Asia-Pacific Power List 2020: Rachel Goh, Telkomsel

Rachel Goh

Chief marketing officer
Telkomsel
Indonesia/Singapore

In the populous Indonesian market, Telkomsel leads the telecommunications sector in market share. Partly owned by Telkom Indonesia and Singtel, the 25-year-old company has established itself as the leading cellular operator in Indonesia with over 169 million customers serviced by 5,500 employees.

CMO Rachel Goh—who took over the reins from Alistair Johnston in July 2019—is an exceptionally seasoned marketer in the telco sector. Prior to this role, she clocked in time at Singtel, Singapore-based telco M1Limited, and major provider Ooredoo in Myanmar.

In her current role, she is at the forefront of the brand’s aggressive push towards personalisation and digital transformation. To cut through increased competition in a tech-savvy market, more digital products and solutions have been rolled out to support video, music, and games as well as the highly successful MyTelkomSel app. And among plans in the pipeline are customer segment identification to better personalise offerings, and more elements of gamification to incentivise users.

During COVID-19 where digital engagement surged, Goh oversaw campaigns and content that spoke to the nationalistic spirit of coming together to overcome a tragedy. Various community-driven initiatives—such as collaborating with universities to enable learning from home—allowed Goh to position the brand beyond an internet and phone provider, but rather as a ubiquitous name behind the digital empowerment of Indonesians.

As a bonus, Telkomsel also scores highly in employee engagement. Last year, employees across its network pushed out the ‘Let’s Rebound & Go Digital’ campaign which called for staff to participate in rap challenges.