Rodamas Group: Designing Strategies in Erging Economies

Indonesia

Indonesia
is
a
vast
archipelago
with
a
population
of
around
240
 million,
and
has,
over
the
years,
 experienced
significant
growth.
 Local
partners
were
essential
to
manage
the
appropriate
 connections
in
a
country
that
was
 rapidly
developing
but
which
still
suffered
from
weak
 infrastructure,
law
enforcement,
and
rampant
 corruption,
making
every
aspect
of
operations,
including
obtaining
 permits,
buying
land,
hiring
personnel,
 procuring
inputs
and
distributing
products,
a
challenge.
The
 cultural
diversity
and
geography
for
example,
 with
hundreds
of
languages
and
islands,
made
it
hard
to
distribute
 products
and
effectively
market
them.
 The
low
disposable
income
compared
with
the
large
population
 meant
that
there
were
large
markets
for
 products
that
catered
to
daily
needs,
such
as
food,
clothing,
soap,
 construction
materials
and
other
basic
needs.


Rodamas

• Rodamas
(which
means
“golden
wheel”)
was
started
 by
Mucki
Tan’s
father,
Tan
Siong
Kie
(hereafter
Tan
 senior),
in
1951
in
Jakarta
as
Ho
Hoa
Trading
 Company
Limited
 



He
had
studied
business
and
journalism
in
the
 university
and
this
education
proved
very
useful
for
 his
career
as
a
businessman.
It
enabled
him
to
 communicate
with
international
business
owners
 and
he
understood
international
markets.


Indonesia
under
Sukarno

• Following
independence,
the
country’s
new
Indonesian
 leaders,
in
particular
President
Sukarno,
set
out
on
a
path
of
 socialism
and
“guided”
democracy.
His
policies,
influenced
by
 communism,
were
detrimental
to
the
economy.
During
 Sukarno’s
rule,
economic
growth
declined
and
inflation
 soared.
Sukarno
also
implemented
measures
to
restrict
the
 economic
activities
of
the
ethnic
Chinese
minority,
which
 played
a
major
role
in
the
private
sector.
In
the
years
prior
to
 the
founding
of
Rodamas,
Sukarno
nationalized
most
foreign
 companies,
which
implied
that
many
foreign
mangers
left
the
 country



The
environment

• For
people
like
Tan
senior,