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Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
OCTOBER 8, 1999 VOL. 25 NO. 40
M A N A G E R S A T W A R
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 RINI SUWANDI, ASTRA INTERNATIONAL: Japanese creditors with whom she had spent years cutting deals no longer trusted her. It hurt Kemal Jufri for Asiaweek |
By JOSE MANUEL TESORO Jakarta
When Indonesia's Astra International found itself weighed down with $1.2 billion in foreign debt and demand for its automobiles in freefall, it went to its former finance director, Rini Suwandi. At the time, Rini had recently joined the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency as deputy chair and was already working weekends. "Oh, God, it's going to get worse," her family said when they heard that she was going to be Astra's CEO. Rini's husband asked: "Are you sure about this?" Rini was. She believed herself to be the ideal candidate. Having moved to Astra from Citibank in 1989, she felt she could avoid the kind of emotional attachment that hindered managers who had been with the conglomerate since its beginning. She could be detached about the hard decisions. At least that was the theory.
MANAGERS AT WAR
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Next she started taking flak from Astra's creditors. Halting debt payments was the second big decision - making it even more painful was that as chief financial officer she had made many of the original deals herself. "Boy it was tough," she says. Some creditors were realistic; others were rude and screamed: "Astra has cash! Astra has cash! You have to fulfill your commitment!" Meetings went back and forth. She traveled to Tokyo often. Sometimes on the plane Rini wondered if it was all worth it - especially when people she had known for years no longer trusted her. Then she would tell herself: "Come on Rini, you have to cheer up. I must be strong for the people at Astra living under this question mark." At one point the Jakarta media asked if a woman was capable of restructuring Astra. They don't ask anymore. Rini pushed through her reforms over internal resistance and has committed Astra to paying off all its loans in the next seven years. Now she must prepare the group for the future. But at least the company is surviving, and re-engineering it has become "a more enjoyable challenge." Once in a while nowadays, Rini can even afford to laugh.
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