Microsoft shocked and blindsided tech watchers last month when in a largely predictable conference they pulled a rabbit out of their hats and launched what could be one of the most transformative products not just of this year but perhaps the decade

1. Technology
64 | GlobeAsia March 2015
PHOTOSCOURTESYOFFUBIZ.NET
M
icrosoft shocked and
blindsided tech watchers
last month when in a largely
predictable conference they pulled a
rabbit out of their hats and launched
what could be one of the most
transformative products not just of this
year but perhaps the decade.
Microsoft Hololens is such a
unique product that there isn’t quite
a consensus yet on what it is. The
device has variously been referred to
as a Virtual Reality (VR) headset and
an Augmented Reality (AR) device
but it doesn’t quite fit into either
category. The fact is however that
while Hololens could’ve been a niche
product if it had been made by almost
any other company, with Microsoft’s
help it has a good chance of making
it mainstream.
Facebook’s Oculus and Google
Glass have been the belles of the ball
thus far but a prettier girl just walked
in. Both Google and Oculus have been
rather opaque about their VR plans.
They’re starting to become old news
now and neither have really entered
the mass consumer market.
This could change. Both Facebook
and Google have massive user bases
and the companies will no doubt find a
way to capitalize on their user base to
push Oculus or Glass.
Why both these companies
should be quaking in their boots
however is because so many of
their users still visit Facebook and/
or Google on a Windows PC. Now
Microsoft Hololens will redefine our reality

2. March 2015 GlobeAsia | 65
Jason Fernandes
Tech commentator and the founder of SmartKlock.
progresses Hololens will likely get
more intuitive.
The funny thing is that so much
of how we use computers is governed
by how we interact with them. For the
past several years this has meant using
a mouse and that has not been a bad
thing because mice are so efficient at
what they do.
Hololens is a completely different
way to interact with one’s PC and
as such this will likely spawn new
interfaces and increase functionality
as well. Anybody who has ever tried to
draw using a mouse pointer can attest
to how frustrating the experience
is as opposed to using a stylus on a
touchscreen. This is a perfect example
of how excellent software can be done
in with a terrible user experience.
The Hololens will unlock new ways
we can interact with our content. As
3D printing gains in acceptance people
will look back on 3D design tools of
today the same way we look at rock
carvings from the prehistoric era
because Hololens is so clearly what’s
needed to take designing and 3D
printing mainstream.
Indeed Microsoft hinted at the
massive possibilities in 3D design and
printing during their demo of the
Microsoft Holostudio (their new 3D
design program). The demo had an
employee on the stage build an aerial
drone in virtual space. While the
that Microsoft has fully integrated
Windows 10 with Hololens the VR
wars have officially begun.
All headsets are not created equal
Up until now VR headsets such as
Oculus Rift have provided users
with somewhat Lord of the Rings
type experiences wherein the user is
transported instantly to an immersive
alternate reality that bears no
relationship with the real world once
he or she dons the device.
AR headsets in contrast such as
Google Glass keep the user still very
much in the real world but ‘augments’
their experience with mostly text-
based information, some images
but none in 3D (think Robocop/
Terminator). The Hololens gives you
something in between.
Microsoft’s new device essentially
projects a virtual world over your field
of view, allowing you to interact with
3D holograms as though they were
real, something we have not quite
seen before. It’s a cliché to refer to the
movie Minority Report whenever VR
pops up but in this case the parallels
are significant.
How Microsoft got it right
The fact is that the future of how we
interact with digital objects in virtual
space could belong not to VR, or
indeed even to AR, but to this chimera
that was born out of the recesses of
Microsoft labs. Hololens is quite clearly
the missing bridge between the two
and works rather intuitively to create a
virtual environment that blends digital
objects with the real world.
Interacting with the environment
is easy because Hololens knows
where you are looking so pointing
just involves looking in a particular
direction, while manipulating objects
involves a combination of voice
recognition and ‘air clicks’. Admittedly
air clicks are hokey, but as time
interface still seemed like it could use
some work, the employee was able to
build one in a surprisingly short time.
And in case people didn’t get the hint,
Microsoft went ahead and removed
all doubt when it launched an earlier
3D printed version of the same drone
into the crowd.
Less social resistance than Glass
One of the major reasons Glass has
been criticized is that it is designed
to be worn while out and about.
Walking out in public with something
as visible as Google Glass is bound to
influence the way you use the device
and/or the situations you think it’s
appropriate to use it.
In contrast Hololens is mainly
designed for indoor use and, because
of the sensors, Hololens provides a
uniquely different experience since it
can also map out your surroundings
and project 3D content into your
version of reality. This makes it
perfectly suited to a whole host of
operations both at home (interactive
cooking shows etc.) and at work
(interactive Skype video conferences).
An area Hololens can have a
great impact is education. Imagine
doctors working with experts from all
over the world to guide them while
doing particularly complex surgeries.
Microsoft’s demo included a section
where reporters were encouraged to
do some plumbing while being guided
remotely – live – by an expert.
The expert was able to draw in 3D
in real time over their environment
and their field of view. Clearly this
sort of disruptive innovation could
have profound implications in the
educational/medical field.
Nothing quite like it
To Microsoft’s credit, there’s nothing
else quite like the Hololens. While
Google Glass is interesting and Oculus
is – well, not here yet – Microsoft’s
Microsoft Hololens is such
a unique product that there
isn’t quite a consensus yet
on what it is.

