Surono enjoys his latest challenge as restaurateur
In an era when some people would falsify a university degree to get ahead in the world, it is quite novel to meet someone with a degree who chose an occupation where academic credentials would make no difference.
For over five years, Surono was a chili trader in bulk markets in Jakarta, and on the face of it, leaving his degree on the shelf gathering dust. The bright side was that his daily turnover easily reached Rp 80 million. Of course, it took a great deal of hard work, seven days a week, to arrive where he was.
Then why did he come to Melbourne last April?
His wife, Puspita Wulandari, received a scholarship from AusAID to study for her doctorate degree in business administration at Swinburne University. After preparing his two brothers-in-law to take over the business, Surono joined his wife.
Like a big truck running continuously in top gear for hundreds of kilometers, Surono was unable to stop suddenly and become a man of leisure. He was restless while Puspita was busy studying.
Then one evening he and Puspita went to dinner at one of EsTeler77 restaurants, and began chatting with its franchisee, Alex Wijaya. Wijaya asked him if he was interested in opening the company's third outlet in Australia.
"I had no hesitation. In fact, Alex and I hit it off immediately. And I haven't been proven wrong. Alex helped us set up the place, handling most of the logistics like contacting painters, plumbers and garbage collectors, without charging us a cent."
The timing also worked in his and Puspita's favor, because the Indonesian Business Forum-Melbourne (IBF-M) had just been founded, and the committee rallied to assist him.
At the official opening of EsTeler77's newest outlet on Aug. 24, where Indonesian Consul General Wahid Supriyadi cut the ceremonial ribbon, the restaurant had actually been operating for six days. Within that short time it had become so popular that the stocks they had bought for three weeks had been used up.
Non-Indonesian Australians have so far made up 50 percent of the clientele.
Surono has always been a battler. Even as an undergraduate at Universitas Nasional in Pejaten, South Jakarta, he was already working as a messenger at an accountancy firm. When he graduated in business management in 1992, he married Puspita and became a tax consultant.
The 1997 economic crisis hit when he was working for a poultry business company, and the crash saw him and a number of staff retrenched the following year.
Surono then wandered around, eventually being drawn toward Pasar Induk bulk market. Fortuitiously, he met a longtime chilli bulk trader, Nuryanto, who took a shine to him, and offered him the use of a stall next to his own.
Surono became Nuryanto's "apprentice" and, in the fiercely competitive environment where violence or threats were not uncommon, also his protege.
Several months later, Nuryanto let him buy the stall, and his position became more solid. He even acquired a nickname, LB for labalaba (spider), proof that he was now there to stay.
Surono knew he had arrived at the next phase when Nuryanto sent him on a purchasing spree to meet his own rural suppliers. Surono took his brothers-in-law with him. But Surono shared what he bought with Nuryanto. Apart from courtesy, he was also cautious. He could not handle the volume.
"Chilies only last one day once they hit the market," said Surono.
Nuryanto also took Surono when expanding into other markets. He used his influence to obtain strategic spots for their stalls.
Surono quickly began to learn the business of chili farming in areas indicated by Nuryanto in Central and West Java.
"Before long, my own products made up about 30 percent of my trade." And he had already secured Makro supermarkets as his buyers.
Now in Melbourne, who can tell he is not going to be as successful in the restaurant business as in the bulk chili trade? All the early signs certainly point in the right direction.
Hard work, luck and je ne sais quoi, in that order, seem to be the necessary combination for success. -- Dewi Anggraeni