Hilman Akil

Prestige Magazine – Indonesia October 2006

Hilman Akil interview by Chris Hanrahan

People typically idolise a movie star or a pop singer-or perhaps a sports champion. Hilman Akil is different. The person who inspired him is one of the world's most charismatic entrepreneurs: Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of the Virgin brand, which includes Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Hilman Akil became fascinated with Branson after wandering into the huge Virgin Records Megastore on the Champs Elysees in Paris. He was so impressed by what he saw that he decided to find out more about the British entrepreneur, who was still a teenager when he launched a magazine that secured a circulation of 50,000 and went on to open his first record shop-in Oxford Street, London-at the age of 20.

"I learned about entrepreneurship from the Branson values and I have modelled myself upon him," says Hilman, who has been elected as the next President of the Indonesia Chapter of the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO), a global community of business owners running companies that exceed US$1 million in revenue. The Branson values, as spelled out by the entrepreneur in his latest book, Screw It, Let's Do It, include "Stand on your own feet", "Think yes, not no" and "Live life to the full".

Hilman Akil certainly believes he lives life to the full. He and his business partners have already started more than 10 new businesses, the latest of which offers secure messaging and other information and communication technology (ICT) services to corporate clients. As if this were not enough to keep him busy, Hilman also takes on short-term assignments for the Asian Development Bank as an ICT expert and Project Management. "I'm going to Oman in November," he says. "I'm looking forward to it because I've not been there before."

But Hilman Akil is by no means an "all work, no play" dull boy. He enjoys reading, travelling, sailing, diving with his speciality on deep diving, and mountaineering with his present summit record at 6119 meter above sea level, and "walking under the sun at the seaside while listening to music". He also has a happy family life. He and his wife Linda have two daughters, Sheila Charissa and Nadira Clarrisa.

Unlike his hero, who left school when he was 16, Hilman has a very strong educational background. He was born in Bandung, where his father was a manager at a tea plantation before he retired. Hilman is the eldest of six children and the only son in the family. One of his sisters is an entrepreneur and another is a university lecturer.

In spite of his obvious aptitude, Hilman insists that he was an average student at school in Bandung. "Perhaps I spent too much time playing and managing softball team instead of studying," he grins. He was also a student radio presenter, practiced Merpati Putih martial arts, and was a member of the school swimming team.

Average student or not, Hilman Akil gained a place at the highly respected Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). He received a Bachelor's degree in 1985 and a Master degree in engineering physics the following year. While studying at ITB, he worked as an assistant in the acoustics laboratory and as an instructor in the Computer Science and Information System Center.

After graduation, Hilman moved to Jakarta and worked at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for a while. He then joined the Center for Policy and Implementation Studies, an independent institute that advises the Indonesian government on ways to improve policy formulation and programme implementation.

Although he says modestly that he was "lucky" to obtain the educational opportunities he has had, Hilman's brilliance clearly impressed his superiors during this period. "My supervisor (Marguerite Robinson, a Harvard University professor) said that I should some experience overseas," he recalls. "I wanted to study abroad, but I didn't have enough money. Professor Robinson recommended that I try to get a scholarship."

Hilman Akil goes on: "At that point, I was not thinking about becoming an entrepreneur. I wanted to learn about the culture of the United States and to see different places there. Most Indonesians who go to the US to study just stay in one place-Boston or Los Angeles usually. Then, after getting their degree, they come back home."

He persisted in applying for scholarships until he finally obtained one to study at The Economics Institute at the University of Colorado in 1990. But he did not stay in Boulder for long. The following year, he joined the Program on Investment Appraisal and Management at Harvard University. In 1992, he studied Technology and Environment Policy and gained a Master's degree from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York. He then became a fellow at the Center for Advanced Engineering Studies at the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Hilman's education was by no means over that this point. He gained a Chevening Award, the British Government's most prestigious scholarship for foreign students, to take the Advanced Management Programme at Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford in 1994. The following year, he gained a European Union Fellowship.

He applied successful to the Erasmus programme, which supports the academic mobility of higher education students within the European Union. "I chose France as a place to study because I had studied French at ITB," says Hilman, who also speaks some German. He studied for a year in France and Belgium, finally completing his education at the age of 33.

Hilman Akil decided to stay on in France and, owing to his impressive educational credentials and acumen, top employers were soon queuing up to hire him. He spent two years with an engineering company based in the Fontenay area of Paris, which sent him on projects in Morocco, Spain and Greece. Hilman worked as a telemetric engineer for oil-pipeline monitoring and control systems.

"I enjoyed that period," says Hilman. "I liked travelling and making friends of all nationalities. I wanted to know the whole world, not just one country and one culture. One day I met Jean Perrin, a Frenchman from the tribe called entrepreneur, and what he told me had a profound effect on my outlook. He pointed out that whereas professional career paths were once more certain, today nothing is sure and life is one long struggle. You have to make choices if you are to get anywhere."

Hilman's choice was to take charge of his own future by becoming an entrepreneur. This decision, and the fact that his wife was becoming tired of travelling around with him (they had got married in 1990), brought him back to Indonesia in 1996. He founded e-Infotronix, an outsourcing ICT services company for oil and gas companies like Conoco-Phillips. He later sold e-Infotronix.

"I believe in building a new business from zero and giving 100 percent involvement during the start-up phase," he explains. "Once the business is running well, I usually get bored with it and want to start something else. So I typically reduce my stake from 51 percent to between 10 percent and 20 percent, and delegate the ongoing operations to the new management.

"Some of the businesses I have started are doing well, others not so well. My priority in being an entrepreneur is not to get rich, but to have different experiences in life. As Richard Branson says: 'Enjoy the moment and the money will come'."

Hilman's latest venture, IT Audit company, focuses on professional IT service solutions, including secure messaging, and electronic data interchange for traders. One of the services the group provides is IT system auditing for multinational companies, banks and government departments. "They basically challenge us to try to break into their IT systems," says Hilman, who works with a group of consultants from Australia and other countries on such projects.

"The idea is to find out where the weaknesses are in the clients' systems. The consultants we use are top-ranked underground hackers-although they are officially called certified information systems auditors-and they are very clever at what they do. The best hackers come from eastern Europe."

Hilman Akil has been involved with EO since 1998 when he became a founder member of the Indonesia Chapter. "The value of being in EO is that you have the opportunity to meet with other entrepreneurs and learn from them," he notes. "This was particularly important to me at the beginning, as we were all looking for opportunities out of the financial crisis."

Membership of EO is by invitation only. The Indonesia Chapter has 40 members ranging in age from 25 to 45. Industries represented include food and beverage, retail, sports and fitness services, chemicals, cosmetics, computer services, machinery, real estate, and apparel and accessories.

"My goals as President of EO Indonesia are to engage all members to learn and grow," says Hilman. "I want to have more learning events and to encourage more interaction among members. I also want to introduce EO to the entrepreneur communities in Indonesia. EO gives is members the confidence, context and content that enable them to be successful entrepreneurs."

(ends)