| 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan |
A head of carvan needs VISION, COMMUNICATION and COMPASSION — basic tools for a Leader. Dr. Allama Mohammad Iqbal | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan |
PERFORMING100 CEOs & COMPANIES OF PAKISTAN
Exclusive Inspiring Interviews, Success Stories and Case-Studies of Business Leaders, Presidents, CEOs, High-Profile Entrepreneurs, Women of Substance
Ijaz Nisar Founder & President CEO Club Pakistan | Management House Manager Today Magazine | CEO Today Magazine
CEO Club Pakistan Publications
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Copyright© 2019 CEO Club Pakistan | Management House Manager Today Magazine | CEO Today Magazine All rights reserved Printed in Pakistan No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored, introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author Ijaz Nisar and CEO Today. Requests for permission should be directed to: [email protected] CEO Club Pakistan Publications are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs. For information, please contact Head Circulation Manager Today Publications Division at: 0092 300 452 1298 | 0092 423 545 5704
Published by:
A PROJECT OF CEO CLUB & MANAGER TODAY CEO MANAGEMENT HOUSE MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE TODAY
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DEDICATION This book is dedicated to our visionary leader, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah; the founder and the father of the nation, whose leadership acumen and vision continues to be imperishable. I would like to render my unfeigned gratitude for the unwavering sustenance, aid and efforts to the team of CEO Today. It left no stone unturned to make it possible with their infallible input. Moreover, this dedication is to honor all those visionary business leaders, entrepreneurs, women of substance and the next generation of future leaders, who generously contributed with their intellectual involvement to make it an enduring experience for the future generations of Pakistan.
| V | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Allah Almighty blessed me to weave a vision of “CEO Today”, a best-selling professional learning and development magazine for business leaders, professional managers, and enterprising entrepreneurs. Needless to say, it has been a roller-coaster ride of dejection, happiness and achievement. It was the unyielding aim and a quest for precision and perfection which enabled me to chronicle the business leadership of Pakistan. This eighth edition of “100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan 2019” is inclusive of inspiring interviews and success profiles of distinct business personalities who carried weight and triggered a positive change in their respective fields.
The book “100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan” owes its existence to the unbendable dedication of the “CEO Today” team; Saqib Shahzad, Nazeya Qhan, Shafaq Khalid, Abdul Rauf, Haseeb Nisar, Asad Yousaf, Rafay Butt, Fasih ur Rehman, Rjaa Haroon, Nosheen Tariq, Shifa Ijaz and M. Shahbaz who have been persistent in their targets and goals. I am extremely grateful to Aftab Ahmed (CEO Century Paper), Abdul Ghaffar, and Jahanzeb Ali(Century Paper) in providing paper for the book. I am privileged to have Saqib Shahzad and Nazeya Qhan in my team, who in their professional capacity, have shouldered the burden of compiling this book and have offered their expertise. I want to offer a special note of gratitude to Mr. Wali Zahid for contributing an exclusive chapter on Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as CEO.
Here, I am forever grateful to the contributors and editors who bleed to their bones to transform this strenuous ride into a reality. We all know that in the hectic routine of today’s life, it is very difficult to take out time even for oneself, but they somehow managed to do so. It means a lot to the “CEO Today” team.
Last but not the least, I would like to pay my heartfelt gratitude to my family; especially my better-half Asma Ijaz, who supported me through all the ups and down of this venture. Had it not been for my family, I would have never been able to write it.
