A very long while ago, I told an executive "leader" that he should stay away from interfering into granularity of work details of his people, and have a helicopter view instead. The response was "I am an engineer. If I drive a car, I have to know how the engine work". I was trying to remind him that he is a vice president. A US$ billion company. He then said that he would stay away once he knows all the details and feels comfortable enough.
It turned out that enough was never enough, or at least took a very long time to get to a small portion of enough. It's at the expense of (some) other people, feeling unease at work, worrying (or fearing) that the way people do the jobs might not be the way the boss like. Nevertheless to say, he got what he wanted, jobs were executed completely. Some good highly talented people were detaching themselves, some were seeking opportunity outside the company. Lately, I indirectly had a converstaion with one of them. He smilingly mentioned that if he were a VP, he would have him (the boss) as the manager, not the other way around. "Now, he is getting better, though", he added.
I have no idea to connect 'an engineer' and 'a helicopter view'. Perhaps, I shall be wise enough to understand about being (or talking to) a 'leader' and a 'manager' as some people try to differentiate. Or there are people thinking that the world is revolving around him or her, the center of universe! It might be an interesting topics of organizational behavior or leadership psychology study. But I would like to refer to Jack Welch, the former chairman and CEO of General Electric. Many called him as one of the greatest CEO of the era. In 29 Leadership Secrets from Jack Welch (Robert Slater, 2003), abridged from Get Better or Get Beaten, Jack Welch mentioned:
As we became leaner, we found ourselves communicating better, with fewer interpreters and fewer filters. We found that with fewer layers we had wider spans of management. We weren't managing better. We were managing less, and that was better.
Interesting enough that he wanted his managers to manage less. He wanted them to do less monitoring and less supervising and to give their employees more lattitude. Conversely, he wanted far more decision making at the lower levels of the company. It shall be understood carefully as not to suggest that managers are out of controls on what's happening. Sometimes it sounds counterintuitive as managers are supposed to and want to manage. As we see it within the context, it's more appropriately sugesting about managers staying away from thsoe granuarity of details of their people. Stop looking over their shoulders. Stop bogging them down in bureaucracy. Let them perform.
Behind it lies a key idea: we have hired the best people and trained them so that we need to treat them with respect. Build their confidence - in us, in the company, and in themselves. And then get the hell out of their way. For Welch, "managing less" at GE meant that his leaders had more time to think big thoughts and be more creative.
I would say that it's very inspiring. We can just simply say, Empowerment.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Green Concerns, Small Steps
I learned with surprise this morning, during an internal global con-call on IT projects, that our compnay is the no. 3 polluter in the Bay area (west coast, USA). For a company with a high commitment to HES (health, environment and safety), this is quite a not-so-good news, if not to say a bit embarrassing. I have not yet made any further checks as to whether it's coming from refinery, oil-gas exploration-prodcution, or other stuffs. More importantly, serious green initiatives are now being undertaken.
Within the energy industry, efforts have been projected toward finding and establishing more on renewable energy. While this would be a future answer to the current sky-rocketing of oil prices, it would also be good energy alternatives that are more environment-friendly. Getohermal energy production has been praised for reducing CO2 footprints as compared to oil and gas mining. Reduction of CO2 footptints shall also be directed toward those manfucturing plants and industrial complex. In this regard, the one that was quite impressive a long time ago while living there was Yokohama in Japan. It was surprisingly clean air amidts a large number of plants operating day-by-day. They were fueled by LNG - liquified natural gas -, a clean energy solution.
What can we do as an individual to help our mother earth sustain our lives ? While some has powerful authority to excercise positive impacts (and need to do so), we can start small steps on our parts. There are stuffs that contribute directly to high emsision or carbons (bad motor exhaust for example) and also those daily "products" we use that the making process are involving carbon emissions or the disposal that would create environmental issue (plastics). Get good care of our cars and bikes as not to pollute our air. Use as approriate, not more than necessary: water, electricity (switch off when we are out of the rooms)... and those computer generated products we use daily. Don't print anything than necessary. A lot more of other stuffs that seems to be small, yet would contribute to the better of our living environment.
Within the energy industry, efforts have been projected toward finding and establishing more on renewable energy. While this would be a future answer to the current sky-rocketing of oil prices, it would also be good energy alternatives that are more environment-friendly. Getohermal energy production has been praised for reducing CO2 footprints as compared to oil and gas mining. Reduction of CO2 footptints shall also be directed toward those manfucturing plants and industrial complex. In this regard, the one that was quite impressive a long time ago while living there was Yokohama in Japan. It was surprisingly clean air amidts a large number of plants operating day-by-day. They were fueled by LNG - liquified natural gas -, a clean energy solution.
