It was 1993. In a landscape where Sarawak was still booming from the oil and gas growth, a young man was contemplating on a career growth that - at the time - seems like a gamble. "I was answering the greater call to do more in my career" recollects Datuk Karim Abdullah, Serba Dinamik Group CEO.
"I remember that the moment was right for me to form Serba Dinamik. And at the very least, I knew if everything went south, I still had my Engineering degree to call back on" he added.
The UTM graduate read Mechanical Engineering and was already working in the sector for some time by then. And in the early 1990s, he along with two other co-founders - Datuk Awang Daud and Haji Kadier Sahib established a fledgling oil & gas servicing company that proved to be successful.
Collectively, the three original founders have recently been inducted in the Malaysia's Top 40 rich list, having a collective wealth accumulation of RM2.5 billion. This comes after Serba Dinamik went for listing in February 2017.
Today, the company is worth more than RM4.6 billion in market capitalization and has a global footprint in Asia, Middle East, Africa and beyond.
Watch the full interview between AWANI Review's Ibrahim Sani with Datuk Karim Abdullah, as he shares leadership and management strategies on leading his company to lofty heights.