How and why Telekomunikasi Indonesia is building ‘digital intelligence’

Sri Safitri, Project Director – Chief Innovation & Strategic Portfolio Office, Telekomunikasi Indonesia discusses how the company nurtures digital talent, and why developing a collaborative culture is critical.
How would you describe your organization’s enterprise-wide digital transformation strategy?

Our organization is driving digital transformation across two fronts: building a digital services business and transforming into a digitized enterprise. The first front focuses on creating value for customers through new digital propositions and experiences. The second transforms how we run the business internally, by building an end-to-end agile model through digital technologies and streamlining of underlying processes through techniques such as lean, automation and robotics.

Which targets does your organization have to guide this strategy?

In running a successful digital transformation, it is imperative to have a balanced set of KPIs that can steer an organization. Our set of KPIs target both strategic and operational levels and are cascaded from top to bottom to drive impact and achieve desired outcomes.

What’s the biggest ‘win’ you’ve achieved so far?

We realize that the impact of a successful digital transformation not only gives us the ability to have a lean and simplified process but should also be experienced by our customers. The biggest win as part of digital transformation so far is company-wide awareness of the importance of a good customer experience. As a result, this is now the first out of three strategic programs.

What are the biggest challenges you face in achieving your goals for digital transformation?

Digital talent and culture pose some of the biggest challenges. In today’s environment, finding talent with the right skill-set and expertise is not easy. As such, we nurture digital talent with the right incentives and clear career paths. While strong talent is critical, it is also necessary to infuse traditional cultures with speed, flexibility, external orientation and the ability to learn.

Leadership is clearly paramount, but what makes a good digital leader?

As digital leaders, we need to drive a significant level of transformation. A good leader should be able to articulate a compelling digital ambition across external and internal stakeholders. Additionally, it is paramount that good leaders are able to create an agile and flexible organization with the right talent and corporate culture in order to successfully navigate an ever-changing technological landscape.

Digital transformation is not just about changing processes and technology; it also involves a shift in organizational culture. How is your teamwork changing and what’s your role as a team leader?

In the digital age, developing a collaborative culture is critical. As an organization, we are evolving to participate more meaningfully in broader networks of collaboration, learning and innovation. This collaboration happens outside the boundaries of our organization, for example, with customers, technology providers and suppliers. This collaboration will help us on two fronts: First, it allows us to leverage the expertise and insights they bring to the table; second, it improves the chances that any new products, services or business models we introduce will be accepted by those important external stakeholders. As a leader, it is important to create the platform for teams to collaborate as co-creators and thereby deliver success together, through this effort.

In terms of the wider societal impact of digitization, what are you looking forward to over the next decade?

We look forward to a future where individuals, businesses and governments are more connected and digitization significantly enhances the overall benefits to industry and society. The digital revolution will create new jobs, new organizations and even new sectors. Overall, digitization can help build a more sustainable future for all of us.

What concerns you about the societal impact?

While digitization can make a positive impact on society, there are also challenges created by the fast pace of technological change. Issues such as job security, inequality and data privacy are top concerns. For example, while the net impact on jobs could be positive, many sectors will experience job losses and this needs to be proactively addressed by all relevant stakeholders. Business leaders and policy-makers have to jointly work to maximize the combined value of digital initiatives for both industry and society.

What is the next big idea you are working on?

Successful transformation requires digital intelligence to enable companies to find opportunities to improve customer experience, execute more intelligently and grow profitably. We are currently working on building digital intelligence across our organization by orchestrating the right integration of digital talent and complex interdependent technologies such as AI, robotics and analytics to improve business outcomes and deliver breakthrough results.

Describe a typical day.

A day when a leader acts like a conductor leading a symphony. Those who can best orchestrate their people-power and digital technology will be the ones that outperform their competitors.