GUEST LECTURE REPORT

Program : Chairman Lecture Series (CLS) 2015

Date : 22nd September 2015 (Tuesday)
Time : 9.00 a.m
Place : Dewan Terbuka Keusahawanan, UMK Kampus Kota
Speaker : Tuan Haji Ali Hassan bin Mohd Hassan (Founder of Al-Ikhsan Sport Sdn Bhd)
Topic : Managing Acting in SMEs

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Tuan Haji Ali Hassan bin Mohd Hassan, the CEO of Al-Ikhsan Sports Sdn Bhd is chosen
as the presenter for this annual program for 2015. He comes from Skudai, Johor with a
qualification of Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in
1993 has proven to the world that with the 21 years of experience in business can bring himself
to claim the title as among 80 top brands in the world with the large network. Involving himself
in corporation since 1994, he has a lot of know-how to stand in business career. In fact, he was
one of the best student of UTM and actually got an offer to pursue his study abroad but decided
to fulfill his interest to undertake business right after graduated from the university.
Tuan Haji Ali Hassan started his business selling T-shirt and sport apparels on a small
scale to colleagues and lecturers while pursuing his study at UTM with only RM50 as a capital.
Despite of the small capital, he could gain the maximum profits to make it as a big capital and
bring his business to the next level. Using the profit, he had enlarge the business by having a
bigger capital than the previous. His first business started in a cramped room of 150 square per
feet store in Holiday Plaza, Johor Baharu. When he first started the business, he said that it is so
hard to apply for a loan from the bank because of the size of the business is small and still new in
the market. And to be added it is because he doesnt have any background of entrepreneurship to
enable him to make a loan to enlarge his business.

After a lot of hard work, the real starter of Al-Ikhsan is said in 1994 when Tuan Haji Ali
Hassan began to seriously undertake the business in selling sport apparels and goods. It is right
after he freshly graduated from UTM. The demand of sport apparels is quite high and
overwhelming at that time as there is not much supplier who can supply these goods to customer
and sports being in a rise at that time as a current trend. As a result, people will search and
demand more for sports apparels, equipment and such. Starting by a small shop he had slowly
and continuously building one after one physical store with more stocks of sports apparel and
boots. Becoming the only one brand that supply this stuff to the consumers mostly in Malaysia,
Al-Ikhsan had turn into nations choice. Now, within 20 years of establishment, Al-Ikhsan has
grown up to over 130 outlets within Malaysia and being the most influential business in selling
sports equipment and apparels in the country.
In 2011, the company has been awarded as ASEAN Business Outstanding Award 2011
for Industry Class Sector Sports Retail by ASEAN Retail & Franchise Federation. Besides, the
Sports Good Intelligence Report ranked Al-Ikhsan as the 77th largest Sporting Goods Retailer in
The Galaxy. Steering aggressively to be the largest sports retailer in South East Asia, Al-Ikhsan is
differentiated from others by its exclusive and quality product range with competitive price they
attained directly from the suppliers to the brand. It can be proven as their vision is to be a world
class preferred Multi-Brands retail chain stores in South East Asia and the mission is to be a
leader in Sports Retail Industry in South East Asia. As for now Al-Ikhsan is already an authorised
dealer of many international brands such as Adidas, Nike, Kappa, Lotto, Reebok, Umbro,
Diadora, Puma and many more.
Tuan Haji Ali Hassan also have other companies as he had bought new property and
rented it to Al-Ikhsan Sports which is Empire Sports Sdn Bhd in 2002. Taking one step of widen
the career, Tuan Haji Ali Hassan has designed and produced local product in 2011 and named it
as AL Sports Sdn Bhd. The label is widely used amongst Malaysian itself. His passion did not
stop here. As an effort to release the label worldwide, he had authorized distribution in Malaysia
for ASICS brand from Japan in 2014 with Prestige Sports Sdn Bhd. This one great man did not
know how to stop as he continued his achievement with Italia Sportivo Sdn Bhd in 2015 and
authorized licensee in Malaysia for Lotto brand from Italy.

