Alumni: Rahim Khanani

 

Rahim K

After graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and working in Pakistan, Rahim Khanani decided he wanted a change in career direction. A Master's Degree in Sustainability Management from IMI helped him carve out a career in information sharing.


What is the biggest takeaway from your time as an undergrad?

The greatest thing that I’ve learned from my undergraduate experience is to be involved. In 2010 I helped start a club called Pakistan Development Fund (PDF), a student-run charity club which raised $32,000 in under two years. I served as a founding member, and it was the first time I ran something.

I’ve also participated in various business-related conferences such as Show Me the Green (SMG) 2012 where I was captain of my team and we made it to first place. In the Young Entrepreneurs’ Challenge (YEC) 2013 my team placed second. I feel like I perform better when I’m under pressure and that comes with leadership positions.

When did you decide that accounting wasn’t for you?

I went back home to Karachi after graduating and I worked there for a while. Every time I visited the industrial areas of the city, I would see industrial waste everywhere. At that point I thought maybe I should do something different. I've always wanted to run my own business, and after being in Karachi I wanted to make sure it would be environmentally friendly.

That’s when I heard about the Master of Science in Sustainability Management (MScSM) program. I decided I wanted to join on the first day I walked in for orientation. It was how passionate everyone seemed to be. Everybody’s energy was just so high. That’s really what drew me toward it. It was a little scary because I was part of the inaugural class, but I took a risk and I’m very happy I did.

What is Flarian?

Flarian launched in 2012 with its flagship product – the USB Business Card. Currently under its PromotionalDrives.com brand it retails over a dozen shapes of USB drives which can be personalized with customers’ logos and artwork, and preloaded with the data and information they wish to share. The purpose of Flarian is to make information sharing easier.

What do you do for Flarian?

I'm the account manager, and I ensure customer success for every single customer that we have. Because our team is small I'm doing a lot of things I never thought I would do including copy writing and building landing pages. It’s very challenging but it’s kind of cool especially when a piece of copy actually works. When it works it’s really exciting and that’s what I love about working at Flarian.

Flarian recently ranked #24 on Canadian Business magazine’s 2017 list of Canada’s Top New Growth Companies. How do you feel about that?

Ecstatic! This gives us huge credibility. It took a lot of hard work, trial and error, and a lot of luck, to be quite frank, to get where we are today. 

 

Flarian

►Flarian team: (L-R) Hammad Naseem, Rahim Khanani, Ali Rizvi, and Hammad Fasih


* Story / top photo by Sarah Jane Silva for the Department of Management / IMI.