Future Technology Development in the Hands of Students

The rise of students at middle schools and universities that did amazing technology related studies and experiments is a solid proof that technology advancement lies in the hands of students. Sukanto Tanoto understands this and provides special program from his foundation to provide grant or funding for students at universities who are conducting research and projects related to technology advancement. The reason why such award must be present is also because Sukanto Tanoto is billionaire that is really committed to be the champion of education, especially among young children.

Incentives to Attract New, Young Researchers

There are many unfortunate facts that explain why Indonesia does quite badly in the world of scientific research: the numbers are low and dwindling. From about 250 millions of people that live in Indonesia, there are only 24,000 researchers, despite the fact that Indonesia ideally must reach the numbers of 200,000 scientists or researchers. Meanwhile, many young inventors and researchers in Indonesia do not get a lot of spotlight and attention. Sukanto Tanoto then stepped up and helped them with his funding program for student researchers.

Tanoto Student Research Award is a program designed to give appreciation to students that show amazing study results or researches in technology advancements. The award is presented annually and must be given to students whose researches or studies are based on actual problems with good scientific methods. Since these students are keys of future researchers, the funding will be great to boost the research development and confidence.

Of course, Tanoto Foundation cannot receive all proposals sent to the Tanoto Foundation office, but students who received the funding must also be responsible for their achievements.

Young Students and Lack of Youth Participations in Research

Entering open market era in 2015, as well as the Indonesian IPTEK (Science and Technology) era target in 2025 as explained by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, students should be given more opportunities to show their potential in the field of scientific and IT. Sukanto Tanoto also thinks that technology advancement is the key factor that makes it important for more youths to be involved in scientific studies and researches.

By awarding fund to students in researches and studies, Sukanto Tanoto is assured that technology improvement will quickly rise and be adopted by Indonesia in various aspects. From here, these students can make changes in the world of technology and provide important inventions or findings to support the country’s GDP and prosperity.

Benefits Tanoto Foundation Gives to Scholarship Recipients

There are many scholarship awards from various private foundations, but foundation owned by self made palm oil billionaire Sukanto Tanoto provides scholarships with better upsides for the scholarship recipients. Through his foundation, Sukanto not only gives scholarships to hundreds of students every year, but he also provides upsides and benefits for these students. This is also a part of his efforts to create better human resources and potentials, especially those who want to work at his facilities and companies.

Better Soft Skill Enrichment for Scholarship Recipients

Most companies and foundations only give the money or school tuition payment, but scholarship program from Tanoto Foundation gives even more. Besides receiving full scholarships, students also get soft skill and motivational enrichment in special programs to get ready for the new study era. These programs usually last for 3-4 days, and they can help students gaining all the positive qualities they need to be successful at campus and in the future career or job.

The program is also aimed giving inspirational motivation for the students, especially since Sukanto Tanoto has long history of creating, running and expanding various businesses; from his family’s small business that he must overtake when he was 17, to multinational groups with diverse fields. Without formal education and very thin level of experiences, he finally succeeded to start more and more companies, even acquiring several facilities and companies in other countries beside Indonesia, like China, Singapore, Canada, and Brazil. His story is always a good inspiration for all entrepreneurs wannabe, and his experiences definitely must be example for what success is all about.

Job Opportunities and Internship

Scholarships from Tanoto Foundation also mean better opportunities for the students to enter professional world after their studies are over. RGE Group, Asian Agri and other companies owned by Sukanto  Tanoto has several benefits for students that continue their studies with the foundation’s scholarship. For example, students who receive scholarships are more possible to get internship opportunities right after the study. They can also get priorities when his companies open job vacancies for many facilities and areas, including in his massive palm oil company Asian Agri.

Meanwhile, depending on the location and program, Tanoto Scholarship recipients can also get more opportunities in conducting community giving back activities, such as activities in Riau province that involved scholarship recipients at National University of Singapore. In such activities, students learn how to contribute with community members and try their knowledge and skills in actual field.

The Application of E-Business Principle as New Business Style

E-business is the new trend in business that must be adopted by all business owners, even the ones that already have their businesses for long years, since many of their customers now shop and look for information through internet. As a self made billionaire with amazing business instinct, Sukanto Tanoto, the owner of Asian Agri, realized that business owners cannot escape the advancement of technology. Therefore, he is also a strong supporter of advancement in business, including e-business.

E-Business and Self Made Billionaire

Many self made billionaires, especially the young ones nowadays get their assets from e-business. This type of business uses internet as the main element of the business, which also grows in technology. Internet makes business owners get more convenience when providing products and services for customers, as well as marketing and promoting their products. While many billionaires in the past get their assets from natural resources and manufacturing, today’s billionaires get their wealth from information technology.

As a person with strong self resilience and entrepreneurship soul, Sukanto Tanoto has main principle of never stopping learning, including learning from other entrepreneurs that gain success with methods he never tried before. Since e-business is big now, he has noticed the success and is very supportive about it. For him, the rising numbers of young entrepreneurs that use internet as the way to start and expand business is in accordance with entrepreneur principles he has and applies on his own business.

