The Successful Entrepreneur: Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary

We can learn this entrepreneurial trait from Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary which he was born in Alor Setar, Kedah in 1951. His family was come from Hadhramaut, Yemen. Before deciding to settle in Kedah, his father traveled to the all countries in Asia for his trade. In the middle of 40s, his parents decided to settle in Alor Setar, Kedah. Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar is the third child from seven siblings. He lives in a state of deprivation. Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar always helped his mother grow vegetables to get some income and expenses for the family. They sold it in the market at Jalan Telok Wan Jah. He also sells bread rolled in the same market. During breaks at his school, his father will find him and asked for his help to make bookkeeping. He has a lot of knowledge and experience while doing his work and daily activities.

           

As in 1970, his father's livestock business has suffered a setback due to the outbreak of foot and mouth. The disease was spread across to the southern Thailand, Kedah and Perlis. All livestock die without being able to be saved. Since the incident, Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar took over his father's business and made the decision that he would not engage in a rearing again. Starting from that, he decided to start selling the meat on a small scale.

He moved from town to town around Alor Setar to buy the unsold meat and then wrap the meat with ice and sell it back to Bumiputera businessmen and restaurants around Alor Setar. Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar has been success in his business and decided to go further promoting and develop his confidence in the business world. After that, he shifted to the transportation business. In 1972, he managed to get a permit for four lorries Class A and he received a loan of RM110,000 from MARA. Then, he used the loan to buy two lorries, Mercedes 911LS and he was opened the transport company called ‘Sentosa Transport Company’ and appoint a Cina’s clerk as the company's manager. The trucks used for his business of rice in Alor Setar and this company still exists until this day and now it has more than 40 lorries to import and export the rice in Malaysia.

Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary also amaze entrepreneur that have great trait entrepreneur. The first one is initiative. For example, his success story in business began by helping his parents in cattle business around 1960-an. However, Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary took other initiative by applying MARA’s assistance to start a lorry business in the 1970s.

  He do many type of business, the first one is commodities. He sold meat at Alor Setar market. Then, he continues with transportation. Afterwards, he goes to act of producing and making army uniform. This is exhibit that he had as great entrepreneur. Next is decisive. Here we can verify as Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary establish Amtek Holding and Oriental Garments Uniform Division, the company that making shoes and army uniform. In addition, ethical consciousness. Even though Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary is a famous millionaire, the humble character that he had shown can be the good example for another entrepreneur. Beside that, Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary is the founded of Al-Bukhary Foundation (Yayasan Al-Bukhary) which is a philanthropic organization founded by him.

Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary has been through many businesses in his life. He has been doing many businesses such as logistic, rice trading, food business which is Gardenia Company that make bread, plantation, infrastructure and many more. Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary is a versatile person because he can handle more than one type of business.

     Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary started by helping his father in breeding cow business and after that he starts sells the meats wholesale. He then moves on to rice trading business and many more. He never gave up in trying a new business because he tried to learn more business in order to be a versatile business man and now he is one of the richest people in Malaysia. By having these entrepreneurial traits, it has assisted Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary to be a successful person in entrepreneur world. He owns 51.8% share in Malaysian Mining Corporation via his wholly owned company, Syarikat Seaport Terminal (Johore) sdn. bhd, a subsidiary company Syarikat Indra Cita Sdn. Bhd.

His success story in business began by helping his parents in cattle business around 1960-an. However, this did not last long due to the outbreak of disease which hit their livestock. Hence, Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar took other initiative by applying for MARA’s assistance to start a lorry business in the 1970s. The lorry company which is known as Syarikat Kenderaan Sentosa (Sentosa Vehicle Company) now owns more than 40 lorries.

Known as a man with a vision, his efforts did not stop at that point. In 1974, Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar bought his first shop house under the hire-purchase agreement with Urban Development Authority of Malaysia (UDA). The next year, he expanded his business empire by establishing Shah Company, known as a rice supplier to FELDA, MARA Senama, Pernas Edar and Sergam Sdn. Bhd. after having succeeded in obtaining the rice trading license from Lembaga Padi Negara or BERNAS. Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar described his achievement in business was the outcome of government’s initiative in implementing the New Economy Policy (NEP).

