BRAND MASTER
Soetikno Soedarjo, CEO of MRA Group, brought Bulgari and Hard Rock Cafe, Ferrari and Maserati, HarleyDavidson and HaagenDazs to Indonesia. He discussed his leadership style with CHRIS HANRAHAN
WHEN THE GOING gets tough, the tough get going. At a dinner for 1,400 Ferrari dealers and clients at the stunning Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, a modern opera house and cultural centre in Valencia, Spain, in December 2012, guests started shivering before the first course had been served. Something had evidently gone badly awry with the heating system. To make matters worse, gusts of bitterly cold air began whistling through the huge, high-ceilinged open space. Outside, the temperature had plummeted and a powerful gale kept blowing the building’s large, heavy doors wide open as latecomers arrived for the posh party. Many of the guests streamed to the cloakroom to retrieve their hats, coats and scarves.
A few hardy souls, however, remained calm and carried on as though nothing untoward had happened. No hats and coats needed by them, thank you very much! Among the small number of guests who toughed it out until the heat came back on was Soetikno Soedarjo, co-founder and President Director of MRA Group. Nothing, it seems, not even a freakishly freezing winter evening on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, can faze the man who brought Bulgari Resorts and Hard Rock Cafe, Ferrari and Maserati, Harley-Davidson and Haagen-Dazs, and and
to Indonesia. Soedarjo has proven to be a master of identifying luxury brands that will appeal to Indonesia’s rapidly emerging new middle class of some 20 million citizens, 50 percent of whom are under 30 years of age. As his company’s website points out: “These people are prosperous and ambitious, and are eager to sample the best the world has to offer.” The MRA Group story began in 1993, when Soedarjo and his business partners seized an opportunity to bring Hard Rock Café to the archipelago. Next, they initiated a broadcast media division. The group launched
here in August 1997, and went on to introduce many more magazine titles. Among the group’s retail and lifestyle brands are Bulgari and Bang & Olufsen. Perhaps Soedarjo’s biggest coup to date came in 2006, when MRA Group opened the 58-villa Bulgari Hotel in Bali – a US$28 million project.
After more than 20 years of success in business, how does Soedarjo keep things fresh and maintain his 3,000-employee company’s leadership position in an ever more competitive market? “I think that if you want to be a successful business leader today you have to be fair in everything you do,” he says. “I am someone who is honest and fair, and transparent about things. I think you have to tell your people honestly if they are doing well or badly, so that you can come up with solutions. You have to stay that way – be brave and take risks. The leaders I most admire are people like Bill Clinton. He’s a real man. He has style, he’s charming, he’s decisive and he’s a risk taker. America was strong when he was President. I admire the late Margaret Thatcher, the iron lady, and Soekarno, of course - a great leader.”
Soedarjo believes in open management, “and two-way traffic. I love criticism. I want to be criticised by my people. This is the culture that we have developed at MRA Group. My people are young and ambitious. Their average age is 28. Of course they will be critical if they don’t like what’s going on. Each of the company’s six divisions – retail and lifestyle, automotive, print media, broadcast media, food and beverage, and hotels and property - is given a target, and the general managers of each of the various businesses are given the authority and responsibility to perform. I’m not the type of CEO who micro manages. I put a lot of trust in my people and I give them the freedom they need to achieve their goals. In my experience, they hit their targets most of the time.
“I encourage my managers to speak out and tell me what’s missing or lacking in the group, and this is how I get their feedback and their ideas. They respect me. For sure, a great
leader should be respected. But he should not be feared, because if his managers are afraid to speak up he may not hear about any great ideas they might have for the business and opportunities may be lost. When we hold brainstorming sessions, I tell my people that there are no wrong ideas. It’s just that some ideas are more workable than others.” Soedarjo keeps on top of what is going on across his organisation by holding quarterly meetings with his division heads and other key managers. “Usually, about 40 of us get together to review each division’s performance and to share best practices. This is very useful because many of these practices are applicable to a wide range of businesses and industries. We all learn from each other at these sessions.” Once a year, in October, Soedarjo meets with his most senior managers to decide on budget allocations and sales targets for each division for the next calendar year.
