Dean of Business Studies Campus A LSPR Gives Lecture at ZIBAT, Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark —Mr Taufan Teguh Akbari, Dean of Business Studies Campus A of the London School of Public Relations (LSPR-Jakarta), gave lectures at Zealand Institute of Business and Technology (ZIBAT) in Denmark. The two-week Lecturer Exchange Program was held from November 7 to 18, in two campuses in different cities. He taught at ZIBAT Naestved and ZIBAT Roskilde for four sessions each week respectively. His expertise and knowledge range from entrepreneurship and innovation, to marketing and sales, and youth leadership.

In the Innovation and Entrepreneurship classes, Mr Taufan talked about Youth Leadership in the Social Age. He opened up the presentation stating that approximately 60 percent of the Indonesian population is below 30, or around 170 million out of 255 million. Such number of productive range of ages is expected to lead the economy by 2025. The number of Indonesian young people, particularly social entrepreneurs, or so-called sociopreneurs have escalated in the past 10 years, he said. As technology now plays a pivotal role in youth’s world, Mr Taufan asserted that their highly creative ideas seem to release expeditiously. They have been using social media in a positive light. Many Indonesian youth hunger and possess great desire to contribute and seek practical solutions, in order to make Indonesia a much more desirable place to live in.

In this speeding information era, many business have faced struggles in customizing their position with the customers, and Mr Taufan asserted that doing business is no longer about transactions, branding and campaigning, but has shifted to bonding, relationship and committing. And Indonesian youth have been noticing upon this shifting paradigm. Therefore, nowadays leadership is believed to be about impact; that the social era is oriented around how to formulate value with and by connecting people to people. That is the greatest challenge of this generation upon business leadership as well as other kinds of leadership.

Another discussions in the International Marketing and Sales Classes, Mr Taufan talked about “Understanding Indonesian Business Culture”. He showed the cultural diversity and intercultural business in the companies have absolute strength. For instance, Indonesian co-workers would expect to be clearly directed by the boss, power is usually centralised, control is expected and managers are very respected. As Indonesia is a collectivist society, individuals are also expected to conform to the ideals of the society.

Mr Taufan also explained what would the strategies be like if a foreign businessman wants to build up a business relationship with Indonesia. One thing for sure is that relationship must be allowed to develop over the time and several visits are generally necessary to complete for a final contract. One thing for sure is to build a good and solid friendship in order to get the trust. The lecturers and students who listened to the presentations delivered positive responses that many of them would like to visit Indonesia in the near future. They were also considering to get an internship -as a part of their bachelor degree fulfilment- in business companies in Indonesia.

Adding some spice to the classes, in the end of every session, Mr Taufan challenged the students to taste level 10 Maicih spiciest chips, one of the most successful chips selling through social media Twitter. Their faces turned red as they felt the burn in their mouths. After completing the two-week lecturing, of eight sessions , Mr Taufan expressed his beatitude and gratitude for the opportunity to experience teaching, both Danish and international classes, in Denmark. He hoped that LSPR and ZIBAT could maintain the good relationship and continue with the existing lecturer exchange cooperation with each other.