People are the most important assets of any company

The founder of A B Business Enterprises, a Rs. 400 crore business conglomerate, A Afzal, who started his car rental service with a single Ambassador car in 1980 and later expanded the business from transportation to other sectors like restaurants, automobiles, holidays, and logistics, received The Weekend Leader – VIT Amazing Entrepreneur Award at a function in VIT Vellore on Wednesday.

A Afzal, Managing Director, A B Business Enterprises, with The Weekend Leader - VIT Amazing Entrepreneur trophy (Photos: H K Rajashekar)

Dr. S Narayanan, Pro Vice Chancellor, VIT, presented the award to Afzal, who was featured in The Weekend Leader’s Amazing Entrepreneurs series.

Later, addressing the students of VIT Business School, Afzal shared some of the secrets of his success and iterated the importance of carefully testing a business plan with a small sample size before implementing it, and choosing the right people to work for one’s organisation.

“People are the most important assets of any company,” Afzal pointed out and went on to list out the welfare measures that their flagship company, ‘Parveen Travels’ offers for its drivers.

Throughout his speech, Afzal reiterated that without hard work there was no success

He said the company offered educational scholarships for the children of drivers and other benefits for their families. 

“Some people wonder how we are able to manage so many drivers when they find it difficult to deal with a single driver. We understand their problems and take care of their families. So they don’t worry about their families and they work for the organisation,” Afzal said.

The 53-year-old entrepreneur said execution of plans was crucial for success.

Dr. S Narayanan, Pro Vice Chancellor, VIT University, presenting The Weekend Leader - VIT Amazing Entrepreneur trophy to A Afzal. Also seen in the picture are Dr. Kalyani, Dean, VIT Business School and P C Vinoj Kumar, Editor, The Weekend Leader

“The difference between your company and your competitor is the ability to execute,” he said, quoting from ‘Execution: The discipline of getting things done’ by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan.

Throughout his address Afzal dwelt on the theme that there was no shortcut to success and one cannot expect to achieve success overnight.

“The youth of today think that they can get everything through the click of a button. It is not that easy. Someone has worked hard for the information that you get on Google.

Rajashekar Reddy, MBA first year student, receiving the 'best question' prize from Afzal

“No success can come overnight. You have to work hard for years, may be for two decades or three decades,” he said.

Afzal advised the youth to strike a good work-life balance, go to bed early and rise early.

“Staying up late at night disturbs the human metabolism,” he said, and suggested that one should develop personal habits like “exercising regularly, planning the day well ahead, and time/ resource management”

Students' selfie moment with the star of the day

Afzal later interacted with VIT B School students and the session was moderated by P C Vinoj Kumar, Editor, The Weekend Leader. Earlier, Dr. Kalyani Rangarajan, Dean, VIT Business School, addressed the gathering. - TWL Bureau