The food and beverages industry is not something new for him. He spent almost 20 years with MAP and was involved in growing the F&B portfolio. He knows well how things changed in Indonesia, especially in the industry. With his experience, Anthony Cottan is chosen to lead Map Boga Adiperkasa Utama, one of the subsidiaries of MAP Group and a major player in the cafe and restaurant sector in Indonesia.
But, not only with his experience, Anthony develops Map Boga by working well with the team. the key is to understand what each team member needs and to facilitate it. In addition, which is no less important is to understand their characters. Because Map Boga team itself consists of various generations.
Anthony also believes that the ability to influence people is essential for being a leader. Influence is different from power or control. It is not about telling people what to do but motivating them and leveraging their performances for positive results that are necessary for the company. The ability to influence others, especially in the team or company, could be obtained by gaining trust from the employees.
With Clara Ermaningtiastuti from Marketeers, Anthony shared how he sees the challenges that the company faces under his leadership and how he approaches his team to build solid teamwork, which also influences them to do better day by day.
How do you see the F&B industry in Indonesia today?
I came to Indonesia for the first time in 1990, it was a long time ago and it is clear that there are many changes. Talking about the food and beverages industry here like the restaurant, we still have limits about what do you can enjoy back then, like services and dining experience. It was always you have to go to the hotel to get the best experience for dining.
After a few moments, I was back in Indonesia in 2002, things changed in 12 years. Everything here is fresh now, with many quick services, and fast-food restaurants with local concepts. So, the industry changed fast. Now in 2021, it changes into more entrepreneurial, many individual cafes or coffee shops and it is accelerated during the pandemic.
Why? Because, these days when someone wants to start their own business, it is quite easy like you get a coffee machine, and suddenly you have a coffee shop. So, when people asked me who is the biggest competitor for Starbucks, I would say it is the independent one, not big chains.
I realized that there are a lot of changes in Indonesia over years and it is very exciting now. The industry is filled with international chains and local chains. They are doing good, excellent, and growing so much better. But I think, both, international and local can work together and give customers more choice.
You talked a bit about the locals as competitors, may you explain?
I said the independent businesses are our competitors. Why? It is because I see the local players have the entrepreneurial spirit. They can do whatever they like with no restrictions. The fact that they don’t have any restrictions is vague. It makes them try to do many things sometimes.
They often lose their focus like if there is a pizza shop and it suddenly grows not so good, they will start to add nasi goreng and do many things, losing focus. Even though, it is the perk of having no one to control themselves as I said before, no restriction. But business people must consider that there must be sacrifices, such as losing focus from the main concept.
It is different from international franchises. We have the rules and have to follow them. In Map Boga, it is applied in many brands, not to be expected Subway. This brand is a relatively new category under our care, so we want to focus on the sandwich experience and make something we are good at. We will not switch to a local menu like nasi goreng. We are gonna focus on one thing.
You have been observing the F&B industry for past years in Indonesia, you stated that there are many changes. So, what do you see about the industry these days like what are the challenges and opportunities that are currently being faced by the players?
We could see very unusual practices in every crisis, there is always opportunity. If you are a long-term player like MAP which is already here for about 30 years and it is the long-term one. We have faced difficulties for the past two to three years. Such as financial crisis and political crisis, so we are looking beyond this pandemic. Make sure we are investing now to look after our business and people.
In MAP there are around 25,000 people and in our food and beverages, we have 6,000. We want to look after them and their families. So, investing now is helping us to look after them and our business.
For Map Boga, we do invest in securing good locations. Sometimes, you know we have to, unfortunately, take over places that did not survive. We often get a reasonable location with a good price. We try to secure those good locations for the future.
We also bring the new business, like what we do with Subway. Even though it is a difficult time, some people may say what a new way to make things get better. We believe that this is the right time. We have the skills, we have the experiences with big brands. That is why we feel confident about the launch. It is a good thing, give people something a little bit new and fresh. Things little bit difficult lately, so when there is something new, people would like it.
How do you see consumers today? What anxiety and desire do they have, especially in the F&B market segment itself?
I think we have to be more realistic that people have less money in their pocket. People keep their job, others got their salaries are being cut, and some lost their job. So, we have to make sure that we have products at a very affordable price.
We also prepare temporary offers that can meet their ability to spend money. Therefore, during the pandemic, we try to create products and prices. Starbucks is doing it with one-liter products offering.
The challenge for the customers is around the money in their pocket. Of course, safety, hygiene, and well-being are also in the spotlight. But, I think Map Boga is the leader in terms of taking this seriously. We implement all protocols to the extreme.
