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AL Amir Foods: A Story

The Journey

At the age of 17, one day a young boy named Amir was sitting at his friend Abdullahs property dealing

office in DHA, after coming back from college. He was bored and as he waited for Abdullah to get free

from the deal which his father and himself were making with a client. Suddenly, Abdullah called his

name, Amir can you please pass on those papers to me? Amir picked up the file off the table and took it

over to the desk where the papers were about to be signed. He handed over the file and observed the

proceedings. Out of a deal involving sale of a one canal plot, Abdullahs father made a profit of fifty

thousand rupees. This is big money, Amir thought, and by the end of the day when he left that office,

Amir was ready with his determination of starting his career as a real estate agent. He further researched

about this field by observing the trends of real estate market , and took help from a few friends and finally

he concluded that this business had much opportunity to earn high profits. He got so enthusiastic with thisidea that he decided not to join university, rather started working as an agent in Abdullahs fathers office.

This proved to be a major life changing decision for him as he grasped the trade quickly, and even started

making profits within a year. Only he had to look for clients in the DHA real estate market by personal

contacts or newspaper classifieds. He used to make up a list for buyers and sellers of the day, and

matched up the parties for 1% commission when the deal was finalized. So from 2004 this journey started

with a great moral support from family and friends, who were always there to be on his back whenever he

needed it. Amirs family was one of the middle income group families - with his father having a small

general store in suburbs, and his brothers doing jobs. Amir, unlike his brothers, was never inclined

towards a job. He was a free spirited man, not be bossed around by any one. He always believed that all

of the hardwork must pay off - fixed salary or status did not attract him

The amount of work I have to put in my business gives much more benefit and satisfaction then a 9 to 5

job says Amir.

Amir used to get inspiration from his father (Malik Liaqat Ali) and some of his uncles who owned some

small businesses. Amir continued to work as an agent till four years and by then he gathered enough

finances to start his own real estate office. Al Amir Estates started in 2007 based only upon the equity

generated through real estate business, as Amir did not take any loans from bank, credit agency or family.

Having his own business made life much tougher for Amir as he started from scratch in the DHA real

estate market. Life took a new turn when I started my own business; I had to develop the whole set upagain.

This case is written by Saadiyah Aslam and Naqqashia Arshad under the supervision of Dr Shehryar Shahid. It is

written as a basis of class discussion rather than to illustrate the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of a management

situation University of Central Punjab (2011)

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He was by birth a social person and loved to make friendly ties with everyone he met. Now this helped

him much in establishing his business as he had gained enough experience and popularity among real

estate agents and business men, so he found two real estate agents through his networking who were

exceptional dealers of real estate, but due to personal issues unwilling to take risk of starting up their own

business. He provided them with incentives, and brought them over to his agency. Now the three of them

started doing much successful business because of their experience and profound ability to convinceclients. Much of the business they did was based on the strength of the network and the goodwill they

developed. They used to strengthen their network by taking clients out for a dinner, or by giving them

protocol or preferences so that clients did not switch over. Most of the deals were signed after lavish

dinner at a good five star hotel. Amir had realized that the key of success in this business was to develop a

good public relationship and a strong formal as well as informal relationship with clients. This led them to

spot a brilliant growth idea - lets think BIG, and expand beyond the limited market of DHA. Lets move

into the high-end real estate market.

In late 2007, as a result, an expensive and a prime location land was put on sale by some real estate

owners. Amir realized the potential in this deal and he promptly asked the sellers to make the deal

through him, which they agreed to. Amir went to meet Mr Sohail Afzal ,Director, Educational Excellence

Limited, in his student/public meeting hours, and impudently made the offer for the deal. He did not

know Mr. Sohail Afzal by then, and he just went to meet him as a potential dealer. Mr Sohail Afzal was

impressed by the presentation and he agreed to look at the land. The property deal was finalized between

the two parties and this became the starting point of a long lasting relationship between them. Amir

developed strong work ties with Mr Sohail Afzal based on trust and work quality. To gain his trust and

confidence, Amir provided them with the best deals in the market and worked with great loyalty and

professionalism. Some of the other parties he developed strong working relations with included

organizations like Beaconhouse School System, UMT, Ahmed Fabrics, Al-hilal industries and Deewan-e-

khas. His key strategy was to gather as many corporate clients as he can to be a dtronger namein the

market, which in turn brought him more business. Wherever he went for a business deal, he would alwaysleave a great impression over the parties. Most of the business deals used to be singed over a lavish lunch

or dinner session offered by Al Amir estates to his clients. Some of the clients even developed informal

personal relationships with him over a period of time at formal farmhouse gatherings and more causal

dine-outs.

