Sakti Wahyu Trenggono: Contributing to the Nation through Tower Business

Telecommunications is one of a few undertakings in the industrial sector undergoing rapid development in the aftermath of the 1997-1998 monetary crisis. Following the government’s abolition of the monopolistic system, this sector has continued to undergo significant changes from one year to the next.

Sakti Wahyu Trenggono considers the changes in regulation offer very promising business opportunities. He feels that a telecommunications industry open to competition will boom, in terms of both the number of customers and the number of operators offering telecommunications services. “Experience has shown that the development of technology, particularly information technology and telecommunications, serves as the main trigger for the economic growth of a country,” he said.

In addition, he believes that the development of the telecommunications industry will bring in huge investments to this country. “As a patriot, I try to tap this opportunity. Otherwise, the opportunity will go to foreigners. And once again, we will end up being a nation of laborers,” he said.

With this principle in mind, Sakti, who was born in Semarang on Nov. 3, 1962, and two of his colleagues set up PT Solusindo Kreasi Pratama (SKP) in 1999. Initially, their core business was selling telecommunications equipment and information technology, SKP being the marketing agent for the products of Lucent Technologies as well as being agents for a number of telecommunications products from Japanese and Korean manufacturers.

Information technology and telecommunications are nothing new to Sakti. As well as being a graduate of Informatics Management from Bina Nusantar University, he also spent six years in the information technology division of PT Federal Motor (now PT Astra Honda Motor.) His last position in this company was the MIS and Corporate Strategy Manager.

Given the aggressiveness of telecommunications operators in developing their networks, Sakti finally decided to turn the direction of his business to the leasing of a Base Transreceiver Station (BTS) called Indonesian Tower. He said that in expanding their networks, telecommunications operators would surely need a BTS tower. “In advanced countries, operators no longer build towers but resort to a transfer of power. Well, we wanted to develop this new industry in Indonesia,” he said.

Assisted by nine employees, Sakti began to offer his services to operators. Initially he did not get an enthusiastic response.were not discouraged. We believed that if we continued to focus on this line of business, we would be successful as the trend in advanced countries showed that the competition was no longer concerned with coverage. Coverage was left to the company leasing the tower,” he said.

Besides offering efficiency, he said, his business also helps maintain aphysical beauty. If every operator was to set up its own BTS tower, particularly in major cities, there would be a forest of towers.this would not be good,” he noted.

Today, Sakti, who is an avid golfer, is able to sit back and enjoy the fruit of his hard work. He claims that Indonesian Tower is a market leader among tower-leasing companies. He now owns no fewer than 700 towers in 21 provinces and all are leased to telecommunications operators in Indonesia.

Despite his success in this particular business, Sakti is not smug. There are still a lot of things for him to do in terms of his duties and responsibility as a citizen.profit I reap from this business will be invested to contribute bigger benefits to this nation,” he said.

One of his contributions to the nation is to develop the telecommunications equipment industry. Sakti said that at present, SKP was engaged in research and development for Wimax equipment. He has spent quite a lot of money on this project. “We have made the prototype and, thank God, Malaysia has placed an order. We have presented a demo of this product and are now waiting their review,” he said.

It is expected that the process of turning out this product will be completed before the end of 2007.would like to prove that Indonesians can also make a sophisticated product,” he said. Later, this product will be marketed not just in Indonesia but in other neighboring countries. “We hope to be able to enter the ASEAN market,” he noted.

In leading the company, Sakti, a father of three, strongly adheres to his principle.professional, create competency and do this in the interest of contributing to the nation,” he stressed.

He tries to spread this principle among his employees, now numbering about 200 people. “This is not an easy job and indeed, there is a special art in this regard,” he said.key is that we must be supported by good human resources,” he said.

Sakti said he was grateful to God for having worked for Astra as he had learned a lot about corporate management there. “Astra is a large private company capable of educating its human resources so that they may play an active role and be professional. I admit Astra has influenced my leadership style,” he said.

“My main goal today is how to produce Indonesian Tower human resources as unique and creative human beings always in search of and mastering competence,” he said. “And, thank God, the road toward this end has begun to be visible,” he added. (T. Hidayat)

The Jakarta Post, October 10, 2007