PROFILE OF 5 ENTREPRENEURS OF BANGLADESH

PROFILE OF 5 ENTREPRENEURS OF BANGLADESH

Course Name: Entrepreneurship Development

Course no: BA- 3105

Submitted To:

S.M. Arifuzzaman

Lecturer

Submitted By:

Samina Naoshin Urmee ID#080302

Hasib Mahmud Nogib ID#080321
Hasibul Islam ID#080324
Sk. Adnan Islam ID#060304

3rd year, 1st term

Business Administration Discipline
Khulna University

September 23, 2010

AL-HAZ ABDUL GHANI SARDER

Starting with a capital of Taka 10000 in 1984, a young man of

Noapara has become a business tycoon in the Southern part of
Bangladesh. He started his journey in the business arena with a
Rice trading business. And today he is the proud owner of a
diversified business portfolio consisting of 8 business ventures
and the Chairman of GOLDEN Group.

Early Life

Born in 1953, Abdul Ghani Sarder is man of 57 years old. He came from an ordinary middle
class family living in Noapara, a district of Khulna Division. His father‟s name was Yashin
Ali Sardar And mother‟s name was Amena Khatun . Though they are not that much affluent,
people obey his father as a man of justice.

 Family Background

Their family was a joint one and he is the second child of his parents. His father was middle
class farmer with some small trading business. Besides, his father supported his elder brother
to enter into business and some of his relatives were directly involved in rice trading
business. This influenced him to get involved in business.

From his childhood he got enough freedom to exercise his own choice, especially from his
mother. She influenced him in his every stage of life.

 Educational Background

His educational career was not that much enriched. He only studied up to H.S.C. level. He
passed his S.S.C. in 1972, I.Com (currently H.S.C.) in 1974 and in 1976 he filled up the
Degree form. But due to direct involvement in business he could not continue his study
further.

But he did not let his limited education retrain himself. Rather he made proper utilization of
his gathered knowledge in practical field. For example – he changed the Bookkeeping
procedure in trading business and introduced the modern accounting system.
Professional Life

From his very childhood, Abdul Ghani Sarder was very savings minded. In early 1984 he
managed to save around Taka 10000 with which he started his first business, rice trading
business. He collected paddy from the farmers and thrashed them in the rice mill and again
sold them in the local market. Thus he made his first profit. By 1990, he gathered Taka
30000. With some financial help from his father he bought a rice mill in 1990 with that
money. Later on that rice mill became one of the first Automated Rice mills in this region.
After that he began importing rice and cement from foreign countries. By the same time, he
also established GOLDEN TREDER. In 1997, he bought the Himalay Cement Factory and
renamed it as Noapara Cement Mills ltd. In 2007, he established SOUROV Fertilizers, a
mixed fertilizer company. In 2009 - 10, he established GOLDEN Motors Ltd. through which
he imported Motorcycle and Tricycle from china and sold them at cheap rate among the rural
people.

This 2010 he is planning to establish a Jute Mill near Fultola. All his business ventures are
now under umbrella of GOLDEN Group. GOLDEN Group includes –

o The Golden Enterprise

o The Golden Trade International
o M/S Tanvir Enterprise
o Golden Motors Ltd.
o Noapara Cement Mills Ltd.
o Sourov Fertilizer
o RUSTIC – Social Development Organization
o The Golden Star

Throughout his business life, he got tremendous help from banks and local business persons.

 Ambition and Motivation

His ambition is to be an established and big business person firstly in Noapara and then in
Bangladesh. This ambition drives him to involve in diversified types of business. Besides, to
survive through honest means, to attain independence in operation, to be well-established in
future he chose the way of business rather than any others means. Moreover, he was also
inspired by his family members and relatives who were also involved in business.
Social Life

Abdul Ghani Sarder admits that from the very beginning to now on, he has been getting great
support from the local people. But he did not limit his gratefulness within his speech. Rather
he is trying his level best to return something to the society. For this, he with some other
business persons took initiative to stop toll taking and rowdyism in local business, especially
in transportation. He introduced the Peaceful work agreement for the labors in the field of
payment and work hours. Besides, he with some other business persons gave employment to
thousands of poor young people in transportation sector. He also founded a Women College
in Noapara and is planning to establish a Madrasa with a Mosque. Besides, for the rural poor
people he established RUSTIC, a Social Development Organization.

At present, Abdul Ghani Sarder is one of the famous business people in this Southern part of
Bangladesh. This doesn‟t happen overnight; rather this is harvest of struggle of 26 years. He
believes it is Honesty, Sincerity, Responsibility and Strong determination to business that
helped him to occupy this position. From his word, “I like to do that what is right and like to
behave well with people with a smiling face and that makes difference.”
SYED ABDULLAH AYUB

Today COUNTRY LOUNGE and Burger King are the two

popular names in restaurant sector of Khulna city. Almost all of
us know their name and even gone there. But very few of us know
Syed Abdullah Ayub, the man behind the scene of these two
successful ventures.

