Lanny James and Putri Komar chart a course for artisan business growth in Indonesia

From San Francisco to Indonesia, Nest Professional Fellow Lanny James, took her skills across the world to act as a mentor, teacher, and professional guide to new hybrid batik-shibori business: Shibotik. Founded by Putri Komar, a bright young designer with a talent for introducing contemporary elements to her country’s most treasured techniques, Shibotik is a fledgling artisan enterprise that is redefining “artisan” today. During her time in Indonesia, Lanny and Putri spent days brainstorming and creating new strategies to inform a stronger business plan for Shibotik. Lanny challenged Putri to better understand her target customer and to identify opportunities for reaching this customer on the local and international scales, as well as through differing selling channels like brick and mortar as well as e-commerce. Putri is the first to sing Lanny’s praises: “She’s so kind and has the same spirit to bring up the Indonesian textiles into the higher level. We talked and shared a lot about how to get more foreign buyer for Batik Komar and more focus on Shibotik marketing planning. She’s been very helpful in giving me insights about the marketing strategies.” And as tends to be the case with Nest Professional Fellowships, the learning and works in both directions with Lanny finding fresh inspiration for her own work by spending her time with Putri. We look forward to sharing more Professional Fellowship stories throughout the year.