Bangladeshi businessman and humanitarian
Khuda Buksh (1 February 1912 – 13 May 1974) was an eminent Bengali life insurance salesman and humanitarian from the Indian subcontinent. For four decades he represented the "life and soul of the insurance industry" throughout the region, leaving his indelible mark on the business in three separate countries: British India (specifically in East India), Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Buksh, or "Insurance Giant," as he became known, gained fame in the 1940s, specifically for his salesmanship in East India. From the 1950s to 1960s, he helped build one of Pakistan's top insurance companies from scratch, placing it on the world map. He was the pioneer of life insurance industry growth and development in Bangladesh; his name became "synonymous with the life insurance industry," and he is even referred to, in Bangladesh, as the "Father of Insurance."
Early life and education (1912–1935).
Buksh was born in Damodya, a remote village in the Shariatpur District of East Bengal under British India. He was the oldest of six children born to Shonabuddin Hawladar and Arjuta Khatun. As a child, Buksh was known to be friendly, respectful, religious, generous, kind-hearted, and ethical. Being affected by the poverty and destitution he witnessed in his village, Buksh tried to help those who were less fortunate than he was. In grade school, he repurchased the same math textbook for class to give it to classmates who could not afford their own books. He was recognized as talented student and obtained scholarships at all levels of schooling. He stood first in his class from primary to middle school and in high school he stood first or second. He was the captain of his football team playing the center-forward position. His team was successful, competing outside of its sub-division and winning many trophies. Additionally, Buksh possessed an ingenious mind and exceptional interpersonal skills.
Buksh passed the entrance examination from the Symacharan Edward Institution in 1929 in Koneshar, a village near Damodya, in the first division, with a distinction in mathematics. He then went to Kolkatta and studied at Maulana Azad College, for two years and passed the intermediate (equivalent to Junior college)examination in 1932. Later he studied at the prestigious Presidency College at Kolkata for two years, working towards his bachelor's degree. Throughout college, he boarded with the family of Habibur Rahman, a captain of a commercial ocean liner, who was often away from home. Along with his studies, Buksh looked after Rahman's household affairs and his bed-ridden wife and two school-going children just like a guardian for the family. However, due to health and familial complications, he was unable to complete the degree. Subsequently, Buksh accepted a part-time job as a librarian at the college.
Early professional life, Calcutta, British India (1935–1952).
Buksh joined the Oriental Government Security Life Assurance Company (OGSLAC) in Calcutta on 2 December 1935, assuming a clerical position. Atahar Ali, an insurance man recognized Buksh's "highly developed sense of persuasive power" motivated him to pursue life insurance selling career. Desiring to serve humanity, he immediately dedicated himself to becoming a full-time life insurance agent. He was the first among the Muslims to join the OGSLAC field force. In Hindu dominated Calcutta, there were only a handful of Bengali Muslims rich enough to buy an insurance policy and Islamic fundamentalism discouraged insurance as un-Islamic. Religious minded-people believed that the idea that one could reduce risks in life and business through insurance went against the sovereignty of God. The dominating view at the time was that only worthless people worked for insurance companies, and insurance agents were not welcomed into people's homes. He soon realized how ordinary people's ignorance of good financial systems deprived them of tremendous benefits; he realized that this ignorance was due, in great part, to the poor strategies being used to present the benefits of insurance to the masses. "People generally had no respect for insurance salesmanship, [and] the profession was very much looked down upon," he said. Buksh, endowed with a natural "persuasive power," vowed to change this perception. He applied his "challenging mentality" and "indomitable spirit" to selling life insurance policies door-to-door. This became his life's mission. He carried a light folding chair with him on his rounds and, if a client did not offer him a seat, he would use his folding chair. He preached the message of life insurance to every home, promoting the idea that life insurance is an indispensable part of everyday lives. He was enthusiastic and confident, and he held his hopes high and was determined to succeed. His charm, passion for understanding people, and business savvy helped to win the hearts of Muslims and Hindus. He established himself as reputable insurance salesman and "made a name for himself as a first class insurer." In 1946, the OGSLAC promoted him to inspector. After gaining 17 years of field experience, Buksh moved back to his homeland, East Bengal, to take on a prestigious position at the Eastern Federal Union Insurance Company Limited (EFU).
Life insurance leader, East Pakistan (1952–1968).
