Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

In this era of technological development, engineering ideas can start from a small place, which then can grow into a bigger one and become a company that has an impact on millions of people around them. It is not like in the past when an idea can only appear in the laboratory. Therefore, to discuss this more deeply, FEB UGM brought on the topic of "Engineering Development in Technology Era" in International Week 2021 on (28/07).

The event facilitators invited Hendra Kwik, CEO and Co-Founder of Payfazz, to provide his insights regarding engineering developments. Payfazz is a mobile application that provides financial services to Indonesian citizens to conduct financial transactions, especially in second and third-tier cities. The event was also hosted by Achmad Faizal Azmi, S.E., M.Acc., a lecturer at FEB UGM, as a facilitator.

In his presentation, Hendra said that to make a good start-up, innovations and research, as well as development labs are needed, those of which are closely related to the role of universities. Then he also encouraged students to bring to life their ideas and continuously innovate.

He revealed that the number of technology companies originating from the US is due to the many innovations that exist and the supportive ecosystems. This supportive ecosystem is an important aspect because it is not only limited to the founders of the ideas they have, but includes the infrastructure available to realize these ideas.

In his explanation, Hendra also talked about the industrial revolution. During the first manufacturing era, humans relied on the use of manual labor, while in the digital era, humans tend to use technical assistance, resulting in a combination of manual and digital labor. In the future, existing applications will evolve into artificial intelligence or AI. This is because the more data the application ecosystem gets, the more likely it will be able to create a system with artificial intelligence. After artificial intelligence is created, the world will enter its final evolution stage, namely the robotic era.

This increasingly rapid technological growth is not only caused by the increasing number of new ideas, but also due to the rapid exchange of information through search engine machines. Therefore, there will always be room for innovators – new innovators replace previous companies with better innovations so that no matter how strong the old company survives, new innovators or new competitors will always emerge along with the times.

He also revealed that to get a brilliant idea to build a startup is to look for past businesses and markets that already exist and then improvise and make innovations using more advanced technology so that the products created will be more efficient, faster, cheaper, and easier to use.

Reportage: Zahra Dian

Watch the video https://youtu.be/4L_pTnnJCEc