A tale of rising from the ashes

It was in November 2013 when hundreds of broken-hearted workers with tears welling in their eyes gathered around the 70-year-old owner after a massive fire had gutted his readymade garment factory in Gazipur.

With the incident all the hopes and dreams of the owner turned to ashes putting him in deep distress thinking about the fates of his workers and the future of his factory but he was not a man to lose nerve and give up.

With sheer willpower and support of his well-wishers, he managed to bring the factory back into production after a few years and hired the old workers again. Now, more nearly 14,000 workers work in the factory that was burnt to ashes.

This is a tale of Standard Group founder and Managing Director (MD) Engineer Mosharraf Hussain and his workers. He was also the former chairman of Jamuna Bank for two times, and sponsor director of the bank from the beginning.

The never-give-up attitude of him and his workers to rise from the ashes has made it possible for them to turn around. The company is now contributing significantly to the national economy.

“Right now, nearly 50,000 people work at several of my factories and other businesses. I regard them as my family members, my friends and my lifeline,” Mosharraf said while talking to The Business Post recently to share his success story.

He also recruited many additional workers, but never fired anyone.

“Whenever my officials say to cartel some workers, I think about what Allah has given me. Where will those poor workers go after losing their jobs? So, I can’t let anyone go,” he said with a pleasant sense of happiness.

Joins family biz at 14

Mosharraf was born at Kazipur in Sirajganj on 14 September 1942. His father Monjil Uddin was Union Parishad Chairman of Kazipur Union Parishad. He is the youngest among his five siblings. He has been a brilliant man since his childhood.

Being just 14 years old and a student of Class VIII, Mosharraf decided to join his father’s rice mill to start his new journey. He continued serving at the mill during his leisure time.

“I operated the mill with my own hands but I didn’t allow it to affect my education. I had my priority list for my daily life and successfully maintained it. I never felt shy when I worked in our mill as a labourer,” he recalled with a pride.

He sat for his Matriculation (equivalent to Secondary School Certificate) examination in 1960 under Science Faculty.

He obtained the same position in his ISc (equivalent to Higher Secondary School Certificate) examination in 1963 from Rajshahi Government College and coincidentally also missed the first class just for three marks.

When Mosharraf passed his Matriculation examination, he joined his s brother Motahar Hussain’s construction business. Mosharraf just assisted him to expand the business.

Basically, it was the business that opened his eyes, which helped him to become a visionary person and finally an engineer, a managing director and a successful businessman.

Road to be an engineer

Mosharraf said he had never thought of becoming an engineer but a story changed his future planning. His company M/S Motahar Enterprise worked for Public Works Department (PWD) and Mosharraf looked after the office works.

When he was doing his Intermediate Second Year at a bit over 17 an incident changed his next course of life.

“I saw people waiting for a person who was held in high esteem. As I asked a senior construction contractor about the person he said the officer was the chief engineer of the Jessore PWD office.”

“I set my goal that I’ll be an engineer and accordingly I prepared for my Intermediate final exam.”

After passing the exam he started taking preparation for a berth at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). In 1964, Mosharraf got admitted into the Civil Engineering Department of BUET.

Joint venture business

At BUET he started living with three of his batch mates. Engineer Md Atiqur Rahman was one of them. During the graduation study period, his brothers looked after their business while Mosharraf put full concentration on his study.

After completion of graduation in Civil Engineering, he opened a new construction company ‘Purbachal Prakoushali (engineering) Limited’ with his brother. That was also his first joint stock company.

But he could not run the company for long time and planned to open a new one. The together invested one lakh taka and gradually turned it into a group of companies.

“At that time, on 1969 I talked to my batch mate Atiqur Rahman as he was also interested in doing something. Finally we decided to do business together.”

But after a year, the liberation war began, and their business had been postponed. However, after the Independence, he formed ‘The Civil Engineers Limited’ on 1973.

Mosharraf served as the Managing Director and Atiqur took the responsibility of the Chairman of the company, and till today they are holding the same positions.

About his 50 years of experience in a joint business Mosharraf said, “I have never felt that we came from separate families. Our children have also good relations and they are also working together.”

He said faith and transparency is the key to doing joint business. If a partner loses trust, it becomes difficult to run business together.

“We took the decision together and shared joy and sorrow together. We never blamed each other in case of failure or losses in our business. In every step of our long journey we have given priority to each other. It has helped us to achieve the goal.”

Mosharraf said the Civil Engineers Limited had built several government and private projects. Now, the company is also involved in constructing several government buildings.

Standard Group

After independence of Bangladesh, Civil Engineers Limited earned a good reputation and the company kept expanding with each day passing. In the first decade of independence, the company pocketed huge profit.

