KEEPING IN CREATIVITY

Entrepreneurs are people who respond to any changes in the environment in creative and innovative ways. Environmental changes do not cause problems, including crises, provided that they are solved in such ways. Thus, beyond the emergence of difficulties or the threat, there is also a promising opportunity. Creativity is the ability to promising new ideas, and innovation is the application of new thoughts.

As a matter of fact, we are all creative beings, and if creativity has never been practiced regularly, it can be paralyzed as the muscles of someone who have never done exercise. According to the measurement of the creativity done through the tests given to different age groups, the above statement proves to be true. In terms of creativity, George Land proposed in his research report entitled "Break-Point and Beyond" that five-year-old children got a score of 98%; ten-year-old children received a score of 32%; fifteen-year-old children gained a score of 10%; and forty-two-year-old adults obtained only a score of 2%. According to the result of the research, the children were inclined to be more creative than adults. In short, children make creatively thinking skills their routine activities. They always make an observation and ask a question that they love most, that is to say, "Why?". Sometimes children do not believe the remark of an adult until they are able to prove its truth themselves and take conclusions of their own. When my daughter was three years old, she asked her mother, "Mom, what is Heaven like?" Her mother replied, "In heaven, if you ask for meals, they will soon come themselves, and when you ask for drinks, they will immediately come alone." My daughter spontaneously responded, "So, heaven is like a restaurant, isn't it?." Hearing the answer, my wife smiled spontaneously. Then, my son once asked me a funny question. When I came home from work, he suddenly asked me, "Dad, if you have five tennis balls in your hands, and one of them falls, what will happen?". "I still have four balls in my hand," I replied. "You are wrong. The correct answer is that the ball that falls changes into a rabbit," he said. "Why does the ball become a rabbit?" I asked in surprise. "Yes, because it was magic," he answered innocently. Why he replied so was because he once saw such a magic on TV. Furthermore, there was another five-year-old child who suggested a very good idea. One day the child walked at night. Then, because it was dark, he tripped over a stone, and he spontaneously said, "The shoes should have had lights on them." This idea has inspired some shoe makers who have produced shoes with lights on them, and of course what the child has proposed constitutes remarkable creativity. However, in process of growing up, kids tend to follow the rules of adults and receive information without any dispute. With the rules and limits of adults, the creativity of the children really becomes limited. However, keeping asking, drawing conclusions, and seeing things from a new point of view as children do, we will remain creative and innovative.

MINIMIZATION TECHNIQUE IN BUSINESS

Many people have asked me questions about how to create the idea, to implement it in doing a business, and to boost the business with it. It is not easy to create an original idea, so a large number of techniques are required to do so, and one of them is minimization technique.

The technique of minimization is that of minimizing physical things and time in terms of business. Honda could successfully use the technique of minimizing products physically when entering the U.S. market. Many big, 250cc or 350cc motorcycles were used in United States by then. At first, Honda tried to market motorcycle with the same sizes but failed. Then, he utilized minimization technique by making smaller, 50cc motorcycles that he called Super Cup, which started his success. Within just five years, one of two motorcycles used in Los Angeles was a Honda. Furthermore, the leader of Sony, Akio Morita, also made use of minimization technique after seeing a young man listening to music and walking everywhere with a big tape recorder on his shoulder. Then, he decided to replace a big tape recorder into a small one that could fit into a pocket. Morita realized the idea by creating smller tape recorders that he called Walkman, which was the beginning of the company's success. Then, Morita also realized the same idea by changing a big, video camera into a small one that he called Handycam. Another minimization technique was applied in a floppy disk, which constituted the minimization of a data storage in the forms of a magnetic tape and a magnetic disk. Even in times of crises minimization technique was very beneficial. The package weighing 1 kg could be converted into a small one weighing 200 grams or 100 grams, so the price became cheaper. In times of crises, price factors could determine whether or not consumers decided to buy products. Besides, minimization technique can also be made for time. Dell Computer Company minimized time required for testing a network, i.e. from 60 days or 90 days to 15 days, and it took only five days to get a complicated system. Minimization combined with E-Commerce has been able to bounce back and made Dell a number-one, PC seller in the world in 1999. Then, Citibank applied error minimization techniques in the process of serving customers. Citibank has utilized the sigma system to improve service quality. The higher the sigma; the smaller the error. However, Citibank also recognizes that without any satisfying human resources there will be no customer satisfaction.

