TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Employee empowerment key to innovation and sustainable growth
Banking executive Taswin Zakaria believes that arming employees with the autonomy and skills to make their own decisions is essential to driving innovation and long-lasting business growth
Change Size
B
anking executive Taswin Zakaria believes that arming employees with the autonomy and skills to make their own decisions is essential to driving innovation and long-lasting business growth.
Employee empowerment is the main key to constant business innovation, which in turn leads to sustainable business growth, according to Taswin Zakaria, the president director of PT Bank Internasional Indonesia Tbk (BII), a key subsidiary of the Maybank Group.
He defines empowerment as the ability to encourage subordinates to be autonomous in decision-making and idea realization. To do so, leaders obviously need to inculcate in their employees relevant skills and knowledge that can be applied to the running of everyday business.
'As a bank, one of our main activities is credit disbursement. There are a number of steps to be taken prior to disbursing credits. First of all, [an analyst] has to analyze the profile of bank customers and their businesses. Then [the analyst] will be able to derive the risk profile of the customers and determine steps to be taken to mitigate the risks,' Taswin, who has been working in the banking sector for more than 20 years, stated.
He said that he encouraged analysts to make their own decisions about customers' risk profiles and whether or not to disburse credit without having to constantly consult their superiors.
'We also inform our regional leaders that they have to be able to create strategies autonomously. We emphasize that the headquarters is no longer the sole backbone of business growth. This requires them to be able to see their particular region's potential, identify possible business partners and develop new business ventures.'
According to him, the confidence to make one's own decision regarding a particular matter can help build employees' skills to innovate and create new ideas that will boost the company's business.
'If we don't empower our employees, they will get used to being guided and directed all the time. This will result in a lack of leadership skill and the death of innovation. This will cause people to develop 'safe player' mentality. At the worst, they will not learn to take responsibility for their work,' he said.
The right skills and knowledge
Taswin emphasizes, however, that the autonomy to make one's own decisions and execute them does not come automatically. To do that, employees need to have such prerequisites as skills and knowledge.
'With freedom comes responsibility. We will give them leeway [to make decisions and implement strategies] only if they prove themselves to be trustworthy,' he said.
He further explained that one fundamental determinant of an employee's trustworthiness in the banking sector was strong and comprehensive knowledge about the financial services industry and its customers. A specific skill that all bankers need to be very strong at was risk mitigation, he asserted.
'Knowledge about risk mitigation is very important. It's not enough just to say 'I'm willing to be held accountable if anything happens.' If the company lost Rp 100 billion (US$7.7 million) as a result of inaccurate risk analysis, an individual wouldn't be able to return the money. This is why the knowledge is very important.'
He added that in order to be trustworthy, an employee must demonstrate that he or she understood his or her tasks inside out. This also means that an employee should be able to constantly demonstrate that he or she is trustworthy and eligible for promotion, thus increasing the range of his or her responsibilities.
Learning organization
To empower its employees, it was important that an organization give an opportunity for them to develop their knowledge and skills through capacity building and brainstorming sessions, Taswin explained.
The capacity building comprises a number of programs, including in-house training sessions as well as formal courses in overseas management and business schools such as Harvard or Stanford University.
To enable brainstorming and discussions to happen, Taswin said that he attempted to minimize the hierarchy between supervisors and subordinates so that they were free to communicate and learn from each other.
'I try to help people have informal conversations with one another so that they can discuss business matters in a relaxed way,' he said.
By creating a learning organization, hopefully innovation as well as new ideas will flourish and lead to the bank's sustainable growth, he concluded. (Sebastian Partogi)
-----------------------
At Ease
Outdoor sportsman
I'm into outdoor sport activities. Every Sunday on Car Free Day, I do a 10-kilometer run from the Hotel Indonesia roundabout to Senayan. I also like mountain trekking, I did that in Tibet once and in Nepal last year.
Different places, different views
Aside from engaging in regular business trips, I like to travel for pleasure, visiting different places once every two or three months. I usually don't go to faraway places; but somewhere not too far, like Yogyakarta or Bali. I love watching National Geographic videos on exploring uncharted territories. This explains why I enjoy panorama sightseeing.
Place and year of birth
Medan, 1968
Experience
President director and chief executive officer at Bank Internasional Indonesia since November 2013; president director of PT Indonesia Infrastructure Finance (2010-2011); various managerial and directorship positions at several banks and financial service providers (1992-2010).
Education
BSBA in accounting from Ohio State University (1991).
