Industrial Revolution in Indonesia on the Perspective of VUCA

The illustration of how the industry then and now. Source: Ecology Prime.

Standing at the edge of the 4th industrial revolution, making us look forward to another jump on the industrial revolution. But is it true that we are on our way to another industrial revolution — or the 5th industrial revolution, we might say — ? The 5th industrial revolution may be happening at the moment or may also not. What we know is the technology industries are developing rapidly, which is one of the industrial revolution traits. Moreover, the whole world is in a condition where most human interactions are done on the internet. It is more unusual if the technology industries are not advancing in this situation.

In Indonesia, the public is well aware of the industrial revolution. This is marked by the government itself. The government has published a roadmap to face the current industrial revolution called “Making Indonesia 4.0” on the 4th of April 2018. They were launching the roadmap while inducing the Indonesia Industrial Summit 2018. Even though we seem to be ready to face the revolution, that does not mean there would be no disincentive.

Roadmap for Industry 4.0. Source: Kemenperin RI

There are many issues that can get in the way. Let’s see the industries in Indonesia right now for example. The industries in Indonesia are being wildered at the moment. That is because they did not expect there would be a pandemic that affects the whole industry. Another example is inequal access to education and information technology in all areas. The government has been talking about this issue since years ago and was expecting to have solved this issue in several years later. Yet they have not solved or even making significant progress about that. This unexpected situation is making the whole industrial revolution future to be one of VUCA issues.

VUCA, on the other hand, is a term to describe situations or conditions that are volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. The future of the industrial revolution, especially in Indonesia, is the perfect example of VUCA. Here is why:

• Volatility. The dynamics of the industrial revolution in Indonesia are fluctuating. Just a little bit of change can also change the direction and the speed of the industrial revolution. If we look at the situation today, the technology industries are developing very fast because of the pandemic. We were not expecting this before because who in the world would expect this pandemic anyway. We haven’t known yet when will the 4th industrial revolution end or may never end. We might be in the 4th industrial revolution forever or might not. The 5th revolution might come tomorrow or 5 years later.
• Uncertainty. The impact is uncertain. It is unknown whether the future would be artificial intelligence that takes over the human or it would be just the way it is today. It is also uncertain whether the take over of humans would be a negative impact.
• Complexity. The industrial revolution is affecting many, or should I say the whole world. Yes. When I say the whole world, it is the whole world. Even your pet. Or even your beloved plant. If we take a look at today’s industrial revolution impact, we can see the lower wage for many laborers. As the industrial revolution took place, many of the laborers are replaced by machines or robots and that is resulting in low wages for them. Not to mention the gas emission that is produced by the production of technologies. Yes, developing technologies are great, but what is it if we do not think about sustainability and its effect on the earth. It also produces another problem, global warming. That is how complex the industrial revolution is.
• Ambiguity. Many predictions and many strategies to face the future of the industrial revolution are resulting in many versions of the future. The future becomes ambiguous and people do not know what to do. We do not know what skill that we need to have to face in the future.

Why is this important to know? And how to overcome the future?

The future is unpredictable, chaos, and no one ever knows it and that means we need to have a new approach to overcome the future. We can not use the same step that we used before. This time, it is all surprise. And that does not mean we need to be scared nor we should not do anything about that. We, especially the millennials and gen Z, should be trained to think fast and act fast. We should always implement in our mind that we need to be agile to adapt.

Even with the greatest strategy to face it, we would not know what exactly will happen in the future. Can we imagine it? Can we make a plan to face an unpredictable future? Sure, we can. We can predict but we never know will the prediction be right.

Alysha Putri Anggadinata, 16020072, Keluarga 238.

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