Measure The Micro Finance Institution Performance

Introduction
Micro Finance Institution is an institution that provide several services to the people specially in poverty reduction. In measuring the management performance, micro finance institution focus on two options: Financial Indicators and Outreach. For financial indicator includes portfolio quality, leverage, capital adequacy ratio, productivity, efficiency, profitability, and financial viability. Whereas for outreach indicator includes client performance, customer performance and deposit performance.
 
Measuring The MFI Performance
The indicator that used to measure the micro finance institution usually in six areas that have a benefit for the management and external party, there are:

Portfolio Quality
This indicator provides the information about asset percentage where unproductivity assets can reduce an income and liquidity position in micro finance institution. There are kinds of ratio which used to measure quality of portfolio and providing the information related to portfolio. The ratios are Repayment Rate, Portfolio Quality Ratios, and Loan Loss Ratios.

Productivity and Efficiency
This indicator shows the activity of MFI, how they act as great management condition and performance. There are several ratios to measure the productivity of MFI, Ratio of active loan amount per credit part, Ratio of loan portfolio position per credit part, and Ratio of total payment in period per credit part, Ratio Deposits per saving, Ratio the number of saver per saving amount etc.
In other side, Efficiency ratio measure how much the cost out flow while providing the financing services in order to get profits. There is a ratio can be used to look at the efficiency: Operating cost Ratio.

Financial Viability
Financial viability refers to an ability of micro finance institution in covering all expenses thought an income that has been got. It can be measured by independent operational, MFI doesn't need any donator for subsidy their operational. There are two types of financial viability: Enough in operational and financial.

Profitability
In case of measuring the net income of MFI, when tend to used profitability indicator that look forward to the balance sheet structure. Profitability ratio helps investor and manager to know whether they own a yield as much as what they have invested in MFI. To measure this point we need to know the percentage of return on assets (ROA), return on business (ROB) and return on equity (ROE).

Leverage and Capital Adequacy
The leverage tend to focus on the level of how much MFI borrows money as their equity toward amount of equity they have, in other way we can say that how much additional value of the maney that can be earned by MFI. There are two resources that support MFI to run their activity: Loan from Bank and Saving by client. When the resources is enough, the lender and depositors will be believed to the MFI because it’s easy to them in payment their loan. Leverage indicator can be measured by divide Equity and liability.
While, capital adequacy usually can be measured using ratio capital to risk-weighted assets.

Scale, Outreach and Growth 
MFI brings an additional indicator in measuring their performance with introduce activity scale and outreach. There are several outreach indicator as used in the measuring the performance: Outreach of client and staff, saving and borrowing.

Performance
In general in every performance indicators there are performance standards that assumed has a good quality standard for healthy MFI. In measuring the standard we can determine Criteria of performance, indicator of performance and standard of performance.

Marketing Mix in Micro Finance Institution (Case Study in Baitul Qiradh Darul Mizan, Rukoh-Aceh)

Introduction
Micro finance institution was build to help poor people in order to running their business in good way with providing additional capital and good quality of services. Nowadays, there are many financial institution who tend to capitalize the market and compete to get a huge number of clients/customers. To reach this goal need some strategics of unique promotion, using available mass media in that area. Study of marketing was introduced us to the marketing mix or well-known as 4P; product, price, place, promotion which believed as a good strategy in promoting a product even financial product.

Product
Determining product is one of important thing must be done by Micro Finance Institution. Good quality product and has benefit to all people is seeked very much by small business enterpreneur. Baitul Qiradh Darul Mizan provide two kinds of product: Saving and financing product.

        Saving Products
        There are several types of product which owned by Baitul Qiradh Darul Mizan:
        Mizan TaMITA (Our Saving Partner)
        Mizan TaDidik (Education Saving)
        Mizan Bersama (Organizational Saving)
        Mizan TaQurban (Idul Adha Saving)
        Deposits

    Financing Products
         Mizan Murabahah
         Mizan Ijarah

Price
In term of price, it’s also very important point to catch clients interested to Baitul Qiradh Darul Mizan’s products. The price that offer by MFI should logic and accepted by market not below average and not above the average because it can bring a big loss for institution and other parties. So, the Baitul Qiradh Darul Mizan gives an efficient price in all of their product to meet customer satisfaction.

Place
Place for marketing the product is one of thing which need more attention. To introduce product of MFI the chosen place must be strategic, and crowded location. Moreover, scopes are easy to access by customer in order to get many people interested in products.

