Stories

362km away from his hometown, Dungun, Hadi started his first-ever professional working experience in the heart of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. He was selected to undergo the one-year on-the-job training under Ekuinas’ ILTIZAM Professional Development Programme (PDP) and was placed at one of ILTIZAM PDP partner companies, FashionValet as Software QA, Executive Trainee. Hadi graduated from Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) with a Bachelor (Hons) of Technology Management (Innovation Technology).

“The first three months of work were difficult. I struggled to adapt to the work environment and my communications skills really set me back. At times, I felt as if I was slowing the team down as I had to learn things from the ground up. I felt like giving up.

“Thankfully, the persistent support and mentoring from the ILTIZAM team and coaches were really helpful for me to improve myself and the situation. One of the advices that I took to heart was to stop assuming about people and be bold with anything that comes your way. Also, the programme’s modules such as problem-solving skills, developing soft skills and communication skills equipped me to build a solid foundation which elevated my self-confidence,” explained Hadi.

Looking back at the year, there were many achievements that he was proud of but one stood out the most. He was entrusted to represent his company in a meeting with two other representatives from China and Russia to discuss a potential project collaboration. To top it off, that project is now a reality.

“Do not be afraid of anything. No doubt there are a lot of negative outcomes that you could be afraid of, but there are also a lot of positive outcomes that you can look forward to,” shared Hadi on what his advice would be for fresh graduates.

Hadi graduated from the one-year programme with Distinction. He was also awarded ILTIZAM PDP 2020’s Best Trainee. Before the programme ended, he was offered a permanent position at FashionValet as Software QA, Executive.

Pertubuhan Bantuan Islam Malaysia/Islamic Aid Association Malaysia (IAM) or formerly known as IRM Association is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) involved in humanitarian activities. IAM focuses on people from disadvantaged backgrounds and also involved in specific relief activities during festive seasons in Malaysia for instance, Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Chinese New Year and Deepavali, as well as emergency relief for people affected by natural disasters or pandemic.

The beneficiaries are within the B40 income bracket, focusing on single mothers with many children, senior citizens, families with disabilities and families with many children. Assistance provided comes in the form of food packages containing daily necessities such as rice, sugar, salt and many others and are distributed to communities living at Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) flats around Kuala Lumpur.

IAM collaboration with ILTIZAM started in 2018 and since then, ILTIZAM has been supporting IAM’s Jejak Prihatin Imarah Ramadan every year. The collaboration also extended when the pandemic hit and the Movement Control Order was implemented as a lot of them were affected due to not being able to work.

“We always look for the right partner to champion our initiatives. The knowledge, expertise and capabilities of the NGOs and corporations are different but most of the time complementary. With ILTIZAM, we have successfully reached our common goal to help those from disadvantaged backgrounds alleviate their burden by providing short-term assistance and support to these communities to ease their burden during difficult times and to bring some cheer to the communities,” commented its president, Zawahir Che Abdullah.

As a team, IAM and ILTIZAM work together from identifying the beneficiaries to volunteering their time to distribute the food packages to the recipients. Zawahir concluded, “If you want to go fast, go alone but if you want to go far, go together as in this case, it has certainly helped in serving more underserved communities.”

ILTIZAM’s first involvement in food distribution for the underprivileged urban community was with IAM, and it was only done in Ramadhan. From that exposure, ILTIZAM has expanded this initiative and in 2020 collaborated with 70 NGOs and did food distribution to 11,000 families.

Kapten Batik is a young Bumiputera business set-up that produces premium men’s batik shirts with modern designs that can be worn for all occasions. It started with the founders’ appreciation of batik and the desire to normalise batik-wearing tradition in everyday life.

The brand originally focused on classic slim fit men’s shirts made from batik sourced from Kelantan and Terengganu, as well as other countries such as Indonesia and India. Their range of collections has since evolved to incorporate modern and contemporary motifs featuring geometrical and floral themes.

After underwent diagnostic tools and discussion, ILTIZAM formulated an action plan to address business challenges faced by Kapten Batik – brand awareness and online marketing. A digital media consultant was engaged to plan Kapten Batik’s marketing and promotional calendar and to execute high-impact media marketing campaigns that would increase brand awareness.

As the programme progressed, ILTIZAM identified more initiatives that could help Kapten Batik such as securing a premium place in KLCC and a collaboration project with Raw Denim House, 2018 ILTIZAM EMP participant.

“Our allocation for online marketing was not significant as we were focusing more on promoting our stores. When retail stores and shopping malls had to shut their operation as part of the Government’s efforts to prevent COVID-19 spread, ILTIZAM helped us in mapping our digital marketing and it multiplied our online sales by 5 times. On top of that, we also received assistance in terms of rent and staff salary through Dana Ihsan COVID-19 ILTIZAM,” said Farhan Omar, Kapten batik Co-founders.

Raw Denim House (RDH) was registered under the name of Art Star Enterprise and one of the very few bespoke vintage jeans makers in Malaysia that focuses on bespoke handmade jeans in Malaysia. RDH customises and produces handmade jeans from imported denim fabrics from Japan, China and the United States.

As a niche business, RDH has big potential. To grow, they realised the business needed help to increase its visibility and marketability of their bespoke jeans, as well as their financial understanding.

Once the challenges were identified, ILTIZAM assisted to improve RDH’s financial statements and built an interactive e-commerce website for “made-to-measure” custom-tailored jeans as well as introduced their ready-to-wear line so RDH’s products are available for more customers. Other initiatives include the implementation of a marketing project to build brand awareness and increase Raw Denim House’s capability to market.

In addition, ILTIZAM introduced synergies between the companies under EMP which saw RDH and Kapten Batik (an EMP beneficiary for 2019) collaborated for a project in conjunction with Merdeka by introducing limited edition vintage jeans with batik motifs.

“We used to sell approximately 50 pairs of jeans per month, but now, we can reach a total sale of 100 pairs of jeans per month. We expect our jeans and other apparel sales to increase by putting our marketing strategies in motion,” said Ahmad Safuan, one of RDH founders.

In 2020, RDH had to stop operating when the Government announced Movement Control Order (MCO) to curb the COVID-19 spread. ILTIZAM through its Dana Ihsan COVID-19 ILTIZAM assisted in covering their rent, sewing machines’ instalment and most importantly to keep their well-trained staff which would help them recover once the situation improves.