques are we going to learn?” There’s this new sense of optimism and hope.

And I noticed that once you empower women you empower her community as well. Especially in villages, women typically spend 80 percent of their expenditure on their family. You start noticing things, like one woman would tell me about the healthy, nutritious food that she can now provide to her kids. She started asking me about how she can best provide an education to her kids, what kind of books she can buy — so there’s this new sense of empowerment that we didn’t expect.

And most importantly is this desire to pay it forward — we didn’t start off with that in mind, but the women in the villages, they started to come to me and ask to be involved in the capacity building of other villages. When I asked why, they said it’s because they’ve been helped and now they want to help. So you start seeing that when you do this kind of work, there is also a ripple effect in the community that you’re initiating in. So that’s why I find that it’s very important to be able to empower these women, and also for them to be role models in their communities. Before we started our initiatives, typically the artisans were typically above 40 years old. Now we’re actually really happy because there are these two women under 30 that came up to me asking if they could be trained as well. And I couldn’t imagine doing all this without doing it for the crafts sector. Because suddenly they feel so proud — they feel like they’re visible to the market again, they feel like there’s actually value in what they do, and the pride is just unbelievable.

In your work, you’ve gone into the villages, and you’ve interacted with these women. What would you say are the main challenges these rural women face in their everyday lives?

It’s the general mindset, this social conditioning that after getting married they should be moms and that’s it. It was actually very startling for me during the last field trip; we were sitting in a circle and I was asking them about why there were no women entrepreneurs in the village. They said, “What would we sell, who would buy anything? That’s what men do, right? They work and we just take care of the kids.” I asked them about whether they thought about something beyond just being a mother, because obviously being a mother is not enough for them, right? And they just look at me, puzzled, “No, we haven’t.” Because their mothers were like that, their grandmothers were like that, so they have never left the village. They don’t know a world beyond this.

I was doing a survey about living wage and I wanted to know what was the living wage for that village, so we broke down their expenditure and found that the bulk of it was from their kids’ snack money. Everyday, kids would take IDR 8,000 to 10,000 just to buy snacks. And I asked them what snacks they would buy and they said, “Oh you know, just chiki (a type of snack) that they buy from the warung (small local eateries).” So I asked them one question: “You farm a lot of moringa. Why don’t you just create snacks which are actually healthier than chiki? Make them cute, colorful. Your kids can just buy that instead.” And they look at me and it’s as if they think of it for the first time.

And that’s when I found out that the biggest problem in rural Java is this social norm. These women were not educated, and so they don’t have the courage to dream beyond things as is. But once you start introducing entrepreneurship into their minds, it’s really quite amazing. I just went back to the village last week, and they showed me samples of different snacks that they made and they asked me how to brand it and everything. They can clearly do business; it’s just about whether anybody would take the time to sit with them and guide them through this process. I feel like when you empower women to be entrepreneurs, the impact is a lot larger than men.

Speaking of women in entrepreneurship – you yourself are a woman entrepreneur, but the percentage of women entrepreneurs is quite small in comparison to how many male entrepreneurs there are in Indonesia and around the world. How is it being a women entrepreneur, but being a minority in that sector?

I actually try to use that as an advantage. Because there’s so few of us, it’s very easy for us to be noticed. I personally never noticed that there was any difference between women versus men. What I noticed is that men tend to be impressed to hear that you as a woman dare to go to these villages, stay with them for a few days and do this kind of work. I do feel that especially in our field it’s very advantageous because the community trusts women more. And I think as a man it would be a lot more difficult to do what I do. Because you work with women, and how comfortable would they be with some man living in their house and telling them different concepts of sustainability and design and everything? So you have a different kind of credibility, socially, as a woman. I think that’s a plus point.

Do notice any differences between the mindset of women entrepreneurs and male entrepreneurs?

Yes, in terms of the way that we think about scaling businesses. There’s definitely not much aggression in terms of scaling when you meet a lot of women founders, especially in the field of sustainable fashion. They seem to be very content with where they are. Let’s say they impacted five, ten people, and they seem to be very happy. But they don’t understand that it’s not enough just to do that, because the problem is so big that you need to think big as well. What the industry needs is not five women you’ve impacted, but a sector change. That’s why it’s very important that startups like ours need to grow, to show that it’s possible to grow in a way that does not exploit the environment or the people in it.

On the other hand, male entrepreneurs seem to really think about this. Maybe they typically go more into the tech sector which is easier to scale, so you find them constantly talking about acquisitions, about percentages, about growth — whereas women entrepreneurs, we’re playing nice. We don’t want to compete, we feel like we should form a community, and how do you balance these two? Because you find a lot of startups that remain small, but then how do you create sector change?

What direction do you see your impact model growing: breadth or depth?

Both. Our impact model is grounded in our Jawara Desa program (village champion). In the beginning when I first started, we worked directly with artisans. So literally, if I worked with 50 women, it would be 50 houses I directly had to visit and train. We changed our impact model because that was not scalable. In each of our village, we have a Jawara Desa who we select, train and provide access to microcredit to so they can start their social enterprise on the ground level. In a way, we transfer our DNA, our values to build mini SukkhaCittas on the village level.

In general, we see each of our Jawara Desa leading up to 20 artisans. In that sense, by scaling our breadth, we directly intensify the depth of our impact. We’re already seeing it happen; it’s really interesting when you introduce the concept of entrepreneurship into a village. They start being entrepreneurial in the ways they solve village issues as well. Last field trip I went to visit this village, and on their walls, I saw that they put up A4 papers. Apparently they were brainstorming how to improve the education of their village. It really gave me a sense of validation to continue with this impact model.