Since then, Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar’s business continued to expand rapidly until he was awarded as one of the richest bumiputera corporate figure in Malaysia, received recognition from Malaysian Business as the seventh richest man in Malaysia in 2005 and recently named as the fiftieth richest man by Forbes in 2013.

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. He was always make sure his meat have good quality because he wants to make sure the unsold meat is harmless to the customer from diseases. 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. ‎

After establishing Syarikat Shah, he created Syarikat Bukhary, which is involved in the ‎rice and sugar business. He believes that rice and sugar business will gain big profit in the future. 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. ‎

In conclusion, from his background we can see and find out that how much he need to struggle for his life. Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar is a brave, patient man and has an ability to learn from mistakes. He try to stand on his feet and face all the problem by himself. He learns from the past and makes a new step forward to achieve the success. Therefore, this is a reason why and how he can be one of the billionaires in our country and be a successful entrepreneur.

The Entrepreneurial Traits: Integrity and reliability

The integrity word came from the Latin adjectives. Integrity is the fundamental values that employers seek in the employees that they wanted to hire. A person who has integrity lives his or her values in relationships with workers, customers, stakeholders. Trust and honesty are central to integrity. Those people who are acting with honour and truthfulness are also a basic principle in a person with integrity. Reliability is the ability of a person or system to perform and maintain its function in routine circumstances, as well as hostile or unexpected circumstances.

            Integrity and reliability are the glue and fiber that bind successful personal business relationships and make them endure. Inventors, partners, customers and creditors alike values these attribute highly. Integrity and reliability help and sustain trust and confidence. Small-business entrepreneur, in particular, find these two characteristic crucial to success.

            Example of entrepreneur, who showed this trait is Pua Khein-Seng, is arguably one of the inventors of USB flash drive. In an in interview with The Star, the CEO of Phison Electronics Corp based in Taiwan claims to have corporate the world’s first single chip USB flash drive. He is even regarded as “father of pen drive” in Malaysia. When Pua is dealing with huge obstacles, his person has help him overcome the hurdles and also his staff, shreholdersand partners always give him a lot of support. Pua proved his integrity ang reliability value by saying that “You need team as it was not a come one-man show. You need to have your core technology and values to stay competitive.” To him, it is a simple principle: “don’t treat others the way you wouldn’t want others to treat you. Your staff will like you more if you treat them like your friend s. They will not like to work for you if you treat them as a part of a money-making machine.

The Entrepreneurial Traits: Versatility

Versatility is one of the entrepreneurial traits that highly needed and applied to operate the business by the entrepreneurs. Basically, versatility can be defined as capability of doing many things competently. In business, versatility are one of the important aspect that entrepreneur must have. Versatility in business means you can do anything and be anyone, in the office situation for example building relationship versatility with your worker will help both managers and worker recognize different social styles ultimately allow them to communicate more effectively.

Leveraging social style differences can built effective collaboration, productive, and greater productivity as a business results. Besides that, versatility will help entrepreneur with the flexibility and adaptability to be able to respond to changes quickly.

In addition, versatility also can built effective leaders based on research by Bob Kaplan and Rob Kaiser in “Developing Versatile Leadership”. These researchers examined 1,500 senior leaders and rated them in terms of two measures, their overall effectiveness and their versatility. The results of this research show that versatility accounts for 50 percent of what separates the most effective leaders from those who are least effective.

Susi Pudjiastuti is Indonesia Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, and also CEO of PT ASI Pudjiastuti Marine Product, a seafood export company, and PT ASI Pudjiastuti Aviation, which operates Susi Air charter airline for example. She known as humble and humor entrepreneur with good relationship versatility with worker, she can build their own business empire even though she didn’t get good formal education.

 Versatility that she show make her business growth rapidly, she start her career as entrepreneur as a seafood distributor in Indonesia. After that, her business evolved into a seafood processing plant known as PT ASI Pudjiastuti Marine Product which specialized in export-quality lobsters. PT ASI Pudjiastuti Marine Product expanded and began exporting its products to Asia and America.

Versatility, as used here, means the ability to do many different things well. In the Susi case she not just known as humble and humor business woman with good relationship versatility with worker, but she is also known as versatility mother. She is mother of three children, Panji Hilmansyah, Nadine Kaiser, and Alvy Xavier. The way how she manage her family are applied to manage her worker, this situation make her worker feel more comfortable in the work place. When this is happen, the companies will greater productivity as a business results.

