A friend Indeed
Five society personalities share their thoughts on friendship and their indent friend stories
The family business started as a rubber plantation in 1919 established by Shinta’s grandfather, Oey Kim Tjiang. It then shifted its focus to trading in 1959 when her father, Johnny Widjaja, took over. At that point, it was only a matter of time before Shinta would be handed over the reins. Shinta remembers the times during her primary school years when she would help out at her father’s office, even if it was in the smallest capacity. It was when she was 13 that Shinta got her first experience of trading: selling books doorto-door. Through the successes and failures of the experience, Shinta was determined to push on and gather as much knowledge and experience as possible. No school vacation since then went by without Shinta doing some form of work. The trend continued to her university days, where she would intern at various companies during term breaks.
Having garnered experience at various companies, Shinta immediately began her career at the family business, as a promotion and marketing staff at one of the subsidiaries focusing on consumer products. Despite being the owner’s daughter, she did not receive any form of special treatment. It took years of hard work and putting in plenty of extra effort before she got her first promotion. Shinta was extremely proud of this promotion as years of hard work had finally paid off. No one could take it away from her as she had done it all by her own two hands.
The biggest breakthrough for Shinta came a few years later when she proposed the concept of unifying the numerous