Inge Kusuma

• When did you first decide to study and pursue a career in STEM?
  It all started when my late father, who was a doctor, wanted to pass on his knowledge and also wanted to leave a small library in our house containing his textbooks. In those days there were no electronic books, everything was in the form of big and good textbooks. So it was my father who enrolled me in medical school and from then on, I started studying in medical school which of course had a lot of subjects related to STEM subjects.
• What prompted you to study and pursue a career in STEM?
  Since I was a child, my father used to take me to the hospital for guard duty or accompany him to visit patients who could not go to his practice or the hospital. I saw that there was a small village near the location of my father’s practice, a lot of small children named after my father, which was one of the sources of inspiration and encouragement for me to be like my father that a doctor is not only diagnosing and treating patients, but providing a greater social impact for his patients and their families. Family has a very important role in determining careers and also family parenting patterns that do not discriminate between genders in career choices and studies, it also encourages women to study or have a career in STEM fields.
  Another encouragement came from my mentor, my boss when I was pursuing a career in the pharmaceutical industry. He was the one who encouraged and guided me to get out of my comfort zone. After a long career in Indonesia, he told me that I should pursue a career in the outside world and encouraged me to pursue a career outside Indonesia. She is a mentor like any other mentor, she always shares her knowledge and also guides me when I experience challenges and also often gives feedback or input that is not always wearing.
• What is the support system for women in pursuing and working in STEM fields in Indonesia?
  It is more relevant for me to give a perspective from the industry side because I have been working in the industry for quite a long time, especially in the industry that I entered, which is in the pharmaceutical industry. The good news is that many global companies have set targets for diversity and inclusion, including the proportion of women at the senior executive level. These companies target 30 or even 40% of senior positions to be occupied by women.
  Talking about the concept in Indonesia, unfortunately not all companies in Indonesia make it easy for a woman to carry out her career as a mother, for example child care facilities or child care or breastfeeding rooms or also flexibility in working time for mothers has not been done. So to encourage women to want a career in the Industry, there should be many facilities for women such as child care facilities, flexible time so that they can carry out their functions as mothers. Another thing might be a salary or remuneration that has no limit, especially since many STEM-related industries are dominated by men.

 

• What are your key success factors in your career in STEM?
  I have had many successes and many more failures or disappointments that have made me the person I am today because I learn more from my failures to be better and try not to repeat those failures. For me there are three important components to becoming a leader, the first is to hold on to personal values, the second is to continue to develop leadership competencies and of course continue to gather operational experience from the day-to-day. I can share my personal values, which are resilience, persistence and passion. Resilience persistence and passion, besides that integrity is very necessary and more importantly is to stay humble. Being a leader for me is someone who can create a vision and bring people around us together to achieve that goal, and also be a role model so that people want to follow us and we treat people the way we want to be treated, besides that it is also making difficult decisions that must be able to be a leader and also make something complex easy and the most important thing that I always hold is always having a sincere desire to build relationships or interactions with people around us.
• What tips can you give for women who are pursuing and working in the STEM field?
  So now for younger siblings for young female colleagues who want to pursue a career in the industry or in the STEM field which is dominated by men, this is a simple principle that I can share something simple but for me very powerful, three very simple things, namely taking accountability, taking charge and exceeding expectations. Take full responsibility, take charge and do your best to exceed the target goals or expectations that have been given. In terms of performance and in terms of commitment I always believe in a saying ‘It doesn’t matter where you start, what matters is where you finish’ so, regardless of our gender, our race or our educational background it doesn’t really matter where we come from or where we want to start but the most important thing is how we achieve a good end result.

 

“Take accountability, take charge and exit expectations. Mengambil tanggung jawab sepenuhnya, memimpin dan melakukan yang terbaik, lampaui goal, target atau ekspetasi yang sudah diberikan”