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Book worm: Ongki Kurniawan Books to shape skills
Courtesy of LINE Japanese multimedia app LINE’s main man in Indonesia, Ongki Kurniawan, finds some of his reading material has helped shape his business and personal skills to help him manage a digital business
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Courtesy of LINE
Japanese multimedia app LINE’s main man in Indonesia, Ongki Kurniawan, finds some of his reading material has helped shape his business and personal skills to help him manage a digital business.
Spending most of his early career as a consultant for companies such as Citibank, the Berkeley graduate made his first step toward the digital industry by joining XL Axiata for seven years, achieving the position of chief digital services officer, before leaving the telecommunications operator to head LINE in 2016.
LINE currently has more than 90 million users in Indonesia, making it the most used messaging platform in the country, with its mascots and services becoming ubiquitous among the mostly younger generation.
As country director for LINE Indonesia, Ongki’s current choices of reading material mainly revolve around that related to his industry.
He describes the books that have stuck with him as mostly the ones that have shaped his logic and decision-making skills.
“It’s the same effect as watching films, you tend to forget some of the stories, but what sticks with you sticks unconsciously,” he says.
LIFE OF PI
by Yann Martel
Some of my fictional choices that have stuck with me include Life of Pi along with World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks and The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. These (three) books helped enrich my English vocabulary and storytelling skills. Business is all about storytelling (in relating) your ideas as well as you can, in the most compelling way.
THE EVERYTHING STORE
by Brad Stone
For non-fiction books I mostly like biographical works, such as The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone about Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The Everything Store is very interesting because it tells us about Amazon’s strong culture for customer experience. They really commit themselves to it, rather than just providing lip service. One can learn a lot of leadership skills from this.
TED TALKS
by Chris Anderson
More recent books I’ve been reading specialize in my skill gap. Such as TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking or Zero to One by Peter Thiel. [What I read] is a matter of personal discipline and alternatives. When I traveled in my old job as a consultant, I’d spend most of my time in transit reading books and magazines. Lately, I prefer to read practical things, because they’re not as time consuming.
