Humans are the greatest source of inspirations; at times ordinary, at times extra-ordinary. They are all around us, only if we can pick up or learn from them. Inspirations, ideally, are like chain reactions. You get inspired and you inspire others and the reaction goes on. But then again, inspirations start from somewhere. As noted by someone, “There never was a great soul that did not have some divine inspiration”. Surely, those are the few who actually kick start the chain reaction.
Observing people have remained a great way of learning that I have thoroughly enjoyed. One of those learning aid is the Founder and Chairman of Descon Engineering Group, Mr. Abdul Razak Dawood. In case you are one of those who never heard about Descon Group, it’s the largest construction and engineering company from Pakistan positioning itself rapidly in the global markets.
Descon Quick Recap: In less than 3 decades, Abdul Razak Dawood transformed DESCON from a 1977 startup with 4 engineers to more than 1600 engineers and professionals (employee strength reaching 40,000) globally competitive engineering company based out of Pakistan. Today, Descon has 15 businesses in engineering, chemicals and power under their portfolio with 0.9 million man hours/year of engineering capacity and 72 million man hours/year of construction capacity. Some call this a vision, but there is someone definitely more than a visionary over here.
Portfolio in brief: Abdul Razak Dawood served as the former Federal Minister for Commerce, Industries and Production, Government of Pakistan for four years. He is the Chairman Pakistan Business Council and Managing Director of Descon Engineering Limited and six other private companies. His former corporate positions included, CEO Dawood Hercules Chemicals and Managing Director Lawrencepur Woolen & Textile. He has been on the board of various corporate giants such as ICI Pakistan, KSB Pumps, United Refrigeration Ltd, PIA, & State Bank of Pakistan. He taught at Department of Business Administration, University of Punjab and is the Member Syndicate, the University of Punjab as well as member Senate, University of Punjab. Mr. Abdul Razak Dawood has been an active philanthropist and at present he is the Rector, Lahore University of Management Sciences to which his family has donated generously; Vice Chairman, Board of Governors National Management Foundation; Member, Board of Directors Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Trustee CARE Foundation and Member, Board of Directors NUML College. Mr. Dawood is a BSc. Mining Engineering from England and MBA from Columbia University, USA.
I heard about him for the first time when I applied to LUMS and met him for the first time at my convocation while he handed me over my degree. Little did I know that in the years to come I will be lucky enough to be directly mentored by him and have him on our board of advisors for Kualitatem. Though I have got a chance multiple times to hear random briefs from his valuable experiences but never got a chance to hear his life story, until recently at a TIE gathering. Abdul Razak Dawood has no doubt transformed his thought leadership into action leadership and has institutionalized it to a greater extent producing stream of future leaders. There is a lot one can learn from him and his experiences. Here are some important notes I managed to jot down during his talk and thought to share and contribute in that chain reaction.
Abdul Razak Dawood [1]: “Ladies and gentle men, assalam-o-alykum. Today I have been asked to give my story about my experiences in business, of being involved in education and basically being an entrepreneur. But I must say that usually I feel a little uncomfortable talking about myself and what I have done. In today’s talk I will spend some time talking about my career, but a little bit more time on strategic decisions, visions, values and qualities required for being an entrepreneur.”
[2] “I graduated from Columbia University and landed back in Pakistan in October 1968 after 18 years. Got married within 3 weeks and then issue came within the family; where should they park this young lad who just came back from America. Lawrencepur, district Attock was decided for me and I gathered my dreams, passion and commitment and went to Lawrencepur where I simply fell in love with the place. I loved the community life, loved the people, I loved the opportunities. It was magnificent. Not because it was easy, but it was challenging and here I was ready to face them while being in the trenches. I was welcomed by a strike letter on my first day on my desk. As I struggled to set things straight over the months, I introduced a new brand for ladies called “Layla”. While it was rejected by big brands like HKB, Bombay Cloth House etc. we ran a TV commercial and bang; it was a hit. Next, we advertised Layla for PKR 80,000/- budget over 4 months despite the strong resistance from my father. The results changed the world and the next time around it was my father who urged to raise the budget for advertisement.
