Darmadi: A Result Oriented Leader

Sumber: thetelegraph.co.id

After a success in Malaysian market, AirAsia spread its wing to neighboring Indonesia.

Entering Indonesia in 2007, AirAsia soon became one of the preferred airlines for the locals. AirAsia contributes 42 percent market share from international flight. “Asian is as same as Europe. It has 500 million people live there. So it is a potential market to win,” Darmadi says.

As a low-cost carrier, AirAsia enables people from lower middle class to the upper class to fly to any Asian country without emptying their pockets. Airline isn’t an exclusive transportation anymore and flying doesn’t only belong to the upper class society. The low-cost airline founder, Tony Fernandez realized he wasn’t the first in the business with Southwest Airlines already flying above American skies. But he was sure, with the right moves; affordable flight is the key to success.

Online Strategy

The fact that LCC isn’t a new product in air transportation business pushes AirAsia to create new strategies including online ticketing. When AirAsia entered Indonesia market in 2007, only 55 percent people booked ticket online. They were accustomed to booking through travel agent. It was a challenge for LCC which should have at least 95 percent of its ticket booked online.

That got Darmadi worried, especially when at the time AirAsia was dubbed “the travel agent killer”. Unlike Thailand and Malaysia, Indonesian market still had to be educated about online booking.

“After about five years here, 80 percent of people book ticket via Internet. eTicketing is more efficient in cost. And travel agents now are our ‘freelance agents’ that meet customers directly. Our online ticket booking on average is done by travel agents,” he explains with a smile.

Aside from being agents, Darmadi suggests that they create some packages for holiday and tours. They started months before the holiday season began, booked tickets, packaged it with hotels and sold it to customers.

Yet, as a newcomer, Darmadi knows he has more challenges than going online. AirAsia still has to win many customers’ hearts, pointing to the facts that 50 percent of its passengers are first-time customers. How did he do it?

“Average Indonesian people love to travel, especially to foreign countries. We make it easy for them to go abroad by providing affordable tickets,” he asserts.

 

A Low Profile CEO

As a local CEO, Darmadi is responsible for technical support. Despite having only 17 airplanes, trying to beat competitors’ with an average of 80 airplanes, Darmadi is optimistic about AirAsia’s existence in the market. One reason is customers’ loyalty. Another one is the SOP created by the head office.

“System is centralized from the head office. As long as we are in accordance with SOP, customers will be served anytime they meet problems. The system enables us to solve the problem effectively.”

The system enables his staff to do their work anywhere without having their presence in office. If Darmadi can make a decision to get a work done in a café, so can his staff. End result is what matters most for a result oriented leader like Darmadi.  

Darmadi is also a ‘down to earth’ CEO. He communicates with everyone in each level without a gap. For him, CEO is an extended connotation of branch manager. So he never feels more important when he’s meeting managers or supervisors from other companies.

“In my office, I directly meet my staff in lower level, help them and ask what problem they have. The culture brings me to treat other people as my friends.”

Focusing on Indonesia

 In developing business in Indonesia, Darmadi proposes regularly to central management based on demands and needs. At least we make a purchase order of five new planes each year. He also negotiates with the Indonesian government about new routes. In his calculation, new routes to regional countries mean efficiency in local destinations.

“One flight to Singapore means five flights to Surabaya. So, AirAsia and the government can get more income with efficient cost,” he asserts.

In his opinion, AirAsia Indonesia should support domestic economy, especially in the situation where unemployment rate is higher. That’s why Darmadi recruits local people for pilot, co-pilot and cabin crews.

“Our regional flights have a blend of local and foreign crews.”

  

When it comes to safety, Darmadi goes all the way to ensure that AirAsia passengers should have nothing to worry about. That includes having crews, especially pilots and co-pilots, live near the airport.

“We can imagine when a pilot’s home is far away, or they live in suburb area. We must pick them up, take them to airport and it takes hours. They will feel tired before flying. It is very dangerous for him and our passengers.”

Aside from the pilots, he also focuses on airplane maintenance for safety. Management buys new planes directly from manufactory to be used for the next 20 years. With technology that is available today, problems can be detected and repaired by computer.

“Maintenance is expensive. But it can minimize a lot of risks,” he concludes. 

