Chasing one’s dream
Perseverance, diversification and teamwork make up the formula for his success. An MBA graduate hailing from Kerala, Ameer Ahmed, Group Managing Director of Teejan Group speaks to Jayashankar Menon

Hailing from a wealthy family, Ameer started his career at the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation and moved up the corporate ladder there to become its director. After that short stint with KSIDC, he started his own business. Somehow the business didn’t work out well and in 1984, Ameer came to Oman and took over an ailing construction company, called Teejan.

“I took over the company, which was making a loss. I think God had given me the ability to reengineer the company. And that was what I did. I always used to think at least five years ahead. That made me succeed here. I put a stop to the losses within six months and drew up a vision plan for five years, which I achieved within three years. I always feel that one should not keep all eggs in one basket. I am a person who likes multiplicities. That way, Teejan is not concentrating on a single business. May be one reason is that the Gulf character is like that. You have limitations in growth also in any industry. So we diversified into many businesses”.

Long-term vision
Teejan Group has grown from strength to strength and has emerged as a leading private sector group with activities spanning from civil and E&M construction, turnkey fire fighting systems, laboratory engineering, interior furnishing and cleaning works to trading in foods and beverages. Today its operations are spread over Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia and India. “Our corporate outlook is to give the best service to the customer in every sphere of the operation. Our management and technical personnel are specially trained in their areas of specialisation, with a clear cut directive to secure long term cost-effective product and services with particular emphasis on quality, efficiency and HSE.”

Teejan Trading & Contracting Co. LLC, the flagship of the Teejan Group is an ISO 9001 Certified Firm with QA/QC procedures with particular attention to project management through ISO certification. Teejan faced many challenges from the big players in the initial years. “We were fighting with established players. But then that is our secret of our success. We have to think big. That was what we did and we tightened our belt and moved ahead. When I took over the company there were only six co-workers. Currently our strength is 1000 plus. We are witnessing tremendous growth and every month we are adding more workers. We have three core businesses. Contracting is the business I look after, where we have civil, electromechanical and fire engineering. Out of that the fire engineering business is the one I like the most. We are the No. 1 company in Oman in fire engineering segment. Additionally we have a unit in India as well. We have the same business in Dubai and Saudi Arabia too. Fire protection or fire engineering is our dream. We acquired a company in India five years back. We are nurturing a dream to have a multinational company emerging from India in fire protection in the world market in the next five years.”

Teejan is also No. 2 in the juice business in Oman. Our brand Rani Juice is competing with multinational companies. When we acquired the company 10 years ago, it had a turnover of a RO100,000. Today we are next to Pepsi Cola in the entire segment.”

Teejan also had its due share of woes. “The construction industry went through a bad phase during early 2000, when many companies lowered their shutters. Steel prices went through the roof. Fortunately, we survived purely because of our diversified activities. We suffered heavy losses but we managed to survive because of the fact that our other businesses were doing well”.

Dedicated beliefs
On the personal front, Ameer has represented the Kerala State in basketball. Right now, his hobby is social service. “During Gonu, for example, the Indian Embassy was kind enough to entrust me with the entire coordination of the rehabilitation activities, purely because we did a wonderful job in Gubrah. It was purely teamwork. I run a small orphanage in my hometown of Kodungalur. I am a deeply religious person. I am trying to be a Muslim. I cannot call myself a Muslim. A Muslim is a person in whose hand another person must be safe. The best management book I have read is the Holy Quran. I am trying to learn it. I have not even learned 10 per cent of it. I am trying to learn understand and practice Islam. And that is my achievement.”

While talking about the work culture in Teejan, he says, “we take care of the ‘emotional needs’ of our co-workers. I never call them employees. For us, they are all extended members of the same family. Due to our efforts to give a quality life to our family members, we even won accolades as the ‘Best Place to Work’ in Oman in 2005. In fact, we were in the fifth position out of 10 best companies for Omanis, third in 10 best companies for expatriates, fifth in top five companies for corporate culture, fourth in communications and employment, fifth in working conditions and team work, second in recognition, fifth in leadership and effectiveness and third in training and career.”

“Our philosophy has always been quality in execution and timely completion of projects, which has been the success of our growth over the period. The recognition and goodwill earned on account of this philosophy has stood the test of time and even today many clients give the first option to us to take up a contract with a right for rejection before considering others. Our commitment towards quality has been deep rooted. Our client profiles include major power plants, petroleum companies, large industrial establishments, hotels, commercial complexes, private villas, residential complexes and government organisations like Diwan of Royal Court, Ministry of Housing, Electricity and Water, Ministries of Defense, Education, Health, Regional Municipalities,” Ameer adds.

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