Jakarta-born Soedarjo sees himself as a natural leader. “I have it in my blood,” he says. “When I was very young, at elementary school, I was the naughtiest one in class. I did well academically and the teachers would choose me to lead extra-curricular activities. Every morning, we would salute the national flag – this is something the schools no longer do, and I think it’s a pity – and I was made commander of that ceremony. I was 11 or 12 years old then, and I felt very proud and patriotic. I was also made captain of the school soccer team. I wore the number 10 shirt and I wasn’t a bad player.” He went on to the University of San Francisco, where he graduated with an MBA in Finance in 1981. “Leadership was an important part of the programme and so was business ethics, which I found very interesting,” he recalls. “The MBA programme taught me how to apply the theories I had learned in my Bachelor’s degree studies in the real world.”
Soedarjo’s father, who was a successful trader in commodities like tea, coffee and rubber, and founded Sinar Harapan, once one of Indonesia’s most important newspapers, had a big influence on him. “He was a great man,” says Soedarjo. “What was most important for him was honesty and delivering on his commitments. He was a straightforward kind of businessman. His reputation was everything to him.” Ong Beng Seng, a billionaire Singaporean investor and MRA Group’s partner in Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay, is an important mentor. “He’s been a friend for a long time,” says Soedarjo. “He has advised me quite a bit and I look up to him.” He also pays tribute to the support of Adiguna Sutowo, a co-founder of MRA Group, and to the advice of Edwin Soeryadjaya, founder of Saratoga Capital and cofounder of Adaro Energy.
Soedarjo believes his main strengths as a business leader are that he is “patient and willing to wait and strike at the right moment to make a deal. I am not too hasty to make decisions, so I make fewer mistakes. I’m a big picture guy, not an operations guy. Denis Sibbald, who has been my COO for the last six years, handles the day-today decisions. The division heads report to him, and he reports to me.” How about weaknesses? “I think I am too kind,” says Soedarjo. “I am not too demanding. I would have achieved bigger things if I were more aggressive towards my people. I am too considerate sometimes and inclined to give them another chance.” He enjoys pressure. “I never try to avoid problems or run away from them,” he says. “I like to confront them and solve them the best way I can. The hardest decisions I’ve had to take have involved laying off people. I have done my best to reallocate people to other businesses, but unfortunately it isn’t always possible.”
Good examples of Soedarjo’s ability to strike at the right time include MRA Group’s acquisition of the Harley-Davidson franchise in 1997 and its move for the rights to also an opportunity,” he explains. “Those brands were available at a very good price.” Soedarjo learned a painful lesson with his fashion division in the nineties. “We took on too many underperforming brands and eventually we had
“I’m not the type of CEO who micro manages. I put a lot of trust in my people. In my experience, they hit their targets most of the time”
sell Ferraris here in 2001. “Because the economy was in such bad shape during those years, people thought I was crazy. But, for me, a crisis was to shut the division down,” he recalls. “That was a tough call. Our strategy now is to go after the major players in every field - the ones with a spectacular track record.”
When he hires people for his management team, Soedarjo is “mostly looking for the right attitude and character - the rest they can learn. I think I am OK at judging people, but I’m not the best at it. I have been lucky to find some great people who have been working for me for years and years. I take good care of the ones who are performing well and they have been loyal to me in return. Each division has a leader and each brand has a GM. When the leader is good the result will be good. I think the way to motivate people is to treat them the way you would wish to be treated. It’s carrot and stick, but they know I’m fair. I treat them with respect and I think they feel motivated by that. I deliver on my promises.”
Inculcating a spirit of harmony in the organisation is important to Soedarjo. “In keeping with the philosophy of Pancasila, we have people of all religions in the group. It has always been our policy to develop and promote good performers regardless of their faith or ethnicity. I have 40 key people in the group. None of them is related to me and some of them have been working for me for 15 to 20 years. Now and again, I bring in fresh talent. This is because it’s always important to have new blood and to shake things up from time to time.”
Looking five to 10 years ahead, Soedarjo hopes to achieve an initial public offering of shares in MRA Group. “That way, we can become even more professional and transparent,” he explains. After 20-plus years it’s time to become a listed company. I hope we can do it in the next year or two.” What will he do after the IPO? “I shall never retire,” grins Soedarjo, “but I will take the opportunity to spend more time riding Harleys and driving Ferraris.” And, perhaps, sailing in state-of-theart motor yachts. MRA Group has just added Ferretti to its impressive portfolio of luxury brands.