We are proud to honor the thirteen exceptional entrepreneurs as finalists of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2009 Awards program. They are Indonesia’s outstanding individuals, whose vision, determination and innovation have created successful enterprises.
These finalists represent a diverse range of industries across Indonesia, from manufacturing, services to environmental and cultural conservation.
Giuseppe Nicolosi, CEO of Ernst & Young Indonesia, said this year's finalists demonstrated significant contributions to this country, by bringing their companies to their current level of success.
“These exceptional individuals are grooming and motivating the next generation of entrepreneurs and in doing so, enriching the entrepreneurial culture in Indonesia. Ernst & Young is proud to be associated with these exceptional entrepreneurs and to lead the celebration of Indonesia’s entrepreneurial spirit through the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year awards program.”
The Indonesia Entrepreneur Of The Year and Social Entrepreneur Of The Year 2009 will be announced at an award banquet on Wednesday 18 November 2009.
You can find out more about each of these finalists below.
Evelina Fadil Pietruschka
PT Asuransi Adisarana WanaArtha
As watcher leader aboard 2004-2005 Global Challenge Round the World winning yacht BG-Spirit, swapping the perils of the Southern Ocean for the potentially turbulent pursuit of property investment is hard to fathom. Yet this is precisely what Ben Gough did.
Although he launched his Christchurch-based venture in 2000, it was on his return to dry land in 2006 that he rejigged his operation and set full sail under a renamed and rebranded mantle of Tailorspace Investments.
Not your ordinary property pundit, Ben Gough instead specialises in the redevelopment of existing office space and unique buildings. His vision is to create vibrant, exciting and desirable spaces that add value to a cityscape and surrounds.
Evelina Fadil Pietruschka comes from a family of entrepreneurs. Her late father was a diplomat turned businessman in the areas of logging, property, and insurance. He always taught her that she should achieve something in her life and reach her dream and if she wanted to build a business, it had to be a business that would also build the nation.
Her vision is to make the insurance business become one of the pillars of the economy, the driver of the financial planning of families in Indonesia, and to provide job opportunities for people. Her aim is to increase the number of her insurance agents to 500 in the next few years in order to achieve the expected growth. In reaching this, one of the strategic plans she has executed is to implement the right technology to support her financial and business processes, so that insurance transactions can be executed in an efficient and effective way, which in the end would benefit her company and the customers themselves. This technology has been developed in cooperation with a third party consultant and vendor, and if it works successfully, her company would become the pioneer in implementing such a system in Indonesia.
Evelina wants to build a domestic brand of insurance company with international exposures and practice. This is evidenced by the establishment of an asset management business based in Singapore. Under her leadership, her insurance business has improved significantly over time, as evidenced by the increased number of agents, which also leads to more job opportunities.
Hendy Setiono
PT Baba Rafi Indonesia
Hendy Setiono is the founder of PT. Baba Rafi Indonesia, a kebab business that started in 2003 on a regular cart named "Kebab Turki Baba Rafi" in his campus area where the mindset of students is keener to try new things. With very humble beginnings, as it was started with almost no capital, within one year, it had grown to a total of 6 branches of regular carts. Currently, Hendy manages approximately 200 employees in management and 800 employees in 475 outlets, spread over 60 cities in Indonesia.
It all began when he first encountered the taste of kebab as a staple dish in Qatar in his childhood. After many years, he realised that kebab had not entered the Indonesian market commercially, which created a good opportunity for entrepreneurs. Baba Rafi started its rapid growth after the franchise offerings in 2006. Kebab Turki Baba Rafi, Yummy Burger, Roti Maryam Aba-Abi, and Piramizza were offered as franchise
products. Early 2009, Baba Rafi expanded to the international market, Hendy opened his first Malaysian branch and will continue to other Southeast Asian countries.
Hendy strategically directs his aim to be the king of franchise in the food industry, not only in Indonesia but throughout Asia. In 10 years time, he foresees conquering the Asian market. However, in the short run, Hendy only aims to expand in developing countries in South East Asia such as the Philippines and Thailand.
Hendy’s track record in entrepreneurial activities is also displayed through business communities such as "Indonesia Franchise Association", "Entrepreneur University (EU)", "Co Branding Community", and many more. His role as a keynote speaker in several seminars and training courses, such as "Boot Strappers", "Franchise your Business", and "Becoming Young Entrepreneur", also manifests his entrepreneurial spirit.
Kris Taenar Wiluan
PT Citra Tubindo Tbk.
Born in Jakarta in 1948, Kris Wiluan is the founder of the Citramas Group. The operations of PT Citra Tubindo and thirty-five other subsidiaries are now under the umbrella of the Citramas Group, whose activities span oilfield equipment manufacturing, logistics and shipping services, repair and refurbishment of drilling rigs, infrastructure development comprising port, ferry terminal, telephone services, leisure industry (holiday resort, golf and a marina resort), and the multimedia industry.