Promotion
The way to promote the product is very much depend on type of product. MFI can used mass media, brochure, electronic, baliho etc. The main goal of this promotion is to make product well-known in society and about advantages or disadvantage of the product it self.

Mesjid Berkubah Tujuh di Bumoe Aceh

Pendahuluan  
Dalam berbagai literatur disebutkan bahwa mesjid sebagai tempat peribadatan umat islam khususnya yang berhubungan dengan sujud atau merendahkan diri kepada sang pencipta. Secara terminologis mesjid dapat juga didefinisikan sebagai suatu bangunan, surau, gedung atau suatu lingkungan yang memiliki batas yang jelas (benteng/pagar) yang didirikan secara khusus sebagai tempat beribadah umat Islam kepada Allah, khususnya untuk menunaikan shalat.

Dewasa ini mesjid tidak hanya difungsikan sebagai tempat peribadatan (shalat), akan tetapi terdapat beberapa fungsi turunan yang lahir berupa aktifitas-aktifitas suci dalam rangka pemujaan yang dilakukan para hamba kepada sang khaliq. Mesjid dapat dimanfaatkan sebagai pusat pembelajaran agama islam, sarana pelaksanaan zikir akbar, ceramah maulid, Musabaqah Tilawatil Quran (MTQ) dan perpustakaan, serta musyawarah mufakat.
Di Provinsi Aceh terdapat sebuah mesjid yang letaknya tepat di jantung kota Banda Aceh (Ibu kota Provinsi Aceh). Mesjid ini bernama Mesjid Raya Baiturrahman (Baiturrahman Grand Mosque). Pada saat dibangun berbagai lapisan sejarah pemerintahan telah dilewati, mulai dari masa kesultanan, pemerintah Belanda sampai pemerintahan Aceh. 

Nilai Sejarah Mesjid 7 Kubah 
Dikutip dari berbagai hikayat kuno, Mesjid Raya Baiturrahman mulai dibangun pada masa pemerintahan Sultan Iskandar Muda pada tahun 1022 H/1612 M. Riwayat lain mendeskripsikan bahwa pendiri sesungguhnya adalah Sultan Alaidin Mahmudsyah pada tahun 1292 M.
Mesjid ini pernah dijadikan benteng pertahanan umat Islam dalam tragedi perang Aceh. Bahkan ketika tentara Belanda melakukan ekspedisinya yang kedua mesjid ini terbakar habis yaitu pada bulan Safar 1290 H/April 1873 M. 
Ironisnya, mesjid ini dibangun kembali oleh pemerintah Belanda yang diprakarsai oleh Mayor Jenderal Karel Van Der Heijden yang menjabat sebagai gubernur militer Aceh pada waktu itu. Tepatnya pada hari Kamis, 13 Syawwal 1296 H bersamaan dengan 9 Oktober 1879 M, peletakan batu pertamanya yang diwakili oleh Teungku Qadhi Malikul Adil, dan selesai dibangun pada tahun 1299 H dengan memiliki satu kubah.

Pada tahun 1935 M, Mesjid Raya Baiturrahman mengalami perluasan dibagian kanan dan kirinya dengan tambahan dua kubah. Perluasan ini dikerjakan oleh Jawatan Pekerjaan Umum (B.O.W) yang dipimpin oleh Ir. M. Thahir dan selesai dikerjakan pada akhir tahun 1936 M dengan jumlah tiga kubah. Namun, kubah mesjid raya seiring waktu terus bertambah dikarena banyaknya jamaah yang berkunjung sehingga dibutuhkan perluasan area mesjid. 

Usaha perluasan dilanjutkan oleh sebuah panitia bersama yaitu Panitia Perluasan Masjid Raya Kutaraja. Dengan keputusan menteri tanggal 31 Oktober 1975 disetujui pula perluasannya yang kedua dan pelaksanaannya diserahkan pada pemborong NV. Zein dari Jakarta. Perluasan ini menambah dua kubah lagi dan dua menara sebelah utara dan selatan. Dengan perluasan kedua ini Masjid Raya Baiturrahman mempunyai lima kubah dan selesai dikerjakan dalam tahun 1979 M.

Pada tahun 1991-1993, Masjid Raya Baiturrahman melaksanakan perluasan kembali yang disponsori oleh gubernur Dr. Ibrahim Hasan yang meliputi halaman depan dan belakang serta mesjidnya itu sendiri. Bagian masjid yang diperluas, meliputi bagian lantai masjid tempat shalat, perpustakaan, ruang tamu, ruang perkantoran, aula dan tempat wudhu. Sedangkan perluasan halaman meliputi taman dan tempat parkir serta satu buah menara utama dan dua buah minaret. Sehingga saat ini luas ruangan dalam mesjid menjadi 4.760 m² berlantai marmer buatan Italia, memiliki 7 kubah, 4 menara, 1 menara induk dan dapat menampug 9.000 jamaah.

