One Journey, Three Companies CEO in 18 Years

A nonhereditary succession of a man who dedicated his career to ceramics, an insider’s view on this patron’s journey, and some heart-rending moments taken as life lessons.

From being a brand development executive at Shinepukur Ceramics to becoming CEO of Artisan Ceramics Ltd., M. Mamunur Rashid has walked down almost every road and tackled countless challenges, making him the ceramic leader he is today. To treasure these experiences in our gallery, Ceramic Bangladesh recently had the opportunity to sit with him.

“Culturally we’ve all had ceramics and earthenware infused into our lives from childhood,” said Mr. Rashid, whose story is similar- his father Mr. Mohammad Ali at Habib Bank in Pakistan when Mr. Rashid was introduced to beautiful Japanese tableware. “I still remember my father’s collections. The ceramic body was crackled and the flowers on them looked like mosaics. We played with those, and even broke a few,” he said. His family returned to Bangladesh a week before the liberation war started and his father joined Janata Bank. Upon completion of M.Sc from Dhaka University, Mr. Rashid joined Shinepukur Ceramics Ltd, a BEXIMCO Group concern, and started his ceramic journey.

Looking back Mr. Rashid toiled seven and a half years with Shinepukur, and the same amount of time with FARR Ceramics. He is now the CEO at Artisan for five years. Here is his ceramic journey in brief: While a novice Mr. Rashid started his career at Marketing section of Shinepukur Ceramics in 1999. Under the mentorship of Mr. Mahmudur Rahman, he contributed to establishing the International Ceramics Tableware Brand “DOEL” in the Indian market. He also worked closely with company Vice Chairman Mr. Salman F. Rahman. “I was a senior executive, but I was selected to work with him directly,” he said. The first job taught Mr. Rashid a lot about marketing and brand development.

7years with Tableware Mr. Rashid joined another ceramic tableware company, FARR Ceramics, during its inception in 2007. It then was introducing the newest technology. However, Mr. Rashid realized that his colleagues had the impression that FARR’s technology would fail. People apprehended that Open Firing was risky! The firing system was much faster, and about 30% fuel efficient – a factor which reduces cost of production. FARR’s technology still succeeded, and the Germans had to come in with similar technology and result-driven evidence to convince other companies to adopt it. Mr. Rashid recalled, “MD of FARR (late) Mr. Iftekhar Uddin Farhad always knew how to pick the right person consider the man my idol because of how well he understood people.”

An export miracle Mr. Rashid was put under a lot of pressure on the second or third day of joining FARR Ceramics. Mr. Farhad asked him for a new export client in a week. He took up the challenge. He knew he had to reach out to the most approachable international connection he could find, a company that trusted him, and henceforth, would be easier to sell to. He invited some clients from Delhi on a subsidized trip to Bangladesh. They were convinced seeing the products quality and the technology, and ordered a size of two containers. All this happened within 28 days of Mr. Rashid’s joining. “Mr. Farhad told me, ‘You saved me! I invested a lot of capital in machineries,” Mr. Rashid said.

Sky is the limit An adventurous soul, Mr. Rashid was looking for a more suitable place to unleash his full potential. His colleague from BEXIMCO, the CEO of Artisan Ceramics a concern of Finlays by this time, brought him in as a general manager in 2016. Realizing that the product designs needed to change for the international market, he worked with the R&D team, innovated, and redesigned Artisans products in keeping with global trends. The company came in second for the National Export Trophy in FY2018, winning the trophy 4 times in the following years consecutively. This was possible due to unconditional support and highest level of cooperation extended by the honorable Board of Directors and iconic business personals of Finlays. Artisan ceramics has seen 3.0 times expansion. It has a capacity of producing seven tonnes of 100% pure porcelain tableware, and is selling to clients in most of the continent like: Europe, Asia, USA, and some North & South American countries. Mr. Rashid believes secrets to Artisan’s success are the superiors who never intervened, quality, and customer relationship. “I cherish relationships and always put effort into them and it has paid off so far,” Mr. Rashid added.

Deep diving into Mr. Rashid’s business philosophy: 1. Mr. Rashid sells trust and assurance, both of which he highly values. 2. To retain customers and get referred, there should be after sales service. 3. A company needs to adapt with the ever-evolving trends. Senior employees in the industry sometimes have a hard time changing their old ways- they need training and habituation. 4. You have to unlearn certain ways and be open to relearning, that’s adaptation. 5. “We have exceptional manpower; we need to train them. Our international rivals cannot compare manpower with us because our manpower is available and competitive.”

A quick-fire round: When asked ‘what is the biggest hurdle you’ve faced in your life?’, Mr. Rashid said changing his Job was the biggest hurdle. To gain his expertise in marketing and production, he spent a lot of time in the factories learning every bit of the trade. “A marketing guy should be able to look at a product and know it’s worth,” he said. “S/he should be able to derive what s/he want from simple instructive annotations.” With hobbies to collect stamps, reading and travelling, his passion now is ceramics and dream that this sector will grow boundlessly. “If the government supports more, they can do even better for the country,” he added. He likes vocalist James and is close to Azam Khan’s circle. Ayub Bacchu is also a personal favourite. He reads stories of CEOs and enjoys reading people’s experiences. End of quick fire Ceramics goes through many phases of production before that single product is sent to grace the shelves in an outlet. There are substitutes like melamine, plastic, stainless steel and glassware. With utmost concern, he urges the BSTI to ensure quality and the regulatory board to emphasise quality in products. Out of sheer love for what he does, he had only one thing to say about his profession and the ceramic industry, “I’m here till the end.