What can we do as an individual to help our mother earth sustain our lives ? While some has powerful authority to excercise positive impacts (and need to do so), we can start small steps on our parts. There are stuffs that contribute directly to high emsision or carbons (bad motor exhaust for example) and also those daily "products" we use that the making process are involving carbon emissions or the disposal that would create environmental issue (plastics). Get good care of our cars and bikes as not to pollute our air. Use as approriate, not more than necessary: water, electricity (switch off when we are out of the rooms)... and those computer generated products we use daily. Don't print anything than necessary. A lot more of other stuffs that seems to be small, yet would contribute to the better of our living environment.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Social Networking and Balance of Power
Don't be scary. It's not about political power struggle. This is purely about IT. Or can be said so. The social networking has been becoming so popular, easy and fun to do so with on-line tools freely available in the Internet. It connects friends of friends, relates, doing people search, write and collaborate. It operates on many levels, from families up to the level of nations. In conjunction with blogging, it seems to be entering into corporate realms. Once that looks like things for teenagers to play around with, it would be part of a new game for information warfare. I was about to address it to an IT leadership meeting in Pekanbaru, Sumatra as to ultize it for corporate purposes. It was then postponed because of time limitation, giving more for other important stuffs. Some might also still perceive it as just toys.
Kevin Werbach, professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton, commented to the discussion on How Facebook Gave Birth to an Industry that "social networking will be the basis for a great deal of innovation and business opportunity". Eager to get a friend of mine into this circle of networking wave, I sent a text message asking her email addrees mentionng that I want to invite her to join Facebook. The answer is "I don't' have one. Please send the invitation to my shop at Tator Cafe, 4th Fl. Pacific Place, Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Jakarta".
Amidst all those millions of people in some parts of the world unaware about this new game, a new set of creative ways of doing things unimaginable before keeps on coming to market. In a corporate language, business is not (would not be) as usual as it should be in the past. IT-enabled innovations are becoming real, fast and more to happen. The roles of IT in corporation would need to be re-defined to find a new seat on the table. Many IT-related services are becoming commodity. A lot of things can be done nowdays in a plug-and-play fashion without intervention of highly skilled IT guys. To some extents, the balance of power has been shifted from IT shop to the hands of users. The paradox seems to be that the more successful of IT implementation in a corporate, the less the business needs from the IT department. This is something that IT leaders in corporations shall be aware of and need to come up with a next generation of IT skills to contribute in a diferent way to the business as before.
Wikis, blogs, and social networking would be new enabling tools inside corporation. The new school of thoughts would be for IT functions to live with it, while transforming its competency into business partnering that orchestrate an array of technology solutions for high-value business benefits. Leave gradually all those low-margin "hard stuffs" of old-day romantism to plug-and-play automation or external parties that woud combine with those from others for their economies of scale benefits.
A new challenge for corporate IT leaders to make that IT DOES MATTER.
Kevin Werbach, professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton, commented to the discussion on How Facebook Gave Birth to an Industry that "social networking will be the basis for a great deal of innovation and business opportunity". Eager to get a friend of mine into this circle of networking wave, I sent a text message asking her email addrees mentionng that I want to invite her to join Facebook. The answer is "I don't' have one. Please send the invitation to my shop at Tator Cafe, 4th Fl. Pacific Place, Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Jakarta".
Amidst all those millions of people in some parts of the world unaware about this new game, a new set of creative ways of doing things unimaginable before keeps on coming to market. In a corporate language, business is not (would not be) as usual as it should be in the past. IT-enabled innovations are becoming real, fast and more to happen. The roles of IT in corporation would need to be re-defined to find a new seat on the table. Many IT-related services are becoming commodity. A lot of things can be done nowdays in a plug-and-play fashion without intervention of highly skilled IT guys. To some extents, the balance of power has been shifted from IT shop to the hands of users. The paradox seems to be that the more successful of IT implementation in a corporate, the less the business needs from the IT department. This is something that IT leaders in corporations shall be aware of and need to come up with a next generation of IT skills to contribute in a diferent way to the business as before.
