Datuk Dr Andrew Ho, managing director of PT KK Indonesia, first came to know about direct marketing in mid 1980s, and was among the earliest Chinese Malaysians looking for better job prospects in Jakarta.

Hailing from Muar, Johor, Ho arrived in the Indonesian capital in 1990, and he took about two years traveling the major cities of Indonesia to expand his direct marketing company's business.

Although he was only in the country for two years, it never crossed his mind that this lay a foundation for his future business empire ‌in Indonesia.

"I worked for two years as a reporter after graduating from Universiti Malaya. I later came to know about direct marketing. However, I later left to become a motivation speaker for about half a year before a direct marketing company approached me with the hope I could expand the Indonesian market as a general manager."

Ho returned to Malaysia and continued his own direct sale business after spending two years in Indonesia until 1998, when someone approached him to ask him to take over an Indonesian direct sale company on the brink of liquidation.

"The Indonesian economy was then re-emerging from the anti-Chinese riots and I believed there were opportunities. So I started selling healthcare products in and around Jakarta.

"It was not easy. I remember there was this time the company had to destroy a total worth of US$2 million of products due to quality issue because I could not afford to let the company's reputation go down the drain."

Since then Ho has been very careful and strict in the control of production line to make sure nothing is wrong with the products.

Immense potentials

"I told all my partners in 1998 that I didn't have enough capital and needed the investment of a Thai company. I could not afford to let the company fail. If anyone wanted to quit, they could still do that now."

Out my his expectation, all his partners were willing to go with him. Thanks to these partners, Ho's health product business has made it to the top ten in Indonesia and is prepared to go public in 2025.

The 58-year-old businessman has recently trained 12 potential successors so that he will have more time to go into other things and try out new ventures.

Currently Ho has plans to return to Malaysia to set up another direct sale company as there is still a huge potential for his KK business. He is setting his sights on the 50-million middle class Indonesians with strong purchasing power.

He insists that the country's economic potentials lie with second-tier cities and his company is prepared to expand into at least 20 second-tier cities.

KK boasts around one million distributors in Indonesia with as many as 50 distribution centers. Many places in the vast archipelago have yet to be covered after the company was set up 20 years ago.

"Conservative estimates put the number of direct sale companies in Indonesia at around five six hundred.

"Due to profitability consideration, we cannot lower our prices to the levels middle and lower classes can afford. Price-cutting will indirectly affect product quality.

"Moreover, there is a wide disparity in the purchasing power of Indonesian people. While it looks big here, our company's turnover is only about a third of Malaysia's largest direct sale company.

Investor-friendly policy

"I knew very little about Indonesia before arriving in Jakarta. Prior to that I had visited Lake Toba in Sumatra, but only only truly understand Indonesia when I came here as managing director in 1990.

"Although the company was not large at that time, I managed to make a lot of new friends, and some of them have actually inspired me to restart KK."

Ho's wife and kids were still in Malaysia during his first five years in Indonesia. He only brought them over to Jakarta after the situation there had somewhat stabilized.

Today, his children have graduated from university and have gone back to Malaysia for work, along with his wife.

Ho said he initially had no plans to apply for permanent residence in Indonesia, but started to think about this only recently when he had to prepare for the company's listing exercise.

He predicted that Indonesia would become "China of tomorrow" as President Joko Widodo is embarking on major infrastructural projects such as highways and rail transportation.

"The road projects completed by Jokowi during the last five years may be more than the ten years before that.

"Coupled with investor-friendly government policy, I am truly upbeat about Indonesia becoming the largest economy of Asean. Even the relocation of the capital from Jakarta in 2024 will not have a major impact."

The biggest challenge for doing business in Indonesia is transportation issue. For example, it may take two days to send cargo by air, and two weeks by ship, to a small island north of Sulawesi.

Ho is not only a successful businessman, he is also a bestselling author and motivation speaker, and has recently set up his own YouTube channel to share his experiences in life and business.

To him, a person needs to have sufficient wealth to choose to do things he likes.

"I always encourage people to become rich. Being rich is not just about acquiring materialistic enjoyment but giving us more extraordinary options to lead the life we want and say 'no' to what we don't like."