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Book Resume from Marj Galangco

As a restaurateur, your greatest expense is not your staff or your rent or your food bills ? It?S the big number of consistently empty seats that are going to bleed you dry. So more than anything, your top priority as a restaurateur is to keep those seats warmed up.

While profit margins in the catering business is relatively big, running a profitable restaurant doesn?T just involve serving good food. In fact, it?S been demonstrated that you can serve mediocre food and still reap massive success if only you have a brilliant marketing strategy ? Just look at McDonald?S.

Sadly, many restaurateurs go into business thinking about everything else but the marketing plan. They fret over the food supplies, the kitchen appliances, the interior design, the staff, but they don?T spend enough time on strategizing how exactly they are going to consistently attract (and keep!) customers.

What You'll Learn from this Article

Because you?Re reading this, I?M assuming you?Re a restaurant owner/manager looking for ways to increase sales. I'm going to give many tips and ideas about how to exactly do this in a series of hubs, but in this article I'm going to give you just one powerful, simple, ridiculously cheap way to:

* Boost your sales consistently

* Keep your phone ringing off the hook

* Be the FIRST restaurant to come to mind when your customers think of eating out

* Give your customers compelling reasons to keep coming back

* Turn your customers into loyal customers and your very own army of salespeople

* Be the talk of the town on a regular basis

That?S right, all of these are achievable just by doing one simple thing. In fact, it?S so simple it's hardly believable why there are still very few restaurants that practice this. But first, I want to briefly go through one of the most common mistakes that you should NOT be doing.

The Problem with Advertising

When restaurants struggle to fill empty seats through word of mouth alone, what do they do? They advertise. They advertise without rencana, and without a clear strategy. Their campaign ends up being a desperate, short term attempt to inject cash in the business.

But it never works like that.

Advertising has its advantages when executed as part of a sound, well-thought out marketing plan. The persoalan is that it's rarely used properly by restaurateurs:

* Advertising has to be used as part of a bigger marketing plan. The problem is that it?S almost always used as the sole method of attracting customers. It?S just like trying to walk by using one leg alone - it?S ineffective and pointless.

* When restaurants advertise, they usually do it by running print adverts on local magazines and newspapers, buying expensive radio airtime, hiring workers to hand out leaflets to random passers-by outside the restaurant, etc. The main duduk perkara with this happens when the effectiveness is not measured at all, so restaurateurs rarely have solid figures showing actual return on investment (ROI) from these campaigns. If you don?T know how much sale each campaign produced, then how do you know which campaigns are worth doing again, and which ones are worth ditching?

* When restaurateurs buy advertising space in a magazine, the ads are usually done without clear sales targets and goals. If you haven't been doing anything else that had won your sasaran audience's trust over time, do you think they will pay attention when they see your name in an advert?

* Many print ads are haphazardly put together by someone from the restaurant who has no idea about sales and copywriting.

If you?Re guilty of the above mistakes, you?Re not alone. Far too many restaurateurs do thess practices, which, if you think about it, are rather insane.

Understand that there are three factors that affect the bottom line of your restaurant:

1. The number of customers coming to the restaurant

2. The frequency of the customers? Visits

3. The amount of money customers spend per visit

So in order to increase sales, you need to:

1. Acquire new customers regularly

dua. Ensure customers come back as often as possible

3. Upsell to people already eating in the restaurant.

Therefore you must focus on implementing campaigns that affect one or more of these three factors. The method I am going to discuss with you here affect all three.

Here?S the step-by-step action plan:

Step 1. Build Your List

From now on, you must endeavour to gather the following information about every customer you come in contact with:

* Full name

* Postal address

* Email address

* Occupation(do they own a business?)

* Special dates like Birthdays, anniversary dates, etc. (very important)

It will later become clear WHY, but for now I?D like to discuss the many ways how to build your list:

a. Produce Incentives

People nowadays are very reluctant to give their details so they need compelling reasons to do so. You can easily get round this persoalan is by offering incentives in exchange for their details. But before you do so, find out first what appeals most to your customers by asking them.

Common offers are ?2for1 on Main Meals?, ?Get a Free Appetizer? ?Free Dessert?, etc. If your target audience are families, giving away ?Kids under 6 Eat for Free? Vouchers could motivate them to take the family out to dinner.

Now, if you really don?T want to give away free stuff, there?S another way to offer your customers attractive incentives without costing you a penny. But first, because you object to giving away free meals, there are a few things you need to understand before we can proceed any further. (If you are perfectly fine with giving away free meals, just skip this section and proceed to the next section, ?Joint Ventures?)

If you object to giving away free meals as incentive to your customers because you think this is a costly price to pay just for the sake of obtaining their personal details, you need to understand that:

* When a customer redeems a gift voucher for a free meal, they usually come with at least one other person, so you?Ll still make profits from the drinks, desserts, and meals from that table. So there is more chance of earning money than losing money by doing this.

* Gift vouchers motivate your customers to pay you a visit even when they don?T really have immediate plans to dine out. When this happens, they are going to create reasons to convince their friends or family to go dine out with them, thus acting as salespeople for you.

* When they convince friends, relatives and family members to go with them, chances are some of these people haven?T been to your restaurant before. If you do a great job of impressing these new customers, you just bagged yourself new, (and potentially loyal) customers.

So you see, when evaluating whether or not a marketing investment is worth doing or not, looking at the return on investment is more relevant than looking at the marketing expense.

B. Joint Ventures

Another way you can obtain free gift vouchers is by doing joint ventures with other businesses that offer goods complementary to yours. For example, let?S say your restaurant attracts young, trendy professionals. You can get a local trendy salon (because they are targeting the sort of people who eat at your restaurant) to produce gift certificates offering say, ?Free cut and blow dry for every colour treatment? Or ?Free manicure and pedicure for every cut and blow dry?. You can give away these gift vouchers to your customers to incentivise your customers to give their details to you, and at the same time you help the salon obtain highly targeted, new customers.

You can see how this arrangement is WIN-WIN-WIN: the salon is happy because you just helped them gather new customers for free; Your customers are happy because you got them a deal that they find absolutely useful; You?Re happy because you're growing your list and in the eyes of your customers they get way more value from you compared to the other restaurants!

You can also use Joint Ventures to get the salon to distribute your gift vouchers to their customers. When these customers redeem the vouchers, get their details. This way, you're instantly tapping into the big customers base of another business, with very little effort or risk!

C. Your Website

If you have a restaurant website and it doesn?T have an opt-in section on the front page, this is enough evidence that you made the mistake of hiring a website developer who is clueless about online marketing. Replace them now if they mentioned nothing about list-building and email marketing. Web developers are supposed to make the internet boost your sales. The sign of a competent web developer is proactively advising you about possible tools that will help you make sales, so if your website hasn?T done this for you, then they haven?T done their job, fullstop. Fire them.

Your website's homepage should have an opt-in section asking for the customer's personal details. If you don?T know how to do this, www.Easisell.Com can set it up for you. If you don?T have a cash-generating restaurant website, they?Ll also be able to actively advise you about what will work for your restaurant.

D. Train Your Staff to Ask

Train your staff on how to give away the gift vouchers and get your customers to fill out the forms with their information. Do this as much as possible.

E. Say it with Words

One way to make this really easy is to produce a one-halaman printed leaflet that says something like, ?Would you like to receive exclusive offers and FREE gifts and discounts? Sign up for our mailing list. Just fill in the details....?

