Neneng Goenadi, Country Managing Director for Grab, is one of the Indonesian tech world's most accomplished and charismatic female business leaders. Neneng discusses the company's aggressive expansion into new, lower tier markets and multiple other initiatives to help spur economic recovery from the pandemic. She attributes Grab's leadership in part to having built its own in-house tech in areas such as anti-fraud and mapping, which she believes has nurtured the allegiance of all players to its multi-sided marketplace. Neneng also shares her deep optimism over the widening range of leadership opportunities that the tech world offers aspiring women in Indonesia.
Neneng Goenadi, Country Managing Director for Grab, is one of the Indonesian tech world's most accomplished and charismatic female business leaders. Neneng discusses the company's aggressive expansion into new, lower tier markets and multiple other initiatives to help spur economic recovery from the pandemic. She attributes Grab's leadership in part to having built its own in-house tech in areas such as anti-fraud and mapping, which she believes has nurtured the allegiance of all players to its multi-sided marketplace. Neneng also shares her deep optimism over the widening range of leadership opportunities that the tech world offers aspiring women in Indonesia.
(Transkrip Bahasa Indonesia di sini...)
ALAN 0:11
Welcome to the 24th episode of Season Two of the Indo Tekno podcast. Selamat datang semuanya! I'm Alan Hellawell, Founder of tech consultancy Gizmo Advisors, and Venture Partner Alpha JWC Ventures. We have sought to be relatively thorough in covering the tech landscape in the year-plus that the Indo Tekno podcast has been on the air. There, however, remains one gargantuan hole in our coverage on the podcast, which is inexcusable if you're looking at any part of the ride hailing, food delivery or FinTech industries. Well, we are very pleased to address this deficiency with today's guest. We're indeed extremely excited to have on today's podcast, Bu Neneng Goenadi, Country Managing Director at Grab Indonesia. Thanks so much for joining us today, Bu Neneng.
NENENG GOENADI 1:03
Thanks, Alan. Happy to share with Indo Tekno today.
ALAN 1:08
Great. Now, Bu Neneng, you spent the bulk of your career, almost 16 years out of a broader career of 25 years, with consulting leader Accenture. What skills and experiences from your time at Accenture were you able to bring over and successfully apply on Day One at Grab?
NENENG GOENADI 1:25
I watched the company from a distance for a number of years. I was always impressed by the commitment to build "tech for good". When the opportunity came by in 2019, I didn't have to think twice. I was excited to be part of Grab, helping to shape the country's digital economy. Grab was looking for someone with experience not only in leading and managing sizable multinational companies, but also helping numerous companies with technology strategy, and process perspective. And the thought leadership that I brought from Accenture across multiple industries helped Grab.
ALAN 2:11
Fantastic. Now Bu Neneng on the other side of the coin, what were areas that were entirely new to when you joined Grab?
NENENG GOENADI 2:19
Well, after 25 years in an MNC, or in a consulting company, the startup environment surprised me. Why? Because the pace was very, very, very, very fast. I thought consulting is the fastest pace industry. But I was strong. Our "Grabbers" can pull off miracles overnight. And another different thing is their culture of data-driven decision making. Each day we are presented with so many insights. And we use them to guide our strategic business decisions that align with our goals. Also, as you know in consulting, we are pretty removed from the end customers. We are very close to our client, but not to the customer's client. But at Grab, we are very, very close to our partners; which is our driver, our agent, our merchant; and also our end-consumers. And we believe that the best solutions come from a deep understanding of the stakeholder and the problems being solved. To achieve this, we believe it's important to personally go to the ground, apply our five senses, understand and experience the problems and speak to the stakeholders. This was totally new to me. But quickly, this became something that I really enjoy as part of my work.
ALAN 3:59
Fantastic. So Grab is indeed as you say "very, very, very, very" fast (I think he used for "very's") and is also partner- and consumer-obsessed. This is what I guessed in looking at the company from the outside and as a customer of many Grab services. Now Bu Neneng, can you give us a taste of your day to day at Grab? What for instance, are you focused on this week? Would it be new service rollout? Is it recruiting, top level strategy, or is it something else?