Al Amir Estates proved to be a steady and successful business for Amir, but an enthusiastic and insightful

person like him foresaw a great threat coming his way- a decline in the real estate business. Even though

Al Amir Estates started in 2007, by the end of 2008 Amir had realized that the property business might

suffer from a downfall in years to come. Keeping a keen eye on market trends, Amir could see that people

have stopped investing in property. Amir believed that it was the right time for him to diversify his

business portfolio and to seek opportunities in sectors that can potentially offset the turbulence in the real

estate industry. While Amir was indecisive about what type of venture he may start, a friend, named

Waheed, who himself was a catering business owner, advised Amir to launch a catering business.

Keeping in view Amirs relationship with the Punjab Group of Colleges (PGC), Waheed proposed him to

try for a catering and cafeteria contract at the new campus of the University of Central Punjab (UCP),

which was going to be functional in a few months time. Perhaps the only challenge for Amir was to

convince Mr Sohail Afzal, who would have his own reservations about this whole deal. Amir somewhere

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in his heart was convinced that to gain Mr Sohails consent would be a real hard nut to crack, since he had

absolutely no experience of what he was going to bid for.

However, Amirs entrepreneurial vigor was surely profound enough to overcome his fears, while Mr

Sohail seemed to have his own reservations about the whole deal. Finally the day arrived for his

encounter with Mr Sohail Afzal. Sipping his hot cup of coffee and leaning back on office chair, Mr Sohaildiligently listened to what Amir had to offer him. Sir please let me try this, I wont let you down said

Amir. Mr Sohail, however, maintained a skeptical tone, Amir, University of Central Punjab has the

largest student enrolment in Lahore. We are about to move in a great campus and I cannot risk giving this

contract to some one without any experience in this field. you may be an excellent real estate business

man but this does not guarantee your success in running a cafe. Of course Amir failed to elicit the

response he was seeking. Nevertheless, that day he left the UCP head office with a new entrepreneurial

passion, a new direction and a new strategy in his mind. I must learn the catering business no matter

what it takes, Amir assertively said to himself, while he constantly thought about the meeting in his car

on his way back to the real estate office.

Amir went back to Waheed, and asked for help. so it was by the end of year 2009 when Waheed inducted

Amir in his cafe business as a trainee and he started to work at the cafe. Amirs agents, who were four at

number by this time, were not much happy by this decision, but Amir consoled them and motivated them

to work well and take care of the office in his absence. Still Amir did not detach himself from the

business as he used to visit the office regularly after off timings from cafe.

It took him six months to learn the cafe business thoroughly, understanding the Supply Chains, Cookery,

and management. Mean while, Education Excelence pvt. ltd. constructed University of Central Punjabs

new campus in Johar town. it was 2010 when amir again went to Mr Sohail afzal. Now i know how to

handle a cafe business, he said, and Mr Sohail Afzal granted him the contract on just one promise -

quality & standard. Amir enthusiastically set about developing his new business, Al- Amir foods and hedesigned the cafe for University of Central Punjab. Again, he did not take any kind of financial help from

any one, he had enough finances generated through his real estate business that he could run set up his

new business without opting for external financing. His father once again was all supportive to his

actions, On the day of inauguration, Amir proudly stood at the doorway of his newly furnished cafe

decorated with flexes and hangings, and asked his father to inaugurate it. It had taken him almost four

years to be able to stand a new business after what he was already in to, and Mr. Sohail Afzal played a

key role in this.

Now Amir was in a real fix, which business should I focus on more?, he wondered. His real estate

business was highly profitable and stable,and he needed it as his continuous financial support. Yet, the

cafe business was fighting for survival, profit margins were average, but steady. Amir chose to focus on

real estate again so that he could support his cafe as well. He left over the cafe management to his

subordinate managers, workers, and cook. This continued for several months, when he started to realise

the cafe is going in a bad loss. Amir was bewildered. I cannot even pay off salaries out of my cafe

income, what is the matter? Ill be bankrupt in six months!, he thought one day early in the morning as

he paced uncomfortably in his room. Amirs father, who was passing by for his fajar prayer, saw his

successful son so distressed. What happened, beta? he asked. Amir replied Aba ji, since last few

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months, i have been facing losses in cafe, it was not so when i started up with this venture. Liaqat Ali

mused and looked at his son.Amir continued, Aba ji i am very disturbed, and i dont know what to do.

The old man went out of the room. In the morning at the breakfast table he announced. I am not going to

my shop from today, as i am bored of it and now i want to try how the cafe business works . Amir looked

at his father and beamed. So from that day, the elderly man, with a great wisdom entered the cafe with his

much troubled son. Even Amir felt relieved, as now he had someone trustworthy with him.