STARTING A BUSINESS OF YOUR WORK

Apart from starting a business of education, you can start a business from the work you have done. Reuben Mattus started a business of the work usually done by a child. He arrived in the United States from Poland in 1921. When he was 8 years old, he lived with his mother who was a widow. To make money, his mother sold lemon ice from a squeezed lemon while he helped her. In 1932, he founded the company Senator Frozen Products in the Bronx, and in the late 1950s, he built an ice cream company marketed through grocery stores and liquor stores. Then, he had the idea to enter into supermarkets, but supermarkets were asking for incentives that could not be met by his company. He did not easily discourage. Then he created a luxury brand of ice cream made from real fruit and natural ingredients and were marketed through the imaginative use of the name smells of Danish “Haage-Dazs” as the perfect way to differentiate a brand new with its competitors. Three flavors Haagen Dazs, which first appeared were a sense of Vanilla, chocolate and coffee, and all them were sold in food stores in New York. Community positively welcomed the ice and only in a few weeks other stores throughout the United States sent a reservation for this new ice cream. Word-of-mouth marketing was enough to improve the distribution of these products to the urban centers and cities and universities in the Northeast region. People across America sent a letter asking how to get Haagen Dazs near where he lived. Some even volunteered to distribute this product. Mattus's girls then proposed the idea to open a shop selling only brand Haagen Dazs. The first store was opened in Brooklyn and opened a new era for this brand and was followed in major cities across America. In the year 1982, he expanded the store to Canada; cooperated with leading food companies; and crossed the Atlantic to Europe. The Europeans were welcomed with enthusiasm ice.

Eugene Schueller also started the business from his job as a chemist. As a chemist who was young, he managed to make hair dye formula which he called innovative “aureole”. Then Schueller founded the company called “Franncaise Societe de Teentures Inoffensives pour Cheveux”, which eventually became “L’Oreal”in the year 1909. Schueller's principle used to achieve success was to conduct research and innovation focused on beauty. As a chemical expert starting from a small company, at first he employed 3 chemists 11 years later; however, the number of chemists is now approaching 2000. Schueller sold these products at the beginning to the hairdresser in Paris. Five years later, L’Oreal products was found in the Netherlands, Austria and Italy. A few years later, through distributing agents and their representatives, L'Oreal was sold to the United States, Russia and Asia. Now, L’Oreal products have been present in the whole world, and L’Oreal is a company that is the most remarkable in France and has been ranked as a 23rd amazing company in the world according to Fortune magazine.

STARTING A BUSINESS OF EDUCATION 1

Many people complain that opening a business has no chance. This is a common complaint that we cannot hear anymore. In fact, in order to start a business, we can do a variety of ways, one of which is to apply the education we have.

Jerry Yang and David Filo, Yahoo founders, started the business by using his education. They used to be students of Stanford University. Yahoo, which started a business by using the back of a parking lot, is now growing rapidly. Jerry Yang and David Filo started the business from small and simple things. Jerry Yang Yahoo illustrated that the discovery was 'an accident' when he and Filo finished their theses. Yang and Filo started Yahoo when they were in college. They started doing business with a website, listing some of their favorites, and writing some software that allowed a website to get other web sites that would be placed on the so-called web portals until it was established in 1994 and was called Terry’s Guide to the World Wide Web. When they learned that their sites had been visited by people from 90 countries, they spontaneously said 'Yahoo', and ultimately that’s the word used to name their company. In 1999, Yahoo reached star status. Net income quadrupled in the fourth quarter of 57.6 million dollars while revenues jumped from 91 million to $ 201 million dollars. Then Yahoo was the best portal in 2002.

Kiichiro Toyoda is the son of the founder of Toyoda Spinning & Weaving Co., which was changed into the field of automatic loom. After completing his engineering studies, he decided to start a business by transforming the company into the production car and he changed the company name from Toyoda to Toyota in 1936. Kiichiro Toyoda became President of the Toyota company until 1950. The first car produced was then AA Crown Model. Offices in foreign countries was first established in Taiwan and then Saudi Arabia. The product that the company began to produce was forklift trucks (tub / trailer), which made the company number one in the world in this market. These trucks entered the U.S. market in 1958 and the British market in 1965. The Crown Model failed to enter the U.S. because the car was designed for the Japanese market but it was not designed for being driven on American highways. Then, after producing Toyota Corolla cars in 1968, the company achieved success so that it could shift Volkswagen cars as number-one imported cars in America, even it could take the Americans with General Motors to make Toyota cars in America. The sales of Toyota Camry cars were the most successful in the United States in 1997. Toyota is now extended to other areas of business, namely financial services, telecommunications, housing, machinery navy, recreational boats, parts distribution and aviation services. Toyota is now a number-three car maker in the world after General Motors and Ford. Toyota can sell 5 million vehicles per year.

STARTING A BUSINESS OF EDUCATION 2

Pierre Omidyar started a business with his degree in Computer Science. He was interested in developing technology to create products for consumer needs, and he also liked the idea of the concept that could produce a variety of ways through the delivery of products to consumers, to see their reaction, and then improved the products according to their needs. Then, he made the Internet as a place to realize his idea, because with the Internet, quickly he could not only publish the software, get a reaction from consumers, but also correct the mistakes he did. To find out how bidders in Paris, he did not need to go to Paris but just saw it from home or office. Subsequently, he founded eBay, the Internet auction company, in 1995. Prior to founding eBay, Omidyar, with his colleagues, founded the eSharp, which made him experienced in entrepreneurship. eBay is a company that relies on trust. You can imagine that people paid what they only saw in the auction on the Internet. Without trust, this company would not survive. Net income reached 1.35 million dollars in the third quarter of 1999, and its sales increased by 58.5 million dollars. The number of people who registered on the eBay site increased from 5.6 million to 7.7 million in comparation with the previous quarter. Net income increased by 1.3 million dollars in the same period in the previous year. The sales of goods on the web site increased from 195 million dollars to 741 million dollars. According to Yahoo magazine, eBay was the best on the Internet auction company in 2002 .

