Lessons from a life in business
Shaharudin Farouk
Executive Director, Menara Group · Mentor
A Malaysian business leader with decades of experience directing and growing companies. I write this page as a mentor, freely sharing the lessons, steps and hard-earned wisdom of a life in business: how to build, how to endure difficult seasons, and how to hold firm to faith in Allah, The Provider.
Leadership in practice
Shaharudin Farouk serves as Executive Director of Menara Group, a Malaysian business group headquartered in Shah Alam, Selangor. Across his career he has directed organisations through growth, restructuring and change, with interests spanning property, healthcare and services.
“Good mentorship is not about giving answers. It is about asking the questions you have been avoiding.”
Mentorship through knowledge
I do not offer sessions or consultations. Instead, these pages carry what I have learnt, for anyone starting out, scaling up, or steering a business through difficulty.
Business direction
Clarifying your vision, choosing what not to do, and building a plan that survives contact with reality.
Leading people
Managing teams, making hard calls, and growing from operator into leader.
Running the business
Cash flow discipline, systems, suppliers and the daily habits that keep a company healthy. Never treat the company's bank account as your personal account. Pay yourself a salary like everyone else, and let the business keep its own money.
Be a leader who keeps the family together
Lead without being self-centered. Put unity, fairness and shared purpose before personal gain. When the leader serves the family instead of himself, both the family and the business stay whole.
Building a business that lasts
Guard your cash
Profit is an opinion; cash is a fact. Know your numbers weekly, collect what you are owed, and keep reserves before you keep appearances.
Choose what not to do
Most businesses fail from too many directions, not too few. Focus on the customers you serve best and say no to the rest, for now.
Build people, not just profit
A business grows at the speed of trust. Pay fairly, teach generously, and keep your word even when it costs you.
Let reputation compound
Integrity is slow money. One honest decade builds what no advertisement can buy, and one shortcut can destroy it in a day.
Never stop learning
Markets change, tools change, customers change. The leader who stops learning has already started closing down.
A recession is not the end
Every downturn I have lived through felt like the end at the time. None of them were. Hard seasons are the classroom where real skill and experience are earned. The leaders who endure them come out sharper, leaner and wiser.
Face the numbers fast
Cut costs before you are forced to, and speak to your bank and suppliers before problems become emergencies. Early honesty buys time; delay buys nothing.
Keep your best people
Machines and offices can be replaced; a loyal, capable team cannot. Protect the people who will rebuild with you when the season turns.
Serve what remains
Even in recession, people still eat, heal, learn and repair. Demand does not disappear; it moves. Follow it humbly and adapt your offer.
Outlast, then outgrow
Recovery always comes, and it rewards those still standing. Survive with discipline, and you will expand into the space others left behind.
Allah is The Provider
Everything I have built rests on one belief: rezeki comes from Allah, Ar-Razzaq, The Provider. Our duty is ikhtiar, honest effort; tawakkul, trust in Him after the effort; sabr, patience in hardship; and syukur, gratitude in ease. A business is an amanah, a trust. Run it cleanly, and no downturn can take away what has been written for you.
“And whoever puts their trust in Allah — He is sufficient for them.” — Surah At-Talaq, 65:3
Touch
Office
23 & 25, Jalan Tengku Ampuan Zabedah 9F/F,
40100 Shah Alam,
Selangor, Malaysia