Dayu Dara Permata
No amount of reading can prepare you for life, much less to become a leader. And so it was that when she joined GO-JEK in 2015, nothing could have prepared Dayu Dara Permata for the onslaught of challenges she would face—but, equally, nothing compares to her pride today.
Upon graduating from the Bandung Institute of Technology with first-class honours in industrial engineering, Dara jumpstarted her career as an intern in large consulting firms before finally landing a position as a consultant at Mckinsey & Company in 2011. At the time, the lithe businesswoman would have only left her post as a consultant at Mckinsey for a role in a larger company. However, it was fate that brought GO-JEK CEO and Mckinsey & Company colleague Nadiem Makarim to her and he finally convinced her to join his passion project.
“I never thought that joining a start-up would be a way to create social impact, but the idea that we can leverage technology to do so appealed to me” she explains. “We get to work with passionate entrepreneurial spirits whose collective aim is to empower SMES by connecting them to millions of customers— where else can you do that?” she beams.
Five years ago, Dara never thought that she could be an entrepreneur herself. But after cofounding GO-LIFE and pouring her heart into it, she can finally claim to be one. “Looking back, I would have been content to have had a meaningful career, manage 10-20 people, and have a side project by the time I was 30. Thankfully, I chose to take the more daring and uncertain route,” she adds.
Though she got to explore business functions on a high strategic level at her previous company, the Senior Vice President
of GO-JEK and Co-founder of GO-LIFE admits that there was a plethora of learning opportunities she only got to explore upon joining the start-up. She explains: “My current role challenges me to work on the tactical, executional, and operational levels. Instead of ideating solutions, we have to actually materialise them and implement them.”
Aside from the different approach she had to adopt, Dara had to find out first-hand what it meant to be a leader. The curious entrepreneur might be an avid reader who attended countless leadership workshops, but she only learned the importance of never giving up for the sake of her GO-JEK team. Having to deal with such human complexities, Dara has found the best way to manage a team is to become a trusting, meritocratic leader.
“Don’t be surprised if you see a 22-year-old managing a group of 80 people and much less if that group consists of a 70-year-old. We see no difference in age, colour, or gender. As long as we believe in their ability and trust them to meet the KPI, nothing else matters.” This kind of warm culture is exactly what draws the right people to GO-JEK, the creative and adventurous talents that look to use the least amount of effort to create the maximum impact.
Dara’s face has become one of the beacons of hope for Indonesia’s start-up world. With GO-JEK becoming Indonesia’s first decacorn and having expanded to six countries, her career has never peaked as much as right now. As for balancing it with her personal life, she tells Indonesia Tatler: “I want to walk down the path of dynamic goals, to know what I want to achieve at the right time. Now it’s tilting towards work, but maybe 2-3 years down the lane, I might want to focus on personal goals. It’s all about timeframes.” For now, as she heads towards a brighter future with a powerhouse in hand, Dara continues to develop the next set of leaders that can create much bigger impact than we ever will.