theceomagazine.com | 49looking for. The app is there really to
help make purchasing easier. The last thing
they want is to drive all the way to a store
only to find that it does not carry the
product they are looking for.” Wijono
explains that this is particularly important in
a country like Indonesia, where there aren’t
many big-box stores (also known as
megastores or supercentres) where the
size and range of the stock is vastly greater
than that of smaller suburban hardware stores.
Competition in the market is tackled by
Avia Avian through a commitment to good
corporate governance. “We have an open-
door policy,” Wijono says, “meaning that if
staff have any problems – sexual harassment
issues or anything else – we have a dedicated,
internal audit department with a phone
number that people can call with complete
confidentiality. We tell our staff, ‘You can
tell us anything you need to anonymously.
We guarantee your privacy, so if there are
any issues with any department, feel free to
tell us.’ In addition, we have had a good
corporate governance policy in place for the
past five years now. Every supplier that wants
to come into the company, and every new
employee, is made aware of the policy and it
is something that they must acknowledge and
sign. If they’re not willing to sign it, then
they cannot work for us.
“We want to make sure that when people
work for us, transparency and accountability
are valued. We do not allow bribes. We do
not tolerate sexual harassment, because we
want everybody who works for us to be
comfortable and feel that yes, while we are
still a family business, we do not behave like
many other family businesses in Indonesia.
We are aware of what we need to do to
elevate our company to the next level, so that
we can compete with all the multinationals.”
As President Director, Wijono says that
his leadership style is firm but fair. He says
that you need to be able to nurture the
people you have working for you. “While
we do set targets and KPIs [key performance
indicators] – we always set ambitious targets
and that is the reason why we have grown
relatively fast from being a small company to
becoming the number one player in the »
Interview | INSPIRE