Besides, the advanced technology of the internet and more young people who can use internet since very young age have made the numbers of self made billionaires rising, and many of them will consist of young people in the future.

Sukanto Tanoto Principles in Understanding E-Business

While e-business is not something Sukanto Tanoto dabbled on in the past, his company must also follow the technology trend. Besides, he also appreciates the fact that e-business and internet rise made him more eager to learn new trend in business. He is also ready to face challenges that will be posed by the future young billionaires that make their fortune through internet, especially e-business.

Innovation, competition and new technology are nothing new for Sukanto Tanoto. As an owner of RGE Group with operational areas in several countries, he also has strong urge to learn (including at various universities) and always welcome every opportunity to win a competition and gain even the most ambitious business goals.

What to Get from Tanoto Scholars Gathering

As a successful self made billionaire that had not finished his education when he started doing business, Sukanto Tanoto addressed his credits to soft skills and strong networking. Therefore, he wants all new generations who receive scholarships from his foundation also have soft skills necessary to build success in the future, especially if they decide to start a business and become entrepreneurs just like him. Tanoto Foundation has several programs to instill these important concepts to new generations of entrepreneurs; one of them is Tanoto Scholars Gathering.

What is Tanoto Scholars Gathering?

As the name suggests, Tanoto Scholars Gathering is a routine event from Tanoto Foundation to gather scholarship recipients that get opportunities to study at partner universities. The gathering has been held for four times in a row, with last gathering event being held in D’Jungle, a popular outbound location in Bogor, West Java. The gathering is held before all the scholarship recipients go to their universities, and the participants come from different universities that all become partners of Tanoto Foundation.

Each gathering usually has theme related to soft skills such as leadership, responsibility, integrity, and entrepreneurship motivation. However, all the themes share similar elements: every program is designed to shape the best characters of all participants, which are soft skills necessary to support the future success in academic, career or business (and generally all life aspects). Soft skills are considered important elements to teach to students, and the gathering has such main goal.

Tanoto Scholars Gathering is usually held for several days, so students can get opportunities to get more friends, and join many fun activities as well as character building training and seminar. Participants can also get precious lessons taken from the experiences of Sukanto Tanoto, the owner of the foundation as well as several successful multinational businesses.

The Benefits of Tanoto Scholars Gathering

There are many benefits students get from this activity. Besides getting good character building activities and training, students can also get more friends from different universities. Also, this is the opportunity to teach students the benefits of networking, since many of these new friends can be potential business or work partners in the future.

Tanoto Scholars Gathering is also a way to make sure that all scholarship recipients from Tanoto Foundation get not only professional skills but also soft skills such as leadership, responsibility, integrity, spirit of perseverance, and many more. All these things are deemed important and become main qualities Sukanto Tanoto showed in his own history as businessman.

Why Indonesia is Fertile Ground for International Research

Tanoto Foundation has a lot of concerns about education and academic matters in Indonesia. One of the biggest concerns Sukanto Tanoto have related to his CSR program and Tanoto Foundation activities is the lack of dynamic research and development climate. This is such a shame considering that Indonesia is actually very potential for research area, including international research. As one of Asian countries with rich natural resources, demography, culture and potential, Indonesia should have more energized research culture.

Reasons Indonesia is Good for Research Culture

Indonesia has great potential to support research culture in various fields, from technology to social and scientific fields. Indonesia is now considered as one of rising Asian countries, and currently also has favorable investment climate. Since the country has a lot of natural resources, it becomes great field of research about science and energy. The rising numbers of Indonesia’s population with great diversity also induces great research plans in sociology, anthropology, economy, education and many more.

Indonesia is also a great country to invest on energy, communication and consumer goods business, which means more opportunities for research in marketing, business, technology and information. Unfortunately, Indonesian researches often must struggle with bureaucracy and funding matters to complete a potential research, leading to lower amounts of research and paper writing from professional academics. According to Sukanto Tanoto, unsupported academic sector is one way to make a country’s economy goes poorer. This is why that the palm oil magnate chooses to support education and academic aspect through his programs at Tanoto Foundation.

Sukanto Tanoto Efforts in Supporting Research Culture

There are several efforts conducted by Tanoto Foundation to support academic research culture. Besides providing grant and funding for professors and researchers from partner universities, Sukanto Tanoto also has partnership program with one of his alumni, Wharton School. Through Tanoto Initiative at Wharton School, the self made Indonesian billionaire attempts to create ideal research climate in Indonesia, especially in international level.

This program initiates cooperation between Wharton School and several well known universities in Indonesia, especially those who become partners of Tanoto Foundation, to work together in the field of academic research. Since Indonesia has a lot of potentials for developing academic climate, Tanoto Initiative encourages other countries and private businesses to pay more attention to this matter. Indonesian researchers will also have more opportunities to conduct researches, studies and paper writing with more support and better opportunities in various professional fields.