Case Study Analysis - Harry Susilo Case

The story of the Chinese Indonesian entrepreneur Harry Susilo and his rise to power is impressive to say the least. This report analyzes a case study on the life of Harry Susilo, outlining the various activities that he undertook in his life in an ethical manner and highlights the problem in the given scenario, namely that too much reliance on the role of family and from the heart ethical practices is not advised for running a global empire like his.

Running head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS – HARRY SUSILO CASE
Case Study Analysis – Harry Susilo Case
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CASE STUDY ANALYSIS – HARRY SUSILO CASE
Executive Summary
The story of the Chinese Indonesian entrepreneur Harry Susilo and his rise to power is
impressive to say the least. Harry Susilo is one of the best known entrepreneurs in Asia and
his claim to fame is not hunger and greed and corruption but ethical and moral leadership and
family values. This report analyzes a case study on the life of Harry Susilo, outlining the
various activities that he undertook in his life in an ethical manner and highlights the problem
in the given scenario, namely that too much reliance on the role of family and from the heart
ethical practices is not advised for running a global empire like his. The report concludes with
recommendations on the pragmatic measures that this business or any business ought to
implement in order to instill ethical practices in the running of a business enterprise.

2CASE STUDY ANALYSIS – HARRY SUSILO CASE
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
1. Key Points and Issues in the Case Study............................................................................4
2. Analysis of the Key Points in the Case Study and Identification of the Problem..............6
2.1. The Problem................................................................................................................7
3. Solutions to address the problem........................................................................................8
3.1. Hiring Outsiders to Run the Business Operations.......................................................8
3.2. Introducing and Maintaining a System of Checks and Balances................................9
3.3. Establishing a Legal Code of Ethics............................................................................9
3.4. Introducing Policies on Gender Sensitivity and Non Discrimination for a Proper
Balance of Power within the Organization..........................................................................10
3.5. Getting Experts to Give Talks on Ethical Behavior to Employees and Top Level
Management working for the Organization.........................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11

3CASE STUDY ANALYSIS – HARRY SUSILO CASE
Introduction
The case study on Harry Susilo reveals the story of a hard working, honest and
dedicated man who began from very humble origins, as a laborer engaged in the packaging
and shipping of fish by air to different parts of Southeast Asia and East Asia to the owner of
one of the leading conglomerates in the world in the domain of packaging and shipping fish
and other food products, as well as the manufacture of various types of food products. The
rags to riches story that is characteristic of the life of Harry Susilo is remarkable primarily
because it shows how a person is able to achieve great heights in life, attaining much
professional success and plenty of financial prosperity by being bone honest in the manner in
which he conducted his business operations, and also because of the family values that he
demonstrated in the way that he ran his business. Harry Susilo started from being a modest
laborer to being one of the most successful businessmen that the country of Indonesia has
ever seen, with the Sekar Group, his company running operations and having bases in many
different parts of East Asia and Southeast Asia. Harry Susilo engaged with peers and
associates in the twilight years of his life to establish the Harry Susilo Institute which is
devoted to the study of business ethics. Susilo founded this institute primarily because he
wanted to show the world how good business could be done and how financial prosperity
could be achieved without having to take recourse to corrupt and unethical practices. His
main intention behind the founding of the Harry Susilo Institute of Business Ethics was to
encourage learning and discussions that combined knowledge of both eastern ethics and
western ethics. This report analyzes a case study on the life of Harry Susilo, outlining the
various activities that he undertook in his life in an ethical manner and highlights the problem
in the given scenario, namely that too much reliance on the role of family and from the heart
ethical practices is not advised for running a global empire like his. The report concludes with

