“I like science and I love educating young people. Because I believe that science is very useful for guiding the nation," said Rudy when talking to the ITB Public Relations Reporter via telephone, Tuesday (16/8/2021). The man who has worked in various companies chose ITB to continue his doctoral degree because he wanted to make his experiences in managing companies ‘scientific’.

“My experience is quite a lot, including making a bankrupt company come back alive and strong, it's called the company turn around method. The method used is EBITDA or earning before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization," he explained.

He believes that if he continues his doctoral education, the applied management knowledge that he has could become scientific and can be practiced for everyone. To that end, the research topic he submitted as a proposal was "Essentials of Strategy Execution System to Manage Business Risks and Operation Profitability: Operation Management by EBITDA Daily Control to minimize operational risks and maximize operation profitability'."

"The point is not just to look for titles, but how to make field science become scientific, so that it can be applicable by many people and useful," he said briefly. He chose ITB as a place to continue his studies because ITB is one of the best campuses in Indonesia, especially in the field of management science.

It should be noted, Ir. Rudy Setyopurnomo MM; MPA; MSM was graduated from ITB in 1976. He graduated and earned an Engineer degree in mechanical engineering. In 1990, he continued his study at the University of Indonesia to take a Master of Management. In 1991 he continued his studies at Harvard University to take a Master of Public Administration, in 1992 he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to take a Master of Science in Management, then in 1994, he continued the Post Graduate-sandwich program, at Stanford University.

Now he is Founder, CEO of PT Equiti Manajemen Teknologi and Founder, Director of Fountain Bali Hydro System Corp. Ltd. Hong Kong.

By having a lot of activities and tight schedules, the way he manages his time is to make time for studying. Since his main goal is to turn his experience into a scientific method, the only way to do it is through entering a doctoral program.

He encouraged ITB students in particular and young people in general, to be able to enter MIT and Harvard. Because based on his experience, the level of difficulty in higher education is not more difficult compared to ITB. "Never be afraid to register for the best university in the world after graduating from ITB, you can do it," he said. "Try measuring your IQ, if it's above 130 you should take a Ph.D."

Reporter: Adi Permana
Translator: Aghisna Syifa Rahmani (Biologi, 2020)