Wikis, blogs, and social networking would be new enabling tools inside corporation. The new school of thoughts would be for IT functions to live with it, while transforming its competency into business partnering that orchestrate an array of technology solutions for high-value business benefits. Leave gradually all those low-margin "hard stuffs" of old-day romantism to plug-and-play automation or external parties that woud combine with those from others for their economies of scale benefits.
A new challenge for corporate IT leaders to make that IT DOES MATTER.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Bill Gates on Creative Capitalism
Davos, Switzerland. This winter sports area is famous as the host to the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum, an annual meeting of global political and business elites. The closest that I could physically get to this destination of the rich was last year when 'Eurailing' aboard Glacier Express from St. Moritz to Zermat. The scenary view was spectacular along the Alps of beautiful and snowy Switzerland. We, Ratih and my 5-year old Rafi that kept on moving around, were the only one, I suppose, that looked far, far less wealthy among those passengers in the first class car serving a good lunch meal aboard this slowest fast train in the world.
That's it. The gap between the rich and the poor. Craving for $1 a day, unable figuring out how much zeros are there in $1 million a day in local Indonesia or Peru currency. At WEF 2008 in Davos last month, Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft Corporation, was talking about Creative Capitalism, an approach where governments, businesses, and nonprofits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that eases the world's inequities.
The great advances in the world have often aggravated the inequities in the world. The least needy see the most improvement, and the most needy get the least -- in particular the billion people who live on less than a dollar a day. There are roughly a billion people in the world who don't get enough food, who don't have clean drinking water, who don't have electricity, the things that we take for granted. Diseases like malaria that kill over a million people a year get far less attention than drugs to help with baldness.
We need a system that would have a twin mission: making profits and also improving lives of those who don't fully benefit from today's market forces.
A very noble intent. Although qualifying Capitalism with 'creative' or any other words would not create a new school of thoughts as to establish a new set of economic system. Some critics even say that Bill Gates miss the point on 'creative capitalism'. It's something like branding corporate social responsibily with a new word, as similar to 'caring capitalism'. They said that corporations already provide money to communities and charitable causes, and the world does not get any far better.
I would say that the critics miss the points as well in focusing more on charity aspects. Business could not grow bigger and bigger beyond the limit that can be financially afforded by purchasing power of the community. You can not sell more and more cars in a town that the people can only buy a bike. Anyway, we would not be getting trapped into pros and cons arguments. We would embrace and support the ideas of making the world a better place to live for everyone. And if it comes from a Diva of Software Industry like Bill Gates, it would become more real and make things happen.
"It's Bill", commented Erik Renaud, GM Enterprise & Partner Group, Microsoft Asia Pacific, in our lunch at Pacific Place, Jakarta today. "He likes big things. He still wants to change the world".
Well, we shall be wellcoming Bill Gates in May 2008 here in Jakarta. Probably, someone could manage to steal his time to introduce the concept of "zakat" and "ekonomi syariah", a completely different thinking that might inspire him to do more..... as John Lennon with Imagine, inspired after he spent some time inside India.
That's it. The gap between the rich and the poor. Craving for $1 a day, unable figuring out how much zeros are there in $1 million a day in local Indonesia or Peru currency. At WEF 2008 in Davos last month, Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft Corporation, was talking about Creative Capitalism, an approach where governments, businesses, and nonprofits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that eases the world's inequities.
The great advances in the world have often aggravated the inequities in the world. The least needy see the most improvement, and the most needy get the least -- in particular the billion people who live on less than a dollar a day. There are roughly a billion people in the world who don't get enough food, who don't have clean drinking water, who don't have electricity, the things that we take for granted. Diseases like malaria that kill over a million people a year get far less attention than drugs to help with baldness.
We need a system that would have a twin mission: making profits and also improving lives of those who don't fully benefit from today's market forces.
A very noble intent. Although qualifying Capitalism with 'creative' or any other words would not create a new school of thoughts as to establish a new set of economic system. Some critics even say that Bill Gates miss the point on 'creative capitalism'. It's something like branding corporate social responsibily with a new word, as similar to 'caring capitalism'. They said that corporations already provide money to communities and charitable causes, and the world does not get any far better.
I would say that the critics miss the points as well in focusing more on charity aspects. Business could not grow bigger and bigger beyond the limit that can be financially afforded by purchasing power of the community. You can not sell more and more cars in a town that the people can only buy a bike. Anyway, we would not be getting trapped into pros and cons arguments. We would embrace and support the ideas of making the world a better place to live for everyone. And if it comes from a Diva of Software Industry like Bill Gates, it would become more real and make things happen.
