Yogyakarta, 13 March 2020 – Department of Politics and Government supported by Innovation and Academic Research Center Universitas Gadjah Mada held a public lecture Social Entrepreneurship called “Inspirative Class: Financial Tips, Business, and Industry for Millenials”. The public lecture took place in Mandiri Auditorium 4th floor Fisipol UGM, the event was supposed to bring in two presidential expert staffs, Putri Tanjung and Gracia Billy Mambrasar. But, on the D-day, Putri Tanjung unable to attend the event because of illness and replaced by Adityo Hidayat, President Director of PT Gamatechno Indonesia.
Bayu Dardias as the moderator officially opened the event at 01.30 p.m. After that, Bayu introduced Billy, who is the founder of Kitong Bisa Enterprise and Kitong Bisa Foundation. He also explained the educational background of Billy who earned a bachelor’s degree from Bandung Institute of Technology, a master’s degree from Australia National University (ANU), and will pursue a doctoral degree from Harvard University. “Because of his achievements, last year, Billy and the other six millennials appointed were appointed by the president to be the presidential expert staffs,” Bayu explained.
“I am a social entrepreneur,” Billy introduced himself. This 31 years old man told about his wish to build a foundation and social enterprise was motivated by his struggle in pursuing his education. Billy said that he have sold cakes in the market during school years and in the college. In the middle of limited facilities and cost limitations, Billy was determined to give free education for Papua children through Kitong Bisa Foundation.
“Innovator and entrepreneur never sees a problem as a problem, but rather as an opportunity,” Billy explained. For the example, the difficulties in accessing education in Papua and West Papua was seen by him as an opportunity to build educational foundation.This best graduate of ANU 2015 was willing to leave his job as an engineer in the oil and gas company to build Kitong Bisa Enterprise, the supporting social enterprise of Kitong Bisa Foundation. Billy said that, the money that he saved while working was used to collect his business assets.
The steps that Billy took to build social entrepreneurship was started by looking for public unrest in his surroundings to create solutions. After he got an idea, a social entrepreneur needs to specify the market share, does the consumer research, also makes a prototype of the products. “If the responses are less-positive, then repeat the consumer research and makes a prototype part until the products are validated and can be mass-produced,” Billy explained.
Billy stated that the main objective of a social entrepreneur should not be about wealth and fame.”Do something to make someone’s life better,” he said. He determined to develop Indonesia through Papua. Other than that, according to him, in this disruption era everything changes quickly. Therefore, he advised the future social entrepreneurs to immediately take action. Completing Billy’s explanation about company management, Adityo explained about financial report in the company. According to him, business performance can be measured through its financial report. “If we understand about finance, we can compare our company with other similar businesses,” Adityo said.
Adityo explained some of the company reports. For the example, cash-flow report that shows business’ health, and cost-structure that helps entrepreneurs to measure incomes and expenditures. “From that, entrepreneurs can evaluate their businesses, either it gained profit or loss,” said this man who used to be called as Yoyok. As a person with a programmer background, Adityo said that many people with engineering background are unwilling to learn about financial management. “As an entrepreneur, we must understand accounting, whether you like it or not,” he emphasized.
Billy added that entrepreneur who has not been able to or unwilling to hire a professional accountant, they can make simple financial notes in the book by watching to basic accounting on YouTube. “It is easy, even my mother can make cake sales records in a notebook,” Billy said. Along with Billy, Adityo also said that a company’s financial report from the beginning of its establishment can also be created by using a simple table-maker feature on the computer.
A question asker through video call, Fransiska, asked to both of the speakers, about the tips to collect capitals and the possibilities to establish a social enterprise independently. According to Billy, social entrepreneur can looking for a promising partner as well as do a crowdfunding. Adityo added that the future social entrepreneur can not establish the enterprise alone, they need other people and investors. “To convince other party, especially investors, we must explain the portrait of the business that still running, and the business plans,” Adityo said.
One of the audiences in this event, Qolid Abdillah, a psychology student of Kalijaga Islamic University, said that he got new knowledge. According to him, the knowledge from practitioners made him want to build a business even more. “I want to take action immediately and expand my networks,” he said.