Is Indonesia significantly gearing up for e-paradigm?

Is Indonesia significantly gearing up for e-paradigm?

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian media is now full of articles and
advertisements about this new entity that starts with a small
"e", like e-business, e-commerce, e-education, e-distribution and
e-etc.

More recently we see a proliferation of codes such as B2B and
B2C and so on. At the same time we are hearing and seeing more of
the other cousin of these e-somethings, the something-dot-coms.
What are we getting into? Why are we talking in garbled and even
pretentious shorthand? Why indeed? And should we in fact be
involved with it?

Globalization is, of course, responsible. Just imagine if we
were not affected by the explosive development of the computer,
by information transfer and above all the microchip. Isn't it
blissful to be ignorant?

We wouldn't have to think about all those white-collar frauds
that haunt societies that have gone digital. So what if you can
transfer your money from your living room. It is OK of course for
those who have money to transfer.

But are the e-somethings limited to these sorts of things
only? And is it prudent not to be involved in this exciting
development that now appears to be affecting everything and
everybody.

It does not matter whether a country is rich and affluent or
whether it is a poor and developing country. Globalization and
its attendant elements are here to stay.

With globalization, if one accepts that it is inevitable, then
one might next expect that there will arise a serious
consideration of equity and equality. Because globalization will
not work when there are elements of the world which are incapable
of participating in the "game". At least it certainly will not
work as well.

As for the developing and the less developed nations, there is
no choice but to gear up and prepare to be part of the game.
Those who do not get on the globalization "train" are said to be
left behind forever.

This is not as true now perhaps as a couple of years ago,
because it is just as important for the developed world to ensure
that everybody participates.

This creates an interesting if not embarrassing paradox in
that most people in developing countries still need the very
basic necessities while a relatively small percentage pursue the
e-world.

In early April this year a seminar was held involving an
international consulting company, McKinsey & Co., the Indonesian
arm of another international company, IBM, a local internet
company with international affiliation and a local Graduate
Business School, IPMI, where the current state of the art of e-
commerce was presented and discussed.

It was attended by more than 250 people of whom more than 100
were Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of various local and
international companies. IPMI took the opportunity to survey
participants on a number of questions, pertaining to not only e-
commerce, but the whole new paradigm of how Indonesia will be
affected and how people will do business here in the near future.
The results are very interesting.

Out of about 100 respondents, 80 percent believed that the e-
paradigm would shape Indonesian society by the year 2003, with
only 4 percent disagreeing, while 16 percent were undecided.

When asked if this would happen in an exponential way, 51
percent were undecided, but 33 percent, as against 13 percent,
felt certain that that's how it will happen.

The responses to just these two questions clearly show that
there is little doubt among respondents that within only two
years Indonesia will be significantly affected by e-paradigm and
that perhaps the uptake will be nonlinear. That is, Indonesians
won't be waiting and thinking about getting involved in the e-
things.

Such confidence also can be understood from the answers to
another three questions in the survey: should e-commerce
concentrate on either its marketing, its financing or its
operation in order to gain competitive advantage?

On the most positive scale of the answers, that is, "strongly
agree", the 100 or so respondent CEOs clearly signaled that its
financing is of little concern in relation to its marketing and
operation. However, when the whole five scale answers were
analyzed , its operation is definitely considered more important
than the other two aspects.

This finding may sound paradoxical as one might initially
expect that financial or marketing would have been a clear source
of competitive advantage. Probing further into the respondents'
backgrounds revealed even more puzzles.

Clearly, the majority of respondents have had some systems
exposure as 57 percent of them mentioned having websites and 52
percent claimed to run their businesses using computer-integrated
systems.

Of the rest, about half are currently constructing their
websites and getting their computer-integrated systems, leaving
about 20 percent having neither websites nor computer-integrated
systems.

What are the implications of all the above? We believe that
the time has come for the government to take a more active role
in the development of more appropriate education for Indonesians.

At the same time, however, it must also be said, given
reformasi (political reform), autonomy, devolution, empowerment
and the predilections towards a "hands-off" policy, that the New
Order methods of instructions, expedient Presidential decrees,
ministerial decrees and government regulations are no longer
appropriate.

Much evidence can be presented demonstrating that the
bureaucratic implementation of these authoritarian methods do a
lot more harm than good. That this is still happening now, under
a new minister, a new ministry (of national education) and a new
director general of higher education, is absolutely lamentable.

An hour and twenty minutes away in Singapore, the Singapore
government is boosting IT manpower by creating a conducive
environment for what they call a "career switch" (The Straits
Times April 27, 2000); triggered by its Manpower Ministry's
considered prediction of needing more than 250,000 infocom
workers by the year 2010.

If Indonesia is to even crawl, let alone run with the pack of
high achievers in the region, it must no longer compromise and
set road blocks to progress. It is ironic that six months after
the new director general of higher education took office,
decisions of the previous incumbent that did nothing but stop
progress in education, are still invoked as late as a few weeks
ago.

Indonesian CEOs as reflected in our survey, have clearly
indicated which way Indonesia should go with regards e-paradigm.
Let us hope that the government and in particular the Ministry of
Education, will create a conducive and supportive environment for
progress.

This article was co-authored by Nirwan Idrus, executive
director at IPMI Graduate Business School, Jakarta, Firdaus
Alamsjah and Arif Saharko, both faculty members at the school.