Mosharraf said he had planned to generate more employments but it was difficult with only one construction business.

“I started to talk to my near and dear ones to have some ideas about the sector that could be the best to generate employment and also help to develop country’s economy.”

He was then living at Mohammadpur and he knew someone named Mr Musa, an engineer.

“Probably he is not alive. Musa advised me to invest in the apparel sector and said the sector would develop rapidly.”

Musa also said investment in the RMG sector would be the best option to create mass employment. The time was probably 1982 or 1983, he said.

That was the time when Bangladesh just started to export readymade garment and buyers, though very few, started to come to the country.

No one had enough idea about the sector but he started evaluate the proposal. Finally in 1984 the Civil Engineers Limited became a group of company and set up Standard Garments at Kalabagan in the capital.

Mosharraf said, “I set up the factory in a rented building and employed nearly 500 workers. That was a sweater factory.”

From the beginning, the company tried to ensure product quality and maintain shipment deadline. That is why, the factory started to gain buyers’ confidence and brands gradually increased their work orders.

The Standard Group found a great opportunity to create more employment and the company planned to expand its business. It set up another factory at Mirpur and generated one thousand employments.

From two to hundreds of thousands

When Mosharraf started his journey in their Rahim Rice Mill at the age of 14 he had just two workers but now nearly 50,000 workers are working in their group.

According to the Standard Group, the company has several woven, sweater and knitwear factories, knitting and dyeing factories, construction companies, and many others sister concerns.

Besides, Mosharraf is also sponsor director and former chairman of Standard Insurance and the chairman of the trustee board of International Standard University. He has also a good number of shares in Jamuna Bank.

The Group Managing Director said, “Since our journey we have so far employed at least four lakh people. I believe that Allah created us to do something for his servant and Allah also gave me the capability. There is nothing that is mine. Everything I get is the gift of my creator.”

Recalling his progress in his mission Mosharraf said, “At least two decades back I was walking on a Jamunar Char in Kazipur of Sirajganj trying to find unemployed people but I couldn’t get one single unemployed person.”

As this correspondent talked to Kazipur Union Chairman he said there was not any unemployed person. Everyone is working for the Standard Group.

He said after this experience he only thanked the Almighty.

Fire in sweater factory

On 28 November 2013, a devastating fire gutted a large quantity of products and machinery at a multi-storey readymade garment (RMG) factory at Konabari in Gazipur. The factory is a sister concern of Standard Group.

The factory remained closed for a long time after the fire incident. At least 15,000 workers worked at the factory when the factory caught the fire.

The group claimed that they had to count a loss of Tk500 crore directly and another Tk500 crore indirectly. They claimed that culprits set the factory on fire.

Although the factory restarted it gradually gained pace before it went into operation in full swing. Now it has nearly 16,000 workers.

“Our operations had been postponed for a long time. We had to reinvest to restart the factory. Now we have around Tk 1,000 crore as bank loan because of the fire,” he said.

If the factory wasn’t on fire the company could have invested its money in other sectors to create new employments. However, he said, he forgave those who were involved in setting the factory on fire.

Key to success

Mosharraf is now idol for many entrepreneurs but he always maintains low profile. Since his childhood he has woken up before sunrise to say his Fazr prayer before his daily routine work. Still he is trying to follow it.

“I believe that your competitor is the sun. Your daily works should start before sunrise and it should be over before sunset. Today’s works should be done today. Nothing can be left for tomorrow,” the workaholic businessman said.

Mosharraf said in Bangladeshi perspective, young people think that they need huge money to start a new business and that is why, they can’t start it.

But he thinks otherwise. He thinks such notion is wrong. He believes that one has to set a plan and start the journey. If one works hard and can set a goal success will be there as by-product.

“Always keep faith in Allah. He loves hard workers,” he advised,

Citing an example of his experience he said: “Look at me. I started my journey from a rice mill. Now I have one of the largest companies. It has happened because I have always tried my level best and put my trust in my creator.”

He wondered why workers should register protest for their dues if they were paid in time.

It is true that many factories have trouble and this is why they fail to do it, he said.

He believes that the workers of his factory are his family members. “Our holy prophet also asked us to pay workers on time. I have full control over my workers. If I ask them to stand up they will do it because I love them as my family members and they also repay me.”

Another important think is trust. Partners, suppliers, employers, workers and stakeholders as well are most important in business and they should trust each other.

Look at foreign companies, he said, and you have hundreds of companies where founders don’t hold any post of director. But their businesses are spreading globally. The main reason is trust. They believe each other, he observed.

But in Bangladesh it is not happening, he said in a sad tone.