"It's Bill", commented Erik Renaud, GM Enterprise & Partner Group, Microsoft Asia Pacific, in our lunch at Pacific Place, Jakarta today. "He likes big things. He still wants to change the world".
Well, we shall be wellcoming Bill Gates in May 2008 here in Jakarta. Probably, someone could manage to steal his time to introduce the concept of "zakat" and "ekonomi syariah", a completely different thinking that might inspire him to do more..... as John Lennon with Imagine, inspired after he spent some time inside India.
Management Lessons from Best Jokes
It's interesting enough to learn that a 'case' story often told in management sessions is derived from a joke. Or probably seen as the other way around that the case is considered as (just) a joke ?. The lessons learned from the story, I would suppose, are about getting to the point, understanding what is actually the problem to come up with the real solution. A classical case about doing the right things versus doing things right.
It is rated as Top Joke in Canada by the University of Hertfordshire, UK in a research project http://www.laughlab.co.uk/ to find the best jokes in the world. Here is the story.
When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300°C.
The Russians used a pencil.
It is rated as Top Joke in Canada by the University of Hertfordshire, UK in a research project http://www.laughlab.co.uk/ to find the best jokes in the world. Here is the story.
When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300°C.
The Russians used a pencil.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Jakarta Bus Ride
Last Saturday, 16th Feb 2008, I managed to wake up and go out early. At around 6.30am I was already on the 'Busway' from Kuningan area, Jakarta to Sarinah Thamrin, with my 5-year old Rafi quite exciting on his second-time ride of Busway.
It was quite efficient and comfortable, and surprisingly cheap with Rp. 2,000 ticket / person! I was then aware that the ticket is sold cheaper before 7am from the normal fare of Rp. 3,500. I would say that it's a good means of public transportation for Jakarta, although there are still some concerns as it (still) does not (yet) significantly reduce an overall traffic burden (some even say that it adds up to make it worse some time as a lane is dedicated to Busway sparing less to other use -- giving away 30% of the road to Busway while saving only 10% of the overall traffic load ?). Nevertheless, it would be good options for domestic as well as foreign tourists to take in cruising along the "jungle' of Jakarta.
Namun, di penyeberangan jembatan Sarinah Thamrin, ternyata kondisinya lumayan kotor. It's CBD area! It's not good for a tourism promotion even to a 'local tourist' seperti saya. Dalam perjalanan pulang, saya mencoba naik Patas AC dari halte Sarinah Thamrin ke arah Kuningan. Saya memerlukan waktu kira-kira 10 menit untuk tanya kanan-kiri untuk akhirnya tahu bahwa bus no. 147 (salah ya ? lupa lagi) dan 57 yang mesti saya tunggu. Setelah ditunggu 30 menit tidak muncul dan melihat para Patas AC berhentinya di lajur kedua (bukan dipinggir, yang sering di tempati metromini, kopaja) dan sekejap saja (not a good safety practice as not to say dangerous), saya akhirnya back to Busway.
Patas AC ini bisnya bagus juga, dan sebenarnya recomneded juga as good public transportation for tourists. "Hanya" informasi dan kesemrawutan yang perlu dibenahi. Alangkah baiknya, kalau di halte (apalagi CBD seperti Sarinah Thamrin) di pasang informasi tentang rute bis, nomer berapa ke jurusan mana. Hal ini akan sangat membantu. Mulai dari informasi dasar sperti ini, belum bicara soal time schedule seperti di kota-kota di bagian dunia lain yang "sudah duluan majunya". Pembenahan sederhana (?) ini sedikit banyak akan berkontribusi menjadikan pada kenyamanan dan berujung ke (peningkatan) turisme juga - Visit Indonesia Year 2008. Ini tugasnya siapa ya, Pemda DKI, Dinas Pariwisata, atau penyelenggara angkutan bis ?.
It was quite efficient and comfortable, and surprisingly cheap with Rp. 2,000 ticket / person! I was then aware that the ticket is sold cheaper before 7am from the normal fare of Rp. 3,500. I would say that it's a good means of public transportation for Jakarta, although there are still some concerns as it (still) does not (yet) significantly reduce an overall traffic burden (some even say that it adds up to make it worse some time as a lane is dedicated to Busway sparing less to other use -- giving away 30% of the road to Busway while saving only 10% of the overall traffic load ?). Nevertheless, it would be good options for domestic as well as foreign tourists to take in cruising along the "jungle' of Jakarta.