Anita Roddick founded The Body Shop in his garage space in 1976. He founded his business with his education, that is History. With History, she loved the environment, made natural concept, mixed pure ingredients, did not conduct an experiment with animals, was friendly with the natives, and took care of the environment where the herbal derived. Almost without advertising but with a very massive publicity, The Body Shop became one of the world brands.

Ir. Ciputra, who completed his studies at the Department of Architecture at ITB in Indonesia in 1960, started a business with his education in architecture and property. Ciputra, who was crowned as the best public CEO 1997 according to Swa Sembada magazine, was the President Director of PT Ciputra Development (CD) and President Commissioner of PT Jaya Realty (JR).

Having completed Master of Education in Management, my friends and I cooperated with West Coast Institute of Management and Technology in Australia, and Warnbrough University in the United Kingdom to establish a Master of Business Administration Program. Besides, I also established the Higer Education Institution of Artha Bodi Iswara with the Progarm of a Master of Management in Indonesia. The Institution had the most students among the same programs by then, and the number of students reached approximately 1000 students. Now it's time you started a business with your education while you're in college.

STARTING A BUSINESS WITHOUT ANY CAPITAL

You have a good idea of doing business but do not have any capital; however, you can still do so with capital cooperation. You have close friends whom you can count on, and then you can contact and convince them to get capital support. The advantage of this effort can be in accordance with the agreement. The more you involve them; the more they trust you, and it also means that you will be able to gain capital investment in your business. To do this strategy, at first you can convince your closest friends who trust you the most. Then, you can do so with your friends who relatively less trust you. Honesty is the most important thing in starting a business with capital cooperation. Openness and fairness must be upheld so that they trust you. The trust they give to you is regarded as the money they are saving. Naturally, they hope that the savings could get bigger in the long-run. Similarly, the more savings they gain; the more they trust you.

When I met a close friend of mine, a sales representative of Metrodata Corporate, he immediately offered me to become a dealer of Epson computers. “Do you want to sell Epson computers, Med?” My friend asked. Med was my nickname when I was in high school I in Madiun, Indonesia. “I have no capital” I replied. “It does not need any capital. You simply display Epson computers. Then, you will not pay for each of the computers until it has been sold. I give two-month grace period “my friend said. “All right. I’ll try to sell Epson computers” I agreed. Why did my friend trust me? Because he and I went to the same high school and always sat beside me in the classroom. When going to school, I rode him on the back of our bicycle, and when returning home from school, he did the same. We always shared our pocket money. When I had money, I treated him to meals and soft drinks, and when he had money, it was his turn to do so. When I was sick, I lay down on the bed in his house while he went to school himself. I often ate in his house and learned together, entertained his brother with conjuring tricks, and talked with his parents. I sometimes borrowed money from him to pay my tuition fee, and I repaid the loans in accordance with my promise. I am very fortunate to have a close friend who has trusted me up to now. His name is Agus Widodo Honggo, and now he is a Director of Metrodata Corporate. You can also try to start a business with capital cooperation by means of your closest friends.

PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY

A professional-community segmentation is an established community to support professional communication, the exchange of professional work, or research information; for example, Analog Devices (www.analog.com) creates chip-design engineer communities for their technical experts; Linux Documentation Project (www.linuxdoc.org) gathers variuos articles related to Linux; Tom's Hardware (www.tomshardware.com) provides information on computer hardware, including motherboards, hard disks, and so on; Tom's Hardware supports the components of personal computers. Besides, another facility is also to help not only reveal CPU, bug chip sets, new processors, but also test motherboards, graphics cards, or RAM. At last but not least, Ofoto (www.ofoto.com) is provided for the professional photographers who can obtain free photo software, free shipping for the first order, exchange photos, store images, and perfect images online.

STARTING A BUSINESS FROM A RENTED GARAGE

Tom Peters and Robert Waterman put Hewlett-Packard as the best company at the end of 1970. Jerry Pornas and James Collins in their book entitled "Built to Last" included Hewlett-Packard as a company receiving an award for its long survival. Based on a poll, the company was one of the companies with the best management. Similarly, Fortune magazine included Hewlett-Packard as one of the most admired companies in the world. Hewlett-Packard is a company that has been successful in achieving many remarkable accomplishments.

Hewlett-Packard was founded with the stood capital of $ 538 by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in a garage that they rented in Palo Alto in 1937. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were classmates at Stanford University. "We think we'll have a job for ourselves. We do not think that we can have a big company," said Packard. "The garage is the origin of Silicon Valley", said Stuart Crainer in his book entitled "The 75 Greatest Management Decision Ever Made."


The first product of Hewlett-Packard's sales was the gauge of sound waves sold to Walt Disney. The result from the sales was $ 5,100 with a profit of $ 1,300, the first success of Hewlett-Packard. The next products were the automatic machine leveler of lettuce, and shock machine to help people lose weight. Hewlett-Packard also considers the market for automated tools to dump urine, bowling floor sensors, and air conditioning. They left the garage in 1940.


