The passion for entrepreneurship has indeed been held by a lecturer from Universitas Dian Nuswantoro (Udinus) named Zahrotul Umami M.I.Kom. The passion emerged when Umami was a college student. Back then, she had tried various business opportunities, including selling used cars and food.
Working as a lecturer in the Communication Science Department (Ilkom) at Udinus, Umami took a big step. Based on her experience and the countless business opportunities in the digital era, Umami established PT Quadrat Communication Indonesia.
“This company is mainly active in digital marketing, brand activation, advertising, research, and business development sectors,” she revealed.
Umami herself had dedicated herself by working for Udinus for the past decade, with her company, PT. Quadrat Communication Indonesia was founded in 2021. In its initial state, Quadrant only offered marketing tools, like poster and merch design.
“However, things changed, and many of our customers needed SME fostering, content creation, and web creation. As of now, we offer various additional services, including communication consulting, advertisement, content management, and marketing communication,” she explained.
With fifteen years of experience in entrepreneurship, Umami revealed that challenges were present, with one of them being the very concept of uncertainty. Nevertheless, she kept her resilience.
“We live in a world with constant uncertainty. To battle against this adversary, we must learn to adapt, come up with the right preparation, make our uncertainty a form of opportunities, and failure as lessons,” Umami revealed.
Collaboration with the Academic Sector
Umami also assimilates her entrepreneurial experience with her career as a lecturer by implementing case studies and project learning. She once won second place as the Most Innovative Instructor at the 2024 Abdidaya Ormawa.
Moreover, she also teaches various subjects of her expertise, including entrepreneurship and technopreneruship. As a lecturer, Umami emphasized the importance of collaboration between the academic and industrial sectors.
“Collaboration between the academic and industrial sectors could serve as a way to evaluate curricula by seeing if the said curricula are relevant to the industry. In addition, it could also be a way for students to expand their job opportunities,” Umami emphasized.
Realizing the importance of collaborations, Umami’s company collaborated with various programs related to student empowerment at Udinus. In 2023, her company partnered with a student organization from Udinus that participated in the Student Organization Coaching Program (PPKO). In 2024, the company did a similar thing.
“We have also contributed as sponsors for events hosted by students; for example, Quadrant was once a sponsor at the Field Study and Businesses (KKU) and others,” she continued.
In the future, Umami aims for the company to expand its market reach. She also emphasized that there were three main aspects every student must hold in the realm of entrepreneurship.
“Those three are Passion, Ambition, and Enjoyment. Students must have the passion in their fields, ambition to carry it out, and the capacity to enjoy the process,” Umami emphasized. (Humas Udinus/Ika. Foto: Dok. Pribadi)
