That topic was delivered by Vice Chief of Infrastructure of Bekraf, Hari Santosa Sungkari in a seminar and startups exhibition at Aula Timur of ITB on Saturday (7/9/2019). Hari raised a theme “Being an Entrepreneur in Creative Economy” in Studium Generale public lecture.

He explained that Bekraf is a non-ministerial government agency. It is eager to raise awareness regarding creative entrepreneurship among students because creative entrepreneurship is expected to be the backbone of economy in Indonesia. Hopefully in the future, the nation will be rich in natural resources and intellectual resources through development of creative economy.

In addition, by being an entrepreneur, we are not only becoming an employee, but also creating employment. “Even more so today when creative economy is on demand and does not necessarily need big capital to start,” said Hari, who is also an alumnus of ITB.

*Photo by: Adi Permana/PR of ITB

He encourages ITB students to contribute to creative economy. He said that ITB being closely associated with engineering is not a reason not to work in creative fields. “For example, Joko Anwar who is an alumnus of Aerospace Engineering of ITB is now successful as a film director,” Heri said.

He also advised ITB students to make the most of their time by learning new things such as development of business model and tools that support that development.

The event also saw a seminar about “Surviving Your Brand in Digital Era” that presented COO of Noore Sport Hijab, Adidharma and MG Digital Marketing Consultant. Fikri Gustin. Adi and Fikri discussed about how to build a brand by using available digital channels, such as creating content, measuring content with data or on-target marketing metrics, and introducing a brand using digital advertising.

The event continue with a sharing session from Adi who introduced a storytelling concept that his company do to respond to the problem experienced by Muslim women in Muslim minority countries that appears when they do exercise while wearing hijab. By taking advantage of digitalization, Adi explained how Noore map their next business decisions using data and customer needs.

On the last session, the topic emphasized more on introducing startup companies which participated on the exhibition. For example, one of the owners of Glou Cosmetics named Gerha, who is an alumnus of SBM class of 2011 shared about her experience when working for a retail cosmetic company until achieving her dreams of being an entrepreneur.

“[We] have to know when promising business opportunity comes, clearly analyze the gaps such as the business model and the capital, and fill the gap so the business will sustain,” Gerha explained.

She also said that an entrepreneur has a big responsibility, especially to staffs and other people who depend their lives on the business. Hence, being an entrepreneur cannot be done half-heartedly. It is more about having responsibilities in the contribution to building the nation’s economy.

Reporter: Grace Natasya Christiadhi (SBM 2018)