Astra: Building a business empire

Lie Hua, Contributor, Jakarta

DARE TO DO -- The Story of William Soeryadjaya and PT Astra International; By Charlotte Butler; McGrawHill, Singapore, 2002; xviii + 300 pp

Astra is virtually a household name in this country, known for holding the license to a variety of Japanese auto makes, particularly Honda.

As the second largest conglomerate in Indonesia after the Salim Group, Astra has played an important role in the country's economic development.

When you talk about Astra, it's inevitable that the name of William Soeryadjaja, now 80, one of the founders of this business empire, will figure prominently. Born Tjia Kian Liong in the small West Java town of Majalengka, William and Astra are considered one and the same, even today when he is no longer the owner of this huge business group.

Charlotte Butler, head of the research team at the Euro-Asia Center, INSEAD, in Fontainebleu, France, spent 10 years writing this book, basing her work on extensive interviews with those directly involved in Astra's development. The book traces William's prominent role in the empire, and thus can be read as both William's biography and a business history.

Butler begins with William's early life. Born into a relatively well-off peranakan Chinese family (peranakan means being partly assimilated into Indonesian society), William had a comfortable childhood. His father, a businessman, held to the motto of "think big, do big and grow big".

Unfortunately, William lost his parents almost at the same time in 1934. At age 12 and the eldest of his siblings, he had to become a second parent to his five brothers and sisters.

As the family inheritance had mysteriously disappeared, the penniless orphans were raised by their grandparents and their youngest uncle. William, however, who acknowledged he did not perform well in scholastic activities, felt called upon to try his luck in business.

He began by selling scrap newspaper in 1942, during the Japanese occupation of the country. Then, in the early days of the Republic of Indonesia in 1945-1946, he started what he called "legal smuggling", the transportation of goods between Bandung and Jakarta. This early experience taught him how to navigate systems for his own benefit, and he learned that he had to be resourceful to keep his business going.

Shortly after his marriage in 1947, William spent a few years in the Netherlands, where he took a two-year tannery course to gain a qualification for a job back home. His business acumen told him there was a good commercial opportunity in the Netherlands after the war that would allow his family to live in greater comfort.

It was black market trading.

He mobilized his friends and family members in Indonesia to send parcels of cigarettes and peanuts to the Netherlands, where these goods were sold on the black market or bartered for extra food-ration coupons.

Back in Indonesia, he set up PT Sanggabuana (1952-1956) as a government supplier. Unfortunately, just as the company was flourishing he was cheated by his own partner and was left penniless. Undaunted, in 1957 he joined his younger brother, Kian Tie, who had set up a small company with a friend.

This company was called Astra, derived from the name of the Greek goddess Astrea, the last goddess to retire to the heavens where she assumed the shape of a star. William, ever optimistic, added the word 'international'. So, Astra International came into being in a modest space somewhere on Jl. Sabang, Central Jakarta.

Butler traces the development of the company and the adversity it had to go through before finally emerging as a widely diversified business empire. She also follows the role of William in this great feat. William is pictured as a forward-looking person, someone possessing great entrepreneurial skill.

He is interested in opening up new areas but is too impatient to attend to details in the business. Once he was successful in starting a new business venture, he would leave it to his lieutenants and start opening up yet another new area. Luckily, in the early years of Astra's development, he got help from the cool-headed Kian Tie, who was most interested in devising a careful strategy to develop the business.

Butler also dwells at length on Astra's joint ventures, particularly with Japanese companies. The book gives quite a graphic account of how deals were made and the progress Astra achieved in its joint ventures. She also discusses Astra's managerial philosophy and corporate culture against the backdrop of the Indonesian business landscape, where coddling of the government is somewhat inevitable.

The reader views scene after scene unfolding in Astra's development following changes in the country's political and economic realms. Against all odds, in a country mired in a deep and prolonged economic crisis, Astra, in Butler's words, can still be best summed up as "the brightest star in the Indonesian business firmament. The group that William had created looked indestructible.

"It had not just survived, but looked set to flourish once more."