Do you have any advice for young girls who might also want to build their own social enterprise? To face all the things that might have to go with handling a social enterprise?

Be patient and persevere, because nobody will prepare you for the job. It is very hard. Not only do you have to take care of the whole business side — because if you just want to keep asking for donors you should be an NGO, you have to understand that you need to be as cutthroat as conventional enterprises — but at the same time, you must maintain your mission. It is seriously very difficult. You will experience higher highs than your typical job, but also very much lower lows. My biggest advice is really to stop giving your power away, because as women sometimes we’re scared to think big. We don’t think that we’re capable or that we don’t have the experience or we don’t have whatever is required to do it, but I find that if this is truly your mission then you’ll find a way. You’ll learn, you’ll find people, you’ll make alliances to achieve your mission.

Ria Pratiwi: WIZEL Project

ANGIN Women’s Spotlight series seeks to showcase a diverse array of inspiring women leaders and their stories and experiences in order to shed light on the unique experiences of women in business. We hope that both men and women can gain from these shared experiences, that these stories can inspire change, and that other young girls are motivated to become leaders as well.

Please explain a little about your efforts.

My name is Ria Pratiwi and I run WIZEL Project. I recycle used jeans and use them as materials to make bags or pencil cases. Suppose I can market these products online and offline; I plan to save 10% of the profits.  The funds saved will be used for sewing training for unskilled mothers that only work at home — the housewives. I hope that in the future, through the training, they will be able to earn extra income to support their households and learn new skills.  They will not only be able to sew bags, but also clothes. However at present, I have difficulties in marketing the product despite having successfully created a good prototype.

What makes you build this business?

First of all, I could not find good and affordable products made of denim, particularly bags. I like products made of denim; it’s a good, strong and long lasting material. But it was hard to find a denim bag that isn’t too expensive.

Secondly, environmental issues. Nowadays, most people wear jeans and store them away  because they do not know where to throw them away. Many choose to cut their jeans or tear them apart. In my opinion, the usage is not optimized and it is probably better if we recycle them, convert them into something useful, and therefore give to people in need. Furthermore, I saw a problem within my own circle: my aunt is a housewife who does not work, but she has the ability to produce if only she was empowered. I wondered, “Why can’t I empower her and possibly other mothers later so they can be productive, gain skills, and earn more?”

What’s your fundraising strategy? How are you running?

At present, I am running on zero external funding. I collect jeans as donations from friends who do not want to wear these jeans any longer.  Then, I recycle them into bags. Currently the problem is mostly in financing the cost of the sewing machines. In the future I want to train more mothers and housewives, so we will need more tools that can support this program.

I will continue to look for access to funds because sewing machines are needed.  At some point, not all of the materials would be from donations. We may buy denim in rolls so that we can produce bags from both new and recycled materials. I intend for the recycling program to continue to exist.

What are some challenges you encounter in your business?

The challenge is getting these housewives to understand the upside of being a participant in this project. They need to be aware that they could help their families by having additional income. If they can produce the bags well, we can help them market them and sell them.

As a female entrepreneur, do you see any challenges in developing your business?

I am female and many investors are usually men. First of all, I am worried that they will not pay attention to me because I am a female. They probably question my ability since I am female and they might think that women can’t do something like this. I worry about these things when I meet prospective investors.

So this stereotype still exists?

Currently in Lampung communities, this stereotype still exists. In better educated communities, such beliefs have probably waned as they understand that women also have the potential and are capable.

How will WIZEL Project create impact?

First, I want to promote Sustainable Development Goal 12 of sustainable consumption and production by ensuring continuous consumption and production patterns. We as a society consume and buy clothes like jeans, but do not know how to recycle or reproduce.

Secondly, I can also create economic growth for these housewives I work with. 10% of the profit saved from every purchase will fund the continuous training.  I also plan to donate some of the bags to street children, orphanages or children who need school bags and pencil boxes for school. Hopefully by providing these basic needs, we can help them stay motivated to study and attend school.

Pravitasari: Co-founder of TuneMap

ANGIN Women’s Spotlight series seeks to showcase a diverse array of inspiring women leaders and their stories and experiences in order to shed light on the unique experiences of women in business. We hope that both men and women can gain from these shared experiences, that these stories can inspire change, and that other young girls are motivated to become leaders as well.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Pravitasari, and I am working on an application called TuneMap which is a GPS navigation app for visually impaired people who live in the city. We use crowdsourcing sites to connect visually impaired people with sighted pedestrians who will provide information about road conditions. Our aim is to empower the visually impaired community by creating safer roads to walk in, so they can lead a productive life and access proper facilities within the city. It’s about creating equal opportunity.

What was your background previously and how did the idea come about for TuneMap?

Firstly, I am an avid pedestrian who likes to walk a lot. As a sighted person, I feel uncomfortable walking on the existing pavements in Indonesia. At university I also studied psychology, which helped me better empathise with people who are different from me. If walking around the city was not accessible to sighted people, what would it be like for people who cannot see?

So I created Tunemap and tried to get it up and running with the support of some friends. We entered a UNDP competition, and through that, we were lucky enough to get connected with the largest visually impaired community in Indonesia who we work closely with in developing this project. We also work with UN volunteers in Indonesia who connect us with Indorelawan and also with the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MENPORA). We started with a societal mission, now we are trying to sustain this idea by also looking for funding opportunities to monetise our enterprise.