Tuan Haji Ali Hassan stated his own target for the business as he wished that he could
add the outlets or branches from 130 outlets within 21 years to 200 outlets by the end of this
year. It is not just a normal shop like he had opened up before but with a big scale store with a
high quality of equipment and a lot of goods. One of his wish list is to start up the sports shop
with a cage or futsal center to test the speed of the kick for people who wished to be a footballer.
This is why he aimed for a bigger store. The customer could really test their kicks speed using
various types of sports shoes available at the shop or once they had purchased their favorite
boots. They can compare their kick to the famous football players in the world. It will attract the
customer to come more often to the store as the visitors comes from the football or futsal addict.
He also stated that he hope the brand Al-Ikhsan to be the biggest sports chain-retailer nationwide.

2.0 MANAGING ACTING IN SMEs

Tuan Haji Ali Hassan bin Mohd Hassan, the CEO of Al-Ikhsan Sports Sdn Bhd said that
there is a few of elements that should have been applied as an entrepreneur which is patience,
passion, hardworking and brave. This principle in business is easy to be followed by and all we
need to do is start off the day by doing something with the fullest energy and the rest is just left it
to the fate as long as it is comes along with a good intention. As for business, he said we need to
set up a positive mindset and throw away the negativity in order to create a clear mind on how
lead a business. So that a positive result will come along as long as we have a positive mindset
and energy.
Tuan Haji Ali Hassan also stated that as a Muslim, the basic things in business and even
in a life that we need to remember it for whole life is make sure to perform a prayer no matter
how busy you are as it is the main for the life. Besides, do care for the incapable human and
donate for them more often as the more we share the more we will be bless in life. The most
important in business said by Tuan Haji Ali is remember our parents everyday as without them
we would not be someone as we would be today. Parents blessings can give more success to our
life especially their prayer.
The entrepreneurship traits of Tuan Haji Ali Hassan that we need to follow is
hardworking. As someone who has just started the business, he is the strong man who does not
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know the meaning of giving up. Even though he failed to file a loan back then when he just
started the business, he has another strategy in order to expand his business. He is so persistence
when it comes about his passion in business. He started the business despite of having a small
capital and as a result he could have enlarge the business using the profit he gained. The
characteristics he have had bring him into the successful businessman he is right now. He did not
even mention about giving up and try to work harder as ever.
Another traits of Tuan Haji Ali Hassan that we as an entrepreneur should be taken as an
example is problem solving ability. This traits should have been applied when our plan did not
goes well as were wishing for. He said that during his first day of business he had a small and
cramped room to be start of. In that room he had grown out to be a lot better and could prove to
the world despite of not having any entrepreneurship background. Without his ability to solve out
the problem he should not have become as what he is appear today. Tuan Haji Ali Hassan also
gives advice to the students that we need to play a lot of strategies in order to double the profit
we earn. Do not stick to only one plan as we make another backup plan to save us from having a
trouble in the future.
Tuan Haji Ali Hassan also stated that as the beginner do not draw out too many plans or
else it will make us become greedy in chasing the future. Starting by doing something with what
we have today and focus on it. As for Tuan Haji himself, he started the business with RM50 of
capital after he failed to get a loan. He works 18 hours a day by using the only capital he have.
There is no shortcut to achieve a success. All we need is to be brave and have a confidence over
ourselves despite of the disadvantages. Brave ourselves to start a new thing because there will be
success over less work and negativity mind.
Back then when Tuan Haji Ali Hassan has just finished his studying, he failed to apply a
loan to start up his business. Searching for other initiatives, he even apply for some resources
under Sarawak to use it as his starter capital. It shows that he will never give up and always tries
his best to achieve his passion. By using a small capital he could prove to the business world that
he could be a successful entrepreneur. This could be achieve as long as an entrepreneur has set
his mind to do something that they want to do the most and work really hard to grab the chance.
Other than that, three premise of Al-Ikhsan around Lembah Klang have been broken by thief in a

