Bank Mandiri reveals its top strategy

Thanks to this strategy, Bank Mandiri’s net profit grew 61.7% YoY in the first semester of 2022, SVP Thomas Wahyudi says.

For Bank Mandiri, the traditional red ocean strategy, or bloody competition, has become obsolete. It has now fully embraced the blue ocean strategy, opening itself to collaborations amongst its fellow industry players, partners or competitors alike.

The government-owned bank found that the disruption of technology, the work culture of millennials, and changes in consumer behaviour due to the COVID-19 pandemic have made the collaboration theme even more relevant.

"The ‘Leveraging Digital Ecosystem’ strategy is one of the implementations of integration and collaboration strategies that are intensively carried out by Bank Mandiri," said Thomas Wahyudi, SVP of Transaction Banking Retail Sales at Bank Mandiri to Asian Banking and Finance.

Collaboration efforts

Thus, Bank Mandiri has so far collaborated with 10 partners across various industries—including culinary, beauty and health, events and attractions, fashion, sports and activities, games and entertainment, and travel—to develop Livin' Sukha, a feature of its Livin' by Mandiri Super App. Livin' Sukha allows customers to fulfil the needs of various transactions such as purchasing airline tickets, train tickets, entertainment, and game vouchers, without switching to different applications.

These partners are mobile operator Telkomsel, online travel agency Traveloka, national airline firm PT Garuda Indonesia, public train service provider PT Kereta Api Indonesia, retail convenience store Indomaret, top-up websites for games and online entertainment Codashop, the largest pharmaceutical industry company in Indonesia Kimia Farma, beauty products and treatments Natasha, Indonesia's proud shopping center Sarinah as well as golf master club Golf360.

The bank also actively serves as the primary payment channel in several mass events, such as ticket sales for concerts of foreign and domestic artists (Westlife Concert and We The Fest Concert, etc.), major sporting events (Mandiri Jogja Marathon, FIBA ​​Asia Cup Indonesia 2022, etc.), and art events (Army Smile Art Exhibition).

Bank Mandiri presents reliable digital banking solutions like branch services in the palm of your hand, as well as the lifestyle needs of customers through the Super App Livin' by Mandiri. Bank Mandiri is fully aware that they must adapt quickly, providing an excellent customer experience, especially facing the rapid penetration of the IT-based financial industry. "And Livin' Sukha is one of our responses to the adaptation," said Thomas.

Thomas said that Bank Mandiri's services are available in a "one-stop solution for all your lifestyle" based on the 3S concept—Santap (Eat), Sehat (Healthy), Santai (Relax). To realize this concept, Bank Mandiri is actively working hand in hand with many partners.

"Because we want Livin' by Mandiri to be an application that accommodates the entire banking experience at Bank Mandiri, from account onboarding, savings, transfers, loans, to investments that are all done in the palm of your hand," said Thomas.

Beneficial collaboration

According to Thomas, collaborating with top players in the banking ecosystem is a step towards creating a mutually beneficial synergy for each party. However, Thomas also emphasized that in establishing collaboration, the vision and goals of synergy are the first things needed to be harmonized. Next step is to build and sustain long-term trust through communication and coordination.

“Collaboration with clear goals, focus, and shared execution will drive productivity which is a positive response to the challenges. This productivity will become a competitive advantage in a business organization, including at Bank Mandiri and the effectiveness of collaboration will determine the level of productivity,” said Thomas.

“Market expansion, quick time to market, targeted campaigns and promo programs, and strong image recognition are some key features of collaboration between Bank Mandiri and its partners.

These collaborations are reflected in Bank Mandiri's net profit in the first semester of 2022 which reached IDR 20.2t, a 61.7% growth year on year (YoY). This achievement was also supported by the company's good intermediation function, where the credit position on a consolidated basis grew by 12.22% YoY to IDR 1,138.31t in the first half of 2022.

Digital transactions at Bank Mandiri in the 2022 period on a month-to-month basis moved steadily with the growth of around 30% to 50%. This is of course inseparable from the collaboration that has been carried out by Bank Mandiri while continuing to improve digital transaction services and performance, such as Super Apps Livin' by Mandiri, ATM, EDC, Mandiri Internet Bisnis, QRIS, eCommerce, and pre-paid Mandiri eMoney as Electronic Money.

The collaboration between Bank Mandiri and its partners is a mutual benefit. "This means that not only do we benefit consumers with the convenience they receive, merchants also benefit from Bank Mandiri's large database of at least 13 million customers," said Thomas.