JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The millennial generation is no longer on the margins. The generation born between 1980 and 1999 has become decision-makers in determining the direction in various fields. Their way of thinking and finding solutions is very different from previous generations. The role of old organizations, although they still exist, is getting smaller. Millennials will change the future course of the nation.
The Operations & Data Science chief at OLX, Doan Lingga, 35; the Go-Food business head, Nadia Tenggara, 28; the external department head of The Central Leadership Council of Solidarity Party of Indonesia, Tsamara Amany Alatas, 21; vocalist Giring Ganesha, 34; the Gubuak Kopi Community founder, Albert Rahman Putra, 26; the pioneer of Jawara Banten Farm, Nur Agis Aulia, 28; the Social & Brand Activation head at BTPN, Dimas Novriandi, 36; and the marketing head at KoinWorks, Jonathan Bryan, 29; are all part of the millennial generation that have made changes and given meaning to organizations and society. They set the direction in various fields through their work.
They were interviewed in several locations last week. Doan Lingga said he joined OLX, a digital trading platform of secondhand goods, three years ago. He helped build a reliable data infrastructure and processed users’ information so that companies could make better decisions. When he began working at the company, there was only one data expert. Now, OLX has 15 data experts.
OLX Indonesia joined the global OLX competition and came in second. These results enabled them to build a team and an ecosystem with a global role.
"I am proud of this job, because I can help build the team and help people through database innovations. With a variety of data, they can create products, serve customers, and enable the management to make better decisions," he said. They book 1 million transactions a month, with 3.5 million items sold and a transaction value of Rp 30 trillion-Rp 35 trillion.
Mindset
Meanwhile, Nadia Tenggara said the majority of employees at Go-Food were below 30 years old. She said the age trend was common among technology startups.
The presence of young people offered a new way of thinking, adoption of technology, and working culture. The company hears and accommodated their voices. The working culture is not vertical, but horizontal, which creates a strong bond. Currently, Go-Food, one of Go-Jek\'s services, has a presence in 50 cities with about 150,000 restaurants and street vendors as members.
Dimas Novriandi said one of his jobs is to communicate with various communities. The goal is to educate them about Genius, one of BTPN Bank\'s products, and invite them to become customers. He acknowledges that direct communication was more effective than other methods. "Friends try to convince friends. They trust their friends more. One thing that makes me excited about working like this is I don’t work for myself, but for others. I teach them from the beginning how to save well and to better manage their finances," said Dimas.
The Genius strategy is paying off. In just over a year, Genius app downloads have reached 3 million. For a startup, this is high.
The marketing head at KoinWorks, Jonathan Bryan, said that one of the benefits of a company managed by young managers was the ability to respond faster to technological developments. "Young people have been exposed to technology and Internet development since childhood. Young people\'s respond faster to the development of information technology and Internet, so they can produce products that fit the needs of young people," he said.
Building networks
Tsamara Amany said that her job was to build a network with communities of generally young people. As a member of a political party who wants her party to become a forum for young people, she seeks to encourage young people to care about politics and learn about politics together.
Tsamara has contributed not only to the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) but also to youths by inspiring them to enter politics and using politics as a tool to achieve common goals. Tsamara believes, “if you want to fix the system, you must enter the system.”
As an active political party member, she also plans to run in the 2019 legislative elections. As a young woman, she also wants to fight to become a member of the House of Representatives (DPR) in a different way, for example, through crowd funding to finance her political campaign.
Caring about poverty
Nur Agis Aulia has run the startup Jawara Banten Farm since graduating from college in 2013. For Agis, poverty and high unemployment occur mostly in the villages, while agriculture is the dominant potential of villages. If the agricultural sector was stagnant, it would be disastrous for the country.
For that reason, said Agis, Jawara Banten Farm was established. The institution provides a touch of innovation to the agricultural business model. At Jawara Banten Farm, farmers and cattle breeders do not have to wait for three months, six months, or a year to harvest. The can harvest daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.
"It is able to quickly break the chain of the farmers’ dependence on middlemen or moneylenders. Farmers rely on them because they are in debt to meet their daily, weekly, monthly and yearly needs," Agis said.
Meanwhile, in Kota Solok, West Sumatera, Albert Rahman Putra has founded the Gubuak Kopi Community focusing on media literacy. "We invite citizens, children, teenagers, and adults, to learn how the media works through creative or artistic activities," said Albert. One of its activities is Daur Subur, which focuses on the media development to promote local issues, both from Solok and West Sumatra.
With such developments, singer Giring Ganesha asks the older generation to be supportive. According to him the elder generation, especially politicians, often gave bad examples to youths. "Our parents are weird. They have to be more supportive in seeing today’s progress. Such an attitude also gives a good example to the younger generation,” he added.
