James Riady is the CEO of Lippo Group, one of Indonesia's largest conglomerates with annual revenues of some $3 billion. The Group, among the most active property developers in Southeast Asia, has expanded into China and Hong Kong and plans to invest $10 billion over the next five years in the Asia Pacific region. It also has interests in media, telecommunications, retail and health care. Fifteen years ago, Riady was responsible for the establishment of Universitas Pelita Harapan in Indonesia, and he has a strong interest in the social impact of business. During an interview with Knowledge@Wharton, Riady explained the lessons he has learned over the years from successes and failures in business and politics.
An edited transcript of the conversation follows.
Knowledge@Wharton: For the past year, the global economy has been struggling through an unprecedented economic and financial crisis. How did the crisis affect Indonesia?
James Riady: It affected everybody. It affected the whole financial system. But it affected Indonesia less because [we] always valued more stable growth rather than growth in a more liberal sense. Indonesia has benefited from that. It always maintained a very conservative macroeconomic policy. Indonesia now has become the darling of Asia.
We have an economy that's growing and is stable with all the right economic indicators. Inflation is low. Indonesia did not have the kind of stimulus packages that the U.S., China and other countries have had. Indonesia has been vindicated. All this time, we have valued stable macroeconomic policies. When everybody else was growing very fast, Indonesia was [being asked], "How come you're not growing as fast?"
Knowledge@Wharton: When the crisis hit, how did the government of President Yudhoyono react? And how did the measures succeed in improving the economy?
Riady: When the crisis happened, the most important thing was our culture of responsiveness.
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