All the World’s a Stage

by Melissa Stein, photos by Rarindra Prakasa

The Sansrkit word mayapada means “galaxy” or “universe.” And the Mayapada Group, an Indonesia-based corporation founded by Mr. Tahir (MBA 88), has grown exponentially. Launched as a garment business in 1986, it has expanded into the realms of finance, retail, healthcare, property and media. One of the Group’s main business arms, Bank Mayapada, is now the fourth-largest privately owned bank in Indonesia, with 150 branches all over the country. The bank not only weathered the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global economic crisis, but actually flourished. And as Tahir has built success upon success in his diverse ventures, he has become widely recognized as a dedicated philanthropist, donating millions to educational and other causes.

Born in 1952 in Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia at the time, to poor, hard-working parents, Tahir couldn’t have been further removed from his current life of multimillion-dollar deals and finance magazine cover stories. To support Tahir and his two younger sisters, his mother leased a pedicab and later became a diamond dealer, while his father ran a fabric shop with his sister. Not until Tahir was 20 could his family finally afford to buy a house, after leasing with another family throughout his childhood. “As a child I didn’t have any special visions or ideas that ‘I want to be somebody,’” he explains. What first drove him toward success in business was basic necessity: “Because I come from a poor family, it was clear that I would have to work hard to support my family.”

If you take a risk that you can afford, it’s called an investment.

After graduating from high school at age 16, Tahir was admitted to medical school in Taiwan, but he dropped out shortly after due to his father’s ill health and enrolled at Nan Yang University in Singapore. In his third year of college, he started a retail and wholesale grocery business, continuing to work after he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1976. Groceries appealed to him because “they are consumer goods, and fast-moving.” He traded and imported popular brands of products such as candy, cookies, and beer from China, Japan, and Taiwan, opening a store called Riadi Utama. He met his wife, Rosy Riady, through matchmaking — “To the western world it’s unbelievable, but according to research, sometimes matchmaking is more successful”— and the pair were married in 1974. They have four children — three daughters and a son in their 30s — and eight grandchildren.

“After marriage, basically the first step is how to feed my children, how to support the family — it’s very simple,” asserts Tahir. “Whatever the job, I work diligently; I work just to try to earn some money to make a living, to survive.” He launched a car sales business in Jakarta that “did okay” for a while, but finally went under in the late ’80s, and it took him some time to recover financially. But he feels that without this failure, he wouldn’t have become the businessman that he is. “From 1988 up to 1991, that was the most difficult time of my life. But I was so lucky because of that experience. I now understood a few principles of life. First of all, don’t go for too much leverage, don’t overborrow the bank. Second, you have to have some control over your own operation. So this kind of experience really made my portfolio richer. It was very useful for later things.”

In the meantime, with financial assistance from his father-in-law, Tahir launched a large-scale garment and textile manufacturing business with partners from Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States. Buyers supplied patterns and fabric, and Tahir’s company — which grew to 6,000 employees — cut, sewed and ironed. Success was limited because Indonesia had quotas on exports. “Ninety-nine percent of our garments were exported to America,” Tahir says.

At about the same time, while Tahir was contemplating entering the world of banking, a colleague told him about the GGU MBA program offered in Indonesia. “I think I was lucky that I could join the master’s degree program,” he says. “Only the last two subjects and the final exam were held in San Francisco, so I could still continue my work in Jakarta. For us working people, the schedule was a good match.”

Tahir feels that taking time off for real-world work between academic degrees greatly enhanced his learning. “When you finish high school and then you go to college, when you get all these lessons and lectures, you don’t really know whether it will be useful in the future,” he explains. “But after you have working experience for so many years and then you go for a master’s degree, you find a lot of similarity between the material the professor teaches you and the principles in the business world. First, you refresh a lot of the knowledge you already forgot. And second, you have new knowledge, advanced knowledge, for your master’s degree. My time at Golden Gate was very useful.”

Established with capital equivalent to 2 million US dollars, Tahir’s Bank Mayapada “grew slowly, smoothly, and firmly.” Tahir found that the banking industry posed very unique challenges. “It is the heart of economic activities,” he explains. “It requires a high degree of trust. You have to have strong discipline and morality, as you have an obligation to people who deposit money in your bank. You also have the responsibility of ensuring that loans will be safe, and will be paid back.” The field of banking also offers valuable strategic opportunities: “You deal with a wide variety of clients, which enriches your portfolio of knowledge or activities.” That exposure paves the way for business expansion.

Once the bank took root, Tahir moved rapidly to diversify his business. Because “Indonesia has good geographical conditions — thousands of islands, good weather, culture — and the people are fine,” Tahir partnered with Duty Free Shoppers USA, eventually becoming the largest duty-free–shop operator in Indonesia. Part of his strategy has been to analyze spending behavior specific to tourists of different nationalities. “The Japanese spend differently than the Chinese, for example,” says Tahir.

Without this failure, he wouldn’t have become the businessman that he is.

