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.

Entrepreneurship - Lim Goh Tong

Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong or Tan Sri Dato Seri was born in 1918 in An Xi, Fujian, China. He lived in a rural area in China, due to the riot of 1911 revolution. He have 6 siblings, he is the fifth child. He was able to attend school until his father, Lim Shi Quan pass away when Lim Goh Tong was 16 years old. Thus, made his older brothers

had a heavy burden. He had to work to feed the whole family. Therfore, due to the financial problem Lim had to quit from school. From that time, he was selling vegetable seeds, to help to provide his mothers, Goh Ban and 6 siblings.

Lim Goh Tong Photo for his autobiography’s cover book

He countinued live in China for another 3 years. However, things are getting worst in China. At the age of 19, he started to find other places that have better opportunities to venture. He chose to move to Malaya (Malaysia) by following his cousin’s footsteps, Lim Kheng Chong.  As a Chinese immigrant in Malaya he had nothing to start with. He started working as a carpenter and lived in his uncle house for several years. He gained a lot of experiences from variant type of jobs. He also learned Malay Language during this time.

Skills and Competencies

In 1942, Japanese invaded Malaya and Mr. Lim nearly died a few times during this period of time. Malaysian Chinese was treated harshly by Japanese. Moreover, suspected Chinese sympathizers in Malaysia will be imprisoned, interrogated and tortured. Due to the Japanese occupation Mr. Lim have to work as a vegetable farmer and further on he changed as a petty trader for a better living. Later on Lim attempted the scrap-metal and hardware trading. When the Japanese occupation ended, the demands of machineries went high. Lim Goh Tong took that chance and starting his business on that area and lead him to his first fortune. From that point, he joined as a partner in an iron mining company. This join ventured brought him with a outstanding amount of payment came from 2 bulldozers. Mr. Lim received generous amount of money from the machineries and mining business.

His experienced in mining, machinery, his numerous amount of capital money and help from his uncle brought him to the contracting industries. Under his family construction company named Kien Huat Private Limited, his contructing business went huge. He gained a lot of recognitions from his works.  Kien Huat company won a tribute and became one of top construction companies in Malaysia. They completed a lot of projects including, Ayer Itam Dam and Kemubu Irrigation Scheme.

One of the Kien Huat Company’s projects – Air Itam Dam, Penang, Malaysia

1960’s were the year where Lim started his life as a conglomerate. However, one day he went to the Cameron Highlands and the idea of creating a resort on the top of the hill hit him. He was working on the “hydro-electric” power electric at the popular hill resort for the British. In that area he saw the British were seeking the cool place to aid from the tropical heat. He belief Malaysian would want the cool breeze that easy to reach just like the British. Thus, he wanted to create a resort with a theme park, world’s class gambling area and hotel, that far from the hustle of the city. However, the Cameron Highlands were too far from the capital city. Therefore, he did some research and he found out Gunung Ulu Kali at the place called Genting Sempah would be a perfect place for his plan. A lot of people told him to not materialize his risky idea. People said it could not be done and it should not be done.

Challenges & Achievements

Lim Goh Tong built Genting Highland Casino Resort within 7 years without any investors. The casino license was not the only problem that he had to face to build it. The Gunung Ulu Kali area that he picked was mark by a river, hills and dense vegetation. All of the problems made his idea seem impossible to make in front of the investors. This Malaysian - Chinese deceased man is famous as an entrepreneur with his courage on taking a high risk. He invested all of his money and sold all properties he had to build his dream resort. Even though his family and friends against his idea, he still working on it. He almost went bankrupt and nearly died several times when he went to check the site. In 1971, he finally managed to transform an unexplored jungle on the hilltop to become one of the world well-known Casino Resort.

The resort achieved a very positive feedbacks and it was success. People came to Genting Highlands resort to sleep, eat, see the sights and gamble. It was continued for over than 30 years. Now, Genting Highland Resort have 5 hotels namely, Genting Hotel, Resort Hotel, Theme Park Hotel, First World Hotel and Highlands Hotel) and 2 apartment blocks (Ria and Kayangan Apartments) and Awana Genting Highlands Golf and Country Resort. This huge success lead Genting group to expand to the other industries such as cruise boat industries (Star Cruises), biotechnology, oil and gas, power generation, plantation and more.

Lim Goh Tong once crowned as the richest man in Malaysia according to “FORBES”, with a net worth $4.2 Billion. Genting berhad was acknowledged as the No.1 Leading company in Malaysia for 10 years in 2004 and from 1994 to 2002 by The Asian Wall Street Journal 200. Genting berhad also rated No.1 in Malaysia and No.2 in Asia for the overall best managed company for the decade by AsiaMoney and many more achievements.

 At the end of year 2003, Lim Goh Tong inherited his place of Genting Berhad to his son Lim Kok Thay. Lim Goh Tong passed away at the ages 89 in 2007, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Entrepreneurship - Lim Goh Tong & Robert Budi Hartono

COMPARISON	Lim Goh Tong	Robert Budi Hartono
Total Assets	$ 4.2 Billion USD	$ 8.6 Billion USD
Type of Business	Commercial	Commercial & Intrapreneur
Source of Finance	Resort & Cruise Ship	Tobacco & Banking
Skills & Competences	Persistent, Risk Taker, Ambitious, Creative, Experienced and Confident	Persistent, Risk Taker, Creative and Generous
Achievements	·      No.1 Leading company in Malaysia by The Asian Wall Street Journal 200 – 2004, 1994 - 2002 ·      Genting berhad also rated No.1 in Malaysia ·      No.2 in Asia for the overall best managed company by AsiaMoney	·      Work Safety and Health in 2002 (Zero Accident Acknowlegment) ·      Audit Exterl Work Safety in 2004 ·      Golden Flag ·      Certificate of Compliance ISO 9001-1994 in 2001 ·      Renewed to ISO 9001-2000