That was conveyed by Salman Subakti, Marketing Director of PT. Paragon Technology & Innovation in Studium Generale public lecture at Aula Barat ITB, Bandung, on Wednesday (12/9/2018). In his presentation, Salman explained the story of initial struggle when building PT. Paragon, a local company that compete well with multinational brand. That was not an easy struggle because many limitations were faced, but he has always believed that it is the limitations that make someone more creative.

Salman, an alumni of ITB’s Electrical Engineering class of 1998, asserted the importance of someone’s achieving “Ikigai”—a Japanese term for ‘a reason for being’. This is what PT. Paragon want to achieve to bring goodness to their consumers. The concept of one of their products, ‘inspiring beauty’, shows PT. Paragon’s wish for Indonesian women to become inspiring women for others.

In order to achieve success, Salman said, one needs four things. The first is curiosity or the desire to learn something. The second is insight or the capacity to learn something deeply to fulfill curiosity. The third is engagement or when one is very interested in something and feels attachment. Usually an innovation comes after one has achieved engagement. The fourth is determination that will support someone to achieve the goal. “Entrepreneurship is about doing something differently,” Salman said.

The importance of rapid rotation in innovation has made Salman entrust many strategic positions to youth. According to him, the success of a company is the successful work of a team so that it needs people who really want to work on that team. Therefore he needs many youth to think dynamically so that the innovations produced are more diverse.

“I met an Indonesian in Netflix who has become a product manager there. He said, ‘If you think innovation is a system, you are wrong. Innovation is a culture. It is not a system that is immune to mistakes, it is not a final assignment at which you are criticized when you make mistakes. Innovation is a process where you embrace mistakes,’ ” he said.

Innovation, he continued, can be born from someone with passion and “daring” so that the products created are totally different from others’. It is also important to see what the world needs and make that the source to make a new thing. That is what makes PT. Paragon can compete in world cosmetic market and obtained several awards such as Campaign of The Year, Superbrand, Customer Satisfication Award, and many other awards.

Reporter: Shafire Anjani