4CASE STUDY ANALYSIS – HARRY SUSILO CASE
recommendations on the pragmatic measures that this business or any business ought to
implement in order to instill ethical practices in the running of a business enterprise
1. Key Points and Issues in the Case Study
The key points and issues that come across in the case study are not too many in
number. What the case study makes evident is the fact that Harry Susilo is a man who made
his mark in life in spite of being from very modest beginnings. He came from a poor family
in the country of Indonesia and his family was going through a considerable number of
hardships at the time when he was first given a responsibility by one associate of his family,
to buy fish and transport the fish by air to Singapore. This family associate trained Harry
Susilo in some of the key techniques connected with the task of packaging and transporting
processed fish or raw fish for sale in other parts of Southeast Asia and East Asia. Harry
Susilo was able to do a successful job to begin with and the success that he experienced gave
him the idea that he should try and engage in a food shipping business of his own. Harry
Susilo then went on to hire five people who would buy fish from the market and then have it
adequately packaged for air transport after which the packaged fish would be transported by
Harry Susilo to the airport himself in order for it to then make its way all the way to Jakarta
for sale (based on given scenario)
Years and months passed by and Harry Susilo became one of the most well known of
fish packagers and transporters in Indonesia. Soon he was able to transform his small
business into a company which came to be known as the Sekar Group. The Sekar Group
made use of all the key techniques and methods that Harry had first learnt from his family
friend or associate as a young age when it came to the packaging and shipping of fish. Harry
Susilo was able to make his business grow in leaps and bounds, with more and more people
investing in the business down the line, especially business owners from China and Japan

5CASE STUDY ANALYSIS – HARRY SUSILO CASE
who were highly impressed by the transparent and ethical way by which Harry did his
business. The honesty which Harry Susilo was able to demonstrate in the work that he did for
his clients was able to impress them so much that they kept giving him more and more
business, ultimately making him one of the most successful businessmen in Southeast Asia
and not just in Indonesia alone. Harry Susilo won the trust and the faith of business associates
and colleagues all over Asia, be it in Japan, Singapore and China, who chose to entrust him
with fish packaging and shipping duties far more than they would trust any other company.
Harry’s work and the work done by the employees of his company was always characterized
by a high degree of honesty, transparency and modesty (based on given scenario)
Harry Susilo is a man who had no airs at all, and this is something that clearly came
across in the work that he did. His business was ultimately taken over by high eldest
daughter, with other members of the family also making key contributions to the running of
the business. In fact, by appointing family members to important positions within the Sekar
Group, Harry Susilo was able to demonstrate the importance and the respect that he gave to
family values and family traditions, indicating that he would not have anyone other than his
close family looking into business operations for him. As head of his family, Harry Susilo
was proud of each and every one of his family members, believing that those who held
positions of authority in the Sekar Group would be able to do a good job of performing their
roles instead of taking the company downhill. He took pride in the abilities and the skills of
his children and could not dream of anyone other than the members of his own family
holding leading positions in the management of the Sekar Group, which, by the time that
Harry Susilo had become an old man, had transformed into one of the best known food
shipping and food processing and manufacturing businesses in the whole of Asia (based on
given scenario)

6CASE STUDY ANALYSIS – HARRY SUSILO CASE
2. Analysis of the Key Points in the Case Study and Identification of the Problem
It needs to be remembered that the life of Harry Susilo is quite a remarkable one as he
started from very humble origins and went onto to become one of the biggest business
tycoons that Indonesia has ever since. Harry Susilo was originally from China, and was one
of the few Chinese Indonesians living in the country in his growing up years. When asked
what has made his business enterprise so successful in Asia, Harry Susilo’s answer was the
system of family governance and family values that he brought to the table where the running
of his business was concerned. Harry Susilo believed in giving the members of his family the
opportunity to run the business instead of getting an outside to home and hold a key
management position in the business. The business was run with the help of his four brothers
and his two daughters, the latter two having been educated in the United States of America.
Harry’s daughters had successful careers working in the corporate sector in the USA for a
considerable length of time before they came home to join the family business. It is clear
from the reading of the case study that Harry was very close to his daughters and would
spend as much time with them as possible when they returned to Indonesia for the holidays,
explaining to them everything that they needed to know in order to run effective and ethical
business operations while learning to be good human beings at the same time. It is clear from
the way that Harry Susilo raised his children that he was a doting father and that he was fully
confident about the fact that his daughters had the ability to take over the business someday.
Harry Susilo was also close in the relationship that he maintained with his four brothers,
giving them plenty of scope and opportunity to run the business alongside him. In fact, during
the period of the financial crisis in Indonesia, one of Harry\s brothers had ended up incurring
a lot of financial liabilities for the firm, by hiring people from outside to come and execute
business strategies, and handle the management of assets, which did not turn out well and
which led to the business being considerably compromised from the financial point of view.

