Haseena Nishad, a Kerala woman, is at the helm of UAE’s World Star Holdings that has diversified into human resources, contracting, facilities management and real estate, with thousands of employees.
In 2008, when Haseena came to the UAE after getting married, she planned to have a perfect life as a homemaker like her three other sisters back home. That time, she did not realise that she would end up stepping into the business world alongside her entrepreneur husband Nishad Hussain. The 32-year-old woman from a conventional community in rural Kerala eventually became the managing director of a company with thousands of employees.
“Ever since I landed in the UAE, I heard the company’s activities from my husband daily,” Haseena was quoted as saying by Gulf News.
This is how she gained got insights into the field of business. She mastered tricks of the trade while raising her three children vigorously.
In 2014 when all their children started going to school, Haseena and her husband decided that Haseena would join Hussain, helping him in his business.
Haseena said it was Hussain who encouraged her to try her hands in the business. Having an educational background in commerce has been helpful.
Gradually, she started taking charge of the company’s main office in Sharjah. On the other hand, her husband, Hussain, 36, focused on expanding the business across Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Haseena started dealing with the daily activities of World Star Holdings. She also focused on worker’s welfare in finding timely solutions to their issues.
But notably, she never made any changes to her conventional dressing style or compromised on family traditions.
While talking about the impact of the global pandemic, Haseena said, “As the construction work did not stop during the lockdown, we could be active in the business. We reduced the number of employees at the sites, conducted frequent PCR tests, allocated a separate labour accommodation to quarantine the infected workers. As our workers ensured that they followed guidelines strictly, we did not get impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. We did not have to sack any of our staff or cut their salaries. Moreover, we got all of them vaccinated as well.”
However, we learned many things during the pandemic which would have otherwise taken years,” she added. “With the technological advancements, we could made drastic improvements and find new solutions and implement them digitally.”
