Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

Sustainable human development is a fairly new and interesting topic for students to learn more about. As part of the virtual summer program held by the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FEB UGM), namely International Week (iWeek) 2021,  on Tuesday (27/07) the topic was discussed further in a case study session. In practice, the case study session was brought on by an expert speaker in the field of human development, Dr. Bob Aubrey, who is a Founder and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the ASEAN Human Development Organization (AHDO). Other than Dr. Aubrey,  Pambudi Sunarsihanto, as Director of Human Resources of the Blue Bird Group, also joined in the case discussion.

During this occasion, the session started with a presentation by Dr. Bob Aubrey who explained the human dimensions of the whole area of sustainable human development and why the ASEAN region of AHDO is creating a different concept/approach on how to manage people in companies and organizations. He argued that the classical human resource model seemed unsustainable. Hence, a new model for HR was created in a region where the goal was to ensure that people not only became more productive, but were able to live better lives at the same time.

Furthermore, Dr. Aubrey also explained the elements of a sustainable workforce development, which includes human development leadership & community, leading productivity & learning, leading ethics, and leading personal development. According to him, the concept of a sustainable workforce is the existence of a continuity between companies that ensure sustainable workforce development and workers who also ensure sustainable company development. However, it is of course not that easy for companies to directly implement them and several challenges lay ahead, such as the difficulties to change the workforce vision, become a sustainable workforce leader, and build a two-way development organization.

The session was then continued to discuss a real case study about Blue Bird Group, a transportation (taxi) company. iWeek 2021 participants who have been divided into several groups were assigned to discuss the questions given by Dr. Aubrey with the aim of finding the best solution. In turn, each group presented their opinions to Dr. Aubrey and given direct feedback and input by the HR Director of the Blue Bird Group himself, Pambudi Sunarsihanto. The case study discussion session ended with a question and answer session between participants and the speakers.

Reportage: Kirana Lalita Pristy.