Sanken was established in 1996 in Jakarta. The founders have over 20 years of experience in the electrical goods business. When Sanken started operating, it had around 100 employees. Today, the company has nearly 1,000 employees, including sales and marketing staff, administrators, technicians and engineers, research and development experts. While most of the staff are Indonesian, Sanken also employs a number of highly skilled Japanese expatriates with many years of experience in the electronics industry.
When the company opened for business in 1996, Indonesia had a booming economy and a favourable business climate, and the electronics industry showed excellent prospects. Then, however, the country was hit by the 1997-8 Asian crisis. In the face of the ensuing instability and uncertainty, most of Sanken's competitors reduced their activities in the country. Sanken's management, in contrast, saw the crisis as an opportunity to establish a solid market position. The company helped its dealers when they found it difficult to pay for stock, and honoured all its obligations to its principals, who in turn assisted Sanken by supplying it with state-of-the-art components with superior technology. The firm also took the opportunity to expand its distribution network in a very cost-effective way, by taking over many of the branch offices that had been shut down by its competitors. Sanken embarked on an aggressive advertising campaign and, in particular, took advantage of the death of other advertisers and the low rates to promote its brand heavily and effectively on TV. By retaining all its employees throughout the crisis, the company managed to maintain staff morale. In short, Sanken not only survived the crisis, it emerged from it in a stronger position.
