Small businesses' clearinghouse to be established

Small businesses' clearinghouse to be established

JAKARTA (JP): Yayasan Palapa Nusantara (YPN), in cooperation
with five major private companies and four state-owned firms, is
to set up a benchmarking clearinghouse in Indonesia next month.

"For the first stage, this benchmarking clearinghouse will
group the nine companies as its core members. Later, we'll
include medium and small-scale businesses," Hidayat, YPN's
director for small businesses development, said yesterday.

The five private companies are Astra International, Bank
Internasional Indonesia, Indocement, Matahari Putra Prima, Raja
Garuda Mas International Corporation, while the four state-owned
firms are Bank Bumi Daya, Pertamina, the state electricity
company PLN and fertilizer manufacturing company PT Pusri.

YPN is a foundation set up by a number of conglomerates to
help foster the development of small and medium-scale
enterprises.

Speaking after the opening ceremony of the benchmarking
training for the nine companies -- organized by YPN from June 3
to June 7 -- Hidayat said that benchmarking is a formal process
of identifying, understanding and adapting outstanding practices
of other organizations.

"For example, one of our members wants to learn Matahari's
retailing skills and adapt them in its company. The member can
realize it through a process organized by the clearinghouse," he
said.

He noted that the clearinghouse will set up such a learning
process within a code of conduct. "This code of conduct will
rule, among other things, that the recipient of the important
information is not allowed to divulge it, for example in the
above case, to the competitors of Matahari," he said.

According to Hidayat, YPN has signed a cooperation agreement
with the Asia Pacific Development Network, an Australian
benchmarking consultancy company, to facilitate the development
of the benchmarking system,.

Sukamdani S. Gitosardjono, a founder of YPN, noted that the
benchmarking training is the first step to expand membership.

"In the next three years we will organize benchmarking
trainings. And after three years, we'll have 1,000 companies,
comprising 50 big firms, 250 medium-scale enterprises and 700
small-scale companies, as members of the benchmarking
clearinghouse," he said.

He said that the main goal of the benchmarking system is to
sharpen individual members' competitive edge in the run up to the
free trade practices of the ASEAN Free Trade Area in 2003 and the
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation in 2020.

Last week, a public accounting firm, Prasetio Utomo & Co, in
association with the International Benchmarking Clearinghouse of
the United States, established another benchmarking
clearinghouse.

Its initial members include Astra International, the Bakrie
Group, PT Freeport Indonesia, the Hero Group, the Kalbe Group,
Bank Lippo and the Sewu Group, which are all private companies.

But a reliable YPN source noted that his foundation and the
Prasetio are now trying to unite their clearinghouses so that
there will be only one benchmarking clearinghouse in the country.

The Prasetio's clearinghouse has set initial targets of
conducting five formal studies on customer satisfaction, the
supply chain, new product development, corporate performance
measures and team-based rewards and recognition. (13)