Scholarship / Chevening Networking - Networking in solving a case [4]

Hello. this is my essay for Chevening (Networking section). Your insights are very much appreciated.

meeting the Director-General

As a lawyer, I practice networking on a daily basis. I am always meeting, discussing and sharing information with people; whether it is the government officers, clients, fellow lawyers or other legal profession.

In August 2018, my firm had a client that intended to import a telecommunication device from Japan to Indonesia. The client requested my firm to confirm whether they can be exempted from certain obligation in importing their device.

The Director-General is in charge in granting exemptions. However, meeting the Director-General is can be quite challenging. Not everyone has the privilege to meet him, yet I needed his direct decision to get my job done.

I knew I had to be creative, so I reached out to the group of friends whom mostly worked on the government office that I met during a law seminar I participated in January 2018. I initiated a social media group consisted of the participants in which we would exchange information, discuss and regularly catch up with each other. I asked the group whether anyone has any connection to the Director-General and one participant who worked at the office Ministry of Communication and Informatics responded.

He managed to get me an appointment to have a discussion with his senior, an officer in the Ministry of Communications and Informatics in the specific division regarding telecommunication devices. The officer my friend referred to me was not in the position to arrange a meeting or to assist me in contacting the Director-General. However, I asked the officer to arrange me a meeting with his supervisor, the Section Head for Radio Communication Infrastructure, which he agreed.

Upon meeting with the Section Head for Radio Communication Infrastructure, I was able to convey a letter which explains the inquiry of my client and request a discussion with the Director-General, which the Section Head will convey to the officers working directly under the Director-General. Days later, my firm received a letter from the Director-General in which he answered my client's inquiries.

Although the Director-General was not available for a meeting, I was able to get in touch with him and fulfill my client's request by reaching out to a network that I have built and managed to maintain during my professional career.

If Chevening elects me as an awardee, I will use the privilege and opportunity given to me to broaden my network with more people from various backgrounds. I will dedicate my time and expertise while continuously learning and sharing my knowledge to even more people, which will be of help for me to achieve my career plan, which I hope will be of assistance whether in Indonesia, the United Kingdom or any part of the world.

Scholarship / Starting my own clothing business - Leadership and Influence essay [5]

Chevening Essay on Leadership and Influence

Back in my university days, I always wanted to make extra money and start a clothing business. The idea first popped into my mind in February 2017; I decided that selling t-shirts would be the most plausible option due to its versatility.

After conducting meticulous research, I narrowed down the essentials of the things that I needed to prepare to start the business:
1.Good design;
2.Trusted business to print my t-shirts; and
3.Marketing.

I started by recruiting people. I reached out to my friends that I know possessed the required skill to get the business started. For the design, I reached out to my junior high school friend - Kiko - whom I know had an excellent photoshop skill. After convincing him to help out, he decided to contribute more by pitching in some money.

It was hard to find a good, trusted yet affordable t-shirt printing business and most of the business are located in areas that are pretty far to reach. Therefore, I decided to go with my very own best friend, Ladinna. She rode a motorcycle, so she was able to travel around the city very efficiently. Besides the convenience, I trusted her. I also asked her to be my partner, she immediately agreed.

Marketing is quite tricky yet very important part of the business. I needed someone who had a good eye for the trend, active on social media, and good photographic skill. I asked two of my friends for this task; Virsa, my college friend, whom I know is very keen on keeping up with the trend and has a huge social media following and Ardi, which at that time, were taking lessons on photography. Virsa agreed since she thought it would be fun; Ardi also agreed since it would be helpful to sharpen his photography skill.

Once I have managed to gather my team and have assigned them to each of their tasks, we all went to work immediately. As the leader, I was responsible for supervising and assisting the task of each of my teammate. I helped Kiko to choose the color palette of the design, traveled around the city with Ladin to find a good t-shirt printing company, brainstormed the idea of the marketing in social media with Virsa and helped Ardi in choosing the concept for the photo shoot of the t-shirts.

With good teamwork, clear task and a definite timeline, we were able to come up with a design that I personally really like, got the t-shirts produced with a good price and ready to upload the photos of our t-shirt to social media as the platform to market the product. We were able to do this in less than 3 months and to our surprise, even managed to sell out the t-shirts.