Dulu Tukar Baju Untuk Makan, Sekarang Jadi Bos 300 Karyawan & di Umrohkan Setiap Tahun

Business strategy & growth summary

Company/brand portfolio & footprint

• Runs a TB-TK group in the culinary space with multiple brands/outlets.
• Primary footprint: mostly Jogja, with expansion planned across Indonesia.
• Scale claim: 23 branches with ~30 outlets total
  • Most locations in Jogja
  • Also in Malang, Boyolali, Solo, and Depok (West Java)
  • Expansion planned into DKI Jakarta

Brands mentioned:

• Preku (ayam geprek + susu)
• Geprek Chicken
• Preku/Susu (various items)
• Pajero Meatballs (EMP)
• Jogja Donuts
• Fried Rice (TPK)
• Others referenced under the group’s culinary portfolio

Vision/mission framing

• Emphasizes “business as worship” and intentionality.
• Business success isn’t only measured by worldly outcomes; the afterlife intention is framed as central to decision-making.
• Positioning logic consistently connects faith + strategy + knowledge, rather than relying on blind execution.

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Operating model & “4 pillars” playbook

The four operational pillars

The operating model is organized around four pillars:

• Finance
• HR
• Operations
• Marketing

Key emphasis: these pillars must be prioritized. A common warning is:

• “Busy shop but no profit” usually indicates broken finance systems.

Finance system focus (process requirement)

Profit leakage causes highlighted include:

• Messy financial system
• Missing items
• Uncontrolled stock / overproduction
• Incorrect COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) calculation
• Wrong selling price / pricing errors, especially common among MSMEs

Operational KPI expectation:

• With a good system, issues should be detectable in ~1 hour (not after days/hours of manual checking).

Margin improvement lever during scale-up:

• Stock control and COGS validation are positioned as primary levers to improve margins.

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Market entry & product/positioning tactics (concrete examples)

Failure-driven learning loop: Juice for You cafe

• The first culinary venture (healthy juice + snacks) went bankrupt for ~1.5 years.
• Diagnosed errors:
  • Acting without sufficient business knowledge (e.g., bookkeeping and managing leftover goods)
  • The “hangout” model required large space to protect margin and quality; theirs was about ~3×3
  • Margins were too thin due to dependence on “hangout quantity” dynamics

Segmentation/targeting/positioning: Preku

• Segmentation: students, especially lower-middle-class students
• Value proposition inputs:
  • Cheap pricing + large portions
  • Flavor profile described as spicy-savory addictive; milk functions as a “neutralizer”
  • Rice refills included
  • Take-away friendliness and cheap convenience

Market validation approach:

• Started small and expected gradual growth, rather than an instant surge.

Early performance patterns (as described):

• Initial sales: about 20–30 portions
• Later growth patterns: 30–40, and sometimes 50–60 portions/month

Pandemic pivot strategy: Preku → Pajero Meatballs

• Problem: the student target market shrank by 50–60% during the pandemic while the employee count stayed high, causing cash coverage failure.
• Research-based pivot:
  • Used an online YouTube questionnaire: “5 favorite Indonesian foods”
  • Meatballs ranked ~60% preference among respondents (with satay/fried rice and similar items also present)
• Competitive analysis process:
  • Reviewed the top 10 meatball brands in Jogja
  • Mapped each brand’s strengths/weaknesses
  • Selected/combined gaps to build a “most complete” variant set
• Brand concept logic:
  • Pajero meatballs uses many kinds of offal (e.g., ribs/lungs/tripe/iso)
  • Positioned around completeness/variety

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Marketing & branch expansion playbooks

“Small storefront first” tactic

• Start with a small space because:
  • Small location + visible crowd creates curiosity
  • The crowd/visibility itself becomes marketing (“visibility & crowded impression = marketing”)
• Operational rule:
  • Avoid over-investing in new capacity too early.
  • Use crowd signals as demand validation.

Branch opening indicator (with readiness checks)

• When a location becomes overloaded and demand remains high:
  • That’s an indication to open a branch.
• Must still confirm capability:
  • Management readiness
  • Categorization/system readiness
  • Especially finance readiness

Franchise stance:

• The model avoids a “franchise” approach.
• Prefers partnership/cooperation with shared vision and control via internal rules.

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People/HR strategy & leadership during crisis

Pandemic employee retention

• Despite financial stress, they did not lay off employees.
• During survival mode:
  • Kept the team aligned through communication and shared risk decisions
  • Included examples like temporary salary reduction / work schedule adjustment to preserve runway
• Claim: management salaries increased later, up to ~3×, because leadership helped stabilize and scale through the pandemic.

Company culture as retention

Retention is framed beyond material compensation and includes:

• Functional value: consistent product quality/taste reliability
• Emotional value: stronger customer connection (e.g., memorizing customer names and personalized service)
• Spiritual value: shared values/vision
  • Including the “business as worship” frame and employee guidance practices

Operational motivation example:

• Special care events for meaningful employee life moments (e.g., help during childbirth-related occasions)

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Product development & R&D approach

R&D team + competency-building

• Builds an R&D/reset/product development team, not only relying on experienced cooks.
• Separates:
  • “talent idealists” vs practical market fit
• Core emphasis:
  • Meet HPP (cost-to-make) constraints while maintaining acceptability for the target segment.

Ingredient science approach

• Focuses on functions of spices and ingredient roles (e.g., savory, chewy, etc.)
• Studies techniques such as:
  • Heat level
  • Absorption
  • Timing
• The philosophy is not just copying recipes—it’s understanding mechanisms.

Validation philosophy

• “Delicious is a necessity, not a differentiator by opinion.”
• Product must be validated via market feedback.

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Key metrics & KPIs mentioned (explicit or numeric)

Scale metrics

• 23 branches
• ~30 outlets total (mostly in Jogja)

Sales/process metrics (early-stage examples)

• Preku initial sales: ~20–30 portions
• Growth patterns described: 30–40, later sometimes 50–60 portions/month

Market size / disruption

• Pandemic target-market drop: 50–60% reduction (in the Jogja student context)

Cost/process

• Startup raw material investment described: Rp 15 million
• Need to validate HPP, correct COGS, and pricing accuracy (no exact margin target % stated)

Operations/management cadence

• With a proper system, financial status should be known within ~1 hour

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Management/entrepreneurship frameworks & lessons distilled

Implicit frameworks used

• STP (Segmentation–Targeting–Positioning)
  • Explicit in Preku’s student targeting and low/middle-segment design
• Pilot-to-scale (test then expand)
  • Start small, validate demand, then open branches
• Four-pillar operating system
  • Finance → HR → Operations → Marketing
• Continuous improvement loop
  • Research → launch → measure (portions/market response) → pivot
• Competitive benchmarking
  • Analyze top competitors, extract strengths/weaknesses, then differentiate (e.g., completeness/variant design)

Risk and resilience

• Treat failure as learning.
• “Meaning” of outcomes is tied to intention and faith, but strategy and knowledge still drive decisions.
• During crisis:
  • prioritize cash runway by adjusting operations and cost structure, not only expanding.

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Presenter/source list

• Feri Admaja — owner/mandate holder of the TB-TK group; main narrator and strategist.