Sumber: Soewarna Digest 19th Edition

Jonathan Favreau: A Man behind the Applause

Sumber:zacparsons.com

Jonathan Favreau, born June 2, 1981 is a Director of Speechwriting for President Barack Obama.  He graduated as Valedictorian from College of the Holy Cross. In college, he accumulated a variety of scholastic honors, and took part in and directed numerous community and civic programs. At the College of the Holy Cross, he was treasurer and debate committee chairman for the College Democrats, and studied classical piano. After graduation, he went to work for the John Kerry Presidential campaign in 2004, working to collect talk radio news for the campaign, and eventually was promoted to the role of Deputy Speechwriter. While working for the Kerry campaign, he first met Barack Obama. 

In 2005, Robert Gibbs recommended Favreau to Obama as an excellent speechwriter. Favreau was hired as Obama's speechwriter shortly after Obama's election to the United States Senate. Obama and Favreau grew close, and Obama has referred to him as his "mind reader." He went on the campaign trail with Obama during his successful Presidential election campaign. In 2009, he was named as a White House staff member  as Director of Speechwriting. He became the second youngest chief White House speechwriter on record after James Fallows. 

Favs, his nick name, has many organization experiences since he was a stundent college. From 1999 to 2000, he served on the Welfare Solidarity Project, eventually becoming its director. In 2001, Favreau worked with Habitat for Humanity and a University of Massachusetts program to bring visitors to cancer patients. In 2002, he became head of an initiative to help unemployed individuals improve their resumes and interview skills. He also earned a variety of honors in college, including the Vanicelli Award; being named the 2001 Charles A. Dana Scholar; memberships in the Political Science Honor Society, Pi Sigma Alpha, the College Honors Program, the Sociology Honor Society, Alpha Kappa Delta, and was awarded a Harry S. Truman Scholarship in 2002. He was an editor on his college newspaper, and during summers in college, he earned extra income selling newspapers as a telemarketer, while also interning in John Kerry's offices.

He directly joined Senator John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign soon after graduation from the College of the Holy Cross. While working for the Kerry campaign, his job was to assemble audio clips of talk radio programs for the Kerry camp to review for the next day. When the Kerry campaign began to falter at one point, they found themselves without a speechwriter, and Favreau was promoted to the role of deputy speechwriter.

Favreau first met Obama (then an Illinois State Senator running for the U.S. Senate), while still working for Kerry, backstage at the 2004 Democratic National Convention as Obama was rehearsing his keynote address. Favreau, then 23 years old, interrupted Obama's rehearsal, advising the soon-to-be-elected Senator that a rewrite was needed.

Obama communications aide Robert Gibbs, who had worked for Kerry's campaign, recommended Favreau to Obama as an excellent writer, and in 2005 he began working for Barack Obama in his United States Senate office, before joining Obama's presidential campaign as chief speechwriter in 2007. His interview with Obama was on the Senator's first day. Uninterested in Favreau's résumé, Obama instead questioned Favreau on what motivated him to work in politics, and what his theory of writing was. He described this theory to Obama as, "A speech can broaden the circle of people who care about this stuff. How do you say to the average person that's been hurting: 'I hear you, I'm there?' Even though you've been so disappointed and cynical about politics in the past, and with good reason, we can move in the right direction. Just give me a chance."

For his work with Obama in the campaign, he would wake as early as 5 am, and routinely stayed up until 3 am working on speeches. His leadership style among the other Obama speechwriters is very informal. They will often meet in a small conference room, discussing their work late into the evening over take-out food. According to him, "My biggest strength isn't the organization thing." He is credited with popularizing the catchphrase, "Yes We Can", which was the slogan of Obama's 2004 Illinois Senate campaign. He has spent the last two months working for up to 16 hours a day on the speech in locations all over Washington, from the Penn Quarter Starbucks to his new, still-unfurnished apartment in the city’s upmarket Dupont Circle. He sits with Obama for 30 minutes at a time and writes down everything the president says. Then, he sits down and writes, gets edits from Obama and writes some more. A team of assistants are on hand to furnish him with material, from research on key moments of crisis in American history to the collected speeches of former presidents.

Favreau has been named one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" by Time magazine. He ranked 33rd in the GQ "50 Most Powerful in D.C." and featured in the Vanity Fair "Next Establishment" list. Favreau was also one of several Obama administration members in the 2009 "World's Most Beautiful People" issue of People magazine.

Favreau has said his work with Obama will be his final job in the realm of politics. In regard to his post-political future, he said, "Maybe I'll write a screenplay, or maybe a fiction book based loosely on what all of this was like. You had a bunch of kids working on this campaign together, and it was such a mix of the serious and momentous and just the silly ways that we are. For people in my generation, it was an unbelievable way to grow up.”

