These 'Big Class' Businessmen Share Strategies For Survival In The Midst Of A Pandemic

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - A number of tough businessmen in Indonesia have revealed their wisdom and strategies to survive and even grow in the midst of a multidimensional crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has hit the world for almost two years, including Indonesia.

"Never give up in times of crisis, because whenever, wherever there will be a crisis, the important thing is to get up, turn your brain to find solutions, and dare to make decisions," said Dwisapta Founder & Preskom Dentsu Adji Watono in a webinar organized by SWA magazine with the heading “Leadership Wisdom: Building Resilience and Agility in Good Times and Bad Times.”

Based on a written statement quoted from Antara, Thursday, October 28, at the webinar, Adji shared his wisdom on how he and the business he built came out of the crisis, namely positive thinking; adaptive, creative, and innovative; creating new opportunities; ready to work together and collaborate; improve all the time, go digital, and continuous improvement; as well as professional and productive.

Another founder and President of PT Paragon Technology and Innovation, Nurhayati Subakat, revealed that there are 5 values she adheres to when facing a crisis due to the pandemic, namely divinity, caring, humility to want to learn, resilience, and innovation.

"During this pandemic, most of our employees, especially those in factories, cannot work from home, so I directly motivate them. I say that they work in the midst of this pandemic as a form of worship to defend this company, they are like heroes who will save the company because production can still run,” said the owner of the cosmetics industry.

Meanwhile, tough businessmen from the 2nd generation, namely Samudera Indonesia President Commissioner Shanti L Poesposoetjipto and President Director of Awal Bros Group Hospital and Primaya Hospital Arfan Awaloeddin shared their experiences in bringing the company through a crisis.

Arfan said that his party had to provide psychological assistance to medical personnel and employees so that they remained calm in dealing with the overwhelming number of COVID-19 patients, as well as educating patients.

In principle, he said, in a crisis, business people must follow changes so that they get new examples of experience by providing different ways or innovating to serve, then look for alternative ways to continue to grow, and take the momentum of new business opportunities, and see the industry landscape from above so that they have a broad perspective.

Meanwhile, Samudra Indonesia Preskom Shanti admitted that for companies that have not yet digital transformation, the crisis due to the pandemic must be heavy. “Digitalization helps us to be more efficient because travel costs are reduced a lot,” he said.

In the crisis, he continued, three important attitudes that guide the successors of Samudera Indonesia, namely mutual empathy, maintaining the vision of the company's founders, and having an open mind.

The webinar is a series of the launch of the book “Legacy & Wisdom: Business Inspiration and Leadership Advice from Senior Business Models” published by SWA. There are 9 figures Adji Watono, Arfan Awaloeddin, TP Rachmat, Shanti L Poesposoetjipto, Nurhayati Subakat, Kuncoro Wibowo, Djoko Susanto, Stanley S Atmaja, and George S Tahija who share their experiences in doing business according to the situation in Indonesia.