Continually Promoting MSMEs
From his research on the growth of MSMEs in Indonesia, Musa Hubeis found that those engaged in these businesses still lacked drive for entrepreneurship.
Musa Hubeis, 65, a management professor at the Faculty of Economics and Management of IPB University, has been studying the issues of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia since 1991. An academician and researcher, Musa has also opened a way for MSMEs to keep growing.
During this period of the Covid-19 pandemic, Musa is busy responding to requests from various circles like business, the public, the government and higher learning institutes to speak at webinars. Musa is an active consultant to government agencies and business organizations on MSME development.
The most sought after discussions are those on the future of MSMEs and strategies for their survival, as well as to maintain innovation during the Covid-19 physical restrictions. Musa offers enlightening insights to business opportunities and challenges in the current economic condition, while he also presents online lectures to guide undergraduate and postgraduate students in several regions.
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At a webinar themed “Business Opportunities for Small and Medium Enterprises Towards the New Normal Era amid the Covid-19 Pandemic: Change or Die”, held on Monday (29/6/2020) by Jakarta Sahid University’s Community Service and Research Institute (LPPM), Musa put the number of MSMEs in Indonesia at around 64 million, or 99 percent of all businesses in the country. However, only about 13 percent of MSMEs have entered the digital realm.
“Before choosing between the two options of change or die, MSMEs should be adaptive, willing to move. So they should think creatively, utilizing available and forthcoming opportunities as well as working innovatively through a technological approach. This is because MSMEs belong to the real sector that creates jobs and business while reducing joblessness and poverty,” said Musa.
On another occasion, he suggested grouping MSMEs according to their capacity for growth, from fast to normal and to slow. This aimed to encourage the government to focus on the development of those MSMEs that possessed promotional potential in the next few years. He mentioned food industry sectors like the culinary sector, food processing and services as areas that could be developed in the new normal phase.
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Based on his experience, Musa has observed that MSMEs find it difficult to grow. More small-scale businesses operated In Indonesia merely to earn personal incomes.
Nonetheless, the survival of small-scale businesses was necessary so they could carry on their business activities to help reduce unemployment and poverty. They should also receive government assistance. Those businesses with the potential for further growth should be supported until they reach the international stage.
With his broad networks in government, business and the public, Musa is happy to share his knowledge and research to boost public entrepreneurship. His business network benefits from the promotional assistance Musa provides to regional MSMEs, especially those engaged in agriculture. For instance, if their products are packaged neatly, they can enter modern supermarkets.
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Over the last 20 years, Musa has also cooperated with the police to maintain security and order through value added schemes. For example, the police can encourage people to use idle land for various ventures that are based on proper business calculations, such as catfish farms, goat or milch cow farms, or horticultural farms.
Enormous potential
Musa said that he became interested in MSMEs from his early involvement in giving his expert input to several related ministries. He became concerned over the lack of progress among the country’s MSMEs, whereas he had seen MSMEs abroad making good headway.
Musa, who studied in France, saw the potential of essential oils for manufacturing perfume in Grasse, the perfume center in France. Indonesia, which has 89 varieties of fragrant roots, has great potential in supplying essential oils.
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When he returned to Indonesia and started managing MSMEs, Musa enthusiastically developed research in this field. He set up a business incubator for MSMEs. “I’ve fostered 1,750 MSMEs from Banten to East Java, even as far as Papua and Maluku,” he said.
Agricultural MSMEs also attracted Musa’s attention. So he introduced the appropriate technology so they could add value to their fresh or processed agricultural products.
Musa described fresh agriculture MSMEs as a simple business that only needed to find intermediaries to prevent the delayed distribution of their products so they did not rot. He once provided guidance to farmers in Cianjur in helping them build product packaging warehouses so they could gain access to the supermarket distribution network. “With just plastic wrapping, the produce looks better and their prices are higher,” he said.
Musa has often imparted his knowledge and simple technologies to the agricultural MSMEs he fostered. For instance, in order to make fresh products last longer, he told farmers not to harvest the crops when they were ripe. This was because fruits and vegetables continued to breathe or respire after they were picked.
With just plastic wrapping, the produce looks better and their prices are higher.
Musa takes every opportunity to remind people of the nation’s wealth of local wisdoms. To keep unhusked rice fresh, for example, farmers have for centuries hung bunches of the grain on bamboo racks. But the technology they use needs improvement.
He also patented his fermented milk beverage incubator made of wood in 2012. Musa had built the simple device to make yogurt. He procured a good quality, yogurt culture from abroad through one of his student who worked at a renowned ice cream manufacturer.
From his research on the growth of MSMEs in Indonesia, Musa found that those engaged in these businesses still lacked drive for entrepreneurship. Musa has also spotlighted the disinclination among MSMEs for cooperation.
In addition, continuity was a problem. MSMEs shouldn’t just think about being a business of the present. “They should think about existing for 40-100 years. One of the ways [to do this] is to give public ownership by selling shares,” added Musa.
Musa Hubeis
Born: Jakarta, 26 June 1955
Education:
- Doctorate in Industrial Systems Technology and Technology Management at National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine, France (1991)
- Master of Research in Industrial Systems Technology (1988)
- Master in Food Science, IPB (1985)
- Bachelor in Agricultural Statistics, IPB University (1979)
Patents:
- Fermented Milk Beverage Incubator with Wooden Construction (2012)
- Laboratory Rice Cooker at IPB (2011)