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Annual Report 2013
The key to the success of the SME training scheme was the presence of committed local trainers who were able
to adapt and socialize well within the local batik community. The leading organizations behind CBI had learned
the lesson through earlier programs that it is necessary to involve locals in order to be accepted and welcomed
by conservative and traditionally orientated villagers. Therefore, it was important for CBI to optimize the local
human resources in order to enhance the program’s impacts. Special attention was paid to the Trainings of
Trainers (TOT) to build and improve local competencies.
With its fully qualified team of CBI experts, local technical consultants and external specialists, CBI was able to
assist all participating batik SMEs after the batik workshop owners or their representatives had attended the
relevant workshops. The SMEs received on average eight personalized half-day coaching sessions in order to
identify individual hot-spots for assistance to improve their production workshop, and to set up their production
in a more environmentally-friendly way.
As an integrated program that promotes a sustainable batik production process, CBI recognized the importance of
addressing production and consumption simultaneously in order to achieve its goals. Sustainable production and
consumption can be seen as two sides of the same coin. These two elements complement and mutually reinforce
each other. Therefore, CBI paid particular attention to the promotion and awareness aspects of the program.
Sustainable Consumption
CBI’s Sustainable Consumption (SC) component aimed to promote the trade of clean batik and improve consumers’
consumption behaviours and patterns in general. Activities in the SC component included marketing training for
multiplier organizations, marketing workshops for SMEs, public awareness campaigns, business matchmaking,
online marketing and domestic and international trade fair promotion.
The CBI marketing team followed the successful strategy
of the SP component and conducted Training of Trainers
seminars on marketing at the beginning. These trainings
again targeted multiplier organizations, government
institutions, and associations and were conducted
three times, each for three days. The training content
was developed taking into account the results of a
survey conducted by CBI that involved the first batch of
participating SMEs. The assessment identified urgent needs
in the fields of General Marketing Concept, Price and Negotiation, Exhibition, Promotion, and Product and Design.
The lack of creativity or self-confidence to create new designs or original batik motifs encouraged CBI to extend
the technical training and production component by an additional module: Workshop for Product and Design
Development for SMEs. Thanks to the strong network CBI had developed over the time, several well-known
Indonesian designers provided their support to the initiative. Together with commercially successful designers,
CBI conducted 11 workshops related to product development and finishing, and the result was a beautiful batik
shawl collection as well as a breathtaking EcoBatik Signature Collection of 42 pieces—a ready to wear fashion
line in which all the batik fabric was contributed by CBI-supported SMEs. The shawl collection and the EcoBatik
Signature Collection proved to be the centre of attention at all exhibitions and events.
During regular evaluation visits and needs assessments, CBI realized that most of the participating SMEs had no
clear idea about marketing and promotion as they mostly relied on only a few wholesalers and had very little
contact with the end consumers. This changed significantly after CBI conducted 16 three-day Marketing Seminars
for SMEs across six provinces in Indonesia. These seminars were very sought after and always in high demand. The
attractive part of the overall marketing training was that the program gave participating SMEs the opportunity to
practise their sales and marketing skills “live” during trade fairs and exhibitions coordinated and organized by CBI.
CBI always paid attention that provinces were evenly represented during the events and that as many different
SMEs as possible were able to benefit from the activities offered.
During the four years of the program, CBI succeeded in participating in eight international promotion events.
Especially notable were the presentation of the EcoBatik Signature Collection at ITB Berlin, Germany; CBI’s
participation in the 14
th
Singapore Gift and Premium Fair; and CBI’s best sales event was the 76
th
Tokyo International
Gift Show in Japan.
