Traditional values often cause inefficiency: Cacuk

JAKARTA (JP): Deeply rooted traditional values often cause inefficiency in Indonesia's business practices, a noted businessman said here yesterday.

Bank Mega's president Cacuk Sudarijanto told members of the Indonesian chapter of the International Advertising Association that some traditional philosophies, such as the Javanese, encouraged passivity and conformity which hindered initiatives toward efficiency.

"Many people, for example, still live by the Javanese expression alon-alon asal kelakon' (slowly but surely)," he said at the association's monthly power breakfast meeting.

Cacuk, a former president of the state-owned PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), said these values were irrelevant now, as they were inherited from the colonial period.

He said the process of cultural transformation had been slower in Indonesia because of its long years under colonial rule.

During the Dutch colonial period, it was necessary to adopt this kind of philosophy to maintain a low profile, he said.

"But we are now living in a competitive era where efficiency is the rule of the game. We should adopt the universal values of striving for efficiency," he said.

Certain customs and traits such as bureaucratic inertia, lack of a sense of teamwork, poor time management, avoidance of conflict and inadequate appreciation of quality standards, must be transformed into more professional values, he said.

Professional values included skilled entrepreneurship, good teamwork, constructive problem solving, standardized quality, strong loyalty, and efficient and hard working habits, he said.

He said he was optimistic that Indonesia, by transforming its culture -- by adopting more professional values -- could improve its efficiency to compete internationally.

The young generation was already showing signs of adopting professional values, he said.

"The foreign-educated offspring of the country's businessmen, for example, have adopted Western rationality and professionalism without abandoning their oriental mores," he said.

Yesterday's meeting discussed the challenge of globalization and work ethics in the marketing and advertising professions. (das)