Datuk Maznah Hamid, the Iron Lady
By Zul • Apr 15th, 2008 • Category: Profile •
Dubbed the Iron Lady of Malaysia, Datuk Maznah Hamid is a dynamic entrepreneur and an avid motivational speaker. Her name will come into mind every time Securiforce is mentioned.
At a tender age of early 20s, Maznah embarked on an entrepreneurship journey, uncertain over her fate in her risky undertaking. First, she took the plunge without any real business experience. And things looked worse as she was taking over an almost bankrupt security business. Not only it was on the brink of bankruptcy, the fact that she chose to be in a man-dominated business did not help much.
Nevertheless, she bulldozed through and persevered. One thing that kept here motivated - she did not want her children going through the same hardship she and her husband had been through. One of her kids was born in a slum that came without electricity. She was determined to change her family’s fortune. She has had enough.
In the beginning of her business, she needed to learn about the basic of the security operation, the law and weaponry and at the same time employing people to guard the clients’ premises, starting with five security guards. At times, they were under staffed and Maznah herself took turn for shift and made herself part of the system. She was also the one who spearheaded the sales, marketing, PR, customer service and all other parts of the operation.
When the company was facing cash flow problems, Maznah would offer her security guards to cook instead of paying them money.
After almost 30 years, the company, Securiforce, is now one of the biggest companies providing security services to companies in distinguished industries and sectors, winning many different awards and accolades in the process. The 5-employee company has now turn into a 5000++ size of staff, and has gone beyond the national boundary with operation in Singapore, Germany, China and is planning to enter United Kingdom. From only providing the ‘eye-watching’ service, Securiforce operation today has come with total security, state-of-the-art cash management services, high-tech cargo and so on. Best of all, all these are achieved without financial help from banks.
Petua Terbaik untuk mencapai 3K Kejayaan, Kebahagiaan dan Kekayaan adalah mencari bakat anda yang terbaik, kemudian perbaikinya sepanjang hayat anda dan jadikan ia sebagai modal kehidupan anda.
The best recipe for Success, Happiness and Wealth is to identify your true talent, embrace a life-long learning process and continuous development, and make it a source and capital of your life.
- Datuk Maznah Hamid, Motivasi Memburu Kejayaan.
With her success, Maznah was blessed with more opportunities. She was trusted to chair one of the property developers in the KL city, Danau Lumayan, appointed Board Member of Golden Hope Plantation, President of Women Entrepreneur’s Northern Region and so on. Recently, Datuk Maznah was named recipient as one of the country’s top three outstanding entrepreneurs, together with Datuk S Gill of S Gill (Malaysia’s largest sporting goods retailer) and Dato’ Steven Lim (founder of Secret Recipe) in the BrandLaureate Brand Personality Award 2007.
Datuk Maznah Hamid published her book in 1998, Motivasi Memburu Kejayaan (Motivation Towards Success), which is now into its 10th year of publication and has undergone numerous rounds of re-publishing. The book is still selling like goreng pisang panas until today. She is also a familiar guest speaker in the television shows, radio and major events.
Image: Securiforce
Other posts you may want to read:
- The BrandLaureate SMEs Chapter Award 2007
- 10 Great Malaysian Entrepreneurs
- 20 Myths of Entrepreneurship
- Work and success without barrier
- HSBC Young Entrepreneur Regional Awards 2007

Petua Terbaik untuk mencapai 3K Kejayaan, Kebahagiaan dan Kekayaan adalah mencari bakat anda yang terbaik, kemudian perbaikinya sepanjang hayat anda dan jadikan ia sebagai modal kehidupan anda. 