Mooryati Soedibyo

The company’s founder Mrs. Mooryati Soedibyo, is the world’s only known self made noble woman turned a successful Entrepreneur. She was born from the privileged royal Javanese family, raised inside the “Keraton” ( Javanese Palace), surrounded by servants since her childhood and later married to a highly educated Man who had a successful career in Indonesian Government. Rather than settling for this comfortable and respectable social status, she started a business selling homemade Herbal Products when her husband almost retires in 1978. She has never received a formal higher education or formal business training when she started with Mustika Ratu 30 years ago. In the beginning, Mustika Ratu manufactured herbal and traditional cosmetic in a garage as a Home Industry with the help of Mrs. Soedibyo's housemaids. Within 20 years, the company grew from a home based industry to 3000 employees worldwide, built a factory, an expansive product distribution channel, retail outlets in every major Department Store in Indonesia, a 12-story building as its corporate office in central Jakarta and export the products to more than 5 countries. Sales growth has always been more than 20% per year since the company’s inception, which enables the company to expand based on Equity Financing alone.

When she introduced Taman Sari Royal Heritage Spa within the group less than 10 years ago, nobody believed that the Spa sectors will contribute significantly to the Group’s overall growth and the venture was seen as Mrs. Soedibyo’s personal “hobby”. Now, the Spa alone is responsible for about half of the overall growth of the company. This is due to the fact that the Spa’s fast expansion happens outside of Indonesia, which then compensates the slow growth of its Herbal and Cosmetic domestic market. The newly created Spa product line contributes immensely to the company’s bottom line because of its higher profit margin than the company’s traditional consumer product line. What once started as a hobby becomes a Business Empire because Mrs. Soedibyo built it out of her passion; she captivates people around the world and received Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award in 2002 and represented Indonesia in the World Entrepreneur of the Year Competition in Monte Carlo in 2003.

Mrs. Mooryati Soedibyo has 5 children, 13 grandchildren and now lives in Jakarta, Indonesia. In her late age (79), she still sit as the head the company and also the Vice-chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia. On February 2007 she will receive a Doctorate degree from University of Indonesia in Strategic Marketing. To correspondence with her, please send an email to mooryati at mustika-ratu.co.id.