Tan Sri Syed
Mokhtar al-Bukhary
Biodata
Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary is currently the richest bumiputra corporate figure with many interest in diversified business areas which include transportation and logistics, plantations, property development, defense and armory as well as engineering and power generation. He is also a symbolic figure that holds philosophy that 'education does not guarantee success in life, but hard work does', and he's a walking proof of that. Al-Bukhary Foundation helped to build Islamic Art Muzium valued at RM70 millions as well as building many mosques and charity establishments in Kedah, Perak and across the country.
A humble entrepreneur, often shying away from
publicity and media. Tan Sri
Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary is the richest Malay Entrepreneur at US$2.75 Billion and bumiputra in Malaysia, and has continued to
hold the status for a long time. In his childhood, he found difficulties to do
school revision because of the inadequate house facilities and small space. But
that did not stop him from achieving his current status. Syed Mokhtar is a great giver; his very first salary received
during his youth was divided by 2 halves – one for him, and another for
charity. Companies that Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary are affiliated with are MMC (utility, engineering,
infrastructure, and logistics group), DRB-HICOM (automotive manufacturing,
assembly and distribution), Tradewinds (plantation, agro-based and property
sectors), Puncak Semangat (Telecommunications-4G) and many more which
covers from Ports, Postal services, Banking.
The reasons I choose this entrepreneur:
Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary is the chosen leader
that I want to share in this blog project. Before this, we just heard his name
without knowing his background. I eager to write about him because he just an
ordinary person that doing extraordinary things. He is also the richest Malay
in this country and very much respected businessman and philanthropy. I will
share with you about the life of Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary and
highlighted about his contribution to serve the nation. The success enjoyed by
Syed Mokhtar today was not gained through an easy shortcuts.
Hard work, self confidence and faith that everything comes from Allah has made him a bumiputera conglomerate icon for everyone to
aspire to.
Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhari was born into a mid-low
class family in north of peninsular Malaysia; whose house was without
necessities and luxuries. His highest education was only until form five, and
he never went to university. But that doesn't mean he's lacked of knowledge. A
whole lot of his knowledge and experience was gained through his own
entrepreneurship experience during his youth time.
Due to his family's mediocre-to-poor background, Syed Mokhtar al Bukhary had to step into the working world in his early life, while pursuing his primary and secondary studies. Syed Mokhtar helped his mother planting and selling vegetables in the market and also selling roti canai. His numeric knowledge was used to help his father in doing daily book keeping.
After finishing school, Syed Mokhtar helped his father in breeding cow business but only to see the business washed away by foot and mouth disease. Nevertheless, he took over the business and start over by selling meats. He then move on to packaging the meats and start selling them wholesale. His determination paid off and the business started to take off.
As his determination starting to skyrocket, he quickly
moved to expand into diversification of other businesses. His next big move was
in the logistics business, with initial goal to transport their trading
materials. More success followed and he moved to rice trading business. He
worked even harder after awarded the rice trading license from Lembaga Padi Negara,
and was later awarded successions of supplier contract government-linked
corporations. As the saying goes, 'the harder you work, the luckier you get'.
How Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary develop his
business?
STARTING A BUSINESS
In the mid 1970s, his father’s cattle business ran into
trouble following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth
disease. The outbreak spread throughout southern Thailand, Kedah and Perlis. As a result, nearly all their livestock perished.
However, this downturn in event actually had a silver lining. Since then, Syed
Mokhtar took over his father’s business and decided
never again to become involved in the cattle business.
Instead, he decided to go into the business of selling meat. As a start, at the
age of 19, Syed Mokhtar scoured markets around Alor Setar to buy unsold meat from the vendors there. The meat would then be
re-sold to bumiputera traders in the surrounding area.
\
Although these were unsold meat, they were packaged
carefully and nicely, and kept on ice to maintain
freshness. Thus, using his experience in handling good quality products, Syed Mokhtar business received encouraging response from the
public. This success made him even more driven to
expand the business.
Soon after, Syed Mokhtar moved on to the transportation
business. After successfully acquiring a license for
four Class A lorries in 1972, Syed Mokhtar secured a loan in the amount of RM110, 000 from the Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) to
buy two Mercedes Benz lorries. At first, he wanted to
buy four lorries, but the plan did not come to light because of technical problems, leaving him with two remaining permits.
A Chinese trader approached him to buy those permits,
but Syed Mokhtar refused the offer and decided to return
the permits to MARA. He then established a transportation company named
Syarikat Pengangkutan Sentosa, and appointed a Chinese
clerk to be the manager. Interestingly, the company still exists until today. From a small business that offered transport
service to haul rice, it now owns more than 40
lorries for various transport purposes.
EXPANDING BUSINESS
After establishing Syarikat Shah, he created Syarikat
Bukhary, which is involved in the rice and sugar
business. And just like Syarikat Pengangkutan Sentosa, Bukhary still exists and has expanded until now, with an annual revenue of
around RM250 million.
The company then expanded into Bukhary (KL) Sdn. Bhd. in 1977. The company won many government contracts which were offered to bumiputera entrepreneurs at the time, and based its operations in a four-storey shop lot on Jalan Pahang. He then created Susu Mas Sdn. Bhd (Susu Mas) in 1979 to facilitate his business of supplying to the government. Like Bukhary, Susu Mas was also a joint-venture company, this time with New Zealand Milk Products. He held 51 percent share in the company. The Susu Mas product was marketed under the brand Fernleaf. However, following the economic crisis which hit the country at the end of 1980’s, he decided to sell his business interest in that company.
