By : Taufik
(Chief Business Officer of MarkPlus.Inc)

Rome wasn't built in a day. This phrase is usually used to illustrate how success does not appear out of the blue. We often endure long, expensive, hurtful and tiring journey before we reach success.

Emirsyah Satar, CEO of Garuda Indonesia, had to endure the exact journey since 2005 till now. Many people perceive Garuda Indonesia in a different way, now that it is lead by Emirsyah. It's no surprise that someone has elected him to be one of the strongest candidates for Minister of State-Owned Enterprises in the past October cabinet exchange.

Emirsyah also took the initiative to strengthen Garuda's character as Indonesia's main airline. He believed that Garuda's positioning as a premium airline does not need to be changed. In this context, he saw that Garuda Indonesia was not doing business in transportation, but traveling instead.

There is a pre and post journey during all travels. If everything is designed to create a unique experience, the high price that is offered, compared to other competitors, wouldn't be a problem. Many will even see it as something that is normal. Emirsyah Satar has successfully started off his leadership by building Garuda's internal moral. Afterwards, he also used the next two years to execute a turnaround process, where its results can already be seen with Garuda's success in gaining profit again. With Garuda's trend pointing in to a better condition, he is confident that Garuda has started its path towards growth.

This is quite a brave move by Emirsyah, considering that Garuda has to review the routes that it has to run. In addition, with Garuda being banned to fly to Europe from mid 2007 to mid 2009, Garuda has little space to even talk about growth. But in Emirsyah's eyes, this prohibition for flying to Europe is actually an opportunity for improvements to strengthen Garuda's character as Indonesia's main airline. He has also made sure that Garuda received an IOSA, which is a security standard issued by IATA. And to further convince other parties, he has also made sure that Garuda is able to create alliances with other well-known international airline companies with high safety standards, such as Singapore Airlines. Apparently, this effort of his has allowed Garuda to fly to Europe again.

There are many other Indonesian marketers who have also succeeded in facing challenges to create turnarounds and continue its path of growth, such as Dyonisius Beti, Marketer of the Year 2006, who also had a phenomenal achievement this year. However, since he has already been awarded Marketer of the Year and because there have been many international suggestions to have Garuda as a reference to manage an airline company, there is no surprise that Emirsyah Satar has been awarded as Marketer of the Year 2009.

Written by Taufik, Chief Business Officer, MarkPlus, Inc.
A full version of the interview in Bahasa Indonesia can be read in our Nov-Dec 2009 edition of Marketeers. .