In 1976 he started his own business in Indonesia as an independent supplier and logistics contractor to Pertamina and international oil companies. In 1986 he planned the building of an integrated resort, Turi Beach. In order to enter the industry as a global player, Kris Wiluan made his corporate moves into Singapore in 2006 with the acquisition of three public listed oil and gas equipment distributors – KS Energy Services Limited, Aqua-Terra Supply Co Ltd and SSH Corporation Ltd . In 2007 through KS Energy, Kris Wiluan acquired Oslo-listed Atlantic Oilfield Services ("AOS"), a North Sea accredited drilling services and rig management services provider.
Kris Wiluan has also committed his resources to help the local community by providing healthcare facilities and education. His Citramas Foundation extends scholarships, trains local children in sea sports and provides opportunities for them to join the oil and gas and hospitality industries. Education is another passionate topic. He is one of the Patrons sponsors of a Polytechnic in Sumatera and Batam.
Manoj Punjabi
MD Entertainment
Manoj Punjabi is an entrepreneur whose success as a businessman is driven by his passion for filmmaking/movies. Despite being a newcomer in the business with no track record in filmmaking, he was able to convince the television stations to air his sinetrons and persuade the film stars, directors and crew to work on his projects. In just a few years, his company has grown from 4-hours of programming a month when it started, to approximately 150 hours a month today. His Company’s sinetron, "Cinta Fitri", widely popular among TV viewers, has aired over 600 episodes to date, and has consistently performed as the top sinetron from Season 1 to Season 4. "Cinta Fitri" secured the SCTV’s 2008 "Best Program" award in 2008 and Panasonic’s "Top Show of the Year" award in 2009.
His first venture into movie production, "Ayat-Ayat Cinta", became a commercial success and broke box office records in the country. It was watched by more than 60 ambassadors as well as by the President and Vice-President of the Republic of Indonesia.
Manoj believes that if his company continues to produce quality films, financial success will follow. His business provides employment to more than 1,000 people, with about 600 exclusive contracts with the Company. While currently his business is only for the domestic market, Manoj has a big plan for his business to go international in the future. His current expansion plan to build a 100,000–square meter production studio will certainly generate wider employment opportunities.
Patrick Walujo
Northstar Pacific
Patrick Walujo is someone who believed that he would always be an entrepreneur. Equipped with a solid educational background, work experience and business networks he had obtained whilst at Goldman Sachs’ (London and New York) and Pacific Century Group (Tokyo), Patrick decided to start something on his own.
The nominee started Northstar Pacific, a Private Equity firm in 2003 providing corporate advisory services. In 2005, after generating a solid track record, Patrick established a partnership with the US-based Texas Pacific Group (TPG). Together with TPG, the company set up Northstar Equity Partners (NEP). Currently, Northstar invests in businesses that are driven by demographic trends and population base, such as BTPN, Alfamart and Trikomsel. Northstar is planning to open at least two Alfamart stores a day and to have 1,000 new stores by 2010. As for BTPN, they are planning to add 500 new micro banking branches per annum to serve new rural micro-banking markets.
Patrick Walujo is also involved in various philanthropic activities, with a focus on supporting education, e.g. University Paramadina and Yayasan Karya Salemba Empat, and also on sports, with both Patrick and Glenn involved in establishing Sportama, a company that deals in creating Indonesia’s national tennis circuits, in a bid to provide opportunities for local Indonesian tennis players to engage in matches and improve their competitiveness. There are currently six tournaments, sponsored partly by NEP’s businesses, including BTPN Open and Alfamart Open, all of which are managed directly by Sportama.
Pia Alisjahbana
PT Gaya Favorit Press
Upon a challenge from her husband, young Pia Alisjahbana in 1972 started her career by establishing a publishing company Femina Group, which today has become a leading player in Indonesia’s media industry. That is proven by Femina and Gadis as top selling magazines for over 17 years. The Group’s corporate culture and strategy, ever since the early 1970s, is to consistently launch magazines which offer new lifestyle awareness to their readers.
Her community and employees see her as more than an entrepreneur: she is a teacher (her preferred title) and an accomplished networker, someone who is able to leverage on her vast connections to support various initiatives with great benefit to the development of the art, education and fashion worlds of this country. "She’s a GURU and always cares about our development. We are becoming smarter and smarter in this Company" say her employees. Pia has constant belief in the capacity for people to grow and achieve their potential.
