Ardantya Syahreza is a businessman and professional who handles a variety of responsibilities since he currently leads multiple enterprises in diverse industries. Some of the businesses are his, while others are owned by his extended family.
Ardantya established his first company, PT Marketing Komunikasi Indonesia, in 2005. The company provides marketing services and brand communication strategy consultation in activation activities (event promotions) that allow for measurable customer database acquisitions, product trials, and purchases.
A brand activation agency is not the same as an event planner (EO) where they only promote. A brand activation agency, on the other hand, designs and oversees brand-appropriate promotional activities.
"This is nothing more than an activity that directly reaches out to people who utilize the brand," said the AIESEC Indonesia Alumni Chairman.
MKI has been trusted to manage major brands due to his hard work. Its clients currently come from various industries, including food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, oil, and banking.
Ardantya said that MKI's research department is its greatest asset. For such a brand, they first have to conduct market research. "Market research is required initially to figure out what consumers want from a brand, and we undertake this ourselves via our research section," he concluded.
When Ardantya started MKI in 2005, he said that not many brands had executed this. “There are a lot of advertisements on television, but there are still few events. Advertisements don't necessarily target consumers, so I tried to take a side-by-side approach to the client.”
"Back then, I was in charge of a lot of prospecting operations and pitch proposals for potential new brand clients," he said. "I recognized an opportunity to build a service with a new business model to serve clients who want their marketing budget to be associated with company achievement or sales after dealing with new prospects for a long time."
F&B expansion
Ardantya, an Universitas Brawijaya Faculty of Economics alumnus, expanded his business by launching a culinary business and F&B service with a franchising system.
Under the auspices of PT Kuliner Nusantara Sejahtera Indonesia, he oversaw the Bakso Kota Cak Man outlet franchisee management, became the master franchisor of Sour Sally Mini, and created Marlous Martabak, NSW Bruger, and Sushi Pablo.
Ardantya is the holding company for the two firms that operate under the Indocre Lintas Usaha banner. It also comprises PT Generasi Muda Indonesia, which bridges the information gap between the academic and professional worlds. The Indocre Group is devoted to participating in the creative industry area.
Man with a vision
Ardantya's breadth of experience has sharpened his commercial acumen. His early career began as an intern at the Royal Bank of Canada Branch Office in Ontario. He then returned to Indonesia as a Nielsen Research Executive, eventually becoming a business development manager for an advertising firm.
ARDANTYA SYAHREZA SHARES LEADERSHIP TIPS FOR MILLENIALS AND GEN Z’S
Ardantya Syahreza from Persada Hospital shares his leadership experiences in more than 25 years.
Through an interview with The S Media, Ardantya gives us insight into how to be a successful leader at a young age.
We call you a truly multitasking man as your businesses come from various industries. How do you sharpen your fresh ideas every day?
I have learned that in order to keep our ideas alive and up to date is by always learning and be open to anything new continuously. Being open means we put ourselves as a forever-student. We are not smarter than anyone, and we want to learn about everything.
I also think that younger generations are smarter than me, and I could learn about digital, startups, and anything new from them.
Is this pandemic affecting you a lot in terms of productivity and your journey in the professional world? What do you think this pandemic could change millennials' path to leadership?
This pandemic definitely impacts our hospital business. As a hospital, of course, we have to cater the public health issues. But on top of the rush and crisis, Persada Hospital made to achieve more in 2021. When things are changing, we just need to ride on the waves. This will require speed to adapt and change. Not all organizations and leaders can make things happen in such a quick response. The winner is the one who can adapt the fastest.
This pandemic will make our millennials more perseverant in facing problems and more creative to face challenges. It will make every millennial to be more adaptive and faster to adapt.
As a leader, you must have experience in handling employees from gen Z or millennials. Is that difficult as we know that young employees today are considered more unruly and behave as they want?
Gen Z and Millenials mostly tend to take easy on things. They are not pushing things to the max. Therefore, in certain cases, leaders must show examples and create a reward-punishment system to create such productive culture among the gen Z and millennials.
In order to keep ourselves relevant with the current times and even lead changes or transformations, we need to be fast in adopting new trends and new approaches. Well, to be honest, I am often attending webinars and reading various articles regarding digital, technology, organization transformation, leadership, and many more.
There are so many young generations today that have high eagerness to be a successful entrepreneur like you. But most of them are mood-swingers. How do you see this phenomenon?
Being an entrepreneur means being alone. Being an entrepreneur is being a human being who has a strong purpose and passion to work on certain issues. An entrepreneur is someone who can not live without any strong purpose. They will work hard to achieve the purpose and gather people and resources to make things happen.
I do not see the young generations are mood-swingers. They are really smart, instead. But, they do have to lack in their emotional quotient. How they can be more persistent and able to engage and respect people is something that young generations need to learn more.
Do you have such an inspiring mentor or role model that you admire? What is the most valuable lesson that you learned from him/her?
Mr. Benny Subianto – he is my uncle, an older brother of my father, who crawled his career from a salesman in United Tractors until become one of the 50 richest men in Indonesia. He passed away on January 4th, 2017.
I admire him because I love the story behind all the career and business success that he achieved is what I admire from him. The value of working hard and building a reputation is what I learned from him. He was also a gentleman who likes to help people. He helped so many people no matter they treated him back in different ways. But I learned from him that doing good to others is the most precious asset in life.
First, you need to have a strong idea to address any issues. In order to lead a company, we need to know how we want to be different and unique to address customers’ problems. Secondly, as a leader, you need to have a strong will to achieve your vision. A strong attitude will lead to our persistence, a never-say-die person, and always try to find a way to make things happen.
Lastly, as a leader, you are a leader who needs to learn from your team and also empower them to become the next leader. No leader can lead an organization without good leadership skills.