As a startup, what have been the biggest challenges and how do you overcome them?

It has been quite difficult finding fundraising such as equity, because we are focused on a very niche market and it is hard to find investors who want to invest in this market. That’s the challenge we are facing, but we are so glad for the grants we have received, which have allowed us to come up with the initial product, test it, and then validate it to the related stakeholders, to the users and to the beneficiaries – the visually impaired people. So the grants have helped a lot, but we know that we cannot rely on them in the long run.

the most important thing is to keep going. While fundraising is not an easy process, me and my team are clear about the why – why we want to do what we do. That keeps us going. We face so many failures and rejections. At least this year we prove that we can keep going and keep achieving one at a time.

What do you hope to achieve with your application?

We have two goals, that is, creating an inclusive and data-driven city. First and foremost, our focus is to empower visually impaired communities and provide sidewalks that are comfortable for them to walk on. After that, the benefits will flow to the rest of the community. The thing is, the government doesn’t know which areas to provide proper pedestrian footpaths and also who will use it. They have created pedestrian paths sporadically, without the use of data. So, we at Tunemap, are trying to solve that problem by using the data that is collected by the pedestrians to promote walkability in the city. Places like Jakarta but specifically Bandung, still have that walking culture. That’s why we started in Bandung, because a lot of people are still walking. Even if one person walks, they can make up to 20-30 report which is a lot of data collected already.

Being a woman co-founder in this startup ecosystem, have you had any particular difficulties dealing with gender dynamics?

I’m grateful that I have a team that is very supportive. Our co-founder is also a woman and our tech team is led by a man, and he is fine being led by two women. As women, we try to prove that nothing is different in leading. There may be limited interaction between us and the investors so we don’t know yet the ecosystem in the investor landscape towards women founders, but internally we have no issues with that. We are contacting with the stakeholders are fine with that, they will also be challenged coming from it, we are trying to figure out how to tackle it. Because I am also married, my challenge is how to balance my role as a leader in this enterprise and my role as a wife. So the challenges as a woman founder, requires time and effort in the workplace, so the challenges is between balancing the role, for me so far so good. The most important thing is communicating with your partner, so that we can find a way. As women leaders I think we should not lower our expectations of what we can achieve just because we’re women.

Do you have an tips on leadership?

I’m not a natural leader – so I need to read widely and observe from other people. I think for women and people in general who think they are not able to lead, don’t feel down, because everyone can lead. Just try to figure out what your weaknesses are, focus on your strengths, and where should you improve. Don’t be afraid to ask for help – either from your co-founders, teammates, or friends and family. As women leaders, we should not lower our expectations of what we can achieve just because we are women.

Do you have any female role models?

Sheryl Sandberg, of course. Through her book I realized that women leaders do have their own challenges but it should not hinder them to become a leader. Apart from that, I learned how to compromise with our partner without having to lower expectations on our own career aspirations.

What do you love about your work?

Since I was a child, my parents would tell me that the most important thing in life is how you can impact other people. So those values have been instilled in me from a really early age, they are what keep me going everyday knowing that our application is making a difference.

 

Metha Trisnawati: Co-founder of Sayurbox

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m Metha from Sayurbox which is an e-commerce platform distributing fresh, local produce and dry goods from local farmers and producers. Amanda [Susanti] and I have been doing Sayurbox since July 2016. I currently manage the operations of Sayurbox, which entails sourcing from the farmers and establishing relationships between them, managing the warehouse and logistics, and distribution of the produce.

How did you come into this partnership together?

Amanda is actually very passionate about farming. She had a farm initially, and worked together with the local farmers in the area. At the time, I had just finished my Masters degree, came back to Jakarta and met Amanda. She told me about this project she wanted to build, which sounded really exciting. So I got on board.

For a lot of urban people, living in cities means having access to all kinds of produce at the supermarket and not really having to think about where it comes from. Do you think there’s is a trend towards a renewed focus on local and seasonal produce?

We try to communicate those values to our customers. For example, we have farmer profiles on our website so the customer knows exactly where their food has come from. The response has been really good, people are really excited whenever we post on social media. This is what really excites us, to be able to reach more farmers to join our network, so we can serve more customers. People are really embracing this concept of farm-to-table fresh produce.

Having worked closely with these farmers, what are the sorts of challenges they are facing in this massive food value chain?

Logistics is one of the major challenges they are facing right now, because not many farmers have the access to it. That’s where we come in. We provide assistance with access to markets and help them manage logistics in order to distribute crops to the customers in the areas that we cover. In many farming communities, there are long supply chains which means farmers depend on parties like village traders. They have to sell their crops to the first traders to get the initial capital to grow their produce, then when harvest time comes around, they sell their produce to the first trader at the price that they’ve set. As a result, they are not able to set up a decent market for their families. We provide them with an option so that they don’t always have to sell to their first trader, instead they can sell to us for a fair price, and we can help distribute to the consumers and the market.

Have you experienced any major challenges in setting up Sayurbox?

Again, in terms of logistics, we have had to build the operational system by ourselves. Initially it was about approaching the farmers and building a relationship and gaining their trust. They were just used to selling their crops to village traders, so it was intimidating for them at first to see strangers coming into their village. Lots of the challenges that we face from the start is mostly the operational challenges, identifying how we can help these farmers and efficiently distribute their crops. It keeps us going though, knowing that there are a lot of opportunities to tackle these issues, and get as many farmers on board as possible.

