Written by Student Reporter, Elisabeth Sirumapea (Management 2020)
SBM ITB held DMSN Talk Series 2020. This event brought the topic “Why an entrepreneur? Why now? Why me? ”With the speaker, Toronota Tambun. The event was held in building 22201, SBM ITB, Jalan Ganesha no 10. Bandung. In the event, Toronata Tambun who is a graduate of Harvard University and also founder and director of Aren Energy Investment Pte Ltd shared a little more experience with entrepreneurship.
“ITB, UGM, UI, are good at innovating. But the thing that is lacking is the entrepreneurial thing, “he said. Toronata explained that innovation is invention multiplied by commercialization. How can achieve product innovation? Start by looking for paying customers. After that, there is an invention so that innovation is formed. In his explanation, Toronata said that in creating a business, surely an entrepreneur must be prepared to run the business and not everyone is called to be an entrepreneur.
There are two types of Entrepreneurship. First is SME (Small Medium Enterprise). This type is the type of local market focus such as restaurants, dry cleaners, and services. This type is characterized by Δt is short, linear growth (caped) and less investment required. The second type is IDE (Innovation-Driven Enterprise). This type focuses on global markets such as Product w / Innovation at Core. IDE types are marked with Δt is long, exponential growth (uncapped) and a lot of investment required. “It’s good if an entrepreneur can become an IDE type,” Toronata said.
“In addition to the type of entrepreneurship, there are several myths that become obstacles to being an entrepreneur.”, He said. The first myth is that there is no capital. An entrepreneur can certainly run his business if he has a business that is worthy of investment. There are 10 emerging technologies that will drive the next economy
- Drones
- Blockchain
- Big data
- Augmented reality
- 3D Printing
- Virtual Reality
- Artificial Intelligence
- Robots
- The Internet of Things
- Genetics
The second myth is an entrepreneur from birth. “This is a myth because he could become an entrepreneur even though his parents are not entrepreneurs. Maybe he sees his family or neighborhood that is becoming an entrepreneur.”, Said Toronata. Talking about being an entrepreneur, Toronata said that we should not be easily hurt or offended because this attitude will only bring us down in running a business.
The third myth is must be young. This also becomes a myth because based on research “Age and High Growth Entrepreneurs” that between 2007, less than 1 percent of high performance startup firms were founded by 20 years old. Therefore, it is very necessary to work together among peers in order to achieve high performance. The “percentage of respondents who rate this as an important technique or skill area” curve compared to the “age bracket of manager” shows that people in their 20s can make a great first impression and are suitable when working in their 40s and above because they can plan and deliver a training program.
The fourth myth is the must be MBA. There is no guarantee that an entrepreneur must be an MBA. “But even so, it is very important that in business ventures there are smart members,” Toronata said.
After getting the customer’s paying products then an entrepreneur must be able to form a team. Points to consider in forming a team are skills which of course must be different from other members. “If you are a hacker, that means you have to look for hipsters and hustlers,” Toronata said. The second point in a team is network. Form a team where each member has a different network so they can complement each other. The third point that is no less important is that all team members have the same objective so that the team can run as well as the business that is run.
So, again as mentioned, let’s start innovating by getting a paying customer.