Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary is a Successful Entrepreneur

Biography

Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary in completed this task because of he is the successful and richest Bumiputra corporate figure in Malaysia. He is not only richest in term of wealth but an entrepreneur who love and care about the community’s welfare.

Name:

Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary

Place of Birth:

Alor Setar, Kedah (1952)

Occupation:

Founder of Albukhary Foundation

Spouse:

Puan Sri Sharifah Zarah Al-Bukhary

Children:

Ilyas Muzaffar, Ilya Myasara, Iliya Melissa and Iffah Maryam

Education Level:

SPM

Set up Business:

Selling meat in small scale on 1970

Net wealth:

RM1,425 million

Business areas:

ü  Transportation and logistics

ü  Plantations

ü  Property development

ü  Defense and armory

ü  Engineering

ü  Power generation

Recognition: 

1) Panglima Setia Mahkota (P.S.M.) by Yang di-Pertuan Agong 

2) “Tokoh Ma'al Hijrah” by The Yang Di Pertuan Agong of Malaysia

Five traits that represent Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary

1) Visionary

 Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary is a visionary entrepeneur. After his father's livestock farming business effected by disease which spread to Thailand, Kedah and Perlis. The diseases make the death of livestocks and his father need to bear all the losses. From that, he don’t want to get involved in livestock faming because to avoid from bearing lossess in future. So, he take the alternatives to sell the meat in small scale by looking unsold meat at Alor Star and resell to restaurants and other sellers. Other life story that we can relate Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar as visionary entrepreneur is when he participate trade delegation to Canton Trade Expo at China. He grab the opportunity by executing the barter system which is exchange his cocoa with tea from China. It gave benefits to the company in future and also grew the economy because of export and import.

2) Open risk taker

We can say that Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar is an open risk taker person. He very courage and had higher self confidence and determination in doing his business. He involved diversifying business areas from selling meat until set up the company and keep expand his business to in and outside Malaysia. After successful transportation, packaging and barter sector, he keep moving to manufacturing sector and got the supply garment uniform contract. He take the decisions to establish two more company which are Amtek Holdings and Oriental Garment Uniform Division. Then he involved in shipping sector and established Bukhary Shipping under CABOTAGE policy. He bought a ship that made from German at price USD1million which named as Angsa Mas. Unfortunately, he faced losses that forced he to sell his ship at price USD 600,000 which is loss as much USD400,000. Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar never give up, he continue invoved another sector which is property sector and bought some land and set up the project under Bukhary Development. As we can see, though he bears loss and failure shipping sector, he still courage and confidence to do other sectors.

3) Proactive

Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary is a proactive person. It can be prove when he started a business of selling cattle and buffalo at the age of 19 years. At this stage of age, hard to find a person that have a positive and a foresighted thinking. But, he managed to involve himself in a business. To be story about the beginning of his business, there is an unease in his father’s cattle business. Those cattle are affected by outbreak of food-and-mouth which caused almost all of the livestock perished. So, he decided to take over his father’s business but he change the focus from cattle business into selling meat business. He bought the meat from the vendors around Alor Setar and resold them to the bumiputera traders. His proactive action got positive feedback from the public and also motivated him to expand the business. 

Two year later, 1972, he jumped into transportation business. In this business, he started with acquiring a license for four Class A lorry and made RM110, 000 loan from Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) to buy two Mercedes Benz lorries. After that, he managed to set up a transportation company, Syarikat Pengangkutan Sentosa. 

Another of his famous foresight, he invested in three major investment vehicle which are Malaysian Mining Corporation (MMC) Berhad, DRB-Hicom Berhad and Tradewinds Group. All of three investments brought different opportunities for him. Through MMC Berhad, he got a significant stake in the scope of energy and utilities, infrastructures and engineering and construction sectors. While in the DRB Hicom Berhad, he abled to widen the business into five segments which are automotive, manufacturing, finance, hospitality and integrated property development industries. He also expand his business in agriculture sector by invested in Tradewinds Group.

4) Outcome oriented

Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary not only contribute within in Malaysia but also includes international arena. For example, he was responsible for luring the well-known shopping mall in London like Harrods. By this, he can attract them to invest in Malaysia by his company, Amtek Holdings Sdn. Bhd. The project of Museum of Islamic Art at Kuala Lumpur tighten his stature in international area. It also would promote Malaysia to others countries and attract them to visit Malaysia. He also took part in social sector especially in the Islamic Social and welfare activities. For example, Al Bukhary Mosque Complex which is landmark in Kedah.

He was granted with several awards for his vast services and contributions. His Majesty Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertua Agong and HRH The Sultan Kedah awarded Panglima Setia Mahkota (P.S.M) and Dato’ Setia Mahkota Kedah (D.S.D.K) respectively. As a result he got title of Tan Sri nad Dato’.

Besides, he also awarded the task of building the site for 2100MW coal fired power station at Tanjung Bin after SKS Ventures are 100% owned by Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar and Zainal Hatim.IN rice trading business, he awarded the rice trading license from Lembaga Hasil Padi Negara. Also granted successions of supplier contract government-linked corporation as partner with Zainal Hatim. 

5) Team Oriented

A good entrepreneur can create a peaceful atmosphere among the co-workers in order to achieve the organization’s goals. It also will lead in increasing of business productivity because the employee will always motivate and no pressure when complete the tasks.

In 1996, Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary established Al Bukhary Foundation. at earlier stage, the foundation focus on Malaysia by providing numerous programs that aimed in eradicating poverty and fostering racial harmony. The example of the programmes are, Albukhary Scholarship Programme, Albukhary Tuition Programme, Hajj Pilgrimage Programme, Khidmat Van Jenazah Albhukary Care, Rohingya Education Centre, and The Read Programme. Then, the businesses had grew day by day until he established presence in the international arena. Hence the charity work developed.

The foundation contributes most of it fund in education about RM 633,157,312 followed by RM 421,381,837 in Welfare and Social Department, RM 287,177,518 in Cultural Programme, RM 196,797,189 in Religion, RM 58,555,170 in International Programme and RM 35,407,445 in Sports.