A CALL TO ARMS.
(Forbes Asia, December 22nd '08)

HUNDREDS OF EMPLOYEES OF Bank Mega gathered in an auditorium in Jakarta this October to herar their boss, Chairul Tanjung, talk for more than two hours about the global financial crisis. "If the crisis is so deep, so hard, and everyone has to die, makesure you're the last one to go," he preached. "If the crisis is so deep, so long, and only one person can survive, make sure it's you. And if the crisis doesn't hit Indonesia because we do everything right, make sure we are the happiest people."

It was one of a half-dozen such meetings that Chairul,46, had throughout Indonesia in October. A self-proclaimed perfectionist, Chairul is trying to prepare his company for whatever comes next. That includes scaling back expansion plans and cutting costs where possible. "I'm responsible for almost 20,000 employees," he says days later in an interview in the Ritz-Carlton hotel lobby in Washington, D.C., where he was traveling to promote Indonesia. "Some have families. So I'm responsible for 100,000 people." this is the first time in his career that he's scared, he confesses. During the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis he was younger and had not nearly as much to lose.

Today Chairul, who is worth $625 million and ranked 13 among Indonesia's 40 Richest, oversees Para Group, which extends from publicly traded Bank Mega to the nation's third-largest TV station to Trans Fashion, which holds franchises of high-end fashion brands such as Prada and Jimmy Choo. He is also seen as a rising business star and confidant of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono; he accompanied SBY on an official two-week trip through the U.S., Mexico, Brazil and Peru in November. It's role that has led to rumors that he may one day run for president-rumors he vehemently denies.

Chairul is considered by some to be the new, young face of Indonesian business. "Part of what makes Chairul Tanjung stand out is that he's not Chinese," says Marleen Dieleman, a visiting fellow at the NUS Business School who focuses on Southeast Asian famili businesses. "He's an indigenous Indonesian and a relatively new kid on the block."

Chairul's father was a journalist in Jakarta who struggled to support his wife and seven children (one daughter died when she was 1 year old). Still, Chairul was determainded to attend the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, one of the most competitive to get into but cheaper than other schools because it is state-subsidized. When he was admitted to its dentistry schoo, he didn't hesitate, even though his first choice had been engineering.

After he was enrolled, Chairul discovered that his mother had sent her finest batik to the government as collateral for his tuition loan. When he heard of her sacrifice to pay a balance of $7.50, Chairul told himself that he would never ask his parents for money again. The idea for his first venture came at the start of school, when he learned that all dentistry students were required to purchase a study guide sold in the bookstore for 5 cents. He and a friend, who rented a small printing press, copied the guides and sold them for 3 cents. "In business, the first money you make is more important than the big money that can come later," says Chairul.

Next, he decided to sell dental equipment to classmates. He approached a distributor, but the distributor balked because he didn't know Chairul, then only 19. Undeterred, Chairul recalled that a friend's father was the military's chief dentist and asked for an introduction. He convinced the man that he could help students by offering equipment at 30% discount and allowing them to buy on credit. The friend's father agreed to serve as a guarantor to the distributor. Soon Chairul opened a store to sell dental equipment. His many friends would stop by his store after class and stay late. Without fail, he would serve them food, and as his overhead climbed, his income dropped. He shut down the store and took odd jobs, working as a contractor, selling used cars and helping companies get government licenses. Along the way he became president of the student body.

After his 1987 graduation, Chairul decided to stick with business to help pay for his sibling's educations, rather than become a dentist. He got his first bank loan that year, from Indonesia's Export-Import Bank. The $12,000 loan, which he split with a friend, enabled the pair to start a slipper factory. They got $240,000 worth of orders within a year. In 1988 he borrowed enough to buy, with partners, a metal-roof factory and, soon after, a pulp factory. Despite his rising debt, Chairul says he paid his loans back on time and was never denied a loan.

By 1994 he and three partners owned four profitable companies and had more than 1,500 employees; Chairul thought he had reached the pinnacle of his success or, in his word, "hit my ceiling."

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