Women who lead: Burson Indonesia’s Marianne Admardatine on making compromises, not sacrifices

This April, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE is continuing its "Women who lead" podcast series, celebrating the powerful female leaders in the agency industry across the region.

In this episode, Marianne Admardatine, CEO of Burson Indonesia, shares what it takes to be a communications expert as an Indonesian, and the compromises she has made to get to where she is today. She is also the APAC head of innovation and creativity at Burson.

Admardatine also opens up about what it has been like to balance managing a crisis with spending quality time with her family, and the importance of having discipline as a public relations professional.  

Don’t miss: She leads, she inspires: Women redefining Indonesia's agency industry #IWD2025

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What has it been like as an Indonesian, rising up to a leadership role in the industry? It must have been a very different experience compared to say, someone from Singapore. What’s your take on this? 

Admardatine: That’s correct. We live in a society where, in the past, unless you spoke great English, you’re not going to be seen as someone senior or someone who can survive in a world outside of your market.  

But now, the world has changed. Someone who speaks English with an accent, or someone who knows more than one or two languages, is seen as more adaptable and has the ability to survive in another market.  

Coming from Indonesia, where even within Southeast Asia, we are seen as the “second cousin” compared to Singapore and Malaysia, making it a double whammy for most Indonesians. It is definitely getting better, and once you have proven yourself, your accent and the way you talk no longer matters as much as it did in the past.  

I think we still have a long way to go in changing the way the world sees us, but at least now, people no longer judge our abilities based on our accents or the way we speak. They look at the results you put out in your career. So that’s actually quite refreshing and hopefully this will continue, and the wall of perception will fall even more. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: Your journey to becoming the CEO of Burson Indonesia definitely did not come easy. Have you had to sacrifice anything in order to get to where you are today? 

Admardatine: Maybe the word I’d use would be compromise, instead of sacrifice. For example, I’m a mother of three, trying to manage a business while parenting three children. The whole “mother” thing was not easy, and it’s tough for a lot of other women too. It came to a point where I felt like I had to decide if I wanted to choose between my career, or my family. But I didn’t want to do that. I don’t think it should be an either or.

I believe strongly that you can have a career and be a mother at the same time. You can still have your own identity as a woman, instead of just being someone’s wife, or boss, or mother.  

So, I started to work around things. And luckily, with the way women are, we’re quite good at multitasking such as juggling 20 different things at the same time. I used that skill to create a schedule which suited my lifestyle and career. We’re used to thinking that dinnertime is family time at home. Try living in Jakarta, where traffic jams are massive. You can try to get home by 6:30pm, but you’ll never make it. It’s impossible. I also wanted my children to be healthy by sleeping early at 9pm, but the earliest I reached home at one point in time was 10pm.   

Hence, I reversed my timing. Breakfast became family time together, because everyone leaves the house at the same time in the morning. That way, we’re not pressured to be home by 7pm for dinnertime together. Like I said, it’s not a sacrifice but a compromise, by changing the ecosystem around you.  

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: How have you been able to balance managing a PR crisis, with personal time for family? 

Admardatine: My family is very understanding, as they know that I have to jump into my work when there’s a crisis to manage. But recalling one of the crisis which happened on Christmas Day, one of the clients had already left the country. So I was called in to pick it up. It’s my job and I can’t complain, so I jumped right into looking at the team’s availability during Christmas to deal with the crisis.  
 
In another instance, years back, there was a crisis that involved demonstrations and lives lost. It was a crazy crisis. Since the head of corporate communications for the client was out of the country in Sweden, the CEO of the company called me up to ask me what I could do for them. So I literally dropped everything and dealt with the crisis over a few weeks.
 
You pick the battles you have to fight. That a sense of discipline that is very important. Discipline is not about telling other people that I’m too busy, or that I can’t work because it’s my “me time”. It is the sense of ownership, and understanding that you have to work if the issue can’t wait till Monday. That’s no longer “me time”, it becomes irresponsible.

I feel that a lot of people tend to misinterpret what it means to have a sense of discipline. But it’s not just about you, it’s also making sure that your actions do not damage other people.  

To catch to the rest of the conversation with Marianne Admardatine, tune in to the Women who lead podcast series on Spotify, or listen on the go:   

Join us this coming 23 - 24 April for #Content360, a two-day extravaganza centered around three core thematic pillars: Challenging The Norm; Technology For Transformation; and Unlocking Imagination. Immerse yourself in learning to curate content with creativity, critical thinking, and confidence with us at Content360! 

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