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Iwan Sunito: Architecture of triumphant ventures
Indonesian-born Iwan Sunito, the man behind Crown International Holdings Group, a developer behind prestigious projects in Australia, credits his parents as the early draftspersons of his triumph overseas
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ndonesian-born Iwan Sunito, the man behind Crown International Holdings Group, a developer behind prestigious projects in Australia, credits his parents as the early draftspersons of his triumph overseas.
Crown is the developer behind six up-market developments in Sydney, including residential complexes Skye by Crown and V by Crown.
'If there is anything I learned from my father, it is that winners never quit and quitters never win,' he told The Jakarta Post in a recent meet-up.
He then recounted the struggles of his parents that marked his childhood in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan.
His father was an employee before establishing a business involving kayu ulin (ironwood) while his mother sold cakes.
'My father faced difficult times when he lost everything he had because his only boat sank in the Java Sea,' Iwan said.
'He had to rebuild everything over again after that.'
However, the lessons from the battles fought by his parents became the cornerstone of Iwan's winning ventures in the land down under.
Iwan's parents were eventually able to send him to Australia where he studied architecture at the University of New South Wales.
Like his father, Iwan struggled in his early attempt as a student.
'I was struggling because of the language. Architecture language is quite abstract with the use of quotes like 'how can many be one when one is not many and many is not one',' he said with a chuckle.
Yet, he buried his nose deeper in his textbooks and by his fourth year, he had spiraled up to the top of his class to obtain academic distinctions.
Iwan credited his father for persuading him to remain in Australia to build a business after graduation.
He started his own company, Joshua International Architects, in 1994, and joined forces around 1996 with several business partners, including Paul Sathio, to form Crown International Holdings Group with an initial startup capital of A$5 million.
'Most Indonesians think they cannot make money overseas, and so they go back to the homeland,' he said.
'I am glad that my father told me to pursue business here instead of going along the typical Indonesian way of thinking.'
He added that his father's teaching also resonated during the rough-and-tumble first five years of business in Australia ' during which the temptation to quit was high.
'After five years, we started to see results and after 10 years, business was even better and after 15 years, we have become the largest developers,' he said.
According to Iwan, Crown earned approximately $300 million from sales during the previous financial year and is aiming to collect $500 million this year.
The group also has projects worth roughly $2.8 billion under way.
'My father taught me the value of doing one thing in my life instead of many things because this is how many businesspeople go wrong,' he said.
'They let go of what they really do well to enter an area they are not good at.'
Iwan also gave credit to his starting partners at Crown, saying that the combination of his background in architecture and his partners' in development and realty had become the pillars for Crown to build skyward.
'We have the capacity to build really fast because we do the construction ourselves, which also helps in compressing the costs,' he said.
'At the same time, we have the capacity to distribute our units equally fast to our buyers.'
He added that the ability to dispel stereotypical mindsets paved the way for his overseas success.
'Too many Asians, including Indonesians, misunderstand Australians,' he said, referring to fears of racism.
'In reality, Australians are the kind of people who treat others fairly and once you get to know them, they will open up.'
According to Iwan, up to 75 percent of his 120-people core team are Australians.
When subcontractors are added in, up to 400 people work on a Crown project at a time.
He added that to make it in someone else's homeland, Indonesians need to get out of their comfort zone.
'Indonesians feel awkward if they are different, but I often get invited to Parliament House where I am the only Asian in the room and that is good because I will stand out,' he said.
'It is all in the mindset. Unless you get to know Australians, you will never get to appreciate the opportunities in Australia,' he added.
Now that Iwan has a firm footing in Australia, he is starting to shift his vision back to Indonesia.
Crown, which recently established a representative office in Indonesia, aims to book $100 million in sales over the next three years from Indonesian buyers.
Iwan noted that the Indonesian as well as the Hong Kong and Singaporean markets carried potential because Asians were property-oriented investors.
'Australians are not property-oriented,' he said.
'They work hard and invest in shares, but Indonesians are traditionally not share investors because they have no control over this type of investment in times of crisis,' he said.
He added that he sought to start upper segment projects in Indonesia in five years to come after his local team established the Crown brand in the market.
The project, like those in Australia, would be worth more than Rp 1 trillion in sales.
'I want to develop in Indonesia because I know the property industry here is better than that in China or Hong Kong,' he said.
The future visions of this father of three are intricately woven from lessons he drew from his passion for architecture.
'The greatest thing about architecture ' and this is what I love about learning architecture ' is that we have to envision the bigger picture ahead of everything else,' he said.
'A lot of people put the pieces together to get a beautiful picture whereas in architecture, it is the reverse,' he added.