3. Technology
While an astute observation,
Nadella failed to mention that many
of these so-called category creation
devices (with the notable exception of
the iPad) were born out of a company
either on the edge of extinction or at
the very least struggling for air. When
the iPod came out, for example, Apple
was nowhere near the lumbering giant
it is today; it had only recently hired
back founder Steve Jobs and was only
just turning the corner on a period
where it was close to bankruptcy.
Apple really had to work over
several years to be the kind of industry
standard it is today. In contrast,
While Google Glass is
interesting and Oculus
is - well, not here yet -
Microsoft’s technology will
be released for consumer
consumption imminently in
Windows 10 timeframe.
technology will be released for
consumer consumption imminently in
Windows 10 timeframe.
In the recent past Apple has been
considered an innovative company
but both the iPod and the iPhone
while revolutionary in their respective
categories, were not the very first
of those categories. The difference
between the iPhone and the previous
crop of smartphones is significant but
the iPhone is only an incremental leap
at best. Enthusiasts will recall that way
before the iPhone in 2005 Motorola
released the Rokr, a cellphone
predating iPhone that featured a fully
integrated version of Apple iTunes.
Consider the iPod for that matter.
While it mainstreamed portable
media players, it bore at least a fair
resemblance to the Diamond Rio
PMP300 (considered by many to be
the first commercially available
MP3 player).
As somebody who has owned
both the Motorola Rokr and the Rio
PMP300 and then went on to get the
first generation iPod and iPhone I
could clearly see they were related.
In the case of Microsoft Hololens
however, there really isn’t anything
that comes close.
This freight train won’t stop
Many might liken the
birth of Hololens to
other disruptive
technologies like
the iPod and
iPhone but there
are some principle
differences. Satya
Nadella, Microsoft’s
CEO, vaguely referred
to this when he said
at the launch that “Our
industry’s progress is
punctuated by moments of
category creation.” Nadella
went on to describe Windows
and holographic computing as
“one such moment.”
Microsoft today is in much greater
financial health then Apple was when
they launched the iPod or even the
iPhone. Microsoft’s massive bank
balance and dominance in the PC
industry has quite a bit of inertia.
The company has ensured that
Hololens runs Windows 10, and
this should make companies like
Oculus really nervous because it
means Microsoft intends to extend its
dominance in the PC space right into
the 3D virtual world and they have the
money to make it happen.
The competition will have to
sprint if they intend to catch up
with Microsoft and in particular if
they intend to mount a significant
campaign directly against them. Glass
could skate by given they are not quite
direct competitors but I would wager
that Oculus Rift is thanking their lucky
stars that they got acquired by deep-
pocketed Facebook.
Author Michael Crichton of
Jurassic Park fame once said: “We all
live every day in virtual environments,
defined by our ideas.” With Hololens
for the first time we can conceive of a
world where we can see and interact
with those ideas in real time and from
all accounts the effect is magical.
66 | GlobeAsia March 2015

4. INDONESIA’S NO 1 BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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SWEET
SUCCESS
Lie Kamadjaya
is reinvigorating
the country’s sugar
industry with bold
ideas and some
hard cash.

