AN EMPIRE FROM THE SCRATCH

If there was one thing Teejan Group chairman Hamed al Harrasy was sure of as a kid growing up in Zanzibar, it was that he wanted to be a businessman. Today as he looks at his multi-million rial empire, which he has built from scratch, he attributes it to four key factors – honesty, planning, execution and follow up.

“I believe in planning even for your daily life you need to plan things. For example if you are going to Ruwi for shopping, different people will take different routes. The route you choose will determine how fast you reach there and the difficulties in reaching there at particular times you will find more traffic in certain roads and that determines the time it takes you to get to Ruwi, your destination.”

Apart from the four key factors of honesty, planning, execution and follow up, flexibility is what will differentiate a good businessman from others. “As you follow your plan, you will always have to make changes. One cannot say because it was planned this way, this is the only way to do it. Depending on the developments you need to change plans.”

That’s exactly how al Harrasy went about building his conglomerate which today has expertise across a range of specialist sectors including fire safety, healthcare, education, large-scale retail, warehouses and infrastructure. When the Harrasy family returned to Oman in 1972 leaving behind a well-established trading business in Zanzibar, they knew it would not be easy to start all over again.

A young al Harrasy temporarily shelved his dreams of starting business and found himself a job at Chartered Bank. In less than a year he moved to Oman International Aviation, and started working at the Muscat International Airport in Seeb. “Only the runway and the tower were ready. There was a makeshift arrival and departure lounge made from plywood and six of us worked there.”

When the airport was inaugurated, al Harrasy became the first announcer, as he was the only employee there who was fluent in both English and Arabic. He soon moved to work in the US Embassy as an assistant commercial attaché.

All this while the dream of starting his own business remained strong. In 1974 he registered a trading establishment – Hamed Salmi al Harrasy Establishment and started with selling small electrical items. He changed its name to Teejan Trading Establishment the same year. “I thought I would grow this establishment and need to have a theme.

That’s how I thought of Teejan it means crowns in Arabic and shows leadership and fitted with the vision I had for the future of the company.” The rest, as they say, is history. Today the group consists of ten companies and has also moved into Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Today he delegates most of the work and has moved into a mentoring role. “When the company grows to this size you need to delegate. Once you have the right people, the important thing is to make sure that all are on the same page by following up. Regular meetings and management information reports ensure that.”

Al Harrasy started the construction wing of Teejan in 1976, a year after he joined PDO. The first contract was to build a house for one Hassan, a colleague from PDO, at Wadi Kabir. “At that time PDO used to give soft loans to staff and Hassan asked me to build his house.” With six people, one 3-tonne truck and one cement mixer machine, al Harrasy erected Teejan Construction’s very first building. “That house is still there in good condition,” he smiles proudly.

This feeling of pride was the reason why he diversified into construction from trading. “In construction you are making things, contributing to the nation’s growth in a visible way and become a part of it. Like building hospitals, schools, roads bridges, power plants. And when you pass by years later, you still get a sense of satisfaction. Even today when I pass some of the schools, which I remember
constructing in the 80s, I feel very proud. In trading once you sell the item, it’s over.”

He has an advice to young entrepreneurs: to be a good businessman, the most important quality one must possess is honesty. “You need to be honest and keep your word when dealing with people. You can cheat once or twice, but you can’t cheat always. No one will deal with you again.”

Also, never to despair if something goes wrong. “You should have the attitude ‘I’ll make it alright again’. Because, in spite of good planning, in business you can make mistakes.” When you are starting out, it is better to start with something you are familiar with something you know is better than something unknown. “But, this doesn’t mean that you should not venture into new areas at all. It is okay if you have 50-60 per cent information at least the risk is less. Do your homework. Study the market and see the sustainability of the business you are getting into.”

Entrepreneurs should also have a contingency plan. There will be challenges when things don’t go as planned. He gives an example from Teejan itself. When steel prices went up to US$600 a tonne, and Teejan had quoted rates based on US$120 a tonne, the company was faced with a tricky situation. “We always keep a backup. When we make profits, we only take a portion of it, the rest is kept with the company. That is for contingencies or future growth. This is where young people can make a mistake. 

And for al Harrasy, there is no greater role model than his father. “I learned a lot by watching my father the way he talked to people and dealt with them and also how he was handling the business. My father migrated from here to Zanzibar for livelihood. He set up a provision shop and was also trading coconuts and cloves. He was a real businessman. He didn’t have much education but he had intuition, a god-given gift. Though we returned to Oman in 1972, till date we have our plantations there bought by my late father.”

Al Harrasy was so interested in business, he started his own small trading business when he was 14. “It was more like a hobby. I would buy bananas and mangoes from the farmers when they are still on the tree. Later I would pluck them and sell at a profit. I wanted to make my own pocket money, be self-reliant.”

Thirty-seven years after he built the foundations of his sprawling empire, he is ready to hand

You have invested RO100 and made a profit of RO10 and if you take that RO10, you are still at square one. How can you grow your business? And in case you lose from that RO100 in the next deal, how will you recover? I’m not saying you should keep all your money in your business. Definitely there should be something for you, something to encourage yourself. So take 20 per cent for yourself and keep 80 per cent in the company.”

But if you ask him, al Harrasy would say to be a good businessman, business should run in your vein. Even as a kid growing up in Zanzibar, he would help his father in his business after school. And when his father travelled to Oman, he would handle the business. Al Harrasy’s father, probably sensing his son’s interest, took him along whenever he was striking deals or traded cloves and coconut in the wholesale market. 

over his ‘teejan’ to the second generation. And if his record is anything to go by, succession planning will be as smooth as it can get as the young Harrasys take over.

Fawzi Hamed al Harrasy
Son and executive director, Teejan Group

“We never used to see him that much when we were young but certain things he taught us as kids have stayed with us and make us what we are and how we deal with others. We were 11 kids but we never saw him lose his temper. Even when he got angry about something he would never say anything, but we would know it from his face.

We don’t call him father at the office. We call him the chairman. But at home it is a different scene. He likes to have his whole family gather at his house or farm house every weekend. He is a hardworking person with very strong principles. It is not easy to maintain such principles in the business environment where we have to deal with different kind of people. Another thing he has taught us is to take the ups and downs of the business in our stride

SOURCE: Business Today