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Entrepreneurs Mian Bashir Ahmed and Mian Idress from Sitara Group of Industries share their success story
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April 26, 2012
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The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CENTIN) invited Chairman and Founder Mian Bashir Ahmed and Mian Idress, CEO, Sitara Group, to share the success story of the Sitara Group of Industries with UMT students, faculty and staff members today. It may be noted that Sitara Group of Industries is one of the most renowned industrial groups of the country. This group started its industrial activity with textile weaving sector in 1956 under leadership of two brothers, Haji Abdul Ghafoor (Late) and Mian Bashir Ahmed. Sitara Group by now is in textile cloth finishing and processing, textile spinning, chlor alkali industries and power plant.
Mian Idress, CEO, Sitara Group, shared the remarkable saga of the success of the Sitara Group of Industries. He said that Mian Bashir Ahmed and Mian Abdul Ghafoor, two migrant brothers from Amritsar built up the Sitara empire brick by brick through sheer hard work and commitment. Every successful company that is expanding has certain success factors. A private entrepreneurship requires decision-making, honesty, no trespassing on each other’s domain and acceptance of responsibility of decisions taken. He said that he feels fortunate to have had the training and guidance of his father Mian Bashir Ahmed. Mian Idress apprised everyone that he started his practical training under the tutelage of his uncle, the late Haji Abdul Ghafoor who was a market leader throughout his life. Both his father and uncle were gentlemen of the first order; they obeyed their elders and parents throughout their lives. They never indulged in overnight get rich schemes or gimmicks and never took up a project solely to make money. Mian Idress said that he has been trained to deliver a product according to its worth. It has been ingrained in him that if a customer is going to pay a certain amount of money for a piece of cloth, he should get full value for his money. He said that he owes market wisdom and values to his elders and family and now the third generation is poised to take over from where the second generation will leave them.
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He informed everyone that Sitara Chemical, Sitara Energy and Sitara Peroxide are now public limited companies and this is a transformation. The group is living proof of corporate social responsibility long before it became a catchword and a number of health and educational projects are being run by group for the benefit of society. These include Aziz Fatimah Hospital, Sitara Institute of Management & Technology, and Aziz Fatimah Girls High School.
Chairman and Founder of Sitara Group Mian Bashir Ahmed won the hearts of everyone through his humility and down-to-earth manner. He said that he owed all success in life to complete faith in Allah. Haji Sahib said that he has never looked back when starting a new project and never relaxed till completion of the task. He said that he set up the first power loom in Faisalabad in 1957 and it has been a story of success ever since.
In his brief remarks, Mian Javed Iqbal, Director Sitara Group, said that he returned home after completing his MBA from Punjab University in 1987. His father advised him to apply the basic economic principles of supply and demand to business practice. Honesty he said is a great but rare characteristic. In economic jargon, it is a commodity that is very rare and naturally in great demand. Any business run honestly is bound to return just rewards.
Abid H K Shirwani, Director External Affairs, traced the journey from ILM to UMT. He said that what made ILM stand out from the rest was the unique thinking behind its establishment. The idea was that skill-oriented education should be given to the youth. For this purpose, special training courses were designed in view of best practices current at the time and the first class of ILM started on June 16, 1990. Later, 3-6 month diploma programs were launched. The overwhelming response of the students led to the pioneering initiative of MBA Executive program in 1992 which was the first degree for working professionals in Pakistan at the time. Later the morning MBA Professional program was also launched – it was called professional because the competitive edge of the program was that the best practitioners were engaged to teach. In fact, ILM holds the distinction of transforming practitioners into faculty.
In 1997, ILM became affiliated with Hamdard and the Punjab Government gave a Charter in 2002. In 2004, the Charter for UMT was granted. In 2007, all the scattered campuses converged on the purpose-built campus. Abid Shirwnai added that today UMT has more than 10,000 alumni spread all over the globe. UMT still has the best faculty; 200 fulltime faculty members are here to teach a wide range of courses. He concluded by saying that the passion and zeal for exploring new horizons and giving the best educational environment to the youth is still drives Dr Hasan and his team.
Dr A R Kausar, Pro-Rector UMT, concluded the event. He said that Haji Sahib is a role model for all of us and is leaving a great legacy for future generations. He said that the success story of Sitara Group demonstrates that one does not need a Harvard degree to build an empire; the founding brothers of Sitara group had little formal education. He said that Haji Bashir is indeed a great business icon. Dr Kausar reminded everyone that Haji Sahib was awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 2006 in recognition of his great civic services and not on the basis of business acumen. This demonstrates Sitara Group’s investment in social capital.
Sundus Nazir Soleri, Coordinator, CENTIN, anchored the event. She also presented a brief introduction of the Center. Quoting Thomas Edison, she said that to invent all you need is a lot of imagination and a pile of junk’. CENTIN’s mission is to bring new and innovative ideas and set a stage for students to help them in emerging as refined entrepreneurs. It is an assembling machine for new ideas and works to boost the morale of new inventors. Its aim is to bring forth new and innovative ideas and act as an instrument of tactics and strategies.
Detailing the milestones achieved by CENTIN in the past 1 year, Sundus apprised everyone that an incubation cell has now been set up. CENTIN entrepreneurs have recently won third prize in the LCCI Business Plan Competition while they secured second position in the same competition held last year. A team of entrepreneurs has also bagged third position in the Fast NU Business Idea Competition. The Center organized Pakistan Entrepreneurship and Leadership Program (PELP) in 2011 which was a great success.
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