Namun, di penyeberangan jembatan Sarinah Thamrin, ternyata kondisinya lumayan kotor. It's CBD area! It's not good for a tourism promotion even to a 'local tourist' seperti saya. Dalam perjalanan pulang, saya mencoba naik Patas AC dari halte Sarinah Thamrin ke arah Kuningan. Saya memerlukan waktu kira-kira 10 menit untuk tanya kanan-kiri untuk akhirnya tahu bahwa bus no. 147 (salah ya ? lupa lagi) dan 57 yang mesti saya tunggu. Setelah ditunggu 30 menit tidak muncul dan melihat para Patas AC berhentinya di lajur kedua (bukan dipinggir, yang sering di tempati metromini, kopaja) dan sekejap saja (not a good safety practice as not to say dangerous), saya akhirnya back to Busway.
Patas AC ini bisnya bagus juga, dan sebenarnya recomneded juga as good public transportation for tourists. "Hanya" informasi dan kesemrawutan yang perlu dibenahi. Alangkah baiknya, kalau di halte (apalagi CBD seperti Sarinah Thamrin) di pasang informasi tentang rute bis, nomer berapa ke jurusan mana. Hal ini akan sangat membantu. Mulai dari informasi dasar sperti ini, belum bicara soal time schedule seperti di kota-kota di bagian dunia lain yang "sudah duluan majunya". Pembenahan sederhana (?) ini sedikit banyak akan berkontribusi menjadikan pada kenyamanan dan berujung ke (peningkatan) turisme juga - Visit Indonesia Year 2008. Ini tugasnya siapa ya, Pemda DKI, Dinas Pariwisata, atau penyelenggara angkutan bis ?.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
On Iran's Nuclear Program
The world, at least some people including myself, is watching in a very deep concern about the proceeds of issues with regard to the Nuclear Program that Iran is pursuing. On particular concerns are on how USA and UN would deal with it, in an equal importance on how that Iran would "cooperate". We could no longer afford seeing a war in middle east. More even a "war based on assumptions" as the world is realizing on what's happening in Iraq now.
While the rethroric ways that President Amhadinejad deliver speeches were perceived as threatening by the west, we need to see resolving the issues thru constructive dialogues, more on "substances" rather than "styles".
We glad to hear about IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and NIE(US National Intelligence Estimate) that indicate a 'negative' on Iran's pursuance to nuclear weaponry (military purposes). Yet, we still see that President George Bush seems to be still after Iran. Even during the press conference with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, on his visit to Israel a few weeks ago, Mr. Bush seemed to be 'dismissing' the report from both IAEA and NIE.
Mr. Olmert is also keeping on saying that Israel sure Iran seeking nuclear arm. In response to this, a spokeperson of the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Jakarta, Mr. Hamid Soltan Soleki wrote to Jakarta Post daily, yesterday Feb 16, 2008:
"It is very strange that representatives of a regime, which obtains hundreds of nuclear warheads and has been source of unrest, instability, crisis by resorting to agression, usurpation and killing of innocent men and women of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, is judging Iran's nuclear program".
It's quite a strong statement, amidst a naked fact that some people might see as what's really happening in middle east. So it would absoulutely need extra energy to make both sides sit down together in a round table -- peace, justice, mutual respects, no double standards. -- seems to be quite a utopia:)
Above all, what are the (moral) grounds that some could have nuclear weapon while others could not ? People even now are worry about nuclear weapon in a relatively unstable Pakistan in the events following Bhutto's death. India has also got it just sometime ago without any issue. I just recalled on what President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, cleverly stated quite a while ago that he very much agreed that middle east should be free from nuclear warheads - no exception. Yap, all parties have to be back to the table on reducing and eliminating this WMD in more time certainty.
An Israeli friend of mine (a businessman), that often comes to visit Jakarta, once said that we make friends by doing business and partnering - across nations that may have different political views or adversaries -- and contribute, whatever small it might be -- to mutual understanding among people in every part of the world on a peaceful earth.
Agreed. But was it true, Erez, that business contacts give also pathways to Camp David and Oslo Accords ?
While the rethroric ways that President Amhadinejad deliver speeches were perceived as threatening by the west, we need to see resolving the issues thru constructive dialogues, more on "substances" rather than "styles".