So, if Obama has a plan to visit Indonesia next years during his position as a US President, maybe Indonesian people will not hear Obama said, “Pulang kampung, nih!” again.

Sumber: Soewarna Digest 12^th Edition

Risa Suseanty: Queen of Downhill

sumber foto:sportku.com

Successful athletes and top executives have things in common: hard work, persistent, optimist, and focused. We can see those qualities in Risa Suseanty, a downhill champion from Bandung who has earned the nickname Queen of Downhill.

Risa started falling in love with the sport in the third grade. When she first knew about downhill in 1996, she remembered the sport as an unpopular one with small number of athletes because at the time people think of cycling as a fun outdoor activity. “Before downhill, I like cross country. But I have more achievements in downhill.”

When asked about her most memorable competition, she thought immediately about Sea Games.

“Sea Games 2003 was an unforgettable moment for me. The official committee cheated our team. We cannot try and train due to their prohibition to enter the track. They even threatened us by pointing weapon. They had ambition to win Sea Games, by using variety ways including cheating. So, they were the winner.”

She won her first downhill gold medal in Sea Games 1997 in Jakarta. She often represents Indonesia in regional competitions and West Java in National Sports Week (PON). She won gold at Sea Games 2011 in Palembang.

“My first competition in foreign country was in 1994, in Australia,” Risa says recalling that she wanted to go and compete in Europe or America but the need of funding kept her away from her dreams. “It’s not easy to live in the US and Europe for few months without any sponsorship,” she admits, regretting the lack of support from Indonesian government and private institutions to downhill athletes.

Sporty at School

Unfortunately for her, school and sport didn’t go well together. During her first years as athlete, she had to be absent frequently, making it hard to graduate. She passed exams with minimum marks. So, she enrolled at Ragunan High School, in which the school has a special program that caters to teen athletes.  She can balance the sports and formal study at that school. Aside from having a regular training, Risa had the flexibility to take school exam adjustable to her presence at any sports events. “Sometimes my examination was in Subang, and occassionally in Malang.”  

Sport has always been in her life. Prior to embarking on downhill, young Risa took private courses in badminton. She always thought she’d focus on badminton and be a national athlete. Being born into a sport-enthusiast family has its own downside. Despite having discipline and focus taught at a young age, Risa admits she had little time to hang out with her peers.

“Whenever my friends asked me to play, I was still skipping, sitting up or doing some exercises. Sport was my life. My brothers love sports. Their hobbies include badminton, roller blade and doing other sports. I chose badminton,” she recalls.

Compared to her friends, Risa always had good marks in PE.  Her schedule consists of playing badminton on weekdays and cycling on weekends. Although she loves badminton, she’s more interested in cycling, especially in cross country. Eventually, Risa decided to focus on downhill and let her badminton career go.

Social Biking

For Risa, biking is not only a sport, but also a social life. The sport brings together people from different backgrounds, education levels, professions, organizations and social statuses. They can make friends each other regardless who or what they are, thanks to biking which act as a communication device for them.

“Sport, especially biking, is part of my life. I want to have second career that also relates to biking. Currently, I’m actively involved in social biking. I ‘m often invited by companies to be speaker on their talk shows.”

Risa wants to create riding trips. It means people can travel to any places by biking. She also does coaching clinics. In Europe, for example, some companies encourage their staff to bike to work by giving incentives. In her opinion, it is an effective way to socialize biking.

“Besides motivating people to bike, social biking can create a fun trip for travelers,” she suggests.

Risa is pure sport lover. Besides ‘land sport’ such as badminton and biking, she also loves a ‘marine sport’. “I like diving. I often dive in Raja Ampat.”  Perhaps she should try skydiving next.

(Soewarna Digest 18th)

Anne Ahira – CEO of AsianBrain.com : A Million Dollar Girl from the Village

sumber foto: www.mp3.us

Money and skills are two things that relate to each other. But having no IT background skill doesn’t mean no success in online business. Although she was born and raised in a small village in Bandung, Anne Ahira’s business has reached numerous corners of the globe. She even has set up office in the US.

Although Anne Ahira has no prior experience in internet marketing, she proved herself to be one of top internet marketer in the world. With her AsianBrain.com, she teaches people to earn money from the internet. As her childhood dream, now she becomes a “Guru” for those who are unfamiliar with internet marketing experiences.

