Friday, January 19, 2007

CREATE A LEGACY : THE 25 YEARS’ LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE TRULY ENTREPRENEUR






By Ari Satriyo Wibowo

Sukyatno Nugroho was a successful entrepreneur which starting business from zero. He who was born in the city of Pekalongan on August 3, 1948 never tired to tell you a story how he built his franchise business of Es Teler 77.

Confessing that he only having a formal education as high as junior high school and occupy the 40th rank from 50 students in the class, he was very proud that he could enlarge his business to entire Indonesia region and even go international to abroad such as Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Australia.

Sukyatno whom his Chinese's name was Hoo Tjio Kiat have a colorful life. With his junior high school diploma he initially try to become a salesman of notions products in Jakarta. Various profession he also experienced like as a developer of advertisement building, effort printing office, service bureau and scalper. In that “school of life” he learnt sales and marketing.

When still as a salesman Sukyatno met with his future wife, Yenny Setia Widjaja, a sweet girl who served as salesclerk at electronic appliances store in the area of Jakarta Kota. Each time he parked his motor cycle in front the store, Yenni’s heart follow to palpitate very fast. They set mind to married on September 28, 1971 and bestowed by three children namely Felicia, Andrew and Fredella.

After married various life temptation faced by him including bankruptcy. His lucky destiny finally come when his mother-in-law Mrs. Murniati Widjaja become first champion on the contest of making “Es Teler” which carried out by Gadis magazine in 1982.

Sukyatno business insting worked and he fully imitated that receipt. With only one million rupiah of capital, Sukyatno start his tent booth restaurant business. Because it established on July 7th of 1982 he decided to named his restaurant as Es Teler 77. And because that recipe was a result from the first and last contest of es teller in Indonesia, to be uniquely he add “Indonesian’s Champion” as the slogan for his own brand.

Because his tent booth restaurant was often forced to move by local officer hence he set mind rented a space in Pondok Indah Mall Jakarta and his business runned fastly. At 1987 he plunged to franchised business. First branch stand up in Solo and followed by Semarang’s branch one week later. Franchisee paid initial fund and charged by 4 percent of royalty from the sales revenue.


On 1994 Sukyatno decided to open his outlet only into shopping centre, plaza or mall. He even also started to compile standard, management system and good training.

In order not to arised dispute problem in the future as a family business he divided the ownership on 25 % share each among Mrs. Murniati Widjaja ( his mother-in-law), Mr. Trisno Budijanto (his father-in-law), Yenny Setia Widjaja (his wife) and his own.

On 1997, he also opened “Bakmi Tek Tek” which sold traditional noodle and “Ikan Bakar Pasti Enak” which provided various variation of fish burn. During the 14th of May 1998 riots , he lossed 14 outlets in burnt. But he also succeed to open 50 new outlets during financial crisis in Indonesia. On 2003 his outleat reach more than 203 outlets. But after the company decided to concrentrate its business only in shopping center, the amount of his restaurants remained only 180 outlets.

Beside fast food restaurants, Sukyatno even also having several ala carte restaurant by various theme which managed by his children and wife namely Cilantro Asian Bistro & Lounge at Wisma BNI 46, Batula Food & Fun at Jalan Adityawarman, Kebayoran Baru Jakarta, Cilantro Tea House at Pondok Indah Mall 2 and Sunshine Kapitiam at Pantai Losari Makassar.Outside the restaurant business he also have an interior design company called Centra Marvel.

Realizing that his age has growth older and his business has almost stepped on third generation, Sukyatno wish to create a valuable legacy.” As according to proverb that Tiger leave Stripe and Elephant leave Ivory so I wish to leave heritage in the form of a special college of traditional food, “ Sukyatno said. He plans to stand up his college in the area of West Jakarta.***

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