The Mayapada Group also owns several office towers and a hotel; has acquired one hospital and is working with Singapore to build a second; owns Forbes Indonesia and the largest Chinese-language newspaper in Indonesia; and is gearing up to enter the natural resources sector, making deals in coal and nickel. The company now employs 5,000 people. Remarkably, Tahir’s three daughters and his son all work for the Mayapada Group. “All my children work in different fields. They are responsible for their own sectors, so we don’t have any conflict of interest. And I think they are doing well in the company.”

Tahir attributes much of his phenomenal success — last year he was named the 26th richest Indonesian — to preparation and discipline. Likening business to a boxing ring, he says, “If you dare to go up to the ring, you have to know the consequences. You have to know that you will get punched, and you will get hurt unless you are well prepared. You must know the rules of the game.” He gives the example of entering the natural resources arena. “If I get involved in the nickel business, I will prepare a two to three billion US dollar investment. This is totally different from foodstuffs. I have to prepare mentally, create a sound financial structure, and establish more solid management. Preferably we’ll have a good partner, let’s say from China, that is more advanced in this business. Foodstuffs don’t require too much preparation. You cannot use the same attitude to run a candy shop and a smelting factory.”

Tahir’s shrewd approach to risk-taking has also kept him on top. “If you take a risk that you cannot afford, you are gambling. If you take a risk that you can afford, it’s called investment. When you have nothing, you have to take risk. Risk is also an art.” Especially in the realm of banking, which requires a fairly conservative approach, one of Tahir’s primary business principles is to take only “calculable and affordable” risks.

When asked how he feels about his accomplishments, Tahir says, “I have nothing to be proud of; I only feel blessed. I only feel thanks for whatever today I have already achieved, because I always compare to what I came from. I feel self-contented, but this feeling doesn’t make me stop working.”

Tahir’s upbringing had an indelible effect on his business philosophy. “I come from a poor family, and that affected my constitution and my experience of life. Now I have a burden, I have a commission to help the poor.” While at first he was focused solely on supporting his family, “after you have passed through some experience, then you start to think whether your life and your career are just for yourself, for your family, or if it can be a blessing for others. In fact, we are also working for society. It’s my philosophy, it’s my belief, and it’s also my commitment: We benefit from society, and we have to return also to society.” The Mayapada Group’s motto, “Built by the society for the society,” reflects his belief.

For Tahir, giving back takes several forms. One way is to build as solid, dependable, trustworthy, and successful a business as possible. “Indonesia needs jobs, America needs jobs. So we have an obligation, when we do business, we create jobs, too. [Tahir says he has hired Americans.] Then the people can work in my company and earn some money and provide support. So if I have 10,000 employees and they each have four other family members, it means that 50,000 people depend on me. I cannot be so careless, saying, ‘Oh, this company belongs to me, I can do whatever I want.’ I have to do well, I have to do properly, I have to do successfully.”

Another one of Tahir’s main goals is “to be a blessing to others — not only for family, as a good father, as a good husband, but more than that.” This goal lies at the core of his philanthropic work. “If I can do for Indonesia, that’s the first job, but if I have bigger potential, ability, or capacity, I’ll do more outside the region.” In addition to making donations to give the poor access to better healthcare, the Mayapada Group has provided millions of dollars to fund scholarships for poor students to attend universities throughout Indonesia. Tahir has made substantial donations to the National University of Singapore, where his son received his undergraduate degree, as well as to the University of California at Berkeley, the alma mater of all three of his daughters. He has the distinction of being the first non-alum from Asia appointed to UC Berkeley’s board of trustees, and was a trustee at GGU for several years. He is ambassador to the University of Southern California, and serves on the board of Pancasila University in Jakarta. Tahir is modest about his philanthropic activities: “Of course I am on a small scale; I can’t compare to someone like Bill Gates. Bill Gates is my idol; I follow in his footsteps. That kind of person is who I aspire to be.”

Tahir is also a black belt in karate and judo, and you probably don’t want to go up against him in ping-pong: He’s been president of the Indonesian Table Tennis Association for eight years, and was recently appointed president of the South East Asia Table Tennis Association. Along with keeping him fit and healthy, these sports bring Tahir “a lot of peace in my heart and mind.” Overall, he says, “I’m happy with my life; it’s very exciting, very busy. And I have a cool mind, cool brain — I’m not shaking. I can face a lot of things very calmly. I’m not moody — I couldn’t be. I cannot afford to make mistakes.”

“I always say that deep in my heart, there is always a huge mountain I want to climb. But when I’m climbing, I find another mountain to climb, so I cannot stop until the end of my life. I don’t wait for a challenge to come — I create the challenge. Every mountain is higher and higher.” Tahir believes that “when you are born you are like a blank container; who you are depends on what you put in the container. If you fill the container honestly, if you fill it diligently, if you fill it with faithfulness, it will reflect all these good things.”

“I always believe that I’m not working for my hobby or my preference. earning some money to make a living, that is the first stage — we always start from the first dollars. But don’t forget, if you only focus on the first dollars then you become very narrow, you become very shallow, very shortsighted. You must have a vision: What is your role in this life? But if you have only long vision, bigger vision without the first dollar action, then you are become flamboyant, you only think big big big, you are always dreaming, ‘I want to be rich’… so I try to combine this. Whatever the job, I will do it focused, I will do it properly, and I will make it successful. I have to have self-discipline and a high degree of self-control.”