However, Hewlett-Packard experienced a crisis after the world war occurred in 1946. When a crisis occurred, creativity began to emerge. Furthermore, Hewlett-Packard dared to make a decision to recruit more people who had technical ability. The results were quite impressive, and sales reached $ 2.1 million in 1948.


Hewlett-Packard does not rely on long-term debt in developing businesses but on products that can become market leaders. "Our job is to design, develop, and produce the best for the sake of scientific progress, and the prosperity of mankind. We intend to devote ourselves to the task," said Packard.
In 1976, one of the engineers found that if the metal is heated in a certain way, it will disperse. The decision to use this technology rose the business of the ink-jet printers which eventually have become successful laser-jet ones, and the success started from a rented garage.

CREATIVITY IN ADVERTISING

Creativity is the ability to present new ideas, and innovation is the application of the new ideas. Actually we are all creative beings, but creativity has become paralyzed, because it is rarely practiced on a regular basis as muscles have never been trained. It is not easy to create an original idea, and even Voltai said "The Original does not exist except a wise imitation." Creativity is almost always used in advertising, because advertising created with creativity can help inform, persuade, remind, increase the value, and "blow up" advertising.

A German sociologist, Max Weber, has determined that people think by using two ways: first, objective and rational ways of thinking based on facts, for example, answering the test items according to rational thinking styles and facts, and second, qualitative and intuitive ways of thinking based values, for example, buying a car by using intuition and knowledge to make decisions with the qualitative values of the feature, style and performance of the car, which are all considered with its price. Most theories of thinking are in accordance with two general categories, namely: ways of thinking based on facts, and ways of thinking based on values.

If you prefer the style of thinking based on facts, you should ask an advertising agency to produce ads that are simple, direct , rational, and that use a lot of data. Hewlett-Packard printer ads, which have been handled by Saatchi & Saatchi advertising agency, have been created with this approach, and so has Clear ad. However, if you prefer the style of thinking based on values, you should ask an advertising agency to produce ads that are soft, smooth, intuitive, emotional, and metaphorical. Nike and BMW ads have been created with this approach. Sunsilk Clean & Fresh ad from PT. Unilever featuring an Indonesian, veiled, film star, Koesherawati Inneke, has been made according to ways of thinking based on values. This ad appeals to a lot of people, as it looks different. Unlike the other shampoo ads always featuring beautiful models with shiny hair, in this ad hair is not displayed at all. This ad is cleverly designed to be aimed at veiled women, and it proves to be successful in Malaysia and is also expected to succeed in Indonesia. Nevertheless, there are advertisers that combine both of the approaches.

LEARNING FROM BANANA TREES TO DO BUSINESS

God has created banana trees for the benefit of living creatures, particularly human beings. Banana trees grow in tropical areas, for example, in Asia, Africa, etc. Gobel Dharma Nusantara Company has made use of the philosophy of banana trees to mobilize its human resources so that it can compete with other companies and survive. The Company, which has cooperated with Matsushita firm, has produced Panasonic products and can afford to export them. This philosophy was invented by Thayeb Mohammad Gobel, the founder of the Company, in 1954.

In fact, all parts of banana trees are useful to us. The bananas, which are shaped curved, yellow or red, soft and sweet when ripe, contain vitamins. Banana leaves are used for wrapping food; their leaf sheaths for children-toys; banana blossoms for vegetables; banana trees for putting puppets in a shadow puppet show; and even banana skins for feeding goats. The benefits of bananas trees illustrate the philosophy that all the employers, as well as the employees of Gobel Dharma Nusantara Company, should be able to get on well in team work in order to make the products that are beneficial to communities.

Gobel Dharma Nusantara Company applies self-management that makes an efficient management system, listening to and satisfying customers. All that are around the Company are considered customers, such as communities, investors, suppliers, employers, employees, coworkers, governments, and environments. Suppliers and distributors should proportionally have mutual prosperity.

Gobel Dharma Nusantara Company keeps on trying to make useful products in accordance with its customers' needs, and the products should have high quality with affordable prices. Satisfactory services are dedicated to achieving public welfare. Profits are used for investors, employees, business continuity, taxes, and social welfare. ''None of us blames each other'', said the leader of the Company.

Then, in spite of being cut off many times, banana trees will grow again as long as they haven't produced fruits. After producing fruits, banana trees are ready to die. In this respect, banana trees describes the philosophy that both the employers and the employees of Gobel Dharma Nusantara Company totally dedicate themselves to the Company for the benefit of their customers, and prior to producing the best work, they will never leave the company, and they are ready to sacrifice for the achievement of corporate goals for the happiness for all of them, and they feel that they work at their own company with great sincerity and humility. Progress and development can only be realized through the joint effort and cooperation of every employee. The employees of the Company are united in spirit, and  they have pledged to carry out their tasks with high dedication, perseverance, and integrity.

In the end, before dying, the kids of banana trees grow around their parents to be ready to take over them, and in terms of it, banana trees illustrate the philosophy that the employers of Gobel Dharma Nusantara Company have processed the continuity of their offspring to continue the running of the company to remain a company that excels in the competition. Employees are empowered by developing the individuals regarded as the cores for the surnival of the Company before it gets to the step of its declination, and they should have personal and corporate responsibilities to serve society members as the baton holders of their predecessors.

PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION

One of the strategies to win the competition in business is a differentiation strategy, which emphasizes the stronger differences of certain brands compared with competitive brands. Product differentiation may derive from a variety of factors, namely product quality, product features, durability, reliability, exceptional product design, reliability, being easy to repair, and style. The quality of a product covers quality performance and conformance. Quality performance refers to the level in which product characteristics operate, that is to say, whether the product is produced from low-level, average, high, or super performance. IBM's product differentiation strategy is based on the quality of performance. According to Fortune magazine, IBM was the world's 19th ranked company based on revenue and was the world's first ranking firm based on computer and office equipment industries. IBM is a company with the principles of respecting individuals, giving the best to customers, and carrying out all tasks with the idea that everything can be achieved by a superior. IBM is a technology company, which is not inexhaustible commitment to quality. IBM Thinkpad Transnote was an award-winning product for "For Technological Excellence" in the category of PCs from PC Magazine in 2001. Then, conformance quality is the level in which all produced units are identical and meet the target specifications as promised. Buyers typically expect the high level of fitness. BMW uses the product differentiation strategy based on the suitability of high quality. Product features are equipped with the characteristics of product functions. Most products are offered with their excellencies. Microsoft uses the product differentiation strategy based privileges. In 2002, Microsoft was the world's number-three company of the most impressive ones according to Fortune magazine. In 2001, IBM released a new product, namely Windows XP, which used Windows 2000 kernel. Windows XP is the most stable operating systems of Microsoft. The excellence of Windows XP is that it is not only stable, uses a new wizard that allows you to configure settings for Internet and local networks but also has the additional feature of increasingly varied plug and play. In addition, Windows XP includes a software "firewall" for security. In 2001, Windows XP was the winner of the award "For Technical Excellence" in the category of desktop software from PC Magazine . Furthermore, Rolex uses product differentiation strategy based on product durability, which is a measure of the expected age of the product operating under normal conditions and / or weight. According to most users, durability is very important. Does your company want to do product differentiation or to die?

POSITIONING STRATEGY

In the early 1970s, Jack Trout and All Ries put forward a positioning concept as the basis of a marketing strategy, and since then, the concept has become a popular basis for the development of a creative strategy. The general purpose of a positioning strategy is to make consumers have better images in their minds of products. The proper brand images that form in consumers' minds from what they see, hear, smell, and feel can become the dominant factors that strongly influence them to make up their mind of doing something with the products. Normally such a concept is oriented towards market leaders.

The company's advantage of competing is that of communicating, so the problem of competing are that of communicating. As a matter of fact, a positioning strategy is a communication one. Advertising is a form of the communication which, according to the recipient's point of view, was built in a low award. If you succeed in advertising, you may be successful in a business, a religion, politics, or the other activities that require mass communication.Positioning, the simple concept that makes people face difficulties in understanding strengths, is a concept to change the authenticity of the ad. Positioning starts with products, goods, services, companies, or people, but it is not something you do towards products; however, it is something you do to prospective consumers' minds, namely placing brand images on their minds, and it is not a matter of the product positioning that physically has something to do with products, and it is also wrong when positioning does not involve any changes, particularly on names, prices, and packaging rather than on the overall products. Basically, there are changes in the appearances that may be conducted with the aim of ensuring more valuable positions in the minds of prospective consumers.

Positioning also constitutes the first thought designed to cope with a hearing problem in our society flooded with information. The only defense owned by a person in a society is a very simple idea. So, the best approach to be taken of someone in a society is a simple message. Like in minimalist architecture, in communication the less but the more accurate a thing is; the better. You have to sharpen the message to put in the mind of each consumer, as Jack Trout and Al Ries proposed that positioning is not done on products, but it is done against consumers' minds; for example, "The Company for Women" is from Avon, "The Science of You" from the Pond's Institute, "Passion for Beauty" from L'Oreal, "The Miracle of Science" from DuPont, "Life made smoother" from Teflon, "Get the feeling" from Toyota, "For Life" from Volvo, "Connecting People" from Nokia, "Good Food Good Life" from Nestle.

MARLBORO FRIDAY

Philip Morris is one of the big, cigarette industries in the U.S., and Marlboro is one of Philip Morris's trademarks which economically have involved a quarter of U.S. citizens. In 1989, Philip Morris dominated 43% of the U.S. market, so at least it could support the economy of Marlboro Country. However, such a domination ended when the other industries of unbranded cigarettes took over 40% of the U.S market, cutting the market of Marlboro in the U.S. at 30%; and as a result, making its stock collapsed. Michael Miles, Philip Morris's CEO, tried to do his best to save Marlboro. The strategy Miles undertook was that he lowered prices dramatically; reduced prices on a large scale; and lowered the world's leading-cigarette prices at 25% of the cost price just to boost the stock price by gambling with a very high risk. Some commentators, observers, and analysts were of the opinion that what Miles had done with his strategy was driven by panic rather than by long-term considerations.

Undertaking his strategy to boosting the stock price, Miles took the opposite view of the theory applied in the 1980s when selling well-known brands succeeded because of high prices. Miles knew that it was unusual and impossible for the company to keep on selling Marlboro cigarettes to its consumers at a premium. Miles might attempt to apply Campaq Company's strategy, in which it sold its PCs at lower prices and used the power of big brands in order to control the stock market and to be able to compete with Dell Computer and IBM.

