Why Do Raffles Jakarta Grads Lead Top Firms?
A prevalent assumption in discussions regarding creative education is that designers create products while business professionals manage enterprises, with these two paths diverging early and remaining distinct. That presumption is now quantifiably antiquated.
In the past ten years, design proficiency transitioned from a departmental role to a factor influencing corporate financial outcomes. Subsequent to that occurrence, companies required a type of individual who had been uncommon: one capable of simultaneously applying creative discernment and business acumen. That is the gateway through which alumni of a design and business institution transition into leadership roles.
Why do Raffles Jakarta grads lead top firms?
Raffles Jakarta graduates lead top firms because the capability firms most need at the senior level now sits between design and business, and that is precisely where the school trains.
Research covering 300 publicly listed companies over five years found that the strongest design performers grew revenue and shareholder returns at roughly twice the rate of industry peers. Critically, the same research found that designers alone cannot deliver these gains; they require sustained leadership commitment over years. That creates demand for people who understand user-centered creative work and can also measure it, budget it, and argue for it in a boardroom.
Studying design alongside business administration, marketing, and an MBA in one institution, taught by practicing professionals, produces exactly that profile.
Design became a performance variable, and the numbers are specific
In 2018, McKinsey released what it characterized as the most comprehensive study conducted globally on the design strategies that leaders can implement to realize business value.
The research monitored 300 publicly traded firms across various nations for five years, gathering over two million financial data points and documenting more than 100,000 design initiatives (Sheppard et al., 2018).
Regression analysis revealed twelve actions that exhibited the strongest correlation with financial performance, categorized into four themes that formed the McKinsey Design Index. The outcomes were unequivocal.
Firms in the highest quartile of the index experienced 32 percentage points greater revenue growth and 56 percentage points superior growth in total returns to shareholders during the period relative to industry counterparts (Sheppard et al., 2018).
Each year, leading quartile companies experienced revenue growth approaching 10 percent, compared to 3 to 6 percent for their counterparts, and shareholder return growth of approximately 21 percent versus 12 to 16 percent (Consulting.us, 2018).
Leading performers exceeded the industry's benchmark growth by a ratio of two to one.
The discovery was consistent across all three examined sectors: medical technology, consumer products, and retail banking (Sheppard et al., 2018). It was applicable regardless of whether the enterprise marketed tangible items, digital offerings, or services.
The sentence that creates the career opening
Embedded within that research is the insight that holds the greatest significance for a graduate. The four themes, as observed by McKinsey, generally cannot be addressed solely by designers and frequently require years of dedicated leadership to implement (Sheppard et al., 2018). Design proficiency cannot be acquired merely by employing skilled designers.
An organization cultivates its design culture through choices made beyond the design team: the metrics for performance evaluation, the distribution of budgets, the allowance for functional silos, and the acceptance of iterative processes within timelines.
This dilemma is an issue of leadership that necessitates leaders who comprehend both perspectives. A commercially adept executive lacking design comprehension cannot assess it.
A designer who is unable to articulate concepts of revenue, margin, and risk cannot prevail in the discussion regarding it. Individuals possessing the ability to excel in both areas are rare, and such rarity in a sought-after skill is what propels individuals to prominence.
The four themes, read as leadership capabilities
Each of the four MDI themes describes something a leader has to do, and each maps to a part of design and business education.
Analytical leadership. Top performers measure and drive design performance with the same rigor they apply to revenues and costs (Sheppard et al., 2018). This role requires comfort with metrics, targets, and financial reporting, which is the territory of business administration and MBA study rather than studio work alone.
Cross-functional talent. Leading companies make user-centered design everyone's responsibility rather than a siloed department (Sheppard et al., 2018). Leaders who can operate across functions tend to be people who studied alongside other disciplines rather than in isolation from them.
Continuous iteration. Strong performers de-risk development by continually listening, testing, and reworking with end users (Sheppard et al., 2018). A studio education is built on exactly this rhythm of making, critique, and revision, recognized in design education as a signature pedagogy (Shulman, 2005) and described by Donald Schön as reflection in action (Schön, 1983).
User experience. Top quartile companies integrate physical, digital, and service design (Sheppard et al., 2018). Someone who has worked across visual communication, digital media, interior, and service contexts sees those walls as artificial because they never learned them as separate subjects.
A graduate who has spent a program doing all four is not learning leadership behavior later. They have been practicing leadership behavior as part of their coursework.
The gap that creates the opportunity
The identical study revealed the extent to which numerous companies remain distant from this goal. Over 40 percent of the companies surveyed did not engage with their end users during the development process, and slightly more than half acknowledged the absence of an objective method to evaluate or establish goals for their design teams' performance (American Marketing Association, 2024).
An additional detail merits attention. When senior leaders were queried about their organization's most significant design flaw, 98 percent of the answers corresponded with the four MDI themes (Sheppard et al., 2018). Leaders are aware of the issues involved. What they frequently lack is individuals capable of rectifying it.
That disparity represents a professional opportunity quantified in figures. A graduate equipped to establish design metrics, conduct user testing, and link creative endeavors to financial results is tackling a deficiency previously recognized by the executive team.
Where Raffles Jakarta graduates actually sit
The school's documented results demonstrate this trend in application rather than in concept.
A graduate in business administration currently serves as the head of retail operations at Samsung Electronics Indonesia, a position where product, brand experience, and commercial execution converge.
Rilla Puspita, an MBA alumnus, aids in executive leadership and financial management at a prominent online trading firm in Indonesia.
