You can spot them instantly by their colours: yellow in New York, black in London, and the bright jellybean hues of taxi cabs in Bangkok. When you go to hail a taxi in Jakarta, it’s highly likely to be blue.
The person in charge of keeping all those Blue Bird taxis running is Noni Sri Ayati Purnomo. As president director and CEO of Blue Bird Group Holding, she oversees a transport empire — taxis, limousines, rental cars and chartered buses — that serves millions of passengers every month across the Indonesian archipelago.
It’s a formidable task but one the energetic 46-year-old chief executive was born to carry out. She’s been involved with the family business since she was five years of age, when her task was to count the money earned by the drivers each day. Now she’s taking the business into a new growth era after raising 2.45 trillion rupiah (6.35 billion baht) in the initial public offering of PT Blue Bird Tbk on the Indonesia Stock Exchange last November.
“We were poor and my grandmother had to find something to do to support the economy of the family after my grandfather passed away,” Ms Purnomo recalls. The government had given the family two cars as a bereavement gift, and her grandmother seized the opportunity to put them to work in 1972.
Those two cars have become a 36,000-vehicle business operating in 13 major cities and tourist destinations. And the prospects for further growth seem assured, given Indonesia’s economic development and rapidly expanding middle class. A recent Euromonitor report noted that Jakarta has just 1.4 taxis per 10,000 residents, compared with 10 in Bangkok and 5.3 in Singapore. Apart from taxis, Ms Purnomo foresees “exponential” growth for the company’s logistics business in the new Asean Economic Community.
But taxis remain the symbol of Blue Bird, which has worked hard to establish a reputation for quality service, cleanliness and reliability, with drivers trained in driving technique, etiquette, traffic laws and, in Jakarta and tourist areas, English.
Ms Purnomo herself has got behind the wheel of a taxi from time to time to gather passenger feedback and also get a sense of what the drivers experience. It’s all part of the family work ethic.
“I grew up in the office and every single day I saw people working in our house. I got the chance to mingle and I got to know everybody, as well as feel comfortable with the business,” she said.
Being the third-generation heir to the business hasn’t given Ms Purnomo any privileges. She and her seven cousins were taught the importance of discipline, integrity and care for others since they were small.
She was raised to work hard every day and as a high school student, she chose to work full-time during holidays, which increased her familiarity with the business. She chose to pursue a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering because she was interested in process improvement and business efficiency. She expected to use those skills to build a career outside the family company but her grandmother had other ideas. Making Blue Bird the biggest taxi operator in Indonesia was one of them.
“I grew up being told that eventually I’d have to work for the company, although I have always wanted to work outside,” Ms Purnomo says with a laugh.
Describing herself as a “hard-headed” person, she decided to take a job with the Jakarta Convention and Exhibition Bureau as a market researcher during the day, and use her free time to help the family business.
“I didn’t want to make a choice so I had to work two shifts,” she recalls. “From the other job, I learned about marketing. It’s something that I couldn’t learn from our own organisation because our company was built from home, expanded and grew organically, so we didn’t have any long-term marketing strategies.”
Although the transport business is considered a male-dominated industry, Ms Purnomo has continued her grandmother’s legacy and successfully made the founder’s dream come true.
“The main reason why Blue Bird is widely used and is at the top of people’s minds is because of the reliability and comfort that the drivers give,” she says. “I don’t know how comfortable passengers would be if they were to use taxis other than Blue Bird.”
Technology plays a big role as well, from GPS-equipped cars to the world’s first taxi mobile application, introduced five years ago for BlackBerry smartphones, which remain highly popular in Indonesia.
Out of 30 major cities in Indonesia, Ms Purnomo sees big opportunities for expansion and aims to tap into various parts of the country despite the difficulties she may encounter.
“Yes, we encounter resentment from local companies,” she admits. “From West to East, we have different cultures, different languages and even different skin colours so we have to adapt to those.”
The company constantly encounters local taxi drivers who tend to charge however they want. “They have to start using the meters and we have to educate them. I think that’s the challenge — we have to keep educating.”
Joining the Blue Bird organisation isn’t simple. The company carefully selects drivers based on their attitudes, behaviours, skills and knowledge. It does a comprehensive background check, employs interviews with psychologists, on-the-road exams and technological knowledge training.
“Only 45% get accepted,” she says. “But the last thing we want is to have drivers that get angry easily because Jakarta is similar to Bangkok. Traffic jams are everywhere. The driver needs to have good patience.”
The company’s cars are given the same very careful treatment. “Every day, all cars are brought back to be checked and washed. We have a 24-hour maintenance department, which is responsible for the quality checking to ensure that all cars are up to standard.
“Even if they get just a small bump or scratch, the drivers have to come back right away. We don’t allow scratches on our taxis. Our taxis are always in prime condition — clean and new looking.”
The core business of Blue Bird Holding is still passenger and land transport ranging from Blue Bird taxis to Silver Bird executive taxis, Golden Bird limousine service and Big Bird buses. However, logistics, IT, property and trading are among the other unite under the parent’s wing.
“The passenger land transport division is running well right now, so my main focus is to grow the logistics division because the opportunity is very big,” says Ms Purnomo. “The Indonesian economy is growing very rapidly and one of the things businesses need is reliable logistics solutions.”
The logistics arm today is still divided into different organisations including trucking, warehousing, and freight, so her priority is to restructure them and provide a more integrated service.
As a high-profile brand that has earned a high reputation for quality, Blue Bird is able to charge a premium for its services. “For a taxi, it’s 20% higher than the regular market rate. We might not be the cheapest because we never compete on price, but we always give the best quality,” says the CEO.
GROW MORE, GIVE MORE
As big as Blue Bird is — and it will get a lot bigger in the coming years — giving back is also part of the company creed. “The main reason for me to work hard and for the company to become bigger is that I want to give more,” says Ms Purnomo, adding that she has always been inspired by the kindness of Mother Teresa. “You have to have meaning in whatever you do. You don’t get money just for the sake of getting money.
“I can only do that if I have enough to give. That way, I can give opportunities for people to work and for others to do business with us.”
Blue Bird operates a foundation that contributes to society in many ways including education and scholarship programmes, women’s empowerment, and recycling programmes.
Ten years into her second marriage, Ms Purnomo has come to a good domestic arrangement with her husband, whose IT job gives him flexible hours, giving him more time to take care of their three daughters. “He’s very happy. He loves being around children; he loves having the flexibility of time so I guess finding the right partner is very important.”
Because her own time with her children is sometimes limited, once she gets home she asks her daughters to give her the answers to three questions: the good news of the day, the bad news of the day, and the fun news of the day.
But simply kicking back and doing nothing seems next to impossible for an active woman like Ms Purnomo, who “relaxes” by racing fast cars on a local circuit. “I have a lot of energy. I like working and I like to keep myself busy,” she says. “I don’t know what to do if I don’t do anything.
“One of my friends said to me, ‘Could you ever just sit down please?’ Some people may think that I’m hyper,” she adds with a chuckle.