Filosofi dan Nilai-Nilai

Sekitar 600 tahun lebih melewati peristiwa-peristiwa bersejarah, sampai saat ini Masjid Raya Baiturrahman masih berdiri kokoh sebagai simbol agama, budaya, semangat, kekuatan, perjuangan dan nasionalisme Suku Aceh. Dari masa ke masa mesjid ini telah berkembang pesat baik ditinjau dari segi arsitektur, peribadatan maupun kegiatan kemasyarakatan.

Kekayaan sejarah yang dimiliki oleh mesjid ini menjadikan namanya melambung dikawasan Asia Tenggara. Mulai dari sejarah yang terukir sejak masa kerajaan, pembangunan bertahan yang dilalui bahkan tahun 2006 sempat disentuh oleh musibah besar gempa bumi dan Tsunami. Namun, kekuatan Tuhan mengangkat dan menyelamatkan mesjid tujuh kubah ini dari hantaman gelombang Tsunami.

Kini pencitraannya semakin mendunia, menjadi salah satu icon Kota Banda Aceh yang mengundang ribuan turis untuk datang dan berkunjung ke rumah Tuhan tersebut. Kubah tujuhnya menyimpan bermacam cerita serta perpaduan filosofi ke-Islaman dan ke-Acehan. Sehingga tidak diragukan lagi Mesjid Raya Baiturrahman Banda Aceh menjadi tempat yang sangat indah dan tepat untuk dikunjungi karena dipenuhi oleh nila-nilai history dan miracle yang tak terhingga pentingnya.

Poverty Solution (Dirjen Cipta Karya)

An Action Research in District of Great Aceh

Intoduction 

Great Aceh is one of districts in Aceh Province, it's located closed to Banda Aceh with capital city is Jantho. The area of Great Aceh is around 2.974,12 sq miles and number of population is 351.418 people. Nowadays, many people come to this area to see old history of Aceh which still kept well in several place such as Tumulus of Laksamana Malahayati (Aceh's Heroine), Kuta Indra Parta, Mesjid Purbakala Indrapuri and enjoying beautiful view of beaches and traditional delicious foods.

Poverty in Great Aceh

Everyone know, research have been proved that Aceh as a rich province in Indonesia which stand in 7th level out of 33 provinces  (PECAP: 2010). Even, in 2014 Aceh's budgeting reach the amount of Rp13,3 billion increasing year by year. Although they have much money, the people still in poverty line or also in 7th position of poor provinces in Indonesia.

The government try to find problem solving to this case. They give Jadup (Jatah Hidup), Raskin (Beras Miskin), BLT (Bantuan Langsung Tunai) to decreasing the number of poor people in Aceh. This program absolutely cannot solve the problem and not decreasing the number of poor people effectively, only change some effects of poverty in Aceh. Based on statistic data showed that 17,72% of Aceh population are poor  (BPS: 2013).

In Great Aceh also have poverty problem so much. Poverty reduction is a very complex development problems and challenges have dimension locally, nationally and globally. This led efforts to tackle the problem of poverty can not be separated from the national strategy for sustainable development (Sustainability Development) in a country. According to United Nation Development Programs (2002), there are three basic requirements for the achievement of sustainable development:     

      • Poverty reduction,     
      • Changes in consumption and production patterns that do not support sustainability, 
      • And protection and management of natural resources in a sustainable manner.

Today, the bulk of countries around the world began to busy in poverty alleviation of finding creative solutions. There are programs that promote preventive curative and rehabilitative programs. In this regard, Indonesia through financial support from the World Bank successfully introduced a social justice program for men and women that is Selaras program initiated by the Director General of Human Settlements (Dirjen Cipta Karya).Selaras program is an advanced program of PNPM Urban aimed at improving cooperation between men and women so that they can participate equally and fairly in society activities to combat the roots of poverty.

will be Continued....

