PENANG, August 2015 – The School of Management (PPP) Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) is striving to produce excellent talents with humanistic values (‘insan’) to ensure a more sustainable future.

The Dean of PPP Professor Dr. Fauziah Md. Taib said, this effort is a major responsibility and trust that need to be undertaken in order to ensure the continuity of excellence in an individual through the process of teaching and learning, and human capital development which also emphasizes the aspect of sustainable spirituality (‘istiqamah’).

In her speech during an academic programme with the prominent speaker, Datuk Ustaz Mohammad Kazim Elias at the Silver Jubilee Celebration of PPP USM recently, Fauziah said, the process of modernisation and rapid development together with abundant blessings in this country have led some people to lose sanity in their actions, particularly in dealing with various crises and existing challenges.

"After 25 years of establishment, PPP is proud to be listed as among the best in the world in offering courses such as accounting and business management, ranked at top 100 to 150 in the world," said Fauziah.

Fauziah, who continued the legacy of leadership from the former deans in striving for excellence at PPP, has undertaken efforts to ensure that the excellence achieved in the performance at PPP can be further strengthened with the development of ‘qalbu’ (purity of the soul) as the basis for continuous success.

"Social marketing with an approach of being close to the community is given emphasis in order to develop effective and efficient products and services to provide powerful implications in the human capital development process," Fauziah highlighted.

She urged the campus community to jointly mobilise their capabilities to master the knowledge that will be beneficial to the community now and forever.

"I believe that individual excellence can be developed to the highest level in order to preserve the excellence of the organisation so that it remains strong and sustainable and supported by notable figures at all levels," she said to the crowd of about 1,500 people who attended the programme.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Kazim Elias said that in order to establish a sustainable landscape of excellence, awareness in realising the excellence of ‘qalbu’ in students, scholars and entrepreneurs of the country comes with due emphasis on social marketing, competitive intelligence and leadership based on Islamic concepts.

"Various efforts need to be implemented to counter future challenges, in order to improve the welfare and harmony of life. Focus should be given on the development of individuals with humanistic values who are highly skilled, possessed knowledge, leadership skills, ethics and spiritual beliefs, proficient in languages and displaying a strong personality," he said again.

Mohammad Kazim explained that the concept of humanity is different from that of being a man, as man is willing to do anything to be competitive and sometimes putting aside values such as honesty, sincerity and trustworthy in order to achieve self-fulfillment, but being human is the opposite.

He advised the campus community to identify their own potentials in order to empower the existing inborn talents to counter challenges and prepared to accept the realities of life.

In the ceremony, Mohammad Kazim was accorded the Prominent Social Entrepreneur award in appreciation of his services in sustaining the scholarly aspect of humanity, beside his tireless efforts to produce more social entrepreneurs.

Edited: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin/Translation: Sharifah Zafirah Syed Nassir/Text: Syuhada Abd.Aziz & Siti Naquiah Abdillah/Photo: Mohd. Fairus Md. Isa