Mochtar Riady
There is only one person called The Magic of Bank Marketing, and that person is Mochtar Riady. He is the main brain behind the success of Lippo Group (which consists of Lippo Bank) and Panin Bank, a once small private bank that later became the competition of Bank Central Asia. He was also once work at BCA and successfully brought the bank into one of the most successful private banks in Indonesia. Interestingly, he started his career without good knowledge in accounting.
The Beginning of Career
Mochtar Riady started his career as a small store owner in Malang, East Java, which belonged to his in-laws. After turning the store into big store in just three years, he moved to Jakarta in 1954 to pursue his dream to become a banker. He first worked at a small office and then became partner with his friend in a small freight company. Later, he bought Bank Kemakmuran with cheap price, since it was a small bank with financial problem, and became director there. However, he later decided to work from the bottom, because he realized he did not know anything about the accounting and financial aspects of the bank.
He finally managed to develop the bank until it slowly became a successful small bank. Later, in 1971, he moved to Panin Bank, which was the result of merger between Bank Kemakmuran, Bank Industri Dagang Indonesia, and Bank Industri Jaya. He managed to develop the bank until it became successful and even able to compete with BCA. He later moved to BCA in year 1978, bringing his experiences when he was still working at Bank Kemakmuran and Panin Bank.
The Brain behind Successful Banks
During his time in BCA, Mochtar Riyadi applied his banking knowledge and experiences, and successfully raised BCA stock from mere IDR 12.8 billion to IDR 5 trillion. He later moved to Bank Perniagaan Asia and successfully raised the bank stock, until it was able to do merger with Bank Umum Asia and later became Lippo Bank in 1989. In his hands, Lippo Bank slowly grew into Lippo Group, which holds several businesses such as property, financial, industry, energy, electric and infrastructure building. Lippo Group was hit hard by monetary crisis in 1997, but after a decade, Mochtar Riyadi managed to bring the group back to its feet, and he earned his place back at Forbes list of richest Indonesians with more than $2.5 million of net worth.