NENENG GOENADI 4:29
Well, that's a good question. One of the best things about Grab is that no two days are ever the same. It never gets boring. I tried to divide my time equally between what I consider my top four stakeholders. Number one: Grabbers; with working-from-home arrangements, we need to put in more effort to stay connected with each other. With our partners, which include merchants and agents, we need to understand their pain points and their needs. And the third stakeholder is the government. They see us as a partner who can help them with many of their priorities. So we have regular meetings to discuss ways we can support them, whether it's helping more small businesses go online, or rolling out vaccinations. And then the fourth stakeholder is business partners. We believe in an open ecosystem. So we always believe that we can make a greater impact if we work together with others. Hence, partnerships are very key. For example, we just launched our Grab Ventures Velocity Batch Four and Sembrani Wira in collaboration with BRI Ventures, who is also an investor of Grab. It is our accelerated programme for local start up's to help them scale up and empower MSME's (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises). So a day in my life at Grab could be a discussion on various matters with my team, either having one-on-one with my "minus one", or attending operations meetings to strategize our programmes and initiatives. I also need to maintain relationships with my partners. So sometimes I would have to go on a meeting with partners having a business dinner, after an interview session with the media, or after delivering a speech at a conference. So those are the examples of my day to day life. It's crazy, but it's fun.
ALAN 6:43
Great. So clearly "never a dull moment", as they say. Now Bu Neneng, can you share with us in a nutshell, what the most important two or three initiatives with Grab Indonesia are this and next year?
NENENG GOENADI 6:58
Well, our broad focus is on helping to spur economic recovery from the pandemic. So it's a multiple pronged effort and we are working closely with the government on this. We see vaccination as a key step. We are currently running seven Grab vaccine centres across the country. And then MSME digitalization is another major focus of ours. It is the backbone of Indonesia, but so many are still offline. As you know, it's only 18% of MSME's who are online right now. Last year, around 600,000 small businesses came on board to Grab. This year, our focus is to make MSME digitalization more inclusive. This is very important. We are not only focused on those who already have access to digital platforms, but also on people who have limited access, such as elderly persons with disabilities, as well as ex-convicts. We are also going to focus on continuing to improve our mobility and delivery experience in Indonesia. Even though Grab started later in Indonesia, we are now number one in both mobility and food delivery in the country. It's definitely not something we take for granted. Teams know that we need to continue to innovate and be hyper-focused on consumer needs and trends, so that we earn the right to lead. Finally, we want to help bring digital transformation to more rural cities. Digital economy benefits shouldn't just be accessible to those who live in Tier One and Tier Two cities. By expanding into more rural areas, we are also only looking to bring greater digital and financial inclusion to all Indonesians through GrabKios (an app that kiosks to sell digital and physical goods). We were the first super-app to bring our services to cities like Kupang and Jayapura in Papua; and we've seen firsthand how technology can improve everyday life and create better livelihood for the people who live there by leveraging our GrabKios.
ALAN 9:35
Understood some very clearly stated priorities. Thanks for that. Now, some players in the market describe the "nucleus", or the most important part of their business, as being helping the driver, versus centering their business on the customer. Where is Grab Indonesia's focus? Is it also the driver, or is it the customers or the merchant? Where does the focus reside?
NENENG GOENADI 10:00
The reality is that we operate multi-sided marketplaces where we constantly have to balance the needs of all sides of the marketplace to sustain its health over the long term. We will always strive to achieve the best outcomes for all our stakeholders. We focus on both partners as well as consumers. Because we believe when driver-partners and merchant-partners are happy, they'll deliver a quality service. And in turn, the consumers will be happy with the service, and it will drive stickiness to our platform. We cannot only focus on one side of the users of our platform to succeed. This is premised on our belief that the love and trust of end consumers ultimately determine the health and success of any marketplace. And the more consumers love and choose Grab, the more opportunities that we create for the merchants, and the driver-partners on our platform.
ALAN 11:11
Makes eminent sense. Now Bu Neneng, we talk frequently of Grab's evolution into the functionality of a "super app". Can you give us an example of how the driver is truly leveraging the super app experience on Grab?
NENENG GOENADI 11:26
Wow, this is another very good question. We operate what we call a "shared fleet" across our services. So our driver partners can send people to work, deliver meals, deliver parcels, even act as an agent to offer digital services like top-ups to consumers. So what that means is they are busier throughout the day. They are more productive. Their earnings are better. This was especially critical when COVID-19 hit and social distancing was enforced. Can you imagine the mobility drop? But we could toggle many of our driver partners over to delivery services with the demand spike during COVID-19. Today, we have the widest on-demand delivery network in the region. And because of our investment into AI and batching technology, it's extremely efficient. And as e-commerce in the region moves towards same-day, instant delivery, we are very well positioned to capture that trend.
ALAN 12:46
Now Bu Neneng, how does Grab think about Tier Two and Three markets, where maybe demand density for our services may not be as great as it might be in Jakarta? How do we make such markets work for us?
