people Who’s Who
Alluring Mind
One of the masterminds behind Alleira Batik, Lisa Mihardja, shares with Tyara P. Hansel a narrative of her success and tools to create a balanced life
L budi kosasih n photography
in persuading a world-class establishment to welcome the brand as part of its member tenants. “At first, we were rejected because they thought, ‘Oh, this is a batik brand; it must be old-fashioned and cheap’,” she adds. But Lisa didn’t stop there, as she contacted the establishment every now and then just to make sure Alleira would be given a spot in it. Her dogged determination came to fruition rather sooner than expected; one day, she was allowed to do a presentation on the brand’s concept before the resort team. “They were surprised and asked us, ‘Is this really batik?’ I said, ‘Yes. This is 100 per cent batik and is 100 per cent handmade. It’s a piece of art’.” With her eloquence and passion for the batik, she nailed down support for her plan and sealed a deal right after the presentation. Another challenge to her noble endeavour to make batik gain more international recognition is that many people still underestimate products that bear a “made-in-Indonesia” status, which really disturbs her. “This wrong mind-set must change—sooner or later,” she adds. Indeed, Lisa’s hard work seems to have paid off. Alleira’s success earned her an Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial award in the Women Class of Winners category in 2012. Yet, she adds if there is another thing that has brought so much excitement into her life, that will be the fact that she has finally managed to live a balanced life. “I am a mother of three, a wife, a daughter-in-law, and a business woman. I juggled my career with all these roles in the first four years when I started Alleira, and it was very difficult. Now, everything has changed and is much more balanced that it used to be.” Asked Lisa how she did it, she concludes: “It took a lot of compromise and a great team work. Lucky me, I had and still have a fantastic team—my husband, the kids, and I, all share the same life value; that is, family should always come first.”
isa mihardja, together with her partner, Anita Asmaya Sanin, is the founder of Alleira Batik, a high-end batik brand whose operation spans over Southeast Asia and Australia. A lady with a bubbly personality, Lisa, who says she has worn batik since a young age, established the clothing line in the hope of promoting Indonesian batik, and of creating collections that reflect exclusivity and modern design, both for men and women.
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“I honestly started Alleira by coincidence. I met Anita a long time ago, and she told me she wanted to open up a fashion business. She is really a talented batik designer, and I thought we would make a great team, with Anita at the helm of the production, and me in charge of the business development,” Lisa explains. She had the courage of her convictions, which made her keep going to open Alleira in 2005, a move that she describes as “a perfect timing to start the business because there weren’t that many established brands at that time that focused on batik production”. The year she started Alleira saw a small team comprising only three people working at Lisa’s garage at her home in Simprug; now the brand is operating from a factory in Tangerang, with more than 150 employees, and a monthly production of up to 2,000 items. “Looking back, I can’t believe that our business has grown exponentially,” she says. One can also see a paragon of such growth through the number of Alleira stores that keeps sprouting up not only across Indonesia but also in some Southeast Asian countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia, and in Australia as well. Upping the ante, Alleira is also expanding its market share by starting a franchise system. Asked Lisa about the most challenging part of her job, especially in terms of expanding a batik business on the global stage, she answers: “It never came to me easy to convince people about our products.” She further details her experience
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Faces
Faces
people Who’s Who
At A Glance education
Lisa received a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia in 1996.
family
Lisa is married to Suherman Mihardja, and both have raised three children: Tiffany, Carys, and Edwin.
positions
Besides presiding over Alleira Batik Indonesia and Alleira International, Lisa is also the CEO of Island Shop Indonesia, Delphine and Co. Jewellery, Fame Agenda Australia, Indonesia, etc.