Ir. Ciputra is often hailed as the ‘God of Property’ in Indonesia. He was born in a small town named Parigi in Central Sulawesi – the last son among three brothers Raised in poverty, when he was only 12 years old, Ciputra’s father was arrested for allegations of being a Dutch spy.
Ciputra didn’t let his humble beginnings hurt his determination as he succeeded in entering into the prestigious Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) in the Department of Architecture. Ciputra already started to build a business during his last semester at the university.
With two of his fellow students, Ciputra collaborated to work with an architecture consulting company. He named his company “PT. Pembangunan Jaya.”
Today, he is most prominently known as the founder and chairman of Ciputra Group, a leading property developer in Southeast Asia who is well-known for its integrated township constructions. Today, the group runs projects in 33 cities, spanning several continents and some 25,000 hectares.
Ciputra has devoted his life to the development of Indonesia and betterment of life for the community. He has received many awards conferred by the Indonesian government, international institutions, and as well as The Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award by Enterprise Asia.
At 85 years of age, there’s no stopping him as Ciputra is thinking even bigger. He wants to redesign the country. And he wants to do it by creating thousands and thousands of entrepreneurs. His goal is to train people to create jobs, not apply for them.
At the commemoration of MarkPlus 27th Anniversary celebrations – on the sidelines of the closing ceremony of Jakarta Marketing Week 2017 – Ir. Ciputra was invited to deliver the ‘Lecture of the Year.’ where he spoke about the importance of entrepreneurship in Indonesia. Here is an excerpt from his speech, written by Saviq Bachdar from Marketeers.
According to me, every entrepreneur should have a mantra, a code or core values by which they conduct business. There are three values I propose to be imbibed by every entrepreneur.
First, integrity. Entrepreneurs should conduct all matters of business with integrity, which means doing the right thing at all times and under all circumstances, whether or not anyone is watching. It consists of the attributes of honesty, truthfulness and sincerity.
Second, professionalism. It means that if you say you’re going to do something, do it. It doesn’t matter how big or how small the commitment may be. Professionalism also needs knowledge, skills, ethical behavior, as well as competence in IT.
Third, entrepreneurship. I see entrepreneurship as a factor which is missing in Indonesian’s business discourse today, based on my own life experiences in setting up and developing three property developers; Jaya Group, Metropolitan Group, and Ciputra Group.
Entrepreneurship was once owned by our nation, but it’s not currently found in majority of our people today. So, who is an entrepreneur then? To me, entrepreneur is someone who can change the dirt and junk into gold. He is capable of creating a significant creative change from something that is not worth becoming valuable.
For example, I built Ancol from a place which was used by some people to discard their unwanted items or even a cozy place to make babies. Over time, I developed Taman Impian Jaya Taman as a recreational site in the capital that is renowned for its international standards.
Unfortunately, entrepreneurship has not been taught much in schools. In fact, ta major issue concerning many analysts is the lack of entrepreneurial skills among Indonesian fresh graduates. So, we still have a “homework” to do in creating more entrepreneurs.
The role of the entrepreneur is very important to support the country. Some countries such as South Korea and Japan, where economies have developed rapidly over the years, is because of a large number of entrepreneurs.
An expert said that Indonesia can advance if 2% of its population becomes entrepreneurs. That means that considering the total population today, we need as many as 4 million entrepreneurs. However, the data shows that currently we have only about 400,000 entrepreneurs – only 0.18% of the total population. Meanwhile, Singapore has 7% entrepreneurs and America has 11% of total population.
For your information, an entrepreneur can contribute to reducing the inequality of household consumption in Indonesia that has been increasing since a decade. The government and international organizations such as the World Bank continue to work closely in analyzing the trends and consequences of inequality, and try to find the finest ways to reduce inequality.
I see Bantuan Langsung Tunai or cash transfers to the poor as an ineffective way to escape poverty.
Rather, to me, it’s more relevant if we conduct entrepreneurial skills programs for our labor force. Such development programs can increase their skill levels so they can work independently or create jobs in order to boost their incomes.
Since up to 40 years, when our company first began to develop into a direct learning ground for entrepreneurship, I have had a calling to build as many entrepreneurs as was possible in our beloved country Indonesia. Through my experience in business development, I am convinced that the spirit, soul, and entrepreneurial skills can be taught and transmitted.
I have tried to create a culture of entrepreneurship by opening up a university for entrepreneurship in Surabaya called Universitas Ciputra. The university follows the national accreditation guidelines, but every Wednesday, the curriculum is all about how to start high-growth and innovative companies.
This method is now followed by three other universities I developed: Tarumanegara University, Prasetiya Mulya Business School, and Universitas Pembangunan Jaya.
Today, we have around 4,000 universities across Indonesia. If 500 universities among them teach entrepreneurship to their students, at least once a week, I hope that’s a solid contribution to developing our future leaders.
Imagine, if the majority of Indonesian people understand entrepreneurship and are able to practice it, how many people would be able to create jobs for themselves and for others. Any company can become more advanced with entrepreneurship and consequently, , Indonesia can achieve prosperity faster than ever expected.
Fifty years ago, GDP per capita in Singapore, for instance, was only two times higher than in Indonesia. And now, it’s more than ten times higher. The majority of our people still live poorly in spite of our GDP steadily increasing.
It is because of income disparity. So, my goal is to help more Indonesian people, especially the young generation to become entrepreneurs in order to build our nation to become stronger
Edited by Priyanka Sekhawat