NENENG GOENADI 13:00
Well, just so you know, we were the first super app to bring our services to cities like Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara, and Jayapura in Papua, Eastern Indonesia. We have GrabKios agents and warungs in more than 500 cities, bringing digital and financial services to their communities. So we've seen and heard firsthand how technology can bring vast improvement to the everyday life of people who live in the cities. I think there's a huge appetite for digital services in these cities that we want to serve. In fact, I'm very glad that more tech companies are focusing on Tier Two and Tier Three cities in Indonesia. The benefit of a super app business is that it is an asset-light business, which gives us the flexibility and agility to scale quickly. For example, today, merchants can self onboard to the Grab platform in 24 hours. No human intervention required. And looking ahead, we plan to continue to expand our services to more cities. In Q1 of 2021, we actually expanded to 24 new cities, and most are smaller, Tier Two and Three cities such as Baubau and Kolaka in Southeast Sulawesi province, and Polewali Mandar in South Sulawesi. I'm sure you've never heard about those cities. We see GrabKios as a key differentiator for us. By leveraging warungs, which you can find in every neighbourhood in the country, we can help make digital and financial services more accessible to every community in Indonesia. And because of the geographic spread of the nation, as well as the cultural and demographic differences across cities, our GrabKios agents have an important role to play in encouraging adoption of digital and financial services, as they can be a point of convenient access for users when they need it.
ALAN 15:38
Fantastic. Now, continuing on the topic of pioneering into these new markets. I've heard tales that company founder Anthony Tan used to take a Winnebago as his mobile office. By the way, for those of you in the audience who are not familiar with such a mythical vehicle, it is a motorhome or an RV. The Winnebago basically allowed him to be close to his drivers. Now, is this true Bu Neneng, or is this urban myth?
NENENG GOENADI 16:06
This is the first time that I heard of this one. But I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it's true actually. Anthony works harder than anyone else I know. His philosophy is if our competitor puts in 12 hours, we put in 18 hours. And he is very happy when he's speaking to our partners. He used to spend a large part of his time in Indonesia before the pandemic. And he always, always made sure to spend time on the ground with our partners.
ALAN 16:43
Fantastic. Well, I have my own Anthony Tan sighting. I was walking down Orchard Boulevard just a few days ago. And there were two guys in the trademark green on their bicycles. And one of them was the founder of Grab, Anthony. So, he definitely walks the talk. Or he, I guess in this case, "rides the talk". A man of the people. Now Bu Neneng, I note that company CFO Peter Oey has stated that managing costs will be an important strategic focus on the company's path to profitability. What does that statement mean in the Indonesian context?
NENENG GOENADI 17:18
Well, at Grab, we focus on sustainable growth. And we have a strong track record in consistently delivering growth and improvement in our financial performance. So it is no secret that Indonesia is our most competitive market. But it's not a battle we want to win by throwing promos to be honest. Rather, we are focused on building a quality customer base: profitable consumers and transactions that lead to a sustainable business and contribution margins. So we are also focused on improving the efficiency of our networks, which will help our driver partners be more productive, and earn more. And we've been very successful. We are number one in mobility in Indonesia, and we are already EBITDA positive in this segment.
ALAN 18:20
Very encouraging to hear. Well, Bu Neneng, how do we think about competition specific to Indonesia? Spectators have generally become accustomed with the idea of two competitors. But it looks as though we might have new competition in areas such as food delivery and payments. How do we maintain this competitive dominance that you referenced earlier in the podcast?
NENENG GOENADI 18:40
Well, we are no stranger to competition. Actually, Grab entered Indonesia later than the competition. yet. Today, we are number one here in mobility and food delivery. And Ovo, our partner, is number one in digital payments. We have achieved this by focusing on building a quality customer base that leads to sustainable business and contribution margins, instead of seeking promo hunters who are unlikely to be loyal in the long term. We've also focused on building strategic tech in-house, like for example, our anti-fraud solutions and mapping. And that creates a real competitive moat for us. For example, fraud is pretty common in the industry. But we've invested in the tech to tackle this challenge. And today, we are very happy that our fraud rates are less than 0.2%. And in mapping, traditional mapping providers don't map the little alleyways that you'll find across Jakarta. But we do because our two-wheel diverse are travelling through them every day. And we are using this to improve our user experience through things like better ETA (estimated time of arrival). And no one else in Southeast Asia is doing this. Also, importantly, we are a regional super app with services across more than 400 cities across eight countries. And this allows us to draw on the lessons from our colleagues in Southeast Asia and tap into their hyperlocal expertise and knowledge, and use this to improve how we operate in Indonesia. We do welcome competition. It keeps us on our toes. But we are confident that if we stay focused on delivering the best experiences for our consumers, by leveraging our platform, scale and technology capabilities, we will continue to earn the right to lead.
ALAN 21:06
Understood. So clearly, building customer and partner allegiance, developing strong technology and tapping best practice from around the region are important to our future. Now on a totally different topic Bu Neneng, where do you think women on the path toward leadership in technology currently are in Indonesia? Do you feel that there's still a long way to go? And where will we see the most progress?
