Risma Launches "Best of 99 SME" Book for Indonesian Entrepreneurs

JAKARTA (April 3, 2021) - The Special Advisor to the Minister of Social Affairs, Don Rozano, who is also one of the steering committee of Economic Heroes, guided the Best of SME (Small to Medium-sized Enterprises) Book Launch event.

"This morning is a tribute to 100 great women. The first is for Mrs. Tri Rismaharini, who is very sure that God is the Most Just, no one cannot do something, anyone can do something, and the most important thing is the 99 talents mentored by Mrs. Risma. This is what she found, God willing, today the talents will be able to give a better life to their family," said Don Rozano.

Don hopes that the 99 talents assisted by the Minister of Social Affairs, Tri Rismaharini, can not only provide a better life for the family, but can also become a role model for the city of Surabaya and later become an example for Indonesia.

Dessy as a Facebook friend delivered a speech as well as symbolically and digitally handed over 99 inspirational stories books that have been built together over the past 5 years.

 She Means Business is a global Facebook program that helps women entrepreneurs around the world, its goal is to help entrepreneurial women to start and grow their businesses.

"We do this through online means, namely by teaching digital training, by holding and supporting programs such as Pahlawan Ekonomi (Economic Heroes), which does provide a platform for people to meet and also learn from one another, through education and practice too," explained Dessy.

Minister Risma as the founder of the Surabaya Economic Heroes program, revealed the reason for establishing the program at the "Best of 99 SME" Book Launch event which was held through a zoom meeting and Facebook live streaming.

This program focuses on empowering housewives from poor families in Surabaya. Risma said that after seeing the initial data that approximately 13% of Surabaya residents were poor, she was thinking about how to solve it.

"Then I talked to the Head of Women's Empowerment, at that time Mr. Ihsan said that this figure, in my opinion, is very worrying, because if there is a slight shock, then the poverty rate will increase, but we cannot handle it because they are not in the data, 'then finally I conveyed it to him, how to do it," said Risma.

Risma asked to enter data on the poor in Surabaya. "The data at that time was approximately 34% of Surabaya residents were incapable, then it's okay I received the data, I am not ashamed, that's the reality I have to accept," she continued.

In the City of Heroes, you can still find poor families. Even though the head of the family has a job, their life needs are still not being fulfilled optimally. This program focuses on developing and empowering housewives from these poor families.

Then Risma started to move after seeing the data that it turned out that almost all of them were poor families in Surabaya. Risma saw the potential that she could start the 'second engine'.

"I myself, for example, my husband and I work together. I see that there is a potential for me to be able to turn on the 'second engine', namely the mothers, from there I told Mr. Don and his friends that I will make a new program called Pahlawan Ekonomi,"  explained Risma.

Risma said that she was appointed as Mayor of Surabaya in September, and then the idea came out. "I want it to be launched in November," she said.

Risma started to provide training in urban villages, then from these results Risma also conducted roadshows and opened a bazaar in the District.

Risma also said that if you start this, you have to enter the upper middle market, then the mothers can get more benefits. "If we can enter the middle to upper market, then we will get bigger profits. Of course, there must be a system of thinking about the quality of food, it really must be guaranteed," she explained.

To enter the middle to upper market, Risma emphasized to pay attention to the quality of taste and environmentally friendly product materials and good packaging, then the quality will be maintained so that the upper middle market believes these products are healthy and good.

Also, Risma made efforts to get these products into BPOM, so that they believed that the product had been researched. "So, that's what started from my thinking about how this initiation must have good quality, from taste, packaging, branding, everything must be the best," she said.

At the beginning of pioneering the development of this program, every week Risma went to 31 sub-districts to control taste, packaging to product quality. "I did it myself. I think this is lacking, the packaging is lacking, one by one during one roadshow," she said.

Risma revealed that she had given up hope "is it possible that the Surabaya people have a lack of artistic taste, I was confused too, but I forced to come for the second one and then the results were better," she said.

From there, Risma was excited that she could do this. "I started marketing Pahlawan Ekonomi products, then I can invite my guests from abroad," she explained.

Risma invited 199 countries and 6,000 guests who visited Surabaya to introduce Pahlawan Ekonomi products. "If I go abroad, one of the souvenirs I bring is products of the Economic Heroes," she explained.

Risma's experience has paid off, Pahlawan Ekonomi has started to become global and has many orders from abroad. Risma said that those who succeed and those who become trainers, "believe that our knowledge will never run out, God will give us additional knowledge," she explained.

Minister Risma, confidently bring friends from the Ministry of Social Affairs to join the Pahlawan Ekonomi, because she has received an award for how to alleviate poverty and MSMEs and get a Startup Nation Summit.

"So, this is a success story that I want to share. These patterns are what I want to convey that cooperation exists in Indonesia, we must help each other," said Risma.

After 2015, Risma succeeded in making an Economic Heroes, then Risma held out young fighters to accommodate young people who dropped out of school, could not continue to higher education. "It turned out that there were many young people who joined us, then the services were expanded, there was EO training and screen printing training," she said.

Then Risma invited young people to collaborate, to make packaging designs, make branding, and so on. Risma also explained the reasons why it should be a young person, "Because the present comes out. With an attractive design, and up-to-date mindset, anyone who sees it will be welcome to the product," she explained.

This can also be done by the beneficiaries in the Centers owned by the Ministry of Social Affairs, who already have businesses through the ATENSI Creation Center, so that they can remain productive, have a career so that they can survive in the midst of a pandemic.

Besides, Risma also explained the reasons for cooperating with Facebook for Economic Heroes, Risma believes that Facebook has programs that are spread throughout the world. "It's not easy for me to convince Facebook that they want to help us, twice I went to Menlo Park, where it is located, to convince that we can also be trusted," she said.

At the end of the event, Risma conveyed to Economic Heroes and Young Fighters "Be sure, we cannot be what we want forever, but God will give us a way if we want to try, that is the duty of humans to God, we must try, the result is God who determines. But, believe that if we try really hard God will give the best results for us," she said.

The "Best of 99 SME" Book Launching Event which was held at the zoom meeting and Facebook live streaming, was attended by the steering committee, Facebook friends, the Centers of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Economic Heroes.