Maya Watono on leadership, Nation-building, and finding purpose beyond corporate success

Because tourism, in her view, is often misunderstood. People think of tourism as leisure. She thinks of it as infrastructure. An airport is not simply a transport hub—it is the first impression of a country. A cultural destination is not just a place to visit—it shapes how identity is experienced. A hotel is not only a commercial asset—it becomes part of a wider ecosystem of hospitality.

Transformation, she argues, often begins with details that seem almost invisible. Cleaner toilets, better lighting, smoother passenger movement, teams trained to deliver service more thoughtfully. “These things sound simple,” she says. “But they completely change how people experience Indonesia.”

Under InJourney’s transformation agenda, those details have gradually accumulated into visible milestones: the reopening and rejuvenation of airport terminals, repositioning Borobudur as a spiritual destination, the revitalisation of TMII, the launch of Sanur’s health and wellness economic zone, and sport-tourism initiatives that placed destinations such as Mandalika and Lake Toba onto international calendars.

But Watono rarely talks about projects first. She talks about people. Leadership, she believes, starts with alignment.

Her experience moving between family business environments, multinational organisations, and now a state-owned holding taught her that while values remain constant, leadership styles cannot. She often returns to three ideas: Be stubborn with vision, flexible with execution, move through gotong royong, and lead by example. “The way I communicate with airport teams cannot be the same as hospitality teams,” she says. “But values have to remain consistent.”

Her advice to future leaders follows the same philosophy: go deep before going broad. Too many professionals, she says, become trapped inside one expertise. “You don’t become a CEO by staying in one discipline.” Learn finance, learn people, learn operations, learn culture. As organisations become larger, leadership becomes less about having answers and more about connecting systems.

Then comes the question she answers with unusual honesty: women. She avoids idealistic language around work-life balance. She doesn’t believe it exists. Instead, she talks about seasons. There will be moments when work requires more, moments when family becomes dominant.

The challenge, she says, is not imbalance—it is the pressure women place on themselves to perform every role flawlessly. “Women put too much pressure on themselves to be perfect.” She pauses. “And perfection becomes another burden.”

For someone overseeing one of Indonesia’s most ambitious transformation agendas, it feels like an unexpectedly intimate conclusion. Success, she believes, should never begin with title, visibility, or recognition. According to Maya Watono, before all of it, ask one question: Why. Because purpose—not position—is what remains.

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