Early Life

Syed Abdullah Ayub was born 18 May, 1957 in Khulna. His

father‟s name was Al-Haj Syed Abdul Halim and mother‟s name was Syeda Tamjila Khatun.
His father had medical manufacturing business.

 Family Background

Syed Abdullah Ayub lived in a joint family. He has six brothers and two sisters. Among them
he is the third son. As his father was involved in medicine manufacturing business, he
assisted his father in this sector. Actually he got himself involved in business because of his
father‟s impact. Besides, most of his other brothers are living in abroad while others are
service holder. He also got enough freedom of choice in his family that helped him a lot to
engage in different businesses.

 Educational Background

Syed Abdullah Ayub studied up to H.S.C. level. He passed S.S.C. in 1973 from Naihati
School and H.S.C. in 1975 from Bangobandhu College. He started studying Degree but did
not continue because of business. He did not have any training before starting business.

Professional Life

In 1983-84, Syed Abdullah Ayub started his own Photostat business. Different tyes of people
came in his store to photostat their papers. Sometimes many of them said, “It would be better
if there are some snacks and soft drinks in your store.” So he kept snacks and soft drinks for
them and at one time the sake of these foods increased more than the photocopy business.
This actually motivated him to shift his business. In 1988 he established „Burger King‟.
During photocopy business he came to the touch of diversified types of people. He never
compromised with quality and people knew about this characteristic of him. So when he set
up „Burger King‟ people came there for quality foods.

On June 1, 2009 he established „COUNTRY LOUNGE‟. He believes that first and then rate.
He always ensures good quality and then fixes rate based on that. He also believes that if his
product quality is good people will never mind to pay high.

Throughout his business life he is always aware of new technology. He was the first to use
Refrigerator in selling cold drinks. Recently in COUNTRY LOUNGE Wi-Fi technology has
been introduced as a test project.

Ambition and Motivation

Syed Abdullah Ayub has a wish to be a giant in food business in Bangladesh. For this he had
left his photocopy business and switched to restaurant business.

He was motivated to start business by his father. Besides, he loves freedom in operation
which is only possible in business. Besides, meeting with diversified people and their demand
of quality food also motivated him a lot to be involved in restaurant business.

 Future Plan

He does not want to switch his business field anymore. He has a plan to develop and
modernize the COUNTRY LOUNGE and made this restaurant as a world class one.

Syed Abdullah Ayub believes that he has accountability to his customers. He is determined to
serve them with quality food whatever the rate. He believes that his effort also helps the
young generation not to go astray. They enjoy their time in a constructive rather than in
destructive way. They are enjoying themselves in a decent environment rather than spending
their time in any evil work like eve teasing, taking drugs etc. He is proud of it that he is doing
something for the society especially for the betterment of young generation.
SHAIKH ZAHANGIR HOSSAN

It was 1990, a person with no money, place, and acquaintance

only with some little experience of working in a shoe store
entered into a new venture. The person, Shaikh Zahangir Hossan,
is a well-known name in the shoe industry in Khulna.

Early Life

Shaikh Zahangir Hossan was born in 1962 in a lower-middle class

family of Khulna.

 Family Background

His family was joint one and he was the eldest child of his parents. His father was a small
fruit vendor. His father could hardly manage their family with his little income. But that did
not destroy the sprite of Mr. Zahangir Hossan. He got all his inspiration from his father to be
an established business person someday. His father did not force him to do any particular
work rather he chose his own path by himself.

 Educational Background

Though Shaikh Zahangir Hossan and his Samrat Shoes are very famous in Khulna city,
unfortunately he had no academic education. He can only sign his name. But this illiteracy
did not discourage his hunger for knowledge. Mr. Zahangir Hossan went to several fairs of
China to learn more about shoe business especially the leather quality, shoe style etc.
Moreover, to upgrade his own business, he always tries to know more about technologies
regarding this field.

Professional Life

As Mr. Zahangir Hossan came from a poor family, so from his childhood he had to work to
support their family. From the age of 10-11, he started working in several shops in Khulna.
After few years he started working in shoe stores situated in Cemetery road of Khulna. This
on the job experience influenced him to come into shoe business later. At the age of 17-18
years, he took new approach to earn his livelihood by shoe trading. Then he took a loan of
3000 taka. In each weekend, he started to go to Dhaka and returned after buying some shoes.
Unfortunately no shop owner allowed him to keep his goods. So he kept those shops in front
of Tofchil office veranda. Then he managed to sell those secretly in any store and started
working as a sales person on that shop. He did not work in a fixed store rather he only
worked on those shops where he could sell his products. Besides, he only worked on a daily
basis with daily payment.