5. A Media Holdings Publication4 | GlobeAsia March 2015
Columnists
14 Steve Hanke
Currency Wars, Again
60 Jamil Maidan Flores
In the southern Philippines a peace
process is wounded
64 Jason Fernandes
Microsoft Hololens will redefine
our reality
98 Scott Younger
The Jakarta MRT
100 Keith Loveard
Pictures from an ugly past
contentsVOLUME 9 NUMBER 3 / MARCH 2015
SPECIALREPORT
86 A shot in the arm for SOEs
Under new minister Rini Soemarno,
the country’s state-owned enterprises
are poised to play a leading role in the
economic development.
KnowledgeatWharton
92 Is your leadership style right for the
Digital Age?
EVENT
104 Still No 1
Indonesia’s premier English-language
business magazine, GlobeAsia celebrated its
8th anniversary recently as it looked ahead
to many more years of telling Indonesia’s
corporate story.
LivingtheGoodLife
114 Into The Blue
Leave the kids behind at Club Med’s latest
Maldivian retreat.
118 Suit Up
Stephen and Samuel Wongso of Wong
Hang Tailor shed light on some easy-to-
follow, basic suit etiquette.
BackPage
120Pasar Besar Malang
LEADERSHIP
58 Closing the leadership deficit
Finding and grooming leaders is one of
the most daunting challenges facing
Indonesia today.
SPECIALFOCUS
68 Changing the guard at major banks
Changes are afoot at the nation’s top 10
banks with a possible shakeup having
long-term ramifications for banking
sector.
74 Boosting the syariah finance industry
The Financial Services Authority (OJK)
is set to launch a five-year roadmap for
syariah finance as part of efforts to boost
the syariah banking industry from its low
market share of only 5%.
78 Technology that counts
Bank Permata is determined to leverage
information technology as a way to win
more customers and keep them satisfied
as part of its strategy for gaining ground in
the banking industry.
80 Gatot goes out fighting
Gatot M Suwondo is fighting a rearguard
battle to stop the government making
changes he thinks aren’t in the bank’s best
interests eventhough he is no longer in
charge.
84 BTN aims for lower NPL in 2015
Bank Tabungan Negara is shooting to
lower its non-performing loans by selling
mortgage-backed securities.
114
PHOTOKATADATA.CO.ID
88

6. 6 | GlobeAsia March 2015
A
mid the heightened excitement
surrounding the rise of
Indonesia’s consumer class
and the sharp growth of the services
sector over the past few years, one of
the country’s most important sectors
has been largely forgotten.
Agriculture is presumably not
as sexy as building hotels and malls
or as owning a coal mine. But with
global commodity prices having
fallen sharply and unlikely to rise
anytime in the future, and with
the glow over the property sector
fading, perhaps it is time to refocus
on agriculture as a primary driver of
gross domestic product growth.
Indonesia is the world’s 10th
largest agricultural producer.
Agriculture contributes 14% of GDP
and employs about 40% of the labor
force. The country is internationally
significant in its production and
export of rice, palm oil, coffee,
rubber, cocoa and spices. Half of its
250 million people are still defined
as rural, although this figure has
been declining steadily over the past
50 years.
But years of under-investment,
bad government policies and neglect
has led to the relatively slow growth
of value-added agriculture. This slow
productivity growth has persisted
for almost three decades and has
damaged the country’s pursuit of
increased self-sufficiency in food
crops. It has also reduced Indonesia’s
international competitiveness in
agricultural products.
Without productivity growth,
the only way Indonesia can reduce
its reliance on imports is by erecting
trade barriers and imposing stiff
tariffs. This policy in the past has
caused domestic prices to soar and
led to social unrest. No consumer
wants to pay more for food,
especially if it is caused by poor
government policies.
Editor’s Note
Editorial
Editor in Chief
Shoeb Kagda
Managing Editor
Yanto Soegiarto
Deputy Editors
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Editor at Large
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Senior Editor
Albert W. Nonto
Denverino Dante
Contributing Editors
Farid Harianto
Steve Hanke
Scott Younger
Contributors
Suryo Bambang Sulisto
Wijayanto Samirin
Frans Winarta
Jason Fernandes
John Denton
Special Columnist
Jamil Maidan Flores
Reporters
Vanesha Manuturi
Dion Bisara
Copy Editor
Geraldine Tan
Art, Design and Layout
Gimbar Maulana
Elsid Arendra
Agustinus W. Triwibowo
Nela Realino
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M. Defrizal
Suhadi
Production
Assistant
Danang Kurniadi
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Keeping the plate full
It is clear that Indonesia’s
agricultural sector is in need of
reform. The sector needs a huge
injection of private capital and –
more importantly – new ideas. For
sure public investment, especially
in infrastructure, will also be
critical if the sector is to reclaim its
past glory.
Entrepreneurs such as Lie
Kamadjaya, 47, will be central to the
revival of the country’s agricultural
sector. As our cover story relates,
Kamadjaya has developed a new
sugar plant in Blora, Central Java
and plans to build another modern
plant in Madura, East Java. It is
telling that his plants will be the
first new capital investments in the
sector for the past three decades.
It is heartening to learn that
Indonesian entrepreneurs have not
given up on the agricultural sector
despite a host of other more enticing
opportunities. He has empowered
farmers by providing them with
better seeds and fertilizer, helping
them raise productivity as well as
their incomes.
By partnering with farmers
instead of competing with them,
Kamadjaya has shown a new way of
doing business. His ideas have been
well received by sugar farmers and
his methods helped raise overall
sugar production. As a result, Blora
is now returning to sugar cane as a
major industry, relieving the area’s
dependence on teak plantations.
“I want to make this plant a
glue that can bind the community,
helping people live in harmony,
with respect for each other and,
most importantly, with better
incomes,” he says. That at the end
of the day is what capitalism should
be all about.
Shoeb Kagda
Editor in Chief
shoeb@globeasia.com