What's happening in PresUniv
Doing business during the Covid-19 pandemic is not easy. Especially if the business is located in Papua. This is what happened to Gary Marcelino Pirono, CEO of SAGA Retail Group. Gary shared his experience during the 2022 International Conference on Family Business and Entrepreneurship (ICFBE) organized by the Business Faculty, President University, Thursday (2/6).
Gary shared that during the pandemic his company only operated four to five hours each day. There was also paranoia and concern in Jayapura, because 80% of the goods come from Java. “At that time, the management and I did not panic. We remained focused on our core values, which are affordable prices, variety of goods and good customer service,” he said. So, Gary continued to operate his business as usual, not in survival mode. He did not lay off workers, nor did he apply a rotating leave scheme for employees. Everything continued normally. That way he kept the business afloat.
Meanwhile, the international speaker, Prof. Neil Towers from the University of Gloucestershire, United Kingdom, introduced the Growing Indonesia - a Triangular Approach (GITA) program, this is a consortium of seven Indonesian universities, including PresUniv, and four foreign universities. Including "SetSail BizAcell, a business incubator at PresUniv, which aims to produce many new entrepreneurs from the campus environment," said Towers. Another GITA program is to build relationships with stakeholders in the growth hub, and teach entrepreneurship in the campus environment. (Silvia Desi Betrice, PR team. Photo: Silvia)