In 1990 he established „SAMRAT‟ in a small size. Here he first introduced Fixed Price in
shoe business. That brought an immense popularity to his shoe store. Besides, he always kept
his work and did not compromise with quality. With his innovative style in shoes, he easily
captured the customs. By 1999, SAMRAT became one of the leading shop brand names in
Khulna. Then he switched his store place and established „SAMRAT BAZEER‟ beside
BATA in Dakbangla, Khulna as he believed that no shoe store situated in Cemetery road
could no longer be his competitors.

Now he owns other 2 branches of SAMRAT apart from SAMRAT BAZEER in Cemetery
road, Khulna. But because of some bitter experience, he has no wish to expand his business
any longer.

Ambition and Motivation

From the childhood, Mr. Zahangir Hossan had seen the face of poverty. This had driven him
to come in this business. As he started working in shoe store from his childhood, the ins and
outs of this business motivated him a lot. Though he was not sure about his success at the
very beginning, but gradual increase in customer and profit gave him the dream to be a
tycoon in shoe industry of Bangladesh. Besides, his father had some impact over him to start
a business venture.

Social Life

As Mr. Zahangir Hossan came from a poor family, he always tried his best to help the poor
people. Now he is planning to build an Old Home. He said that the construction process of
that Old Home is almost done. He wants to stay rest of his life there.

Though from the childhood poverty took his educational opportunity and dreams, but it could
not be an obstacle to his way of success. With honesty, strong encouraging and convincing
power he reached today‟s position. He believes, “Though I could not change the business
ethics followed here, but I gave the customers new experience with fixed price, high quality
and fascinating design and this is my speciality.”
MD. SHARIFUL ISLAM RANA

In most cases, this is the common scenario of people who are not
that much advanced in their education are engaged in business.
But this story is quite different. A man of only 30 years old has
become the dominant in poultry feed business. It took only 4
years to attain this position. And most important thing is that he
has started his business after completing his graduation.

Early Life

MD. Shariful Islam was born on August 27, 1980. His father name is M.A. Salam and
mother‟s is Rakia Khanom. His father was also a businessperson and their economic
condition was quite affluent.

 Family Background

Their family was a joint one. He has two brothers and one sister. He is third among the
children. His father was involved in Import business. He imported commodities from abroad
and sold them in the local markets

From his family he did not get enough support to exercise his liking. Like many other
Bangladeshi family his family also did not want that he would start a business. His elder
brother is a doctor and second eldest brother works as a computer engineer in Microsoft.

 Educational Background

His brilliant educational career has made him different from other business man. He passed
S.S.C. in 1996 from Saint Joseph‟s High School and H.S.C. from Sundarban College in 1998.
Then he completed his Bachelor Degree in Computer Science in 2004 from Independent
University of Bangladesh (IUB).

Though he has an enriched academic background, he did not have any knowledge or training
in this business field.

Professional Life

His entry in this business area is quite interesting. His father owed a huge amount of money
from a poultry chicks businessman. Mainly to recover that money he was engaged in
business. In 2006 he started his first business of supplying chicks. He purchased chicks from
the producers on account and sold those chciks to his clients on cash. According to him this
business was almost without any capital because he made the payment of the producer after
getting money from his clients.

In 2009, he began to work as a dealer of poultry feed. Being a dealer he managed to capture a
huge portion of the market and by 2010 he started his own poultry feed production business
and named it as „APEX Poultry Feed‟.

Presently he is one of the leading name in poultry feed business with an income of around 7-8
lakhs taka par month.

Ambition and Motivation

According to him, “I always want to dominate the field in which I am working and my vision
is to dominate the poultry feed market. I am already occupied the first position and
considered as one of the first three or four tycoons in this business area.”

The main motivating factors behind his success is –

i. To earn high return

ii. To work with freedom and flexibility

iii. To serve the society

Things that make him different –

MD. Shariful Islam believes that he has certain characteristics that have made him unique.
Like –

 He always tries to be updated by browsing internet. Besides, he collected data from

others
 Almost all of his competitors are less educated than him. Here he is getting an
absolute advantage.
 He always tried to forecast the future by analysing past data. This is giving him the
greatest competitive advantage.
 He is very determined and committed to his work
 He has extraordinary observing power. He believes even from a movie one can get
business ideas
  Future Plan
He has a plan to establish a Poultry Hatary to produce chicks. Again he wishes to setup some
sales point in all over Bangladesh. With that poor women could purchase chicks and poultry
feeds conveniently and cheaply and by the same time, they could easily sell their chickens
and eggs with exact market price. He believes this would minimize the evil impact of
middleman and maximize the profit for both the poor farmers and businessman like him.