When the customer asks for the bill, just stick this leaflet over the bill so the customer doesn?T miss seeing it. When the waiter comes over to give the bill to the customer, they can sweetly coax them into filling out the form by enthusiastically elaborating what sort of wonderful offers the customers can look forward to if they join the list.

Another way is to print a message on the receipt itself. TGI Friday is doing this. Allocate a portion of the receipt for a noticeable message that says, ?Log on to www.Ourrestaurant.Com within the next 7 days and claim your free gift!? Again, when the staff hands the receipt over, they must make a point of drawing the customer?S attention to the message.

Yet another way is to have a prominent sign communicating the same message. Place your message where customers are most likely to see them, like on posters in the bathroom, on a restaurant board, on a notice board, at the reception area, or right where the cash register is.

Step dua. Manage your Customer Data

The best way to handle your mailing list is to use a tool called an Autoresponder. The tool I recommend for this AWeber.Com. It will allow you easily and safely manage and store your customer?S details without having to worry about backing up your files or worrying about losing your customer data.

Step tiga. Send Mail to your List

Now that you have got your list, you can now communicate with your customers whenever you want (but don?T contact them too often or they will unsubscribe). Ideally you have gathered at least 2500 customer names within 4 to 8 weeks.

Now here?S the money-making part. Here are some fantastic ways to generate more sales by using your customer list:

Happy Birthdays

Here?S how you can make someone?S birthday a happy day for you both. Every week, check your list and watch out for upcoming birthdays. Two weeks before someone?S birthday, send them a special printed postcard via the post, greeting them a big warm ?Happy Birthday!?, giving them a FREE GIFT which they can redeem at your restaurant. Of course, invite them to book their birthday party at your place.

If they haven?T booked within 7 days, give them a courtesy phone call or email or text message to personally greet them a happy Birthday (and follow up about the birthday party booking).

On the day of their birthday, send them another message.

By the way, make sure the birthday postcard has three things:

* Subtly branded, well-designed and conveys the right image

* Contains a heartfelt and sincere birthday message from you and/or your entire team, and

* A Birthday GIFT

Make sure the gift you offer fulfils three requirements:

* It's absolutely, positively, irresistibly enticing. Make it very difficult for your customer to refuse. If you?Re planning to offer them a free appetizer, forget it.

* It encourages the customer to book their birthday party at your restaurant, and it encourages them to book a huge party

* It?S redeemable within a narrow period of time

Business Customers

You can apply the same principle to Businesses in your area. Send businesses regular messages that will entice them to use your restaurant for every event they organize.

Get creative! Send businesses lunch menus. To liven up your quiet Monday evenings, send them a "Happy Mondaydanquot; postcard (i just made that one up) - where you encourage them to go straight to your restaurant after work on a Monday evening, and you have something cool going on like a live Jazz band (whatever it is, be sure it suits your audience).

Special Occasions

You can apply the same principle for other occasions like wedding anniversaries, business anniversaries, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.

Profit Projection

So let?S say that out of the 2500 names in your list, there are 250 people celebrating their birthday for the next month. This mailing cost you $150 or 60 cents each postcard including postage.

You send a post card to all these people offering them a free 3 course meal as a gift if they book their birthday party at your place. Let?S say this gift is going to cost you $10. Let?S say that only lima% to 15% took your offer, so that?S between 12.Lima to 37.Lima birthday people booking their birthdays at your restaurants per month. That's between 3 to 9 birthday parties per week!

Let?S say that each of those people only had 4 other people with them in their birthday party, and each of these parties only amounted to $150 per table.

If you do the Maths, you'll see that:

If 5% took your offer = $1715 gross profit

If 10% took your offer =$3590 gross profit

If 15% took your offer = $5465 gross profit

You can easily earn an extra $1700 to well over $5400 per month, every month. This is from birthday bookings alone.

Take note that these are conservative figures as our projection didn?T take into account the potential big group bookings and the repeat business that will come out of each booking. We also haven?T factored in the sales that will be generated from the Wedding or Business Anniversary campaigns, which you will run simultaneously with the Birthday campaign.

Plus, imagine the pleasant feelings your surprise gift will generate in your customers. Do you think they will mention your nice surprise to other people? Absolutely. And what do you think their friends and relatives will think of your restaurant? Do you think they will be impressed? You bet!

Be a Hero

When someone books a party in your restaurant, offer to help them. Organizing the logistics for a party is such a cumbersome task for many people. Be a hero and offer to take the weight off their shoulders.

Do they need a project manager to organize it for them? Do they need invitation printed out and sent to their friends and family? Do they need to find a magician or superheroes for Little Donny?S 6th birthday party? Do they need clowns and balloons and toys? Or for Christine?S 15th birthday maybe it?S a live band she?S after?

You can make this into an extra income stream by referring your customers to the services they are already looking for, like invitation card suppliers, magicians and entertainers. Make advanced arrangements with trustworthy entertainers and agree to refer them to your customers in exchange for a fair commission. If you do this, also offer to give commissions to all the entertainers you know. Tell them you?Re willing to pay them an equally good commission is they persuade their customers to book their gigs at your place!

Goodbye Quiet Days

When you have built your list, you can easily conjure offers and then get the word out immediately to the appropriate subscribers. Run a campaign once a month designed to address specific customer profiles. Solve quiet Mondays and Tuesday evenings by creating Special Meal Deals or events on these evenings.

For example, why not run a Singles Evening every first Friday, a Couples Evening every second Tuesday, or a Family Evening every first Monday. Run these events with the appropriate attractions. Have a Jazz Night during the couples and singles evening, have a quiz and games show during the family evening.

The possibilities are endless and the beauty of it is that you can get as creative as you like and you can get the word out instantly to the sasaran audience!

RECOMMENDATIONS

If you think that doing all the work recommended here sound complicated, difficult, and time-consuming for you, outsourcing these tasks could prove to be a wise move.

Outsourcing has many benefits if you hire the right people. It will save you time; it will save you money; you produce the best results because you're leveraging your resources; you focus on things that you do best while you let the marketing experts do what they do best.

IN CONCLUSION

To reiterate, building your list is absolutely crucial to the success of your business because it allows you to:

1. Be the FIRST restaurant to come to mind when your customers think of dining out, and most especially when they are celebrating their birthdays, anniversaries, business functions, and other special occasions

dua. Give your customers compelling reasons to keep coming back

3. Turn your customers into loyal customers and your very own army of salespeople

4. Be the talk of the town on a regular basis as people spread the word about your briliant service, thoughtfulness and generosity

Again, the tool I recommended for listbulding is AWeber, and if you still don't have a compelling website, go to Easisell.Com

What it really is all about is learning how to leverage your existing resources so you get maximum results from minimum effort. Outsourcing some of the functions you are not particularly skilled to do could benefit you more than if you tried to do these things yourself.

Tak salah, Martua Sitorus adalah salah satu ikon penting industri sawit di Indonesia. Bukan karena ia punya kebun sawit terluas di Indonesia. Dari sisi kepemilikan kebun bisa jadi masih kalah dari Sinarmas Group, Salim dan Astra. Ia pengusaha hebat karena menguasai industri perdagangan dan pengolahan hasil sawit, termasuk industry refinery-nya. Wilmar Group / KPN Group miliknya merupakan pembeli terbesar minyak CPO dari berbagai pemilik kebun dan pabrik sawit di Indonesia. Wilmar yang mengolah dan mengekspornya ke berbaga belahan dunia.  Perusahaan yang ia bangun  sudah go public diSingapore Stock Exchange dan disebut-sebut sebagai salah satu perusahaan publik berkapitalisasi pasar terbesar di bursa negeri jiran itu.