After PT ASI Pudjiastuti Marine Product produce greater profit, she decide to buy a light aircraft and established PT ASI Pudjiastuti Aviation. The light aircraft named Susi Air and was used to transport fresh seafood to Jakarta as well as overseas. Now, Susi Air operations are supported by more than 50 aircraft, 180 pilots, 75 aircraft engineers and mechanics and 650 other ground and support staff. Susi not just know as a good entrepreneur but also good in the field of social responsibility. In 2004 when earthquake and tsunami happen in Aceh and some part of Sumatra island, Susi Air was the first company which distributed food and supplies to victims in disaster area.

In October 2014 due to managerial abilities that she had, she was appointed as Indonesia Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries by Joko Widodo, the new President of Republic Indonesia. Even though now she is appointed as a minister but she still known with her humble and humor character.

The story of Susi Pudjiastuti shows the important of versatility entrepreneur that every entrepreneur must have to succeed in business. There are a lot of thing that we can learnt from her, how her versatility character make her as a small entrepreneur to the great entrepreneur.

The Entrepreneurial Traits: Ability to Learn from Mistakes

Ability to learn from mistakes is one of the soft skills or entrepreneurial traits which every businessman and entrepreneurs must have. According to the Mac Millan Dictionary, mistake can be defined as something that we have not done correctly, or something we say or think that is not correct. Therefore, the phrase ‘ability to learn from mistakes’ means we take an action, rearrange and make a plan or decision to make a correction from what we have done before.

Harsukhlal Maganlal Kamdar is an entrepreneur who create and also a manager director of Kamdar, clothing center in Malaysia. He was born in Gujerat, India and reached in Malaysia in 1941. He just further his study until the secondary school in form five because he want to find a job and get a work. He start with import and export business but he have to stop his business because of the World War II. After that, he tried to seek opportunities for his business by cycling his bicycle 20 to 30 mile every day around Pulau Pinang. But his effort does not work.

Based on the text book, Prinsip-prinsip Keusahawanan: Pendekatan Gunaan Edisi Kedua, page 43, it shows how Harsukhlal Maganlal Kamdar does not give up and he tried to learn from his mistakes improve his business. He takes the chance to help his brother in the clothing business at Ipoh and from here Kamdar be a famous and the center of clothing business in Malaysia. From the first small shop at Ipoh, Perak, he and his brother expand their branch at Pulau Pinang, Singapura and also at Kuala Lumpur in 1973.

However, he must face with much kind of problems with the economic crisis in 1977 and the issues of credit terms in his business before he can be a successful entrepreneur. Nowadays, Kamdar become a largest clothing center with 18 branches and 1000 workers. In this book also state that, he does not afraid to make a mistake because from his wrong doing, he can learn to improve himself in his business.

The Entrepreneurial Traits: Perceptiveness

Many believe that being a risk-taker is a quality of a successful entrepreneur. This is somewhat of a mistruth, as successful entrepreneurs are anything but risk-takers. Of course, there are many risks when starting a business, however, through planning and foresight can alleviate many of these risks.

According to the picture above, his real name is Robert Edward Turner III but people around the world know him as Red Turner or his two famous nicknames are Mouth of the South and Captain Outrageous. He works as a Philanthropist. Red Turner was born at Cincinnati, Ohio on November 19, 1938. Now, 76 years old. He was studied at Brown University, McCallie School and Georgia Military Academy. There are a few of his careers which are Turner Advertising Company (1960–1962), Branch Manager (1962–1963), Assistant General Manager (1963–1970), President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of The Board of Turner, Broadcasting System (1970–1996), President and Chairman of The Board of Atlanta Braves (1976–2003), President of Atlanta Hawks (1977–2003), Chairman of The Board of Time Warner (1996–2001) and Vice Chairman of The Board of AOL Time Warner (2001–2003).

Examples such as media mogul Ted Turner demonstrate that being an entrepreneur involves being alert to and aware of business opportunities that may arise. Ted Turner was perceptive in identifying a business gap as it emerged and decided to act on it. A perceptive entrepreneur knows how to guide a small business by keeping an eye on political and economic developments. Ultimately, knowledge is the best policy to limit risk and thereby increase the chance of success.

