Siannita Tjuwita
Kelley School of Business, IUPUI Class of 2010
Major: Marketing, Minor: Supply Chain.
Like any business-major students, I didn’t have an ideal career path when I graduated. The common bias is that you can work anywhere if you have a business degree.
So after stumbling upon a couple of jobs, I nally decided to stay at one that grows the fastest: digital marketing.
To explain it in the easiest way: digital marketing is a study to promote your businesses and reach out to anyone (customers, clients, business partners) through various online channel; just like we have TV, newspaper, billboard as channels in traditional marketing. As an Account Manager, I bridge the communication between our specialists and clients –
who mostly were digital-illiterate brand managers. I had to understand how each service works technically and be able to explain it in non-technical language.
When I rst started in 2013, it was extremely hard to persuade clients to invest in digital. The only “digital” channels they know was Facebook and Twitter. But now in 2017, in Jakarta alone more than 30 digital agencies sprout out every year!
Indonesia is one of the fastest growing countries in digital literacy, and the fact that our starting line falls behind made
the growth potential far much tempting to invest in. (McKinsey, Sept 2016) In 2016 alone, Indonesian internet users have grown 51% - or about 45 million new users – compared to 7% growth at our neighboring country, Malaysia. Large-size companies are allocating more marketing budget into digital channels, and small-medium sized business owners are building website and selling on Instagram. (Wearesocial, 2016)
This exciting development had us realize the next challenge: how can we make sure there are enough talents to run digital marketing? The need of talents is there, and someone has to supply the knowledge and skills. Our team recognized this opportunity and put me in the pioneer team to develop a new department to provide digital marketing education – Yacademy (read: “why- academy”).
Yacademy’s vision is to digitalize Indonesia by building end-to-end talent development solution. Services we provided include public training and corporate training, e-learning platform and numbers of certi cation programs by career choices. We dream about companies in all sizes involving digital marketing in their business plan; and that individuals embrace the new skills and nd purpose in it.
Not even one year old, we have educated more than 700 individuals, starting from students, business owners, specialists, and corporates. I am very excited about our mission, and look forward to making more impact in helping businesses and individuals grow through digital.
Siannita Tjuwita
Kelley School of Business, IUPUI Class of 2010. Major: Marketing. Minor: Supply Chain.