Success in internet marketing is not an easy way for her. Her parents and friends don’t seem to support her when she first began to learn it. Her parents even did not talk with her for months. “I lost love at the time,” she recalled. Her friends considered her as a ‘crazy girl’ who had unrealistic dream to be rich on the internet. Moreover internet was still not a familiar territory for many Indonesian people even presently. But she treated it as a challenge and it motivated her to be successful in online business. Challenge, in her opinion, makes us stronger than before. And it encouraged her to prove it.

But in online business, the biggest challenge is information overload. Too much information doesn’t mean better. For beginners, a lot of information will make them confused and in the end they don’t do anything to start. Some people consider that internet business is a fast track to be rich. People must learn about it first before gaining money. And it’s difficult for beginners.

“I got my first US$ 8 after learning for 2 years,” she said.

Changeable Dream

Anne Ahira is an original Sundanese girl, born and raised in Banjaran. She has no goal to be netpreneuer when she was a child. She wanted to be a doctor after her grandmother’s death.. But when she was in  primary school, her dream changed: to be a teacher. For her, teacher is precious profession, making people bright. After that, she changed her dream again. Seeing female police made her wanted to be like them. But when she found out that a lot of Indonesian police officers are corrupt, she decided not to go for the profession. So she kept looking for other targets.

“Because I have a dream to visit many countries around the world, I signed up to be a stewardess. But due to the airline’s policy that candidates must attach permit letter from their parents, and my parents did not sign it, I didn’t join the airline,” she recalled.

Ahira decided to continue her life by entering the Foreign Language School (Sekolah Tinggi Bahasa Asing) in Bandung. While studying in the college, she took interest in online business. “Potential income with low capital is the reason why I choose online business to earn money. We can compare it to offline business which takes a lot of money to earn much money,” she reasoned out.

Digital Product

Internet market share is so large. Although there are a lot of competitors in online business, but majority of netters are consumers, not business players. For example, Ahira said, how many people use blog for business? Only 1-2 percent! So even a newbie marketer also has a huge chance to earn money. Everybody can sell anything on internet. Small-medium enterprises or even home business owners can get buyers from foreign countries. Internet makes our world borderless.

Talking about Indonesian market, Ahira said that we have potential buyer as long as we know how to fill their needs. In online business, one word means one market. Fashion, sticker, shoes, books, horse, souvenirs are some words that have their own market. Skill or services also has its own market.

“If you can teach math, why don’t you offer an online math course? For sure we have a lot of market for that in Indonesia,” she suggested.

Ahira herself creates digital products instead of real one. With her company, AsianBrain, she offers long distance online business learning.  Her products are video, modules and audios that members can download after paying for the course. Many people who have joined to become AsianBrain’s members succeed in their own online business. Their business not only covers digital products, but also real products such as fashion, shoes, communication technology, books etc.

“For me, digital product is simple, doesn’t have to be packed or requires a logistic company to deliver it. But, real product is good for some people. So just do your business, whatever it is that you sell, and make money from global market.”

 Market Growth

As a CEO of AsianBrain, Ahira continues to observe internet marketing trend. In 2004, to be the first listed page on Google was easy. The market was still small, and there were not many online business players.  But now, she observes, one site must posses backlink, knowing the meta tag and the meta title to be the first page listed. And players must have those skills to remain existent on the internet market. But competitors should not be an obstacle for online business players. The more the competitors, the larger the market is.

“As long as we have marketing skill, do not be afraid to lose your market,” she said enthusiastically. If someone has internet marketing skill, he/she can sell anything and make it sold. But it needs learning and practicing before they enter the ‘internet marketing jungle’.

Do you use online social network to promote your business?

“I never do hard-selling on my Facebook account. I just share what I’ve done, and show to my friends about my daily activities. Later they visit my AsianBrain site and try to be free member for one month.”

She suggested to all her students to spare their time to learn internet marketing at least for two years. Sometimes, after six months they can earn money from what they’ve learned. To be successful, they should continue learning, practicing and praying.

AsianBrain is not the only one online business that Ahira has. She has other businesses in US, UK, India and of course Indonesia. One month in Indonesia, four months in the US, that’s how she spends her time. In Indonesia, her “head-quarter’ is located in her hometown, Banjaran. Nobody knows, there is global business in a small office in a small village.

The ‘village girl’ is really making money from her own ‘world’, the internet.