7CASE STUDY ANALYSIS – HARRY SUSILO CASE
From the reading of the case study, it can be seen that Harry Susilo did not hold anything
against his brother because of this and only told him that his failure ought to be considered by
him as an opportunity to learn from the situation rather than feeling bad about it. This moved
his younger brother significantly, since he could not believe that his elder brother Harry
Susilo would be so forgiving of such a mishap and would be able to let go of what had
happened so easily, giving his brother the scope and opportunity to learn from his mistakes
instead of reprimanding him or sacking him from his position (based on given scenario).
What makes the Harry Susilo business known as the Sekar Group really stand out in
the world today, is also the number of corporate sustainability measures that it has undertaken
in the recent past. Harry Susilo is a man who believes firmly in the pursuit of education, in
giving back to society and who believes also in encouraging people to learn as much as
possible in a non academic way as well. He has been a passionately self taught man in the
entire course of his existence and has encouraged both of his daughters to be active learners
as well, giving them the opportunity to pursue an education and then a career in the United
States of America before taking over the family business in Indonesia. He also used much of
the capital that was generated by the financial operations of the Sekar Group to set up what is
known today as the Susilo Institute of Ethics, which engages in the teaching of the global
economy and the important role that ethics has to play in the global economy (based on given
scenario).
2.1. The Problem
After much thought, consideration and analysis, it can be said that the emphasis that
Harry Susilo has laid on moral leadership and the family values that he has put to use by
appointing his immediate family members to top positions in the management of his
business, has ultimately made him one of the most successful businessmen in the world

8CASE STUDY ANALYSIS – HARRY SUSILO CASE
today but it is not the way in which a global business should be run today. Harry Susilo
is today looked up to in each and every part of the globe, and especially in the country of
Indonesia as an ethical business leader who did not have to go against family values or stoop
to high levels of corruption in order to attain high degrees of financial prosperity in addition
to name and fame and recognition both in Indonesia as well as in the world at large. While
his policy has worked well for his enterprise, the same policy is one that could easily backfire
if implemented by another entrepreneur. Family members cannot always counted on to be
loyal and faithful in the domain of business, and that includes immediate members of the
family (Acquaye 2018). At times, too much faith and trust in family members can result in
the usurpation of power and authority within the business by another family member, that
leaves the original entrepreneur in the family out in the cold (Wolf 2018).
3. Solutions to address the problem
Although it appears from reading the case study that Harry Susilo was able to do a
successful job of creating and running a global business empire on the basis of moral
leadership and family governance, in today day and age, this does not appear to be a very
practical thing to do for any business owner (Song and Ryu 2017). The following
recommendations need to be put in place by business owners today to ensure that the
operations of the business are run in an ethical manner, with or without family members, and
without any usurpation of power taking place (Souter et al., 2015).
3.1. Hiring Outsiders to Run the Business Operations
While trusting key members of the family with the management of the business is quite
alright, a better move in today’s times would have been to hire a considerable number of
outsiders into the running of the family business as well, in order from the problem of
corruption from arising within the business ranks (Shin et al. 2015). There is every possibility