NENENG GOENADI 21:30
I believe that embracing diversity and inclusion contributes to the success of high performing teams and companies. Grab has always had a strong culture that champions a diverse and inclusive workplace, and that extends beyond gender. We focus on creating a workplace that is safe and respectful, enabling everyone to be the best version of themselves. And I really believe that we need more women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), especially in Indonesia. The rise of technology companies needs more female voices to help them develop more holistic offerings. And as a female leader, I'm very, very happy to see more women in senior roles, who I think are a great additions to organisations in creating a more diverse workplace, as many of them provide balance viewpoints. First of all, I think it definitely makes a difference that one of our co-founders is a woman, and that we have strong female representation across the leadership team. Many of our country's roles today are held by female leaders. And two out of five of our Exco (executive committee) members are women. And just so you know, in Indonesia, leaders that report directly to me are comprise of 40% female. So having women in leadership positions and informing product development decisions has brought about perspectives that might not have been considered otherwise. In Indonesia specifically, we have done the following throughout 2020: we are focusing not only on initiatives that benefit Grabbers, but also our partners as well. So we signed the UN Women Empowerment Principles. We became a member of the Indonesia Business Coalition for Women's Empowerment. We also partner with the National Commission on Violence Against Women. And to promote work life balance, we also provide additional paternity leave for both working mothers and fathers. Mothers will receive 120 days of maternity leave, but fathers will also receive 15 days of paternity leave.
ALAN 24:15
Fantastic. Those are some really admirable measures. Okay, but do you have any advice that you feel very strongly about that you would want to share with an aspiring female graduate from an ITB, or Bandung Institute of Technology, or any other Indonesian university?
NENENG GOENADI 24:33
I would love to see more female leaders put themselves out there and make their voices heard in the public space. At Grab, we have so many incredibly smart and talented female leaders. And it's been a personal mission of mine to push them to take on more speaking opportunities and to participate in more public engagement. It's not only good for their personal development. I also think it is important that the public see and hear from more role models like them. My advice to fellow female leaders is, don't listen to the self doubt, fears and limitations that can distract you from your goals and aspirations. Know that your voice needs to be heard. I'm very, very proud that nowadays, women are increasingly taking on strategic roles in our companies. And this is certainly an achievement and appreciation for Indonesian woman to be able to show appreciation. I really hope more potential will be found by the creation of various opportunities, and Indonesia can become a developed country that is inclusive, and respects all forms of diversity.
ALAN 26:03
Very powerful messages. Now, it seems as though most of the largest tech firms in Indonesia indeed have a specific passion project or mission. It might be elementary school education. It could be upskilling workers into the knowledge economy, alleviating rural poverty or other initiatives. What is the single most important initiative that Grab has launched in Indonesia that you have invested a lot of your personal time into Bu Neneng?
NENENG GOENADI 26:32
Well, we introduced Grab Accelerator UMKM (MSME), an in depth, two-month training for hundreds of MSME's focusing on financial literacy, business process review and marketing. And we also have Kelas Terus Usaha, a free webinar course and module that is available on Grab Indonesia's YouTube and Instagram channels, and also regular training and webinars in 30-plus cities for MSME's and traditional business. And this is a new thing, which is what we call tech leadership and Kampus Merdeka ("Campus Apprenticeship"). This is to help shape Indonesian young tech talent into world class leaders. What makes me most proud to be a Grabber is the fact that doing good is not CSR. It's not a passion project. It's ingrained into our business. We've been a "double bottom line" business since day one. And we believe that profit and social impact go hand-in-hand. In Indonesia, we have focused a lot in the past year on helping small and traditional businesses digitalize. This was particularly urgent and important, given the pandemic, as you know, and the fact that the fast majority of businesses in Indonesia are offline. This year, we are zooming in in our support on MSME's from groups that tend to be marginalised.
ALAN 28:18
Understood
NENENG GOENADI 28:18
Like I've explained before, we are going to focus on the elderly, people with disabilities and also traditional sellers in the rural areas. Whether because of stigma or a lack of resources, digitalization can be hard for these groups. So we are running dedicated training and workshops to help them. So all-in-all, I'm focusing my personal time on this training to help our MSME's, to help our driver partners as well as our agents.
ALAN 29:02
Bu Neneng, I really appreciate the very expansive conversation we've had today. There aren't many platforms in the Indonesian space that touch so many corners of Indonesian society. And it's been great to understand how Grab thinks about delivering innovation to Indonesia's drivers, riders, consumers and many other constituents. Thanks again for joining.
NENENG GOENADI 29:25
Thanks, Alan.
ALAN 29:27
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