Ijaz Nisar Founder & President CEO Club Pakistan & Management House [email protected] | +92 300 452 1298
| VI | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | Contents • READ ME FIRST: MAD (MAKE A DIFFERENCE!)...... XIII • MANAGER TODAY... THE JOURNEY CONTINUES!...... XIV • PROPHET MUHAMMAD (PBUH) AS AN ENTREPRENEUR & LEADER...... XX • TOP 10 BEHAVIORAL LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES OF...... XXV
POLITICAL LEADERS OF PAKISTAN
• Imran Khan Prime Minister of Pakistan ...... 2 • Dr. Ishrat Hussain Adviser on Institutional Reforms and Austerity with the status of Federal Minister...... 4 • Abdul Razak Dawood Adviser on Commerce, Textile, Industry & Production and Investment with the status of Federal Minister...... 8 • Naeem ul Haq Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Political Affairs with the status of Minister of State...... 12 • Sayed Zulfiqar Abbas BukhariSpecial Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Overseas Pakistanis & Human Resource Development with the status of Minister of State...... 16 • Andleeb Abbas Parliamentary Secretary on Foreign Affairs, Government of Pakistan...... 20
VISIONARY LEADERS & DIFFERENCE MAKERS OF PAKISTAN
• Syed Babar Ali Advisor, Packages Ltd...... 26 • Mian Mohammad Mansha Chairman, Nishat Group & MCB...... 30 • Hussain Dawood Chairman, Dawood Hercules Corporation...... 34 • Sadruddin Hashwani Chairman, Hashoo Group...... 38 • Khalid Nawaz Awan Chairman, TCS Holdings...... 42 • Saifuddin Nooruddin Zoomkawala Chairman, EFU...... 46 • Ikram ul-Majeed Sehgal Chairman, PathFinder Group...... 50 • Dr. Muhammad Amjad Saqib Founder & Chairman, Akhuwat...... 56 • Sirajuddin Aziz Group Financial Institutions CEO, Habib Bank AG Zurich...... 60 • S.M. Muneer Chairman, Din Group of Industries Vice Chairman MCB...... 68 • Shahbaz Ali Malik Managing Director, Popular Group of Industries...... 72 • Arif Habib Chairman & CEO, Arif Habib Corporation Ltd...... 76 • M. Jawed Akhai (Late) Chairman, Martin Dow Ltd...... 80 • Irfan Siddiqui President & CEO, Meezan Bank Ltd...... 84 • Muhammad Ali Tabba “Sitara-e-Imtiaz” CEO, Lucky Cement Ltd...... 88 • Aftab AhmadCEO, Century Papers & Board Mills Ltd...... 94 | VII | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan |
• Malik Riaz Hussain Founder & Chairman, Bahria Town...... 100 • Sultana Siddiqui Chairperson, Hum Network...... 108 • Aziz Memon Chairman, Kings Group ...... 110 • Rizwan U. Khan Country GM - Pakistan & Afghanistan, Coca Cola ...... 114 • Asad Ali Khan President, Abacus Consulting...... 120 • Aamir Niazi CEO, HRSG People & Business Advisory...... 124 • Haji Muhammed Rafiq Pardesi Chairman, HMR Group...... 130 • M. Haroon Qasim CEO, PharmEvo (Pvt.) Ltd...... 134 • Zubair Tufail CEO, Tufail Chemical Industries Limited...... 140 • Javed Afridi CEO, Haier Pakistan Pvt. Ltd. & Ruba Manufacturing (HNR)...... 142 • Aziz Boolani CE, Serena Hotels...... 146 • Professor Dr. Farhan Essa Abdullah MBBA (Gold Medalist, MPhil, PhD) CEO, Dr. ESSAS Laboratory & Diagnostic Centres...... 152 • Haji Riaz ul Hassan CEO, Cakes & Bakes...... 156 • Lt. Gen Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmad MD / CEO, Mari Petroleum Company Limited...... 160 • Dr. Khalid Hameed Chairman & CEO, Tara Group...... 166 • Zulquirnain Ali Khan Chairman & CEO, Zultec Group / Chairman, Utility Stores Corporation...... 172
“EVERYONE CAN RISE ABOVE THEIR CIRCUMSTANCES AND ACHIEVE SUCCESS IF THEY ARE DEDICATED TO AND PASSIONATE ABOUT WHAT THEY DO.”