At first, the application of Miles's strategy was not trusted by the market, so Philip Morris's shares fell sharply at 23% in one day. However, gradually the stock price began to recover, and even grew rapidly. The Company's total shares of the U.S., cigarette market increased from 42% to 46%. Marlboro shares grew from 22% to 27%. In July 1994, Philip Morris was able to gain profits at 17.6% after the tax payment, or totally 1.23 billion dollars. Even, the most surprising thing was that sales increased to almost 22% in the U.S., so the stock rose to 6.5%. In 2003, shares reached 38.5% of Marlboro cigarettes in the U.S.

Michael E. Porter called Miles's strategy the total cost leadership strategy, which highlights lower prices than competitors do. This strategy is part of the clearest generic strategy among the other generic strategies. If a company can achieve and maintain a total cost advantage, it will be the company, the performance of which is above average in its industry if it can set the price equal or close to the average price in the industry. With a price that is equal to or slightly lower than competitors' prices, the low cost position of the advantage of this cost will be realized in the form of higher profits. Miles first began to carry out this strategy on Friday. Michael Miles, who has created the strategy, calls it Marlboro Friday.

INTEREST COMMUNITY 1

Based on Media Metrix survey in 2000, 500 world top companies according to Fortune magazine increased their activities and contribute more than the previous years for advertising revenues on the Internet. 500 companies have web sites and all use online advertising. One-to-one advertising, the target marketing, can be very expensive; however, it offers the promising profit by means of the the advertising. According to Taylor (1997), the target marketing was very effective for Lexus cars, one of which cost 169 dollars by then. Furthermore, the cost of the advertising directed at communities proved to be more effective than that of the advertising directed at individuals. One community on the Internet is considered to be the community of a certain interest. The interest community consists of the people who interact with the same interests, for example, interests in entertainment, family, estate, weather, and so on. The example of a successful company that performs the marketing directed at the community of an interest is N2K, a company engaged in the music industry. N2K developed relatively quickly after joining the Telebase, which runs an Internet music store (www.musicboulevard.com). This site contains information which varies in accordance with its visitors' interests, for example, interests in artist biographies, tour schedule, music samples, and the study of music. In addition, N2K also sells CDs, T-shirts and accessories. N2K income reached 85,000 dollars in the first three months after merging with Telebase. According to N2K, one Web site is not enough for the entire music interest community. Therefore, N2K segmented the music interest community more specifically according to the types of music, namely jazz music (www.jazzcentralstation.com), classical music (www.classicainsite.com), and rock music (www.rocktroplis.com ). N2K income rose rapidly from 85,000 to 450,000 dollars in three months, and 3.6 million dollars in one year later. To compete with Amazon.com and to become the largest online music store, N2K merged with CDNOW. Analysts said that the merger of the two online music retailers marked the increasingly stringent competition of online music retailers. According to the report of The Wall Street Journal, the merger of CDNOW and N2K with the brand CDNOW (www.cdnow.com) dominated the market around 45% or about 1.2 million customers. N2K and CDNOW spent a lot of money to compete with Amazon.com. Finally, N2K merged with America Online, Ntscape, Excite, and webtv while CDNOW merged with Yahoo and Lycos.

INTEREST COMMUNITY 2

According to the survey of Jupiter Media Metrix , online music sales in America had increased markedly by 2001, namely: from 520% or 6.2 billion U.S. dollars; in 2001, only 1 billion U.S. dollars; and estimated annual growth of 43% over five years. Online music purchases were made through digital download or online orders. Jupiter Media Metrix estimated that online music sales were taking a market share of 7% of all music sales in the U.S. and increased to 32% in 2006.

In Indonesia, the interest community related to music can be found at musikamu.com, which provides information about singers, musicians, musical instruments, the collection of songs, artist images, fan forums, new albums, music industries, song lyrics with chords, chats, web radios, cafe information, and quizzes. The interest community associated with films covers Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the site of film research; Film Wise (www.filmwise), the site of film quizzes; and MRQE (www.mrqe.com), the site of the best film study. The interest community related to games covers Gamespy, which constitutes a technology company and a leading online entertainment; and Nexia (www.bolehgame.com), which is a modified, Korean game, and the latter has the most visitors although still in beta, and they can interact like in daily life; for example, they can engage, get married, or die even though they can be made alive again. This game can perform smiles, tears, angers, sleeping, and singing activities. The average players in this game were about 800 people.

The interest community that has something to do with health care is WebMD, which contains information concerning the health itself, diseases, medical library, medicine, family genetics, symptoms, health guide,  medical tests and examinations, e-health tools and clinical trials, including food and nutrition, old people, women, men, sports, fitness, and lifestyle. Besides, WebMD is also to facilitate the exchange of information, communication and electronic transactions among the participants who are interested in the health care. The best site of the interest community relating to the health care in Indonesia can be found at www.pdpersi.co.id, which provides information about medical devices, the people recovering from a particular disease, and the doctor community information about health regulation and hospital accreditation. Ar last but not least, the facility of  the site is that of finding a doctor only by entering the name of the doctor who is practicing with a specialist area. In conclusion, the segmentation of interest communities is a promising segmentation in the future.

