Three Values Ruangguru Co-Founders Share That Shape Its Culture
Founders generally have the upper hand in creating their company’s culture. At least that’s what my friend thinks is especially true for startups. This friend of mine — whom I shall remain nameless — pointed out that because Gojek’s Founder and ex-CEO Nadiem Makarim is dynamic and extroverted, the culture in Gojek is somehow more suitable for dynamic and extroverted individuals. Traveloka is quite the opposite. This is because its co-founders are introverted and reserved. Those qualities now manifest themselves in Traveloka’s working environment.
Here comes her obvious question:
“So how about Ruangguru?”
The biggest tech-enabled education provider in South East Asia’s culture is passionate about teaching and learning. That’s my answer. (I spent a lot of time thinking about it. Real Hard.) After 11 months working in Ruangguru, what I’ve come up with is that we love being students and teachers simultaneously.
Currently, our Learning and Development team is initiating various classes that strengthen our basic skills, such as Microsoft Excel classes and English business classes in hopes of supporting our performance. Individual leaders within the company create intimate classes too, like Bona, our senior lead in the education content department, who’s passionate about soft skills improvement within his team. If that’s not enough, we could always go to Skill Academy — our online short course platform designed for fresh graduates and professionals — where even some of the company’s leadership contribute and share tips, like our Vice President of Business Operations Ritchie Goenawan.
But, why does this culture exist? What do our co-founders value that they are shaping these behaviors? Assuming that my friend’s theory is true, we should see what values Ruangguru’s co-founders Iman Usman and Belva Devara share to understand its culture better, and I believe there are three.
Learn. Earn. Return
Iman inspired me to think about the significance of giving back. It was on Iman’s 27th birthday when he underlined such importance by issuing a scholarship program called #BeasiswaImanUsman for underprivileged students with powerful and promising qualities. Apparently, that was also internalized by my colleague, despite having only been hired recently.
Tsamara Fahrana, who at that time was a new manager in Ruangguru, was not obligated to train us, the Impact department team. Even so, our culture of teaching and learning inspired her: she conducted a training session for us. She taught us a lot about strategic problem-solving. Fahrana could have chosen to solve problems by herself, but she begs to differ, and she further inspired other team members who have certain expertise to share their knowledge. This became an incentive for us to push ourselves and perfect the skills needed to perform at our job.
Despite no longer having Fahrana with us, her training has been maintained until now. It fascinates me knowing that this value for knowledge sharing truly is a trickling force: from a C-level leader like Iman, to managers like Fahrana, and team leaders like myself.
Making the impossible, possible
My experience thus far has shown me that our CEO Belva believes in achieving the impossible. He believes that persistence and leveraging our full potential are what make the impossible, possible. Our campaign says it all: our hashtag #PastiBisa — translated to #DefinitelyCan — motivate students and literally anyone to hold on to their dreams despite existing boundaries and limitations.
See, I’m a film enthusiast. I see Belva as Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) in the movie La La Land (2016) and all Ruangguru employees are a collective of Mia Dolan (Emma Stone). In the movie, when Mia Dolan doubted her potential for an audition, Sebastian came along and convinced her that she could. He persisted and believed in Mia’s quality acting. For Sebastian, what’s important was that she tried. In a nutshell, Belva motivates people that same way. That behavior proliferates and seeps into all departments and divisions in Ruangguru. I think that’s Ruangguru’s growth engine.
Combining the “giving back” value promoted by Iman and “making the impossible, possible” by Belva, we’ve consistently found ways to work, learn, and have fun. But what really sustains such learning ecosystem in Ruangguru? The people.
Be Hungry For Development
On Instagram, Iman and Belva talk a lot about their respective struggles, efforts, and triumphs. They’ve always emphasized their humble beginnings, yet they have a big curiosity for the world and hunger for development, which are some of the main factors that have led them to success.
Their stories have inspired a lot of young Indonesians. There are those who applied to work for Ruangguru because of them. This is particularly true for me and for my colleague Rima, who is now one of the closest people to work with Iman on a daily basis. Our young minds want exploration, purpose, and growth, and we find them through Iman and Belva’s persona and the values they instill in Ruangguru’s working environment.
The way I see it, it’s almost cyclical. Our leaders believe in certain values, they implement them, we accept them, and we work by them. When we work by these values daily, we also strengthen them. Then, it seeps into our daily activities at Ruangguru. For me, that is what makes Ruangguru a wonderful place for anyone passionate about education, learning, and growth in general.
These are my takeaways from Ruangguru’s leaders. If you’re curious for more, it’s never too late to join #TimRuangguru. Click here!
