By: Iman Supriyono, CEO of SNF Consulting, IG: @imansupri
Should entrepreneurs enter politics? The answer that we hear often is “Yes”. Why? This is all due to the business trend that is well spread in the society nowadays.
The society believes that the fate of business is largely determined by politics. The livelihood of the company is determined by politics. This is the point of view believed by the society up until now. Is that true? This is true in the pre-corporatized business world, the world of sole proprietorship companies whose its capital is owned by an entrepreneur. The limited amount of its capital causes the size of the company to be small and there is no capital to expand in various countries.
In fact, nowadays, the era of the day is corporatization. An era which the company is no longer owned by one or two people, but owned by thousands and even millions of people around the world. The sum of the amount of capital accumulated reach hundreds and even thousands of trillions of capital gathered by thousands and even millions of people.
As an illustration, Yum! Brands Inc.’s income at 2017 is IDR 84 trillion. Yum! is the owner of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell global restaurants with 45,084 outlets as in the 2017 annual report. IDR 361 million Of these revenues came from royalties of 628 KFC outlets in Indonesia owned and organized by PT Fast Food Indonesia Tbk.
Soekarno-Hatta: Full time politicians since students till president and vice president
This means that KFC Indonesia contributes 0.4% from the total revenue of the company which the largest shareholder is Price T Rowe, an investment company, with 13% ownership. It can be interpreted that if 628 outlets of KFC Indonesia closed by the government because of a political policy, Yum! will only lose 0.4% of its revenue. The effect is insignificant as Yum’s annual income at 2017 is IDR 19 trillion.
The data about the Yum! Brands Inc. gives an illustration of the insignificance of the effects of any extreme political policy on a company. Why? It is because the company is owned by millions of people through various investment companies such as Price T Rowe which has been operating in more than 135 countries, including Indonesia.
So, if many entrepreneurs from our countries follow the path of the Yum!, then they will work hard for their company to enter and control the market of various countries. Thus, they will rarely be in Indonesia and did not get into politics as they spend all of their time to take care of their company in various countries.
Imagine if you enter the market of 135 countries like the Yum! which the value of all its shares is IDR 370 trillion. If they enter each country’s market and stay on the country to control the business in there for at least a week for each country. Hence, it can take almost 3 years to visit each country where the company operates. There is no time to enter politics.
Then, what is his contribution to our country? Of course the taxes that is earned from different countries. And there is one more thing that cannot be judged by money: building a superior mentality of the citizens of Indonesia wherever they are in the association between nations. All the people of the world will know Indonesia through its global brands and companies. A lot of people around the world will become the employees of Indonesian companies. Indonesia will become the nation of employers not only a nation of employees.
So, should entrepreneurs enter politics? No! Let the politics managed by professional politicians like Bung Karno and Bung Hatta. People who have chosen and dedicate to struggle in path of politics since they were in college. Their political career continues to grow as they get older until the peak of their career: president and vice president. How beautiful.
Korporatisasi 