9CASE STUDY ANALYSIS – HARRY SUSILO CASE
of family members becoming complacent and being tempted by corruption and greed. While
Susilo’s family members did not turn out to be corrupt, there is every possibility that they
could have fallen prey to corruption, in which event, having some outsiders involved in the
running of the family business would have helped, as they would have reported corrupt
tendencies and kept the ethical running of the business in place (Shafer 2015).
3.2. Introducing and Maintaining a System of Checks and Balances
Another important element of corporate governance that Susilo ought to have
implemented had he been running the business in today’s times would have been to have a
checks and balances system in place to ensure no corruption (Renz 2016). The checks and
balances system is one that entails the auditing of financial accounts and it is one of the most
foolproof of methods that one can have in place to check corrupt practices like the
embezzlement of funds (Meacham et al. 201).
3.3. Establishing a Legal Code of Ethics
Susilo had he been setting up his business in today’s times should also have established
what is known as a code of ethics in order to keep corrupt practices in check. A code of ethics
lays out all the dos and donts for employees in a business organization (Lee et al. 2016). It
outlines all the key activities and functions that are deemed as unethical and it states clearly
that employees who are found to be engaging in such activities are likely to have punitive
action taken against them (Daft and Marcic 2016). The system of family governance has
undoubtedly worked for Susilo, but having a code of ethics in place will ensure ethical
management of the affairs of the company over the long term (Lawton and Macaulay 2015).

10CASE STUDY ANALYSIS – HARRY SUSILO CASE
3.4. Introducing Policies on Gender Sensitivity and Non Discrimination for
a Proper Balance of Power within the Organization
Ethical considerations like gender sensitivity and non-discrimination also have to be
outlined in the constitution of the company so that no employee of the company suffers from
discrimination that is based on race or gender. Susilo was an enlightened man and he had no
qualms in appointing his two daughters to top positions within the company. However,
regulations need to be in place, that discourage gender insensitivity and discrimination so that
external female employees also get the opportunity to work for the company and do their best
for it (Collings et al. 2018). Care should also be taken to ensure that no discrepancy exists in
the remuneration that is accorded to males and the remuneration that is accorded to females.
It is not clear whether such discrepancy existed in the management of employees at
Sekar Group from the reading of the case study but ideally, there should be no parity in
the pay between male and female employees in an organization (Chonko and Hunt
2018).
3.5. Getting Experts to Give Talks on Ethical Behavior to Employees and
Top Level Management working for the Organization
Finally, it is important to note that lectures and discussions on the importance of honesty
and ethical modes of business governance need to be provided for employees with practical
examples being given of the success rate of implementing ethical business practices. In the
case of the Sekar Group, the life and times of Harry Susilo was more than enough evidence of
the fact that ethical modes of running a business end up paying good dividends in the end.
Susilo started from humble origins and was able to create and establish a business empire that
in spite of being completely honest and modest in the way that he did his business impressing
associates and partners and clients from all over the Asian continent in the process. However,
any business institute in any part of the world needs to conduct lectures and seminars on the

11CASE STUDY ANALYSIS – HARRY SUSILO CASE
crucial need of business ethics in order to make the value and importance of this need for
ethics be known to employees (Avolio et al. 2016). It is more than likely that the employees
of a business organization will feel inclined and motivated to perform their best for an
enterprise and that too in the most ethical ways if they are lectured on the importance of
ethics when running the day to day activities of a business (Cai et al. 2016).
Conclusion
Thus, what the case study reveals is the incredible story of Harry Susilo and his rise
from being the son of an ordinary Chinese Indonesian to become one of the most prominent
businessmen in the whole of Asia and in the world too. Susilo’s rise to power and fame has
been through a path that is characterized by moral leadership and the implementation of
family values. Susilo has been able to demonstrate through his life’s experience the
importance of respecting and valuing members of family when doing business and the crucial
need for adopting and practicing ethical behavior when running business operations.
However, the problem with the given scenario is that Harry Susilo relied a bit too much on
his family members to provide him with support for the business. While it appears to have
worked for him, this is not likely to happen with every business in every part of the world.
Hence balance of power should be maintained, non-discrimination policies and checks and
balances systems should be in place, and outsiders or people who are not related to the
business owner should be given the opportunity to work for the business to avoid power
politics and usurpation by family members.

12CASE STUDY ANALYSIS – HARRY SUSILO CASE
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