The Story of Irwan Hidayat, the Owner of Sido Muncul Who Was Once Considered as an NGO Manager
"Irwan Hidayat is the third-generation manager of PT Sido Muncul. His idealism in doing business had made him considered managing a non-governmental organization."Published by : administrator - 05/11/2021 09:18 WIB
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Irwan Hidayat, 74 (as of September 2021), who serves as President Director of PT Industri Jamu and Farmasi Sido Muncul Tbk (Sido Muncul). Irwan, the third generation to manage Sido Muncul, once had no interest in continuing this family business. But destiny said otherwise, it was he and his four brothers who actually turned an almost bankrupt home-based jamu business into an international jamu company.
Sumber: kumparan.com
Sido Muncul itself was started by Irwan Hidayat’s grandmother, Mrs. Rakhmat Sulistio, in 1930. At that time there was no Sido Muncul branding, Mrs. Rakhmat made jamu masuk angin (jamu for colds) on the sidelines of her busy life in starting a bakery called Roti Muncul. In 1935, Mrs. Rakhmat and her husband, Mr. Siem Thiam Hie opened a jamu business in Yogyakarta. Sixteen years later, in 1951, a company called Sido Muncul was founded in Semarang. The name Sido Muncul means ‘A Dreams Comes True’.
Irwan and his four brothers started helping Sido Muncul’s business in the 1970s. At that time, the leadership of the company was still held by their parents. As published on the Kompas.com page, Irwan once told that after graduating from high school, Irwan had spent about two years ‘going around’. Irwan’s mother became pessimistic about Irwan’s future, until finally the mother begged her brother to give Irwan a job. Finally, he worked for two years in a pharmaceutical company before finally returning home to help raise Sido Muncul.
Sumber: m.bizlaw.id
Sido Muncul to Build Trust
Building Sido Muncul to become a big company is not a short journey. To Bisnis.com, Irwan once told that during his 20-year career with Sido Muncul, he experienced various kinds of failures. From his journey, Irwan came to a conclusion that during that time Sido Muncul did not develop rapidly because there was no trust in Sido Muncul products.
Irwan compares the jamu industry to the pharmaceutical industry. He compares the sales of the two industries 1:10 for pharmaceutical excellence. From that moment on he thought that Sido Muncul should have standards like pharmaceutical factories so that consumers’ trust would emerge.
The pharmaceutical industry has various researches related to product safety and efficacy. Everything can be proven by data. But in the jamu industry, it doesn’t exist yet. Therefore, Irwan built a laboratory so that Sido Muncul has standards like a pharmaceutical factory. This effort paid off, in 2000 Sido Muncul received a certificate equivalent to pharmaceuticals, its products have the standard of Good Traditional Medicine Manufacturing Practices (CPOTB, Cara Pembuatan Obat Tradisional yang Baik) and Good Manufacturing Practices of Medicines (CPOB, Cara Pembuatan Obat yang Baik).
Business to Give Benefits
In doing business, Irwan often does not prioritize business logic related to profit and loss. He is more adamant that what he does, the company does, everything must provide benefits.” Many say that Sido Muncul is not like a company, in fact it is like half an NGO. It’s okay, the important thing is that the impact is good,” said Irwan as quoted by Warta Ekonomi.co.id.
One form of community service routinely carried out by Sido Muncul is holding a free mudik (an annual homecoming during Eid al-fitr). The program, which was first held in 1991, regularly makes it easy for thousands of Indonesians to go home for Eid.
Solid in Building a Family Business
In 2013, Sido Muncul was officially listed on the stock exchange with the code SIDO. The rapid progress from year to year is inseparable from the cohesiveness of Irwan Hidayat with his four younger siblings, David Hidayat, Jonatha Sofjan Hidayat, Johan Hidayat, and Sandra Linata Hidayat. As the article released by Tirto.id in January 2021, the five siblings have a majority stake in SIDO of 81%. The shares are divided equally among the five regardless of seniority. In fact, since 2013, the position of the President Director of Sido Muncul has been occupied by Irwan and his younger siblings in rotation.
This solidity can be an inspiration for anyone who does business with the family.