William propels expansion at PT Hexa Samudra Rejeki, concurrently co-owning PT Karya Seni Offset and establishing a foundation.
Some individuals guide through construction instead of ascent. Nicole Lay established PRSNL, a modern women's apparel label, necessitating the concurrent management of products and business operations. Sabrina Bensawan was acknowledged in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia in 2019 for her entrepreneurial accomplishments. These roles share a commonality that extends beyond a single sector. It is a role at the intersection of production, financial implications, revenue generation, and commercial significance.
What the education does structurally
Three features of studying at Raffles Jakarta produce this profile deliberately rather than incidentally.
Disciplines share a building. Fashion Design sits alongside Fashion Marketing and Management, Visual Communication Design, and Digital Media Design, as well as Business Administration and the MBA, with Interior Design, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Artificial Intelligence, and Psychology in the same portfolio. Cross-functional fluency is difficult to acquire after graduation and relatively straightforward to absorb during it.
Teaching by practicing professionals. The international academic team holds international certifications and carries substantial industry experience, working in their fields rather than only teaching them. Students are corrected against commercial standards, which is the standard leadership eventually has to defend.
Real briefs come with real constraints. Practical assignments, live case studies, business models, and consultancy-style projects require balancing creative ambition against cost, deadline, and client requirements. That balancing act is the daily content of a leadership role.
Investigations into work-integrated learning bolster the overarching impact. A research analysis utilizing national graduate survey data from over 76,000 participants revealed that experiential learning in the workplace led to significant enhancements in perceived employability as well as foundational, adaptive, and collaborative competencies (Jackson & Dean, 2023).
The Future of Jobs Report 2025 by the World Economic Forum, which analyzes over 1,000 employers in 55 economies, identifies analytical thinking as the paramount core skill, succeeded by resilience, flexibility, agility, leadership, social influence, and creative thinking (World Economic Forum, 2025).
The honest limits
Two qualifications belong here, because the argument is deceptively simple to overstate.
Being competent at the work does not make someone a leader. Leading requires delegating, developing other people, absorbing responsibility for outcomes you did not personally produce, and making decisions with incomplete information. These are distinct skills from craft, and plenty of excellent designers are unsuited to them. A program can supply commercial literacy and cross-functional exposure; it cannot supply the temperament.
Leadership takes time. Most of the roles described above were reached over years, not months. The graduate advantage is a faster start and a better position, not an accelerated title.
Why this matters in the Indonesian market
The regional context enhances the argument. In 2025, Indonesia's creative economy engaged 27.4 million individuals, constituting approximately 18.7 percent of the national labor force (Badan Pusat Statistik, 2025b), and contributed Rp1,611.2 trillion to the gross domestic product in 2024, representing around 7.28 percent of national production, with over half of its workforce being under 40 years of age (Antara, 2025).
A sector of such magnitude and youth requires management, yet it has not had the time to cultivate leaders internally. Simultaneously, rivalry at the entry-level is fierce.
The unemployment rate was recorded at 4.85 percent in August 2025, equating to approximately 7.46 million individuals, with a rate of 16.89 percent among the demographic aged fifteen to twenty-four (Badan Pusat Statistik, 2025a; Tempo, 2025).
Graduates capable of functioning in both creative and commercial roles are rare, which leads to immediate accountability. The concise summary is as follows.
Companies realized that design influences financial outcomes but subsequently found that designers alone are insufficient to achieve this goal. Their requirements lie at the intersection of the two fields, and a campus on Jalan M.H. Thamrin that offers instruction in both areas under one roof provides an exceptionally straightforward pathway into that domain.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does design capability really affect company performance?
Yes, and it has been quantified. Research tracking 300 publicly listed companies over five years, using well over two million pieces of financial data and 100,000 recorded design actions, found that companies in the top quartile of the McKinsey Design Index achieved 32 percentage points higher revenue growth and 56 percentage points higher shareholder return growth than industry peers.
Why do firms need leaders who understand both design and business?
Because the research found that strong design performance cannot be delivered by designers alone and typically requires years of leadership commitment.
Setting design metrics, breaking down silos between functions, and protecting time for iteration are all decisions made above the design team, which requires leaders fluent in both creative judgment and commercial measurement.
What kind of leadership roles do Raffles Jakarta graduates hold?
Published alumni outcomes include Head of Retail Operations at Samsung Electronics Indonesia, an MBA graduate supporting executive leadership and financial operations at a leading Indonesian online trading company, and a business administration graduate driving growth at one company while co-owning another. Others founded and lead their own businesses.
What makes a design and business education different from studying one alone?
Studying both together builds cross-functional fluency during the program rather than after it. Disciplines spanning fashion, design, business, technology, and psychology share the same institution, so students learn to move between creative and commercial thinking as a normal habit rather than acquiring the second language later in a career.
Is there a gap in the market for this skill set?
The research suggests so. More than 40 percent of surveyed companies did not talk to end users during development, and just over half lacked an objective way to assess or set targets for design output. When executives were asked to name their greatest design weakness, 98 percent of answers mapped to the same four themes, indicating leaders know the problem but lack people who can solve it.
Does being a competent designer make someone an effective leader?
Not automatically. Leadership requires delegating, developing others, taking responsibility for work you did not personally produce, and deciding with incomplete information. These are separate from craft skill. Education can provide commercial literacy and cross-functional exposure, but the temperament for leading people develops through experience.
Marketing Manager
References
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