Iwan rejoins Shell in 2006, after previously working for ten years in various role in Lubricants , Downstream Business Development Consultancy (OMC) and Shell Global Solutions. Most of his career has been in marketing and business development roles .He had worked as Lubricants marketing manager both in Shell Indonesia and Shell UK Ltd. In his OMC role, he was involved in various projects such as Retail Market Entry, Global Commercial Review, Retail - Lubricants Interface, Global Solutions-Global Lubricants Interface and Global Marketing Effectiveness, most of which he spent in Shell Centre. After a 2 1/2 years role as Indonesia & Pertamina Business Development Manager for Shell Global Solutions, Iwan was appointed as the Indonesia Supply Manager in July 2006. He is now transitioning into a new role of Supply Contracts & Negotiation Manager for Southeast Asia from October 2009 onwards.
How do you balance between work and personal time (work life balance)?
I had planned to persuade myself to take up Golf in my sparetime. However I almost always end up chaffeuring the children around town, which I terribly love. I suspect my fellow Golf beginners would feel the same.
What are your long term aspirations professionally?
I would like to contribute to the best of my ability to my work and people who are dear to me. If allowed, I want to help everyone in the company get to their maximum potential.
Who do you admire the most and why?
I admire people who have done outstanding things - be it in Science, the Arts, Sports, Politics or Business, but I do not have any specific leaders in mind. However I have the greatest admiration and respect for people who have to brave adversity in life and came out from it a stronger and a better person. Examples which come to mind are those who have to fight against potentially fatal ilness or were born with disabilities. You really need to put yourselves in their shoes to appreciate the discrimination or ignorance that they have to overcome. Only after going through this experience, did you realize that most of us are, indeed, lucky.
What is your motto in life?
"Trust, but Verify".
What is the best advise you have ever received?
It was "If you want to be successful, you may not be happy. However, if you are happy, it is likely that you will be successful". To put this into context, at one point in my career, I had sent some angst-riddent notes to my mentor and he coached me on my career decisions. He asked me to put less focus on short term success and more on long term objectives. In retrospect, I think some of us, some time, do fall prey to this temptation. Hope it is as useful to you as it is to me.
Any advise for future leaders of Shell Indonesia?
Seek to understand how your role fits into Shell and the overall market, take the initiative and build your network. Each and everyone of us need to work out what are our contributions to the success of the organization. When we have identified what these contributions , do focus on delivering them. In fact, aim to deliver more than you are asked to do. One way of achieving this is to continue to build your network, so you can accept ever more challenging assignments. When you take on tough roles, you equip yourself with competencies and skills required to attain more senior positions in the organization.
Posts
