Institut Teknologi Bandung

He begins his presentation by explaining that Generation Z nowadays has more career choices than previous generations. They can opt for careers as entrepreneurs, working in start-up companies, or corporations.

Each of these options comes with its very own set of advantages and disadvantages, including the flexibility of working hours, career development prospects, workload, and community impact.

Robin then delved deeper into the differences between the start-up and corporate working systems. According to him, start-ups are designed with a sense of high urgency as they are required to meet the customer's needs with limited resources. Therefore, every product creation or innovation is executed quickly and iteratively to bring the company closer to its profits and targets.

On the other side, corporations are designed to create system consistency and stability through standardized procedures. Consequently, this causes the innovation process within corporations to be less flexible and takes an extended period of time compared to start-ups.

“In this context, we need to strike a balance where the start-up culture can be integrated into corporate life. Recently, we have been trying to implement innovation through rapid experimentation to mitigate risks and boost innovation,” he stated.

According to Robin, this can be done by doing a cross-generational collaboration. Each generation possesses unique characteristics both positive and negative, thus corporations need to facilitate interactions between them. The key asset in this process is the mindset of continuous learning and collective development to reach the innovation goal.
“How we connect start-up mentality and corporate mentality is by starting over from the capital development,” he added.

Furthermore, Robin explained that the innovation model and scheme within each company cannot be standardized, as they must consider the industry type and the type of innovation to be done. Not all innovations can be executed swiftly and economically, as their repercussions may be highly significant for both the company and the consumers. However, if the potential failure of an innovation can still be tolerated by consumers, then this is where rapid experimentation can be applied.

“If the industry is not being strictly regulated, doesn’t need large investments, is not easy to imitate, and carries a low risk of failure, we need to try innovation through rapid experimentation. By increasing the frequency of innovation and scaling down trials, costs are reduced while the learning is accelerated,” he said.

Innovations conducted by rapid experimentation align with the current trends requiring swift innovation and responsiveness towards the demand from the consumers. For him, such innovation encompasses not only new products but also methodologies, business models, and consumer experiences that are continuously refined.

“To achieve this, we need human resources that are highly creative, willing to embrace new things, and adept at collaboration,” he concluded.

Reporter: Hanifa Juliana (Urban and Regional Planning, 2020)
Translator: Sherina Wijaya (Geological Engineering, 2019)
Editor: Kezia Hosana