AMTEK, CROCODILE AND LOUIS
The 1980’s and 1990’s, saw him getting involved in the clothing and manufacturing industry. His star continued to shine bright and he won a contract to produce military uniform for the Ministry of Defense. Through this contract, his company was required to supply the Armed Forces (ATM) with more than 100,000 pairs of boots and 330,000 sets of army uniforms. This success moved him to decide to create two clothing company, Amtek Holdings (Amtek) which manufactured shoes, while Oriental Garments Uniform Dividion (Oriental) produced boots. Oriental is another one of his joint-venture companies. This time with Oriental Garments in Pulau Pinang.
Most recently, Amtek Shoes, a subsidiary of Amtek,
produces shoes for the use of the ATM and clothing
under the brand Lee Cooper and Louis. The reality is, Syed Mokhtar’s business
empire has expanded so wide, it doesn’t just involve
meat, rice, sugar, clothing items, shiping and it also includes some of the
country’s heavy industries.
CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS MUSLIM EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA
Although he enjoys his success as the nation’s number
one bumiputera conglomerate figure, he has not
forgotten his responsibility to help his Muslim brethrens. For this purpose, the Yayasan al-Bukhary was established in March
1996 to help the poor, particularly in the area of
education. Until today, Yayasan al-Bukhary has spent more than RM300 million
for religious, cultural and educational activities.
The foundation not only provides aid to people of this country, but also countries that are members in the Organisation of
Islamic Conference (OIC). Among the biggest projects
ever conducted was the construction of the Kompleks al-Bukhary
costing RM400 million in Kedah. The complex is a centre complete with
facilities including a mosque, medical centre,
community centre, housing for orphans, a special academy
of the elderly and an institution of higher education.
This foundation also created the International Islamic
Arts Museum in Kuala Lumpur, at a cost of RM100
million. This four-storey building is the first museum in Asia Pacific that showcases Islamic works of art. Yayasan al-Bukhary also
built 16 mosques all over the world.
OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS
Prior to 2000, Yayasan Al-Bukhary donated about RM7.75
million to Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, a
world-renowned centre of Islamic studies. And starting from November 2007, Yayasan Al-Bukhary will sponsor 28 more students to
study at the International Islamic University
Malaysia. Yayaan Al-Bukhary is also involved with the Al-Bukhary International
University’s construction project in Kedah, which
costs RM500 million. It will cater to 3,000 students of
whom 70 percent are foreign students fully sponsored by the foundation by 2009.
Last 6 September, Yayasan Al-Bukhary donated AS$1 million to the Lebanese Humanitarian Fund in order to lessen the burden suffered by
people of that country, who are victims of Israel’s
atrocity. Besides that, this foundation also helps
non-Islamic based organisations. For example, around RM1 million was donated by
the foundation for the Langkawi Project, an effort
spearheaded by the MCA, in the area of education, particularly in providing scholarships to financially needy students from
rural areas.
THE GREAT IDEAS IN THE ORGANIZATION
The great ideas in my organization come from the
organizational culture. According to Lim and Daft culture is defined as the set
of key values, assumptions, understandings and norms that is shared by members
of the organization and taught to the new members as correct. When any problems
occurred in the organization, we will try to think and act for the best
solutions.
Culture gives employees a sense of organizational identity and generates commitment to particular values and ways of doing things. Culture serves for two important functions in organizations which are internal integration and external adaption. Internal integration helps members to develop a collective identity and know how to work together effectively. For example, if there is any work given by the management that need to be settled or submitted on the certain date given, we will try to manage and finished it early or on time. Organizations are putting increased emphasis on developing strong cultures that encourage teamwork, collaboration and mutual trust. It links the employee with another employee in the organization.
However, cultures for the external adaption determines how the organization meets goals and deals with outsiders. Culture can encourage employee commitment to the core purpose of the organizations, its specific goals and ways to accomplish the goals. For example, when my organization arrange a chandat sotong program with the other organization to have a close relationship with them. Program conducted by the teams have meet the objectives because of the strong culture build in the organization.
Another articles :
http://managementhelp.org/leadership/index.htm
http://www.vinceprep.com/interviews/accomplishments_leadership_teamwork
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-non-monetary-benefits-to-attract-and-retain-top-developers/328
http://www.villanovau.com/top-10-be-a-better-leader/
http://www.businessknowhow.com/growth/latent.htm
Lim, G.S. & Draft, R.L. (2009). The Leadership Experience in
Asia. Singapore: Thomson.
McCrimmon, M. (2008). How to define leadership and management.
Retrieved October 29, 2012, from: http://www. leadersdirect.net
Friedman, S.D. (2008). Total Leadership: Be a better Leader, Have a
Richer Life. United States of America: Harverd business press.
Conger, J.A. (1989). Leadership: The Art of Empowering others (3),
p.17-24. Retrieved October 30, 2012, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4164863
Galford, R.M & Maruca, R.F. (2006). Your Leadership Legacy: Why
Looking toward the future will make you a better leader today. United States of
America: Harverd Business School.
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