Habibie's Octopus Family Business

At the national business scene, the family name of former president BJ Habibie was not too loud sound. But who would have thought, now his business empire continues to grow. Under the command of Ilham Akbar Habibie, the eldest son of the couple Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie and Hasri Ainun, PT Ilthabi Rekatama (IR) that was founded in 1991 showed tajinya increasingly in the international business.

Ilham recently joined IR in 2002 after he reluctantly had to leave the PT Dirgantara Indonesia (DI) - d / h PT Nusantara Aircraft Industry. At that time, Ilham who served as Director of Commercial DI is conducting research to increase the number of its product portfolio. "At least, DI has been successfully delivering products and has been used," he said. But unfortunately, the project should be stopped because there is an agreement between the government and the International Monetary Fund.

Apart from DI, Ilham decided swerved and IR flag. He said the decision to plunge into the family business not because her sister, Thareq, want to release control of the company with a variety of reasons. "Virtually no other choice for families," he said with a laugh.

However, the father of three children are very aware that he was not overly dominate the world of business. So, he decided to gain knowledge in the management of Chicago Booth School of Business (d / h Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago) Singapore Campus.

As he continued his education, Ilham initiate steps to be entrepreneurs. Nobel Ph.D with summa cum laude from the Technical University of Munich, Germany is starting to fix the family company that previously did not managed properly. The focus of the company that formerly divided into manufacturing, services and property began kuangan reorganized. "Initially we also deals in property, but we eventually leave," he said. "Our main focus point to three areas, namely natural resources, manufacturing and technology," he said.

In the mining business, IR has a Sound Oil. Moreover, it also has a coal mining company that has not been the production of, namely PT Ilthabi Bara Utama. The company has a concession in East Kalimantan, an area of ​​35 thousand ha which overall is expected to produce 3.3 billion tons of coal. However, the company recently sold to Bayan Resource. "Now, we are developing coal bed methane business as an energy alternative," said Ilham.

In manufacturing, business IR focus on the business of casting and cooling. IR has a fabrication to casting, the production of radiators, cooling systems engineering (for refrigeration and klimatisasi). Meanwhile, in the field of information technology, currently managing IR www.orbit-digital.com website which is a continuation of Orbit magazine published by the (late) Hasri Ainun Habibie. "Part of the effort we developed with partners," said Ilham without mentioning willing partners.

In addition to these three areas, in fact IR is also managing the corporate financial services, namely insurance Wuwungan. According to Ilham, the company will be retained because it was the first attempt which was built by his family. In addition, also a joint venture between Habibie families with relatives.

Men who also served as Chairman of the Presidium of the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals mentions that he was quite satisfied with the development of the Group Ilthabi managed. He will continue to strive to improve the welfare of approximately two thousand workers who take shelter under Ilthabi Group. Thus, Ilham will continue to do business development for the business group later became a well respected business group in the country. "One of the center we have developed is the herb business," he said.

Ilham said, one of his obsession is to increase local value added in Indonesia, local technology levels, and create more jobs. According to him, Indonesia's domestic market is very large, and should have a more dominant nasionallah companies in Indonesia market. "We are active in manufacturing because we believe that we need dihilirisasi SDA and it needs the technology and manufacturing," said the man who had a career in this Boeing Aircraft Company.

In the eyes Rhenald Kasali, management analysts, children Habibie high school, they were smart kid who has a doctorate. However, those people who are very sterile and not someone who grew up in the field. Not people who are faced with a situation of market competition is tight to get the order. "If ever they get into the business world, they will enter into a business that is stable and well managed," said Rhenald commented