three weeks period back then in 2012. The head supervisor of the branches said this incident
makes them be more aware to surrounding and take it as a challenge in business world.
Dr. Mohd Nor Hakimin bin Yusoff, Deputy Director of Institute for Small and Medium
Enterprises, as a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Business at Universiti
Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) said, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) plays an important role
in economic growth as it holds the 32% of total revenue of the country. Even though it is quite
low as compared to the developed country such as Japan and Singapore with 53% and 50%
respectively, the government had done many efforts in order to make it more efficiently. The
government had also imposed billions of fund for the development in the sector of SMEs to
encourage the small entrepreneurs businesses to stand as one of the giant business.
In 2014, the government allocated RM 9.8 billion to support the infrastructures and
development for SMEs with the hope that SMEs can improve more than it already has and could
contribute better to the countrys revenue. This situation shows that government had done every
ways they could to help and support SMEs in Malaysia and being concern towards the
development of SMEs. However, almost half of the SMEs fail to use the advantage given as they
fail to submit a complete document of capital allocation. Based on the research by Dr. Mohd Nor
Hakimin himself, 45% of SMEs especially bumiputera failed to earn the financial funds facilities
provided by the government even though there is almost 164 programs provided by the
government for the them. Meanwhile 20% of the SMEs did not even register their business to the
respective authorities.
Dr. Mohd Nor Hakimin also stated that almost half of the SMEs failed to utilize the
opportunities given. Based on the research, this failure is due to the failure to submit a complete
document which is an accounting report. There is two types of financial which is financial
accounting and management accounting. Both financials need to be completed using the
previous data and it became the main document we could use to represent our firm. As example,
to make a loan at the bank, the first thing that we could be asked is our financial report as it
provides the information of the performance of our businesses. Based on Companies Act 1965,
each Sdn Bhds firms need to submit their financial report every year and need to audit the report
for every April of the year.

The main factor that contribute to either the success or the failure of a business is their
management skills. With the limited capital, a small business who just start up the business were
facing a difficulty to stand as a stable business. A skillful entrepreneur would know how and
where to seek for a help either from agencies or any NGOs. Second, less skilled workers. It is
important to have a good quality of workers as it will result to a good production team and
productive result. Third, no strategic place for the business. A wise decision to find a good place
need to be done since the start to attract the targeted customers easily and the niche for the
product. Lastly, the owner or the manager does not have a proper time to do a planning for their
business. As the head of the business, they need to lead the business and people under them
efficiently in order to achieve a good production team that will be resulted in a better result of the
performance of the business.
Dr. Mohd Nor Hakimin said that 70% of the SMEs is micro-sized with the total revenue
not more than RM300 000 a year and the limit of the income is did not reach RM50 millions
total or else the business is defined as a large company. As for the staff, their full time employee
is not more than 5 people. Based on the research and his reading, SMEs has its own weakness as
it is unique just by looking from the characteristics of the SMEs. Starting the business with the
small size, the firm has a low and limited initial capital. Most of micro-sized SMEs does not
have a competent team because they did not have a professional workers and teams yet. To
recruit the skillful workers, it is a lot of investments need to be done. Tuan Haji Ali Hassan
started off the business from sole proprietorship enterprise and the company has evolved to
Private Limited Company Al-Ikhsan Sports Sdn Bhd.
The limited financial will lead the SMEs to become an owner-manager which is the
entrepreneur himself or herself is both the owner and the manager. Most of the micro-sized
SMEs is owner-manager type as the same person need to open the shop, guard the counter and
manage the business report all by themselves. The SMEs that seems to work all by themselves is
being known as a lone-ranger. The owner or the manager need to do everything by themselves as
they cannot hire the professional and skillful workers and team with the low capital. This is why
they were defined as micro-sized SMEs as they have a small organization and production team.
At the starter of Al-Ikhsan, Tuan Haji Ali Hassan managed his own business and becoming
owner at the same time. He is the only one that worked the business and develop it until as it is
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already established now. As one of the successful entrepreneur, he could be set as role model for
a new and young entrepreneur to involve in business world.
Behind of the scenes of the successful of Al-Ikhsan Sdn Bhd would be from how wellmanaged the production team would be. Tuan Haji Ali Hassan trained his workers really well and
take care their welfare not only the workers but also to the extent of the workers personal life. If
they happy in real life, they were willing to work with sincere and full-content heart as it will
turn into the best result in anything they were doing. The relationship among the workers is as
close as family and it will help them to build the chemistry among them because with a good
understanding they can work better at a high performance. Once in a year, they will be doing
iftar during Ramadhan for Muslim staffs and celebrate Hari Raya together. Activities like this can
bring an exposure on the staffs performance in order to have a strong professional relationship
between each of them and the managers. This could have driven a positive impact to the growth
of the business as well as the performance of each staffs.

