Leaders

The consulting sector used to be male-oriented, but now the scenario is changing, eliminating the gender bias, bold females are moving ahead. In a nutshell, consultants provide expert opinions, analysis, and recommendations to organizations, companies or individuals, based on their specific expertise. ARSIC Social Impact Consulting governed by Dr. Anita Ramsak, is one such name that deals with innovative public problem-solving. Their work spans boundaries across sectors and domains aiming to build new bridges and explore new creative ways to co-create a world where everyone can thrive.

“Being a founder and director of the social impact company, which bears my name, comes with a range of responsibilities, from ensuring operational requirements to building a core team and maximizing the satisfaction, and growth opportunities for my colleagues and others in the network we work in. However, most importantly, I am a gatekeeper of quality assurance, always making sure that anything produced and delivered by the company, is produced within the highest standard of quality and has the maximum beneficial impact, not only on clients' per­formance but, what is really the core of what and why we are doing our work, also on society at large”, says Dr. Anita Ramsak, founder of ARSIC Social Impact Consulting company based in Indonesia with office in Ken­ya, but working globally. Here’s more from the interaction with Anita.

Tell us some important features about your expertise as a business leader that you want us to highlight through the article.

ARSIC provides in-depth expertise gained through more than 15 years of working with leading social impact and other institutions across the globe. The company particularly specialize on projects and as­signments that aim to advance human rights, gender equality, and positive social impact, while reaching a number of countries across the globe.

For example, personally, I have been supporting programs aimed at systematically improving oppor­tunities and protection for disadvantaged children in countries such as Timor-Leste, Ethiopia and Kazakh­stan, advised several governments and UN agencies on how to strengthen their systems and policies to be more inclusive and fair reached, as well as supported a range of other social impact organization across, prob­ably more than 15 countries, to design their programs in a way to achieve better impact and outcomes for individuals and society at large.

A key orientation of company's work is commit­ment to continuously and creatively explore best prac­tices and different, particularly innovative approaches, including increasingly WEB 3.0 technologies, on how we can, within the social impact and human rights field, do things in a new, innovative way that can im­prove our reach and impact. We also recently focused through our new Social Impact Training Platform, on nurturing and supporting a young, as well as seasoned impact leaders and experts, to gain or strengthen knowledge, skills, and practical capacities to, in the most impactful way, serve their communities, busi­ness, and organizations.

What prompted you to establish ARSIC Social Impact Consulting? Tell us about the venture's underlying concept and some of its most distinguishing features.

ARSIC Social Impact Consulting arose from the practical realization that we could do more to foster collaborations and partnerships between the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to accelerate collective social impact and address global public challenges that affect us all. In other words, it promotes the idea that everyone can and should contribute to making the world kinder and more inclusive. We provide concert­ed steps, opportunities, and advice for traditional and non-traditional social impact organizations, including businesses and individuals, on how to do so effectively. Recently we also started a new program called WEB 3.0 for social impact and linked Better Future Platform 3.0, which explores and brings innovation into human rights and social impact. Here we aim to support the WEB 3.0 industry (blockchain, NFTs, and more) to use their magic for advancing social impact, as well as the social impact industry to integrate more innovative approaches in their way of doing.

“My distinctive function should be a thought-partner of business executives as well as a social influencer, not just within corporate responsibility, but also with some responsibility and influence on social issues”

Describe the most significant difficulties you have in your current position. What steps do you take to get past the obstacles you encounter?

We are a developing international consultancy firm that has embraced remote and hybrid working styles. My work includes developing a system that works well for fostering an environment at work where people can grow and contribute their best work while still main­taining their ability to combine work with their per­sonal lives and receiving help for doing so. This work involves a continuous learning process for me, testing various strategies and organizational models to ensure the most successful organizational model and satisfied, and productive co-workers and clients.

What, in your opinion, are some of the most noteworthy milestones you have reached over your career? What has been the main factor in your career success?

The choice to leave the organization I was working for and take a leap of faith that I would be successful in following and pursuing my specific path was perhaps one of the significant turning point. My academic accomplishments, especially the Ph.D. I earned while working gave me some leverage when I first tried to establish myself in the industry as a solo consultant. However, I believe the more significant force behind my success is my internal motivation, drive, and commit­ment to constantly learn, explore, and seek out ways, how I can, as an unique individual and a member of a larger society, co-create this world in a way that is aligned with my beliefs and adds value to others, espe­cially those born with fewer opportunities.

Meenal Maheshwari, Group Legal Director

Work experience at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, Boston Consulting Group, Catalyst Japan and founded Kaleidist K.K. in February 2018. As an expert in Diversity & Inclusion, she develops D&I strategies which coincide with the company strategy, identifies issues within the organization, and develops action plans to overcome these issues through her advisory and consulting work.