What’s in this article
Indonesia’s economy is on the rise, and with it not planing to stop, it is seeing the country taking its place as a major destination for foreign investment and entrepreneurship. Having previously been overlooked in favour of other countries in Asia such as India and China; Indonesia is now hard to ignore.
Indonesian corporate environment is quite different. Prior to going to Indonesia, one should understand that there is no ‘that one’ Indonesian culture, with its 17,000 islands and hundreds of different ethnic groups is a vast collection of different peoples and cultures.
For that reason and many others, it becomes critical that foreign professionals working in Indonesia look past the elaborate deviousness found in Indonesian business and incorporate the correct cultural traits to manage Indonesian personnel.
Understanding the best techniques for intercultural business management is the overarching goal of Executive Orientation Services (EOS) and its cross-cultural training programs. Why is this important? Well, by understanding cultural differences and similarities, you can allow yourselves to make this Repulbic a conducive environment to entrepreneurs.
While Indonesia may still be some steps behind other countries when it comes to infrastructure, it is surprisingly one of the country that is conducive to entrepreneurs.
Indonesia is currently ranked 8th among 45 countries in the world with the highest confidence in the environment for digital transformation, beating London, Madrid, New York, as well Singapore. AND with businesses all heading towards the digital era, it is no doubt that Indonesia will be only climbing up in years to come.
As a thriving economy and home to four startup companies valued at an estimated value of US$1 billion, Indonesia came just below China, Philippines and India.
The Four Biggest Entrepreneurs in Indonesia
- FerryUnardi, CEO ofTraveloka (30 years old)
Startup Website: Traveloka
Latest Funding Stage: Series A
Industry: Travel
Estimated Market Valuation: $2 billion
- AchmadZaky, CEO of Bukalapak (31 years old)
Startup Website: Bukalapak
Latest Funding Stage: Series B
Industry: Ecommerce
Estimated Market Valuation: $1 billion
- NadiemMakarim, CEO of GO-JEK (33 years old)
Startup Website: GO-JEK
Latest Funding Stage: Undisclosed
Industry: Lifestyle, Logistics
Estimated Market Valuation: $4 billion
- WilliamTanuwijaya, CEO ofTokopedia (36 years old)
Startup Website: Tokopedia
Funding Amount: US$100 million
Industry: Consumer Internet, Ecommerce
Estimated Market Valuation: $1.2 billion
The role an Entrepreneur play in Indonesia
The entrepreneurship policy in Indonesia has placed a big influence in creating a conducive environment to support and develop entrepreneurship.
A challenge in developing entrepreneurship policy is that one policy applied in certain areas cannot be applied in other areas automatically.
Entrepreneurs play an important role towards the economic growth and social inclusion in Indonesia. Based on recent studies conducted, Indonesian SMEs and entrepreneurship account for nearly 97% of domestic employment and for 56% of total business investment.
In Indonesia, entrepreneurship policy has not been explored yet. The first attempt of this research is to define the mapping of entrepreneurship policy in Indonesia.
The current research addresses research questions, namely the objectives of entrepreneurship policy; categories of entrepreneurship policy in different units of analysis; and entrepreneurship policy programs.
Once that has all been cemented, and a better pathway can be seen, it will only result in the uprise of entrepreneurship in Indonesia.
Research method is using a qualitative descriptive research. The process includes policy stages, from agenda setting, formulation, and implementation stage of entrepreneurship policy; while the analysis is conducted based on the principles of categorization of entrepreneurship policy content.
This study contributes to reveal the implementation of entrepreneurship policy in Indonesia; enrich entrepreneurship policy literature; and suggest recommendation on a more customized and structural entrepreneurship policy for promoting entrepreneurship.