At the EFU, located at Dacca, Buksh became the life manager in charge of East Pakistan in July 1952. At the time, there was widespread fundamentalist propaganda against insurance, which portrayed it as being un-Islamic. The general public, from solvent businessmen to the lower-middle class, also believed insurance to be associated with death. Moreover, the educated were reluctant to join the insurance profession due to the negative religious and culturally prejudiced views against life insurance workers. Buksh made his life's goal to not only change preconceived ideas about insurance, but to create and sustain a positive image of insurance workers and the services they offered. He again took advantage of his "magnetic personality," and "exemplary integrity" recruited, motivated, and trained hundreds of young people every year in the insurance business, particularly a "huge section of the unemployed, ambition-less" young people. During this period, he helped provide jobs to the children of numerous poverty stricken Bengali Muslim families. In order to develop a salesman's confidence, improve sales talks, and build enthusiasm for the job, he freely shared his practical knowledge and field experience gained over many years and imparted to the newly recruited agents for their training. He gave them an objective analysis of the career: ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;Keep your watchful eyes ever vigilant so that no breadwinner of your area of activities dies leaving his family uncared for. Fight out like Hercules the colossus of un-certainty, unrest, of hard times by offering life assurance protection. Attain belief in the job. Have firm conviction that life assurance is the most noble profession. Have faith that intelligent and honest endeavor never goes unrewarded. You must develop determination and enthusiasm . . . Make contact with as many people as you can. Spend the major portion of your time in presence of your prospects, act courteously, be tactful in presentation and you will find that it is easier to get than to miss business. While working to employ them, he also developed the kind of positive competition that would challenge employees to excel at work and in social interactions. He excelled at turning novice trainees into efficient insurance agents. He visited every agent's home and inspired them with his enthusiasm, motivational words, and kindness. He also offered to mitigate their financial and personal problems. He often helped them with his "extra-ordinary convincing capability" to secure business by accompanying them to meet with prospective clients. At the same time, he continued to forge close connections with professional, social, cultural, and education organizations, such as Rotary Club of Rotary International, to increase awareness of life insurance in the greater society. "He devised inventive techniques and motivated his sales force to challenge the public's negative perception of life insurance."
Initially, the insurance policies were issued from the head office in Karachi, with clients in Dacca, Chittagong and other places. This caused unusually long delays and to avoid these, Buksh convinced management to have policy renewals, premiums and other arrangements done from Dacca. He increased manpower in Dacca regional office and other divisional and sub-divisional towns. Thus a new class of insurance workers were created and the insurance business grew in East Pakistan because of his "extra-ordinary foresight."
A "workaholic," Buksh created a large number of field organizations, built a strong force across East Pakistan and became a "champion in the life insurance business." Nevertheless, he fiercely protected the interests of insured people and settled life insurance claims without delay. He would sometimes attend the funeral services of an insured person, hand-delivering an insurance benefit check to the surviving family members in order to raise their morale. Under Buksh's leadership the company business showed an upward trend with a paid-for business from Rs. 25.4 million in 1953 to Rs. 42.8 million in 1957. By March 1958, the EFU proudly announced in a newspaper that "Eastern Federal was the largest Pakistani Insurance Company." The EFU and Buksh became a household name and under his leadership, in 1959, East Pakistan accounted for 65 percent of the EFU's life insurance business. In 1960, Buksh was promoted to the position of life manager of East and West Pakistan and moved to the company's head office in Karachi, West Pakistan.
Life insurance leader, Pakistan (1960–1968).
 
A "dynamic leader" with a "charismatic personality," Buksh planned and sought to do in the entire country what he had done in East Pakistan. His strategy was to bring more people into the life insurance business and expand business across both parts of the country. Buksh had a unique capability to recognize a promising salesman. His persuasive skills enabled him to convince many key producers from various other companies to join the EFU. He personally hired all administrative and key marketing people including development officers, inspectors and managers for the company. Through "deliberate actions," Buksh developed a highly motivated and dedicated sales force. He created, organized, and managed four zones: Central Zone (Karachi, head office), Western Zone (Lahore, regional headquarters), Rawalpindi Zone (Rawalpindi), and Eastern Zone (Dacca, regional headquarters).
Buksh frequently travelled to all the EFU zones to attend meetings, conferences and prize distribution ceremonies. He had an excellent style of speaking, and a surprising technique to win others' hearts. "His mode of speaking was polished, everyone listened with a pin-drop silence." He mostly delivered extempore speeches and "inspired his agents through fascinating speech to bring in more business, more successes," said Mujibur Rahman. While in the office in Karachi, Lahore, Dacca, Chittagong or Rawalpindi he kept in touch with his field force in all zones on a daily basis through telephone calls, and he was aware of what was going on, what each field officer was doing, and what their achievements were, regardless of whether they were was an agent, a sales manager or a chief manager. He applied his personal touch in his dealings with his field force and this "made a significant difference in the enthusiasm of both field and office staff." Buksh worked hard himself and could get the work done. He was instrumental in setting sales targets and ensuring that the large team he developed reached their goals. According to Rizwan Ahmed Farid, Buksh had the respect, love, and trust of his coworkers: ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;He gained the confidence and credentials of his team mates by being honest, down-to-earth, humble, sincere, fair and straight forward, with himself as well as with his subordinates. He built up their trust by empowering people by delegating them the authority for important managerial decisions. He made sure to honor any commitment made by his teammates—thus developing their confidence. Despite his busy schedule, Buksh maintained an open door policy. Anyone could walk into his office and freely discuss about various problems. From 1962 to 1965, under Abbas Khaleeli's leadership at the EFU's life department, Buksh sold more policies than all four foreign insurers in Pakistan. Due in large part to Buksh's efforts, the total market share of in-force policies for foreign insurers at the end of 1965 was less than that of Eastern Federal. From 1963 to 1966, EFU management introduced two training schemes at Karachi. One was an executive officer's training scheme and the other was a three-month officer's training scheme. The trainees were exposed to Buksh's style of speaking and motivation. Buksh was instrumental in making [each] scheme a success on the practical side.
By 1966, the