And being two women founders, have face you faced any gender biases in your career?

Luckily not really. Everyone that we have met on our journey with Sayurbox have been really helpful. They don’t focus on the fact that we are two women, but there is definitely still that stigma of ‘Can you actually do this?’ Because as a woman in Indonesia, and in society more generally, there’s that idea that you need to have a family and do all these things by a certain age. I personally don’t have those kinds of issues. But they are still very much prevalent within society. At Sayurbox we really try to encourage women, in fact 80% of our team are women. We try to build a culture for women where we are supportive of each other. For example, if one of our women employees needs to take care of their children at home, they have the option of working from home. That way they can achieve that balance between work and family life.

What do you love most about the work you do?

For me, it’s the people I have met. Getting to meet the farmers has always been my favourite thing. Whenever we go for sourcing, I get to travel, learn how they grow their produce, talk with them about their life on the farm and the challenges that they are facing. It’s incredible to see their passion for growing food. The feeling you get when you talk to them – you can see their genuinity, and the love they put into growing their fruits and vegetables. They work very hard. We also employ mothers in our warehouse, who work for us during their free time to earn extra cash for their families. They pack, pick and check the quality of the produce. It’s a very satisfying feeling getting to work closely with different people.

What’s one piece of advice you would say to young women entrepreneurs?

Just do it. Don’t be afraid or be limited by the stigmas within society. Just have the courage to explore. I personally don’t have a background in farming or agriculture, but having met Amanda and seeing how passionate she is makes me want to learn more. There are always going to be challenges – just believe in yourself, try your best and you will go a long way.

 

Claire Quillet: CEO of Towards Sustainable Businesses (TSB)

ANGIN Women’s Spotlight series seeks to showcase a diverse array of inspiring women leaders and their stories and experiences in order to shed light on the unique experiences of women in business. We hope that both men and women can gain from these shared experiences, that these stories can inspire change, and that other young girls are motivated to become leaders as well.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m Claire Quillet, a French citizen who lived almost 20 years in Indonesia, mother of 2, CEO of Towards Sustainable Businesses (TSB). TSB is a consultancy agency supporting mainly private sector to design, implement, monitor and evaluate development program and/or corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. Our main area of expertise is WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene), as well as education and environment. Our aim is to ensure that employees and surrounding communities will universally have access to WASH and therefore to a better health, as well as creating positive impact to the company’s business.

You’ve been in Indonesia for almost 20 years. What made you want to stay for so long?

You know, I arrived on a two-months contract – it always starts that way. I came as an emergency specialist, working for an emergency NGO. I came in 1999 during the Maluku crisis, so I was based in a tiny island in Maluku, providing displaced people with water and sanitation, foods and health care. In terms of natural disasters, it has been non-stop in Indonesia since 1999. From the crisis in Timor, to the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, with earthquakes in Yogyakarta, Padang, Alor or Nabire – for a WASH emergency specialist, this was the place to be. I stayed for work, by helping people in need. That’s the first reason.

Also moving from one island to another, is almost like working in different countries. Food, people, religion are different, only the language, nicely, remains the same. It’s so diverse that you don’t feel tired to be here.

Unfortunately, up to now, needs still exist for a lot of Indonesian people. You know, more than 30 million Indonesians do not have access to a toilet which causes water borne diseases (diarrhea, for instance) that kills almost 140.000 children under the age of 5 years every year in this country. So, there is still more to be done.

Have you had many difficulties during your career and how did you overcome them?

Of course. Different challenges at different times.

In the NGO sector, the objective is to reach the most vulnerable in the communities. The challenge will then to be in the field and have enough means and money to deliver programs.

I have been working for UNICEF for 8 years. The challenge was different. WASH is unique because you are dealing with several ministries including the minister for health, education, environment, Bappenas, etc. So, collaboration and coordination are crucial to achieve goals for a vast country like Indonesia. Bureaucracy can slow down the progress. But, improving regulations or changing policies take time. You must keep your motivation up and be patient.

Moving to the private sector and creating my own company was another challenge. First, actually creating it. I was lucky to find an Indonesian angel investor who believed in my idea. TSB provides unique services for multinational and Indonesian companies in the domain of sustainable CSR programs. But, CSR as a business model is not yet understood by most of the private sector. Our work is then challenging but also very exciting.

As a female founder, have you had any challenges in Indonesia?

Not at all. I think Indonesian people are very respectful. Especially being a female and an expatriate, they will esteem you a lot. They are eager to learn. Whatever they learn from you, then they will do ala Indonesia. Sometimes it might not be what you wanted, but that’s their way of doing it. You don’t want to be an expat bombarding them with how you do it in your country – because it’s their country. For me, being a woman is really a blessing.

How so?

I’ve always worked in a predominantly male environment. Indeed, WASH is technical, and few women choose this sector. With most of the men I met in my work, there is no ego game when they deal with a woman. Maybe because we also have a way to pass on the message. We are more patient. At the end of the day, the outcome is the same, but we do it in a different way.

The positive part of living in Indonesia for 20 years, is that they see you as somebody who has the international experience but also someone who is here for the long run. You know the culture, you know the language, and the how the people work. I speak Indonesian to my clients rather than English, and they respect that. Indonesians are very patriotic. Even if you don’t speak very well, as long as you try, they understand that you’re making the effort. Here, if you start to make a good relationship with someone, it is forever. The people I know in the government and in business, I have known for the last 10 years. Even when they move companies, you still have their contact details, and they will still help you.