She is active in various social organizations, such as Yayasan Gedung Arsip Nasional, American Indonesian Exchange Foundation (AMINEF) and Yayasan Kesenian Jakarta (YKJ), Badan Pelestarian Pusaka Indonesia, World Wildlife Fund Foundation (WWF) and Yayasan Nusantara Symphony Orchestra.
Pia has been doing her best at her career, contributing to the community with strong influence through her quality lifestyle and personality, and is a highly respected woman of many interests and talents.
Rizwan Halim
PT Travira Air
For someone who defines entrepreneur as "Somebody with a capacity to act as an "agent of change" and whose personal motto is "Everything we do must have a value added", Rizwan Halim has certainly lived up to his own belief and value. He started his career at a very young age as General Manager of Hughes Aircraft after graduating from the University of California in 1973. Because of his outstanding performance in this company, in 1977 another big new industry player, Sykorsky, invited him to be their sole distributor in Indonesia and Brunei.
With confidence, in the same year Rizwan founded PT Transavia Utama, with main activities to sell aircraft and supporting services. He managed not only to bring the company through the financial crises (of 1978 and the ‘80s) but even to thrive.
Currently Travira Air is the second largest domestic air charter company with an estimated market share of 9%. Since July 2009, the company has expanded its operation beyond Indonesia, eg.to Malaysia. He is also exploring opportunities in Laos and Cambodia.
Commitment to safety which underpins all operations is PT. Travira Air’s number one priority. The unique feature of this company is to have the youngest and best maintained aircraft fleet in Indonesia with 25 aircraft under its operation, providing scheduled services, spot charters (including medical evacuation), and aircraft management. Travira has its own engineering corps for in-house maintenance, composed of professional resources from both Indonesia and overseas and enjoys International accreditation (ISO 9001:2000 quality certification from Loyd.)
Sari Lestari Darmawan
PT Argenta Adhiloka Pratama
In fewer than 5 years, Sari Lestari Darmawan has turned her company, PT. Argenta Adhiloka Pratama, into a well-developed business that operates as a sole distributor of a major US-based brand for Automated Teller Machine (ATM) Diebold, in Indonesia. Led and managed by a skilled entrepreneur, the company has grown at an incredible rate. Extensive skills in logistics management, hardware service maintenance, and sales have provided Sari with a great asset to strive in a competitive business market. This skill, combined with her ample knowledge and motivation, has driven her to become a sole distributor of Diebold in Indonesia.
The nominee established the company in 2005 to provide banks with alternative support for ATM machines. The company has grown to 85 staff and expanded to 27 service locations, providing over 3,000 ATM to banks such as: BCA, Commonwealth Bank, Bank NISP, Bank Danamon, Bank Mandiri, CIMB NIAGA, Permata Bank and BII. The company is currently starting to expand its market overseas, i.e. to Malaysia.
The next potential development in her company will be in software solution as she sees potential opportunities in the mobile commerce and mobile banking areas. She believes that cellular phones will be a key transaction terminal in the near future.
Sari views the client’s trust as the most important factor for the company’s current and future success. Moreover, her employees’ commitment to the company is crucial to enable the delivery of a satisfactory service in order to gain such trust from her clients. Therefore, more attention is given to each individual within the company to build commitment of the employees to the vision and business goals.
Timothy Siddik
PT Zyrexindo Mandiri Buana
Timothy Siddik’s entrepreneurial calling was first realized when he returned from the US where he was a vice president in one of the companies in the Silicon Valley which produced IT solutions, web site design and systems analysis. Zyrex was founded in September 1996, and is one of Indonesia’s first national computer brands. It brought a positive counter-balance to the Indonesian PC market ever since, by bringing updated technology at reasonable prices to the masses. Thirteen years on, Zyrex is still growing, with sales nearly doubling from year to year. It is also doubling its effort to win the retail sector (without dropping its strong performance in the corporate and government sectors), and as a consequence branding will play a bigger role in the near future.
CEPAT TEPAT is his philosophy toward the people of Zyrex. They call themselves ‘Zyrexian’ with the traits that whatever they do, they must do it faster and better on the right target. This spirit also drives other initiatives like the Satu Keluarga Satu Komputer (One Family One Computer) program, by providing very affordable Tarsius nettop at less than 3 million rupiah and the Anoa netbooks, affordable 8.9" computers designed for children.
Zyrex has provided 10 vans equipped with the computers which were dedicated to go around to the low level schools introducing computers and information technology. In this activity, the employees of Zyrex will explain to the students about the use of the computers and how to operate them.
