Dear President-Elect Joko Widodo,
Indonesia, the world's third-largest democracy, has reached a significant milestone with your recent election as a "man of the people." As you begin your presidency, it has been widely reported that your main challenge will be ensuring that economic policies and reforms continue Indonesia's positive growth, and set a course for long-term economic success.
I encourage you to not only consider the economic and political environment, but also to pay serious attention to the will of your people. To that end, I offer advice, drawn from Gallup's nationally representative analytics for Indonesia:
- Maximize one of the most capitalistic mindsets in the world: Ninety-six percent of Indonesians in 2013 felt that they can get ahead by working hard, leading China (86%), India (76%), and the average across the 138 countries where this question was asked (79%). This mindset -- which is clearly conducive to capitalistic values -- fosters positive business development and entrepreneurship. But it is being held back by less positive opinions of the government's support for startups. Only half of Indonesians in 2014 say the government makes it easy to start a business, which is behind your mighty regional economic competitor, China (74%), but considerably ahead of another competitor, India (at 13% in 2013). There is an opportunity to close the gap in Indonesia's favor.
- Fix low levels of employee engagement: Despite the country's strong economic growth, 13% of Indonesian employees were engaged in their jobs in 2013. This means that relatively few workers have passion for their work, drive innovation, and move their organizations forward. Engaged workers are the lifeblood of every organization and economy. To successfully begin understanding and devising strategies to tackle low engagement, I suggest starting with the leaders of your biggest companies. With their help, you can begin spreading a culture that ensures that the majority of Indonesians come to work putting passion and innovation into every working hour.
- Tackle the perception of corruption: In May 2014, 92% of Indonesians reported that there is widespread corruption in government and 87% said there's widespread corruption in business. You must work to enact sweeping reforms to enforce transparency and corporate governance to ensure that Indonesians' perceptions of corruption change and corruption are actually being stamped out. Corruption is, of course, damaging to governments and the democratic process. But it's also significantly corrosive to business, where the ability for individuals and companies to start, invest, and sell -- with confidence -- is at the very core of successful entrepreneurial cultures.
- Closely monitor your citizens' life evaluations: Although there is a lot of work to do to ensure the economic safety and future for Indonesia's 250 million citizens, your leadership won't have a real impact unless every one of your policies and strategies can help improve Indonesians' lives. Twenty-five percent of Indonesians rate their lives as thriving, one of the highest levels since our tracking began, but a large majority of Indonesians, 70% in 2014, rate their lives as struggling, and 5% rate their lives poorly enough to be considered suffering. I encourage you to monitor this metric. It will prove to be the most significant measure of your impact as a leader.
Yours sincerely,
Larry Emond