In your work, have you ever seen a gender gap, in the population in general, problems to do with gender or equitable distribution?

Working for NGOs over the past years, we listen to the voice of the women in a different way, because their needs are not the same as their male counterparts. So, yes you have gender inequality. Unlike in the Western world, the issues of gender equality here are not just about equal pay and domestic violence, but women are still finding their place within society. You will see women who stay at home, some work for small salaries, and have many kids but won’t always have access to family planning. Not only that, but the geographical inequalities are also present. You can see the difference between Jakarta and the more Eastern islands like Papua. Women’s empowerment initiatives exist, but we are still far away from reaching gender equality.

Can you talk about one woman who has impacted your life?

I do not have a role model. But there are some Indonesian women I really admire, for example Ibu Tiur. She is the head of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and used to be the head Indonesia Business Council for Sustainable Development (IBCSD). She’s amazing – she has the knowledge, motivation and the drive, it’s inside her. Even though she’s a busy person, she will take the time to talk with you, to see how she can help with your business, or even just talking in general. She has an incredible network and aura that everybody sees. It’s not about money or power for her. She is amazing for her country.

You are also a mother, right?

Yes, I have 2 kids, one boy and one girl.

You would hope to see them grow up in a world where things are better and both of them can grow up to be on equal footing. How do you instill those values in both your kids? What do you hope to see for them in the future?

For me, that lies in education. They have to understand where they come from. They have their father here, but also have roots in France. When they were young, I bought them a globe to open their minds up to the world. It’s about discussing the problems that they face, and having that daily discussion with them where nothing is taboo. I also talk a lot about my work, so they know what I am doing, and that I have worked in different parts of the world. Just showing them by example is opening their mind up a lot. Whatever they want to do in terms of work, it’s up to them. Just do it with the sense of human to human.

It’s scary to have kids at this time. If I was a young woman now I would ask myself if I want to have kids because I can see where the world is going, in terms of the environment, the growth of internet and consumption. Adjusting to this as a mother is challenging, but I always keep positive.

That’s why I am doing what I am doing. Engaging private sector to see business differently, to leave a better world for the future generation. CSR is not philanthropy. CSR program should impact the company’s business – whether it’s for their reputation or brand development and serve the community needs. A sustainable program, that will develop the company business and the community, need a thorough design. It is crucial to conduct robust preliminary study within the community to understand the context, their needs, as well as their aspirations. It’s not about what you want to give them. It is a human to human experience.

 

Giulia Sartori: Founder of Miachia

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m Giulia Sartori, I’m the founder of Miachia. We specialise in energy bars and bites, made from real fruit and premium ingredients.

You started in climate change consultancy, what was the point at which you decided to switch careers?

My background is in economics. I did a masters of environmental management and I started my career in climate change about 12 years ago. To be honest, I didn’t really know if I wanted to quit my job for good, and I still don’t. I just needed a break from that environment, despite the fact that I really did like my job. Around a year and a half ago, I wanted to change jobs but I couldn’t find anything that was exciting enough. Then I had a terrible experience with my boss at the time, which made me really want to try my own thing, something different. At that time, I was really excited about healthy eating and food. So I thought I might give it a try.

So you were already in Indonesia? Why did you choose to base your company here?

Yes, I came to Indonesia about 6 years ago for my work and my husband followed me. It was a funny evolution of things actually – he wasn’t feeling too well at first, and was later diagnosed with gluten intolerance. I then decided we had to change our lifestyle, so I enrolled myself in a nutrition course that I was doing at night and on weekends. From there, I started experimenting with recipes and things that I could do. I wanted to have a healthy lifestyle for us and the kids, but I couldn’t find much in the Indonesian market. It just came to me that maybe I could start my own business creating healthy snacks.

What is the concept of Miachia?

The concept is dead simple, but funnily enough it’s a concept that a lot of people don’t understand. So our products are 100% natural with no preservatives, refined sugars and syrups, just using 2-5 ingredients. Just nuts, fruits, and seeds. That’s it. So it’s really simple, but many people don’t see the added value of eating so simply and so naturally. The thing that I have most difficulty with, is that we say that our products don’t have added sugar in them, which they don’t, but are naturally very sweet because we sweeten them with fruits like dates, figs and raisins. Many Indonesians won’t believe us when we say we don’t use any sugar – they say, “They’re really sweet, how is that possible?” We just blend fruits!

We also try to source everything locally and directly from farmers as much as possible.  Unfortunately it’s not possible for all our ingredients, so what we do source from outside, we try to source from organic suppliers.

So your market a mix of Indonesians and expatriates?

Yes. Initially, it was purely expats. Simply because those were the people that could easily understand our product. The feedback that I got was surprisingly really good. At the moment, I’m trying to expand to the Indonesian market as well, which is generally upper-middle class. Number one, because those are the people who are concerned about diet and healthier eating and are also able to afford our product.

Having led number of teams throughout your career, what leadership lessons have you learnt?

When I started Miachia, I made a conscious decision to only employ women. Particularly those who did not have an education, both older or younger and haven’t had many previous employment opportunities. With that in mind, I have had problems that i’ve never had before in terms of leadership. One of them is implementing procedures and standards, and explaining why things are done in a certain way, has proven difficult to put in place and enforce. The main thing i’ve learnt is to be flexible and patient. I did not have a lot of patience before and I could often be demanding. I was very fast paced then, whereas now I have to take a step back and go a lot slower.

