"In a sense, it doesn't matter who does it, it's not for an individualto sit up and take the glory." For a majority shareholder in a company estimated to be worth around pounds 55m, Mr Mohsan's own salary is relatively modest, pounds 150,000 last year, a cut of pounds 60,000 from the previous year, according to accounts at Companies House. Family started out with nothing, and their view is very much that they're working to survive and put clothes on the backs of the other family members. Tahir doesn't see himself as a rich, eligible bachelor, which is why he hates the publicity so much; he sees himself as a hard-working bloke.""Family" are devout Muslims, and they have a prayer room, known commonly as "The Mosque", in Simonstone. "It may be a big business, and Tahir may be a multi-millionaire, but in a way they see it as a corner shop in Blackburn.

"They expect you to work your bollocks off, but they do it themselves."Colin Silcock, the sales director, says Mr Mohsan and his brothers "want to keep it as a family business", reflecting the company's roots and the fact that profits are consistently ploughed back in to allow expansion, with minimal borrowings and no outside shareholding in the company, despite its size.Another family acquaintance goes further. "Come here on a weekend and you'll see family here," says a current staffer, with a weary expression. But the joke among the employees is that Mr Mohsan and his brothers are always there first anyway. Shahid was a director until 1997 and Zia Mohsan is head of the manufacturing division, known as VMT. The brothers are known as "family" by the 800 employees at Simonstone, marked for the sheer, relentless efficiency with which they operate, and their fierce work schedules.There are no reserved parking places nearest the front door for the directors in the company's car park: in keeping with the egalitarian management principles the company preaches, it is first come, first served.

He's got an amazing memory and the most incredible thing is he never gets tired He just keeps on going. He's a machine."Dr Mohammed and Mr Mohsan are the sole directors of Granville Technology, holding company for Time Computer Systems, but three other brothers work at Time. "When you meet him," says one, "you wonder if this slight, thin, shortish bloke, who looks like any other Asian bloke in his mid- 20s, is really him. Then quickly you realise he's got a mind that's incredibly focused and very quick He's not interested in office politics or small- talk.

He just does it - you should do this here, that there, bam, bam, bam. The livelihood of 2,000 people depends on his decisions.Former employees say on first sight you could mistake the MD for a trainee technician. Mr Mohsan's most important duty is overseeing the company's purchase of components for the computers they assemble, sourcing parts that are reliable, cheap and consistent. The margins on a business such as Time's are very narrow - some rivals fell by the wayside after failing to realise how precarious the position is.

Mr Mohsan is in day-to-day charge of the complex, which includes an assembly hangar the size of a football pitch, where a row of workers, from white-haired pearl-spectacled matrons to fashionable young Asian dudes, click together motherboards, bits of circuit and cases like so many sets of hi-tech Meccano More than 2000 computers are made here every day. Next door is a repair centre of similar dimensions, where hundreds of monitors in need of attention stare down from high shelves at lab-coated technicians.The sales floor, where your call in response to one of Time's busy, basic advertisements (all designed in-house) will be taken, is crowded with hundreds of telephonists chattering in broad East Lancs. He thinks that's missing the point completely."The industrial park where Time operates is Simonstone, on the side of a moor halfway between Blackburn and Burnley, a bleak spot on the western edge of the Pennines. He's is a private person, quite unprepossessing when you first meet him, and he doesn't want glory or fame. His views and his perspective are very mature and I seek and value his views." Another acquaintance says: "He hates all the media hype and publicity, he dislikes everything the Sunday Times Rich List stands for. Four years ago, he declined to have his picture taken by The Independent, saying: "The parents of my patients might worry unduly if I was recognised first and foremost as a business whizzkid rather than a paediatrician." That was the only known interview with any member of the family.The Eltec director, Mark Price, says: "Mr Mohsan is very community- minded He's wise, analytical and sees through problems immediately. He cites his medical work as a reason he, too, shies from publicity.