Will Ongkowidjaja (’07) is the outgoing president of the UCLA Anderson Indonesia alumni chapter, which he founded with the express intention of building the UCLA Anderson brand and network in Indonesia. With a background in management consulting and investment banking, he is also a co-founder and managing partner of Alpha JWC Ventures, an institutional and independent venture capital firm with an Indonesia focus, and a contributor to Forbes Indonesia. He talks here about his distinctly international journey to where he is today — and reflects on the spirit of shared success within his global Anderson network.
Q: You graduated from UCLA Anderson in 2007 and established the Indonesia alumni chapter in 2012. How did your group evolve?
Our journey toward building UCLA Anderson’s Indonesia alumni chapter started naturally. I link it to what is unique about UCLA Anderson — its people. In my view, UCLA Anderson alums are top-notch people that are down-to-earth and uniquely collegial.
When I moved to Jakarta in 2008 to join McKinsey & Company, I found a good group of UCLA Anderson alumni. From our initial casual gathering, we thought it would make sense to try creating an annual admission information session for potential MBA applicants as a way to promote UCLA Anderson and, in addition, have another reason for us alumni to get together. We started small. We contacted the UCLA Anderson admissions office to send us brochures, and we decided to hold the very first session at a restaurant owned by a fellow UCLA Anderson alumnus, Harsono Tjandra (’09) — with a couple of us personally splitting the cost of the event. Despite not having a formal alumni chapter, and with no financial support from the school, to us, this was just the right thing to do.
Fortunately, our first admission information session went well. We felt encouraged by our progress, and more important, we had fun holding the event. We continued to hold an information session each year and, in 2011, we inquired at the Anderson alumni office about setting up a formal alumni chapter. In 2012 we received the approval for our alumni chapter, and I was honored and humbled to be elected as the first chapter president by my fellow Anderson alumni.
We definitely have come a long way since then. Since our humble beginnings holding a small and informal information session in a restaurant, the number of attendees has steadily increased each year, with over 60 last year. Our events are now held at the offices of leading corporations linked to UCLA alumni, such as Accenture, Bank Mandiri (Indonesia’s largest state-owned bank) and Standard Chartered Bank. We have also adopted a structured approach in marketing our admission information session, including targeting selected local and international corporations in Indonesia. We utilize social media, such as our very own UCLA Anderson Indonesia alumni chapter Facebook page, thanks to David Setiawan (’13), who not only created this page but also actively maintains it.
Q: Aside from being elected by your peers, what made you want to lead the chapter?
To me, this is a way to give back to UCLA Anderson and to play an active role in building UCLA Anderson’s future in Indonesia. I believe having this initiative brings us Anderson alumni in Indonesia closer together. We shared a common purpose driven by our love for our alma mater.
Q: How many alumni belong to the regular group and how active are they? What are some of the events or initiatives you’ve organized?
We now have approximately 30 alumni in our chapter, with about one-third considered active. We hold three key events each year: the admission information session, a welcoming event for new students admitted to UCLA Anderson and a welcoming event for Anderson graduates or summer interns returning to Indonesia.
Q: You’re also a managing partner at your own venture capital firm, Alpha JWC Ventures. How does founding and managing a company compare with founding and managing a networking group like the alumni chapter?
The key element of founding and managing any organization is having the right people on the team, as people are the heart and soul of the organization. However, founding and managing an alumni chapter presented one fundamental difference: In an alumni chapter, no one is getting any monetary remuneration! This makes an obvious difference in how the team can be motivated and rewarded.
Each of the alumni in the Indonesia chapter is a very busy person, and he or she is participating because of passion. I would like to reemphasize UCLA Anderson’s collegial culture, which I believe is a key factor that drives our group’s tangible efforts to work hand in hand to build our Indonesia alumni chapter.
Q: Where did you grow up and what were the circumstances to launch you on such an international educational and professional journey?
