Mohammad Mutaher is one of the few youths from Kashmir, who have achieved big in the corporate world. He wants to give back and serve the society by helping the youth of Kashmir
After completing his MBA from the University of Kashmir in 2002, this downtown boy from Khanyar decided to go against the current. While most of his classmates chose to appear in the civil services and other competitive exams for a secure government or a bank job in uncertain Kashmir, he decided to move out and explore the outside world.
Though, a risky decision, which was not favoured by ‘elders’, but there has been no looking back for Mohammed Mutaher, 40, after he joined Gulf-based Yateem Group as a sales manager in 2003. Presently, Mutaher heads McDonald’s India’s business development.
In about 15 years of his audacious journey braving many ordeals, Mutaher has reached the top management of the world’s second-largest fast-food chain in India, where he strategises and plans about new openings in the north and east of India. He reports directly to the managing director and board of directors of McDonald’s India.
At a time, when Kashmir does not have many a people in the entrepreneurial or corporate world to derive inspiration from, Mutaher’s story is a big hope for anyone who strives to achieve big in life despite problems and setbacks. Mutaher had a difficult childhood. His father abandoned him when he was only 9-months old and was raised by his mother single-handedly.
After completing his education from a local downtown school, Mutaher was sent to a Mumbai engineering college, where he did bachelor’s degree in automobile engineering. But he has to return back after completing his degree.
“I returned back and did my MBA from the University of Kashmir in 2002. At KU, I realised that if I need to do something worthwhile in my life, then I have to move out,” says Mutaher, Who is in Srinagar on brief holidays to celebrate Eid-ul-Adha with friends and relatives.
“After completing my MBA, I decided that I would not do a government job as was the norm here.”
Though bright in academics, Mutaher had almost no experience, when he applied for a high profile managerial post of Abu Dhabi-based Yateem Group, a retail chain mostly dealing in eyewear and luxury goods. The group is having about 1000 outlets in the six Gulf Corporation Countries (GCC) including, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
It was an all-India level interview conducted in Mumbai in which hundreds of candidates participated for one post of the group marketing manager.
“I appeared in the interview and was selected. I was selected out of entire India. That was the first achievement, which gave me the confidence and courage that I can do a lot,” he says.
Though Mutaher was selected, lack of any experience became an issue.
“They were like, ‘you have no experience, so we cannot make you a group marketing manager. You qualified the interview. We know you are brilliant. But we will make you a marketing manager for one division if you are willing for that’. I said, ‘Okay. I will’. Yateem Group is a big house from Gulf, like the Paris based LVMH (the luxury goods company of Europe, which also owns Louis Vuitton). It was still a good break for me and pay was also good, so I joined,” says Mutaher.
His performance was so good due to his hard work and dedication that only after six months of his joining when the general manager of the company resigned, Mutaher was offered his position.
“The managing director told me that ‘in my guidance, you take that post’. And that was really a big achievement for me. The company which couldn’t take me as its group marketing manager is now making me the general manager of the entire group, just after six months of my joining,” he says. “It was a tough job. I learned the hard way. Controlling around 1000 outlets of the company, gave me a hard experience of its business. What is the profitability, etc. To understand the market, you have to venture into the market. You cannot go without venturing into the market and say ‘I want to do something’. That cannot happen.”
After working with the Yateem Group for three years, Mutaher visited his homeland, Kashmir, to get married. However, when he wanted to return to his work after marriage, he could not. His newly-wed wife was reluctant to move to Gulf. So were her parents.
“They said we don’t want to send our daughter so far away. The social stigma, I was fighting all the time against; I had to become the victim of the same. And I could do nothing,” says Mutaher.
“Even my managing director at the company called me, he insisted that he will speak to my wife and her parents but could not motivate them. He said, ‘whatever, we want you back’. But ultimately I had to leave that dream job of mine in the Gulf and stay put.”
Given Mutaher was not willing to go for a government job, there was not much for him to do in Kashmir. So it was ‘mutually decided’ that he will look for work anywhere within India.
“And here again I became a fresher. When I started to look for a job in India, they said, ‘Ok you have this much of experience but you don’t have Indian experience, you don’t know Indian market. We cannot take you to the top level’. Coming from such an elite position, I was looking for a very basic job again,” says Mutaher.
For him, this was the third struggle of his life. First, he faced problems in childhood, when his father divorced his mother and he was raised as a single-parent child. Then he had to fight again, to go out to explore and work in the international market. And now it was again he was fighting as a fresher to look for a job, as he could not join his previous position in Gulf due to ‘perhaps a social norm’.
“Again I have to struggle at the third time. And I have to work my way out. So, in 2006, I went to Delhi and joined SNT Group – a European company, making cement and petroleum plants. I joined them as head sales, which was a basic position as compared to my previous job,” says Mutaher.
But he didn’t stop there. He kept changing his jobs and moving up the corporate ladder.
“However, it was after I joined GKB, a luxury opticals company, I was again into my own domain heading operations and retail. Then from GKB, I joined Mumbai Airport. I was again retail manager for the entire retail at the airport for both domestic and international terminals. From there, I joined McDonald’s India in October 2012, and presently I am heading its business development,” he says.
Being head of business development, Mutaher plans and strategies for putting up new McDonald’s in the north, east and central India.
For a new setup of McDonald’s, from location hunt to trade and market analysis to feasibility and final setup including subleasing and logistics, Mutaher looks after all new operations of this famous company, which is considered a symbol of American fast food culture throughout the world.
Apart from his job at McDonald’s, Mutaher works as a retail consultant as well, devising strategies for the new and emerging retail markets.
“In the process, before I was in McDonald’s, I had done a lot of retail management. I’m a retail guy, have done lots of retail consultancy. I was with Yogesh Samat (COO of Ritu Kumar and one of the top retail managers of India) and have done mall consultancy as well. I have been associated with all the big names in retail consultancy,” says Mutaher.
Despite working and living outside for so many years, Kashmir is very dear to Mutaher’s heart and he is always ready to contribute something in whatever way possible.
“Throughout my career, I always strived that I should give back to my society. That is why, I go back to different forums, small groups etc. Be it internships, getting a job, or mentoring support to a startup or an entrepreneur, I am always there to help. I want to help the young generation of Kashmir. I can help people in getting jobs, guide them for choosing their careers and provide them business consultancy if they want to do different businesses,” says Mutaher.
However, Mutaher feels a little disappointed. Despite he has done a lot of efforts to connect with the different institutions including his alma mater, but he feels, people there are not responsive.
“I am ready to visit on my own expenses and share my experience here. I’m not alone, there are many professionals from Kashmir, who want to help and give back to the society, but they are not being facilitated. Universities or other such institutions are not willing to facilitate. I am even ready to be member or advisor of any such platform initiated here. Not only, I will be myself part of that, but I will bring mentors and other members. I can even sponsor some deserving candidates for different training as well,” he says.
Mutaher is positive, though, and has already made a new beginning in this regard. In May, he along with some of his corporate friends, attended the ‘Talaash: Skill Conclave’ organised by the J&K Skill Development Mission and is now trying to connect the JKSDM with the industry. He has also delivered a talk at Islamic University and helped some of the students there to get internships. But he wants to intensify such efforts and collaborate with more institutions so that the youngsters can get benefited.
Mutaher is sure that one day, he will return back permanently to Kashmir.
“Maybe after 10 years, I want to come back and do something here. That time I will have earned enough money that I will not look for profits or earn money rather create something and serving people here,” with this Mutaher signs off.
