As much clichéd as it may sound, ‘the power of WE’ is truly a part of the corporate culture of Aamra, which has as many as 250 out of total 1,200 team members working with it that have been with the company over 20 years, almost since its inception in 1985 by the Ahmed brothers – Syed Faruque and Syed Farhad. “Our name is not a gimmick; we have created a business that has a work environment which motivates people to optimize their skills and enjoy the process of working,” says Syed Farhad Ahmed, Managing Director, Aamra Companies. Sitting in his plush Banani office, Farhad is extremely excited about inching closer to his dream of going international with his own brand after being a service/technology provider in many distinctive segments including apparel. In a retrospective mood, Farhad shares with Apparel Online, the key attributes that makes Aamra different from other companies.
The first things that hit you when sitting down to converse with the MD of Aamra, is his confidence, visionary approach to business and sense of humour. Without mincing words he says that Aamra is in the driving seat in all its partnerships, be it with the industry or the international companies that it represents in the country. “Even if we want, we cannot have 100% market share, so we decide who we want to work with or rather what type of companies do we want to be associated with, and service these companies with a large basket of solutions,” says Farhad. The customer list of Aamra reads like a who’s who of the industry with all front runners including Pacific Jeans, Azim Group, Square Group, DBL, Standard to name a few, as also young progressive companies like Ananta. “What is important is the attitude of the management… What is the vision, how responsive are they to change and new technology, passion for the industry, are some of the basic traits that we look for in companies that we work with,” adds Farhad.
All brands under Aamra Resources – Lectra, Barudan, Ngai Shing, Sclavos, Santex, Ecotex, among a few others have the flexibility to be suitable for small to huge operational needs.
Another important factor that differentiates Aamra from other solution providers is the long term approach to business. “It is not about how much money we can earn from a customer today, but about creating relation of trust where he is constant in all our ventures and marketing becomes a by-product and not the main thrust of the business,” avers Farhad. He jokingly adds that his customers are more like friends than clients and they want to take Aamra along with them even when exploring overseas ventures, quoting the case of DBL and its factory in Ethiopia. “Over the years we have created a bond of understanding where customers have sought our advice in setting up factories, selecting technology best suited for their factories and managing their data,” adds Farhad. In this effort Aamra holds the patents, distribution and marketing rights of a number of world renowned high technology-driven products.
An important factor that differentiates Aamra from other solution providers is the long- term approach to business. It is not about how much money we can earn from a customer today, but about creating relation of trust where he is constant in all our ventures and marketing becomes a by-product and not the main thrust of the business.
Always on the lookout for new opportunities, Aamra evaluates technology carefully before taking it up for the industry. One of the important criterions in selection, is the flexibility of the technology, how can it scale up as the company grows. “We want to give solutions that can grow with the company and not ones that become redundant and have to be replaced,” argues Farhad. All his brands under Aamra Resources – Lectra, Barudan, Ngai Shing, Sclavos, Santex, Ecotex, among a few others have the flexibility to be suitable for small to huge operational needs. Only recently the company received the SCLAVOS Premium Award for highest sales of the brand in any country. And more recently Farhad was felicitated with the ‘ICT Person of the Year’ recognition for his commitment and significant achievements in growing and advancing the value of technology in Bangladesh.
Aamra is also very careful while selecting the companies that it would want to represent. “We only align with the technologies that are the need of the industry and are coming from companies that are world leaders. It is also important that the product will be accepted by our customer base and has the potential to give us good returns in the future,” shares Farhad. The latest to join the stable is a biological ETP from Italian company Panta Rei, which passes the test of flexibility and can be scaled up from a need of 30 tonnes washing to over 100 tonnes of washing/dyeing. “Italians are probably the most expensive, but we studied the market for one whole year talking to buyers like H&M, GAP as also our customers to ensure that the technology was the right one to satisfy everyone. It was even more important as investing in ETPs was just a formality earlier, and it is only recently that players have become serious on why they want to invest and what they wish to get in return…, it is all about offering value,” says Farhad.
Garment manufacturing is never far from the vision of the management at Aamra and all expansions have only helped the industry to become more efficient and better global players from managing uninterrupted email servers to ensuring fast connectivity and data management on ERP platforms.
What has really aided the growth of the Aamra Empire is the nose for opportunities, from apparel technology to IT solutions to web solutions to being the biggest provider of ATMs in Bangladesh to Wi-Fi and Cloud services and finally WE Smart Solutions, the company has come a long way. Interestingly, the biggest industry in Bangladesh, garment manufacturing, is never far from the vision and all expansions have only helped the industry to become more efficient and better global players from managing uninterrupted email servers to ensuring fast connectivity and data management on ERP platforms. Even the latest ‘WE’ mobile is being seen as a means to stay connect with workers as the phone comes with free Wi-Fi facilities through Wi-Fi hotspots around the country, Cloud services for data storage and intranet connectivity to the 24 most popularly used site on the internet that account for 75 per cent of traffic.
The ‘WE’ mobile is a revolution that will bring even the poorest of Bangladeshis on to the net and upgrade their lives believes Farhad. “We are already doing trial runs at some factories and the chat groups will help the worker to communicate directly with the bosses. The effort is on to identify how to increase the user experience. It is our first B2C platform and we are very excited,” shares Farhad. Going global is a very exciting challenge as WE smart solutions has launched the first ever locally hosted Cloud storage and Cloud computing solution. “There is so much that can be done on the IT platform and we are aware of the pitfalls, so our people are always on their toes to keep ahead of technology and be in touch with the industry…, if the connect is there the power of ‘WE’ will surround all with success,” concludes Farhad.