I spent my childhood in Jakarta, Indonesia, and am the first in my family to go to college. Although my parents have been able to attain great success without the privilege of a college education, they believe in the importance of education and they wanted me to master the English language. When I was 11 years old, I was sent to a boarding school in Singapore. It was not easy leaving home at such a young age but, looking back, I have to admit that my growing up years in Singapore shaped me into the independent and emotionally strong person that I am today. After spending eight years in Singapore, I moved to the United States for college.
Q: What were you doing before you went to business school in 2005?
I worked in advertising and market research at Millward Brown (WPP Group) in Sydney, Australia, where I advised brand managers of blue-chip consumer product companies such as Danone, Unilever and Goodman Fielder on their marketing strategy. My role involved leading cross-functional teams, structuring and guiding analyses, managing day-to-day client relationships, and presenting recommendations to senior management.
Q: When you started your MBA, did you have in mind then that you’d found a company one day? What experiences along the way influenced you to do that, versus continuing to work for large firms?
I did have in mind that I might become an entrepreneur one day; however, I did not know what kind of business I would launch. After my MBA I continued to gain experiences that I believed would best develop my skill set and professional development. This includes working as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, followed by working as a director with UBS Investment Bank, where I advised clients on mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt capital raising.
The decision to start a company is not an easy one, particularly as one’s career progresses and opportunities arise each year. The natural tendency is to settle into a career as one gets comfortable. I am very fortunate to have my parents, who are entrepreneurs as role models, and also to have found the activities that I am good at and have enjoyed doing during the course of my 10-year professional career.
At the beginning of 2015 I decided to start Alpha JWC Ventures, an independent and institutional venture capital firm, with two very experienced partners — one of whom, Jefrey Joe (’12), is a fellow UCLA Anderson alumnus. So far, my journey as an entrepreneur has been a very fulfilling one. I can confidently say that this is the most interesting thing I have done in my life, as I feel I am making tremendous impact on people’s lives and the society we live in.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges to doing business across borders? Can you share an example?
Among the biggest challenges of doing business across borders is to develop an in-depth local knowledge and to have relevant local relationships, including finding a business partner you can trust. This is so much more critical in emerging markets like Indonesia, and it is exactly the value-proposition of Alpha JWC Ventures. Our approach is to be a value-added partner to companies that we invest in. Our mandate is to invest in early to growth stage technology companies both in Indonesia as well as anywhere outside of Indonesia, but Indonesia needs to be part of the immediate business plan, so we help companies to enter Indonesia successfully.
An example of a company that we worked with is Funding Societies, Southeast Asia’s leading peer-to-peer lending company. When we invested, Funding Societies was already one of the leading players in Singapore, but the company had yet to enter Indonesia. We invested in the company alongside a well-known strategic investor and we supported them in key areas such as market entry strategy, working with regulators and revenue generation opportunities. Funding Societies have now successfully entered the Indonesia market under the brand name of Modalku, which means “My Capital,” and they are recognized as the pioneer player.
Q: What’s next for the UCLA Anderson Indonesia alumni chapter?
From my perspective, one of the most important criteria of a good leader is not just about achieving targets, but also formulating and executing a clear succession plan. I am proud to say that we have a strong team in place now in our Indonesia alumni chapter, and we have successfully implemented our handover and succession planning plan. After serving as president for two terms, it is time for me to pass the baton to the next generation of UCLA Anderson leaders, and I shall take a step back into a president emeritus role. We have elected our new chapter president, Adityo Kusumo (’14), who shall start his term in the middle of this year. I am highly confident that with the foundation that we have laid, the UCLA Anderson alumni network in Indonesia will continue to strengthen.
This June watch for Will Ongkowidjaja’s column in the print edition of Forbes Indonesia, when he asks, “Can FinTech Help to Achieve Financial Inclusion in Indonesia?”
the awesome alumni chapter from Indonesia
Posted by: Jasa Website | 05/29/2016 at 08:04 PM