Prefecture Osaka (大阪府), Japan

 144 hours in Sakai City, Osaka-Japan

 Introduction 

Osaka Prefecture (大阪府-Ōsaka-fu) is a prefecture located in the Kansai region on Honshu Island, the main island in Japan. Osaka is the capital city of Osaka Prefecture, the city was designated as one of the Chosen City by the Local Autonomy Law. Osaka is the third most populous city in Japan after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located at the mouth of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay. Osaka is the largest city in the region as an industrial center and Keihanshin port for Osaka metropolitan area-Kobe-Kyoto. In the east, Osaka near to Kyoto and Nara, in the west near to Kobe city. Osaka also known as Gate of International Trading.

Sakai City (堺市)

Sakai City (堺市-Sakai-shi) is second biggest city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the Medieval era. 
Sakai is also known as hometown of Nintoku-Tenno-Ryo Kofun, Ancient Tumulus.  The largest of Daisen Kofun is believed to be the grave of the Emperor Nintoku which keyhole-shaped tumulus and it is the largest grave in the world by area.

Town of Knives

Once known for samurai sword, Sakai is now famous for the quality of its kitchen knives, the most high-quality Japanese cutlery originates in Sakai. Its production is a major traditional industry in the city. Sakai Knives are popular and widely respected among professional chefs, whose skill is said to be reflected by their choice of knife.

Town of Bicycles

Sakai was the biggest firearms-producing are in the Azuchi-Momoyama period (late 16th c.). The gunsmith's techniques were fully employed in the repair of imported bicycle and the production of parts during the Meiji period (late 19th c.). Sakai produced the first bicycles in Japan and still commands a nearly 40% share of domestically-made bicycles. In Sakai city, there is also a Bicycle Museum Cycle Center where models from the world's oldest bicycle to the latest Olympic-grade bicycles are displayed.

Birthplace of Sen-no-Rikyu and Wabi-Cha

Sen-no-Rikyu or Sen Rikyu (千利休- 1522- April 21, 1591) was born in Sakai and he is also a tea ceremony master who perfected the art, culture and tradition while serving as the tea ceremony instructor for the famous warlords. He introduces several key aspects of the ceremony, including rustic simplicity, directness of approach and honesty of self.

Japanese Garden (Moss Garden)

Japanese gardens (日本庭園-Nihon Teien) are traditional gardens in Sakai city that create miniature idealized landscapes, often in a highly abstract and stylized way. The gardens of the Emperors and nobles were designed for recreation and aesthetic pleasure, while the gardens of Buddhist temples were designed for contemplation and meditation. Japanese garden styles include Karesansui, Zen gardens which are meditation gardens where white sand replaces water, roji, simple, rustic gardens with teahouses where the Japanese tea ceremony is conducted. Japanese gardens were developed under the influences of the Chinese gardens. A 26,000 sq miles garden created by traditional Japanese method. It's displayed the moon bridge, various elegent Chinese style buildings, quiet ponds, clear streams, and more by enjoying to taste Japanese tea while overlooking the garden. 

Traveling to Japan (JENESYS 2.0)

Tokyo, February-March 2014

Introduction

The development of a nation is not based on wide area or the number of population. It isn't also because of geographical location and political system. Even, the natural resources can't bring welfare in country, if state leader and citizens not qualified. The development of nation are absolutely depend on Stakeholder  and quality of Citizens, both of them have big influence as active elements to achieve goal of the nation becoming Baldatun Thayyibatun Wa Rabbun Ghafur.

The Nation of Japan

Looking at the Geological condition, Japan closed to the area of Earthquake and Tsunami but still able to developing themselves being one of welfare counties in Asia. Even though only has a small area (145,925 sq miles) and limited natural resources, Japanese Government very smart in implementing the good planning to reach success to the nation. It's also motivated by the good quality of human resources who have brilliant life planning, high self-discipline, and have thousand strategies for developing themselves and their people.

Nowadays, Japan becoming leader in producing, inventing, and first market for creative technologies. Who know, the bad story in the past, when a part of their country was broken in 1945, didn't make them give up in promoting the spirit of new life in the future. It was proving by them, today Japan is the best country in valuing the history by "learning from the experiences". Japan has a long history, until now they still keep its very strong because they believe that the great nation is who take care their story alive.

The Issue of Property

Kemiskinan merupakan trending topic kependudukan di berbagai belahan dunia saat ini. Berdasarkan pengamatan, kebanyakan negara-negara yang berada didekat garis ekuator memiliki tingkat kemiskinan yang cukup tinggi. Indonesia adalah salah satu negara yang berada tidak jauh dari garis ekuator. Tahun 2013,  jumlah penduduk miskin di Indonesia mencapai 28,07 juta orang  (11,37 persen), berkurang sebesar 0,52 juta orang dibandingkan tahun 2012 yang mencapai 28,59 juta orang (11,66 persen) (BPS: 2013).

