Education ≠ Selling Cosmetics

When he decided to be an educator, Dr. Stephanus Remond Waworuntu, MBA didn’t take long to make up his mind. He was fully determined to work in the field of education.

Remond has good assets to work in the field of education as he has had a lot of experience in industry. Nineteen years is not a short time for someone to handle managerial aspects of national and multinational companies such as Sierad Produce, Continent Hypermarket, ING Baring Securities and Freeport Indonesia.

His interest in education first started when Remond took his doctoral degree in Parahyangan Catholic University of Bandung back in the year 2000. “When I was finishing my Ph.D I was working intensely with academic works, such as journals and research papers. Because of that, I felt like teaching people is my true calling, and I am still doing it until now,” he says.

“It’s a new world, totally different,” he says. To Remond, there is a special satisfaction when he teaches, and it’s very hard to put it into words. Teaching and learning are two things he discovered when he was becoming an educator.

“To be able to teach is priceless. When we teach, we also learn something. There is an intangible value which we cannot gain from the industry field”, he says.

“I met one of the alumni at the mall, and he suddenly said that he was my student. He is now a successful person and he still remembers me. This means, there are values which I contributed to his success,” says the father of two.

Education Does not Equal Selling Cosmetics

His existence and love for his work is closely related to his will to help Indonesia improve in the educational sector. He learns that there is still a wide gap of understanding about the importance of education in Indonesia, even though there are several significant improvements now. The regulations have the same condition.

“Every year there are a lot of children who go abroad to get their degree. This means, there is a huge necessity for high-quality education,” says Remond.

Furthermore, Remond says that education in Indonesia still needs improvement in the content. The products, such as design, delivery, curriculum and outcome cannot be created in a short period and then sold to the society just like that.

“Maybe we can succeed thanks to strong marketing or big promotional budgets. But that’s not the right way in education. We really have to start doing the right thing from the beginning,” he says.

If the key players in the educational sector of Indonesia can focus on that, Remond believes that people from abroad will be interested in learning in Indonesia, because our education will not sell “cosmetics”.

What about BINUS BUSINESS SCHOOL and BINUS International? With the main purpose to obtain standard international accreditation, the mindset of people inside it needs to be changed.

Becoming a Leader, With a Great Team

It’s quite simple. A leader must have a vision, mission, and be able to make it happen. We don’t need a lot of theories. “You know what you’re going to do, and you know how to get there. So get there, be there.” This was Remond’s answer when we asked him about the meaning of leadership for him.

Even though the theory is quite simple, it’s not easy to be a leader. “A leader, not a boss!”, he stresses. A leader must be able to move forward with the whole team.

“Leadership is a matter. In the future, as BINUS’ develops, we need a leader. The dean has four years of tenure, and hopefully we can get a new face for his replacement. We should have regeneration, and the younger ones should be able to show their capability. We need leaders to make it happen”.

At the moment, Remond and other BINUSIAN leaders are currently trying to get the international accreditation of EQUIS/EPAS for BBS and BI. This is not an easy task, and the process is long and difficult.

However, he thinks that this calls for a team achievement. “Right now I am the top leader along with Mr. Firdaus Alamsjah. We are on the right track, and we need to make it happen. We need to obtain international accreditation.”

A for National Accreditation, membership of EFMD, EPAS and EQUIS. These are the steps which have been achieved and are currently worked on for BI and BBS, all to achieve quality recognition on an international scale. For now, BBS has obtained A accreditation from the National Accreditation Agency (BAN) of Universities as per October 28, 2011 and EFMD membership.

Last year, Business Management BBS, Marketing, International Business and HTM BINUS INTERNATIONAL obtained EFMD (European Foundation of Management Development) membership. EFMD is an association of qualified business schools in international level.

The membership is one of the steps to prepare BI and BBS to achieve international accreditation in the next few years. BINUS BUSINESS SCHOOL needs two years to be listed as the member of EFMD.

By joining EFMD, BI and BBS automatically become a part of a respected international network in the field of managerial development. The variety of the EFMD network allows BINUS BUSINESS SCHOOL to meet regularly with other business schools to share experience and discuss various issues.

In line with that, BI and BBS is now aiming for EPAS stage before finally reaching EQUIS as the highest international accreditation. “For EQUIS, all of the schools need to obtain A accreditation. Therefore, our strategy is to obtain EPAS before EQUIS. However, we still aim to achieve EQUIS for international accreditation.”

On the way heading towards international accreditation EQUIS, Remond admits that he has a great team. They prepare everything together and they share the same goal, with high spirits.

Is he proud? Of course he is, because this is the contribution of BINUS UNIVERSITY for Indonesia. “I don’t think anyone has ever claimed the status yet. So, this is not only a contribution for BINUS, but also for universities in Indonesia as a whole because with this we can become a pioneer, and we are not only making BINUS proud, we are also making Indonesia proud.”

*** Stephanus Remond is Dean of the Faculty of Business at BINUS International and BINUS Business School. He was formerly the Head of the School of Accounting & Finance at BINUS Business School. He received his Doctoral degree from Parahyangan Catholic University and his MBA degree from California State University, USA. He has more than 19 years of hands-on managerial experience, including in various multinational and public companies such as Sierad Produce, Continent Hypermarket, ING Baring Securities, and Freeport Indonesia; and more than 9 years of teaching and consulting experience including to various top companies such as Astra International, Garuda Indonesia, Hutchison CP Telecommunications, Mizuho Bank, Sierad Produce, Merck Indonesia, Tetra Pak Indonesia, Inti Karya Persada Teknik, Pertamina, and Perum Perumnas. He specializes in the research area of Corporate Finance & Strategy, Corporate Governance & Culture; and teaches business and financial courses at the undergraduate, Master and Doctoral programs. He has presented his papers in various international conferences in Asia-Pacific countries and in Harvard University, U.S.A. He is currently Commissioner of Candika Group, and also serves as Project Director of International Accreditation for BINUS Business School, Chairman of Binus IFRS Knowledge Centre, Vice Chairman of Binus-Recapital Corporate Governance Centre, and a member of the American Management Association.