“Take the risk”, Mr. Amin provides the youth 6 tips and strategies to establish a business

Mr. Mukhtarul Amin, the Chairman and Managing Director of Allenhouse Institute of Technology, Rooma, Kanpur, is the President of S.E.F. Mr. Amin is a true baton carrier of family business i.e. Saddlery and Leather. Mr. Amin took initiative to see the growth of leather industry in India. Following are firsts that took place:

• Safety footwear leather exports from India started
• First to make special Din Leather with German collaboration
• Started making uppers for exports to UK and Europe
• First to make PU safety footwear and started exports.

He has established subsidiary companies under Superhouse Group and depots in overseas countries. The company has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary in the United Kingdom in the name of Superhouse (U.K.) Ltd. in March’98 having its registered office in London, which is primarily engaged in the marketing and distribution of leather and leather products. In May 2011, the group acquired Briggs Industrial Footwear Limited, a U.K. based company incorporated in 1944. Linea de Seguridad so in Spain was also acquired in Aug 2012. Both these companies are engaged in the marketing/production of safety footwear.

The turnover of Superhouse Group is more than USD 200 million for the financial year ending as on 31st March 2015, under the efficient leadership of Mr. Mukhtarul Amin.

Mr. Mukhtarul Amin was the Vice Chairman of Council for Leather Exports for 2 years i.e. 2003 to 2005 and Chairman of the Council from 2007 to 2009. Council for Leather Exports is an export promotional body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. During the tenure as Chairman of Council for Leather Exports, Mr. Amin had the ambition to see the growth of leather industry of India. Exports had touched a level of USD 3.05 billion, recording a growth of 11.15 percent over the previous year 2005-06. Exports went on increasing to USD 3.54 million during his tenure.

Mr. Mukhtarul Amin was appointed as the Chairman of Footwear Design & Development Institute (FDDI), Noida in the year 2003 for a period of three years. FDDI is the largest footwear-training institute in the world having 7 campuses located in Kolkata / Fursatganj / Chennai / Chindwara / Rohtak / Noida and Jodhpur.

Mr. Amin’s aim to help the leather industry in Unnao and Kanpur took him to establish a world-class Testing Laboratory and Training Centre. To achieve this, he established a company backed by leather industry of Kanpur and Unnao, which is known as Kanpur Unnao Leather Cluster Development Company Limited. 

“No one succeeds in business alone. Build your own great team to bolster your success.”
-Mr. Mukhtarul Amin

Superhouse Education Foundation was founded under your guidance, how does it cater to holistic development of all its students and providing them the importance of leading a well-balanced life?

Superhouse Group started the education vertical considering education as a corporate responsibility. Holistic development of children lies at the core of the vision of Superhouse Education Foundation. In our schools, we don’t only teach the children, we groom them to shape them up as multitalented individuals which makes them future ready. This we have done by making our curriculum design more diverse which includes training of sports, soft skills, animation, performing arts and many more things. In-house academies provide structured training to the students under the supervision of experts in various fields. Our schools/colleges are equipped with state of the art facilities to give proper exposure to the children, which is required for present generation. We also conduct exchange programmes to give a global perspective to our students. This helps the students evolve and learn the significance of adding that extra edge to their persona.

What is all efforts Superhouse making to ensure the non-academic support services are sufficiently well-resourced?

Support services are the pillar of institutional functioning. Well, run offices are in existence in all our schools/ colleges where people are appointed after proper screening by HR department. They hold designated profiles under various departments. These offices work to provide all the support to run the institutions in an organized manner by maintaining proper data base and providing logistic support.

Super house Education Foundation currently has many schools in various cities and an Engineering institute in Northern India. How streamlined is the planning of Superhouse Education Foundation for further expansion in terms of providing world-class education to the coming youth of nation?

Superhouse Group believes in revisiting its mission statement periodically. We strongly believe that there is a lot of untapped talent present in the smaller cities which is only lacking exposure. We look forward to the expansion of Superhouse Education Foundation in these areas.  We believe, it is our responsibility to establish the institutions in the cities where education facilities with proper infrastructure do not exist and as a result, children have to move to the bigger cities. We plan to establish schools/ colleges in these areas with best of the infrastructure to give good exposure to the children. 