THE ACT OF STARTING A BUSINESS

When I went back to my birthplace on Id holiday, I happened to see my friend who aspired to become a businessman. A year later, I met him again, asking "Have you become a businessman", and he replied "Not yet. I don't have enough capital to start a business". However, he told me that he still aspired to become an businessman. On the following Id holiday, I met him again, and he had not become a businessman yet.

What my friend had aspired reminded me of the story of Abu Nawas, who said in front of  King Harun Al Rasyid that he would fly in spite of the fact that he had no wings or equipments. Hearing the remarks of Abu Nawas, the King said to himself, "Well this is my opportunity to defeat him". Then, the King said "Oh, what did you say?". "Your Majesty, if you make me a high stage, I will fly from the stage without any wings or any other equipments", replied Abu Nawas. "Well, I have to make you a high stage soon, and after the next Friday prayers, prepare yourself for flying", said the King . "I'm ready, Your Majesty", replied Abu Nawas. A week later, soon after finishing Friday prayers, people gathered in the square to see Abu Nawas , who would fly from a high stage. Soon after, the King arrived in the square, being hailed by his people, who then all approached Abu Nawas, who was waiting for them under the tower platform with the height of about 12 meters. "Are you ready, Abu?", said the King. "Yes, I am, Your Majesty", replied Abu Nawas. Then, Abu Nawas climbed up to the top of the high platform and stood up, being greeted with anticipation. The people muttered to themselves, "How Abu Nawas will fly from the stage without any wings or any other equipments, and if he falls, he must die". Furthermore, Abu Nawas kept on lifting one foot, replacing the one foot by lifting the other, swinging and waving his arms as a bird that will fly. Abu Nawas did such actions repeatedly, so the people became bored and annoyed to see what he was doing, and they impatiently shouted, "It is time you flew, Abu, as we heard you said that". "No, I will not because I did not say that but just said I will fly", claimed Abu Nawas. What we can infer from the story is that you will never be a businessman if you think to be a businessman but do nothing.

The law of starting a business is like the friction law of an object.  A still object tends to have a relatively greater  friction than a moving object. The greatest friction occurs when the object is about to move. Similarly, we have major obstacles when we are about to start a business, and after running the business, the obstacles get relatively smaller. The biggest obstacle occurs during the first day of running the business. A neighbor of mine once told me that before he began opening a shop, many people looked down on him by saying  that it would be impossible for him to succeed in running the shop because he did not have sufficient capital to do so. In fact,  they said nothing after he had managed to do so. That is the law of starting a business.

STARTING A BUSINESS BY REASON OF CONCERN

There are a lot of reasons to start a new business. One of them is because of the concern for the occurrence of environmental changing. Henri Nestlé, a German chemist who lived in Vevey Switzerland, was concerned about the high infant mortality rates in the late 19th century, precisely in Switzerland in 1866. Then, a few pharmacists were trained to begin carrying out  an experiment on various combinations of milk, flour, and sugar, in order to develop alternative sources of infant nutrition for mothers who were not able to breastfeed. Because of the concern, the business opportunity was created. Nestle eventually created "Farine Lactee", sumplementary food for the babies who did not get enough milk of their mothers. There were so many babies  who were saved by means of the food by then that Nestle was trusted by public.

Nestle's first customer was a premature baby who could not drink its mother's milk. After plenty babies had been saved by means of  Farine Lactee, Nestle could sell these products throughout Europe. Henri Nestlé also gave the initial understanding of the brand and ownership. He used his name, Nestle, for the symbol of the company. In 1874, Nestle began producing condensed milk. The product competed with condensed milk products from Anglo-Swiss firm. Then, Nestle produced chocolate milk products in 1875. A friend of Henri Nestlé, Peter, who was the leading chocolate manufacturer in the world, joined Nestle, and even the Anglo-Swiss, his main competitor, eventually also joined him 1905.

Quality is the philosophy of Nestle. Millions of people around the world have trusted Nestle products. Trust is the image of quality and reputation for high standards from year to year. Products, services, and customer contacts help form the image. Nestle is the product trademark which constitutes promises to customers, and its products which are safe for consumptions ,  and which are not conflict with the regulations, are in accordance with the high quality standards, and customers want it to keep its word every day.

Quality is a tool to increase competitive advantage. If the customers are not satisfied with the quality of Nestle products, they will leave and consume other brands. Therefore, Nestle gives awards to each category of products in markets where the other companies compete with each other. Quality is not a guarantee of success, but it is one way to achieve success. The competitive advantage in the long-term is the quality that has an optimum value in the minds of consumers, and high values can lead customers to satisfaction, which ultimately makes consumers remain loyal to its products.

Communities in the world have been impressed by the company with the motto "Good Food, Good Life" as a positioning strategy. The food company which was the greatest in the world in 2003 is the most admired company in the world with the 39th rank according to Fortune magazine.

STARTING A BUSINESS AFTER TRAVELING

Among successful entrepreneurs, Raymond Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s Corporation, got a good idea of starting a new business when traveling from his home near Chicago to southern California to see two biggest clients of his, the buyers of Prince Castle Multi Mixer (milk shaker instrument).

