Instellar, IKEA Social Entrepreneurship, and IKEA Indonesia teamed up in 2021 to create the Instellar & IKEA Social Entrepreneurship Indonesia Accelerator (I-SEA), a two-year programme that supports Indonesian social entrepreneurs to scale up their businesses and increase their impact.
To celebrate the mid-way point of the programme, the cohort of 10 selected social enterprises — Duitin, Greenie, Koinpack, Kulaku Indonesia, Liberty Society, Plépah, Qyos, Rumah Mocaf, Sustaination, and Westbike Messenger — gathered for a showcase event on 22-24 September 2022 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
During the three-day event, participants had the opportunity to meet with their fellow entrepreneurs in the programme and were joined by co-workers from IKEA Social Entrepreneurship, IKEA Indonesia, IKEA Purchasing and Logistic Area, and Instellar. The training and sharing sessions in this event focused primarily on expert business advice that will allow social enterprises to become more impactful and sustainable.
The I-SEA Showcase also marks the start of the Growth and Impact Hack stage of the I-SEA programme. Over the next six months, the social enterprises will join various Advanced Classes hosted by industry experts, and receive tailored mentoring sessions from both senior managers of IKEA and external mentors. Additionally, the enterprises will each receive a grant of Rp150.000.000,- (~USD 10,000) to support them in achieving their business goals.
The second day of the I-SEA Showcase saw the cohort engage in focus group discussions and personal sharing sessions. The I-SEA Cohort got the opportunity to discuss their Business Development Plan during Strategy Sessions with a thought partner, to discuss the social enterprises’ work progress and their plan to scale up their business and impact. Each enterprise was paired with two thought partners which included IKEA Sustainability Advisor Christoph Mathiesen, IKEA Coworker Engagement Leader Tina Molund, IKEA Social Entrepreneurship Communications Specialist Kim Humby, IKEA Indonesia Country Marketing Manager Dyah Fitrisally, IKEA Kota Baru Parahyangan Store Manager Diva Y. Margaret, IKEA Mall Taman Anggrek Store Manager Ellery Kwok, IKEA Group Global Project Partner Denny Risyad, IKEA Group Sustainability Developer Hasanoel Arifien, Chief Operating Officer Instellar Adisti Chandra, and Founder & Chief Executive Officer LODI Indonesia Yan Hendry Jauwena. This meant that each enterprise got two perspectives to sharpen their strategy, get advice on the challenges they had, and brainstorm relevant networks and connections.
After the Business Development Plan Strategy Sessions, the social entrepreneurs joined the IKEA Coworkers Sharing Session with Christoph Mathiesen, Tina Molund, Kim Humby, and Ellery Kwok where they shared more about the IKEA culture and values. Kim Humby explained that corporate culture is formed from the values that entrepreneurs and employees apply to their daily lives. IKEA's values are: togetherness, caring for people and planet, cost-consciousness, simplicity, renew and improve, different with a meaning, give and take responsibility, and lead by example. In addition, IKEA Mall Taman Anggrek Store Manager Ellery Kwok shared his experience in running retail business operations and how to measure business performance from various aspects, including sales, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction.
The last day of the I-SEA Showcase was filled with another Advanced Class: Wellbeing for Founders which was presented by Founder of The Golden Space Indonesia, Stephanie Hermawan. As an inspirational motivator and meditation expert, she shared on mental health and stress management. Social enterprise founders are prone to stress because they are under pressure to succeed in their businesses. The I-SEA Cohort learned about the causes of stress and effective ways to relieve stress.
This three-day event was a unique, fun and insightful gathering for the I-SEA Cohort and programme organisers, as everyone who joined the event were able to meet and network with the social enterprises in the programme and IKEA representatives.
“Working with the entrepreneurs here, it’s a whole new world opening up for me. I’ve worked in sustainability for many years. But working with social entrepreneurs is really inspiring and shows me a whole new way of doing social and environmental development, which is far beyond what we were doing in other sustainability projects,” said IKEA Sustainability Advisor Christoph Mathiesen who flew from Sweden with his coworkers for the I-SEA Showcase.
“I feel privileged to be involved in this programme, because this is a really good opportunity for me to meet these wonderful people. I am proud of what they have achieved and what they are going to achieve in the next level. And also, I really enjoy the process,” commented IKEA Indonesia Country Marketing Manager Dyah Fitrisally.
“I am very happy with the I-SEA programme! When we first drafted the proposal, our team put deep thoughts and intentions into how to create a sustainable programme for all of the cohorts. We want to bring something applicable and real for them. I also want to appreciate IKEA Social Entrepreneurship and the IKEA team for being great partners for this programme. We feel their intention and sincerity in helping social enterprises in Indonesia. We know that their purpose is to help social enterprises, and that is what makes us feel so great to work with IKEA Social Entrepreneurship and IKEA,” said Adisti Chandra, Chief Operating Officer of Instellar.
Further information about I-SEA can be accessed through the official website at isea.instellar.id and Instagram @iseaccelerator.