NELSON MANDELA
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100 HIGH PROFILE CEOs BUSINESS LEADERS, ENTREPRENEURS, PRESIDENTS & WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE OF PAKISTAN
1. Abdul Rauf Jetalsarwala Chairman, Dany Technologies...... 180 2. Abdul Sami CEO, Samad Group...... 184 3. Abid Saeed Managing Director, Foton JW Auto Park (Pvt.) Ltd...... 188 4. Abid Wazir CE, KIPS...... 192 5. Adnan Afridi MD, National Investment Trust Limited (NIT)...... 196 6. Ahmad Najeeb CEO, Albario Engineering Pvt. Ltd. (AEPL)...... 200 7. Ahmad RafiCEO, ARCO Plastics (Pvt) Ltd...... 204 8. Ahsan Malik COO & Director, Waterlink Group of Companies...... 208 9. Ahsan Mashkoor CEO, C Square Consulting...... 212 10. Ahsan Mehanti MD & CEO, Arif Habib Commodities...... 218 11. Amir Jamil Abbasi FCA, Senior Partner, KPMG Taseer Hadi & Co...... 222 12. Anwar ul Hassan COO (Pakistan & Middle East), Orient Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd...... 226 13. Arsalan Hashmani CFA, MAcc CEO, Hashmanis Group of Hospitals...... 230 14. Ashraf Mayia Director, Heels Shoes...... 234 15. Asim Zia Alam Founder & CEO, WEBDOC...... 238 16. Atif Rana CEO, Lahore Qalandars...... 242 17. Awais Kashif COO, Vigour Impex...... 246 18. Bilal Amanullah Moti MD, Windmills Real Estate Valuation Services LLC ...... 250 19. Bilal Shahid Tata CEO, TATA Best Foods Limited (TBFL)...... 256 20. Danish Iqbal CEO, Mindbridge...... 260 21. Dawar Rashid Chairman,Wing Chair Luxury Group...... 264 22. Dr. Imran Y. Muhammad Sitara-e-Imtiaz Founder & Chairman (Transformation International Society) & Managing Director, Jofa Group...... 268 23. Dr. Kaiser RafiqCEO, AFOHS Club / Options Group...... 274 24. Dr. Omar Chughtai Director Operations, Chughtai Lab...... 278 25. Ehsan Saya MD, Daraz Pakistan...... 282 26. Faisal Munshi CEO, Hilal Care and Dominos Pizza Pakistan...... 286 27. Farhan Javed Director, Graana Group of Companies...... 292 28. Fraz Khan Country Head, Meizu Technology Pakistan...... 298 29. Ghazanfar Azzam President & CEO, Mobilink Microfinance Bank Limited...... 302 30. Gohar S. ButtChairman & CEO, GSB Group...... 308 31. Hamza Tariq SufiDirector, Sufi Group of Companies...... 312
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32. Haseeb Ahmad Executive Director, Sitara Chemcial Industries Pvt. Ltd...... 316 33. Imran Anwer CEO, Engro Polymer & Chemicals Limited (EPCL)...... 320 34. Iqtidar Ahmad CE, OutReach Marketing Services ( Pvt ) Ltd ...... 326 35. Irfan Ahmad Khan CEO, Nova Care (Pvt.) Limited - DVAGO Pharmacy & Wellness Experts...... 332 36. Irshad M.Sheikh CEO, Asmar Group...... 336 37. Isphanyar M.Bhandara CEO, Murree Brewery...... 340 38. Jalal Meghani Deputy MD & CFO, Adamjee Life Assurance Co. Ltd...... 346 39. Jamal Akbar Ansari Chief Executive Officer, Akbar Associates Group...... 350 40. Jawad Amin Khan MD, ZAFA Group...... 354 41. Jawad Mirza CEO, CallCourier...... 358 42. Junaid Esmail Makda President, Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) & CEO, Makda Group of Companies...... 364 43. Kashif Aziz Khawaja Country Manager Footwear, Servis Industries Limited...... 368 44. Khadijah Shah Creative Director, ELAN...... 372 45. Khawaja Ammad Khalid Sikka Director, Happilac Paints ...... 376 46. Khurram Aziz Khan CEO, Pakistan International Container Terminal Ltd. (PICT)...... 382 47. M. Saleem Khan Tanoli CEO, FAKT Exhibitions Pvt Ltd...... 386 48. Maj. Gen. Imtiaz Hussain Sherazi, HI (M), Sitara-i-Esar (Retd) COO, Army Welfare Trust (AWT)...... 390 49. Margo Abdel Aziz Director, The International School of Choufeit- Lahore...... 394 50. Maroof A. Syed President & CEO, Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP)...... 398 51. Meher Kashif Younis MD, Model Steel Group of Companies...... 402 52. Mian Muhammad Kashif Ashfaq CEO, ChenOne Stores Limited...... 406 53. Mian ZulfiqarMD, Mezan Group...... 