Liaqat Ali started observing the proceedings silently, he did not interfere in any of the activates going

around. and after a week, he had some shocking news to tell to his son. Beta, your employees are not

trust worthy, they are committing frauds, yesterday the coke delivery you had in your premises, involved

an overstated bill of 100 cartons, while only 70 were delivered. Daily there take place many

embezzlement, in chicken, spices, confectionery, your waiters steal too. your cook and managers are

together in this fraud. Amir was astonished He had trusted his team too much. The father and son called

an urgent meeting of employees. I did not face any problem in gaining finance for this cafe, 30 lakh is

nothing for me, but developing a good team of workers, whom I could trust proved to be my only problem

and failure, He said to all of them and after identifying them through silent observation then he fired all

the culprits.

Now Liaqat Ali advised Amir to induct Tariq Malik, Amirs elder brother, who was currently on job, into

the cafe business, as a paid employee. Tariq happily joined, as Amir offered him a better family package

with a supervisory status. Subsequently, they hired employees through the network of food business they

had developed till date, and gave them a better wage package as well as a proper residential building to

live. Amir took the responsibility of paying the rent himself. He even paid his employees in vacations.

Also, he devised strict measures to stop theft and dishonesty. For example, he installed Cash Till System,

properly working CCTV system and developed an Inventory Control System with the help of this father.

The new monitoring system proved to be effective and the theft incidents were reduced greatly. Profitsstarted flowing in again, and resultantly Amir decided for further expansion. Once again he was quite

sharp in spotting an opportunity at the right time. Firstly, he contracted with university management to

provide food to the Executive Lounge as an additional service. Secondly, while the university

management was eagerly planning to make use of the free space on the campus, Amir came up with an

idea to utilize the available space by letting him open an outdoor food corner for the students, which is

now formally known as the Lahori Food Street. Luckily, the idea got accepted. Amir had a wide vision

for his cafe business. He wanted to innovate and take risks, as he believed that risks pay you off much

more, and create amplifying effect for business. Amir thinks that the food industry, especially the cafe

business has much to offer. This industry has a huge potential for growth and expansion, but it still needs

improvement. At present, Amir does not perceive any tough competition for his business in the market,

and is totally aware of the fact that the success of a caf business relies heavily on the quality of food

offered.

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Current Status

Amir is highly intact with both of his businesses, the real estate as well as the cafe business. He has a

highly progressive attitude towards his business and intends to grow them further. Al-Amir Estates is

already growing at a mature steady pace. People these days do not invest much in property business,

so he is not able to earn as much as he used to. Market is less attractive for investors but he isgaining business and profits because of his relationship with clients. Meanwhile, in the caf

business he is enjoying reasonable profits, achieving break-even within only 7 months. Now heis planning growth and has obtained one more contract in Education Excellence at Punjab

College Mughalpura.

Also, he is focusing towards product diversification in his current cafeteria setup at UCP. After

the successful launch of the food street, he is enriching his menu by adding products like fresh

pizza, fresh fried chicken, zinger burgers, hotshots, paratha roll, jalebis etc. Recently, another

cafe (Gloria Jeans) is about to launch within the premises of the University of Central Punjab.Gloria Jeans is a very popular brand name in Lahore, and is quite famous for his trendy

atmosphere and exotic menu especially amongst the youngsters .Despite his firm self-confidenceand entrepreneurial abilities, Amir feels threatened in anticipation of this new launch.

Marketing

An interesting fact about his businesses is, according to him, that both of them do not involvehigh marketing expense as such. As for the cafe, for instance, standees and boards are enough for

him and he always tries to give some interesting offers and deals to his customers to retain them

and keep them updated. He is a staunch believer of developing and nurturing informal personal

selling medium. His personal interaction with students and faculty members keeps him informedof their varying demands and tastes. It allows him to offer a certain degree of customization with

a personal touch in it for the customers. He captured the market of rice lovers, for example, by

providing plain Biryani (without chicken) for those who prefer vegetarian food. Also, heintroduced and a platter deal for shawarma to add value for his customers. In the near future, Al-

Amir Foods also intends to introduce deal offerings on fast food items, like pizza, zinger and

fried chicken.

In the real estate business word of mouth is enough for him. He does not need to advertise in any

newspaper about his business.Our nature of business is such we do not require advertisement or marketing, on contrary we

see advertisements for potential business, he says.

Human Resource Management

Handling and managing people, as asserted by Amir, has always been one of the most critical

aspects of his business ever since he entered into self-employment. At present, more than 30

people are working with him and many of them are often involved in important business

decisions like selecting vendors, pricing and quality check. He trained them how to talk with acustomer, to listen to them properly; assigned everyone a separate task; motivated them by

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giving them various kinds of incentives. Whenever any problem arises, first he tries to listen so

as to understand the problem and give value to the employee by discussing about the solutionsThey also provide perks and benefits to the workers, like cash rewards and helps. Last year they

sponsored Umrah of one of the employees as well.

I always motivate them to get more out of them and I have also allotted rooms to those whobelong to backward areas and I even give holidays pay. The salary package I give is a handsome

package but it is very difficult to live for a salaried person in this high inflation time He says.