Picking up the crumbs, learning along the way<\/p>\n
Text and photos by Kastorius Sinaga<\/p>\n
GARUT, West Java (JP): With a degree in education and training
\nas a phys ed teacher, Asep Syaefulloh, 29, would obviously be
\nhappiest teaching. However, he couldn't say no to his mother,
\nHajjah Aisyah, 72, when she asked him to help handle the family
\ndodol cake business. He also had had three teaching applications
\nrejected.<\/p>\n
Handling the family business while waiting for a chance to
\nwork in one's profession has become a tradition in the late Haji
\nToha's family, who died in 1992 at the age of 72. The tradition
\nbegan with Asep's older brother Dadang Djamalsari, 45, when he
\ntook over his parents' small shop, Aneka Sari, in 1981. As the
\noldest son of Haji Toha's thirteen children, nine of whom are
\nstill living, Dadang couldn't refuse. Job openings fitting his
\neducation in fisheries were also limited at that time.<\/p>\n
With the benefit of modern management training from the
\nFisheries Academy in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, Dadang learned
\nthe family business a step at a time. He carefully studied the
\nmarket opportunities of the family's shop which sold rice,
\nkerosene, cooking oil, kitchen supplies and snacks, some made at
\nhome. Talks with friends and employees at Garut's largest dodol
\nfactories, such as Picnic, gave birth to a new idea.<\/p>\n
Abandon<\/p>\n
Dadang suggested that his parent's abandon the shop and
\nconcentrate on a specific product. He felt it would be more
\nefficient and simplify administration, which was also in keeping
\nwith their advancing age. Dadang believed that, of the many
\nbusinesses developed by his parents since 1950, making different
\nkinds of sticky cakes (specifically wajid, dodol, angleng) which
\nhad been sold so far at his family's shop on Desa Suci Kaler St.
\nin Wanaraja, Garut since 1979, had the most market potential.<\/p>\n
Dadang recognized that he couldn't hope to compete with the
\ntraditional Garut sticky rice dodol. This industry had existed
\nfor many years and many large companies dominated the industry.
\nEven though these companies would have seen his efforts as of
\nlittle consequence, Dadang was still very much aware of them when
\nhe began his small dodol-making business in 1986 with six
\nworkers. Picnic, the largest dodol cake maker in Garut at that
\ntime, employed 100 workers.<\/p>\n
Market competition made Dadang decide to aim at a specific
\nmarket segment with his sticky cakes. He decided to make dodol
\nfrom beans, instead of the traditional sticky rice, and
\neventually also added a soursop fruit variety. Dadang's careful
\nanalysis of the market encouraged a local branch of state bank
\nBNI 1946 to grant him a Rp 12 million loan in 1982. After
\npledging his family's land and shop, he got a larger loan of Rp
\n22 million in 1985.<\/p>\n
"The large factories are usually reluctant to produce bean or
\nsoursop cakes. They prefer the sticky rice kind because it has a
\nguaranteed market and is also easier to produce," explained Asep,
\nwho replaced Dadang as Aneka Sari's manager when his older
\nbrother got a job as a fisheries manager in Cirata.<\/p>\n
With modern thinking and business skills developed within the
\nfamily circle, Asep continued to reorganize the family firm.
\nThere are now 20 workers at Aneka Sari, not including those
\nfamily members involved. Asep has diversified into strawberry
\nessence. Product quality has also been improved.<\/p>\n
Although the business survives on the crumbs left over from
\nlarger companies, it has become a success in its own right. Aneka
\nSari is now producing 100 kilograms of dodol and other cakes
\nevery day, with their sticky rice cake selling for Rp 2,600 and
\ntheir bean and soursop varieties for Rp 2,700. The workers earn
\nbetween Rp 3,000 and Rp 3,500 for packers and Rp 6,000 and Rp
\n9,000 for makers. These figures don't include the Rp 500 given to
\ncover food and the one meal a day provided by the company.<\/p>\n
Education<\/p>\n
This small industry, which now uses four large cooking pots,
\nhas obviously been able to increase the financial well-being of
\nHaji Toha's family. Six of his nine children have now been able
\nto afford higher education. Asep himself already operates three
\nlucrative minibuses on the side, set up from dodol business
\nprofits. Problems and complaints which have come their way have
\nnot caused the family to falter but have been used as a source of
\ninspiration and a means to navigate the choppy waters of business
\ncompetition.<\/p>\n
The success of the family business has also stimulated other
\nbusinesses in Garut, particularly banks. The local BNI 1946 bank
\nwhich watched the small family-based business grow into a larger
\none, offered them a loan of Rp. 100 million in 1993.<\/p>\n
Refusal<\/p>\n
"But we refused the offer because our mother didn't want to
\ntake on new debts. She said she was afraid we wouldn't be able to
\nrepay it," explains Asep.<\/p>\n
Although Hajjah Aisyah's refusal to take on more credit shows
\nthe relative caution of small businesses and their tendency
\ntowards honesty in their dealings with others, her youngest son
\nwas not of the same opinion. Asep's younger brother, Enang
\nJaleani, 25, who saw the bank's offer as a chance to enlarge the
\nbusiness, decided to go off on his own. He set up his own dodol
\nfactory, called Utama, in 1993.<\/p>\n
Although Asep generally agreed with Enang, he respected his
\nmother's opinion, and, as the son entrusted by his mother with
\nthe running of Aneka Sari, he was more careful in his actions. As
\na result, he was able to get another loan, but at a more
\nreasonable rate of interest, from a geothermal utility plant in
\nWest Java -- a subsidiary of a state bank. The utility plant
\ngranted him Rp 6 million for three years at an annual interest
\nrate of 4 percent. This financial assistance, which also required
\nregular quarterly reports on the development of the business, was
\ngranted in September 1994.<\/p>\n
Asep recognizes that the growing maturity of the family in
\nhandling its business has come about with the help of training
\nand guidance from a number of governmental and private agencies,
\nboth domestic and foreign. A German supported Small-scale
\nAgroindustry Development Project, for example, provided help in
\nconducting a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats analysis
\nfor the business. It now provides cost analysis assistance, both
\nfor Aneka Sari and other small businesses in Garut. The German
\nproject has several other programs related to cottage industries
\nin Sumedang, Sukabumi and other parts of West Java.<\/p>\n
Aneka Sari has been helped a great deal by this project. Asep
\nbelieves that it has helped them be more efficient, which has
\nhelped them grow and seek out new opportunities. One example is
\nthat Asep is now involved in setting up tanks to keep and
\ncultivate freshwater fish. This effort can be integrated into the
\ndodol business because the leftovers from the coconut used in the
\nmaking of the cakes can be turned into food for the fish.<\/p>\n
Another use of the program, according to Asep, has been in
\nseeking out the most appropriate technology for preserving the
\nraw ingredients for soursop dodol. Without this kind of
\ntechnology, efforts to improve efficiency and quality control
\nwill fail.<\/p>\n
"We're trying to preserve this soursop by adapting some simple
\ntechnological principles developed in Europe," says Frank Poll
\nfrom the German project while watching over the production
\nprocess.<\/p>\n
Another problem that Asep feels must be solved soon is how to
\nsurmount the difficulties posed by uneven quality of corn husks
\nthey use to wrap angleng, one of the other types of sticky cakes
\nthey produce.<\/p>\n
"Our main problem in making angleng is that we have to use
\ncorn husks even though finding the right kind is not always
\neasy," says Asep.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/picking-up-the-crumbs-learning-along-the-way-1447893297",
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