Wilmar International sekarang pula sudah familier bagi pemain agrobisnis di Indonesia. Kiprahnya tak sekadar jagoan lokal. Wilmar sudah sebagai pemain global, mempunyai tak kurang dari 160 pabrik pemrosesan minyak sawit dan minyak botani di berbagai negara termasuk Indonesia, Malaysia, China dan India.

Siapa sebenarnya Martua Sitorus & bagaimana dia memulai usaha?

Martua Sitorus adalah sosok menarik karena pada ketika usianya baru 48 tahun sudah mampu mengendalikan bisnis beromset miliaran dolar. Menurut sumber yg sangat dekat mengenalnya, Martua yg bernama Tionghoa, Thio Seng Hap adalah putra pemilik toko UD Sadar pada Pematang Siantar ? Toko akbar yang menjual banyak sekali kebutuhan sehari-hari. Di Pematang Siantar orang lebih mengenal Martua menjadi Ahok, anak kedua berdasarkan 5 bersaudara. Keluarga Martua termasuk salah satu orang terkaya pada kota itu.

Ketika berusaha mulai menjalankan usaha sendiri, Ahok dimodali 9 unit truk oleh orang tuanya buat berbisnis transportasi pada Medan. Di akhir 1980-an, Martua mencoba membuka pabrik palm kernel (produk sampingan kelapa sawit) mini -kecilan menggunakan produksi kurang lebih 40 ton/hari di Belawan. Martua pula belajar dagang minyak goreng yg dibeli dari Grup Salim & Grup Sinarmas ? Menurut sinilah Martua punya jejaring menggunakan 2 grup akbar itu.

Ketika mulai membuka pabrik palm kernel itu pulalah Martua kenal dengan William Kuok, keponakan Robert Kuok, raja minyak sawit & raja gula di Malaysia (Kuok Brothers) yg sangat terkenal pada global. William merupakan Direktur Pengelola Kuok Group, sebagai akibatnya memang sangat berpengalaman dan dikenal secara internasional. Karena berselisih paham menggunakan Robert, beliau keluar & merintis usaha sendiri yang kemudian bertemu dengan Martua.

Martua dan William rupanya berjodoh. Mereka kemudian bergandengan tangan di tahun 1991, melahirkan Karya Praja Nelayan (Grup KPN) yang berbasis di Medan. Beberapa perusahaan yang mereka dirikan waktu itu pada antaranya PT Bukit Kapur Reksa di Dumai; PT Multi Nabati Asahan (Tanjung Balai Asahan); dan PT Sinar Alam Permai (Palembang) yang menciptakan palm kernel. Tahun 1992, mereka menciptakan pabrik penyulingan PT Bukit Kapur Reksa pada Dumai.

Kehebatan Martua, dari sumber yang tidak mau dianggap namanya, merupakan anak belia yang low profile, pekerja keras & punya lobi yg mengagumkan di sejumlah perusahaan perkebunan (PTP). Di KPN, meski sebagai dirut, Martua biasa terjun eksklusif pada segala hal. ?Semua beliau tangani, akan tetapi tetap ada tim manajemennya, menguasai secara detail seperti bisnis orang-orang Cina pada umumnya,? Pungkasnya. Faktor utama mengapa Wilmar cepat mengembang adalah karena Martua menguasai local sourcing; sedangkan William menguasai pemasaran & finansial termasuk dengan jaringan perbankan di luar negeri. Maklum, William sudah punya nama waktu pada Kuok Group. ?Itulah alasan mengapa Wilmar sanggup terbang sehebat kini , lantaran dikelola 2 orang hebat,? Istilah asal ini.

Maruli Gultom, mantan Presdir PT Astra Agro Lestari, mengakui, Wilmar merupakan salah satu perusahaan agrobisnis terbesar di Asia, dengan pemasaran mencakup Asia, Eropa dan Afrika. Dia menilai Martua adalah sosok yang hebat sehingga bisa membesarkan Wilmar. Maruli sempat bertemu  Martua ketika mendapat undangan makan dari Menteri Perusahaan Perladangan dan Komoditas Malaysia, Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui. Saat itu yang ada hanya Maruli, Peter Chin dan Martua Sitorus. Dari obrolan yang berlangsung, Maruli menyimpulkan Martua adalah orang yang diperhitungkan di negeri jiran. “Dia masih muda dan energik,” kata Maruli.

Sementara itu, Akmaluddin Hasibuan, mantan Ketua Umum Gabungan Pengusaha Kelapa Sawit Indonesia, pula mengamati usaha Wilmar memang berkembang sangat pesat. Menurutnya, Wilmar memulai usaha berdasarkan hilirnya dulu, bukan di perkebunannya (hulu). ?Sekarang sudah masuk biodiesel, pupuk NPK, refinasi, dan sebagainya,? Istilah Akmaluddin.

Akmaluddin mengaku telah kenal usang dengan Martua yg lulusan Fakultas Ekonomi HKBP Nommensen Medan, tempatnya mengajar. ?Beliau baru masuk menjadi mahasiswa, aku sudah mengajar,? Pungkasnya. Kemudian setamat kuliah, Martua memulai usaha mini -kecilan di PTPN VI, di bidang pengangkutan minyak sawit. ?Beliau memang betul-betul self-made man, membangun dirinya sendiri & memahami apa yang diperbuat. Waktu mahasiswa, dia belajar dengan baik, & saat berbisnis pula berbisnis dengan baik.?

Bungaran Saragih, mantan Menteri Pertanian RI, melihat galat satu kunci sukses Wilmar karena merekrut orang-orang yg kapabel sehingga sanggup menangani perusahaan yang sangat cepat beranjak, terintegrasi vertikal & horisontal dengan baik. Jaringan internasionalnya ? Khususnya sumber finansial ? Sangat kuat. ?Apabila tidak bertenaga sumber finansialnya, nir mungkin sanggup melakukan perdagangan & akuisisi perusahaan,? Ujar Bungaran. Di usaha perkebunan sawit, Wilmar tidak menciptakan sendiri, namun membeli. ?Dia mau cepat. Kalau menciptakan sendiri akan lama . Dia beli lalu diperbaiki. Lantaran sudah punya pasar, soal uang nir ada kesulitan,? Tutur Bungaran yang jua mengenal Martua.

Dalam pandangan Bungaran, Wilmar termasuk perusahaan ideal lantaran tidak hanya beranjak di Indonesia, melainkan pemain global dan disegani pada global. Mereka perusahaan trading yg kuat, dipercaya pelanggan dan mau menyebarkan infrastruktur. ?Martua orang pertama yg membuat pelabuhan kelapa sawit. Dia sudah berpikir ketika orang lain belum,? Tuturnya.

Wilmar sejatinya adalah sebuah kelompok perusahaan menggunakan dua wajah: Indonesia dan Malaysia. Maklum pendirinya memang 2 orang, yg satu dari Indonesia yakni Martua Sitorus (48 tahun) berasal Medan, & satunya lagi dari Malaysia, Kuok Khoon Hong alias William Kuok (58 tahun). Begitu pula menggunakan nama Wilmar, yg singkatan menurut Wil(liam) dan Mar(tua). Dua entrepreneur hebat inilah yang kini sedang sebagai pembicaraan hangat pada kalangan usaha minyak nabati olahan dunia. Apalagi Wilmar baru saja menjalin aliansi menggunakan Archer Daniels Midland Company, perusahaan minyak nabati olahan terbesar dunia yang masuk Fortune 100.

