From engineering to business, “I am my own capital” – Sohpian Ariffin

By Aina Mardhia Ismail

GOMBAK, 7 November 2020: From the forthright background in electrical engineering, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Hadid Engineering (M) Sdn. Bhd., Sohpian Bin Ariffin, started off by investing in himself as the initial capital to pave his way into the complex business world.

Sohpian spoke from his own experience of having little to no capital in starting his now spearheaded Malaysian company that had first infiltrated into the Kazakhstan market. He started with investing in himself as the initial capital with knowledge in business management since studying in university.

To prepare himself in business, Sohpian started with improving his habit, attitude, presentation and delivery skills to mould his thinking in entrepreneurship and business away from his background of engineering.

Sohpian emphasised that great attitude reflects great performance in the workplace – a crucial aspect to look forward in an employee.

In addition to that, he also read books and materials that provide solutions to business management and managed his target of reading one or two books weekly.

The difference in his degree in engineering had forced him to finance extra effort to fit into the complex world of business, Sohpian reflected.

He stressed the idea of doing it in the now as he recalled the Hadid Engineering had been registered since he was still studying for his bachelor’s degree with no proper idea of what the business he would be doing would look like.

To the question on how to maintain momentum in business by being creative in managing it, Sohpian reacted: “One of the ways to do that to not keep all your eggs in one basket, instead explore and discover markets that fewer people are competing in, known as the Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS).”

Sohpian proceeded with sharing how the decision of implementing BOS to Hadid Engineering took a big leap in venturing into the two countries in Central Asia, which had successfully opened up doors to keep his business running even in this time of the pandemic.

Having experienced in electrical engineering as a technician to a manager in the span of five years before letting go of all positions and fully committed to his business, Sohpian highlights that being in the state of tawakkal after exerting effort and making du’a, are the important processes in his career.

He emphasised that student life has the privilege to being a try and error and stressed that it is completely okay to fail.

“Never avoid failure. Accept failure as apart of our life. It is normal to be sad but always pick yourself up and move forward,” Sohpian added.

The sharing session today entitled “How to start a business without capital” was held for an hour on Instagram Live by Steadfast IIUM Instagram account, a facilitator-based club under the Centre for Community Engagement and Services (CENSERVE) IIUM. ***

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