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.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsHardyana Syintawati: Positivity through networking
Photos: Asri Ariani FauziahIt doesnât take science to look stylish and classy
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Photos: Asri Ariani Fauziah
It doesn't take science to look stylish and classy. Simply said, you've just got to have it in you.
When Hardyana Syintawati, head of marketing and communication at Ericsson Indonesia, walked into our presence that afternoon with perfect coiffure, statement blazer, an elegant work shift dress and high heels, the message she sent was that hers is a sophisticated act.
Although fashion wasn't our topic of the day, I couldn't help but notice her charisma and confidence. Later, she would admit to being a very visual person, who comes in handy for her professional role and responsibility.
'It's an evolution,' she says of her work as leader of the Swedish communication technology and services company's marketing and communication teams in Indonesia.
'Previously we talked more with engineers. Now we need to talk more about how technology can bring benefits. It's a different tone. It's a different audience. And what we talk about now is not merely the technology benefits but also life benefits. Now we're looking more from the end-user perspective rather than the equipment perspective.'
Along with that vision, in early June, as a founding member of the New Cities Foundation, Ericsson helped bring together the world's leading decision makers, entrepreneurs, thinkers, innovators and artists to Jakarta, for the fourth New Cities Summit.
On the table were exchanges of views on ICT and urbanization, and how innovative solutions and services can help.
As Ericsson's Networked Society Evangelist, it's an issue that gets Hardyana both excited and challenged. She lit up immediately.
'Networked society is our vision where we believe that everything that will benefit from a connection will be connected,' she states.
'We also see the roles of cities as getting more and more important. Our cities are getting bigger and also people are flocking more into the cities, and new cities are emerging in various countries around the world. So we see cities as the driving force of development, and it's also a driving force toward our vision of networked society.'
Imagine, she says, the profound impact of an algorithm that allows smart traffic lights to adjust to real-time flow of traffic, and at the same time is connected to the main service providers in the city. Slightly adjusting her seat, Hardyana went on to give an example of a building that has caught on fire.
'If the building is connected, it would by itself alert necessary help, such as the fire department, hospital, police and the likes. And by having this automatic alert to those who can help, it can also create communication among them. With information from the smart building, the fire brigade can predict how many trucks they will need to put out the fire. The same goes with the police and ambulance. If the city is so intelligent and so connected, those fire trucks going to the location would also be given traffic light priority along the route, all the way through,' says a beaming Hardyana, who comes from a telecommunication engineering background.
With an infectious positivity, complemented by a humble spirit that prides in the value of teamwork, Hardyana has maintained a successful career as a top telecommunications executive. Since joining Ericsson Indonesia in 1997, she consistently moved up the ranks and gathered experience in a variety of departments, until in 2008, she was appointed as vice president of Marketing and Communication.
'I believe I was, have been and still am open to criticism from the team. I told them from the very beginning that there are things that I don't know, that I need to learn, I'm not perfect and I will never be perfect ['¦] I believe there's no such thing as a perfect human, but perfect team is possible. I see myself as the one leading and not really managing or being the boss. I want my team to see me as a leader. I might know things first, but I might not be better,' she says.
Her passion for learning and sharing comes from a deep understanding of life, through series of experience and observation.
'One of the things that I can really relate to is actually from a novel called The Kite Runner. It's very simple. You don't steal,' reflects the avid golfer.
'Anything you do is okay as long as you don't steal. Stealing can mean a lot of things. Stealing is when you ignore the red light. It means stealing someone else's right to move in the traffic. Stealing is not telling your team members the new information because you're holding things that are in their right. It's a very simple philosophy'
Hardyana, known as Nana, thanks her upbringing for shaping her into the woman she is today. Her father died when she was two. As the youngest of five, raised by a single mother, life wasn't easy, but was certainly full of memorable lessons.
'My mother put in me and my siblings the importance of education, and for us to have respect for ourselves because we can do anything as long as we put our mind into it,' she says with a nostalgic tone.
As the American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, 'What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters to what lies within us.'
Hardyana is the quintessential embodiment of that statement, and for now, she's ready to press on.
_____________________________
Career Highlights
- Project engineer, Alcatel CIT, 1995 ' 1997
- Assistant account manager, Ericsson Indonesia, 1997 ' 1998
- Account manager, Ericsson Indonesia, 1998 ' 2003
- Deputy key account manager, Ericsson Indonesia, 2003 ' 2005
- Strategic marketing, Ericsson Indonesia, 2005 ' 2006
- Business Development, Ericsson Indonesia, 2006 ' 2008
- Strategic analyst, Ericsson Southeast Asia, 2007 ' 2008
- Vice president ' Marketing & Communication, Ericsson Indonesia, 2008 ' present
At Ease
Favorite vacation spot
Anywhere in Bali. My husband's half Balinese, so it just feels like home.
Favorite pastime
I like to cook. I don't have the patience to cook Indonesian food nor can I compete with my mom's cooking, so whenever I want Indonesian food I'd go over to my mom's. At home I usually cook European or easy pasta or risotto.
Favorite social media network
I'm the company's network society evangelist, which in 2014 was voted as one of the coolest titles in the world. Because of that I need to be active on social media. My Twitter is for official work. My Instagram and Path accounts are personal.
Birth
Jakarta, Feb. 23, 1973
Education
Bachelor's degrees in Telecommunication Engineering and Marketing Management, University of Indonesia, 1995
