India is growing rapidly in several fields of Science, Technology, Arts, Education, Media, Business, Manufacturing, Healthcare, and more. One of the prominent factors in the phenomenal surge is manufacturing businesses that have accounted for the successful developments in global trade. A solid number of exporters are boosting the national productivity and strengthening the economy.
Connecting to the clothing and fashion industry, one of the fast-growing industries in the export business category is the Leather Industry. India is the second-largest exporter of leather garments, and 2nd largest producer and consumer of footwear in the world. Known for its consistency, the leather industry has always been blessed with proactive and resilient leadership that has elevated the industry globally.
The strong market penetration and stability of the leather industry can be attributed to these numerous leaders who have put their entire lives into the innovation, development and uniqueness of this business. These business leaders have created a special place for leather products in people’s lives.
Looking at the growing demand for leather products and the scope it offers, with his passion and innovative approach, one leader who entered this vast yet widely staggered Leather Industry was Dr. Mohammed Zoheb Hossain. Founder of Bismillah Enterprise, located in Kolkata, he helms the business of manufacturing, trading and exporting leather products worldwide. Focusing on quality products and customer requirements, he thrives in the fierce competition as well as seeks to expand his business to national and international markets.
Early Inspirations
Right from his formative years, Dr. Mohammed nurtured his passion for the leather business. He worked in various levels of the industry observing the stages from the inside out. He closely studied the stages of sourcing, procuring, designing, processing, manufacturing, trading, etc. While working in the industry, he identified the structure and several loopholes that existed in this man-driven industry. The need to plug the missing links inspired Dr. Mohammed to build his own business that will focus on client requirements.
The Saga of Reliability
During the early years of his business, Dr. Mohammed created an organized structure with individual departments focusing on specific tasks and responsibilities. By adopting standard production practices with high importance to quality and finishing, the team reworked to improve the final products for smoothness, fineness, polishing, and feel of the products. Complete and strict adherence to quality helped in enhancing the product’s utility, style and durability. Steadily the brand became known for lasting leather products with good design patterns. The customers started referring to these product ranges as good and reliable.
Stepping Stones
As a businessman, Dr. Mohammed’s journey was not an easy one. The first lesson he learnt was building consistency. The variations in colour shades, finish or even the shape differences caused concerns in customers. They expected better consistency in the products offered. This was observed in the corporate or bulk orders where one single client procured a higher quantity. Dr. Mohammed along with his team members brainstormed on the differences observed and started the process of improvement in every aspect.
In a smart next move, Dr. Mohammed formed his own quality perspective and trained his employees to observe each product with every point. Whoever identifies the error or variation should bring it to the notice of the section head and get it rectified in all the products. Everyone was informed about the job orders, read the details and implemented them in the work process. For the convenience of understanding, Dr. Mohammed made the job cards in English and Hindi languages. The process flow once set was followed by everyone in a predetermined sequence.
Regular arrangements for standard and provisional raw materials were made properly. He wisely allocated itemised sections for material storage, and processed and final products.
Encouraging Vibes
Slowly and steadily the process started being followed evenly with the uniformity in each stage properly set in. It is all reflected in the feedback from the customers both current and new. The customer reviews spelt the improvements with suggestions as well. “Apart from the customers, we received compliments from the vendors too who appreciated our process for making the work smooth and easier,” stated Dr Mohammed with his overwhelming expression.
Though it was a slow growth it gave several supportive signals, that he and his team members comprehended through regular communication and implementing the alterations. During a national event, one of the clients appreciated his innovation and ability to customize products as per the customer requirements and budgets, comparing his products with global brands. This was a great pat on the back for his efforts were getting noticed, recognized and appreciated as well.
Effective Team Management
With his profound experience in several departments of the leather industry, Dr. Mohammed has identified that the work gets done through good-coordinated team efforts. He planned and categorically created different departments and teams that were trained and created for certain types of operations. In doing so he analysed the people for their education, nature, and innate abilities and then assigned them the roles best suited to their nature.
