Kafi, laughing marketing guru

Kafi, laughing marketing guru

T. Sima Gunawan, Contributor, tabita@cbn.net.id

Kafi Kurnia was talking about corruption during a radio program
last week when he suddenly burst into laughter. One of the
listeners, became upset and immediately called the radio station
to warn him to be more serious in addressing such problems.

Kafi apologized, explaining that he had no intention to laugh
at anyone.

Indeed, Kafi laughs a lot. He attributes his ability to laugh,
even during the hard times, to John Irving. "He talked about
tragedy in his books, but still he could make us laugh at his
dark humor."

But Kafi's own story is far from tragic. At 43, he is known as
a successful consultant in the fields of communication and
marketing. A managing director of Interbrand, and a consultant
for a Singapore-based company, he is often invited to speak at
universities around the country. Every Wednesday he talks on the
radio and he writes regularly. A collection of his writing was
published in 2001, and his second book will hit the shelves next
month.

He used to work for the Hero Group and moved to another
company -- which holds the license for Levi's, Nike and other
international brands -- before he established his own consulting
firm.

Among his clients are government offices, including the
Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and
Fisheries. He was asked for his advice on humanitarian programs
in Aceh. And the Ministry of Maritime Affairs asked him to devise
promotional strategies for the launching of the year of the sea.

The government, he said, lacks the skills needed to promote
their own program.

"It's not that we are a low profile nation. Actually that is
just a myth. Many of us are actually very high profile," he said.

One of the reasons why government officials lack in
promotional skills, according to Kafi, is because of the
centralized bureaucracy. Civil servants are accustomed to asking
for petunjuk, or direction, from their supervisor and will not
act on their own initiative.

He said that some programs promoted by the central government
were very successful -- such as the family planning program -- as
Indonesia was able to sharply curb its population growth. The
claim of some activists, who said that coercion was used in the
implementation of the program, was just a reflection of the era.

"Well, if the officials got results at any cost, was that so
unusual? At that time it happened."

Kafi has a great interest in politics and the economy. He
could happily spend hours discussing potential next-presidents.
And he enthusiastically argues that Indonesia needs the
leadership of an entrepreneur, in order to establish the welfare
of the people.

"We have so many excellent commodities we could sell
internationally, unfortunately, we cannot sell them," he
lamented.

His first lesson in politics was from William Booth, the
founder of the Salvation Army -- which opened many schools
across the country. Booth believed that it was impossible to
teach the people about salvation if they were hungry.

"This dependency is also the case with politics and the
economy. They are one. Politics can not work without money," Kafi
said on Friday, while having his lunch - spaghetti bolognaise,
mango juice and an espresso - at a five-star hotel cafe in the
heart of Jakarta.

Wasn't he afraid of a bomb attack?

"I was thinking of boycotting such places, not because of the
bomb threat, but because of the excessive yet inappropriate
security measures. There were times when I was checked not by a
bomb detector, but by a metal detector," he grumbled.

Kafi, who was born in Jakarta, was educated in a Protestant
elementary school run by the Salvation Army here, and later went
to a Catholic high school. He then studied for an MBA degree in
marketing at the liberal campus of the New South Wales Institute
of Technology in Australia, where he also shaped his spiritual
life. The young Kafi was at that time questioning his faith.

"Religion is one of the biggest mysteries," he said. His
professor approached the restless young man -- who was looking
for all the answers in his spiritual quest -- and said, "Why
don't you return to your roots?" And Kafi began to contemplate
what it was to be an Indonesian Chinese and started to learn
about Eastern philosophy, including the teaching of Tao,
Confucius, Gandhi and Buddha.

"Finally, I decided to become a Buddhist," said Kafi.

His parents are Confucians. His late father was a journalist
with Harian Indonesia, a Chinese newspaper, and his mother an
entrepreneur. He has two younger brothers and is not married.
Like other men who remain single, Kafi is experiencing social
pressure, especially from his mother. He says he is single
because he has not found the right woman.

"A woman should complement me. I believe that a man and a
woman are created to complete each other," said Kafi, who loves
reading - he always reads in the toilet and in his car.

But without a woman, Kafi does not find his life empty or
flawed.

"Its just like a bicycle. A bicycle has two wheels. But there
are also monocycles (one-wheeled cycles)," he said.