Kazi Fahad, Founder of Kazi Kings, Managing Director of Kazi Printing and Accessories Ltd. and Corporate Box by Kazi, Managing Partner of Hexa Dine, Director of BAYLA and JCI Bangladesh. A successful entrepreneur & a sports fanatic person and also a great family man. It has been a pleasure of mine to get introduced to his talents. I recently got an opportunity to take his interview and get to know more about his works. I believe all these are worth of sharing; after going through the following highlights, anyone will have the same belief as mine.
Q. Hello Fahad, how are you?
Hello Mariha, Alhamdulillah I am doing great.
Q. Tell us something about yourself. Your academics, interests.
I had completed my Master’s Degree from North South University. I love to spend time with my friends and family when I am not working. I am also a sports fanatic.
Q. Please let us know about your work.
Kazi Printing & Accessories is one of the leading companies in the accessories manufacturer of Bangladesh RMG sector. We are focused right now on continuous improvement in all quality-related activities and innovation and sustainability in products. Corporate Box, on the other hand, is committed to building brands through premium quality corporate gifts. Hexa Dine is my latest venture, and it is an homage to my love for continental food and is a fine dining experience that you should not miss out on. Being a sports fanatic, Kazi Kings is one of cricket if them.
Q. Your field of work is different from each other. How do you manage to incorporate all of them into your life? What is your strategy for working in such diverse fields at a time?
Think about your most important values and how you want to spend your time; manage other people’s expectations, take care of your health, learn to say no, plan fun activities for your time. Urgent and important, Neither urgent nor important. We human beings are designed to take up an immense number of difficulties when it comes to the things we love. I believe that it is crucial to have a genuine passion for your work, and that is how I have been able to handle all of these things at once. Each of the ventures I am committed to involving things I love, as diverse as they may be.
Q. How do you plan your life? How do you maintain the work-life balance? How do you give time to your family and yourself as well?
Work-life balance is something we all struggle with at some point in our lives, especially during the pandemic now that everything is mixed up. It is essential to have a proper schedule and stick to it to ensure time for yourself and your loved ones.
Q. How important a role did your family members play in building up your career?
When I graduated from North South University and got into the printing and accessories industry, I realised that needed a good liaison with buying houses to be able to explore this field. I was completely new to this and had no idea about buying houses or building a good relationship with them. This is where my sister, Hasina Akter Baby, Managing Director of Cordial Design Ltd, stepped in. She guided me through this and much more, and without her help, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Q. What do you think that who was the most supportive person till today?
As I said earlier, my sister has been integral to my career, and besides her, my wife has also been of enormous support to me as she motivates me every day.
Q. How is this pandemic affecting your work? How are you coping up with the challenges you are facing because of the pandemic?
As an accessory supplier, our main challenge is the smooth supply chain which has faced many disruptions due to the waves of COVID-19. We also face some challenges in Back-to-Back L/C when we work with garments. We also face contradictory with EPZ factories for exp. Careless attitude by garments owners is another area to be addressed. However, the industry is developing so fast; our commerce ministry is relentlessly working for the smoothness in the land port as well as Chittogram port. If we can change before mentioned concept, our accessories industry can support the growth of our RMG sector better. The pandemic has definitely made work more difficult, but we must all stay strong and survive this ordeal.
Q. There’s a rise in the rate of unemployed people in this country. Pandemic has accelerated the problem even more. What sort of initiative did you take to help with that?
I am trying to donate to my community, offering the job to my nearing one.
Q. What was the biggest obstacle that you had to face in this entire journey and what was your strategy for tackling that?
From my experience, the common problems were: lack of funds for scaling up, lack of connections for scaling up, problems in accessing the market, lack of skills of founders, lack of skilled workforce, and last but not least, lack of public and private support (although a lot has been done in this context).
Q. As per your knowledge, what was your most brilliant business strategy?
A business strategy helps you identify the key steps to take to reach your business goals. A business strategy is intended to help you reach your business objectives. With a vision for the direction of the business, you can create clear instructions in the business strategy for what needs to be done and who is responsible for completing each step.
Q. What is the one quality that everyone should have before taking the initiative to become an entrepreneur?
Being an entrepreneur requires specific skills. While some abilities might be naturally present, others can be learned or developed through careful practice. Understanding the qualities needed by entrepreneurs can help you grow to become a better business leader. I believe an entrepreneur must have some Characteristics. These are Creativity, Passion, Motivation, Product or service knowledge, Ability to network, Self-confidence, Optimism, Vision, Risk-taking, Decision-making, And Money management.
Q. You have gained success at a very early age. Your life is the dream of many youths out there. How does that make you feel about yourself?
It’s essential to define what you mean by success. It usually means accumulating a large sum of money; for others, it’s building something interesting. For me being successful is being able to learn something successfully. And I suppose in that sense I have been successful. Success means different things to different people, and you want to be careful with not confusing being successful with overachievement. Dreams do come true with just enough hard work and patience.
Q. You have worked with many youths, I believe. Do you think Bangladeshi youths are eligible enough to go for a startup at this period?
Almost every generation born on this land has given their blood, sweat, and tears to build the nation that we live in today. So I believe that we Bangladeshis are just built to be hard workers and dreamers, and the youth I have met are testament to that. These qualities also make us the perfect entrepreneurs, and I hope more youth use this potential in them and venture into startups.
Q. Would you encourage any other Bangladeshi youth to develop business in this manner or field?
Young minds have been scientifically proven to be more creative and capable of coming up with out-of-the-box solutions than older and experienced mindsets. It is a common fact that mental sharpness and agility decrease with age, and the schooling age—mostly from classes 8 to 12 (2nd year of college), the mental acumen of a child is at its peak.
Last but not least, there needs to be integration between Start-up Bangladesh and other ministries, such as the Education Ministry, to modify curriculums and encourage youth entrepreneurship. I highly encourage Bangladeshi youth to enter into this industry so they can sustain this growth and ensure that it only goes upwards from here.
Q. In the future, where do you want to see yourself?
In the future, I see not only myself but the entire country working towards sustainability. While we have already made sustainability a focus of our operations, I want to be able to reduce waste further and produce more eco-friendly products. It is high time that we, as a nation, respond more to the global environmental crisis because we will suffer the most from the consequences. I also want to contribute to youth development and help the youth of our country turn their dreams into reality.
