Jakarta, 10 August 2022 – To commemorate National MSME Day on 12 August, PT HM Sampoerna Tbk. (Sampoerna) through the umbrella program “Sampoerna untuk Indonesia” (Sampoerna for Indonesia) holds a month-long series of webinar entitled “MSMEs for Indonesia: Advanced and Prosperous Businesses,” which started on Wednesday (8/10).
The event, which aims to be a forum for knowledge and experience sharing for MSME owners and the general public, would be held in collaboration with Bisnis Indonesia. The opening session of this webinar was witnessed by around 2,000 participants, both in the webinar room and through a live broadcast on YouTube, as well as a number of Bisnis Indonesia and Bisnis.com social media, such as their Twitter and Facebook.
The first session of the webinar series was opened by the Minister for Cooperatives and SMEs, Teten Masduki, who stressed that the need for MSMEs to optimize the digital ecosystem is increasingly inevitable. According to Teten, up to May 2022, as many as 19 million MSMEs have launched digital on-boarding for its customers and the number is expected to continue to grow to reach 30 million by 2024.
"It is necessary to develop a strategy for assisting and developing MSMEs with digital technology. The key to the success of digital transformation is through collaboration from every stakeholder, so I hope that the Sampoerna Entrepreneurship Training Center (SETC) and Sampoerna Retail Community (SRC) programs can synergize with SMESCO Labo for facilitating product R&D to achieve a high standard of MSME products,” he said in his keynote speech.
On the same occasion, Sampoerna's Head of External Affairs, Ishak Danuningrat stated that he realized that MSMEs needed to optimize their business into the digital ecosystem and the key to the digital success is a collaboration with all stakeholders.
He also conveyed one of the company's commitments, which is continuous coaching for MSMEs based on Sampoerna's Three Hands Philosophy, which aims to provide positive impacts for the relevant stakeholders, including the public at large.
“From these matters, we are holding a series of webinars entitled “MSMEs For Indonesia, Advanced and Prosperous Businesses” for around one month, starting today. It is an honor for Sampoerna to be able to provide a forum for training and collaboration for MSME players. We hope that this activity can help and motivate the participants to advance their current business. For those who do not yet have a business, we hope that they would also be interested in opening a business,” added Ishak.
Sampoerna has always supported the development of MSMEs through its two main mainstay programs. SETC, which was inaugurated in 2007, provides training to MSME owners, both in hard skills and soft skills entrepreneurship training, mentoring and market networking, and business consulting. SETC has provided training to more than 56,000 participants over the last 15 years.
The second program is the SRC which was launched in 2008 with now has more than 165,000 neighborhood store members throughout Indonesia. Over the past few years, Sampoerna has also provided digitalization support through the AYO SRC application.
The AYO SRC application has several features that support digitalization for its members. These features include AYO Kasir (AYO Cashier) which helps process item stock-taking. There is also the Pojok Bayar (Payment Corner) to purchase digital products such as e-payments, phone credit purchases, tickets, and bills, and also Pojok Modal (Capital Corner) which introduces the Pay Later scheme to fulfill the product stock.
In the first week of the webinar session held for three days from August 10-12, 2022, several successful entrepreneurs were also present and shared their knowledge and experiences.
Entrepreneur and brand activist Arto Biantoro, who was present on the first day, emphasized the importance for MSME players to understand the products and funds they have, in order to create a business that can solve problems for the public. Arto said that digitalization is important for MSMEs, especially in the aspect of branding as a differentiating element.
Meanwhile, in the second session which was held on August 11, 2022, the founder and CEO of Garutkulit Sumarni Rifemi shared her knowledge about the importance of data-centric continuous planning and implementation in building a business model. Sumarni also shared the importance of prompt customer service, such as same-day delivery, which supports business development.
Peter Shearer founder of Wahyoo, which is a technology-based business, also shared his knowledge in this second session. According to Peter, the use of technology can be applied in every aspect of a business, such as financial management, supply chain, as implemented by Wahyoo.
The series of webinars “MSMEs for Indonesia: Advanced and Prosperous Businesses,” will continue until September 2022 with interesting sessions every week.
To conclude the first week, HAUS CEO, Gufron Syarif, an entrepreneur in the food and beverage sector, would share other key strategies for MSME development on Friday, 12 August 2022.
About PT HM Sampoerna Tbk. (Sampoerna)
Founded in 1913, Sampoerna – an affiliate of Philip Morris International Inc. – is a leading tobacco company in Indonesia, with a primary focus on the manufacturing and sale of kretek (clove) cigarettes. The Company produces a number of best-known clove cigarette brands, such as Sampoerna A, the legendary “King of Kretek” Dji Sam Soe, Sampoerna U, and Sampoerna Kretek. The Company also distributes the Marlboro brand throughout Indonesia through a long-term distribution agreement with PT Philip Morris Indonesia.
Sampoerna owns and operates six factories located in Surabaya, Pasuruan, Probolinggo, Malang, and Karawang. The Company establishes partnership with 38 Third-Party Operators (TPOs) in Java – with a total workforce of around 65,000 direct and indirect employees, mostly in the production of hand-rolled clove cigarettes. It has a total of 110 zone branches offices, sales offices, and distribution centers throughout Indonesia.
Sampoerna is one of the largest companies by market capitalization on the Indonesian Stock Exchange, where it trades under the ticker symbol “HMSP”.
About Sampoerna for Indonesia “Sampoerna untuk Indonesia”
Sampoerna untuk Indonesia (SUI) represents the sustainability commitment of PT HM Sampoerna Tbk. (Sampoerna) to continue to contribute to the development of Indonesia. This commitment is in line with our Three Hands Philosophy and the Sustainable Development Goals.
For Sampoerna, sustainability is about creating long-term value and minimizing negative impacts associated with our products, operations and value chain.
Sampoerna believes that the transformation of business performance is necessary to create a positive impact on operations, society and the environment.
For more information, please visit: www.sampoerna.com
Media Contact:
Reza Juniarshah
Head of Corporate Communications PT HM Sampoerna Tbk.
Email: contact@sampoerna.com