Guts and Glory - The Making of a Business Athlete

B U S I N E S S AT H L E T E In collaboration with

GUTS AND GLORY

THE MAKING OF A BUSINESS ATHLETE

DINA RIMANDRA HANDAYANI

PATRICK KALONA

WILLSON CUACA

HARRY K. NUGRAHA

MIKE WILUAN

GUTS AND GLORY What do successful business people all have in common? It’s an age-old question, yet no one can seem to find a consensus on the very distillate of what makes a businessperson successful.

Is it grit? Perseverance? The ability to motor ahead despite mountains of roadblocks, or seemingly impossible situations?

One thing is for sure, though. Business leaders—true business leaders—are in the business of winning. For these captains of industry, a challenge or a roadblock is just another opportunity for them to prove their mettle; to perfect their game. In this special feature, Forbes Indonesia handpicked five successful business personas who are also adroit athletes. They use sports as a way to test their limits, to keep pushing just a bit further than yesterday, and to master their instincts to deliver a business performance driven by guts and glory. To them, sports is not only a way of life; it is a state of mind—just like winning.

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YOGA IS A BIG THING IN MY LIFE. IT HAS A VERY CALMING EFFECT ON ME, LIKE A PROTECTIVE BUBBLE THAT SHIELDS ME FROM ALL THE WORRIES AND TROUBLES OUTSIDE WHEN I’M PERFORMING THE MOVEMENTS.

DINA RIMANDRA HANDAYANI FOUNDER ALBENS FINE ENGLISH CIDER #tenacity #spontaneity #gutsandglory #businessathlete WITH A SCORCHING HOT ROOM that can reach up to 42 °C, Bikram Yoga needs one endurance and tenacity, two traits that illustrate Dina Rimandra Handayani, 30, who has managed to single-handedly create a new market for cider in a country infamous for its high levies on alcoholic beverages. “I feel yoga has instilled within me a sense of calmness yet enduring tenacity that keeps my fire going no matter how tough the going gets,” Dina says.

The heated room brings out extra sweat and fitness that pushed her to the limit and challenged her to bring out her best. Every time she walked into the hot room, her mind races whether she can endure the heat a little bit longer yet she always successfully pushed herself to the limit every time.

Dina is no stranger to adversity. In 2013, three years after she founded PT Indosarnia, the producer of Albens Cider, and she had to jump through various hoops to clear the technical and bureaucratic hurdles involved in the production of an alcoholic beverage, she succeeded. As a businesswoman with an acute marketing mindset, Dina understands that a market needs to be created and developed. “It’s a chance to create and develop this new market, hand-in-hand, and reap the rewards afterward as first movers,” she says. Four years later, you can find Albens products throughout Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali, Lombok and very soon Papua; as well as Singapore, Malaysia and Australia.

Dina reveals that she uses yoga principles and a few tricks she has learned from yoga in her daily work rituals. “Practicing yoga has taught me the importance of regulating my breathing, which in turns regulates my heartbeat. This is very important because I face daily stress that comes with running a profitable, yet somewhat harshly targeted drinks business,” she says. “I work hard every day,” she continues, “as a leader, my job requires me to lobby and make networking with various people in addition to perform the day-today office work. I often get home at two or three in the morning. I need a mechanism to balance out my life, and yoga has provided me with that balance.”

PATRICK KALONA DIRECTOR PT PHYTOCHEMINDO REKSA #persistence #passion #gutsandglory #businessathlete RUNNING A MARATHON that spans more than 40 km is not a simple task and needs one order and Patrick Kalona, 35, excels at the two traits.

His preferred sport, running, provides him with an outlet to exercise his discipline and persistence. “I like running because it requires the utmost in discipline and persistence. Discipline includes the planning aspect of it, which I enjoy very much and it is absolutely essential if you want to get the most of your exercise. It also involves nutritional intake, which is easy to violate when I’m stressed out,” he says. “I feel like running presents me with a challenge every time. Can I persist just a little longer? Can I beat myself from yesterday? This is why I like to participate in marathons. I’ve run the London Half Marathon, Jakarta Marathon and New York marathon.

