JACOBUS BUSONO: JP/Suherdjoko

Be happy with your work if you want to be successful. This is businessman Jacobus Busono's philosophy.

The director of the Pura Group Indonesia, a large company located in the Central Java town of Kudus, some 50 kilometers east of Semarang, was recently chosen as a member of the World Entrepreneurship Forum.

The forum, overseen by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, is organized by the Emylon Business School in France, one of the best business schools in Europe, and KPMG, one of the four big auditors in the world together with Ernst&Young, Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Deloitte.

The forum members include world leaders, entrepreneurs, government policy makers, academics and experts from all over the world.

The selection of forum members is conducted very carefully, with the number limited to only 70 people who each have international repute. In Asia, there are only 20 registered members of the World Entrepreneurship Forum.

"I praise God. This is all the result of hard work and blessings ...," Jacobus told The Jakarta Post.

"It is the result of working with a team. So teamwork is key to success. NASA can fly a spacecraft to the moon only because of teamwork," said the father of three.

The success story of the man, who works until 3 a.m. every day, can be seen from his company's success. Supported by strong engineering teams and fresh innovations, Pura Group Indonesia has survived, even during the 1998 crisis, when many other companies have collapsed.

The company produces, among other things, hologram applications that are printed directly on to aluminum packaging and blister medicine packs, as well as scratch holograms for covering the numbers on prepaid cell-phone cards.

The company has also modified an offset one-color printing machine so it can handle intaglio printing using two or four colors. These innovations are believed to be the first of their kind in the world.

The company's others achievements include the production of NCR carbonless paper -- copy paper without carbon -- from what is said to be the first NCR production plant in a tropical country.

Lately, the company's other special products have included the development of an integrated anti-counterfeit security system involving the production of security paper. This material is usually used for printing paper money.

The company is currently printing money for an African country.

In Indonesia, the Pura Group is also a cell-phone voucher-card producer that uses smart technology for contact and contact-less cards.

With some products, which are based on the anti-counterfeit security systems, the results can be seen on paper money. Apart from holograms, there are also watermarks.

Jacobus' company also produces paper money using fibers and a three-color hologram; when the money is illuminated under an ultraviolet lamp, the colors can be seen flickering. This technology makes it difficult for forgers to produce counterfeit paper money.

In 2001, the company received 10 awards within the country and six overseas awards in the fields of holography, exports and technological change.

Jacobus won the Indonesian Entrepreneur of The Year award in 2006 from Ernst & Young, and at the same time became a member of the World Entrepreneur of The Year Academy in 2007.

Jacobus is the third-generation manager of the family company, which was established in 1908. In the beginning, it was only a small printing company with no more than eight employees. Jacobus' father took over the business; by 1970, the printing company had 35 workers and Jacobus then took the lead.

The company grew fast, entering new markets within Indonesia and overseas, and became a well-respected printing and packaging industry leader in Southeast Asia.

Now with 24 production divisions and 8,500 workers located on a 65-hectare site, 75 percent of the Pura Group's output is sold locally, while the remaining 25 percent is exported to 94 countries.

The company has patented 74 products, with the majority registered in Indonesia.

Jacobus studied at Concordante HBS (Hoogere Burger School) for students who planned to continue their studies overseas. The students were given intensive language lessons in Dutch, German, English and French.

After graduating from HBS, he continued studying at the Netherlands State Printing Academy, then continued at the Fach Hochschule (FH)'s printing and paper field in Germany where he achieved a diploma in engineering in printing and paper making.

He also studied photography, lithography, color separation and other technologies related to printing which at the time, had yet to be used in Indonesia.

Jacobus learned to run his company by observing the rise and fall of world companies. He attempted to copy companies that became "hidden champions" in Europe; businesses that started as small companies which later moved into specialization.

"Our hologram production line continually made no profit for 10 years. One of my directors suggested we give up. But I had a vision ... to keep going.

"I was right. That hologram division harvested success. It took only one-and-a-half years for the losses of the previous 10 years to be recovered and to start turning a profit," he said.

One of the leading entrepreneurs who inspired Jacobus was HA Hubert Steinberg, who received an honorary doctorate for his achievements. Jacobus has even met Steinberg, who built the printing machine company Heidelberg.

It was from Steinberg, too, that Jacobus learned the recipe for success: "The key is to be happy with your work, work hard and with a full heart".

"Even when you succeed, do not become arrogant. Because arrogance hurts us and other people. A boss shouldn't be arrogant. There should be mutual respect. Listen to other people. We have to learn from below. If you want to work together, give it your full heart," Jacobus said.

When he recruits a worker, Jacobus said he is more interested in the applicant's character.

"People may have a high, IQ which is based on intelligence but their low EQ (emotional quotient), which is related to their low emotional maturity, could be dangerous.

"A wicked person who is clever is more dangerous than one who is stupid ..."

Popular

Lessons from Aceh peace process may still be relevant in today’s conflicts

To rescue or abandon Java?

Govt imports over 1,500 dairy cows to boost milk production