Kawan Lama in Indonesia

Caption: I'm standing with a taxidermied tiger on the top floor of the executive suite of Kawan Lama, a giant Indonesian corporation.


"Kawan Lama," or "old friend," in Bahasa Indonesian, is the name of the extensive hardware, construction, and logistics company we're visiting today. Their four businesses are distribution/trading, retail, service/property, and manufacturing/engineering.

After our 4-hour briefing that morning in the U.S. Department of Commerce, we were expecting nothing more than a dingy, straightforward, unglamorous warehouse. Despite the 81% favorability rating that Indonesians give to Americans, mainly due to President Obama's Indonesian background, we weren't even sure of the treatment we would get from Indonesians.


WOW were we wrong to worry! The Chinese family who founded and still own the business opened their arms to us. They showed us around every single floor of the company's giant building. We asked questions about their sales staff (each university-educated with their own laptops), the financials, the religious facilities (must be prayer rooms for Muslim employees to pray 5 times a day), plans for expansion and more!


Always wondered who made hotel carts and those cleaning buckets. Didn't you?






Couldn't help but think of you, Dad, when we wandered through the aisles and aisles of wrenches and hydraulic hammers. This place owns franchises like Ace Hardware. It is Home Depot + Lowe's on steroids!

Not only did these open, positive and proud entrepreneurs show us their business, but they also gave us a tour of their private art gallery! Priceless paintings and sculptures from all over Southeast Asia caused our jaws to drop, as they ranged from political to picturesque to pornographic.









Kawan Lama was founded in 1980 by a man named Wong Lin, hailing from mainland China. Word on the street is that the family businesses are a de facto economic empire here in Indonesia, and that Lin himself is as rich as Warren Buffett. No kidding!

The business has differentiated itself from many Indonesian companies by aggressively providing logistics to the 17,508 islands of Indonesia. Talk about a challenge! Kawan Lama emphasizes good customer relationships, highly important in Asia, by providing especially good after-sales service such as calibration and installation services.

When we left, the company was exceedingly kind. They even gave us this amazing Ace multitool - in PINK! Talk about a sweet sercy. Not sure how I'm getting this through airport security, though -- better put it in checked baggage.



When we were leaving, we were all about to fall asleep on the bus. The traffic here is slower than snails, turtles, molasses, Hardee's or whatever parameter of slowness you want to use. Luckily for us, the bus had a mobile karaoke machine! C. rocked out to "Greased Lightning"! Even our dean got in on the singing with "Runaround Sue"!