Kalvin Naibaho
IPMI International Business School
Amelia Naim Indrajaya
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Innovation can be defined as new idea, creative thoughts, also viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market needs. In GroupM Indonesia, innovation is related to Good Corporate Governance. It is the creative thoughts, and nobel solutions to meaningful problems by promoting, "fundamental GroupM values where all employees live with these values" said Mrs Dehayati. The company has five values:
1. We are pioneers, "In Indonesia we call it, Juara, we always want to be advance, we always want to be in front comparing with others, of course we are talking about competitors" she said.
2. Respect individuality , "Respect is relating with gender equality, so when we are doing like another initiative for management trainee program, we always put it into consideration the number of the students that we are going to hire at least should be gender equal, or if there is difference is not going to be a big difference." she said. She also mentioned, " when we are talking about gender equality it is also relating with the women leadership that we are having in this company" she said.
3. Focused on excellence , "We always try to give our employees a proper training, because we want them to deliver their best to the company, so we can always deliver the job required or the assignment in excellence way", Mrs. Dehayati said. This value is also the reason for creating the media master program.
4. Life should be fun , "... we have to make sure they are at a comfortable level working in our company, so we provide some corners for the entertainment..."
5. The power of one ".. is like CSR activities. This is very important for us, because we also have interest to give back to the community" she said.
One of the innovation they have is Media Master program. The program was started in 2012. It is quite similar with other management trainee program. However, there many things that makes this program different and unique compare with others. The hiring process is unique. "Why we call it a unique way, I think I believe we are the only company who are doing this recruitment selection process of management trainee by one day recruitment" Mrs Dehayati explained.
The process is started early in the morning by introduction of the company, followed with ice breaking station, and continue with team building, followed by forum group discussion, the last round is personal interview.
The selection of the candidates are directly conducted in top five university in Indonesia i.e. the University of Indonesia (UI) in Jakarta, The Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in Bandung, Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta, Bogor Agriculture University (IPB) in Bogor, etc.
"I can say it is a very successful program in our company because we increase the awareness as it is increase from the first batch we received only 100 applicants, from the last batch, batch 11 we received more than 3000 applicants. So from those 3000 we have to select 35 students, meaning only 1%, and then we choose the best, we choose the best from the best" She explained.
During the one day recruitment process the leaders of the company i.e. Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director, HR Directors, etc. are also involved in the process. This is to show how serious and the great importance is to find the best talents. The program considered as one of the best way to prepare employees to become a great leader in the future. It equips them with the required skills, judgment, and know-how of being an effective and responsible leader.
"We are media industry company, the background about the company is everything about media, media specialist, we are dealing with media partner, so why media master because we want them to master the media.. that is why we call media master" Mrs Dehayati explained about story behind creating the program.
The student were placed in one class, the company taught them about media, about the strategy, how to plan about advertisement, so the student can speak the same language. The students have have to attend the class for three months. There is specific curriculum where the company has created to be followed by the facilitators and students (new hired).
The unique thing about this training is that these training sessions are fully mentored by senior level position from the company which all of them are having many experience in the business and are truly expert in their area. "So they must learn from the expert, directly" Mr Ageng explained.
As the leader of the company has always put “people first”, so providing a good education for the employees has always been a purpose of the company. The Leaders of the company understand that by helping the employees is also helping the company. In the past is quite hard to find an employee which suitable and fit for the job. Addition to that, having an employee experiencing struggle during their first day on the job due to not having proper knowledge or induction about the job will might lead to stressful for the employee itself, on the other side this also will slowing down the movement of the business. Especially with the business is growing so fast and with the fierce of the competition, having a qualified employee which are ready for the job it’s a must. Creating Media Master program is one of the action point to anticipate that tough competition. High qualified employee as well as future leaders are created from this program.
Nowadays there are three major area which required the best knowledge and talent which the company must have.
The first one is Media Planner. Media Planning is responsible to determine the best combination of media to achieve the marketing campaign objectives, their proper knowledge about how deal with clients, including their involvement in pitching process, etc.
The second one is Media Investment, this team is responsible for media selection to choose which media is fit to advertise the client’s products i.e. through TV, Radio, Newspaper, Billboard, etc.