3.0 CONCLUSIONS
As the entrepreneurs, we need to play and try other different strategies in order to double
the profit we want to gain. Learn it from the other big companies whether worldwide or the local
one on how they could understand the demand from the customers. As the customer, they would
not asked much than the price has to be low and could afford by them, the facilities is
comfortable and it is easily mobilize. Tuan Haji Ali Hassan gave an example which is
McDonald. The youngsters nowadays love to spend their time almost half a day at the
McDonald. It is not because they could get the nice and affordable burger there, but also the
facilities provided suits them very well. They could have a place to sit and chatting with their
friends while eating and they have free internet connection. It will attract more students or
internet users to visit their store. It is successfully proven as McDonald has opened up a lot of
franchise worldwide and Malaysia is no exception.
What did I learnt from the entrepreneur, Tuan Haji Ali Hassan bin Mohd Hassan is it is
not important on how great you had started in business as long as you could maintain the
business stable till the very end. As the entrepreneur who aim for a bigger achievement, we need
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to think positive on everything we do even the smallest thing. For sure, the result will be positive
as what we think as long as there is a continuous efforts. There is no need to think on what
people around you had said about you. It is all about you and your planning to do a business.
They need to have a clear understanding on the target they want to achieve in business and try to
accomplish it step by step.
Next, as an entrepreneur we need to have a great connection with the partnership as we
could improve better if we could cooperate. The ideas could be more intelligent and we could
think from outside the box on how to manage the business. The marketing strategies need to be
done with a lot of preparations. This is because it is not just to reach the target sales and
customers but also to build the business stable so that we could stand for a long time. Besides,
we need to know how to minimum the cost and how to maximize the profit so that we can reach
the optimum production. We need to set up the preparation and create the strategies to use the
capital as low as we can but in the same we can gain double profit.
Besides, the workers organization is important as it could affect the way they works. This
could strengthen the relationship among the workers or staffs. The good relationship among the
workers could give a positive effect to the production of the company. For example, Al-Ikhsan
take a good care of their workers welfare and they also held many programs together such as
iftar and Raya celebrations. The entrepreneur told us that the marketing and strategies is not the
only one that we need to care once we start up the business, but also the workers organization.
All the young and new entrepreneurs who had just started their business need to sit and
listen to the speech or talk by the world known big-influenced entrepreneurs. The sharing is not
only to teach them on how to start the business but also could be used to improve their business
better and the management skills. As the sharing is full with knowledge and experience, it is
worth to spend a time and money to hear to the talk held by certain organization in order to move
your business to the big scale company. Besides, it could also motivates them to physically and
mentally work hard to do in everything. They could take them as an idol or role model in this
business career and working hard to be like them one days. We need to prepare both mental and
physical once we start up with business to go through all the ups and downs in business.
An entrepreneur need to practice the characteristics of the entrepreneurship in their daily
life such as initiative, persistence, information seeking, assertiveness, persuasion and many more
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in order to become a great entrepreneurs. It is not hard if we practice to work harder and
persistence. For example, the entrepreneur will be able to make repeated efforts or to take
different actions to overcome an obstacle that gets in the way of reaching his or her goals. If we
relate this passion to Tuan Haji Ali Hassans passion, we could see that he starts up his business
with the small capital while pursuing his study and selling local branded goods. With the profits
he got, he managed to open up the small store. It shows us that he never give up and tried many
ways to make his brand known worldwide.
The speech is a lot of help and worth to listen to. All the speakers are very great and has a
lot of experiences to share with the students of entrepreneur. They could take it as a first move to
also start their own business one days. It is significant with the objective of CLS and UMKs
motto that is Entrepreneurship is our Thrust, in achieving the real concept of success and
excellence through the communitys life long learning process. All the students are able to learn
and discover a lot of new things, current approaches, latest practices and first move regarding
entrepreneurship as a preparation for us to meet and face the challenges in the real world once
we graduates. The entrepreneur does not just gave us the tips on how to start our business but
also lift our spirit to achieve success in our life.