(Soewarna Digest 10th Edition)

Success Entrepreneur: Brian Yaputra

sumber: attalicious.wordpress.com

Stained glass, despite being a part of Indonesian art, was never popular. But in Brian’s hand, it’s gaining both local and international admirers, including Disneyland which uses his artwork in Hong Kong.

Born in an entrepreneur family, Brian decided to start his own business instead of taking over his father’s Honda motorcycle company which has been running since 1980s. He says he has no desire in that field.  

“I have a totally different business from my parents. I love art. Some people, in the year that I’ve just begun my stained glass [business], tend to underestimate artists, art workers and even the artworks. Singers and painters are one of those art professions. About 20 years ago, people wanted their children to be doctors or professors than art-workers,” he explains.

Aware about the challenge, he turned his business to the property industry which was booming at the time. Developers were his first clients. He wasn’t doing work only for individual homes but also for houses of worship such as mosques and churches.

“Stained glasses are important ornaments in church or mosque. It’s like a mosque’s drum. Without it, those houses of worship aren’t complete.”

Managing over 400 employees, including 280 art workers in his factory, is not an easy job. Doing a business that’s based on a hobby, Brian was never concerned with promotion plans. He didn’t have any, even to increase the company’s profit. Passion is more than enough to keep the business running and growing.

“But not everyone likes stained glass,” he admits. For him, picture or visual art is a feeling. So, precision is the most important in creating stained glasses. As a man who has spent over 31 years in the business, Brian is able to detect flaws in the current products.

“To minimize the number of products being rejected, we use computer to design.”

Hong Kong Disneyland

Creativity is an asset. People who has creative mind can utilize whatever they have, even scrap goods. Brian and his team turn scrap fabric into artistic art work. In his factory, located in Cikupa, Tangerang, the wall is artistically decorated with icons of animals, human, and buildings, composed by putting together hundreds and maybe even thousands of scrap fabrics.

“Those are made by my team’s creativity,” Brian explains.

Talking about the team, he sent one of his staff to study in the US. Upon his return to Indonesia, his staff pointed out the incorrect techniques they’re currently using in making artworks. So Brian changed the technique for the next production. That staff is still working for him now.

“There are some old staff who are still here, including the guy who was sent to the US. Although some of them were hijacked by competitors, but thanks God, they came back to work with me. [There] they did not get what I can give to them.”

Human resources quality seems to be the most important thing for him, aside from the product quality. No wonder, Disneyland, offered him a stained glass project.

“I flew from Beijing to Hongkong, and sat next to Dr. Tao Ho, President of The Hong Kong Institute of Architects. When he found out that I was a stained glass art maker, he wanted to visit my factory. And as the story goes, Disneyland made a deal to do a project with me,” he recalls with a smile.

Brian never allows anyone to ruin his artwork. When someone stuck a chewing gum on his Disneyland stained glass artwork, he cleaned it up. Unfortunately, a security suspected him doing vandalism.

“When I told him that I was the art-maker, he did not believe it,” Brian laughs.

Disneyland, according to him, is very appreciative to an artwork. They even didn’t negotiate price. As long as it’s been recommended by people who worked for Disneyland, they couldn’t care less about how much money they should spend on an artwork.

Foreign people avoid problems caused by missed schedule because it will make multiple effects such as paying more than what they have budgeted for the project. So, hiring professionals is the key to minimize the risk. They will do it even though they must pay a high price for it.”

Business and Art

Stained glass has niche market both in local and international world. Houses of worship developers, hotels see Brian’s products as an added value. His brand, Eztu Glass Art, has been introducing this ‘foreign art’ to the clueless public. And all that efforts are showing great results. A Bali-based Dutch artist said he used to only see colorful glasses in church, but now he’s seen them in homes too.

“Stained glass fits those who suffer from dust allergy. Different from curtain, dust doesn’t stick to the glass. So it’s a great alterative for the windows when doctors recommend them not to use curtain.”

Creativity can be copied. In this business, design is one important asset that often got pirated and claimed original by others.

“My designs were sold in lower prices in Indonesian biggest online forum. About 90 percent sellers in the websites are pirating my works. But it’s okay.  Everyone has their market share. People with higher income wouldn’t want to buy counterfeit goods. They’d prefer Eztu Glass product.”

For this Merias Cahaya author, art is the heart and business must follow passion. Problems are just common item, not a special one. He even treats problems as side dishes. But he advises that it’s important to be able to anticipate.

“Expect the unexpected,” he suggests.

How about competitor?

“Creating something unusual is the key to success.”

 (Soewarna Digest 17th Edition)