Getting to know the CEO of HMNS, a Geology graduate who became a perfume entrepreneur after rejecting Freeport

KotabumiNews - Rizky Arief Dwi Prakoso was chosen by Tempo.co to be an inspiring young businessman from the marketing innovation category. The founder and CEO of a perfume company called HMNS has an educational background that is much different from the business he is currently in.

The man who was born in October 1994 is a geological engineering graduate from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). However, at the end of his education period, Rizky had already cultivated his dream as an entrepreneur after witnessing his seniors fall in the mining industry due to termination of employment or layoffs.

Graduating from college with a 3.54 GPA, Rizky, who originally wanted to become a geologist, suddenly turned around. Choose an internship at PT Brodo Ganesha Indonesia as a copy writer. At Yukka Harlanda's company, Rizky is new to the business from upstream to downstream.

His seriousness in the business world led him to climb the career ladder. In January 2017, he was appointed as Management Trainee and Content Marketing Brodo. But at the same time, Rizky received an offer to work at PT Freeport Indonesia for the position of a geologist—a vacancy he applied for a long time ago.

Before deciding on his career path, Rizky consulted 30 people. They are Rizky's family and close friends. Of the 30 people, 28 suggested Rizky to take Freeport's offer.

Only two people gave his blessing to continue his career at Brodo. The two people are Amron Naibaho and Karina Innandindya--Amron is now the Chief Operating Officer of HMNS and Karina is the Chief of Product of HMNS. "So actually I need the voices of these two people to justify the decision."

Rizky finally chose to lead in Brodo. Eight months later, he was appointed CEO of NAH Project in 2017. NAH Project is Brodo's sister company. The company's men's shoe products have been eyed by President Joko Widodo alias Jokowi. Jokowi wore NAH Project shoes on several occasions.

One year and two months as a skipper at NAH, Rizky decided to quit. He wants to lead a company whose product he is a midwife: HMNS. Armed with a savings of Rp 20 million, Rizky invited Amron and Karina to establish a perfume company which he named HMNS or read humans. For 6 months he studied with many perfumers until finally he studied with one of the senior perfumers from Bandung named Agil Usman.

After getting customers and growing his business, Rizky decided to bring HMNS from home production to the four-floor office he rented in the Trio building in Kebon Sirih, Jakarta. But its turnover had fallen by 50 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the strategy of caring for the community, HMNS's business has accelerated. The company's turnover grew by around 1,000 percent just a year after the company was born, namely in 2020. Even though at that time the pandemic struck.

The sales trend also continues to move in a positive direction. In 2021, HMNS scored a turnover growth of 100 to 200 percent. "Now it's still 100 percent," said Rizky. “The net profit is also quite equivalent.”

For more than two months the editorial team turned on the radar to collect inspirational names that deserve to be raised in profile. At the end of the selection process, we selected four young entrepreneurs from four categories. The categories are e-commerce and retail, onboarding or upgrading, marketing innovation, and the financial industry. The progress of these young businessmen is assessed from various indicators, such as those under 35 years old, their business innovation, their business capital from zero, to their positive impact on the wider community.