Dr. Gatot Yudoko’s tenacity in carrying out many responsibilities professionally cannot be separated from his past hard work. Now, the lecturer at the SBM ITB holds three positions: the School Chair of the SBM School Senate, the Chair of the SBM ITB Operations Management Expertise Group, and one of the SBM representatives in the ITB Academic Senate.
At the ITB Academic Senate, he is assigned to Commission 1, in charge of education, to discuss ITB academic policies. In addition, Gatot is often involved in ad hoc committees.
Gatot is already accustomed to the demands of responsibility, cooperation and facing difficulties. Gatot lived in a small town, Boyolali, Central Java, when he was young.
Many of his elementary school friends were barefoot. The school did not allow students to wear sandals. The choice was wearing shoes or barefoot. Many of Gatot’s SD friends dropped out of school and chose to farm.
“When I came home from school, I played and hang out with my friends,” Gatot said when met in Bandung Monday (10/1).
Gatot’s residence in Boyolali at that time was short of water. During a long drought, Gatot sometimes had to fetch water from the river with a bucket. Although tiring, he enjoyed the activity. He did it with his village friends.
When he went to junior high school, Gatot’s house and school were two kilometres away. Gatot walked to school with his friends. When his parents could afford, they bought him a bicycle to commute. For four years, in junior high and their first year in senior high school, he studied at home using an oil lamp. At that time, electricity had not yet reached the village.
After high school, in 1980, Gatot entered ITB. After completing the Joint Preparation Level (TPB), Gatot chose the Industrial Engineering Department in his second year and completed his studies in 1985. At that time, the head of the Industrial Engineering Department invited Gatot to become a lecturer at his alma mater.
Gatot was noted to have received a scholarship from the Environmental Management Development in Indonesia (EMDI) from the Government of Canada. The advice of the late Prof. Dr Surna Tjahja Djajadiningrat (Assistant Minister for the Environment) had brought Gatot to a school at the University of Waterloo, Canada, and graduated with a master’s degree in science management and a doctorate in planning.
This achievement is undoubtedly somewhat exceptional compared to his former friends in Boyolali. Gatot believes that what he has achieved today is inseparable from the foundation of educational values emphasized by his father.
Gatot’s father is a high school teacher who advised Gatot to pursue the highest educational level. After completing his doctoral program in 2000 and ITB changed its status from a state university to a state-owned legal entity university (BHMN); there was a reorganization of the expert group. Hence, Gatot, in 2005, moved to the School of Business and Management.
Regarding his area of expertise, Operations Strategy, Gatot explained that this field has developed taking into account environmental or sustainability aspects, namely the Sustainable Operations Strategy. The field is related to operational excellence strategy in various organizational entities, profit or non-profit.
The field of operations strategy is divided into groups of strategic decision content and the process of formulating operations strategies. The strategic decision content group contains structural (hardware) and infrastructure (software) decisions. Structural decisions include capacity, facilities, process technology and supply chain. Meanwhile, infrastructure decisions consist of companies’ policies, systems and standards, such as quality, product and service development, operations and inventory plans, performance measurement, and organization.
As for his activities in the SBM Senate, they are related to providing guidance and direction on academic norms for the Dean in carrying out Tri Dharma activities of higher education, providing direction and approving Strategic Plans (Strategic Plans) and RKA (Work Plans and Budgets), providing directions and approval new curriculum, provide recommendations for promotion of functional positions for lecturers, and provide considerations needed by the Dean.
Looking back, Gatot thinks prayer to God is everything besides plans and hard work. Without God’s blessing, Gatot is sure that he will not be able to go to school in Canada just by relying on his abilities.
Gatot, who loves reading, now enjoys media that he thinks are more enjoyable, such as video streaming. He is fond of topics related to his field, such as business, management, technological progress, a new technology.
According to him, this preference is based on the awareness to adapt to the current times. This is also what made him advise us to adapt and never give up, especially for future generations who will experience new things that their predecessors did not experience.