Entrepreneur

FROM ZERO TO HERO

His parents died when he was eight years old. He dropped out of school at 14 to sell cigarettes on the wharf and carried heavy bales of rubber to ships in Kalimantan. Now Oesman Sapta Odang drives his own Rolls Royce in Singapore and flies home on his private jet. He dedicates much of his time to politics and building a better Indonesia. By Yus Husni M. Thamrin
His name card says he is an adviser to Oesman Sapta Odang International (OSO). You won’t find him on Google or Yahoo search engines. His business dealings are sketchy.
People know him as a veteran politician, the former deputy chairman of the People’s Consultative Assembly (1999-2004) representing the Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP).
He is Oesman Sapta Odang, founder and owner of OSO International, a holding company which controls diverse businesses in trading, property, mining, agro-business, aviation, and finance. His turnover in 2007 reached Rp7 trillion ($770 million).
Over the past two years, OSO International has entered the business of palm oil and ribber plantations. Oesman owns 70,000 hectares in West in three years time, when harvest arrive, his plantations will earn another $200 million.
As a senior businessman, he maintains a low-profile, an indigenous Indonesian entrepreneur who started from zero to become a tycoon.
Born to a poor family, Oesman attended primary school in Pontianak, Wes Kalimantan. His parents died when he was eight years old. He couldn’t afford education and until the age of 14, he earned his living selling cigarettes at the harbor. Now he flies from Jakarta to Pontianak in his private jet.
As a boy he worked as a laborer carrying bales of rubber on his back from warehouse to ship. “I experienced hard work and, yes, I know what it’s like to be poor,” Oesman told Globe Asia in a rare interview.
Oesman recalls he was close to the crew of a cargo ship’s crew who allowed him to hitch a free ride to Jakarta. He bought 10 bales of vegetables and returned to Pontianak. Over a few years, hed worked his way up to become a wealthy vegetable trader. By 1968 he supplied muc of Jakarta with coconuts and ginger.
“The art of trading is reaping a huge profit. But atone time a cargo ship full of vegetables ran aground in the mouth of the Kapuas River. It was good business but a risky business as vegetables rot quickly,” says Oesman, born on August 18, 1950 in Sukadana.
When he was 23, Oesman established a contracting company. He built roads, bridges and harbors in Kalimantan. From there he built hundreds of low-cost housing units for workers in several cities. It was his concept which was adopted by the government for the development of low-cost housing projects.
“Building houses for workers at that time was not social work but a business opportunity,”he says.
Wide circle
Oesman’s trading company also prospered. He met Syarief, the brother of Musa, the owner of PT Argo Pates, Syarief was then director of PT Dampo, which controls vast interests in rubber warehousing. Oesman was a rubber supplier.
From Syarief, Oesman became acquainted with Tio Ming King, a trader close ti Liem Sioe Liong.
“We frequently cooperated in business deals, including with Liem Sioe Liong. I remember Liem said he couldn’t pay his debt to me even with all his Mercedes Benz cars lined up from the Asemka road to the palace. I don’t know what debt he was referring to, but he always felt he owed me” smiles Oesman in recollection.
Although not to become as huge as Liem’s business network, Oesman’s companies expanded to other sectors such as plantations, hotel chains in Bali, Batam, Pontianak, Singkawang, and Ketapang, fuel stations and people’s credits banks. He owns an island off Ketapang where his Pulau Salah Nama resort stands. Oesman is also the commissioner of Indonesia’s largest private airlane, Lion Air.
Commenting on entrepreneurship, economist Pande Radja Silalahi said Oesman relied much on his intuition in business. He did not adhere to formal business theories. “Uniquely, those who relied more on business intuition and instinct were far more successful. Their thingking is sharp and accurate,”Pande says.
Pande said Oesman’s success is based more on personal networking than professional relationships. “Businessmen like Oesman preferred to build family business than just expanding as a professional company,”he said.
In the mining sector, Oesman is a minority shareholder in PT Bumi Resources Tbk., PT Medco Energi International Tbk, and others. He describes the holdings as small in scale. In all, GlobeAsia calculates the entrepreneur to be worth more than $700 million.
He has never relied on loans as principle capital. “I have loans but they are very small compared to the equity I own. Anytime I can pay back my loans,” he says.
Oesman now plans to focus on agrobusiness, which he believes is the only sector which can help boost and improve the national economy.
“In the past when I was a contractor, there was a lot of money but it did not last long due high costs. In construction services you can’t calculate the real costs, especially when you take part in bidding. Although you use other people’s companies in project biddings, you need to spend a lot of money and the profit is too small compared to the costs. In agro-business, tou can calculate the costs and profit,” he says.
Noted economist Iman Sugema says Oesman’s reasoning is valid. According to him, until 2016, the prospects in palm oil and rubber will be good. “I am convinced the prices of the two commodities will remain high. The demand is increasing.” he says.
Iman says in countries with growing economies such as China and India, demand for agricultural commodities has increased drastically. “Now CPO is not only for cooking oil or soap, but also as an alternative fuel. The same with rubber, it’s not only for car tires or condoms but rubber is used as a raw material,” he said.
Oesman says that rubber-producing countries such as Malaysua and Thailand are reducing the area of rubber plantations and converting them to industrial estates. As a result, there is not enough rubber to meet world demand.
“There is not enough rubber on the international market and the price is very high. We are now planting rubber in 10,000 hectare lots. Hopefully we will be able to expand every year,’ he says.