Being a mother of two kids, how do you juggle all of it? What are the secrets?

Look, I have to admit, I never get it right. There are times where I really need to focus on work, and I just focus on that a lot more than my family. Then there are times where I have to take a step back and take more time for the kids and the family. Maybe I’ll go to work and then come home a little bit earlier. Weekends are absolutely non-working days. So I try to have a balance but very rarely I get it right. I just see what is priority.

Overall, the family has always been my priority. Of course work is important, but I always try and make time for them. When I quit my job, I started this company with the intention that I would examine how the business if going after a year, and decide whether to go back to work and find myself new employment. So during that year, I worked so hard to get this company up and running. But I also wanted to enjoy my kids while I still had the flexibility, which I wouldn’t have in a normal 9 to 5 job. So I tried to spend a lot of time with them, because they’re small and need time and attention. People say its quality versus quantity, and at this age it’s actually the other way. It’s about how much time you spend around them, so I try to be around as much as possible.

Do you have any advice for any young women who want to go into entrepreneurship?

One of the advantages I had in starting my own company was that I was not afraid of failure. That helped me a lot, it helped me to start and not overthink it. Therefore I focused on how I was going to do things and try to be successful, rather than sinking into fear and thinking about the what ifs. I actually give mentorships to other women here that are looking to start their own business. The most common question asked is ‘What if i fail?’ My answer to that is

‘So what?’ If you fail, at least you will learn something from the experience and wouldn’t have lost much except time, and even that is compensated by the experience that you’ve learnt. My advice to young people is don’t be too worried or scared to fail, because you probably will in some areas at least. Just take that lesson and you apply it back to something else next time.

When starting a business pitch your idea and business model to as many people as possible, especially entrepreneurs, their feedback will help you structure or improve the concept. Within this year and a half of starting Miachia, there have been many things that have not worked at all. For me, it’s just been expenses in terms of money that I’ve thrown out the window. But I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t try.  Don’t be worried about what your friends or family will say, just do it. The younger you are the less you have to lose as well. So, who cares.

Dayu Dara Permata: Senior Vice President of GO-JEK

Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Dayu Dara Permata. I am the Senior Vice President of GO-JEK, and co-founder of GO-LIFE which is the lifestyle division of GO-JEK.

What was the inspiration behind the GO-LIFE division?

Back in 2015, GO-JEK had just launched its mobile application which had 3 services – transportation for 2-wheels, logistics for 2-wheels and food delivery. Nadiem [Makarim] reached out to me and asked if i wanted to join his team with this application called GO-JEK. At the time, it was a really small startup – with only about 12 people in the management team in a very small office.

I asked him, “Why do you want me to join?” to which he shared with me his vision for GO-JEK – as a tool to empower the informal sector through technology and user-centered design, which is done by providing a platform for users and service providers. Nadiem started with transportation services and logistics which he believes to be the backbone of the business. But on top of this backbone, he believed that you could build layers and layers of services, which is how GO-LIFE came about.

We are harboring the opportunities in the market – the skills and talent out there, the service providers who struggle to find customers, who make barely enough money to make a living yet at the same time, are very productive and skillful. While on the supply side, there are inflexible working hours, with some people working away from their families for 8-10 hours, even when there are no customers. And on the demand side, you see all these customers struggling to find service providers, who are also limited by operating hours. At certain hours, everyone has to queue, and then other times it is idle. It’s simply inflexible.

These inefficiencies in the market means there is an opportunity to aggregate. So that’s how the idea came about. When Nadiem reached out to me he had no idea what kinds of services were going to be launched, so I had to figure that out. I pulled my best friend in to be co-founder, and pushed for these 3 new services (on-demand beauty, massage and cleaning services) because I am an avid user of these services. Nadiem always told me that when you invent something, make sure it also solves your problems and that you’re passionate about it. So then if things don’t go well, at least you’ve solved your own problems.

Where do you see GO-JEK going in the next few years?

GO-JEK now has become a one-stop app for urban needs. Three years ago when I first joined the company, we were just starting with transportation and logistics services. Now that backbone is very strong, and any services can really be built on top of it. We are the largest transportation network in Indonesia with around 1 million drivers, whether it be 2-wheel or 4-wheel. We are the largest logistics network in Indonesia, the largest cashless payment network and the most diverse in terms of the services we provide – transportation, logistics, food, retail, shopping, lifestyle, to professional services and payment – you name it.

Where is GO-JEK going next? When you want to grow a business there are only 3 things you can do: Firstly, you can diversify your services. We’ve just started to do that, and we are not even halfway done yet! In the next coming years, we will continue to diversify our services.

Secondly, extensifying or expanding to other regions.  Indonesia has more than 300 cities, more than 100,000 populations. Now we are in 75 cities. There are still 200+ cities to expand to just in Indonesia. The opportunities are even more immense outside of Indonesia.

Last but not least – intensifying. For every service that we’ve already launched, one of the other features is to make things more efficient and more effective,  and to provide more uses and solve more pinpoints.

Being a woman who is also quite young, have you ever felt undermined because of that?

