Isobar (a Group of Dentsu Indonesia) and Ajinomoto organized the “GEN Z Innovator Search Program”. This program is attended by 11 selected students from Multimedia Nusantara University, who are divided into three groups that mentors, namely will assist: Chiendova Kesuma, Danielle Grace, Prasasti Rahayu, and Aldo Hasan (first group); Astika Prima, Rachel Anastasia, and Angelina Sanjaya (second group); as well as Victoria de Greatha, Isabella Rosane, Cherie Jesslyn, and Fellicia Hennita (third group).
This program, which aligns with the Merdeka Learning Campus Curriculum, uses a collaborative system between students with different study program backgrounds, where mentors will guide them from Isobar/Dentsu in dealing with Multinational Brand clients. Selected students from UMN are the three best students representing the Study Programs of Communication Science, Management, Information Systems, and Visual Communication Design.
UMN Communications Lecturer Irwan Fakhruddin, S.Sn., M.I.Kom., stated the importance of this program in increasing the capabilities of students’ hard skills and soft skills and enriching their experience in the industry and the professional world (real-case, real-client), especially in building a business.
The program began with a kick-off on July 28th, 2021, which brought in Brand & Project Owner from the program, Tsueno Ono as Director of PT Ajinomoto Indonesia, and Project Leader and Mentor from the program, Janoe Arijanto as Senior Advisor Dentsu Indonesia. The program continues with the Trend Spotting stage as the start of project design, where participants are guided to identify trends, including societal habits, product innovation, and industrial development. The participants then entered the New Biz Ideation stage, the stage of designing business ideas that later had to be presented. This program ends with the Consultancy & Evaluation stage, where the jury will pitch and assess business ideas to select three business ideas that Ajinomoto will run.
The “GEN Z Innovator Search Program” is also running at Thammasat University Thailand, the University of the Asia and the Pacific, and De La Salle University Philippines.