Politics
Oesman admits he is very conservative in business, but when he entered politic he spent a lot of money. In 2002, together with several members of parliament he established the Regional Unity Party (PPD), a vehicle to develop regional policies.
Politics, according to him, provides moral and social enjoyment because it can contribute to the people and nation.
“I didn’t fight for Indonesia independence in 1945. I was born in 1950 but I fought to provide better welfare for the people. And politics is where that’s possible.”
For Oesman, both business and politics provide enjoyment. “As a businessman, business can be the main buty and politics a hobby. But at times it can be the other way around. Politics first, then business. It depends on which level one is going up.”
With general elections near. Oesman has put politics in first place. “Business can be run by my sons, my friends or professionals but politics is one way to speed up economic growth, eliminate backwardness and poverty alleviation in the regions,” he says.
“It’s my philoshophy to build national development and promote the welfare of people in the regions. I have to prove all that with politics.”
Oesman says that if he concentrated solely on the business of OSO International, the company could have been bigger. “But I have already promised the people. I would help them through politics. I won’t be playing a role with existing political parties and I won’t be critizing the government. We have our own political vehicle and idealism,” Oesman says.
Oesman may lack a formal education but he pays great attention to students and their attitudes. He never turns down an invitation to speak or lecture students on the business and political landscape.
Nevertheless, he says students of today are losing political insight. “It’s as if they have lost their critical views and it seems they are not too aware of what’s happening in the country,” he says.
Now Oesman is enjoying the achievements of a life of hard work. Luxury cars line the sidewalk in front of his office and home. In Singapore, he owns a Rolls Royce. When he is in Jakarta, he doesn’t need to wait for a vegetable ship to take him back to Pontianak; his four private jets are parked at Jakarta’s Halim airport and in Singapore.
Oesman says people calculate income and expenditure to see their cash flow performance. “I am not like that. I worked for 38 years and now I am enjoying what I have. It’s difficult to explain to other people.”
On succession, Oesman believes the future is in God’s hands but everybody has to fight to get what they want. “My father didn’t leave us anything but his sons were all successful,” he says. “Regeneration? I am not there yet. But later, when I die, it will be a different story.”

Source : Globe Asia – Volume 2. Page, 40-42

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Ditulis Unknown — 21 Des 2010 — Add Comment