Bekerja dengan Musuh? (Working with the Enemy?)

(For English, scroll down)


Sebenarnya saya kurang suka menggunakan kata "musuh" tapi maksud saya hanya menarik perhatian anda.  Sekarang anda sudah mulai baca, mungkin sebenarnya dia bukan seorang musuh... tapi memang kami punya cerita menarik bersama.


Kami berdua bekerja dalam satu firma ActionCOACH bersama dan setelah beberapa tahun, kami memilih untuk mendirikan sebuah firma ActionCOACH yang lain dan lebih independent.  Sebenarnya dia yang keluar dulu dan karena saya suka bekerja dengannya dan menghormati kemampuan bisnisnya, saya meminta dia untuk menjadi partner.  Dia setuju dan kami mulai membangun mimpi bersama untuk memperluas franchise ActionCOACH di daerah baru.


Selama ini, ActionCOACH hanya terpusat di daerah CBD dan kini kami ingin membangun tempat yang lebih dekat ke warga barat & selatan.  Maka itu kami memilih kantor di Bellezza Permata Hijau.


Satu minggu sebelum renovasi selesai, dia memberitahukan saya bahwa dia sudah memutuskan untuk keluar dari ActionCOACH dan membangun brand Business Coaching baru.  Dan dia menawarkan untuk  mengembalikan seluruh investasi saya supaya saya bisa kembali menjadi Coach di firma yang lama.


Wow!  Berita yang cukup mengagetkan!! Tapi karena saya mau tetap menekuni impian saya menjadi pengusaha, saya tidak mau kembali ke firma lama.  Dia setuju untuk menjadi pemegang saham minoritas dan saya tidak ada share di bisnis dia yang baru.  Kami memutuskan untuk sementara menjalankan kedua bisnis kami di kantor yang sama.


Dalam 1 tahun kedepan, kami berbagi kantor, team admin, dan ruang sales.  Kami melakukan coaching di kantor yang sama dengan dua brand yang beda.  Memang agak aneh sih.  Ada beberapa client yang dia ambil dan tentunya dia harus menjelaskan kenapa dia keluar dari ActionCOACH dan kenapa brand dia akan lebih baik.  Sebetulnya saya tahu dia melakukan ini karena memang dia perlu membangun nama, tapi memang agak sedikit menyebalkan kalau saya mengingat cara dia merendahkan nama ActionCOACH didepan team dan client2nya.  Padahal saya merasa kalau dulunya tidak pernah ada ActionCOACH, mungkin sekarang juga dia tidak bisa seperti ini.  Ada beberapa saat saya coba menegur dia, tapi yah gimana .... sepertinya memang sesuatu hal yang natural untuk orang yang baru mengobarkan bendera sendiri.


Memang sebuah pengalaman yang menarik dan mendidik.  Saya belajar bagaimana rasanya bekerja dengan orang yang beda visi dan budaya.  Saya belajar bahwa bisnis dan personal harus dipisah.  Kalau tidak, kita bisa sakit mental dan relasi terganggu.  Terus terang dari pengalaman ini saya menjadi lebih dewasa.  Dan saya tetap bersyukur atas intensinya yang baik dan juga cara kami berdua mencoba menjaga persahabatan kami.


Seperti janji saya di awal membuat blog ini, saya akan ceritakan beberapa pengalaman demi berbagi pelajaran untuk Anda, para pengusaha.  Semoga cerita ini di ambil makna positifnya dan semoga anda juga dapat menemukan ilham yang membuat anda berkembang lebih pesat lagi.


(English)

I hate using the word “enemy” but I thought it would catch your attention.  Now that you’re reading this, he wasn’t really the enemy.  But we did have an interesting story together.

We were both coaches in the original ActionCOACH firm and we both had the idea to go independent.  Actually, he exited first and since I liked working with him and I respect his business savvy, I approached him to become partners.  He accepted and that’s when we started building our dream to create our own firm as part of the ActionCOACH franchise. 

So far ActionCOACH in Jakarta has been centralized in the CBD area and we wanted our office to be a branch that is more easily accessible for the west and south area. Hence, we picked the Bellezza office towers. 

One week towards the end of the renovations, my partner told me that he was creating his own brand and will plan to leave ActionCOACH.  He asked me if I wanted him to return all my money so I can go back to being a Coach in the old firm or start on my own else where.

Wow, what news! But I wasn’t going to turn back and postpone my entrepreneur dream.  We’ve already got an office almost done, and so I decided to proceed.  He became a minor shareholder and we decided to share the office together.  I had no share in his new business.

In the next 1 year, we had our sales & administrative team together.  We shared the office space while selling two different brands.  We coached in two different rooms next to each other.  I used the ActionCOACH system while he used his new system. 

It was weird how we went on like this.  He took his clients with him and, as with any new brand, had to tell people why his brand would be better than his old brand.  I am grateful for how he still had positive intentions towards supporting me in my business, but over a period of time, it was only natural that we were going separate directions.  It wasn’t anyone’s fault, but just a natural thing to happen when you have different companies doing the same thing.  And we were sharing an office.

There were times when I felt annoyed when he seemed to put down the ActionCOACH brand in front of his clients, his team, and me.  I felt, “Hey, this is the brand that helped you be who you are now.”  I felt that he could have been more wise about it and I tried to suggest this to him.  But again, now I look back and find that is a natural thing to have happened. I know that despite what he had to do to build his business, he still tried to be supportive.

But this experience really made me grow.  Now I have gone through the phase of sharing a place with someone on a different mission.  And I know now the importance of a unified vision & values in a business. It also taught me that business is just a game.  Nothing personal!  Keep the business separate from the friendship, or else it would ruin one’s personal health. 

Until today, I am grateful for the experience and am still grateful for the way we both tried to protect the friendship. 




As I promised you at the beginning of creating this blog, I will share experiences which has given me life and business lessons.  I hope you take this story positively and also get some insights which will help you grow and accelerate your business faster.