News That Matters

Behind The Kitchen

Olaf-Purvis_Profile-Photo
Olaf-Purvis_Profile-Photo

8 Print Publications

5 Radios

Online Media

Outdoor Media

Creative Communications Service

Ten years ago in Bali, MixMedia began its journey as a small and undercapitalised media company with just two staff. Since then the company has evolved, developing into one of the fastest growing local media concerns on the island. Today, the company manages 8 print publications, 5 radio stations, various online media and outdoors media as well as providing creative communication services. Over 160 people in 8 cities throughout Indonesia run all this while serving a healthy and satisfied list of over 200 clients.

It has been roller-coaster journey and has entered its double-digit year on this, our 10th anniversary. It is now that we would like to proclaim our sincere and heart felt gratitude for all of those who have given us continuous and long-term support. We would certainly not have been able to achieve all this without the help of our clients and their audiences. We at MixMedia, on this anniversary year would like to share with you some of the thoughts of the people behind the growth of our company.

“Breaking The Habits”

We started growing the company with just two staff, little knowledge about the media business and no funding. We well remember the early days when salaries were sometimes paid late. In order for us to compete with the well-established media companies and survive in this tough industry we acted differently and most importantly, effectively.

We avoided many of the established formulas that had become habitual throughout the industry, for example we hardly promote ourselves with visible marketing and PR campaigns. Most of the time we stayed away from the sophisticated marketing practices simply to be more efficient and effective.

We seldom learn lessons from within our industry; it is rather more the case that we have found by analysing the actions of successful companies in other industries provides us with far more good material to be adapted to suite our own business. This may sound a bit strange but developing successful strategies adapted from outside our own industry provides us with a unique edge in providing new ways to meet the needs of our potential and existing clients. “We are quite sure if we had been busy looking at the actions of our competitors, we wouldn’t be much further ahead today than we were 10 years ago”

We believe at that the end of the day business is about making money so that we can make a positive difference to family, staff, audiences and not least our clients. Therefore breaking the industry habits has never been a problem for us as long we followed a code of legality and ethical practice that sought no harm to others. We believe that by following these practices we have enjoyed a faster growth than we would have without them.

“Placing The Right Person On The Wrong Position”

We think less than 5% of those who work in this company had marketing or media backgrounds when they first came to us. Today we have a law graduated person working as an editor, a person with a secretarial background leads the business development department, a managing editor with a background of finance, a school principle in charge of operations, a good photographer who has a bachelor degree in religion and a photographer who became an editor, These are only a few examples of how unconventional this company is.

For us the essentials are not the experience of a job applicant but rather being able to select a person with the drive to adapt to new situations. The right person can adapt to almost any job description and more often than not, bring a new and refreshingly productive approach to their work. A new work experience without any prior experience will cause the right person to be creative and think outside the box.

“If We Can’t Find Opportunities, We Create One”

Bali has been one of the world’s top tourist destinations for years and as a result many investors have been trying to profit from it. It is not a secret that some industries on this island have become over crowded as a result of too many players and we include ours with this remark.

As a result opportunities for growth in our industry have been progressively in decline. Nevertheless, here at MixMedia we have enjoyed continuous growth.

The reason for this is simple; we create our opportunities rather than wait for them to come along.

“Transforming the Difficult Time To Growth”

In ten years of business we have been faced on many occasions with difficult problems and critical moments. It is at times like these that hard decisions have to be made.

However, we never view these problems or situation in isolation. Many are the times when we have analysed these in the full context of the business as a whole and have discovered as they say, “a silver lining to the cloud”. In other words we have managed to turn problems around so that they actually contribute to growth. Of course some of the decisions we have made set more pressure on us but in these cases we carried the baggage of these pressures along a positive path of growth.

“If Some Think They Are Better Than Others, They Should Go”

We are certain that a good teamwork has taken us to where we are today. Each of us here at MixMedia manages to contribute in many different ways. Nobody here imagines they are better than anybody else. In the event that somebody takes on a ‘better than thou’ opinion of himself or herself, it is time for them to go.

We have many people who have worked with us for years and few starters have been let go simply because they were not team players. Seniority means nothing in this company; all here are regarded and measured on the basis of their performance and teamwork. The finest plan without a good team is no plan at all.

“Focus Only On Those Who Help Us Growth”

If you ask our Managing Director, the one who has contributed over 65% of our revenue; how he managed it while going home at 6 p.m. most days, he would tell you that the answer is simple. “Focus on those who help growth, not on those who don’t.”

Each and every day at the office the thing we concentrate on is how best to help people around us for the better. This includes our staff, clients and audiences. We recall just over a month ago signing a medium sized yearly contract that less than a month later we help them generated revenue of almost 70% of the contract utilizing our network and spending capability.

“Listen Before Being Listened To.”

Anybody entering this industry will find themselves in endless sales programs where each contender delivers smooth sales pitches, media attempts to sell advertising space, public relations programs to get exposure and media buyers continuously negotiate prices and this seems to result in a situation where everybody is talking at the same time. It can be a little like social media where everybody plugs away but takes little notice of what others are trying to say.

It is a common enough perception of sales people that knowing how to talk is really all that is needed for success. For us here at MixMedia this is not so, we have to learn that listening more is really the only way to discover a client’s or potential client’s needs. Without knowing the need it is not possible to offer good advice.

“Appreciating The Younger Generation”

It is always pleasing to see how the younger generation evolve in this company. Most of the people working for us are ranging from 20 to 28 years old and they always surprise us with their abilities to accomplish different tasks. It is their fresh ideas and energies that produce the intensity to take this company to the next level.

Despite the need for a continuing learning curve, nothing makes us happier than the knowledge that one day these are the people that will successfully lead this company.

“What’s Next?”

If you are working with us, there is always the question of what comes next and the answer of course is that it can be anything we want. Last year we purchased a majority share holding of a publication from one of the largest media companies in central Java and have turned loss into profit in less than a year.

Our next project will be franchising our products outside Bali. To be clear, this is franchising not licensing that we refer to here. What we plan is an arrangement where 3 people and a minimum opening capital of a bit over USD $10,000 will provide opportunities to own your own media company.

We are also in the process on increasing and developing our online media. Thanks to my Creative IT team, last month we increased traffic by over 1,000% with practically zero cash outlay.

“No Such Thing as a Free Lunch”

If you’ve worked long enough in this industry, you’ll know there is always free food on the table. Well, it might look as though it’s free but nothing in this world is free anymore. Just like entering the media business, it’s not going to be free or easy to start.

But we promise you one thing; you can do well in this business without working hard if you know how to work smart. Most of us go back home at 6pm because we know how to make this work and we can definitely show you how.