410 54. Moazzam Rasheed CEO, Bin Rasheed Colors & Chemicals Manufacturing Co. (Pvt.) Ltd.....414 55. Mohammad Asif Peer CEO, Systems Pvt. Ltd...... 418 56. Muhammad Arif MD, Boss International...... 424 57. Muhammad Idrees CEO, NovaMed Pharmaceuticals (Pvt) Ltd...... 428 58. Muhammad Imran Ghani CEO, Tri-Angels Electronics (HISENSE)...... 434 59. Muhammad Mikail Khan MD, Razziq International...... 438 60. Mujtaba Jafarey CEO, JS Fuels (Private) Limited...... 442 61. Munsarim Saif Director, Ismail Industries Ltd...... 446 62. Murtaza Hashwani Deputy Chairman, Hashoo Group ...... 450 63. Nadeem Beesey CEO, Alpha Insurance Company Limited...... 454 64. Nadeem Yousaf Adil Chairman, Leader Audit & Assurance and Risk Advisory, Deloitte...... 458 65. Nael Ahmad Country Manager, Abudawood Trading Co...... 462
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66. Naim Anwar MD & CEO, Crescent Star Insurance Limited...... 466 67. Nusrat Munshi MD & CEO, AGP (Pvt.) Limited...... 470 68. Omar Farooq CEO, Interwood Mobel Pvt. Ltd...... 474 69. Raheel Iqbal CEO, The Gamestorm Studios (Pvt.) Limited...... 478 70. Rana Asif Ali COO, Gerry’s International Pvt. Ltd - Licensee of Federal Express Corporation..482 71. Rashed Rafique ButtVP & GM, Novo Nordisk Pharma...... 486 72. Rashid Islam CEO, Waresa Group of Industries Pvt. Ltd...... 492 73. Raza Elahi CEO, Elahi Group of Companies...... 496 74. Rear Admiral Jamil Akhtar HI(M) T.Bt. Chairman, Karachi Port Trust (KPT)...... 500 75. Rizwan Saadat Exectuive Director, Leopard Courier Services Pvt. Ltd...... 504 76. Saadia Mansha, Director, Nishat Agriculture, Nishat Dairy & Nishat Sutas...... 510 77. Saira Awan Malik Vice Chairperson, TCS Holdings (Private) Limited...... 514 78. Sajid Ali Abbasi Founder & Group CEO, Times Group Pvt. Ltd...... 520 79. Salman Aslam Executive Director, Century Packages Private Limited...... 526 80. Salman Siddiqui Director, Ehsan Chappal Store (Pvt.) Limited (ECS)...... 528 81. Sayeeda Leghari MD & Chairperson, Sukkur Beverages Pvt. Ltd...... 532 82. Shafiq AkbarCEO, Graana Group of Companies...... 536 83. Shayan Akberali CEO, Amreli Steels Limited...... 542 84. Sheikh Abid Mahmood Chairman, Golden Pearl Cosmetics (Pvt) Ltd...... 546 85. Sheikh Mahmood Iqbal CE, Master Tiles & Ceramic Industries Limited...... 550 86. Shoaib Mukhtar Director, Sadaqat Limited & Sadaqat Global limted UK...... 554 87. Syed Amir Ali President & CEO, BankIslami Pakistan Limited...... 558 88. Syed Salman Ali CEO, AAA Facility Management (Pvt.) Ltd...... 562 89. Syed Waqas Jafri CE, Dar-e-Arqam Schools...... 568 90. Tanveer Hayat Mir CEO, T.M.Rubber Pvt. Ltd...... 572 91. Tarek Hamdy CEO, EIGHTEEN (Elite Estates Pvt. Ltd.)...... 576 92. Tariq Malik CEO, Sardar Group of Companies...... 582 93. Tauqeer ul Haq MD, Sante (Pvt.) Limited...... 586 94. Yasir Bucha MD, Captain Developers...... 590 95. Yousaf Hussain President & CEO, Faysal Bank Limited...... 594 96. Yusuf Hussain CEO, Ignite - National Technology Fund...... 598 97. Zeeshan Altaf Lohya Founder & President, Z International School...... 604 98. Zeeshan Raza CEO, UBL Insurers Limited...... 608 99. Zeeshan Zia Raja MD, American Lycetuff...... 614 100. Zoraiz Lashari Chairman & CEO, Luxus Grand Hotel & Sozo Water Park...... 620
| XI | SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE THE REAL CAUSE OF THEIR SUCCESS IS A STROKE OF LUCK, WHILE SOME ARE OF THE VIEWS THAT SOME MYSTERIOUS FORCES ARE BEHIND THEIR BUSINESS TRIUMPH. BUT, IN REALITY, THERE ARE CONCRETE FACTORS CONSTANTLY WORKING BEHIND THEIR SUCCESS.
| XII | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | READ ME FIRST: MAD (MAKE A DIFFERENCE!) Once it was merely a dream; today, it is a tangible reality, YES! Eighth Edition of “100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan”, a book of inspirational success stories of high profile business leaders, entrepreneurs, women of substance, educationists, philanthropists and CEOs, is in your hands, Alhamdulillah!