Perusahaan ini  tidak sekadar bergerak dari atas ke bawah (hulu ke hilir) tetapi ke kanan dan ke kiri. Artinya, bisnis-bisnis lain juga dikembangkan, seperti pupuk NPK Sentana sekitar tahun 2004, pabrik biodiesel sejak tahun 2005, dan saat ini sedang bergerak ke bisnis chemical oil. Wilmar juga didukung infrastruktur yang cukup kuat, baik untuk transportasi laut maupun darat. Pihaknya memiliki beberapa kapal tanker berkapasitas 10-20 ribu ton, dan segera membeli kapal berkapasitas di atas 30 ribu ton.

Soal taktik investasi, Wilmar agak sedikit tidak selaras dari perusahaan kelapa sawit lain, lantaran mempunyai strategi investasi jangka panjang. ?Kami tidak berpikir investasi kini harus kembali kapital tiga tahun lagi. Kami berpikir sahih-sahih bahwa investasi kami strategis,? Ujar sumber itu. Sebagai contoh, Wilmar menginvestasikan jutaan dolar buat pengembangan infrastruktur tempat industri Dumai. Tidak poly perusahaan yang mau melakukannya lantaran mahal dan return-nya lama . Namun, bagi Wilmar daerah industri Dumai bakal menjadi kawasan terintegrasi minyak kelapa sawit yang lengkap.

Wilmar listing pada Singapura lantaran bursa Singapura lebih likuid & stabil. Singapura selalu menjadi loka yg strategis. Kendati demikian, aktivitas operasional di Indonesia tetap dilakukan di Medan. ?Singapura hanya menjadi headquarter untuk konsolidasi, namun seluruh keputusan diambil pada masing-masing unit,? Ucapnya. Ke depan, Wilmar akan konsisten berbagi perkebunan selama arealnya tersedia & masih pada koridor hukum. ?Per tahun kami berencana membangun kebun kelapa sawit 30-40 ribu ha.?

Yang menarik, cepatnya pertumbuhan bisnis Wilmar diiringi jua kinerja keuangan yg terus kinclong. Tentu saja hal itu sebagai liputan gembira bagi investor publik yg memegang sahamnya. Per Desember 2007, angka return on average asset Wilmar 13,tiga% dan semester I/2008 meningkat menjadi 16,6%. Lalu, dicermati dari return on average capital employed, tahun 2007 sebanyak 11,5%, ad interim semester I/2008 sebagai 14,9%. Tak hanya itu, menurut parameter nomor NAV per saham, Desember 2007 sebanyak 122,9% dan semester I/2008 mencapai 132,1%.

Bisnis utamanya merupakan perdagangan, pemrosesan minyak sawit & minyak botani, selain bisnis perkebunan tentunya. Bisnis perdagangan & pemrosesannya punya pendapatan yg jauh lebih akbar ketimbang usaha perkebunannya yg hanya berkontribusi 5% menurut total pendapatan grup iniDi China, sebut contoh, kelompok ini dikabarkan tak kurang punya 20 pabrik penyulingan. Belum termasuk yg pada Indonesia & Malaysia. Perusahaan ini punya land bank perkebunan 500 ribu ha pada beberapa negara ? Sebagian besar di Indonesia & Malaysia. Luas kebunnya yg telah tertanami per kuartal II/2008 mencapai 215 ribu ha, & kebun yang telah panen 137,7 ribu ha. Mereka memasarkan produknya ke 50 negara di global dengan penekanan pada lima area: Indonesia, Malaysia, Cina, India & Eropa.

Tak keliru, Martua & Wilmar merupakan contoh sempurna pebisnis yang sukses melakukan lompatan kuantum. Maklum, baru mulai tahun 1991, kini skala bisnisnya sudah berkelas global.

Penulis : Sudarmadi

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Buying decisions are more and more shaped by testimonials, written or spoken statements that are used to demonstrate social proof and build trust. When believed true, they are not only among the most effective marketing strategies or advertising campaigns, they are also among the salesperson?S strongest and most effective arguments.

Did you know that a study by Dutch research companies VODW consultancy and MarketResponse has shown that customers are prepared to pay 25% more when you have positive (online) testimonials? Compared to several years ago, more and more customers turn to the internet for research, orientation, buying and customer service. This of course brings new opportunities, especially for companies that keep their promises.

Part of this study was an experiment with three imaginary offers for a weekend getaway to Paris, all with the same features. The only difference being price, average rating and the number of reviews. The first offer was priced at 175 Euros (250 U.S. Dollars), had about 100 reviews with an average rating of lima.Lima on a scale of 10. The second one cost 200 Euros (285 U.S. Dollars), was rated 8.0 and had only a couple of reviews/testimonials. The third offer was 225 Euros (320 U.S. Dollars) and had a rating of 8.0 with around 100 reviews.

And the results? No less than 77% percent of all people went for the third option!

Just because of the high rating combined with the high number of reviews or testimonials, a price increase of 25% was justified. Apparently the customer values the unbiased opinion of other customers a lot more than messages broadcasted by the company itself. With the 2.0 world we?Re living in today ? A web of ?Likes?, reviews and online recommendations ? The one-sided monologue loses credibility day by day.

As I?Ve said before storytelling and word of mouth are among your most powerful and convincing selling tools, so use them. Which stories are told or written about you, your company or product? Set up a Google Alerts account and start monitoring today. Customers are not waiting for more information, more facts. What they want is to engage on a deeper level with your organization and your product or service. What your company needs is authentic, meaningful and inspiring stories, and who can tell them better than your most satisfied customers?

So how can you make testimonials work for you? First of all, make sure customers find written, or even better videotaped, testimonials on your website. Don?T make them look for it, they should be on your homepage or product landing halaman. Next, include some video testimonials or an interview with a satisfied customer in your sales presentation and make sure it?S creative, dynamic and entertaining. Not only will it make your presentation more interesting, interactive and memorable, it will also take your prospects on a journey into the future where they have already bought your solution and are enjoying the results. Visualization is a powerful thing!

Finally some ninja tips for successful testimonials:

* Make sure they are authentic and relevant to your prospects.

* Check your testimonials for spelling and grammatical errors.

* Include the name, picture, company and position of the satisfied customer (always ask for permission first).

* Use magnetic headlines to draw the attention.

* Select testimonials from different industries or perspectives, so that there?S something for everybody in your sasaran audience.

* Specific numbers work best. Don?T say ?One million? In revenue if it was $977,450.

* Don?T rephrase your customer?S words. They speak the language of your prospects.

Malaysia's economy grew by 7.2 per cent in 2010. This is the highest in the country's economic growth since 2000.

The value of the wealth of the 40 richest person in Malaysia also grew to be USD62,1 billion by 2010, up USD11,1 billion compared to the previous year.

As quoted from Forbes, the position of number one and number two is still occupied by Robert Kuok and Ananda Krishnan, with their respective wealth USD12,lima billion and USD9,lima billion.

While Lee Kim Hua, who was the widow of Lim Goh Toh, founder of the Genting Group having the largest asset growth. Its assets grew because of the price of shares of Genting bolted when opening a casino in Singapore which is venture Sentosa Island began operation. Treasure wealth immediately rose to USD2,7 billion to USD6,6 billion.

And Chen Lip Keong also managed to double asset of gambling. His wealth grows more than doubled to USD375 million.

