Philip Kotler - MarkPlus Inc: Winning the Future - Marketing and Entrepreneurship in Harmony

May 1, 1990, was a historic day for a man named Hermawan Kartajaya. A man whose name is now widely known and well respected nationally and globally as the Father of Indonesian marketing. This was the day that he started a company called MarkPlus, and this also marked his first day as an entrepreneur. Prior to that, he was holding a prestigious position as a distribution director of one of the biggest cigarette company in Indonesia, PT HM Sampoerna.

Hermawan is a brilliant person who started to independently earn his own money as young as 17 years old. He then became a teacher for 20 years and after that, was appointed as a general marketing manager in PT Panggung, an electronics company in Surabaya. Next, Hermawan joined one of the largest cigarette companies in Indonesia as a distributor director, which he subsequently left to be the founder of MarkPlus, a marketing consultancy practice that has been in the industry for 30 years. Looking at his track record, you might think Hermawan had it easy. But this is not so.

He was born into a lower to middle-class family. His father was a civil servant and also worked as a treasurer in a school in Surabaya. From him, Hermawan learned to be active in organisations and was bright enough to be the top of his class, due also to his fathers way of teaching and support. With his good results, he was accepted into one of the best technology schools in the country, the Institute of Technology Surabaya (ITS) as an engineering student. This is arguably one of the best Institutes of Higher Learning in Indonesia and his father was so proud of him, to the point that he bragged to his friends about his sons acceptance into ITS. Unfortunately, he wasnt able to graduate as the family was poor at that time.

Even though he had to drop out from the ITS for financial reasons, it didnt stop his desire to complete his university studies. Several years later, he continued his studies, no longer as an engineering student and no longer at the ITS. He switched to a management course at the University of Surabaya because he had taken a strong interest in the management and marketing fields.

Before starting MarkPlus, Hermawan was in a prestigious and highly desired position with his own office, a highly prized job benefit, which is located in an Industrial Estate Complex in Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia. He was leading 1,600 people and covering a huge geographical span throughout Indonesia, which was divided into 54 market areas. At the age of 42, he decided to let go of all the prestige and material comforts that came along with this senior executive position with one of Indonesias largest companies. He made a quantum leap into a totally new territory, or someone might have considered it as a gamble by switching from his senior corporate executive career to become an entrepreneur. It takes immense courage to do so and if anyone is in his shoes, would the person have such a drive or be brave enough to take such a leap?

On that memorable day, Hermawan started his new job, as indicated by his new card that stated MarkPlus Professional Service. The name MarkPlus was adopted because Hermawan envisioned this company to provide Marketing plus other services."

At that time I was ready and prepared to do any professional services, hence the name is MarkPlus Professional Services.

Hermawan Kartajaya

Similar to some other successful entrepreneurs stories that you might have heard of, everything started in his own home a home located in a neighbourhood, which might not have been too suitable as an office. But Hermawan believed he had to start somewhere, and as an entrepreneur who had just begun, a home located in a good neighbourhood was sufficient to be his office. What other choices did he have at that time? In ones own home, one can save on rental costs.

On his first morning as an entrepreneur, he felt something was missing. Usually, in the morning, he would wake up early, then take a shower and prepare to change into his office uniform. This used to be his regular morning routine, every day for years. But on that day, he slept in and woke up late. The moment he woke up, he was confused about what activities he should do on his first day as an entrepreneur.

The decision that Hermawan made in becoming an entrepreneur was not risk-free and there was no guarantee of success. But, he still took the risk. At that time, he only had Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) 50,000,000 (approximately US$3,300) as his savings after his resignation from his previous position. Then, he spent almost half of it for the down payment for his new car (because his last company owned the vehicle he had been using). The remaining of the savings was used as his reserve and for his businesss starting fund. For some, his decision could be considered reckless, but for the others, his decision could be categorised as brave.

In the beginning, there were no clients who wanted to use Hermawans professional services. But, he kept trying, in various ways, to find customers for the firms professional services. He then decided to focus on becoming a writer for one of the newspapers in Surabaya at that time. A few years back, Hermawan was asked to be one of the writers for this newspaper by the director himself. Hence, once he no longer had a routine job and had more time, he solely focused on writing articles that will be published every Wednesday.

He remembered clearly and related to his colleagues about the very first article he wrote for the newspaper, as it was a monumental moment for him. It was about a concert held by Pepsi Cola in Jakarta, which had invited a famous singer, Tina Turner. He talked about how Tina Turner, with the power of her strong voice, could strengthen Pepsis positioning as a brand that would differ from the classic Coca-Cola at that time. Another interesting article he wrote was about how Lady Di, also known as Princess Diana, faced a difficult situation in the British royal family. However, she was considered as a Peoples Princess.

There was also another article Hermawan talked about; it was about the dedication of Mother Teresa, known as someone who always helped those who were sick, neglected, and even shunned. She took care of every single person who needed help, without even knowing their backgrounds. No wonder she attracted the spotlight from the global community. He discussed these three different cases with the same approach and analysis to elaborate on them.

At that time, Hermawan realised the power and effectiveness of newspapers, as a media, in society. Then, he used this media to market and developed himself in the community. He positioned himself as a Professional Marketing Analyst, and the differentiation was clear because, in that period, there were relatively few professionals in the marketing field.

In the early days after Hermawan founded MarkPlus Professional Service, he was anxious. The thing he worried about the most was not being able to pay for his needs, especially the car he had just bought. At that time, he still had 24 months on the credit instalment payment. Not only that, unlike in the past when he had been a director of a big cigarette company, in MarkPlus Professional Services, he did not have a paid position. He did not want to put director or managing director on the business card. The reason was that he did not have any other person working with or for him, at that time. It would not be very pleasant to have a designation, for a one-man company, according to him.