This is Pakistan’s first-ever book which embodies the personal and professional growth of current and future CEOs, business leaders, women of substance, and entrepreneurs. It is here to make a difference. The philosophy of this book is not to curse the darkness but kindle a candle. Darkness fades away in the presence of light.
The whole concept of this book lies in the following words: continuous personal/professional development (CPD). This can be explained with the help of a parable.
Once there was a man walking along a beach; the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off at a distance, he saw a person going back and forth between the surf’s edge and the beach. As this man approached, he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on sand. The oceanic tides had pushed them out of water.
The man was amazed by the obvious futility of the task. There were too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. He went closer to the person; he continued the task of picking up starfish; one by one and throwing them into the surf.
He came up to the person, and said: “You must be crazy; there are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish, you can’t possibly make a difference.” The person looked at the man, stooped down and picked up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said: “It has surely made a difference to that one!”
Now, it is the right time to make a strong pledge to come out of desperation, helplessness, contradictions, controversies, paradoxes & dichotomies. Instead of losing hope in the face of all odds, we should aspire to swim against the currents. Incessant efforts and hard work always bear the fruit.
HOLY QURAN: ALLAH ALMIGHTY DOESN’T CHANGE THE DESTINY OF PEOPLE UNTIL AND UNLESS THEY CHANGE THEMSELVES AND HE KNOWS ALL. (8:54)
| XIII | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | CEO CLUB PAKISTAN & MANAGER TODAY...... THE JOURNEY CONTINUES…!!
Alhamdulillah, it is a matter of great achievement that the eighth edition of this book is sharing its grandeur with you. The first seven editions of this book have proved to stir the corporate sector with its dignified influx and contemplated to be the best sellers. Now, this eighth edition is ready to widen the horizon of the readers and reached to the zenith of best seller again, Insha Allah. The incessant expedition of CEO Today & Manager Today will prove to inspire many cohorts for times to come.
The book “100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan” is an epitome of prodigious well- knitted interviews of experienced and successful 100 leaders that will stir the minds of the readers, enhance their knowledge and open locked doors of their creative personalities to allow them to breath in a world of success stories.
We, very carefully and after much deliberation, have selected the success stories, inspiring interviews and profiles of the trendsetters for this book of 100 CEOs, young entrepreneurs, business leaders and difference makers. The criterion for the selection of CEOs, leaders and companies was based on the brightest, the fastest and the biggest, especially owing to their contributions towards economic growth, their impact on GDP, employment generation, regional and global presence, their initiations of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), best management practices, leadership styles, and HR engagements.
These 100 CEOs, business leaders and entrepreneurs of Pakistan created almost one million jobs and earned a very respectable name in their companies. Average annual growth of these companies is above 30%. Hence, not even a single company is in loss and is earning huge revenues in terms of profitability and performance. Out of these 100 companies, more than a dozen companies have their presence in the international markets, thus earning a respectable name globally for their companies. These 100 successful business leaders are role models for the rest of the country especially for the future generations of entrepreneurs and aspiring young CEOs.
Another key objective of this book is to project the role of the visionary business leaders in economic growth, creation of opportunities for future CEOs and entrepreneurs — a recipe for economic prosperity — developing responsible and ethical leaders in any organization and, last but not the least, understanding how to face and overcome business challenges in turbulent times. This book is more than just simply a chronology of success stories, exclusive interviews of CEOs and business leaders or a mere compilation of their achievements. It imparts a deep insight into what drives these visionary business leaders and their core behavioral competencies to achieve such humongous heights. During my university days, I had always observed a great void — one could find a plethora of business books, articles on professional and personal development, management styles, and success stories of individuals like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, big and small by the western writers — but I could not find literature which represented Pakistani CEOs and indigenous business talent.