It’s just a way for me to test myself, to persist just a little longer until I reach the finish line,” Patrick says.

He is the man behind the success of PT Phytochemindo Reksa, one of Indonesia’s independent manufacturers of natural plant extracts and service providers. In just five years, he has successfully grown the company from a 50-man operation in 2012 to over 150 when he took the reins from his late aunt in 2012. It wasn’t always easy for Patrick, a former banker and veteran of the finance industry of eight years. He finished his education in the London School of Economics and his first career was at the Ernst and Young London, and then at Deutsche Bank, both regional powerhouses that service Western Europe with tens of thousands of employees. “It wasn’t a walk in the park, that’s for sure. I had to deal with significant changes in my lifestyle, habit and also environment,” Patrick says.

Patrick’s experiences in the banking world and working for one of the largest multinational banks in the Western hemisphere brought order and discipline to what was previously a free-spirited organization. “In this business, I’ve learned that integrity, discipline and empathy are the winning recipe for success and are non-negotiable if you want to succeed,” Patrick says.

I’VE LEARNED THAT INTEGRITY, DISCIPLINE AND EMPATHY ARE THE WINNING RECIPE FOR SUCCESS AND ARE NON-NEGOTIABLE IF YOU WANT TO SUCCEED.

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HARRY K. NUGRAHA COUNTRY MANAGER AT INTEL INDONESIA CORPORATION & MANAGING DIRECTOR OF INTEL REST OF ASIA REGION #dedication #perseverance #gutsandglory #businessathlete

THE THING THAT I LIKE THE MOST FROM THIS HOME-BASED WORKOUT PROGRAMS IS THAT IT TAUGHT ME DISCIPLINE AND PROGRESSION.

HARRY K. NUGRAHA is one busy man. The 48-year old holds no less than two official titles under Intel Technology Asia Pte Ltd: Country Manager – Indonesia, and Managing Director – Rest of Asia. In other words, he is responsible for Intel Corporation’s operations both in Indonesia and overseas markets including Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. “I barely have time to do anything else after work, much less exercise,” Harry says, “that’s why I choose a home-based workout system to keep my fitness level.”

Harry explains that his commute from his house in East Jakarta to his office in Sudirman takes around four hours vice versa every day. “I had to design my life and work around efficiency,” he says, “and home workouts are just the smart thing to do for someone like me.” Harry contends that his home workout program utilizes technology to get the most out of his exercise. “My gymnasium is small and not by all means sophisticated, but it’s more than enough. Just like my work, I utilize technology into my workouts. I follow several popular programs that can be downloaded online or via digital apps, which I then project into a TV monitor and connect to a wireless headset. The headset has artificial intelligence that can advise how many calories I’ve burned that day or track my progress and other stuff,” he says.

“The thing that I like the most from this home-based workout programs is that it taught me discipline and progression. Those are the key things that I have been able to learn about and carry over to my work. Progression and consistency. I’ve never realized how important these are to my work until I started following these programs,” he articulates.

“Work can be so tough sometimes. I’m in charge of multiple markets in multiple locations and this can make it seem like I have to work around the clock. Being the leader in Intel means I have to stay in tip-top shape. That’s consistency. Consistency to deliver excellence day in, day out. That also means I don’t skip exercising at home, at the programmed time and day, no matter how I feel. And it takes a lot of willpower to do, because oftentimes I get home around eight or nine in the evening. At five in the morning I have to get up again and get ready to go to the office,” he says.

WILLSON CUACA IN TRIATHLON, YOU ARE IN COMPETITION WITH YOURSELF. ONLY YOU HAVE THE POWER TO FINISH THE RACE.

