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em>JP/Novia D. Rulistia Dewi Gontha is a businesswoman in her own way. The president director of Java Festival Production (JFP) says she has finally found a place where she can do business with all her heart and passion.

“I have found my passion working at JFP. It is a stressful job, but at least it deals with music — something I have always loved,” Dewi said.

JFP is the promoter of the country’s three big festivals: Java Jazz Festival, Java Rockin’ Land and Java Soulnation.

However, the career path of Dewi Allice Lydia Gontha to her true passion in business has not been direct.

Before settling down with JFP, Dewi tried many kinds of jobs; from working for other people, setting up her own business, and working with her father in some of his businesses.

Soon after she graduated from Boston University in 1997, her father, businessman Peter F. Gontha, offered her a vacant position in one of his companies, and she accepted.

“It was my choice [to work with him]. I knew that he was a good businessman and I could learn a lot from him. In addition, the job was similar to the one I did when I was in college,” Dewi said.

But she quit the job when she was pregnant with her first child, and tried to open her own business. But it did not last long.   

After she gave birth to a baby boy, she decided to become a stay-at-home mother.

In 2004, when her father came up with the idea of a jazz festival to improve the image of Indonesia on the international stage, she was asked to team up with him again.

“This time was about music, so I knew I would love it and I took the offer,” Dewi said.

She has since been involved in developing the company, setting up the team, arranging the program and making financial reports as the business grew from only one festival to the three today.

Starting three years ago, Dewi’s father has gradually withdrawn himself from the company and
entrusted her to lead it. She is now responsible for everything that goes on.

“His age is the reason why. He has also other businesses to take care of, while here [JFP], it is his hobby,” she said.

Although he is not as active in JFP as before, she still has to report to him regarding finances and performers for Java Jazz, while production and operational matters for all festivals are her responsibility.

Working with her father for several years was not always easy or fun. Her father never gave her any special treatment just because she was his daughter.

Her father’s strong character in leading the company has taught Dewi to be responsible and hardworking. “We share that same strong character of leadership; quite stubborn but responsible. When we want something, we will and have to get it. We will say something is right when we know it is, but when we’re wrong, we’ll admit it,” she said.

Dewi reckons she is more flexible than her dad in some ways. While her father often used a dictatorial approach — asking something to be done without explaining the reason — she prefers to talk and discuss things.

“I’m not saying that my dad’s approach is bad, that’s just his habit. Besides, in JFP, he is more experienced and older than the other people, so he must know what he is doing,” she said. “I like to make decisions together with my team, maybe because our age gap is not that big, so we’re like friends,” she added.

After a decade of operation, JFP has met many of the goals her father set at the beginning. Now recognized as a world-class jazz festival, the number of festival goers increases every year, and the many big names have performed there.

But they still have a lot to do, especially after the cancellation of Java Rockin’ Land last year.

“The feeling of having to cancel was awful. We won’t let that happen again. We’re working harder this year, making sure that all is set,” she said.

Under her leadership, Dewi also has a dream of sharing the company’s expertise with promoters from other countries.

“We have been discussing with someone from Singapore who asked us to help organize an event there. In the future, I want to have more of that, taking the expertise that we have outside,” she said.

She is looking forward to making her dream of organizing music festivals in other cities outside Jakarta come true.

“We’d love to hold festivals in Surabaya, Medan or Batam, but we don’t know the market there yet. We’re still learning,” she said.

Dewi has always kept herself busy, but she dedicates her free time to her two sons. Taking them to the festival was a way to show them what she had been doing when she wasn’t home.

“My time is my work. When one festival is done, we continue working on the other festival, and it always goes on like that. So when I’m not working, I’m with my two sons and family,” she said.

The effort Dewi has put into JFP and the results she has achieved show that she takes the thing she loves as a very serious production.