The leather industry is set to boom with bright career opportunities in both technical and designing areas, what guidance you would like to give to the students of engineering discipline, who can explore leather industry as a career option?

This industry is now more a fashion industry, always looking for good talent. This industry is an exciting industry to work in, as you can have great career opportunities and bright future. Your work can take you all over the world by opening the arenas of self-employment.

The faculty is the main root of any institution, what are you doing to ensure that a growing proportion of the teaching staff of Superhouse education Foundation has some form of teacher training?

Human resource development is one of the priorities of our education foundation. We organise in-service training programmes for our faculty members regularly, wherein they get an opportunity to interact with subject experts to upgrade their knowledge. We also hire resource persons to train our teachers in latest pedagogical practices.

The training sessions are not only conducted for teaching faculty but for the office staff as well to groom them further. We are also coming up with our own teacher's training institute in Kanpur.

Establishing own company in 1986, which later became the first leather company to have such international presence and respectable size. What suggestions would you like to give to the coming entrepreneurs of country for establishing successful business?

Setting up business was never easy but in today’s globalised world, it is even harder. The competition is coming not only from the domestic companies but the MNCs are also present even in the smaller cities. My piece of advice to the upcoming entrepreneurs is-

• Take the risk. We never know the outcome of our efforts unless we actually do it.
• Keep your vision clear at all times.
• Understand your industry. Don’t play games you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.
• It’s almost always harder to raise capital than you thought it would be, and it always takes longer. So, plan for that.
• No one succeeds in business alone. Build your own great team to bolster your success.
• Learn from complaints. Let unhappy customers teach you where the holes in your service area.

Heading such responsible designation - Chairman and Managing Director of Superhouse is indeed a difficult task. How do you ensure that you meet up with all of your KRA’s?

We have our dedicated team to conduct audits periodically. Proper audit reports are being formulated and mailed to the head office. Regular meetings are conducted to discuss the audit reports. In case any pitfalls are noticed, immediate remedial measures are taken. The schools/ colleges send their weekly and monthly reports to the head office under given formats. These formats are designed in a way to ensure comprehensive details of the functioning of the institution for the given week/ month.

Meetings are held periodically at the head office with all the heads of the institutions for discussing performance analysis and other important things. I also maintain regular lines of connections with my down lines.

As the Vice Chairman of Council for Leather Exports for 2 years and Chairman of the Council from 2007 to 2009, what all initiatives you took to see growth of leather industry in India?

During my tenure from 2007 to 2009 as Chairman, 26th international Footwear Conference was organized in Chennai. The requirement of Sanitary Import Permit (SIP) was removed and the import of raw hides and skins on the basis of issue of an NOC issued by the Animal Quarantine and Certification Stations (AQCS). Also, Investment Promotion Road Shows were organized in Italy, Spain, Austria, Romania and Ukraine.

Do the college and schools have “unity in diversity” as the mantra. What all the steps taken to maintain the positive environment?

Superhouse as a group takes pride in being a truly secular brand. We believe in maintaining dignity and respect for all. Our institutions run completely on secular lines. There is always an effort to maintain a strong community connect, so that the children learn to respect all the communities, classes and religions. Institutions under Superhouse also take admissions of the children coming from economically weaker sections so that the divide between rich-poor, educated-uneducated could be eliminated.

Being the Head of Superhouse Group, you are one of the inspiring leaders for youth, what is your philosophy of leadership? How would you describe your leadership style?

For me, leadership is like moving a string, you can’t push from behind you have to get ahead and pull. My leadership style has always been that of a doer, to be a role model for others to perform. I believe in guiding, mentoring, counselling and setting an example for my team to absorb, adapt and follow. I give a lot of space to people which motivates them to give their best shot.  New experiences keep enriching my leadership style.  As a leader, I am still learning, I am still growing.