Three Indonesian university students have taken out third place at the NBCC Young Entrepreneur Day’s Business Case Competition, for their analysis and subsequent proposal on Komatsu Forklifts subsidiary PT Bina Pertiwi’s challenges from Chinese imports and the move towards electric and low carbon solutions.

The competition attracted more than 150 teams from universities across Indonesia with the third placed team including Renaldi Setiawan from the Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) and Azmiyah Tsauroh and Izza Widiafikri from the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS).

Setiawan, a management student at UNAIR’s faculty of economics and business, says the central issue examined by the team was forklift energy sources before the team presented its 3S Forklift Strategy.

“This strategy combines energy source segmentation, flexible financing options, and a long-term energy transition plan,” Setiawan told UNAIR’s on-campus publication.

“It is designed to respond to market pressures while remaining aligned with sustainability commitments and net zero emission targets.

“Our approach does not force a single technology solution. Instead, it matches energy types with industry characteristics, total cost of ownership (TCO), and market readiness. This makes the strategy more realistic and applicable in Indonesia’s diverse industrial setting,” he noted.

UNAIR’s on-campus publication states the team “carried out a thorough analysis, starting with problem mapping using the SCQ framework, followed by SWOT analysis, Porter’s Five Forces, the McKinsey 7S framework, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission simulations”. 

The final proposal included a clear implementation roadmap and projections of potential business impacts.

Setiawan says one of the most important lessons from the competition was the need to deliver business solutions which are data-driven, context-specific, and ready to be implemented.

“Sustainability and energy transition are no longer add-ons, they are now at the core of future business strategies,” he adds.