Khuda Buksh
Khuda Buksh was an Bengali life insurance salesman and humanitarian from the Indian subcontinent. For four decades he represented the "life and soul of the insurance industry" throughout the region, leaving a mark on the business in three separate countries: British India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Buksh, or "Insurance Giant," as he became known, gained fame in the 1940s for his salesmanship in East India. From the 1950s to 1960s, he helped build one of Pakistan's top insurance companies from scratch. He was the pioneer of life insurance industry growth and development in Bangladesh; his name became "synonymous with the life insurance industry," and he is even referred to, in Bangladesh, as the "Father of Insurance."
Early life and education (1912–1935)
Buksh was born in Damodya, a remote village in the Shariatpur District of East Bengal in British India. He was the oldest of six children born to Shonabuddin Hawladar and Arjuta Khatun. As a child, Buksh was known to be friendly, respectful, religious, generous, kind-hearted, and ethical. Being affected by the poverty and destitution he witnessed in his village, Buksh tried to help those who were less fortunate than he was. In grade school, he repurchased the same math textbook for class to give it to classmates who could not afford their own books. He was recognized as a talented student and obtained scholarships at all levels of schooling. He stood first in his class from primary to middle school and in high school he stood first or second. He was the captain of his football team playing the center-forward position. His team was successful, competing outside of its sub-division and winning many trophies. Additionally, Buksh possessed an ingenious mind and exceptional interpersonal skills.Buksh passed the entrance examination from the Symacharan Edward Institution in 1929 in Koneshar, a village near Damodya, in the first division, with a distinction in mathematics. He then went to Kolkata and studied at Maulana Azad College, for two years and passed the intermediate examination in 1932. Later he studied at the Presidency College at Kolkata for two years, working towards his bachelor's degree. Throughout college, he boarded with the family of Habibur Rahman, a captain of a commercial ocean liner, who was often away from home. Along with his studies, Buksh looked after Rahman's household affairs and his bedridden wife and two school-going children just like a guardian for the family. However, due to health and familial complications, he was unable to complete the degree. Subsequently, Buksh accepted a part-time job as a librarian at the college.
Early professional life, Calcutta, British India (1935–1952)
Buksh joined the Oriental Government Security Life Assurance Company in Calcutta on 2 December 1935, assuming a clerical position. Atahar Ali, an insurance man recognized Buksh's "highly developed sense of persuasive power" motivated him to pursue life insurance selling career. Desiring to serve humanity, he immediately dedicated himself to becoming a full-time life insurance agent. He was the first among the Muslims to join the OGSLAC field force. In Hindu dominated Calcutta, there were only a handful of Bengali Muslims rich enough to buy an insurance policy and Islamic fundamentalism discouraged insurance as un-Islamic. Religious minded-people believed that the idea that one could reduce risks in life and business through insurance went against the sovereignty of God. The dominating view at the time was that only worthless people worked for insurance companies, and insurance agents were not welcomed into people's homes. He soon realized how ordinary people's ignorance of good financial systems deprived them of tremendous benefits; he realized that this ignorance was due, in great part, to the poor strategies being used to present the benefits of insurance to the masses. "People generally had no respect for insurance salesmanship, the profession was very much looked down upon," he said. Buksh, endowed with a natural "persuasive power," vowed to change this perception. He applied his "challenging mentality" and "indomitable spirit" to selling life insurance policies door-to-door. This became his life's mission. He carried a light folding chair with him on his rounds and, if a client did not offer him a seat, he would use his folding chair. He preached the message of life insurance to every home, promoting the idea that life insurance is an indispensable part of everyday lives. He was enthusiastic and confident, and he held his hopes high and was determined to succeed. His charm, passion for understanding people, and business savvy helped to win the hearts of Muslims and Hindus. He established himself as reputable insurance salesman and "made a name for himself as a first class insurer." In 1946, the OGSLAC promoted him to inspector. After gaining 17 years of field experience, Buksh moved back to his homeland, East Bengal, to take on a prestigious position at the Eastern Federal Union Insurance Company Limited.Life insurance leader, East Pakistan (1952–1968)
At the EFU, located at Dacca, Buksh became the life manager in charge of East Pakistan in July 1952. At the time, there was widespread fundamentalist propaganda against insurance, which portrayed it as being un-Islamic. The general public, from solvent businessmen to the lower-middle class, also believed insurance to be associated with death. Moreover, the educated were reluctant to join the insurance profession due to the negative religious and culturally prejudiced views against life insurance workers. Buksh made his life's goal to not only change preconceived ideas about insurance, but to create and sustain a positive image of insurance workers and the services they offered. He again took advantage of his "magnetic personality," and "exemplary integrity" recruited, motivated, and trained hundreds of young people every year in the insurance business, particularly a "huge section of the unemployed, ambition-less" young people. During this period, he helped provide jobs to the children of numerous poverty stricken Bengali Muslim families. In order to develop a salesman's confidence, improve sales talks, and build enthusiasm for the job, he freely shared his practical knowledge and field experience gained over many years and imparted to the newly recruited agents for their training. He gave them an objective analysis of the career: While working to employ them, he also developed the kind of positive competition that would challenge employees to excel at work and in social interactions. He excelled at turning novice trainees into efficient insurance agents. He visited every agent's home and inspired them with his enthusiasm, motivational words, and kindness. He also offered to mitigate their financial and personal problems. He often helped them with his "extra-ordinary convincing capability" to secure business by accompanying them to meet with prospective clients. At the same time, he continued to forge close connections with professional, social, cultural, and education organizations, such as Rotary Club of Rotary International, to increase awareness of life insurance in the greater society. "He devised inventive techniques and motivated his sales force to challenge the public's negative perception of life insurance."Initially, the insurance policies were issued from the head office in Karachi, with clients in Dacca, Chittagong and other places. This caused unusually long delays and to avoid these, Buksh convinced management to have policy renewals, premiums and other arrangements done from Dacca. He increased manpower in Dacca regional office and other divisional and sub-divisional towns. Thus a new class of insurance workers were created and the insurance business grew in East Pakistan because of his "extra-ordinary foresight."