We set the standards when it comes to safety and hygiene, so the customers can still come to us. Like Genki Sushi, we have a digital system for ordering food. The orders will come with a train and beside the chefs, there is no one touching the food. It is a good way to be more careful. Therefore, customers still can enjoy the food when they dine in.
We have managed to find the solution for the customers. Their loyalty is so important, we want to maintain their loyalty during the good times and bad times. During good times is easier and during bad times, we share the pain with them and we hope they can appreciate that by staying with us rather than jumping to somebody else.
F&B industry can be said as an “endless” business because it is one of the industries that is a staple in people’s lives. Is that true? How do you see this?
That is very true. But when we are affected by something like a pandemic. Nobody can predict it, even then the ability to get a product for customer is not easy when the rules are no dining in and only delivery. It becomes more difficult but we had to adapt. So, we try to adjust our business model to be more welcoming to delivery.
And, I think we have to learn how to adapt to that and be very digital. Because the demand for hygiene and speed is leveling up. Even the digital roadmap that was planned for three years is being achieved in only six months. Everything was accelerated and we should see these as opportunities to get better and keep trying new things during hard times.
A series of F&B brands are under the auspices of MAP Boga, how does MAP Boga develop each of these brands, is there a specific strategy applied to handle each brand?
I think we have a very experienced leadership team. We have been together for around 20 years. So we have a good mixture between senior people and fresh new bloods. So, we have experiences to take businesses and make sure how to start. We also have the benefits to learn from each other.
We have a dedicated team like each brand has separated operations in marketing. We also maximize our scale by supply chain, for example, sharing the common suppliers. We go to a store like this so we can learn from each other, it is all about learning to make brands special.
You mentioned about leadership team earlier. As the leader of Map Boga, how do you see yourself?
I think being in Indonesia for a long time, it is important to understand your teams’ skills. After all these years, I found it is more interesting to find out how to get a level of interest from them. To inspire, to influence.
Here, I don’t make decisions, I influence people to decide to bring good for the business. Sometimes, it takes time but the result is better than one person owning the decision. I don’t rush the decision like saying I want the decision today. I wait because I want to do it properly and carefully.
How do I see myself as a leader? I am more into influencing style. Because at the end of the day, I am here for a reason to transfer knowledge. We are here not only for the job but also for transferring knowledge. Sometimes people forget that.
You came to Indonesia years ago, you find the difference between Indonesians and foreigners. What is the difference in terms of characteristics?
I am here for so long but I think as a leader, you have to look at the situation. Sometimes, it is not obvious what people feel and they do not say what they feel. So, you have to read the body language and find different ways to talk to people to get the real opinion. Because it is so different here. You should gain trust to make people talk to you.
But, I find it is a bit different for younger generations. They are more confident and able to speak their mind. So, the challenge now is the older generation in the team should know how to manage and be more patient. Sometimes, when the younger people talk, it is surprising. I think that is because of the access to technology. They become more expressive, older people are not like that.
However, it is a fun environment. We need young people and their opinion. But, we also need the leadership to make it on track. You have to be a good influencer. We should teach each other how to get along and how to get the best out of each other. The leaders have to keep it all together so it will not get fragmented.
Recently, Map Boga brought Subway to Indonesia. What makes Map Boga believe that the presence of Subway will be an opportunity to develop business for the company?
Indonesia’s population reaches 270 million people. So I believe that lifestyle has changed for the past 30 years maybe bread products were less interesting in the past. Because, Asians’ liking were rice, noodles but today, people have a lot of interest in baking products. They also bake at home and they love pastry.
We believe in this shift and it will be great if people can taste good quality sandwiches every day. They can get customized sandwiches. We have fresh salad and we understand that Indonesians love sauces so we have eight flavors including the spicy one. I think it is a very interesting and healthy offering for them.
Subway once had existed in Indonesia but then left the country. What makes Map Boga confident about the potential of this franchise to be succeeded in Indonesia?
Well, we could execute this brand here in a very professional way. We have clear plans for a few years ahead, on what we want to do for this business. We have to keep innovating, we love to maintain the quality of the products, and we need to make sure that the store is designed to match modern Indonesian consumers also.
We take our experiences and we will use them. Subway is an amazing company to work with. They are very understanding and helpful. So, we form a very strong path together.
The response to Subway is massive. So what is next? Does Map Boga have more stores to be anticipated and how many stores that Subway wants to achieve this year?
We are also very thrilled by the response. Within three days, we have about 50 thousand people on Instagram. We are moved that people are curious about Subway and getting excited about what we are doing. We have a plan for more openings in Jakarta. At the end of the year, we would love to have ten stores, still in Jakarta.
And, to let people have more experience, we are not doing delivery from day one. We want the customers to experience Subway in the stores. But, we do prepare the delivery services afterward.