A Day with BCA: How to Stay Relevant in the Rapidly Evolving Banking Business

On Thursday, January 11th, 2018, Kalibrr, in partnership with Indonesian Students Association Australia (Perhimpunan Pelajar Indonesia Australia), organized a company visit for 16 inspiring young Indonesian students to learn more about how Bank Central Asia (BCA), the largest private bank in Indonesia, is innovating and focusing on relevance above all things else. After conquering advertising, media and transportation, the technology industry has narrowed its sights on the banking and financial sector. Banks today face tough competition from a vast array of financial technology (fintech) startups that are meeting customers’ needs in a faster and cheaper way. Disruption, they say. The question is, how do the big banks respond? Especially if we look at other industries that have been overtaken by technology, whether it’s retail or media, there are only very few of them that are able to turn the table around. Ibu Lena Setiawati, Executive Vice President of BCA Learning & Development Division, took a moment to share about BCA’s mission in implementing the latest technological development into the company’s payment settlement products and services to remain relevant with the ever-evolving customer needs. “Indonesia is in a transition period to online-based transactions, so of course we don’t want to miss it. The high mobility of Indonesian society demands banking industry to provide services and products that are practical, dynamic and within reach. We follow this digital and technological development through a series of products, such as LAKU, Duitt, and Sakuku. LAKU and Duitt try to address the unbanked population in Indonesia by providing agents nearby to assist them in doing banking transactions such as saving and withdrawing cash to pay bills, while Sakuku offers customers an easy way to do cashless transactions by way of apps on smartphones even if they don’t have a BCA account. Each transaction is now only a tap away,” she explained.

With an objective to be the nation’s bank of choice that is reliable, BCA always strives to achieve innovate banking services and products in keeping with customers’ needs. Ultimately, a product is launched not only because of its novelty or sophistication, but because of its usability. This finding, however, raised another question: how do they communicate it to their customers, particularly to the millennial generation who is their main target at the moment? “Social media,” Ibu Lena readily answered. “It is undeniable that social media has become such a strong force to be reckoned with. There has been a massive change in how and by what we communicate, and we utilize it to communicate directly with customers and educate the public about everything related to BCA.” This commitment to relevance extends beyond their responsibility as a business and into their responsibility as an employer ensuring that it’s 25,000+ employees are continuously equipped with the skills to remain relevant in today’s rapidly evolving industries.

BCA’s Learning Institute, inaugurated last year, is designed as a place for BCA’s employees from all over Indonesia to train, evolve their skills in banking and personal development. Ibu Lena shared why it was important for BCA to create their own dedicated space for employee learning. “For us, it’s all about learning. We need to always be in-the-now in order to develop products that matter and communicate with customers in a relevant way.”

As the ever forward thinking company, BCA even has programs to ensure that their employees remain relevant into their retirement. Students were led to a rooftop where they were shown a mini hydroponic garden filled with organic plants such as lettuce, tomatoes, red spinach, and mustard — among many others. This garden was created as part of an initiative to teach BCA’s retiring employees organic farming, such that this could become a productive hobby that could add value to themselves and their communities in their pension years. The plants grown in this training institute are sold to employees working at BCA office branches all across Jakarta, from which the profits are donated to social foundations that the company supports.

When asked about the whole experience, Fasya Almeria, a student from the University of Melbourne majoring in Discrete Mathematics & Operation Research, said she was inspired by the visit. “As an IT student myself, I am deeply interested in BCA’s digital innovations in order to make them relevant amidst the advent of technology. In Australia, the banking experience is leaps and bounds ahead, so much that I really look forward to experiencing it in Indonesia. It’s my lifelong dream to be able to contribute to actualizing that,” she shared. Through this experience, the Kalibrr team learned a valuable lesson. Often the greatest innovation is not an outcome of striving to be more different, however, it’s an outcome of striving to be more relevant – to truly address the needs of those you serve. Our sincere gratitude to BCA, Indonesian Students Association Australia and all the participants for creating a truly memorable experience. To learn more about career opportunities in BCA visit here.