Social Life
He believes that middleman is the main culprit of the present measureable condition in this
business. For this he wants to establish some sales points which would minimize the evil
impact of middleman. Again, around 700 families are now directly depending on him. In
different districts of Bangladesh, he has 7 leaders who buy chicks, feeds and other necessaries
for rearing chicks and sell them to poor rural women at a very cheap rate as those women do
not have money to do so. Thus he contributes to women empowerment and poverty
alleviation in rural areas.

MD. Shariful Islam believes that „Agriculture is the best sector to earn money and serve
people. If anyone invests 1 crore taka in this field the return that would come is tremendous
and abnormal. As an agro based country Bangladesh has enormous potentiality in this sector.
Our youth force can choose this sector to earn money as well as to serve the society.‟
REZINA MAHBUB

Even a few years ago she was an ordinary housewife. But she was
not ordinary in her dream and characteristics. With these two she
is now different. Some unique features of her character have
brought her the pride of being the „Pioneer in parlour businesses‟
in Khulna city.

Early Life

Rezina Mahbub wa born in 1973 in a middle class family of

Khulna district. Her father‟s and mother‟s name was Mahbubur Rahman Siddiqui and
Mahmuda Khanom respectively and her husband‟s name is Mollah Maruf Rashid.

 Family Background

Her father was involved in shrimp business. Their family was joint in structure. From her
childhood she was interested in decorating others. Being a member of a joint family she got
the opportunity to exercise that. She was must for the bridal attires and other programs for her
female family members and friends. Besides, her father also inspired her to involve into
business. Though she got enough freedom in her father‟s house, she could not start a business
as her in-law‟s house was very conservative family.

 Educational Background

She does not have a very enriched and talented formal academic career. She passed her S.S.C
from Fatema School in 1988 and H.S.C. from Pioneer Girls‟ College, Khulna in 1990. After
that she got married and because of direct involvement in family life she could not continue
her studies. But she has a brilliant educational career in beautification sector. She took a
number of training and courses both in home and abroad. Those includes –

1. Make-up Diploma from Women‟s World International, Delhi

2. Specialized Aroma Therapy of Women‟s World International, Delhi
3. Special Pearl facial Techniques of Women‟s World International, Delhi
4. Special Skin Classes of Women‟s World International, Delhi
5. Beauty Therapy Course of Bastab
6. Professional Beautician Course of Angel Beauty Care Center
7. Product Knowledge and Training Course of Ganecx Company
 8. Training Program on Hair Straight and Beauty care of Sewha P&C Incorporation in
Seoul, Korea
Professional Life

She started her business journey in a very little form. In 1994 she started a one room beauty
parlour in her own house. At that time only her family members, relatives and neighbours are
her customers. But a parlour at home was not taken positively by the society at that time. For
this, after 2 years in 1996 she shifted the parlour to Tootpara Kaborkhana More. That was
also a one room parlour. She felt that customers were facing lots of problems as different
customers were coming for different services like bridal make-up, facial, hair-treatment etc. It
was difficult to provide them better services in one room. By that time she managed to save a
good amount of money. With that and loans from SIBL and Prime Bank, she shifted that
small parlour to Shibbari More and named it as „Ritzy‟. It is the first parlour in Khulna where
there are different rooms for every single service. Before that there were no other beauty
parlours of Khulna that provided segmental services at different rooms. Today „Ritzy‟ has 3
branches. They are in Khulna, Dhaka and Jessore. Now 24 girls are working in these 3
branches. She is very aware of current fashion trends and technologies in this field. And to
know more regarding beauty care, she studies a lot.

From the very beginning to today, she got immense support from her husband, relatives,
some shops in New Market and especially from the SIBL bank. She is very grateful to them.

Ambition and Motivation

Though she started her business in very little format, Rezina Mahbub had an ambition to be
an icon in this business, especially in Southern part of Bangladesh. That‟s whay she was
motivated to expand her business gradually. Another point is that, once she got a very bad
hurt at the nerve of her brain and the doctor advised her family members to keep her jolly and
tension free all the time. At that time her husband and she decided to start this business. Her
husband is the greatest source of her motivation. At every stage, he was with her wife like
shadow. According to Rezina Mahbub, “It was quiet impossible for me to survive in this
arena without his help.” She always tried to make her profit double and never disheartened if
she failed. She believes at every moment that she will be successful. This determination of
her to be successful worked as stimuli to be a businessperson.
  Future Plan

She has a wish to establish a training institute on beautification where educated persons will
be trained up. Now „Ritzy‟ is a parlour for women only and she has a plan to open a Salon for
boys. She also has a desire to train up at least 20 Ayla affected women in this field.

Today Rezina Mahbub is a name of a successful entrepreneur. She believes it is a must to

have knowledge and education on every field to provide the best service to the customers.
She said, “My first earning was Taka 80. From that stage to now, she is here because of
strong determination to have success. Besides, she believes that good presentation makes
everything good to everyone.