Additionally, he developed a practice of a single-sheet instruction system with job cards for every order. Everyone should adhere to the system and communicate often on anything and everything regarding the same. This developed a good team and people started working as a single cohesive unit. Dr. Mohammed made efforts to develop skilled and effective teams that handled workloads of varied types and volumes. He trained the employees in the production operations periodically ensuring the best practices are followed with optimum utilization of the resources with respect to the available time.
Moreover, he focused on instilling the professional aspects by explaining the market scenario with the customer expectations. Thinking beyond the job roles, the employees were motivated to work in an advanced professional scenario where they were given the liberty to innovate and contribute with their ideas on making the existing products better and sleeker. Enriching the employees with the subject knowledge through various modern tools and methodologies, Dr. Mohammed ensured the employees were always updated with the new market trends.
Harnessing Resilience
In his journey to success, several occasions brought forward tricky and puzzling situations where multiple orders of different types of products came in around the same time frame. Dr Mohammed smartly timed the orders in the Job card with numbers, dates and times. He gave quick instructions to the team members to organize the resources and get on with the daily tasks. The micro-management internally with the team members on one end and handling the customer expectations on the other made his run from pillar to post.
Not just this, Dr. Mohammed smartly convinced the customers of the essential production time required to be given for the production to achieve the expected product quality and finish. In his systematic and technical language, the customers identified him as a thorough leather professional and agreed with his point. He even presented video clips of his production process that gave deeper insights to the customers into the leather manufacturing process. He even went forward to help the customer understand the leather raw materials. In his honest efforts, Dr. Mohammed cleverly mitigated the challenges of managing the crucial balance of customer requirements and handling the manufacturing processes internally.
Supportive Alliances
Every business functions on a regular supply of raw materials, labour, delivery services, processing and others. Looking into the steadily growing demand from a variety of customer bases, Dr. Mohammed developed a close-knit partnership with certain expert leather artisans experienced in all types of manufacturing. He slowly began working out with them parallelly with them. This was a necessary backup he created for his business operations. In certain testing situations, he got certain orders executed through them by personally instructing the workers and supervising them towards flawless completion.
While maintaining a rule of treating and valuing every order with ‘high importance,’ Dr. Mohammed began managing and assigning the Job orders to different groups including his own teams towards efficient and effective production. He even went ahead by supporting other players in the industry by sub-contacting their orders and requirements. He was adept in effectively utilizing his resources in both manufacturing his own production orders and executing the external outsourced orders.
The Growth Thread
‘As the efforts for marketing and canvassing accelerate, the flow of new orders needs to be handled promptly and effectively.’ Comprehending this, Dr. Mohammed appointed a young and qualified team of sales professionals who took the baton ahead. He smartly integrated all the business operations together in a well-coordinated system that became a self-working model without much of his intervention. He focused on building new associations, focusing on crucial points in the production process and quality adherence.
Bright Horizons
Every businessman wants growth but only a few are actually prepared for it. Since the beginning of the business venture Dr. Mohammed valued personal relationships, be it with employees, associates or customers. With honesty, integrity and dedication, this compassionate leader built his business with the sweat of his brow. The results poured in steadily with rewards. He made a slow and steady start but the uniqueness of his business was every business customer connected got developed as a long-term association. The factors of reliability, consistency and customization made him popular and acceptable to a wide variety of customers from individuals to big corporations.
Working with several corporates provided Dr. Mohammed with valuable hints which he carefully implemented in his business processes towards improving and enhancing his business offerings in both products and services. With the business now stable and laid on strong pillars of effective production systems and work values, he is now looking to higher business associations to work with national as well as multinational organizations. He is making efforts to step up the complete approach and presentation of his business. With several encouraging and supportive alliances and experts by his side, Dr. Mohammed is aiming for new regions through corporate seminars and global consortiums.