Ever since I started my career, I have always had that feeling of being inexperienced and very young, particularly being a woman in a male dominated industry.  So when I first jumped into the workforce, I started working as a corporate strategy analyst in a company where I was the youngest, the most clueless, etc. So you always have to establish yourself. How you do that is by working to the best of your ability, continue to learn and never stop. Step up in your role in every opportunity. If you’re given a small role, go beyond that scope and prove that you can do it and next thing you know – they give you more than your initial scope, and before you know it you are leading the team and responsible for a major deliverable and exposed to top management and shareholders. So that’s what happened in my first year working as a corporate strategy analyst.

Then, I was a consultant at McKinsey. I was also the youngest there in every team setup. I had to work with clients with more than 20 years experience in that particular field and you have to advise them. Of course you will also be undermined. The things we hear from time to time from clients, like “Oh my socks are older than you!” or “What are you doing here? You’re the same age as my daughter!” These were very common. You will always get undermined if you are young and inexperienced, if there’s someone more senior than you and you’re also working on something you’ve never done before. The key is to establish yourself, do the best to your capability and scope, go beyond that scope and prove that you can.

What are the most challenging aspects of your work? How do you stay motivated?

The biggest challenge for me as a leader is to manage people and to lead. In my life, I’ve read probably more than 100 books on leadership, and have been exposed to a lot of coaches who are good leaders. So I thought I knew a lot about leadership. I never led until I joined GO-JEK, because at McKinsey I was an analyst and mostly interacted with researchers who I didn’t have to manage. When I hired my first 60 members at GO-JEK, I realized I didn’t know how to lead despite all those books I had read. That is the most challenging part of being a leader – to lead, and how you manage these human beings with feelings and emotions – today they could be happy, tomorrow they could cry. When you give them guidance, some of them get it and become easily motivated, while others continue to be clueless.

My teams grew quickly from 60 to 150. So, feel like my biggest challenge everyday is how to manage people, how to develop them so that they can be the next leaders, and hopefully be my successors. I think leading is like giving birth, you can read hundreds of books on how to give birth, you don’t know how it feels and what it takes until you are the one actually doing it. So I think it’s just about practice and try to be a better version of the leader everyday. Because everyone is a work in progress. I don’t think anyone is perfect, it’s always contextual and situational. You can be a good leader for a certain company or organization, then you take on a different role and have to start all over again. So that’s the challenge.

How do you motivate yourself on tough days?

First of all, when you do something, make sure it’s something you’re passionate about. You’re not only in it for the money, but that you’re in for a good cause. Because there needs to be a purpose to do well, but also to do good. If you have that, then everyday will feel lighter. There are also challenges everyday that sometimes takes problem solving. How I get through my day is by reminding myself what I am here for. That means taking a step back to re-prioritise and understand what matters the most. Is it worth fighting for? You need to choose your battles. You can’t be stressed out about too many things. Understand what you can control and forget what you cannot control, because if you think about it all the time, it will just make you very unhappy. So, understand what’s within your scope, what you can control, and then solve it.

Do you have a female role model who has impacted your life?

I look up to Cheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook). I think she is very inspiring in the way that she is a great leader – a great leader for herself, for her team, for change and for causes that she believes in. At the time, she was in her thirties, in a senior role working as the United States Secretary of the Treasury. Then, Mark [Zuckerburg] came to her asking her to join his online social networking company. She decided to take a chance and trust in Mark, someone who was 15 years younger than her. She has that audacity, fearlessness but also humility. She inspires a lot of people.

If you could tell young girls in the world any message, what would it be?

I have this mental model I call B.R.A.V.E. ‘B’ stands for believe in yourself, if you can or believe you cannot you will be right either way. So whenever I do something, I believe I can. If you have the mindset that you can’t do it, you’re already halfway to failure.

‘R’ is role model success – which is important if you want to be successful as a female leader. Everyone wants to be successful. but there are many definitions of success. My success means something very different to someone else’s success. Make sure you know what success means to you – that could mean leading a team of a thousand people or to be like someone, whether that person be Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates or Jokowi. Once you have a goal in mind, the journey can be zig-zag or sideways but at least you know you’re going there.

‘A’ stands for attain rational distance. Sometimes when women think they want to drop out of the workforce, it can be short-sighted, focused on the short-term, or purely fueled by emotions. If you want to be a successful leader, you always need to attain rational distance whenever you make a decision. Whatever decision you make will affect you and your future. If you make decisions, ask yourself the question – Will my family and friends be happy about it? In ten days or ten months, will I be happy about it? If the answer is no, then probably don’t make that decision or at least postpone it until you are more rational.

‘V’ is view failures as a learning. As an entrepreneur and a leader, most times than not you will fail at the first time you try. The success rate of startups is 10% which means if you try 10 times, you will succeed at least once. If you bump into failures, don’t feel like this is the end of everything. Just think of it as part of your learning curve. As I go on and make mistakes, I learn to do better. Then, at some point my performance will outdo my failures and I will be a high-performing leader and individual. So, view failures as the cost of learning.

‘E’ is expand possibilities. A lot of female leaders think they have to choose between career or family, love life or professional life, and being successful at work or at home. That is exactly what will happen if you think that way. You will only succeed in one of these areas because that is your mindset. Expanding possibilities is about believing that you will achieve everything, not at the same time, but at the right time. There might be a time where I will want to settle down and have kids. That means that in the next 9 months, I will have this hormonal turmoil and might not be my best self all the time, but it’s ok because it’s an investment. Once you have given birth, maybe your priorities will shift to make sure that your kids are well-looked after and you become a responsible mother. But after that, you can basically run again and continue your marathon. Believe that you can be successful in everything that you do, be ready to pass in and out of your career and family until you find the right balance. Just be brave.

