“Success is peace of heart.” Rafiq M. Habib, Chairman Habib Group
Honesty, truth, considerate and hard work are vital elements for a successful business
Mr. Rafiq M. Habib is the Group Chairman of ‘House of Habib’ belonging to the renowned Habib family which has won national and international acclaim for its initiative drives, straight dealings and pioneering spirit in business ventures and philanthropy. He actively participates in social welfare programs and is currently serving as the Trustee of several welfare institutions covering a wide range of social activities, education being the prime focus where the family runs its own schools and supports other schools presently imparting high quality primary education to over 8000 children.
The family also run Vocational Training Centre and a world class (not-for-profit) University. Habib University is his dream and it’s helping a lot of people’s dreams coming true. The family also runs hospitals, soup kitchens, disaster relief work, in short supporting the needy in every way. He served on the Board of Governors of ‘Pakistan Institute of Management’. He is a Rotarian, an effective major donor, supports Polio Plus program and actively promotes street schools, home schools etc. He has wide business experience in Insurance, banking, and Industry, promoted many Public Limited Companies including Toyota – Indus Motor Company Ltd.
He is the Chairman of Habib Insurance Company Limited, Thal Limited, Shabbir Tiles and Ceramics Ltd. He also gives Consultancy to ‘Habib Bank AG Zurich’. He also served for several years on the Board of Directors of ‘Philips Electrical Company of Pakistan Ltd.’ and was the first Chairman on the Advisory Board of ‘Standard Chartered Bank’ in Pakistan.
He has made the most remarkable contribution in the creation of new job opportunities. Mr. Rafiq M. Habib is a Life Member of the ‘Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry’.
When I ask him my favorite question about his definition of success? I present his answer for our readers. This one answer can change ones life .
“Well! What an easy question and what a difficult one too. Actually, this depends on how you think, what the meaning is and cause of life in your eyes, definitely everyone has different ideology in this regard.
In my view the success is peace of heart. If you have a lot of wealth but you are not in peace, your heart and mind is upset so it’s useless. This is definitely not the success.
To help others is certainly success. One can say that being CEO of House of Habib, talking something like this is very easy but my family has the same values and views at the time when we lost everything because of nationalization and we have nothing else of our creditability.
For me, there is no one as my great father Mohammad Ali Habib. He was a dynamic architect and excellent builder. He was a noble social leader and had GOD gifted ability to motivate everyone. He was a great business leader and firmly knows that who is suitable for which position and that was his powerful delegation of work. Will you believe that he monitors all the construction work of Habib Public School, Orphanage and Hospital himself, he spends hours at sights of these projects on daily basis. He was most successful and busy person and there was no shortage of money as well but he pays his personal attention and time for these projects which shows the importance of noble cause in front of him.
You can understand his position by this only that when Pakistan appears on world map and State Bank has nothing in its exchequer to run the country. At that time international market required the State Guarantee to release Pakistan’s share of money from India and Habib Family provides that Guarantee and country starts it’s working on that Guarantee Paper.
So, this was my father’s level, but he always teaches us that to spend all on ourselves is not success even it is nothing but to help others is real success. He uses marble in construction of orphanage at that time when there is no marble used in our house.
This all he teaches us practically and never pressurize to do this or don’t do that and still this trend is on. As family tradition, we gives two basic advices to our children, firstly, never compromise on our family traditions and values, secondly, work hard, play hard, pray hard. We try that children can understand the importance of these things and follow it with its essence because we saw our elders to follow these values and witnessed their satisfaction.
We taught for philanthropy as one of our basic family values. Then work for educational activities is very important for Habib Family. I can’t explain that how much satisfaction and happiness is there in this way, this is the real success that we can play a part to educate our next generations.
I believe that if we all start to do something good for others and consider this as our success so our country and our society can turn in an ideal state.
Mr. Rafiq Habib, Chairman Habib Group
Mr. Rafiq M. Habib is the Group Chairman of ‘House of Habib’ belonging to the renowned Habib family which has won national and international acclaim for its initiative drives, straight dealings and pioneering spirit in business ventures and philanthropy. He actively participates in social welfare programs and is currently serving as the Trustee of several welfare institutions covering a wide range of social activities, education being the prime focus where the family runs its own schools and supports other schools presently imparting high quality primary education to over 8000 children.
The family also run a Vocational Training Centre and a world class (not-for-profit) University. The family also runs hospitals, soup kitchens, disaster relief work, in short supporting the needy in every way. He served on the Board of Governors of ‘Pakistan Institute of Management’. He is a Rotarian, an effective major donor, supports Polio Plus program and actively promotes street schools, home schools etc. He has wide business experience in Insurance, banking, and Industry, promoted many Public Limited Companies including Toyota – Indus Motor Company Ltd.
He is the Chairman of Habib Insurance Company Limited, Thal Limited, Shabbir Tiles and Ceramics Ltd. He also gives Consultancy to ‘Habib Bank AG Zurich’. He also served for several years on the Board of Directors of ‘Philips Electrical Company of Pakistan Ltd.’ and was the first Chairman on the Advisory Board of ‘Standard Chartered Bank’ in Pakistan. He has made the most remarkable contribution in the creation of new job opportunities. Mr. Rafiq M. Habib is a Life Member of the ‘Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry’.
When I ask him my favorite question about his definition of success? I present his answer for our readers. This one answer can change ones life . “Well! What an easy question and what a difficult one too. Actually, this depends on how you think, what the meaning is and cause of life in your eyes, definitely everyone has different ideology in this regard. In my view the success is peace of heart. If you have a lot of wealth but you are not in peace, your heart and mind is upset so it’s useless. This is definitely not the success. To help others is certainly success. One can say that being CEO of House of Habib, talking something like this is very easy but my family has the same values and views at the time when we lost everything because of nationalization and we have nothing else of our creditability.
For me, there is no one as my great father Mohammad Ali Habib. He was a dynamic architect and excellent builder. He was a noble social leader and had GOD gifted ability to motivate everyone. He was a great business leader and firmly knows that who is suitable for which position and that was his powerful delegation of work. Will you believe that he monitors all the construction work of Habib Public School, Orphanage and Hospital himself, he spends hours at sights of these projects on daily basis. He was most successful and busy person and there was no shortage of money as well but he pays his personal attention and time for these projects which shows the importance of noble cause in front of him.
You can understand his position by this only that when Pakistan appears on world map and State Bank has nothing in its exchequer to run the country. At that time international market required the State Guarantee to release Pakistan’s share of money from India and Habib Family provides that Guarantee and country starts it’s working on that Guarantee Paper. So, this was my father’s level, but he always teaches us that to spend all on ourselves is not success even it is nothing but to help others is real success. He uses marble in construction of orphanage at that time when there is no marble used in our house.
This all he teaches us practically and never pressurize to do this or don’t do that and still this trend is on. As family tradition, we gives two basic advices to our children, firstly, never compromise on our family traditions and values, secondly, work hard, play hard, pray hard. We try that children can understand the importance of these things and follow it with its essence because we saw our elders to follow these values and witnessed their satisfaction. We taught for philanthropy as one of our basic family values. Then work for educational activities is very important for Habib Family. I can’t explain that how much satisfaction and happiness is there in this way, this is the real success that we can play a part to educate our next generations.i believe that if we all start to do something good for others and consider this as our success so our country and our society can turn in an ideal state.
