Pancasilaist Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is a process that aligns technology and digital resources to your current needs and future goals. It is happening across industries, from Architecture, Engineering, and Construction to Design and Manufacturing, Media and Entertainment, and beyond.
The urgency to carry out digital transformation is becoming more and more important than in previous years. A series of data and analytical activities has changed the way people operate everything (the way they interact, do business, to financial/financial turnover has been touched by digitalization, and the way architectural, engineering, and construction companies operate).
But most successful digital transformation initiatives have one thing in common: they target improvements that align with the core why their organization exists, to begin with. Moving forward, if we target improvements of digital transformation in Indonesia, we need to equalizing it with the philosophy of life of the Republic of Indonesia, it is Pancasila.
Then, to achieve significant changes to realize this digital transformation, there are several things that we must understand together:
Dissatisfaction with How Things Are Now
The lack of Digital literacy (including digital finance) in our nation.
The facts gathered by members of Y20 Indonesia are the mismatches in expecting digital skills between education and industry, where the majority of youth do not have enough relevant digital skills to fill job vacancies.
On the other side, many activities such as health services, education, and several works have been improved to be digitalized (due to pandemic outbreaks). Proven by the government, business, and society have a dependence on Technology, Information and Communication (ICT), and government digital systems.
The two things that intersect above, have led Y20 Indonesia willing to advocate for strategic steps to increase the understanding ability of society about financial literacy (digital). With the output, a regulatory framework (digital) will be created for better and wiser financial inclusion, especially for vulnerable communities, and the creation of a balance of financial access for youth MSMEs.
The Inadequate infrastructure development throughout the country.
Based on the ITU report in 2020, connectivity continues to be a challenge for most youth with 389 million young people remaining offline.
From a different view, the World Bank data in 2021 stated that Almost 49% of the Indonesian population has no connectivity to the network.
The two data collected above are a clear declaration of low qualities of infrastructure development which take a vital role in achieving the goals of digital transformation (digitalization) on the national and international levels.
The need of Emotional intelligence Leadership for society especially youth.
Digital transformation is not just about technology — it is also about people. Most of us focus on digitalizing. On the other hand, IT teams as part of behind the game to implementing this monumental shift can face depression and burnout due to digitalization pressure and rash.
The need for speed can fray emotions, stretch intelligence, and test patience. Pressure can challenge leader’s ability to make sound decisions and push the limits of their emotional intelligence (also known as EQ, a term created by Peter Salovey and John Mayer and popularized by Dan Goleman in his 1996 book, Emotional Intelligence).
Vision of What is Possible
With the conditions as mentioned above, we could take scarlet thread. Some stones as saddles to jump out, or even a vision to take off and achieve the digital transformation.
Digital Maturity
One of the first steps toward change implementation is to identify the organization’s readiness to adopt change, in order to identify the appropriate level of change from one state to another. A common pitfall is moving too fast and attempting to skip steps along the way. A common way to assess readiness is through a Digital Maturity Assessment that should help in identifying the current state versus desired state as well as the development of the next incremental steps of the implementation road map.
Platform vs Product
Transformative solutions will almost always offer more than one opportunity to leverage the same centralized subset of data. Consider an iPhone. What if it only had the built-in applications that Apple decided we need? It would be just another cell phone. But because it has access to the App Store, the value of the iPhone exponentially increases. It is a platform, not just a product.
With the same way, if an organization doing digitalization, the output is several data with ability to use in any sectors or even across organization and can beneficial for any cases and solutions.
Optimization. Standarization. Gaps.
A staggering 70% of all digital transformation initiatives fail. All successful digital transformation initiatives will identify the enablers, the blockers, and the decision-makers as stakeholders that have the ability to impact the desired future state. Appropriate strategies must be developed to engage all of the stakeholders to ensure transformation success. That is why a strong focus on people and processes is critically important before considering leveraging any technology to drive change. It is a common pitfall to focus on technology first and start massive implementations of software and solutions that the organization is simply not ready for, ultimately leading to low adoption rates, a tremendous waste of resources and reverting back to the previous state that somewhat worked.
First, Concrete Step
Quoting from what Peter Drucker said (“In times of change the greatest danger is to act with yesterday’s logic”).
That is why digitalization can be started and must begin. There are several steps to do by the youth.
Improving and Accelerating Digital Transformation infrastructure by combining construction 4.0
One of the heart of movement towards digital transformation is adequate and affordable connectivity. Currently, based on data from Kominfo, Indonesia just reach 12,548 related to connection accessibility, from 83,218 villages. This number is arguably less than 25% or around 15% of the total villages that need stable connection accessibility.