We glad to hear about IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and NIE(US National Intelligence Estimate) that indicate a 'negative' on Iran's pursuance to nuclear weaponry (military purposes). Yet, we still see that President George Bush seems to be still after Iran. Even during the press conference with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, on his visit to Israel a few weeks ago, Mr. Bush seemed to be 'dismissing' the report from both IAEA and NIE.
Mr. Olmert is also keeping on saying that Israel sure Iran seeking nuclear arm. In response to this, a spokeperson of the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Jakarta, Mr. Hamid Soltan Soleki wrote to Jakarta Post daily, yesterday Feb 16, 2008:
"It is very strange that representatives of a regime, which obtains hundreds of nuclear warheads and has been source of unrest, instability, crisis by resorting to agression, usurpation and killing of innocent men and women of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, is judging Iran's nuclear program".
It's quite a strong statement, amidst a naked fact that some people might see as what's really happening in middle east. So it would absoulutely need extra energy to make both sides sit down together in a round table -- peace, justice, mutual respects, no double standards. -- seems to be quite a utopia:)
Above all, what are the (moral) grounds that some could have nuclear weapon while others could not ? People even now are worry about nuclear weapon in a relatively unstable Pakistan in the events following Bhutto's death. India has also got it just sometime ago without any issue. I just recalled on what President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, cleverly stated quite a while ago that he very much agreed that middle east should be free from nuclear warheads - no exception. Yap, all parties have to be back to the table on reducing and eliminating this WMD in more time certainty.
An Israeli friend of mine (a businessman), that often comes to visit Jakarta, once said that we make friends by doing business and partnering - across nations that may have different political views or adversaries -- and contribute, whatever small it might be -- to mutual understanding among people in every part of the world on a peaceful earth.
Agreed. But was it true, Erez, that business contacts give also pathways to Camp David and Oslo Accords ?
Friday, February 15, 2008
Visit Indonesia Year 2008
Last night, I was watching Minister of Tourism, Mr. Jero Wacik addressing the Visit Indonesia Year 2008 in a small panel of dicussion. I forgot what TV channel he was on. I could see that he has a good intent for pursuing this program as a successful one and seems to be already working hard to make it happen. He mentioned about launching a wide-spread ad, commercials on this program.
With all due respect, I could not yet see a kind of world-class campaigns as to attract a big number of tourists to come in. Coupled with unfortunate conditions -- recent flooding -- happening in Jakarta, it's quite a huge challenge. Almost every night, I turn on BBC channel, and have not yet seen any comercials on anything related to Indonesia Year 2008. Just see several beautiful and attractive flashes on India (Incredible India), Thailand (Amazing Thailand), China.....
I suppose that we need to do more in selling. We already have a numerous wonderful destinations and beautiful places to see within Indonesia. Travel acrosss the archipelago, spend one nite in each island, and you will end up with spending the rest of your life in touch with a very diverse, romantic, memorable encounters! 13,000+ islands that are rich in culture, wonderful panoramic views...a truly magnificent Asia, a spendid exotic touch with the archipelago ! Yap, we need to coin a simple yet attracting moto, rather than those complicated one of something like 'celebrating 100 years of nation awakening' ----- who care that we are awakened or not:)
Get in world-class marketers, engage every part of the nation to sell......Very well understood that it seems to be easy said than done. But we need to start from something. Get it right, get it world-class from the beginning, from a small step.
With all due respect, I could not yet see a kind of world-class campaigns as to attract a big number of tourists to come in. Coupled with unfortunate conditions -- recent flooding -- happening in Jakarta, it's quite a huge challenge. Almost every night, I turn on BBC channel, and have not yet seen any comercials on anything related to Indonesia Year 2008. Just see several beautiful and attractive flashes on India (Incredible India), Thailand (Amazing Thailand), China.....
I suppose that we need to do more in selling. We already have a numerous wonderful destinations and beautiful places to see within Indonesia. Travel acrosss the archipelago, spend one nite in each island, and you will end up with spending the rest of your life in touch with a very diverse, romantic, memorable encounters! 13,000+ islands that are rich in culture, wonderful panoramic views...a truly magnificent Asia, a spendid exotic touch with the archipelago ! Yap, we need to coin a simple yet attracting moto, rather than those complicated one of something like 'celebrating 100 years of nation awakening' ----- who care that we are awakened or not:)
Get in world-class marketers, engage every part of the nation to sell......Very well understood that it seems to be easy said than done. But we need to start from something. Get it right, get it world-class from the beginning, from a small step.
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