Take a cue from ‘Iron Lady’!

Manama : Datuk Dr. Maznah Hamid is now the owner of 6,000 people strong Securiforce company in Malaysia with business in multiple sectors and countries. But her early efforts in entrepreneurship was not a runaway success and her persistence in the face of extreme adversity made her stick to her goal of becoming successful entrepreneur and was rewarded with astounding success. 

Her success is very remarkable for the fact that the banks in Malaysia were never ready to lend to her till she achieved big success.

She came from a religious family and had many other disadvantages while starting her business. One of her early teachers constantly urged her to leave her village and become an entrepreneur. 

Her first jobs in a city gave her an opportunity to interact with international figures as she was working in an embassy. She realised an opportunity to start a security provider business and her networking skills helped her to start one. 

Dr. Maznah hired five employees from her village and started her business. Her biggest problems were small capital in hand, equivalent to BD500, and inability to get a licence as a woman. 

She started the company in 1981. The business struggled in the first decade but her resolve saved her from being demoralised.

“My husband and I struggled a lot during initial years and even had to live in very poor quarters. But, I survived all that and established a successful business. Thus I got the name “Iron Lady.” Now, I coach entrepreneurs in my country and outside and teach in universities alongside running my multiple businesses,” she explained.

“First 15 years we struggled  as it was difficult for us to get loans. Only the rich used to get loans and they never gave loan to women,” she remarked. 

This acted as a blessing in disguise for Dr. Maznah, as she learned to survive without bank loans and also made her adept in other areas like auctions.

Dr. Maznah’s success got her invites from the rulers of the country to start associations to train entrepreneurs as well as television appearances highlighting her as a role model.

She is known as “Iron Lady” in Malaysia and is a key person for multiple entrepreneurship and management associations. 

Dr. Maznah visited Bahrain recently to address entrepreneurs in the country. On the occasion of her visit, a new body was announced- “Bahrain-Malaysia Business and Friendship Society” under the initiative of Daij bin Issa Al Khalifa and Nabeel Ajoor.

Daij and Nabeel said that the society is very happy to have a person like Dr.Maznah to represent them in Malaysia. “We count on her to develop more relations in Malaysia and benefit from her strong networking ability. She is a very influential person in Malaysia and we hope Bahrain can benefit from this association.”

On her visit to Bahrain, Dr. Maznah noticed that many are contend to be just inside the Kingdom and not very keen to grow outside, even to other GCC countries.  According to her, it is not the right attitude for entrepreneurs. “Also, more specialisation is to be attained by entrepreneurs to achieve further success.”

Dr. Maznah is yet to launch her business in Bahrain even though her business is present in multiple countries, including the United Arab Emirates.