A person, in his lifetime, goes through all of life’s phases laughing and crying, experiencing and learning, facing insurmountable walls and breaking them down. Yes, every life story makes a good read. But there are certain people whose stories become something beyond a good read; inspirational. In today’s India, where population keeps growing as does unemployment, where an endless crowd throngs the cities for a limited number of opportunities, the biggest priority becomes creation of jobs. And this can be done by entrepreneurs with original ideas and marketing abilities to make the idea work. One such person who is a social entrepreneur is Dr. Tausif Malik.
THE FIRST STEP BY DR. TAUSIF MALIK
A college going kid disinterested in becoming an engineer or a doctor, Tausif wanted to explore his options and dropped out of college. In a session organized at a German learning program, he realized during designing a small play that he was good at entertaining people. Interested and enthused in finding out more about this creative side of his, he decided to get into the glamorous field of cinema leaving behind an opportunity in sales abroad. But with a small suggestion from his mentor Prof.Asad Zafir Hassan “Saadi Sir”, he resolved to transform his film dreams to advertising rightly due to the practicality of achieving success being better in the latter. This was the early 1990’s and the advertisement industry hardly had any business from the flourishing IT sector. The advertising industry itself was in dire need of new products, services and organizations to promote. Tausif, hardly 20 years old, was then working at Western Advertising and Marketing Services (WAMS). If there is anything that could refashion the demand and supply of an entire industry and make a pioneer of a kid, it is a brilliant idea which in this case was the brainchild of Tausif Malik. The idea of promoting and advertising job opportunities through a recruitment advertisement for the big IT companies provided a huge untapped market. The output was wider reach and better brand imaging for the companies which was completely different to boring and unnoticeable ads given in the newspapers. This recruitment advertisement became a large sector which keeps providing a demand to the advertisement industry even today. This success would not be possible without the support of the team and Mrs.VijayaIaxmi Menon, Founder of Western Advertising and Marketing Services (WAMS).
Tausif learnt business and entrepreneurship earIy on, when as a kid he would be participating at his maternal grandfather business, where his grandfather Shaikh Ibrahim and his uncle Shaikh Ishaque.
BECKONING OF THE ARAB STATES
After a short stint of establishing a celebrity information website with his mentor-professor and Lucky Ali, a famous Bollywood pop singer, he went to Dubai where unintentionally he got a job and made an amazing career. As a thinker whose mind is always at work and sees something new where everyone sees nothing, this time too he noticed many shortcomings in the rich and prosperous Arab states. The first thing on that list was nothing but garbage. Dubai was the 2nd largest producer of garbage and the pollution was no less too. He then began an environmental campaign which he presented to the Mrs. Habiba Ai Marashi, Chairwoman – Emirates Environmental Group (EEG) which later on became globally famous. Another interesting situation that he came to notice was the absence of a PR company in the country of Oman. In the year of 2000, he got a job in a pioneering market research company in Dubai and Oman. During this time, he created the Sultanate of Oman’s first PR firm ‘SIMPA PR’ for SIMPA Marketing Research and a press club in Oman and organized many events and workshops for which he invited the counselor generals of various countries as speakers. This gave him a recognition in the marketing industry as a successful and creative pioneer which led to the opportunity of being a small yet effective and proud part of the book “Doing business with Oman” in 2001 by the government of Oman as a co-author.
Like the insuppressible fierce waters of flood that break down any barriers in its path, the progress of an ideator is unstoppable. Tausif Malik was eventually made Head of the Dubai division of his organization. A great learning experience was in the waiting for him through his Senior Management Michael Hilton and Basaam Hassouna. Imbibing the motto of “Never overprice or undersell”, he became more and more proficient as a speaker and negotiator by inculcating “Power of Focus”. While working over a project of a cosmetics company, he had to promote and publicize cosmetics for kids. His heart not accepting to rob the childhood innocence by promoting such products, he quit.
THE NEXT STOP, “LAND OF DREAMS”, AMERICA
Having a career spanning a decade in branding and marketing, he was asked to give a guest lecture and workshop at Symbiosis, Pune which in the future he pursued a career in, as a guest faculty in various business administration institutions. After a short time in India, America summoned him in 2007. He perceived the need for a platform to motivate and appreciate Muslim kids and founded TMA worldwide which manages and organizes events such as competitions, quizzes and festivals. He set in motion, an event which became the perfect stage for Muslim kids in America to prove their mettle and show their talent. It was the Muslim Spelling Bee, which in a short span became the 2nd biggest Spelling Bee competition in the United States of America. Muslim Spelling Bee competitions are heId in PubIic-Private partnership with community schools. The regional Muslim Spelling Bee competitions offer opportunities for IocaI vendors to seII and promote their goods to the attendees and National & regional brands get an opportunity to promote themselves. During his stay in America, he pursued and earned Doctored in Business Administration (DBA) from Argosy University in Chicago. A strong believer in informal and practical education, he states that his doctoral thesis was nothing theoretical or text bookish, but kind of a marketing report about “Online purchase of American Muslim Consumers and Word of Mouth (WOM)”. The American Muslim Consumers market is valued about $170 Billion and there is not a single marketing delivery platform to target this market.
He said that “ My mother took me to many competitions, but I never won, she said did you work hard, yes I used to say, then she would say your time wiII come, InshaAIIah. Tausif never won a singIe competition, but now is the creator of America’s Second Largest competition with Uk and India edition, he attributes aII his success to his mothers blessings.
BACK TO INDIA, NOW TO MENTOR AND GUIDE
After taking on the world, Dr. Tausif Malik admits, “I am a doctor, just like my father wanted, but not the kind he expected.” His keen observation skills still in play, he noticed the enthusiasm of many youngsters all over India who wanted to be entrepreneurs. This is when he got the idea to conduct India’s 1st national level start up fest, “IndianStartupFest.com”. Already tasting success with Indian Muslim Entrepreneur show by then, the organization of this festival was impeccable. The intention behind conducting the fest was to encourage and provide a platform to everyone without any restrictions or discriminations. It is to provide voice and backing, to people who come up with creative and innovative thoughts. He will be launching “New Swadeshi Movement” website to promote businesses. He laments that a lot of today’s entrepreneurs do not come up with original ideas and many start ups offer similar products or services. He also advices them not to get into the habit of selling away their organizations as a startup is as good as the one who founded it and as strong as his belief in it.
THE RIGHT MIX OF INGREDIENTS TO BECOME A GOOD ENTREPRENEUR
A few minutes into listening to Dr. Tausif Malik, it becomes very clear that he is, in a true sense, an explorer, observer, creator and innovator. Right from when he was a teenager, he explored his interests and strengths. He listened to his heart and followed its instincts to get into advertising. He explored new and untrodden grounds with great observation and became a creator of many organizations. He never backed away from opportunities and was courageous enough to readily take a step into the unknown. His ability and interest to learn brought him positive results wherever he went. His unwavering confidence reflects in every word he speaks. He displays immense positivity and presence which every entrepreneur must possess. His other Startup Festival includes www.Schoolpreneur.Biz, WorId’s First Startup Fest for ChiIdren and www.GCCStartupFest.com, MiddIe East (GuIf countries) first regional Startup Fest.
Tausif is great-full to everyone who was part of his journey, without their support it wouldn’t be possible. Read more Entrepreneur Stories.
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