A "workaholic," Buksh created a large number of field organizations, built a strong force across East Pakistan and became a "champion in the life insurance business." Nevertheless, he fiercely protected the interests of insured people and settled life insurance claims without delay. He would sometimes attend the funeral services of an insured person, hand-delivering an insurance benefit check to the surviving family members in order to raise their morale. Under Buksh's leadership the company business showed an upward trend with a paid-for business from Rs. 25.4 million in 1953 to Rs. 42.8 million in 1957. By March 1958, the EFU proudly announced in a newspaper that "Eastern Federal was the largest Pakistani Insurance Company." The EFU and Buksh became a household name and under his leadership, in 1959, East Pakistan accounted for 65 percent of the EFU's life insurance business. In 1960, Buksh was promoted to the position of life manager of East and West Pakistan and moved to the company's head office in Karachi, West Pakistan.
Life insurance leader, Pakistan (1960–1968)
A "dynamic leader" with a "charismatic personality," Buksh planned and sought to do in the entire country what he had done in East Pakistan. His strategy was to bring more people into the life insurance business and expand business across both parts of the country. Buksh had a unique capability to recognize a promising salesman. His persuasive skills enabled him to convince many key producers from various other companies to join the EFU. He personally hired all administrative and key marketing people including development officers, inspectors and managers for the company. Through "deliberate actions," Buksh developed a highly motivated and dedicated sales force. He created, organized, and managed four zones: Central Zone, Western Zone, Rawalpindi Zone, and Eastern Zone.Buksh frequently travelled to all the EFU zones to attend meetings, conferences and prize distribution ceremonies. He had an excellent style of speaking, and a surprising technique to win others' hearts. "His mode of speaking was polished, everyone listened with a pin-drop silence." He mostly delivered extempore speeches and "inspired his agents through fascinating speech to bring in more business, more successes," said Mujibur Rahman. While in the office in Karachi, Lahore, Dacca, Chittagong or Rawalpindi he kept in touch with his field force in all zones on a daily basis through telephone calls, and he was aware of what was going on, what each field officer was doing, and what their achievements were, regardless of whether they were was an agent, a sales manager or a chief manager. He applied his personal touch in his dealings with his field force and this "made a significant difference in the enthusiasm of both field and office staff." Buksh worked hard himself and could get the work done. He was instrumental in setting sales targets and ensuring that the large team he developed reached their goals. According to Rizwan Ahmed Farid, Buksh had the respect, love, and trust of his coworkers: Despite his busy schedule, Buksh maintained an open door policy. Anyone could walk into his office and freely discuss about various problems. From 1962 to 1965, under Abbas Khaleeli's leadership at the EFU's life department, Buksh sold more policies than all four foreign insurers in Pakistan. Due in large part to Buksh's efforts, the total market share of in-force policies for foreign insurers at the end of 1965 was less than that of Eastern Federal. From 1963 to 1966, EFU management introduced two training schemes at Karachi. One was an executive officer's training scheme and the other was a three-month officer's training scheme. The trainees were exposed to Buksh's style of speaking and motivation. Buksh was instrumental in making scheme a success on the practical side.
By 1966, the company had 600 organization officers and 11,000 agents, about 50 percent of whom belonged to the Eastern Zone. His value being measured by the amount of business he produced, Buksh secured so many clients that the company was able to "advertise that every second person having life insurance policy in the country was insured with EFU." Buksh visited London in 1963, 1964 and 1967 and was the main driving force of the EFU's business in London. "His hard work and tremendous expertise had mobilized the nation’s economy, even if infinitesimally." As business grew, Buksh became deputy general manager in December, 1963 and general manager in January, 1966 expanding the EFU's sales and influence throughout the region. Buksh competed fiercely with rival companies and did everything within his power to keep good performers from leaving the company. The prompt settlement of life insurance claims was a cornerstone of his mission. Whenever a death claim came in, he paid the money quickly, thus "saving many families from possible ruination." EFU's management credited Buksh's leadership for the company's remarkable progress. He also played a pivotal role in inducting new leaders into the insurance industry. His leadership helped to grow EFU into the largest company, not only in Pakistan, but in all Afro-Asian countries, excluding Japan. Starting from scratch, he developed the business to such heights that he became a "household name." The stories of his leadership style and compassion for others are inspiring.