INSPIRED BY THE DIFFICULTY IN FINDING 24 HOURS PHARMACY

There is a will, there is a way. This old quote motivates dr. Gideon Hartono, the owner of Apotek K-24, to be successful. Gideon was born as the fifth child from seven siblings in a poor family. His parents were mochi and red rice flour peddlers that walked from Yogyakarta to Klaten, which is 45 KM in distance, “To eat daily meal was hard. We had to pray every night so that tomorrow we would have something to eat,” Gideon reminded of his past.

The daily life of little Gideon is to weigh the ingredients for the mochi because of the price of mochi ingredients were unstable. Therefore, so that the mochi price did not rise, the ingredients should be weighed well. When he was in junior high school, Gideon helped his parents to sell red rice flour in Klaten by himself. After entered high school at SMA Kolese de Britto, Gideon willingly coordinated his friends to sell snacks to the new students. The bitter life when he was young caused Gideon to wish to be a doctor. He hoped that by being a doctor, he could help his family’s economic condition. Gideon actually wanted to register for medical faculty in Jakarta or Bandung, but the economy condition of his family did not allow it. His parents were not able to support Gideon’s life in big cities. “That is why I picked medical faculty in Yogyakarta,” he said.

Because of his strong will, on the selection form he just filled out one major, “I emptied two other majors and I only picked medical as my major”, said Gideon. “At that time my tears fell down,” After graduating from school in 1990, he was interested to be an ophthalmologist. Unfortunately, the regiment of New Order cut the chance for Chinese descendants to improve. “At that time, mixed race citizen were prohibited to have special talent. I failed the test twice,” he said. Gideon then became a doctor at Puskesmas Gondokusuman II, Yogyakarta. “I served beggars, peddlers, and pedicab riders,”

The idea to establish a pharmacy came up when one night, he needed certain medicine but it was hard to find because there were no open pharmacies. Because of it, dr. Gideon wished to have pharmacy that opens for 24 hours with complete medicine. “The capital was about RP. 400 millions. Some of them were my savings from photography competition I joined before,” he said. Before opening his first pharmacy, Gideon did not do any market research. He did not even think about whether his pharmacy to be welcomed or not by the customers. He just had strong will, “I did not have economy background. I learnt management business from books,’ Gideon added.

After that, a pharmacy that opens for 24 hours named Komplet-24 (K-24) had finally launched in 2002. Komplet means complete and 24 refers to its opening hours. He created pharmacy logo by combining three colors that represent the diversity of tribes and cultures in Indonesia. “Green represents moslem people,  while red represents Christian people, and yellow represents Tionghoa people,” said Gideon. Actually, in his journey, people accepted the existence of Apotek K-24. Since its first opening on 24 october 2002 at Jl. Magelang, Yogyakarta, the number of investors kept increasing. The success of the first pharmacy motivated Gideon to open more branches in other places. On 2003, Gideon added two more outlets of Apotek K-24 at Jl. Gejayan and Jl. Kaliurang. The next two years, exactly on 24 February 2005, he started to spread the wings to Semarang. “At that time, everything has been franchised,” he stated. Gideon said that he did not think that the market potential for pharmacy in Yogyakarta and Semarang was that high. It could be seen from the revenue of each outlet that kept increasing. Right now, each outlet succeeds to hold transaction for 350 to 500 items each month with selling price in between Rp. 250 million to Rp. 350 million.

Even so, at that time Gideon did not want to be greedy in taking profit from the medicine he sold. Actually, he could eat up to 40% of the revenue. “I just took 17% to 25% profit. The rest of it can be enjoyed by the customers,” said Gideon.

Gideon also said that the business location of several Apotek K-24 outlets were still rented for 3 to 6 years with rental price between Rp. 17 million to Rp. 40 million per year. However, the choice of location is very selective. At least, he had to know the owner in person. In the agreement, he applied a clause that stated if the contract cannot be extended, that place cannot be used for the same business. “If they do not agree with this clause, we back down. It is not a good intention,” said Gideon. In order to be the franchisee of Apotek K-24, investors should invest about Rp. 300 million to Rp. 600 million. The potential franchisee who had pharmacy business, but failing, can join K-24 chain. Obviously, their needed budget is lower than those who are just started. Right now, Apotek K-24 has reached 115 outlets in Indonesia and there are about 80 potential investors who are about to join. That is why, by the end of 2009, Gideon targets Apotek K-24 to increase up to 150 outlets. For Gideon, this success did not come out of nowhere. Gideon, as a person who has science background, uniquely formulized his theory of success, “Theory of success is f(x)=d.c.b.a. D is prayer, c is goal, b is effort, a is facility. If one of those factors is none, just try to multiply it. The result will be zero,” he said while smiling.