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Kris Rianto Adidarma: Innovation formula for business growth

JP/Dimas UtamaCoating and chemicals company PT Propan Raya CEO Kris Rianto Adidarma believes in the power of innovation in his company’s growth

Sudibyo M. Wiradji (The Jakarta Post)
Wed, May 16, 2018

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Kris Rianto Adidarma: Innovation formula for business growth

JP/Dimas Utama

Coating and chemicals company PT Propan Raya CEO Kris Rianto Adidarma believes in the power of innovation in his company’s growth.

A top executive of an international coating and chemicals company believes that passion has paved the way for innovations, which are among the crucial ingredients in business growth amid increasingly tough competition and health and environmental consciousness among consumers.

PT Propan Raya CEO Kris Rianto Adidarma said that his passion for information technology (IT), an area that has a significant impact on business operations and growth, had a close correlation to his position as CEO of the company.

Propan Raya is a wholly Indonesian-owned company founded by Hendra Adidarma, Kris’ father, in 1979.

For more than three decades since its inception, Propan has focused heavily on wood coatings for industry, which has put the company in the forefront of wood coating in Southeast Asia, with Swedish furniture giant IKEA as a major customer.

Currently, the company also focuses on wall paint and flooring, offering the products for the retail segment and projects. The company’s three pillars - quality, innovation and technology - are embedded in Propan staff, leading the company to further develop, with factories found not only at home but also in several countries overseas. Apart from 31 branches, 24 distributors and 19,381 retail outlets across the country, Propan also has factories in Vietnam and Myanmar.

Propan’s first and foremost innovation-related milestone was its success in manufacturing eco-friendly water-based paint, replacing the widely used solvent-based paint that produced bad smells because it contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and formaldehyde, which are harmful to human health.

“The water-based paint products are odor-free and can evaporate quickly,” Kris said.

Kris, who became CEO of the company in September 2016, is responsible for overall strategic decisions in the company, while his father handles product development, engaged in developing its industrial and concrete-protection program.

Thanks to Kris’ passion for IT, Propan is more intensive in taking advantage of technology through which innovations continue to advance the company. These include the use of cloud software that enables the formulation of thousands of paint colors; SAP, an enterprise resource-planning software product capable of integrating multiple business applications; robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), coloring apps, and so forth.

“Everything is now technology driven, which definitely helps my position,” said the 43-year old, who earned a bachelor of science, majoring in chemical engineering, from the University of Notre Dame, and a master of science in engineering management from Western Michigan University.



" The most important thing that I’ve learned is that if we do not know something, then we should be brave enough to admit that "

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The use of robotics and automated mixing representing AI is aimed at achieving high-quality products in a consistent manner, according to Kris.

He said the robotics were used to help the company’s workforce, allowing for more efficient production processes and increased production volume.

“One paint container contains 25 kg of paint. Just imagine if you manufacture thousands of kilos every day manually. The workers have to put the paint into the containers, lifting them and so on. It would be inefficient,” he said.

Additionally, it can also prevent workplace injuries and chemical interactions because it is unnecessary to lift the containers by hand and in this way it ensures the safety of the workforce, he said.

“By using robots, we can manufacture the products quickly and serve the market quickly as well. It can increase the volume of products and so the impact of robotics on sales is very good,” he said.

Another milestone when it comes to technology-based innovation that Kris has initiated and which benefits customers is the creation of an application, called Propan Color Inspiration (PCI), which is specially designed to help consumers choose the right paint products and colors for the interiors and exteriors of a building in a more real manner and enable consumers to make calculations more accurately.

“The application can also locate the nearest shop where consumers can buy the paint products,” said Kris.

The most recent innovation is a high-quality wall paint with a 12-year warranty, longer than the average of five years.

“Exposure to the sun and rain may change the color and commonly a paint lifespan is five years but thanks to our advanced paint factory, we can produce paint products that have a lifespan of 12 years,” he said.

“The factory with German technology that we inaugurated recently is the most advanced one in Southeast Asia. The fully automated factory has the capacity of 16 million liters of paint per year,” he said.

Competition in the paint industry is very tough, with several foreign brands entering the market. “Through innovation, we can face the competition. The motto embedded in our team is ‘Don’t disappoint our competitors,’” he said.

Managerial experience


At Propan, Kris has had several years of managerial experience. It started with his position as a quality and production-improvement manager in 2002, followed by director of operations in 2005 and managing director in 2010.

Prior to joining Propan, Kris had three-and-a-half years of experience in working at an automotive company in the United States as a quality-assurance engineer, during which time he learned several things that supports his role as a leader of the company. These included how to solve problems systematically, working as a team and how to be aligned, to be hands-on and understand the projects that the team designs.

“The most important thing that I’ve learned is that if we do not know something, then we should be brave enough to admit that. By doing so, you can learn or discover things. As a leader, there is no way that you can know everything, and you should admit this and you can get advice or input from others and that will help you make a good decision.”

Keeping a working team motivated is crucial and so as to make them dedicated and loyal to the company Kris has his own recipe. He always ensures that work is fun. “We should work hard but work should be fun,” said the father-of-two.

Giving an example of working and playing hard, he said that he promised to invite his marketing team to have a dinner together if they managed to meet the target, but otherwise they should have to run 10 km with him.

“The team worked very hard and were close to the target, only less than 1 percent left. But because they failed to meet the target, they ran 10 km in the morning along with me, which was great fun,” said Kris, whose running, swimming and cycling is part of how he keeps fit.

As CEO Kris is also responsible for ensuring that the company assists in caring for the natural environment, society and culture through various corporate social responsibility programs.

The programs include support for the development of Arsitektur Indonesia (Indonesian Architecture), the revitalization of traditional buildings and houses and digital destinations.

Kris explains that the company often holds a competition in building designs themed “Wisata Nusantara” (archipelagic tourism) inspired by the country’s cultural wealth.

“Indonesia is rich in traditional building styles worth preservation. Through the competitions, we want young architects to understand our traditional buildings and houses, which allows them to create something that they can learn from,” he said.


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