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How Clarissa Prepares to Digitize the MSMEs industry with GudangAda

Posted in Inside GudangAda May 27, 2020
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On its journey to build the biggest B2B platform for Indonesia, GudangAda understands that the business development team becomes the core of the wheel. This prompts the company to welcome Clarissa Susanto into the team as Vice President of Business Development to jumpstart the growth this year.

With GudangAda being the bridge connecting multiple FMCG stakeholders in more than 500 cities around Indonesia, Clarissa spearheads the development of the new-category business as well as building and managing the company’s strategic partnership. She stressed how some of the company’s values become the baseline of her vision for the company.

“I envision GudangAda to empower all the key players, starting from the retailers, wholesalers to manufacturers in the B2B distribution value chain through digitalization.”

As somebody who is high-spirited and goal-oriented, Clarissa finds her role to be eye-opening as it brings value to the MSMEs industry. That’s what motivates her to just get her hands dirty and get things done. Her day-to-day responsibility covers the whole end-to-end partnership cycle, including opportunities identification, monetization strategy, researching, pitching, deal-closing, partners onboarding, and performance tracking. There’s no task that is too small for her, as long as it means achieving the targeted revenue for GudangAda’s new category.

Growth mindset leads her to success

Clarissa was hired to expand the business category beyond FMCG. Starting the department and developing the team from scratch, she has been really committed to growing the new-category business’ revenue, including homeware, healthcare & medical devices, and packaging categories. She focuses on building great relationships with key manufacturers and doing regular field-trips to meet them in person and really understand the needs of each partner’s business. Her hard work paid off, and to give you a better idea, her success story looks like this:

There was one national manufacturer in the Packaging category who was on-boarded to GudangAda. Clarisa and her team have been helping with the product’s penetration and successfully introduced them to other members — so they can expand their customers base and increase sales. In only 3 months, the manufacturer’s GMV hit a monthly growth rate of almost 200%.

Growth for her also means her own professional development. Within her only six-month stint in GudangAda, she has learned to improve her agility and business acumen, as well as her team management skills — motivating the team to achieve the common goal, and keeping them inspired during their lowest points.

Managing the dream team

Pressure often reveals the true strength of a team, and how the team has come together during this pandemic has made Clarissa convinced that dream team exists.

I believe behind every great business is a great team. We communicate daily through ups and downs, share the same goals, and are trained to lead. I guess that is how we do things in GudangAda, to bring the ‘family feel’ in each team we work with.”

As the VP of Business Development, having a solid and ready-to-run team is a must. With a responsibility to stay alert and be on foot for new businesses, she ensures to always recognize and reward the team’s hard work, while also coaching them when needed.

This would sound uncanny to some, but Clarissa loves Mondays! It is the day of the week where she is at her most productive stage and feels energized.

“Usually, I sit down with the team and set up priority to-do lists for the week to manage the tasks better. That, and sharing about what we did on the weekends just to get personal, you know. I believe that we have to be able to get personal with our team, our colleagues, in order for us to create a strong collaboration.”

Do you share Clarissa’s passion in the B2B tech industry? We’re always hiring! Explore your career opportunities here.

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