Here's a list of 40 richest people in neighboring States that:

1. Robert Kuok, treasures his fortune reached USD12,5 billion.

The father of eight children was getting a lot of profits from his business in the industrial sugar, palm oil, shipping and property. Kuok Group, has three main companies located in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia.

The main source of revenues comes from Wilmar, oil palm companies in the world. But this company's share price plunged last year. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong real estate asset value and the hotel is up. Wilmar itself is controlled by the nephew of Kuok Khoon Hong, Singapore citizens who became the wealthiest man thanks to his ownership of 10 percent at Wilmar.

Dua. Ananda Krishnan, USD9,5 billion.

Maxis Communications owns the largest telecommunications company in Malaysia. Maxis has three chorus business, satellite Astro All Asia Networks, the management company and the company and the gambling Tanjong operator Measat Global telecommunications.

He also teamed with billionaire Kalanithi Maran India in developing the business of radio and television broadcasts. He claimed as a great philanthropist, he focuses on developing the talents of young generation with Malaysia do scholarships and specific programs in schools.

3. Lee Kim Hua, USD6,6 billion.

The widow of King Casino Lim Goh Tong, who founded the Genting Group in 1965 and went on to develop his business into a recreational park and hotel sectors. Genting shares leapt after opening the resort World Sentosa worth USD5 billion and casinos in Singapore in the past year. While his son, Lim Kok Thay has also been conducting his own successful business and become the richest person in Malaysia to-13.

4. Lee Shin Cheng, testifies to reach USD5 billion.

He is the boss of IOI Group which is one of the largest producer of palm oil in the world and one of the largest property developers in Malaysia. The Group employs more than 30 thousand employees worldwide. He grew up in a rubber plantation, adjacent to where his father ran a grocery store.

The father of six children, was quitting school at age 11 to work to help his family, by selling ice cream with a bicycle for four years before returning to continue his education completing. Now All of his children now works for his company.

Lima. Quek Leng Chan, USD4,8 billion.

The head of the Hong Leong Group Malaysia and has a number of shares in the company's largest physical properties listed on the Hong Kong Guoco Group. She also has ownership in a number of areas of financial services, property development and hotels throughout Southeast Asia.

6. Tea Hong Piow, assets totaled USD 4,7 billion.

The founder of the third-largest bank in Malaysia. Own one of the leading enterprise asset management in the country, she also has a license of Islamic insurance and have received permission to become a broker in Cambodia. He is also the largest shareholder in the LPI Capital, a general insurance company in Malaysia and Singapore.

7. Yeoh Tiong Lay, the amount of his wealth totaled USD2,7 billion.

He founded the YRL Corp. In 1955. His company also been doing a dual listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1996, and it was the first non-Japan Asia are listings in Japan.

8. Syed Mokhtar AlBukhary, with a wealth of USD2,lima billion.

Perusahannya, Malaysia Mining Corp till the Johor Port and the airport. Major won a contract to oversee the construction of Gamuda rail mass-transit system in Kuala Lumpur. He is the person who set the Albukhary International University, and made the Albukhary Foundations to support the education of poor families in rural areas each year.

9. Vincent Tan, assets totaled USD1,25 billion.

The father of 11 children was the owner of Berjaya Group, but his luck seemed to be lost over the past year because its stock price has continued to weaken. He is the owner of the site's social networking site and buy shares of Facebook Friendster.Com through his company, MOL.Com. Although he failed to get license for Sports gambling license from the Government. Don't like golf, and it's a hobby with scuba diving.

10. Tiong Hiew King, fortune was Rp1,dua billion.

He worked raw rubber processing in his teenage years in support of his family's finances before he built his business empire which focus on the business concessions to timber and oil palm plantations in Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Media Chinese International media, he has published over 30 magazines and newspapers in North America, Southeast Asia and China.

11. Lee Oi Hian & Lee Hau Hian, with wealth USD900 million.

12. Azman Hashim, with a wealth of USD785 million.

13. Lim Kok Thay, USD665 million.

14. AK Nathan, USD600 miliar.

15. Mokhzani Mahathir, USD560 million.

16. William HJ Cheng, USD505 million.

17. Shahril & Shahriman Shamsuddin, USD500 million.

18. Kamarudin Meranun, USD495 million.

19. Jeffrey Cheah, USD475 million.

20. Anthony Fernandes, USD470 million.

21. Goh Peng Ooi, USD460 million.

22. Lau Cho Kun, USD450 million.

23. G Gnanalingam, USD420 million.

24. Chia Song Kun, USD400 million.

25. Lim Wee Chai, USD390 million.

26. Chen Lip Keong, USD375 million.

27. Yaw Teck Seng & Yaw Chee Ming, USD365 million.

28. Chan Fong Ann, USD330 million.

29. Chong Chook Yew, USD300 million.

30. Liew Kee Sin, USD255 million.

31. Ahmayuddin bin Ahmad, USD215 million.

32. Ong Leong Huat, USD200 million.

33. Eleena Azlan Shah, USD195 million.

34. Lee Swee Eng, with wealth USD190 million.

35. Tiah Thee Kian, with wealth USD170 million.

36. Nazir Razak, with wealth USD165 million.

37. Rozali Ismail, with wealth USD155 million.

38. Lin Yun Ling, with a wealth of USD150 million.

39. David Law Tien Seng, with treasures USD145 million.

40. Abdul Hamed Sepawi USD125 million, his wealth.

The rich people in China is growing rapidly along with economic growth. Many of the rich people in China are not affected to the volatility of the stock market.

The following is a list of the richest people in China, as reported by Forbes, Tuesday (dua/9/2011).

1. Liang Wengen. The amount of his wealth totaled USD9,3 billion.

Located at the top of the list, aka the richest man in China's Liang Wengen, owner of the Sany Heavy Industry which is a manufacturer of heavy equipment for construction needs.

A wealth of Liang Wengen leapt along with his booming property sector. He occupied the position of richest man after the previous year is in third position only. Where wealth leapt 58 percent to USD9,tiga billion.

Not only that, she also get the additional benefit of step up privatization effort Sany Group subsidiary.

2. Robin Li. Wealth reached USD9,dua billion.

Robin Li is owner of search engines on the internet. Whereas the last March, the character was named to be the richest man in China. Come down to whether he is because of his company's stock price plummeted.

3. Liu of Yongxing. His fortune reached USD6,8 billion, sector investments vary like property and more. He was once the richest man in China in 2008.

4. Liu Yunghao & family. Kekayannya reached USD6,6 billion. He focuses his business in agribusiness sector. In the previous year he was in position 9.

5. Zong Qinghou. Its assets totaled USD6,5 billion. Business investments in the sector of beverages.

6. Hui Ka Yan. His fortune reached USD6,2 billion, he focused on the real estate sector. He is the developer of the project spread out Evergrande, throughout China. His wealth grew along with the emergence of the property.

7. Wu Yajun & family. The amount of his wealth totaled USD5,9 billion. He also engaged in the real estate sector.

8. Zhang Jindong. The value of its assets reached USD5,6 billion. A rehearsal for a business is a retail business.

9. He Xiangjian Safari Park. Assets reached USD5,5 billion. Business investments are appliances.

10. Qiu Guanghe & family, own asset reached USD4,8 billion. He is doing business in the retail sector, its retail store named Zhejiang Polish. He had joined the new millionaires in China.