Pembangunan suatu negara akan tercapai dengan pengenalan program-program atau langkah strategis dalam pengembangan kapasitas sumber daya manusia yang mampu menjawab tantangan zaman. Penduduk yang berkompeten adalah mereka yang mampu men-drive diri, keluarga dan lingkungannya jauh dari angka kemiskinan. Untuk memcapai semua ini, pemerintah harus memberikan perhatian penuh pada masyarakat miskin dengan memperkenalkan program penanggulangan kemiskinan untuk mendukung pembangaunan nasional.

Aspek penting untuk mendukung langkah strategi dalam penanggulangan kemiskinan adalah ketersediaan data kemiskinan yang akurat dan tepat sasaran. Pengukuran kemiskinan yang efektif menjadi instrumen tangguh bagi pengambil kebijakan dalam memfokuskan perhatian pada kondisi hidup orang miskin. Data kemiskinan yang baik dapat digunakan untuk mengevaluasi kebijakan pemerintah terhadap program kemiskinan, membandingkan perubahan angka kemiskinan, serta menentukan target penduduk miskin dengan tujuan untuk memperbaiki taraf hidup mereka.

Solusi cerdas yang dapat diambil adalah dengan menentukan kategori, standar dan program penanggulangan kemiskinan yang efektif untuk mengentaskan angka-angka kemiskinan yang menjadi masalah utama bagi negara-negara di dunia.

CHAPTER 12: ENHANCING DECISION MAKING

     ENHANCING DECISION MAKING           

            The decision making which is required in many levels of organization (strategic, management, operational) are difference. Decision making in businesses used to be limited to management. Today, lower-level employees are responsible for some of these decisions, as information systems make information available to lower levels of the business. Decisions can be structured, semistructured, or unstructured, with structured decisions clustering at the operational level of the organization and unstructured decisions at the strategic level. Decision making can be performed by individuals or groups and includes employees as well as operational, middle, and senior managers. There are four stages in decision making: intelligence, design, choice, and implementation.

              Systems to support decision making do not always produce better manager and employee decisions that improve firm performance because of problems with information quality, management filters, and organizational culture. Early classical models of managerial activities stress the functions of planning, organizing, coordinating, deciding, and controlling. Contemporary research looking at the actual behavior of managers has found that managers’ real activities are highly fragmented, variegated, and brief in duration and that managers shy away from making grand, sweeping policy decisions.

              Information technology provides new tools for managers to carry out both their traditional and newer roles, enabling them to monitor, plan, and forecast with more precision and speed than ever before and to respond more rapidly to the changing business environment. Information systems have been most helpful to managers by providing support for their roles in disseminating information, providing liaisons between organizational levels, and allocating resources.

              However, information systems are less successful at supporting unstructured decisions. Where information systems are useful, information quality, management filters, and organizational culture can degrade decision-making. Business intelligence and analytics promise to deliver correct, nearly real-time information to decision makers, and the analytic tools help them quickly understand the information and take action. A business intelligence environment consists of data from the business environment, the BI infrastructure, a BA toolset, managerial users and methods, a BI delivery platform (MIS, DSS, or ESS), and the user interface.

              There are six analytic functionalities that BI systems deliver to achieve these ends: pre-defined production reports, parameterized reports, dashboards and scorecards, ad hoc queries and searches, the ability to drill down to detailed views of data, and the ability to model scenarios and create forecasts. Operational and middle management are generally charged with monitoring the performance of their firm.

              Most of the decisions they make are fairly structured. Management information systems (MIS) producing routine production reports are typically used to support this type of decision making. For making unstructured decisions, middle managers and analysts will use decision-support systems (DSS) with powerful analytics and modeling tools, including spreadsheets and pivot tables. Senior executives making unstructured decisions use dashboards and visual interfaces displaying key performance information affecting the overall profitability, success, and strategy of the firm.

              The balanced scorecard and business performance management are two methodologies used in designing executive support systems (ESS). Group decision-support systems (GDSS) help people working together in a group arrive at decisions more efficiently. GDSS feature special conference room facilities where participants contribute their ideas using networked computers and software tools for organizing ideas, gathering information, making and setting priorities, and documenting meeting sessions.

Sources: Kenneth C. Laudon and Jane P. Laudon. 2012. Management Information Systems:  Managing the Digital Firm. Twelfth Edition: Pearson.