His client told him that in San Bernardino, there were restaurants that used machines to mix forty glasses of milk simultaneously while other restaurants were only able to mix five glasses of milk. Then, Kroc went to San Bernardino to see the restaurant. Arriving at the two gates of the golden arches of glittering restaurants, which lit up the sky at twilight, Kroc saw the queue of people winding like a snake outside the restaurant with its octagonal form.

Through the walls of the building made entirely of glass, Kroc saw that the male employees wearing paper hats and white uniforms at a very clean restaurant were busy serving burgers in a dish, fries and milk shakes to the families of the working class who arrived by car. “Something must have happened here. This must be the most amazing business operation I have ever seen, ” said Kroc to himself. The restaurant is owned by Maurice and Richard McDonald, who offers a menu of nine types of food, including burgers, fries, milk shakes, and pies by removing seats and paper utensils, glass instead of glass or porcelain. This restaurant is designed with a reliable service and is able to serve the orders less than one minute. “This is my future. I feel like a modern-day Newton” he said to himself.

Kroc was convinced that the operation of McDonald brothers could succeed if it was expanded. So the next day, he filed a proposal to the McDonald brothers. These brothers objected, because it sold franchises in Phoenix and Sacramento with low prices and did not get any profits. But, Kroc was a veteran salesman with thirty years experience, and finally he was able to convince Kroc McDonald brothers to sell franchises with a low price, which is 950 dollars. In return, the McDonald brothers would get 1.4% of all sales and 0.5% return. With approval in hand, Kroc began to fulfill his dream of McDonald’s restaurants that exploded from coast to coast. He started by building the first chain restaurant partnership with a model in Des Plaines, Illinois, outside Chicago, which used a low price strategy with the same, limited menu and fast service like a restaurant in San Bernardino. It was the first milestone of the success of McDonald Corporation, and the idea to build it was gained when Raymond Kroc was traveling.

DO NOT MAKE THE SCAPEGOAT IN BUSINESS

When people fail in opening and running a business, most of them tend to blame the environment, subordinates, competitors, all associated with the failure. We prefer making someone else the scapegoat to correcting ourselves by learning from the faults we have made, and then with hard work, we try to succeed in what we want to achieve. We can make use of a failure as a valuable lesson to see the positive side of the failure itself.

When Steve Jobs was thrown from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Apple, he did not blame the corporate environment, which he also co-founded. "Put all the power, and set up a new and more sophisticated company" said Steve Jobs, who just graduated from Homestead High School in Cupertino, California, and he only lasted one semester at the College of Oregon. Later, he founded the NextStep Inc. company. Besides, Steve Jobs bought Pixar from George Lucas in 1986. When running this animation studio, Jobs, with all of his assistants, was able to produce some software, including Reyes (Render Everything You Ever Saw), CAPS (with Disney), Marionette and the Ringmaster. With Marionette, animators can not only create models and characters, but also add optical effects and lighting. With Ringmaster, it is possible to manage computerized animation productions. Almost all of Pixar's software is an Academy Technical Award (Oscar) in the field of film making. Furthermore, Jobs, cooperation with Disney, successfully launched the Toy Story, which became the best-selling movie in 1995, and it was followed by Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters Inc. (2001), and Finding Nemo (2003) . The success of the films which were made by Pixar made Steve Jobs persuade Apple to acquire NeXTSTEP with the value of U.S. $ 400 million and appointed him as CEO ad interim. After successfully doing new business for the iPod and iTunes for its electronics consumers and for its retailers, Apple in Nasdaq could severely increase the income from U.S. $ 13 to U.S. $ 22 within 10 months until early February 2004, which made Steve Jobs CEO with the highest salary in California. Apple shares were (6.2%) and Pixar shares were (55%), which  made Steve Jobs had riches of U.S. $ 2.5 billion.

When Steve Jobs was deposed from the CEO, he was not offended against Apple, and he remained loyal to Apple, and even later on he was able to make Apple rise from adversity. Steve Jobs tried hard to establish new more sophisticated companies and did not blame the environment, or in other words, he did not make the environment the scapegoat.

FANTASY COMMUNITY

A fantasy community is a forum in which participants create an imagination environment. The customers of AOL (American Online) are provided with various facilities. The AOL of UK includes the latest news about celebrities, events around the UK, topics, and the best information. The AOL of France  provides holiday facilities in France for meeting someone before flying, planning to spend the night in Paris or in the desired place in France. The AOL of Germany provides facilities for easily meeting someone in the group @ aol, easy shopping, news and current reports. The AOL of Brazil provides  facilities for creating home pages for free, meeting Brazilian people through home pages, obtaining the best place to find love on-line in Brazil, getting news and links to the Brazilian football team. The AOL of Japan provides facilities for downloading the software of Japanese version. The AOL of Canada provides free upgrades through AOL 7.0. The AOL of Australia provides facilities for discovering the Great South Land, and you can get in touch with your Australian friends through the AOL. The AOL of  Mexico and Argentina provides facilities for downloading AIM (AOL Instant Messenger). Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and putting advertisements on this site.