Plantation Academy is a development program launched by Great Giant Foods (GGF) in 2022. Plantation Academy is created based on business needs to accommodate GGF’s goals which require experts as well as sustainable future leaders in the plantation area.

“GGF already has many experts and leaders and reliable researchers at this time. The company wants to maintain and develop it further,” said Learning Development Department Head M. Nurdin Rhomadona. Nurdin explained that the initiation of this program started with business needs and then a collaboration was formed between Plantation, R&D, and HR, in this case Learning Development.

The Plantation Academy is divided into 2 sub-programs, namely the Plantation Management Program (PMP) and the Researcher Development Initiative (REDI).

The Plantation Management Program is directly under the auspices of the Head of Processed Pine Plantation Directorate Imanudin and the Researcher Development Initiative program is chaired by Fauzan’s Technical Advisor for Plantation and R&D.

The PMP program covers all fields in plantation commodities, starting from Processed Pine, Banana, Guava, and PPIC. Likewise, the REDI Program does not only cover pineapples but also Agri Technology, Crop Improvement, and Tissue Culture but leads to Regenerative Agriculture.

“Welcome to join the Management Trainees, especially those joining the Plantation Academy program. It is not an easy thing to get a place as a Trainee at Plantation Academy, because you have to go through a gradual selection process, you also have to compete with thousands of candidates who are interested in qualifying as Trainees at Plantation Academy Great Giant Foods,” said Imanudin.

The main thing in the Plantation Academy program is to shape the character of the trainees according to GGF culture. Character focuses on two important things that really need to be done firstly GGF values, secondly Giant Behavior to form a future leader who is strong, agile and at the same time represents GGF culture.

The Manager of Great Giant Foods (GGF) is again holding an activity with the theme Becoming The Giant: Light Up The Sky which took place on Friday, 7 October 2022. A series of sharing sessions by the leaders of Great Giant Foods (GGF), namely Tommy Wattimena as CEO of Great Giant Foods, Josep Lay as CEO of Protein and Plant Based Business, and Jane Fransisca as MD FA & Corporate Strategy as well as CEO of the Farmers Empowerment Partnership. The session was then followed by a casual dinner at the 36th floor of Sequis Tower, South Jakarta.

The event was designed to provide an opportunity for GGF employees, not only to get to know the leaders better, but to be able to have light discussions with them about the leadership journey they went through to become trusted leaders at GGF. Participants who attended came from various business units such as PT. Sewu Segar Nusantara (SSN), PT. Great Giant Pineapple (GGP),

On this occasion, Rina Faqih, HRGA Director of GGF, moderated the event. Tommy Wattimena, CEO of GGF, on this occasion told about the leadership journey he has faced so far, and how GGF colleagues can follow in his footsteps to become leaders for tomorrow.

He said that from what the public knows about his career journey, many experiences are not exposed even though they help hone his skills. “I had down to two candidates during the interview and I got the position only because I was asked ‘can you cook?’ and I was able to do it from experience working in the kitchen,” he said, telling how he managed to get a position at Unilever Indonesia.

As a leader, Tommy Wattimena shared ways that whoever they are, can become a leader for tomorrow. Starting with having integrity (having integrity), being adaptable (comfortable everywhere), and having adequate skills (mastering functional & soft skills).

The series of events then shifted to a light discussion session which was attended by Josep Lay and Jane Fransisca. On this occasion the participants submitted questions through online forms anonymously which were then answered publicly by the speakers.

The first question was addressed to Josep Lay regarding his response when he started his journey at GGF, who previously had no experience in the agribusiness sector. “I believe if I give my best, I will give the best. You have to come from the heart first, even though you are still afraid,” he answered when he was first entrusted with joining Great Giant Pineapple by Iswanto, CEO of GGF before Tommy Wattimena.

Towards the evening, the leadership insight session was closed by making a Tiktok together which was followed by dinner in the Sequis Tower outdoor area. Participants had the opportunity to get acquainted with each other, especially for newcomers and from different business units.

Digital Innovation Great Giant Foods (GGF)’s new office building has officially opened and is ready to operate. Located in the GGF Central office area, Terbanggi Besar, Lampung. This building is equipped with 3 rooms as needed including a workshop room, discussion room, and meeting room.

Several CCTV security systems, fire sensors, and complete APAR are available in this new building. The Digital Innovation office is different from offices in general, the design of the workspace table arrangement is made in an open space with no partitions which facilitates coordination between employees.

The series of thanksgiving events took place simply, beginning with remarks by Sub, Div. Plantation Production Capability Digital Innovation Felix Amando Hadisaputra, and continued with remarks from GGF Managing Director Wayan Ardana.

Located in the main office room, Wayan Ardana and his production team attended the thanksgiving event for the placement of the New Digital Innovation Office, on Wednesday (26/10/22).

“I congratulate Digital Innovation colleagues who have occupied the new office and hopefully they can enjoy working so that you can provide support for something better. I also hope that the role of Digital Innovation in operations and support can be significant to bring about new innovations,” said Wayan.

While in his remarks, Felix as the leader of Smart Agri and Agriculture Intelligence Dashboard said that with the new office, it is hoped that the management of task implementation can be carried out properly. What is done can have a positive impact not only from the management side but also from the operational content.

“We are still young here, of course we need a lot to learn, so we need help and patience from colleagues at GGF. We will learn faster so that the presence of the Digital Innovation team can provide something better. Friendly technology coming to you,” said Felix.

Felix also hopes that the ranks under his command will have a new spirit with the new office.