And the third one is digital business. The company understand that Digital business has a very huge opportunity for the company which needs to really pay attention to. Placing advertisement through digital media campaign has been growing massively nowadays in Indonesia. During the Media Master training session, all of this knowledge will be shared to the students. Employees that take training from Media Master program are qualified and has an understanding about those three major areas which is a great help for each of division in the company. That is why Media master program has helped a lot to smooth the company business process. And the same time has helped the company to achieved their goal.
Having a qualified employee is good investment for the company. Through media master program, GroupM has invested funds in recruiting graduates who have demonstrated impressive academic ability but who have little or no experience in the world of work. This program is a way of bridging the gap, ease the candidates into the world of work and give them the skills necessary to become part of the larger GroupM team. Historically the company has been increased significantly in terms of numbers of revenue and profit for the last many years. Although of course this is also supported by the great teamwork by the whole team, including support by the employees who was hired from media master program. As part of the promotion Media master program activity has always been inserted in every time the company have a pitching process. This become additional value in the eyes of the client. Having the best mentor which are expert in their field provide support and proper guidance to the new hires as to where the direction of the company should go. Having a good working environment might also narrow the employee turnover as the people will be more loyal to the company.
People usually have to pay to learn something, especially if the knowledge is set up specifically for the student to be ready for work. However, this Media Master program is just the opposite way. By becoming a Media Master student, indirectly means you are paid to learn so many important things about the job and help you ease into your career. The chance for them to learn about the company's work system, how the business is running, how the client's character is faced, to learn about your character and what is needed for your position in the future. After completing the training, Media Master are permanent employees. They will receive a monthly salary like a regular permanent employee. Beside getting knowledge from the best mentor in the company, at the same time they also receive a monthly salary, and eligible for benefits such as health, insurance, etc. So, during the training session there is no cost they need to pay as all cost are borne by the company.
Another important thing which always part of the consideration during recruitment and training process is working environment which also impacted by gender-equality. The leaders understand that businesses can only benefit by successfully attracting both men and women to the workforce. As GroupM Indonesia has always put people first, education has always been something they empowered. There are many CSR activities related to education and community conducted by GroupM Indonesia. The program name is Power of One (one of the company’s fundamental value) where all employees are participating in the program. Some example such as, in 2015 the company participating in building school using 5 shipping containers (Sekolah Master - school nearby Mosque and Bus Station in Depok) which intended for lower income community especially for children who lives in poverty or even homeless. In 2016 together with elementary students planting trees to save the mangrove area in Bali as a support for go green. The next year in 2017, renovating libraries of 5 elementary school plus donating more than 10.000 books to those school in Jakarta. And there many more. GroupM greatly appreciate the people in every region and country where they do business, and strive to make a positive impact in people lives. They feel an obligation to contribute in ways that make a meaningful difference and believe that impact is most powerful in two core areas: education and empowerment. Indirect benefit of this activity for the company is that it is understandable that the client would choose a firm that has a socially responsible reputation. Also, a company′s CSR position leads to consumer identification with company, which in turn leads to better company evaluations. As Mrs. Dehayati said “I believe if we are doing something good, at the end we will get something good as well”.
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Keeping up with the high-quality service standard provided to the client has always been the purpose of the company. GroupM Indonesia is number one media investment management group in country level. GroupM on a global scale is the central trading organization for WPP's (Web Presence Provider) media agencies and also the world's largest buyer of media with 2017 billings of more than $113.8 billion (RECMA 2018). The company offer the intelligence to find or create valuable audiences, the power to engage them most effectively and efficiently, and the ability to create desired marketing outcomes. GroupM as a company has always put “people first”. And they believe that it’s their people that enables the company to do extraordinary things. Which is why they have invest more in people, content, technology and data to make it's agencies optimally effective and efficient for clients, providing intelligence to find or create valuable audiences and outcomes.
The leaders of the company however realize that there is a need for the company to create a vessel which can be use as tools to create a good employee which will be qualified and ready for the job. As an anticipation of the increase of the competition, the company has created a program named Media Master. Through this program the new hired employees are nurtured and equipped with high quality education to help them ready to compete especially in the advertising agency industry. Aligned with the global direction, the company is also transparent and taking into consideration the gender-equalization when conducting hiring process.