Nizar Somji’s story should be an inspiration to anyone who believes the road to one’s dreams is paved in gold.

Somji launched Matrikon in 1988 on a shoestring and, even when the company was nearly broke in its infancy, the Edmontonian persevered.

And it has paid off in spades as Matrikon today ranks as a world leader in cutting-edge, web-based products and services and does business on six continents.

1. Where did you get your entrepreneurial spirit?

Nizar Somji has grown Matrikon into a major web player.

“Part of the entrepreneurial spirit came from my father, who pursued various business interests in Tanzania to go from poverty to the middle-class level so he could get his kids educated. My father (Jaffer) was a shopkeeper and also had a restaurant.

I also think I had an internal desire, having lived in difficult circumstances in Africa, to find a way to better myself. Although I am of East Indian origin, I grew up in Tanzania. I came from a fairly modest background. My father’s father died when he was six or seven, so my father went through some tremendously difficult times in which they didn’t even have food to eat at times.”

2. What was your boyhood dream?

“It was to go to university in England and it seemed like an elusive dream. In the 1960s, a lot of kids from Tanzania were able to get scholarships to go to England. But in the early 1970s, because of the transition of the government to socialism and their brand of Communism, a lot of the foreign exchange was shut down. But I was lucky because the year I got my scholarship, it opened up again and I went to the University of Birmingham.”

3. Who was your role model?

“In my early years, my father was my role model, teaching me the work ethic, commitment and so on. When I was in university in England, and I hate to say this, I think Maggie Thatcher (former British prime minister) was a role model. I transitioned from being a socialist to somewhat of a capitalist. I admired her ability to take England out of the serious economic doldrums and create a vision, excitement and new energy. In the 1970s, the economy there was in the toilet, but that changed when she came onboard.”

4. When did you begin to formulate the vision that became Matrikon?

“In 1981, I had thoughts of going into a consulting type of role but in 1982, my father became quite sick and died. So I had to leave university to take care of my younger siblings and my mom. I finished university (University of Alberta) later part-time. The idea of Matrikon really started to gel in my mind when I was working for Nova Chemicals in Red Deer in 1986.”

5. What are your recollections of launching Matrikon?

“I left Nova in 1988 to start Matrikon, thinking I had a contract as a freelance consultant at a water-treatment plant. But then that contract died. Eventually, I rebounded and got some consulting work to get things going. In the initial years, cash flow was really the key problem. I started the company with virtually nothing. I had $7,000 in the bank, two young kids and my wife (Parviz) worked half time. In April of ’89, it didn’t look like my mortgage payment would be made, but then a cheque arrived in the mail just in time (laughing). And we were on our way.”

6. Was your wife involved in the company?

“She founded the company with me and worked with me full-time until we became a public company this year. A lot of the success of the company can be attributed to her commitment and what I call fiscal responsibility.”

7. What was the turning point in establishing Matrikon as a leader in industrial information technology?

“It started when we hired some very good entrepreneurs who were very focused on growing the business and making things happen. So the business began to multiply. Then, we looked at what we had to do to become more successful. So we built a relationship with the University of Alberta. What we noticed was that people were spending a lot of money on technology, but the value wasn’t coming through. So we focused on what tools we could offer that would allow our clients to harness full value and we decided to create what we call a virtual data warehouse to bring the Internet and web down to the manufacturing space.”

8. What is the most important lesson this business has taught you?

“Courage. We’ve had the courage to make decisions quickly and work very hard to make those decisions work for us. Occasionally, I talk to young kids who are having difficulty making a decision about a career or a job. They say: ‘I’ll make this decision and then if it doesn’t work out, I’ll take the next one.’ My answer to them is: ‘Once you make a decision, you have to make that decision work for you – you don’t make a decision half-heartedly.’ ”

9. Describe your business philosophy?

“It’s two-fold in relation to this business. We need to build very strong relationships with the people we work with and we have to show them that we’re adding value to their bottom line.”

10. What’s the key to success in tapping into the global markets as Matrikon has done?

“There are two factors. First, our strength in North America is our ability to build strong relationships with our clients. But that is far more critical globally, particularly in Asia where business is based on relationships. Second, what we’ve found works is building partnerships with other companies and other agents around the world so you can keep your costs down and also harness your partners’ relationships with their clients. I couldn’t even count the number of countries we do business in. About 50 per cent of our business is American, about 15 per cent is international and about 35 per cent is Canadian.”

11. How has the economic slowdown affected your business?

“We actually haven’t seen much of a change. The utility business has become a big contributor to our business and we expect that to continue for the next year or two. The business with oil and gas companies has also grown in the past year.

