Founders and Owners of A.I.S Global Forwarders, Muhammad Kabir &Muhammad Ashraf
Logistics are an integral part of the global trade economy and though largely unseen, can be felt in our everyday life because almost everything we use has either been shipped or delivered from somewhere. A logistics company bridges the gap between the production point and the point of origin and ultimate product consumption. It is dedicated to planning, implementing, controlling and monitoring the movement and storage of goods and services within a supply chain. A logistics company could handle parts or the whole supply chain depending on the logistical needs of the client involved.
Childhood friends Mr. Ashraf and Mr. Kabir established AIS Global Forwarders Pte Ltd in 2015 with the goal to become an indispensable partner to their clients by helping them to build and maximise sustainable and competitive advantages in the freight forwarding business. They do this by helping their clients get their products into the market in a fast, efficient and safe manner.
In addition to their expertly crafted reliably delivered logistics solutions, their clients are assured that every interaction is driven by integrity, respect and professionalism, which are the fundamental principles of the business.
Over the years, A.I.S. Global Forwarders has received a lot of positive feedback from their clients, and they have successfully laid the foundation of their brand for their empire from the ground up. For their excellent business acumen and dedication to their clients, AIS Global forwarders will be receiving the Singapore Prestige Class Award 2021/2022 and the Top Business Service and Quality Award 2021/2022.
Building and Empire
Before setting AIS Global Forwarders Pte Ltd, Mr. Ashraf worked for a logistics company and manages the job issuance to vendors, both locally and overseas. During his work stint at the logistics company, he noticed that the logistics industry in Singapore was somewhat lacking. As Mr. Ashraf had harboured a passion for entrepreneurship since young, it was his dream to build his own empire. When he started his own business, he builds a foundation, instilling the culture of continuous growth with a strategic directive of operating in a global market. “It would be really nice to see that thousands of people working towards the success of one company – AIS, and when that happens, the interest of everyone can keep moving the company higher and higher and higher in the global market.”
The path to setting up this foundation was fraught with multiple challenges. In the first place, establishing a logistics company requires a lot of capital. Furthermore, setting up a brand-new company without a history makes it very difficult to secure a loan in Singapore. For that reason, the founders, Mr. Ashraf and Mr. Kabir took the opportunity to convert their existing trading company with an established operational functionality into the logistics company, AIS Global Forwarders. Much later re-registered the trading company as Arcdore Pte Ltd, and added another arm in renovation called AIS Design and Build Pte Ltd.
Mr. Ashraf and Mr. Kabir’s plans did not stop there. Making use of AIS Global Forwarders as the heart of the empire, they plan to set up more businesses, tapping into different fields and paving the foundation for their empire. They have plans to expand the AIS group name overseas and even start their own product, however, to push ahead with these plans, they intend to first stabilise their finances and ensure that they can establish reliable contacts before moving forward.
Proving Oneself
Opening a company in Singapore may be easy but maintaining the business operations can be a challenge. Being a new name in the industry, with no track record of business success, it was difficult to earn the trust and respect of business partners and clients alike. It took the team a lot of networking, perseverance and endurance to earn the trust required and to deliver on the quality aspect of the service their clients expect.
In the logistics industry, performance measurements are tracked using the Key Performance Index (KPI), and to meet or exceed these indicators is not an easy task. While not all clients have the same performance standards, AIS Global Forwarders strives to maintain a 95% KPI for all of them. To achieve this, management conducts annual budget performance plans which are cascaded downstream to managers and staff to ensure compliance to plan. Regular meetings with the teams to identify key issues and work on identifying solutions to ensure that performance standards will be met and more importantly, revenue forecast will be achieved.
Whilst the company operates on a seven-day workweek, all year round, manpower cost is inevitable, but they have been successful in managing this cost effectively. The team is committed to provide a dedicated, flexible and customised if required, service solution to their clients in a strategic manner. They also work hard to identify and incorporate creative logistics solutions that delivers on quality service that differentiates from competitors.
For the past two years, AIS Global forward has successfully achieved a 95% and above KPI standard.
Constantly Upgrading
AIS Global Forwarders is always looking for new ways to stay ahead of the curve and improve their services. Versatility is the core of their ideals, and they are always on the edge, constantly identifying new technologies and practices that they can implement to improve their business. “We feel that if we get too comfortable in one particular industry, it means that we are not anchoring ourselves deep enough, and another player could just come in and knock you off. if we want to keep ourselves on the ball, we must anchor deeper and deeper into multiple industries, providing the same solution or similar solution, tapping into digitization, and training our workers to be digitally equipped. We have foreign workers, and we also have young local team working for the company, making them work together is not easy, it can be quite difficult because of different mindsets and age and generation gap. We try to tap into each grp’s expertise and create a culture of continuous learning amongst the workers. We also try to keep the work force united and educate individual staff with new life skills and technical knowledge to move up the ladder in the logistics industry.”