MANAGING PARTNER EAST VENTURES #discipline #efficiency #gutsandglory #businessathlete SWIMMING, CYCLING, AND RUNNING in immediate succession makes triathlon a very challenging sport, but it is however a favorite sport for Willson Cuaca, 39, the Managing Partner of East Ventures, a Singapore-based venture capital firms that manages around 80 active portfolios in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia’s unicorns Tokopedia and Traveloka. “It’s fast-paced, it tests your limit to the maximum, and it allows you to discover who you really are,” he says.

Being at the helm of one of Asia’s most active venture capital firms with an insatiable thirst for local tech startups requires Willson to talk fast, think fast, and make decisions even faster. “As a perspective, I met with around 1,000 prospective investees and founders from different companies last year. This requires me to maintain my wit, stamina and agility at peak levels, at all times,” he says. “Running a triathlon provides me with a respite from my busy schedules,” he continues, “and I like it because it is such an individual sport. It’s not a team sport where you have to yell and coordinate with each other all the time. In triathlon, you are in competition with yourself. You’re alone. Only you have the power to finish the race. Triathlon allows me to reflect quietly and discover what I’m really made of.”

“In triathlon, the goal is to simply finish the race, no matter what happens,” Willson says. “I like that principle. And that’s the same principle that I apply to my work. Whether right or wrong or good or bad, the most important thing is to finish the race. Make a decision.

Do something. Get into the race. In my line of work, it is better to make a bad decision than not make a decision at all.”

The fast-paced nature of Willson’s work has led him to create an algorithm for vetting a prospective investee as quickly as possible, based on a 45-minute face time. “45 minutes—that’s all the time I’m going to give you to pitch your idea and convince me to invest in you.

But within that time frame, you may well find yourself the receiving end of my investment if you convince me enough,” he says.

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MIKE WILUAN FOUNDER INFINITE STUDIOS #speed #agility #gutsandglory #businessathlete MICHAEL KRISTIAN WILUAN, better known as Mike Wiluan, 41, prefers swimming as his choice of sport. It provides him a respite from his chaotic lifestyle. Mike is no stranger to chaos as he grew up in Jakarta, which is a very chaotic city in its own right.

And his roller coaster journey as Southeast Asia’s pioneering film luminary has taken a toll on his body and mind. “I like swimming because it provides a respite from my chaotic life. Being under the water gives a very calming, serene effect for me. It’s a time where I can truly reflect back on my life and think about the kind of legacy that I want to leave for my children.” Mike says.

Mike is an unstoppable force in the rapidly growing film industry in Indonesia and the region. Having founded Infinite Studios almost two decades ago, Mike has successfully transformed its business from a production house specializing in post-production visuals for TV commercials, films, TV series, documentary and animation into the realm of content creation. The studio has held several notable characters, TV series and movies such as Garfield, HBO Asia’s Serangoon Road, Dead Mine (2016) and Headshot (2016) under its belt. “I would like to be remembered as someone who made a difference in the film industry. Beyond that, I just want to inspire my country’s generation,” Mike says.

Success, however, did not always come easy. Mike founded Infinite Studios back in 2004 in Singapore with a 30-man team.

“In 1997 through 1998 there was a turmoil in Indonesia,” Mike reminisced, “that was the time when I decided to return home after my study in England. It was a bad choice. I was looking for work and could not find anything. So I moved to Singapore and opened up this small production house manned by 30 people working out of a laundry room in a hotel, because that’s all we could afford at that time,” Mike says.

The film industry is highly competitive and there is always a precarious risk that a movie will flop despite the high production costs. His first animation feature, Sing to the Dawn, unexpectedly at the box office when it was released with great fanfare as Singapore’s first animated feature. “But I persevered,” Mike continued, “I persevered because I owe it to myself. I owe it to this industry. I can be selfish, and just say ‘I quit’ and move on to the next thing, but I want to leave a legacy,” Mike says.

I LIKE SWIMMING BECAUSE IT PROVIDES A RESPITE FROM MY CHAOTIC LIFE. BEING UNDER THE WATER GIVES A VERY CALMING, SERENE EFFECT FOR ME.