In 1960, Ted’s father made him the manager of Turner Advertising’s Macon, Georgia, branch. Ted quickly showed a natural talent for business by more than doubling the office’s revenue in his first year. When Turner’s father bought out a competitor in 1962, the costly buyout and subsequent debt placed the company in a tenuous financial condition. Fearing bankruptcy and struggling to cope with bipolar disorder, Ed shot himself to death in March of 1963. Ted dealt with his grief by throwing himself into his work. He took over the roles of president and chief executive officer at Turner Advertising, renamed Turner Communications in the late 1960s as the company bought several radio stations. By 1970 he had achieved the distinction of owning the biggest advertising company in the southeastern United States. Turner eventually expanded into television, purchasing the rights to old movies and situation comedies. The decision proved highly profitable.

The Entrepreneurial Traits: Time Competence

Entrepreneur must are the person that must have the ability to arrange their time wisely so that they can compete with the other entrepreneur in grabbing the opportunity occurred for their business. Time is one of the important things in the entrepreneurial world. If the entrepreneur cannot arrange their time, they might lose the opportunity for their business and these will make they lose in their business.

The entrepreneurs that really have the time competence attitude can manage their business and being a successful person.

Tan Sri Tony Fernandes is the founder of Tune Air Sdn. Bhd. According to the article Inspiring Leaders: How Air Asia Founder Tony Fernandes' Dream Came True from the website http://www.crestdynamics.org/articles.html, it shows us that he is the first person that introduced the first budget no-frills airline which is Air Asia is one of the entrepreneurs that have the traits of time competence.

He has the time competence trait because he chooses to grab opportunity and the risk to turn Air Asia, a failing government-linked commercial airline, into a highly successful budget airline public listed company. These shows that he manages to choose the right time to make the decisions to turn the business, as on that time people are currently using airline to travel and he introduced the budget airline which is cheaper than other airline in order to attract the people.

The Entrepreneurial Traits: Ethical Consciousness

Ethical consciousness is the willingness and ability to identify moral and ethical contexts and dilemmas and examine the implications of one’s own behavior for the lives of others. For example is Allan Stanford, who is currently in jail and awaiting trial, this former billionaire was charged with running a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme.

According to the article, Huff Post Business: Allen Stanford Sentenced To 110 Years In Prison For $7 Billion Ponzi Scheme, prosecutors said Stanford, 62, used the money from investors who bought certificates of deposit, or CDs, from his bank on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua to fund a string of failed businesses, bribe regulators and pay for a lavish lifestyle that included yachts, a fleet of private jets and sponsorship of cricket tournaments. The one-time billionaire was convicted in March on 13 of 14 fraud-related counts in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history. Therefore, it shows us here that he is ignoring the concept of ethical consciousness.

Having acted as the Chairman of Stanford Financial Group, he is been accused of masterminding a financial conspiracy to rob investors out of their hard-earned money and misused their funds to sustain his extravagant lifestyle. He tried living the good life at the expense of others and is now reaping the consequences of his actions. As of today, Allen Stanford is taking a number of medications for his depression and is even partially blind after an inmate assaulted him.

The Entrepreneurial Traits: Foresight

Warren Buffett is a wealthier person to the stellar performance of his diversified holding company, Berkshire Hathaway. According to the article, Forbes: The World's Billionaires from the website http://www.forbes.com/profile/warren-buffett/, its coveted Class A stock, which is the most expensive of any public U.S. company, eclipsed $200,000 per share for the first time in August 2014. He moved to the 3rd richest on Forbes' 2015 list of the world’s richest, up 4th richest in 2014. His company has a dozens of subsidiaries, including in railroads, insurance and energy which posted $182 billion in 2013 revenue and $19.5 billion in net income. In early February 2015, it was the fourth most valuable public company in the U.S. with a market capitalization of $355 billion.

Therefore, what we can find out here is he has a higher foresight. Foresight is the ability to predict what will happen or be needed in the future. Actually, he is the most successful investor in 20^th century and also the third richest people in the world. He makes an investment by seeking out companies that can invest for by using his foresight to predict up and down market share to secure big profit in his investment. He seeks to estimate a company's intrinsic value. A colleague summarized this well-regarded process as "bond math." Buffett projects the future owner's earnings, and then discounts them back to the present.