Unpad – Ibu Popon Collaboration; A Best Practice in Sustainable Assistance Model for Social Entrepreneurship in Agro-industrial Based SME's

Ibu Popon is an Agro-industrial based small and medium-scale enterprises in Majalengka West-Java Indonesia. This enterprise began to be assisted by Unpad for seven years since its establishment in 2007 and initially built as supporting unit of a Pesantren (Islamic Boarding School) and was not projected as a professionally conducted commercial enterprise. Since conducting the assistance process, Ibu Popon has been able to prove that the persistent assistance to small and medium enterprises had generated value added processes through various sequences including created many benefits in various dimensions. The University assistance process had significantly exaggerated the business development and its community through the years. The persistent and sustainable process had significantly affect to the gradual improvement of its business and surrounding community such as in social life quality, women-based empowerment, involving students in entrepreneurship athsmosfer, appropriate technology utilization, partnerships and networks elaboration and becoming the locomotive of local fruits commodity. These processes were capable in forming Ibu Popon's social enterprise to have valuable social entrepreneur characteristics such as high empathy, focus on the community, bridging social problems, community transformation mediator, able to develop systematic approach in improving its business, high passion in its business activities, comprehend problems as opportunities, able to provide creative solutions and generate suitable business logic which leads to the ability in creating benefits and continuous innovation process. Some stages in developing Ibu Popon's business were started in increasing self and surrounding community awareness, business development, knowledge transfer, technology transfer, triple helix network elaboration, product development and generate various business based on Ibu Popon's social entrepreneurship capability. At this time Ibu Popon has succeeded in involving various parties which linking upstream and downstream in fruits commodities stakeholders which leads Ibu Popon to be able raise added value to the local fruit commodities. From this sustainable assistance practice can be concluded as a best practice model for the improvement of the agro-based social entrepreneurship.