Entrepreneurship - Robert Budi Hartono

Budi Hartono - 74 Years old

 Robert Budi Hartono or Oei Hwie Tjong was born in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia in April 1940.  He was studied in Diponegoro University, Semarang. He inherited his father’s (Oei Wie Gwan) tobacco company along with his brother, Michael Bambang Hartono. His father was a founder of the kretek company PT Djarum, which is the largest tobacco company in Indonesia. Wie Gwan, started the company on April 21, 1951 on Kudus Street, Central Java, Indonesia with only 10 employees. The Djarum name initially came from the bankrupt company called Djarum, which in 1950, Wie Gwan bought its brand and licensed. Djarum word means gramophone needles

 

Budi Hartono is the CEO of the second generation of Djarum Group together with his brother Michael Bambang Hartono which, then adds to his account another sector of business such as, property (Grand Indonesia), banking sector (Bank Central Asia), agricultural (palm oil), electronic and multimedia (Polytron) and online business (Global Digital Prima Venture). He is currently the richest man in Indonesia followed by his brother Michael Bambang Hartono at the second place. He has total asset of $8.6 Billion.

Budi Hartono was married with Widowati or Giok. This Chinese ethnic man gifted with 3 sons, namely, Victor Hartono, Martin Hartono and Armand Hartono. All of his sons are also successful in entrepreneurship world just like their father. The youngest son, Martin is a very influential person in a largest online site named “Kaskus” in Indonesia. His youngest son married with Grace L.Katuari, which is the daughter of Wings group. These made the Djarum company even more stronger and able to spread their wings to the others sectors.

Robert is a generous man. His workers admire him, because of his kindness. He is not reluctant to pay for his workers’ educational fees. This made his worker loyal to him. He is also a charismatic and democratic person. He always listen to his workers opinion and appreciated his worker contributions.

Skills, Competencies & Challenges

Budi Hartono was able to rebuild the Djarum company after the fell down stocks cause by the fire that destroyed the Djarum factory in 1963.  The accident occurred after Oei Wie Gwan passed away. The company that their father hand over to them was almost bankrupt and most of the people will give up to retrieve the company. However, Robert and Michael believe they can recover the company. They loaned some money and by using the innovative, creative way, the company turned into one of the successful company in Indonesia. After 3 years, Djarum marketed their Djarum Filter, their very first machine made cigarette. Followed by Djarum Super, which was introduced in 1981. The company grows from only 10 labors now, there are approximately 75.000 labors worked in Djarum company. Moreover, Djarum company’s products reach the International market.

Beside the tobacco company, one of the biggest businesses that Robert worked on is in the banking sector. In this case he stand as the intrapreneur. He owned more than half of Bank Central Asia (BCA) stocks, 51%, which basically means he owned the company. Currently BCA is one of the biggest banks in Indonesia. From the Bank Indonesia’s data in December 2011, BCA assets are around 380.927 trillion Rupiah. 

Grand Indonesia Overview, Jakarta, Indonesia

After the tobacco and banking, Robert and Michael try to work on the properties sector. There are a lot of projects they did in this sectors, one of the huge projects is Grand Indonesia, located in in front of the famous Selamat Datang Monument in Jakarta, Indonesia. They signed the contract of the project in 2004 and the Mall done within 4 years (2008). This project is including Hotel (renovation from Hotel Indonesia), shopping mall, 57 floors office building and apartment. Total of the investment that they did are 1.3 trillion Rupiah. This make Grand Indonesia is the biggest Mall town in Indonesia.

3.2 Achievements

Robert Budi Hartono continuously grew his billionaire rank in Forbes. He is the richest person in Indonesia according to Forbes ($8.6 Billion). He was in number 173 in 2014 and within one year he reached rank 142 in the world.

PT Djarum successed on the working environment, safety and health side. Djarum received work safety and health in 2002 (Zero Accident Acknowledgment), Audit Exterl Work Safety in 2004 with score 87%, in 2005 Djarum received Golden Flag (only given for the company with the cleanest products) and certificate of Compliance ISO 9001-1994 in 2001 and renewed to ISO 9001-2000.