11. The Huiyan. USD4,5 billion. The real estate sector.

12. Zhou Chengjian. USD4,4 billion. The retail sector.

13. Ma Huateng. USD4,300. The internet sector.

2. Zhang Shiping & family. USD4,2 billion. The mineral sector and textile.

3. Wang Jianlin. USD4 billion. The real estate sector.

16. Zhang Xin & family. USD3,3 billion. The real estate sector.

17. Wong Kwong Yu & family. USD3,25 billion. The retail sector.

6. Chen Fashu. USD3,2 billion. The sector varies.

19. Lu Zhiqiang. USD3,1 billion. The sector varies.

8. Li Shuirong. USD3,08 billion. Petrochemicals sector.

21. Lu Guanqiu & family. USD3,06 billion. Business sector varies.

22. Zhang Zhirong. USD3 billion. The shipping sector.

23. Li Li. USD2,9 billion. The pharmaceutical sector.

24. Sun Guangxin. USD2,8 billion. Business sector varies.

25. William Ding. USD2,76 billion. The internet sector.

26. Huang Wei & family. USD2,75 billion. The real estate sector

27. Guo Guangchang. USD2,74 billion. Business sector varies.

28. Chen Jianhua & family. USD2,5 billion. Manufacturing sector

29. Hui Wing Mau. USD2,4 billion. The real estate sector.

30. Zhu Gongshan. USD2,3 billion. the solar energy sector

31. Zhu Yicai & family. USD2,26 billion. Business sector varies.

32. Chan Laiwa & family. USD2,23 billion. The real estate sector

33. Chu Lam Yiu. USD2,2 billion. The flavorings

34. Liu Zhongtian. USD2,01 billion. Sector metal processors

35. Shen Guojun. USD2 billion. The retail sector.

36. the Sze Man Bok. USD1,98 billion. Consumer production sector

37. Hui Lin Chit. USD1,94 billion. Consumer production sector

38. Gong Hongjia & family. USD1,93 billion. Electronic sector

39. Jack Ma. USD1,9 Mylar. The internet sector

40. Wang Muqing. USD1,8

Until a couple of years ago, Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester City would have seemed a relatively humdrum fixture on the opening day of the Premier League football season.

It was an encounter containing an echo of better days, such as a memorable FA Cup final in 1981; a match between two grand old clubs for whom a finish in the top eight would constitute a satisfactory season.

Not any more. Last season, Tottenham beat City home and away and ended up pipping them to fourth place, thereby bagging the last place available to English clubs in the coming season's lucrative Champions League. The word "lucrativedanquot; doesn't have much resonance for City's owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan. He's not in it for the money. But he's certainly in it with the money, and fifth place, winning only a slot in this season's less exalted Europa League, offered more than a hint that success in football can't be bought, at least not immediately, not even for ?750m, the sum he is said to have sunk into the club.

So this afternoon's match, the 12.45pm curtain-raiser to the 2010-11 Premier League season and duly televised live by Sky Sports, assumes a much wider significance, pitting the richest club in the world, the plaything of a man whose family is some 60 times wealthier than the billionaire Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, against a club which, while not exactly paupers, reached the Promised Land of the Champions League by shopping for players in Oxford Street rather than Bond Street. That, and old-fashioned virtues such as teamwork.

As for the 37 Premier League games to come once referee Andre Marriner has blown today's final whistle, they will surely determine some truths about the now familiar but still frankly bizarre business of foreign moguls lavishing parts of their vast fortunes on English football clubs, another of which, Liverpool, might yet be propped up by Chinese, Indian or Middle Eastern billions. After all, men such as Sheikh Mansour and Abramovich didn't get where they are today by settling for second place, let alone fifth. Yet only one club can win the Premier League; only one club can win the Champions League. The single cast-iron certainty about English and European football over the next few seasons is that it will yield plenty of disappointment among rich and powerful men accustomed to getting their way.

Will one of them be Sheikh Mansour, a fellow so rich that last June, on the day he OKed the signing of Gareth Barry from Aston Villa for ?12m, he also made a ?1.4bn profit by selling an 11 per cent stake in Barclays that he had bought a mere seven months earlier, and so powerful that he reportedly has Barack Obama on speed dial?

His decision to make Manchester City his piggy bank is certainly an intriguing one, City having laboured for so long in the shadow of Manchester United. Moreover, City fans have endured more than their reasonable share of heartbreak these past couple of decades, even plunging for a season into the third tier of English football. They tend to be a lugubrious, Eeyore-ish lot, City fans, although whether this is because gloomy types are instinctively drawn to City, or because supporting City has imbued them with gloom, I'm not altogether sure. At any rate, scarcely had Sheikh Mansour completed his takeover in September 2008, at a stroke of the fountain pen transforming the club from perennial also-rans into serious trophy-hunters, than a City-supporting friend of mine phoned me and said, gloomily, "It's bound to end in tears ... It's City."

It might yet end in tears, but at least the eyes shedding those tears will have seen some extraordinary sights, notably some of the world's greatest players wearing the famous sky-blue shirt. Not all the great footballers wooed by Sheikh Mansour's chequebook have succumbed, the Brazilian midfielder Kaka instead deciding to throw in his lot with Real Madrid. But plenty have, among them Kaka's compatriot Robinho and this summer's ?25m acquisition from Valencia, the clever striker David Silva. That such players should join Manchester City shows the extent of the revolution that the sheikh, half-brother of the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa, has wrought.

There was a time when City fans might have more reasonably expected their new owner to come from a well-known family in Aberdovey. But these are strange times in English football, and nowhere are they stranger than in Manchester, where United, for all their success, are now the poor neighbours. What United do have over City, however, is Sir Alex Ferguson, the finest manager of his generation and arguably the finest in the entire history of the British game. In Sheikh Mansour's short time pulling the City purse strings he has sacked one manager, the competent Mark Hughes, and appointed another, the suave Italian Roberto Mancini, who wears his blue-and-white scarf in an extremely fetching manner but has yet to prove that he is really up to the job.

The question worth very much more than $64,000 is, therefore: will Sheikh Mansour keep playing with his new toy if it doesn't bring him quite the joy he hoped, or will he throw it out of the pram?

It is perhaps an unfortunate metaphor, because he is said to be an engaging, decent, responsible fellow, with a genuine love for sport. He has won several long-distance endurance horse races over the desert sand, and inadvisable as it might be for anyone to beat him, there seems little doubt that he is a hugely accomplished horseman. Also, in a rare interview last July, he told Manchester City's official website that he had a "lifelong passion" for football, having played a lot himself in his younger days and become deeply involved in the running of the Al Jazeera club in Abu Dhabi. "Like any football fan I think I love the game for many, many reasons, not least of which is the feeling that success can bring," he said.

Splendidly, sweetly, he offered a parallel between his arid homeland and rainy Granadaland. "In Abu Dhabi, our heritage and culture are inherent to our values, and the way we live our lives. I think it's the same in Manchester. You certainly see that in the long-standing commitment of the fans for the club. As I have said, it was very clear that Manchester City was a sleeping giant of English football and waking that giant I think is going to be rewarding on a number of levels."

The man prodding the giant out of its slumber was born in 1970, the fifth of 19 sons of Sheikh Zayed, the founding father of the United Arab Emirates. Twelve years before he was born, oil was discovered beneath the Abu Dhabi sand, transforming an economy that had depended largely on camel-herding and pearl-diving. But Sheikh Mansour's uncle, Sheikh Shakhbut, was circumspect about this new source of wealth, and the development of modern Abu Dhabi did not really start until 1966, when Sheikh Zayed seized power from his brother in a bloodless coup partly engineered by the British. By the time Sheikh Zayed died six years ago, the emirate was so rich that it was said that a $1 rise in the price of a barrel of oil would increase its wealth by $500m a day.