Yuliasiane Sulistiyawati
PT Pazia Pillar Mercycom
Sianne started her career 17 years ago in PT Digiland Indonesia (Istidata Group), an IT company. Her business idea to engage in IT industry derived from her educational background in Bina Nusantara University majoring in computer design together with her working experience. She had an idea to start a new business with Acer LCD monitor in July 2004 when she established PT Pazia Pillar Mercycom (Pazia) to capture the potential market in IT industry. Under her leadership, Pazia recorded a fantastic growth in selling Acer Notebook and LCD Monitor. Since Pazia was appointed as Acer’s partner, Acer has become the No 1 for Notebook selling in Indonesia for the last four years. In 2007, Pazia started a business relationship with Samsung and got special appreciation for its contribution to support of Samsung printer business in Indonesia and also recognition for its excellent contribution to Samsung’s business. Within less than two years, the Pazia increased market share from 2% to 30% and Samsung Laser Printer gained No 1 market share in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of 2009.
Her vision for the business is to dominate the market in the IT industry and to be number 1 to market the new products such as smart phone, all-in-one notebook (combination notebook and television), and also to list Pazia’s shares on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in the next five years.
Among employees, Sianne is known as the "Main Driver" of the Company’s business success. She gives challenges to all her teams, customers and vendors to make a great contribution to Pazia’s success. Her approach in doing business and her outstanding ideas are highly regarded by her employees, dealers, vendors and banks.
Amir Panzuri
APIKRI
Amir Panzuri is one of the founders of APIKRI (Association of Indonesian People’s Handicraft Marketing), which was established in 1987. The idea to form this association started as a response to the social environment in which poverty is rampant despite the high artistry levels of handicrafts made by the artisans. APIKRI then positioned itself as an empowerment agency for the poor artisans with the vision to be a voice of fair trade to empower micro-small handicraft communities in Indonesia. It is unique from other fair trade promoters in Indonesia with its activities in combining community and marketing development with co-operatives as the legal basis to empower micro and small handicraft producers.
Amir’s personal vision is to increase the welfare of the artisan society by instilling a change in paradigm and upgrading of craftsmanship skills. He had a motivation to be self-reliant and not dependent on funding, insisting on fair trade, meaning that artisans must be paid half upfront and paid promptly. Unlike Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) which is giving to the poor, fair trade is empowering the poor. APIKRI is now targeting new customers/buyers based on the Middle East market. As he said himself, entrepreneurship is a way of life that must be nurtured in order to empower artisans to a better bargaining position. Everyone has latent entrepreneurial spirit that must be unearthed. Apart from being a social entrepreneur, Amir is a lecturer with a passion for art and literature.
Erie Sudewo
Dompet Dhuafa Republika
Dompet Dhuafa Republika, a social legal foundation set up to obtain funds from people and to distribute these funds to others in need, was founded by Erie Sudewo in 1993. Based on ZISWAF (zakat, infaq, sedekah, wakaf, voluntary fund), it is now the biggest local NGO in Indonesia, with development programs such as Free Health Care with up to 55.000 regular members, Human Development Institution, Vocational & Entrepreneurship Institution, Community Service Institution, Self Reliance Community, Health Farming Institution and Livestock Village.
Erie Sudewo has a remarkable philosophy in connection with how to deal with risk in doing business. He believes that the main strength of an organization or a country lies in its main weakness. Our country’s main weakness is poverty; therefore efforts to decrease poverty will turn it into a main strength.
Dompet Dhuafa is considered to be one of the most transparent organizations because of their daily and weekly reports (for donations received and distributed respectively). In 2004, they started publishing their financial statements.
Furthermore, to respond to the technology challenge, transfer of donation can be conducted online and coordination with ATMs has been established in connection with Zakat tax payment. They have created cards, given to benefactors and usable as discount cards in book stores or restaurants with a discount range of 5-10%. Erie Sudewo believes that a social entrepreneur is defined by his ability to solve social problems through an entrepreneurial approach.
Sukianto Lusli
Burung Indonesia
In 2002, Sukianto developed Indonesia’s first commercial model for conserving forest ecosystems. He believes that his background in biology major from Universitas Nasional ("UNAS"), work experience from World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and passion and interest for Indonesia’s forests will contribute to growth in the future.
His work allows for profit and non-profit investors alike to lease degraded forest land from the government for the purpose of rehabilitation. Under Sukianto’s model, land has been turned into an international birding center and a provider of carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol, paving the way for viable economic alternatives to logging and other destructive practices.
Sukianto Lusli has positioned Burung Indonesia well in the industry, as Burung Indonesia is a pioneer in the preservation of Indonesia’s forests to protect the population and habitat of various birds. Burung Indonesia has set up three strategic directions for preserving Indonesian forests from illegal logging: conservation action, providing knowledge, information and data centre to public and working with local government to limit irresponsible people potentially dangerous for the Indonesian forests.
To support its activities, Burung Indonesia is partnering with the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry and Oxford University and is supported by the European Union, the World Bank, The Ford Foundation and many others.
