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This report is based on Mr. Qasim Ibrahim who is one of the most successful entrepreneurs from Maldives, a country with an estimate population of only 300,000. He is generally known to locals as ‘Buruma Qasim’. A Maldivian whom is recognized as one of the wealthiest businessman in the country today.
He was born in a small island of Ari Atoll named ‘Maamigili’. Just after a month of birth, his mother passed away and he was forced to move to a different island in the sameAtoll ‘Fenfushi’ since his father got married to another women in this island. From this point onwards he was raised by his grandmother and Aunt. According to Mr. Qasim, Even though his father lost his eyesight long time ago, his father was a business man who worked incredibly hard in a tourist resort close by to the island. Mr. Qasim used to work with his father in the tourist resort at the age of just 10 years old, when his grandmother passed away.
He first moved to the capital city Male’ in 1964 when he was 14 years old and started working in couple of residence houses as a housekeeper and cleaner by managing the vehicles of the households. During the limited off time he got, he started attendingto some tuition classes and gained multiple knowledge of skills from different workareas. Due to his father not being able to afford the High school fees, Mr. Qasim continued gaining knowledge only through these local classes. And in the year 1969 he joined the only government hospital in Male’ Central Hospital (CHM) as a clerk. He still continued attending some accounting classes and because of this he was soon promoted to the post of an Accountant. By the year 1976 he has gained different work experiences working in different fields such as managerial post of a furniture mart and also worked at Crescent organization and finally joined Maldivian Governments Bodu Store now known as one of the most prestigious companies in Maldives as State Trading Organisation Plc (STO).
All the works and experiences which he got familiar with during this period made it possible for him to introduce his very own trading business with a loan of US$ 2,000 borrowed from SBI. During the first four years his business expanded vastly by trading supplies like rice, diesel and kerosene and once again opened a new doorof success after gaining sufficient profit to purchase an old fishing vessel and converting it to his first ever shipping vessel which was going to be used as a mean to carry cargo and oil, in order to expedite oil imports.
His business expanded vastly by 1986 that he finally got the chance to register his business under the name Villa Shipping and Trading Company Limited (Villa). Ever since, the Company has expanded its business to integrate tourism, inter islandmarine transport, fish processing factory, cement factory etc. During his work period in the hospital he knew and aimed to help the people in Male’ if he is ever been able to, with this aim he started helping needful. In addition to health facilities, he took aleap towards the education sector making it possible for students of Maldives to gain education at the best affordable prices. He is also one of the first person to open a university in Maldives.
Above is a short summary based on one of the most successful entrepreneur in Maldives.The main objective of this research is to assess Mr. Qasim Ibrahim and make comparisons by looking at the traits and various methods of entrepreneurship which will be discussed briefly later in this assessment.
After the Summary, literature review is included with various traits and methodologies based on successful Entrepreneurship followed by assessment comparing to these traits and the life of Mr. Qasim Ibrahim before concluding the assignment with my recommendation.
The human role in businesses whether it is a new venture or developing and sustaining a business cannot be under estimated. They are the people who make critical decisions that leads to the success or failure of any business or any entrepreneurship activity (Bulet, et al., 2010). Considering the nature of this researchand its focus on entrepreneurship activity, it seems a good theory would be the Competency Theory Model to assess Qasim Ibrahim as an entrepreneur.
And for the purpose of supporting employees in making a successful transition to entrepreneurship in a technology or science-based business venture. Entrepreneur Competency Model developed for the purpose of identifying potential successful entrepreneurs (Mansfield, et al., 1987).
Power: Successful entrepreneurs have common characteristics, which are divided into three clusters namely achievement, planning and power. (Mekerere, 2007) A number of actions by Qasim has indicated his need for power. Realising his achievements was met with a need for power when his desire to achieve more at fields that were controlling and dominating the market was a clear sign of his intentions to take control and lead. While many believe his desire for power would be his Achilles heel, as he continues to risk a fair share of his wealth to acquire power and dominance to an already market conquering organization that could be matched by only a handful.
Taking Risk: Every entrepreneur who wants to advance and grow has to take risks. Careful evaluation and navigation through them is what makes a successful entrepreneur (Hirai, n.d.). Like any successful entrepreneur, Qasim has been presented with situations where he had to take risks to move forward. To ensure that his organization didn’t come to stand still, Qasim leaped to invest in many areas in the market that had seemed questionable during then. Being uneducated himself, Qasim risked a heavy investment when he first decided to introduce sea plane services in Maldives. Previous operations using helicopters to transfer tourists to scattered resorts around Maldives had failed over two occasions.
Thinking style: Manager. Managing requires the capability of trusting as well as having the confidence in others and needs to develop leading, organizing, planning and controlling to become a strong Manager. (Lowden, 2007). Qasim lead multiple organizations which are competing in completely different market types and manages a work force of over three thousand employees. Clearly, Qasim’s management skills deserve acknowledgement due to his ability to control and manage.
Conclusion
Qasim Ibrahim, considered as one of the most successful entrepreneurs has changed entrepreneurship in Maldives in many ways. He has shown through his achievements that he has conquered many attributes that are essential for an entrepreneur to succeed. From a poor background, he has risen through hard work, ingenious decision making and an eagerness to succeed into an entrepreneur that the Maldivian economy depends on heavily.
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