In the next couple of years, we expect the manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors to really take shape. So we’re not expecting any major slowdown.”

12. Are you disappointed in the stock’s performance (recent price, $1.30)?

“I’m disappointed but I also understand the sentiment in the marketplace and how people have been burned. We feel, however, that we need to earn the loyalty and respect and the confidence of the investors. If we continue with the results we’ve been showing, I think the investors will see the value. I think it (stock) is a tremendous bargain.”

13. What’s your vision for Matrikon?

“My vision is to keep Matrikon as a leader, bringing web-based and Internet-based technologies down to the manufacturing space and helping our clients deliver value from that technology. We see the company growing at a decent pace and I’d like to show some very good returns for our shareholders.”

14. Who’s the business leaders you most respect and admire?

“I admire the vision and thinking of (Bill) Hewlett and (Dave) Packard (of Hewlett-Packard) in their early days, what they did and how they transitioned the value-based philosophy of their company.

I think the early days of (Microsoft founder) Bill Gates are remarkable in terms of business savvy and the ability to take a concept into such a massively wide usage.”

15. Is your job stressful?

“I’m able to manage it quite well, particularly having a family and being involved in the community as I am. So you have different outlets, and that helps. I have fun doing what I do, and we have a tremendous team of people here. In the early days of the company, the stress would get to me but, as you mature, you learn how to deal with it.”

16. What are some of your interests beyond your business?

“I’m interested in sports. I play a bit of soccer, squash, tennis and pick-up basketball. I only have one humbling experience in my life that I need to take care of, which is golf. I’ve not been humbled by anything in my life as I’ve been humbled by golf. So I want to conquer that over the next year. You need a lot of time to be able to conquer that.”

17. You won’t give up golf?

“I’ve thought about it, but that’s not my style. You can’t let a game where you hit the ball get to you.”

18. Are you a perfectionist?

“No, I think I’m very pragmatic. I’m a realist. I’m hard on myself and I’m hard on the people I care about. What frustrates me is when somebody is not working to their potential.”

19. You’re 42 now. What do you see yourself doing when you’re 50?

“I’ve had this dream, but it is not likely to happen anytime soon. When I retire, I’d like to go to law school and become a pro bono criminal lawyer. It may happen when I’m 50 or 55 or whenever the young people in this company decide they’ve had enough of the old guy.”

20 Any other goals or aspirations?

“Yeah, I’d want to perfect my golf game when I’m retired. I shoot 140 if I’m lucky. But first we have a lot of work to do here. We’ve had success here, but if you’re not working hard at it with a consistent effort, it can disappear quickly.”

IN PROFILE: Nizar Jaffer Somji

* Born/raised/age: Dodoma, Tanzania; 42.
* Title: President/CEO, Matrikon Inc.
* Family: Wife Parviz; daughter Faiza, 17; son Alim, 15.
* Education: Bachelor of Science, University of Birmingham (England); Masters in Engineering, University of Alberta.
* Career: Somji founded Matrikon with wife Parviz in 1988 and has been the president and CEO since. Prior to that, he was an engineer with Nova Chemicals.
* Honours: Somji is a recipient of the University of Alberta Alumni awards and has been a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
* Role models: Jaffer Somji (father), Margaret Thatcher.
* Passions: Golf, soccer, basketball, squash, tennis.

THE COMPANY: Matrikon Inc.

* Brass: Nizar Somji, president/CEO; Hugh Bolton, chairman; Dilip Kembhavi, Amin Rawji, executive VPs; Shafin Kanji, chief financial officer; Nils Mann, chief technology officer.
* Profile: Matrikon is an international engineering and consulting company and IT specialist that develops a wide range of web-based products and services to help clients turn massive volume of data into knowledge. The Edmonton-based company also operates out of Canadian offices in Calgary, Fort McMurray, Vancouver, Toronto and in the U.S. out of New York, Houston and St. Louis. Its software solutions are utilized by numerous major corporations such as Caterpillar, Suncor, Agrium and Chevron Canada.
* Highlights: Matrikon became a publicly traded company in April with a reverse takeover of TigrSoft. It posted revenue of $20,060,152 in 2000, a 1,653-per-cent increase from revenue of $1,144,039 in 1995.
* Awards: Matrikon has been recognized on Profit Magazine's list of Canada's fastest growing companies for three straight years.
* Recent stock price (MTK-TSE): $1.30 (year range, $1-$2.50).
* Web site: www.matrikon.com
* Address: 1800-10405 Jasper Ave., Edmonton, AB T5J 3N4.
* Phone/Fax: 780-448-1010, 780-448-9191.