Sheikh Mansour, university-educated in the United States, was one of the chief beneficiaries of this wealth, becoming the UAE's minister for presidential affairs and chairman of First Gulf Bank, building a personal fortune estimated at ?20bn but with access to family money said to amount to ?550bn. He even married into money; one of his two wives is a daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, owner of the Godolphin horse-racing empire and ruler of neighbouring Dubai.

Sheikh Mansour had apparently been looking to buy a Premier League football club for some time before Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister of Thailand, decided in 2008 to sell his stake in Manchester City. The rest is history, but far more engrossing than the past is the future.

A life in brief

Born: 20 November 1970, in Trucial States, Abu Dhabi.

Family: His father, Sheikh Zayed, ruled Abu Dhabi and was the first president of the United Arab Emirates. His mother, Sheikha Fatima, is chairperson of the UAE General Women's Union. His 18 brothers include Sheikh Khalifa, the current ruler of Abu Dhabi.

Education: He graduated in the United States with a degree in political science.

Career: Appointed chairman of the presidential office for UAE in 1997, before being appointed as the first minister of presidential affairs. He bought Manchester City FC in September 2008 and also owns a stake in Ferrari.

He says: "In Abu Dhabi, our heritage and culture are inherent to our values, and the way we live our lives. I think it's the same in Manchester."

They say: "The owner clearly didn't come in just to buy a bunch of players ? He came in with a vision, a project, something far more rewarding than just winning a trophy." Vincent Kompany, Man City midfielder

I just want to offer to you the opportunity to work together in coal business, especially if you own friends that looking for coal sourcing from Indonesia. I have good contacts some coal mining owners in Indonesia that produces many specs of coal from low rank calories of coal, medium calories, to high calorie. Even I also do good networking with some local big trading house that gathers coal from small coal producers in South Kalimantan and East Kalimantan.

The coal producers ask to me to assist in selling their coal, and they will pay commision (fee) to person which him help in selling. My relationship with the coal mining companies (owners or directors) is good as I often meet them for special mision or just do relax time. In another time I have also ever done interview them for my business article. Among the coal specs whihcs my miners can supply are: Coal GAR 4200 Kcal/Kg, GAR 3900, GAR 4500, NAR 5500-5300 Kcal/Kg), NAR 3800, NAR 5000-4800, NAR 4700-4500, NAR 5700-5500 Kcal/Kg. Also coking coal can be supplied. My miners can do it from single miner.

The minimum order: 40,000 MT, and supply ability 400,000 MT / month. So, by this mail, I meant I want to propose you to synergy in the coal business, especially if you has trusted coal buyer. My coal owners will pay fee /commision for you and we can discuss about this. Don't hesitate to contact me via email or whatsapps if you have buyer.

wingdarmadi@gmail.com

Sukanto Tanoto is Indonesia's businessman that success in investing to more than 10 countries. Chairman and CEO of Raja Garuda Mas International, is one of tycoon in palm oil producers and pulp and paper business in the world.  Born in Belawan, North Sumatra, 25 December 1949, with original name Tan Kang Hoo, Tanoto now rebrand his busness as RGE (Royal Golden Eagle)  Group, RGE (Royal Golden Eagle) manages a group of resource-based manufacturing companies with global operations. Its work ranges from the upstream, comprising sustainable resource development and harvesting, to downstream, where our companies create diverse value-added products for the global market. RGE was founded by Sukanto Tanoto in 1973 as RGM. The assets held by RGE companies today exceed US $18 billion. With more than 60,000 employees, we have operations in Indonesia, China, Brazil, Spain and Canada, and continue to expand to engage newer markets and communities.

RGE group of companies are involved in the following business segments:

Pulp and Paper : APRIL & Asia Symbol

Palm Oil Industry : Asian Agri & Apical

Specialty Cellulose  : Bracell

Viscose Fibre  : Sateri

Integrated Energy Provider : Pacific Oil & Gas

He has mostly lived abroad, even to make its central headquarters in Singapore, Sukanto said that it does not mean his side ran out of the country, but rather seeks to develop the market and abroad. "We want to prove that we are not depend on facilities from the Indonesian Government. But we are also able to conquer the world, and a great competitor, "said Sutanto.

He mention Japan as example. Toyota search market in Indonesia with assembling cars. Did they had fled to Indonesia? No, they just look for the market in the country. So, he said, if we're expanding into overseas, no meant to escape, but attempting to grab larger market.

Who is Sukanto ?

Tanoto was declared as the richest man in Indonesia by Forbes magazine in September 2006.

Sukanto Tanoto's body resembled his mother pleads: firm and hard. Litle Sukanto like going to the seaside. Since childhood, Sukanto — who at the age of 12 years was fond of reading just about anything, including books about the American Revolution and war of the Worlds — aspired so doctors. "If I pass on to the Faculty of medicine, I become a doctor," he said. Because of the obsession, until the 1973-1974, he was still happy to use the name 'doctor Sukanto'.

But, when he was 18, his father, Amin Tanoto, in sick (stroke). The eldest of seven brothers then took over the family responsibilities: continued the efforts parents to sell gasoline, oil, cars and appliances. The work of an alien to him because he was always after school help parents while reading a book. And, from there Sukanto aka Tan Kang Hoo first learned business skill, including accepting reality and not give up under any condition, as well as finding a solution.

Moved from his hometown, Belawan, North Sumatra, he traded car spare parts, and then turn it into a general contractor enterprises & supplier. Sometime, Sjam, a Pertamina officials come from Aceh to him. to offer job as contractor. "Yes, I will" he said. He catch the chance. He build home, installing air conditioning, plumbing, tractor, and make the golf course at Prapat for Pertamina. "That's the technical school of mine," he said. To find building material, he got off Sumbawa, Lampung, at the age of 20 years.

Good at seeing opportunities, while imports of plywood from Singapore disappeared in the market, he founded the company in the field of wood, CV By Pelita, 1972. "Our country is rich in timber, why do we import plywood," he said. "I was the distribution," he said. While others have not made of plywood, he is producing plywood and changed the company name to be PT Raja Garuda Mas (RGM), with his main Director, 1973. Plywood branded Polyplex's imported into various countries of the European Market Together, United Kingdom, and the Middle East.

"I was one Strategy competition two step before people working on it," he said. When no one opens up a massive private estates, although at that time there have been foreign plantations in Sumatra, Sukanto, open palm oil plantations in a big way.

"After that we make Indorayon," he added. PT Inti Indorayon (IIU) that reforestation produce pulp, paper, and rayon, as well as being able to supply seeds superior tree pulp makers in the country. IIU had opposed the presence of community and environmental activists. Because the culprits, Lake Toba, polluted by waste pulp. As a result, the IIU was closed.

But, Sukanto picking lesson: learn from mistakes. "I learned from Indorayon, then I use in Riau," he said. In Riau, he opened Jungle Plant Industry and established a pulp mill was the largest in the world, PT Riau Pulp. Start up 1995, because of the crisis, incipient in 2001. In the vicinity of the manufacturer, together with non-governmental organizations, community development program making Sukanto for local residents. "I don't love the fish, but I teach fishing, that's what we're working on," he added. Among other things, the community development program: fattening cattle, road construction, and agriculture.

