Paulus tumewu biography template

Published: May 22 2017

What we learned from Ramayana’s 2016 annual report

A passionate fundamental investor would devour annual reports like warm pastries, as it is a great way to get to understand the company, its sector, its management and financials.

A good example is how much one can learn from reading the annual reports of Ramayana Lestari Sentosa. We find their 2016 annual report very candid and thought provoking. When comparing it to the annual report of 2015, it tells us a lot about how management’s attitude has changed and about the turnaround process that is going on at the company.

Before we discuss further, it is good to know that Ramayana – which once was a darling of investors – became a fallen angel after many years of complacency and (resulting) loss of connection with their customers.

Interesting quotes from Pak Paulus Tumewu, Chairman of Ramayana:

In light of that, let’s take a look at an interesting quote from Paulus Tumewu, the founder and Chairman of Ramayana Lestari Sentosa (please note that since the 2016 report was only available in Bahasa Indonesia at the time of writing, so we are doing a loose translation here):

“In 2015, we found out that our top line did not grow, and this happened not only in our stores in the major cities. To drive more traffic to our stores, we have tried discount, special prices, and more advertising spending – yet none of those efforts managed to stimulate sales and profit. It seems like our traditional customer base has abandoned us.”

To us at Heyokha, the fact that the founder is stating that their customer base is abandoning them an ultimate wake up call. Recognition of the problem is the first step required for a turnaround. Better late than never.

“In 2016, a brave decision has been made to open ourselves up to contemporary influences, to fine tune with young generations’ new taste…”

On their cooperation with Dutch supermarket group SPAR, Pak Paulus doesn’t hold back:

DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY

The Nalanda Buddhist Education Foundation was established on November 5th ,1976, thirty years ago. This foundation saw the lacking of Buddhist teachers in Indonesia, so the founders had an idea to established NALANDA Buddhist College,The first Buddhist College in Indonesia in 20th Century. The Nalanda Buddhist College educated some students to be a Buddhist teacher. Besides that, we supported financial demand of the Buddhist teachers in some Buddhist Schools.

The foundation have vision to develop the good education and teaching system in the Buddhist society, especially, and for develoment in education sector in Indonesia. To reach this vision we have some mission that we have to develop such as collecting donation, give financial support to Buddhis teachers, establish Buddhist college and Schools, give scholarship to Buddhist students, establish Buddhist library and Buddhist Publisher.

At the First time we hold Nalanda Buddhist College, we didn’t have any building to teach Budddhist Education. Because of the kindness of Gandhi Memorial School, they helped us by allowing to use one of the class rooms. We used the Gandhi Memorial for several years till we decided to have our own building. We bought a small three storeys building in Kramat Raya 64, Jakarta Pusat ,with the land area of 212 m2, in 1986. The bulding was bought by installment, the fund was provided by Buddhist and non Buddhist.The building was used not only for lectures and administration of the college but also as dormitory for students. The college provide dormitory for students for the first 2 years, after that the students should leave and they have to rent room nearby the college.

Most of the students come from rural area or small city around Indonesai, they are simple family, even some of them can not afford to pay tuition fee. Most of the students have to work to support their cost of living and all of his/her expenses, beca