SBM ITB, in the Micro and Small Business course, presented Akhsan Hakim, the CEO and Founder of CV Sankimo Okta Violet (CVSOV), a business in the household health supply. He is also President Director of PT Cinta Usaha Antar Niaga (CUAN) in the retail, supplier, food & beverage, Export & Import business, and has 16 KBLI covering trade, industry, and services. He shared his experiences of building a business and surviving the pandemic.
Entitled “Surviving and Thriving in a Pandemic Period,” Akhsan started his presentation with the story of the beginning of his career, which began with pursuing two roles as an employee and founder of Sankimo, a household health supply product (PKRT) in 2012. Akhsan founded his business from community anxiety that is often considered trivial but important, unable to withstand peeing in an emergency. Starting from a simple innovation process with paper, Akhsan continues to develop its products. To date, it has received various recognitions and awards in the national and international arena.
Going through the pandemic, which impacted the decline in buying and selling activities, difficulty in obtaining raw materials, delays in distribution, reduction in labor and layoffs, and even death, Akhsan experienced a mindset shift. “Before the pandemic, we thought that digitalization was a complement to business, but now it is the main focus before running a business,” he said.
Akhsan admitted that this pandemic also forced him to expand his business to other sectors (health sector), PT. Love Inter-Commerce Business (CUAN) with 16 KBLI. In addition, this pandemic has succeeded in making Sankimo increase its business creativity in seeing product shortages in more detail and studying competitors’ businesses, improving management documents, and digitizing business.
Of course, Sankimo’s success through the early era of the pandemic requires various strategies. Closing his presentation, Akhsan shared his strategies to survive and even develop, including prayer, human resource efficiency, reducing marketing budgets, rewriting the rules of the game in business by making various types of products (retail, boxes, and cartons), eliminating shipping costs, and simplifying distributor requirements, creating new business activities (PT. CUAN), joining various communities, digitizing businesses, and transferring capital. “If you pursue a field (business), being consistent is the real key to success,” said Akhsan quoting Kang Jack to close his presentation.