Euphoria For Passion
In its 7 years of establishment, Maxxima Group has continuously expanded their subsidiaries companies in various businesses, including investment in start-up companies, F&B, real estate, e-commerce, manufacturing, import-export of raw material and many more. In an interview with Ikon, Dato Reza Ibrahim, CEO of Maxxima Group shares the inspiration behind the establishment of Maxxima Group and the future anticipatory plans.
Although having a background in Science, however, it does not dampen Dato Reza Ibrahim’s entrepreneurial spirit and his passion to serve the community to help them realize their potential. “When you reached a certain point or phase in life, you would want to give back to the community. I started it earlier and humanity became a huge factor of my journey in helping others to realize their potential”, the charismatic CEO says with a smile.
Maxxima Group is now in its seventh year running, and their business is booming bigger than ever before. However, the road to success is not always smooth sailing, often it is met with many ups and downs. “At the beginning of my career, I started many businesses and I failed along the way. That is the learning process for me to be who I am today. Without those challenges, there is no room for growth and improvement.”
“The biggest challenge in my work is to encourage other people to have self-belief and confidence in themselves that they too, can be successful. There are not many people out there that have a dream that they will achieve their goals and be successful in life. It is often the case where they dream about it but when it comes to believing. Most of them struggle and it is a tough job to change that perspective as confidence comes from within”, shares Dato Reza in his hope for others to have self-confidence.
Though adult stem cell booster serves as the starting point of Maxxima Group’s inception, over the years the group has expanded their business to other sectors such as F&B, real estate, manufacturing, import and exporting of raw materials and opening of their academy. “We have a Yamani cuisine restaurant in Setia Alam called Dar Al-Hajar and also a coffee bar, known as Impresso. We also have a real-estate business, not just in Malaysia but we also have properties overseas such as Australia and the UK. I also invested in many start-up companies to help new entrepreneurs with their company. Furthermore, we have manufacturing, e-commerce business as well and we also do import-export of raw materials to the US, to Europe and other South-East Asian countries.”
Dato Reza has made outstanding achievements with the growth of the company. Furthermore, he was honored as one of the top 70 influential public figures in LinkedIn Malaysia by Marketing in Asia. Sharing the same concept of idea with Napoleon Hill, Dato Reza too, believe that strength and growth come through multiple efforts and it is necessary for business.
“I am honored to be nominated for the award. However, I’m not going to put the brakes here. To me, growth is extremely important. The most important part of life is not just about achieving the results, but it is also for you to be able to grow along the way. Most people probably want the result and stop there because they do not focus on growth. I believe we must not be result oriented but be growth-oriented as well. Only then you will have the strive and hunger to achieve more. So, I am expecting more achievement in the future for myself and my company”, he expresses his gratitude.
Dato Reza’s hunger for growth is noticeable, as he is currently undertaking a Master of Business Administration (MBA) despite his busy schedule as a CEO. His euphoria for passion has brought success for Maxxima Group with his extraordinary mission, vision and goals to continuously achieve more. He emphasizes on 3 factors to focus to be successful, having the right mindset, choosing the right environment and taking action to achieve the desired dream.
“Entrepreneurship is not about being rich. It is about your passion. If entrepreneurship is a tool for making money, you are already at the wrong path. You can be rich even without being one, just be an investor instead. Start a business and be an entrepreneur to fuel your passion. So, that burning passion will be the drive to keep you moving forward. The burning passion will always rekindle even when you face a setback, and that will groom you to be a good entrepreneur. That being said, your environment and actions should be parallel to each other”, says Dato Reza.
Dato Reza advises young entrepreneur to be true to themselves while also practicing individualism besides persistently passionate in chasing their dream. “Believe in yourself and don’t care about other people’s opinion because their opinion is none of your business. You cannot control other people but you can control yourself, your mind and take action for yourself”, Dato Reza continues.
Dato Reza states the company is planning to penetrate the US, China and Europe market with their e-commerce business on top of the current market of Australia, UK and other South-East Asian countries. Along with introducing the new digital product such as DNA kit and new lifestyle application accessible to the public in the future. “We plan to introduce a lifestyle product rather than an intangible product, we are also planning to introduce our digital product. With the digital product, we understand that this is the new trend it is co-relate to consumers’ spending. There are many varieties to venturing into a digital product.”
Besides that, there has been a high demand for the in-house Maxxima Academy syllabus that focused on helping the affiliates and distributors to build up their business consisting of online classes that involve marketing to be accessible and open to the public. The visionary CEO emphasized that he wanted to ensure that the services provided had reached the quality standard before it is opened to the public. “Until the academy has reached the desirable achievement, it will be revised and focused solely for its affiliates and distributors.”
“The services offered to the public could only be done when it has reached the standard of KPI that we have measured and determined. The same goes for other businesses. We are relying on our database to see the market trend, to plan on our next product that we can venture in. This 250,000 database collected over the five years of our business blueprint helped us not only in terms of product but also on our business decisions”, explained Dato Reza.
While he is highly passionate when it comes to his business, Dato Reza also prioritizes the concept of work-life balance. He does not hesitate to go the extra mile in creating a friendly environment for the employees at work. Facilities such as fully equipped gymnasium, fitness studio, interactive space consisting of board games, snooker, softball and even from yoga to Zumba classes are provided for the employees. This is to divert away from the common perception that ‘9 to 5 office hours’ is boring, stressful and dull.
Acknowledging mindfulness as a recent emerging concept incorporated at working culture, the successful CEO wants the employees of Maxxima Group to be able to experience a healthy working environment of productivity whereby the ‘moment of presence’ is appreciated and overwhelmed feeling towards work could be reduced.
“Our center is named Maxxima Hub Lifestyle because I want to promote mindfulness and work-life balance to my employees. I wanted them to be comfortable instead of just focusing solely on work like any other companies that operate with normal business hours of ‘9 to 5’. With these facilities, they can come to work early, hit the gym or anything that suits them before starting their productive day at work. They could even take a break from work in the interactive space or grab a drink at the Impresso bar”, he adds.
In line with Maxxima Group’s mission and vision to understand the consumer needs and preference, it focuses on personal well being that is built on trust and loyalty. It is safe to say that Dato Reza has proved those are not just mere empty words. Having an excellent track record to show forth, Maxxima has delved into the market with the intention to help the community. Looking at the plans lined up by the passionate CEO, the company envisage building the community further, along with all those who are involved with the process.