The other business, in Medan, he penetrated property business, by building the Union Plaza, then Thamrin Plaza. Not only in the country, he has spread the wings out of the country, with palm oil plantations co-owns the National Development Corporation Guthrie in Mindanao, Philippines, and electro Magnetic in Singapore, as well as a paper mill in China (which has now been sold to enlarge PT Riau Pulp).

Since 1997, Sukanto choose living in Singapore with his family, and took up headquarters in the country. His obsession, want to be entrepreneurs in Indonesia who compete in the global arena, at least in Asia. Its primary purpose, according to him, "How can we capitalize on our advantages, in order to compete, at least in the arena of Asia?."

Now, in addition to the business, he was about to write a book about how entrepreneur facing the crisis. "I want to do it is to research how entrepreneurs in Europe that survive, at the First World War, Second World War. How America businessman was passing through a crisis of the 1930s. How entrepreneur-businessman in China, the time when the Communist regime, changes in, how they were to survive. I'm also going to learn how entrepreneurs-entrepreneurs through Latin America crisis, which in Brazil, "he added. "What is the crisis that gave rise to seedlings-seedlings entrepreneur that is new," he said.

Until now still read books Sukanto hobby. Books about anything, whether business or non business. "Everytime I go, I bring a book," he said. "If rose travel, if not sleeping, yeah, see," he said. Its benefits, according to him, in addition to update their knowledge, as well as helpful at all in daily social activities and business. Another one, the man who mastered two foreign languages, Chinese and United Kingdom, was happy to learn. He followed courses at Insead, Paris, at MIT, in addition to stay as participants PPM, Jakarta. Until now he sometimes took time off to attend short courses. "My career one more: professional student," he said. Two-three weeks he was on leave to go to Harvard, Tokyo, London School of Economic, to update knowledge. Lastly, 2001, he attended the Wharton Fellows Program, United States, over the past six months, to learn a dotcom.

"If I am in business, the key to success: I think, act, learn, read, listen, look," he said. "Second, if I do not know, I asked. I also don't feel hesitate tell my failure, "he said. In addition, the handle: do the right thing, do the thing right. Do the right thing as a guideline on the management pattern. Do the thing right has an emphasis on the importance of an action. "My Principle, business and politics should not mix," said Sukanto who love listening to light classical music.

Within the space of five years, Asian budget carrier AirAsia has grown quickly, helping to shake up the airline business in the region. With its fleet of 30 Boeing 737-300 aircraft and 15 Airbus A320s, the no-frills airline currently flies to more than 45 destinations in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Macau, China, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar.

AirAsia?S seen by many as a ?Blue ocean? Company as it was based on the Southwest Airlines model of quick turnarounds and low-cost fares. Although Group CEO Tony Fernandes says he hasn?T read the seminal book by INSEAD professors Chan Kim and Ren?E Mauborgne, he says AirAsia has sought to exploit blue oceans.

?What does the market want? Nine times out of 10, when you go for what the market wants, it?S something that?S different. That?S why invariably everything we?Ve done is kind of blue ocean, except for AirAsia X (AirAsia?S new long-haul operations) which is completely blue ocean. But we weren?T the first to invent low-cost travel, we weren?T the first to invent a low-cost hotel. We?Ve taken it to another level, but we?Ve been a bit Japanese in taking it, and adapting it, and making it better for our part of the world.?

Fernandes says AirAsia X is expected to start long-haul flights to the UK in September. Virgin has just taken a 20 per cent stake in the new carrier.

Branding has been key to AirAsia?S success ? Along with its low cost operations ? And the airline?S CEO has been branching out into budget hotels and online financial services. Often described as Asia?S answer to Richard Branson of Virgin, Fernandes also started in the music industry before moving into the airline sector.

?Many Asian companies don?T value branding as much because they don?T see it in the bottom line straight away,? Fernandes told Knowledge. ?It?S something that even I have to explain to my board time and time again, that the fruits of branding are over five years.?

And his advice to would-be entrepreneurs: ?Go with your gut, give it your best bet and you may fail, but don?T give up.?

Just three years after starting up, Babytree.com, a social networking site for parents in China already boasts some 12 million visitors, a mammoth feat by any standards.

Co-founded by Allen Wang who is also the chief executive officer, and backed by Matrix, a venture capital firm in Boston, Babytree.com has been hailed the Chinese equivalent of Facebook for kids and parents.

But Wang is modest about his company’s success. “We don’t actually have a secret ingredient as to why we’re growing so quickly and to such a scale.” He does however allude to two things that may have contributed to the site’s stickiness.

First, he says, is the site’s attention to product detail to make the customer experience as seamless and as pleasant as possible. For example, Babytree’s uploading feature allows parents to upload not just one, but numerous photos at a time. This has proven to be so popular that the site is the largest photo deposit site in China for young parents, with the total number of pictures stored today standing at around 100 million.

Wang reveals he’s come up with an optimum number of 50 photos because he believes that if you “turn up the volume too much” and enable parents to upload photos by the hundreds, then the idea becomes in their mind unmanageable, even though it is still relatively easy.

Word of mouth also helped to boost traffic to the site as Wang says he has not really been spending marketing dollars at all. He reveals that the average monthly spend was “less than US$10,000” and that “it’s probably a fraction of that right now.” Instead, he focuses on getting people to talk about Babytree in places where they congregate, for example in online chat rooms online as well as offline events.

But perhaps it is Wang’s Google background and his philosophy of “launch many, launch early” which he picked up from the internet search giant that has really put Babytree on this trajectory. Since its inception, Babytree has launched more than 40 products ranging from the picture uploading mentioned earlier, to blogs and online sales of baby products.

His prior experiences at Yahoo! and Procter & Gamble (P&G) may also have served as inspiration. “To some degree, I do agree that my experiences at P&G, at Yahoo! - and my last professional large scale-experience was with Google in Asia - they all have taught me many things, among which is paying attention to your users, which is P&G’s mantra of consumer advertising. They’re launching many products and launch them early and test them against (their) users.”

That approach however does not seem suited for China. “I have to say all of those combined are not adequate to win in China, and I’m still learning this part which is to act very fast, learn the local ways and compete effectively with a low budget, against ‘scrappy’ entrepreneurs who are just ready to do anything … to take over the leadership position from your side.”

This, he explains, accounts for why multinationals like Google have a hard time in China, and why competition especially in the internet domain, is fierce. He reasons that though MNCs bring with them unsurpassable talent, it is not the right kind of talent that can “fight and win in the local environment”.

A plausible solution is for MNCs to recruit local Chinese. “I think actually that what kind of people you use, you have the courage to open up the floodgates and say ‘let me actually recruit people that I may not know very well, but they have proven themselves as successful people running local businesses’, versus people who are educated in the West, who have relatively very low local knowledge - that’s a key part.’”

Though Wang has clearly mastered the art of going local with Babytree, he has attracted international attention from P&G and Kimberly-Clark, whose adverts along with other MNCs, account for 60 per cent of Babytree’s revenue.

And he is not showing any signs of slowing down, though he says he is not quite ready to pursue the IPO route. “We are profitable … Going IPO is, frankly speaking, not our top (priority). Our first and foremost agenda is to push it even bigger in terms of the reach and our coverage. There are after all 15 million babies born each year in China, (multiply by) six, we’re actually talking about 100 million families with a kid every year following into our age range, and many of them in the coming years will get online. So the total population following in this age range will quickly exceed 70, 80, 90 million, and we’re still just reaching just a small fraction of that population.”