The concept that Indonesia has brought towards digital transformation, using 4 (four) main pillars (the Indonesia digital roadmap 2021–2024)which consists of Digital Infrastructure, Digital Governance, Digital Economy, and Digital Society (Kominfo.go.id).
Right now, we are already entering 2022, it is necessary to accelerate digitalization, considering that the third pillar (digital economy) seems to be developing faster than expected. Various kinds of startup initiatives from Indonesian youth have emerged, and their startups are closely related to the customer’s ability to reach the internet. For example, Karyadesa.com.
This startup that has a focus on village transformation, is a concrete example that we should support its growth rate. This startup operates as a place for village tours, village homestays, home-made creative products, and agriculture (no exception), in achieving sustainable village autonomy.
For this reason, strategic steps in infrastructure development need to be reconstructed in the process and implementation. Where the use of technology in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction should also be maximized in infrastructure development planning for digital transformation.
Escalating roles of teacher and youth
To support the formation of an inclusive digital transformation. Education will be the strongest foundation that will bring Indonesia’s digital transformation into fair competition and good governance stability.
Youth, with the spirit of the Tri Dharma or without any tendencies in every work, are indicators to predict the transformations that will occur in the following years. Bringing this reason, growing a collaborative attitude from an early age is one of the ways that Indonesian young people must continue to escalate in order to form a successful transformation of the nation.
Information disclosure by the government to the public should also be the key to unlocking the principle of trust from the society. With the disclosure of information, it will also correlate to foreign countries perspective towards Indonesia. Because, with the disclosure of information that is managed optimally, it is proven that Indonesia is sovereign and fully supports the smart city and livable city concept. Additionally, the flow of investment from foreign countries will also automatically increase.
Culture is Central to This Transformation
Referring to Gama Syahid’s statement in an article entitled “ Indonesia’s Future in the Hands of Indonesian Youth”. It was stated that “…the future of Indonesia’s nation shown by the local wisdom and exalted values of the nation. Which needs, mental-revolution in every stage of the society to achieve it.”.
In line with the current process of transformation, the birth of the ITE Law (UU ITE) has created a lot of issues. There are groups that are pro against this Law, and no little contra through this law and requiring it to be changed or revised.
In the end, the Pancasila philosophy that has been compiled by the Founding Fathers of Indonesia could be taken as zero point for us to reflect and make the main reference.
Whatever movement and decision the state (of Indonesia) makes, it must be able to fulfill and not violate the 5 (five) principles of Pancasila. Without or forgetting Pancasila, it feels so naive to be a country that has no opinion, has no guidelines, and has no principles on their movement.
Digital Platforms, Business Models
All of the above components (Digital Platform, Business Model, and Culture) are what we call the Transformation Arc. This is also the foundation for the programs launched by the Government to aim of assisting the community at the village level with their strategic initiatives. Getting out them from shell of closed information, towards the widest openness but still with the “Indonesian & Pancasila” domain.
Leaders for Global Operations
Leadership transformation also becomes fundamental. Youth, as the future leaders, needs to be more effective than the previous decade. Has the ability to recognize, understand, and manage our own emotions so we can positively influence the emotions of others. Emotional intelligence enhances our ability to function as leaders and guides us to manage ourselves and others well. It also helps us give and receive feedback, meet deadlines, deal with challenging relationships, function in resource-constrained environments, manage change, and deal with setbacks, failure, and yes — success. Be able to handle criticism, pushbacks, disappointments, roadblocks, and other situations that require a high level of EQ and maturity.
The key to taking action is to always listen to your team and ask the right questions. Leaders should always be listening, learning, and observing. In an organization, data is knowledge, and people are knowledgeable. Team members, partners, and even customers are all sources that drive solutions.
Digital transformation involves overcoming obstacles. It takes the discussion to remove friction and complexity to find solutions. Make sure every person on your desk has what he or she needs to excel and to ensure the team drives transformation. Start with trust and respect instead of suspicion and people will impress you.
Despite all the processes to drive digital transformation, all of us must realize that digital transformation itself is only a first step towards 7-ation: Digitalization, De-Materialization, Automation, Virtualization, Optimization, Augmentation, and Robotization.
Efficiency and cost reduction based on automation, AI/IA, and Robotization are good stories but not the final destination: we need to go beyond the 7-ations above and inevitable abundance to create new value that cannot be easily automated.
Originally published at https://karyadesa.com.