 

Elisabeth Kurniawan: Founder of The Shonet

Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Elisabeth. Currently I’m running The Shonet, which is a shopping network that connects brands and readers through interactive content. We position ourselves as a social commerce that combines content and commerce. There are a lot of e-commerce and media outlets, but there needs to be a coherence between both. So that’s why The Shonet exists.
Where did you get the idea for that?
In Indonesia, there is a need for credibility in a platform. We are targeting millennials and females who are seeking advice from industry experts, and care about who writes the content.  Especially now with a lot of printed media shifting to online, and a lot of what’s online is often mainstream and viral. There is a need to go back to our roots and make sure that credibility is there.
Fashion is quite interesting because it’s quite heavily dominated by women. Is it the same dynamic in Indonesia as it is in the States, being a woman in fashion?
I think in the States, there are also men in fashion. It’s funny, people study fashion to be in the fashion world. But actually in the retail/fashion business, most of my colleagues were ex-bankers actually; they used to work for Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc. But for people who study fashion, everyone has to start from internships. I think there is a huge difference in the fashion world versus the actual job. Even in fashion there’s a requirement that we need to be on top of everything, cater to small details, grab coffees, run errands. Those are the things that are included during internships. Whereas in Indonesia, people see internship as different aspects. Actually, those coffee runs – if an intern doesn’t mind grabbing coffee, we can tell that they don’t mind to do the dirty work.  
How do you see yourself shaping the Indonesian fashion scene? Because everything seems so set in States, it seems like Indonesia is quite the environment to change things and move around. It’s very dynamic. How do you think you can shake things up?
I am not a big fan of the culture in the fashion industry back then because there was a lot of seniority. I wish it was more of a flat structure. Everyone can have an opinion and doesn’t have to be afraid to speak up about their ideas. I love the culture of tech companies, and bringing that to the fashion industry is important. The reason why companies like Google, Facebook, and Netflix are so successful is because of the open culture. They are very open to ideas. In fashion, it is very hierarchical. Whereas in tech, you can ask anyone anything. I want to change this in Indonesia. Our company is focused on fashion, lifestyle and beauty, and enabled by tech. We are incorporating a culture where its open and receptive to ideas. But we still have the persistency and quality of the fashion industry. So it’s a mix of both.
In the West, fashion can be seen as empowering women by giving them more choices. But there’s also self-image – a lot of people criticise fashion for having adverse effects on girls’ self-esteem. It’s difficult to say whether its empowering or not, especially because a lot of the fashion powerhouses are run by men in the States and in Europe. What’s your opinion on that? And how can fashion in Indonesia be empowering?
Especially with the growth of women leaders in this country, it’s about promoting gender equality and the idea that women can lead as well. If we see the statistics, a lot of women have lower salary than men, regardless of position and whether women can perform as well. But by having more women in leadership positions, we can minimize those scenarios and start making a difference. Being in the role, we are able to structure things based on performance rather than gender. These gender biases are happening in Indonesia. However, this country is starting to see more women leaders. These are sensitive topics, but they are real. These things are possible to be changed as long as the leader wants to change it.
Is there gender bias in an industry like fashion that is dominated by women?
Yes, even in fashion. That’s why everyone is promoting the idea of women’s empowerment. At first, I thought that gender biases were only prevalent in the banking industry which is very male dominated. But no, I’m actually quite surprised.
Have you had any major setbacks in climbing up the ladder?
I did back in the days. Because I wasn’t a US citizen, I was a foreigner. I used to have a dream of making it in the States and being better than average. Having that mentality has pushed me to perform better. The part of the challenge is that when it comes to foreigners, it’s a question of “Can you be better than everyone else?” That was in the early stages of my career, but I was very persistent to make a difference. Once my boss saw that, he started to put trust in me which then opened up to more opportunities. I climbed up the ladder from there.
You have to try twice as hard as a foreigner?
Exactly. And do the things that nobody wants to do. Once i had to run after a FedEx truck because of a delivery that we had to make sure came on time. There was another time when I had to deliver 20 cappuccinos to an office, back and forth from Starbucks in the middle of a snowstorm. I literally had to do that — these things that are unseen in the industry.
Wow, that’s crazy! Do you have any advice for young girls trying to break into the fashion industry?
Persistence, stop complaining and having a positive mind. Especially in the moments where you struggle the most, remember to just be positive. Just be open about criticisms and setbacks. Always thrive to be better. It’s hard for people to take criticism sometimes, especially millennials. Just never give up, which mean you have to see a lot of positives in criticism. That’s where I’ve been able to grow the most – through criticism. Don’t give up easily.
What do you tell yourself on those days where you want to give up?
I just keep focused on why I do what I do. If i give up right now, the things that I did and the people that believed in it –  it will all be for nothing. There are a lot of things that give you the urge to give up, but I just keep pressing forward.
What’s the best thing you love about your work?
We bring good impacts, we know we have a vision to bring back the credibility and to appreciate people. Sometime, companies in Indonesia don’t focus on the people, but highlight the brand more. That’s why we aspire to make that change. We aspire to empower through community where we showcase the people, and the people that will make a proper publications and bring impacts in the industry landscape in Indonesia, especially people who are passionate about fashion and beauty; have been in the field it for a long time. It’s about creating their legacy in digital world and empowering things that matter. That’s part of our vision.