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They are real contributors to Pakistan’s immense business and economic outlook who excelled despite all odds, obstacles, frustrations, and hindrances in their respective domains. We have miserably failed to project our business leaders as heroes — our role models serving as inspiration for our future generations. They remained as unsung heroes for long. I have been venting out such frustration at this gap between business and academia off and on over a long period of time. My training and teaching experiences took a definitive shape and I resolved to bridge the gap between business & academia. Our concept of “100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan” was born with the need that the most developed countries have a huge amount of information available about their business platforms and business leaders, about the thought processes of those who are at the helm of the businesses affairs, whereas, in Pakistan we have scant quality information about our business leaders. We had to start from somewhere. Hence, CEO Today & MANAGER TODAY took small steps forward what we hoped would constitute a comprehensive collection of inspiring stories; business interviews and case studies of business leaders and their organizations.
MANAGEMENT HOUSE is a project of CEO Club Pakistan & CEO Today & Manager Today Magazine. Our vision is to be leading institute in providing world-class executive learning and training at local, regional and international level. Navigating today’s complex business world requires confidence, vision and strategies that drive tangible business results. To meet the universal demand for extraordinary leaders, we offer a global curriculum based on the real world challenges facing executives. At Management House, we’ll challenge your assumptions, disrupt your usual ways of doing business and introduce you to unexpected ways of thinking.
During our research, we found seven key success factors of these 100 business leaders. But we named the key success factors as “Seven Secrets of Failure” these 100 business leaders did the opposite of these key factors. Finally, the Seven Secrets of Failures of the top 100 business leaders and difference markers have been revealed:
1. Lack of Perseverance (Istaqamat): Most leaders fail not because they lack knowledge or talent, but because they quit. The nucleus of success lies in two words: persistence and resistance. Persistence in what must be done and resistance what ought not to be done.
2. Lack of Faith (Yaqeen e Kamil): People who lack conviction take the middle of the road; and guess what happens in the middle of the road? You get run over. People without conviction do not take a stand. They go along to get along because they lack confidence and courage. They conform in order to get accepted even when they know that what they are doing is wrong. They behave like being part of a herd.
3. Rationalizing (Susst - Musst): Winners must analyze but never rationalize. That is a loser’s take on the entire situation. Losers always have a book full of excuses to tell you why they could not. We hear multiple excuses such as: • I’m unlucky
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• I’m born under the wrong stars • I’m not good looking • I don’t have contacts • I don’t have enough money • The economy is bad • If only I had the opportunity • If only I didn’t have a family And the list goes on….
4. Not Learning from Past Mistakes (Insanity): Some people live and learn, and some merely exist. Wise people learn from their mistakes; people who do not learn lessons from history are doomed. Failure is a teacher if we have the right attitude. Failure is a detour, not a dead end. It is a delay, not a defeat. Experience is the name we give to our mistakes.
5. Lack of Discipline (Emotional Intelligence): Anyone who has accomplished anything worthwhile has never done so without discipline and emotional maturity. Emotional intelligence takes self-control, sacrifice, avoiding distractions and temptations. It means staying focused. Steam does not move the engine unless it is confined. Niagara Falls would not generate power unless it was harnessed.
6. Poor Self-Esteem ( Tasawar-e-Zaat, Takmeel-e- Zaat and Irfaan-e-Zaat): Poor self-esteem is a lack of self-respect and self-worth. It leads to abuse of one’s self and others. People with low self-esteem are constantly looking for an identity. They are trying to find themselves. One’s self is not to be found but to be created. Idleness and laziness are consequences of poor self- esteem and so is making excuses. Idleness is like rust that corrodes the most brilliant metal.
7. Fatalistic Attitude (Proactive vs. Reactive): A reactive attitude prevents people from accepting responsibility for their position in life. They attribute success and failure to luck. They surrender themselves to their fate. They believe and accept the predestined future. They believe that regardless of their effort, whatever has to happen will happen. Hence they never put in any effort, and complacency becomes a way of life. They wait for things to happen rather than make them happen.
“IF YOU PLAN FOR A YEAR, PLANT A TREE. IF FOR HUNDRED YEARS, TEACH THE PEOPLE. WHEN YOU SOW A SEED ONCE, YOU WILL REAP A SINGLE HARVEST. WHEN YOU TEACH THE PEOPLE, YOU WILL REAP A HUNDRED HARVESTS.” SYED BABAR ALI, ADVISOR, PACKAGES.
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We have shared definitions of success by the great minds in the following lines that how they perceived and achieved success. We are used to of quoting Steve Jobs, Shakespeare and other European gurus’ definitions in our debates and scripts but with the indefatigable help of Manager Today team we have pearled out the quintessence of success by our Pakistani entrepreneurs and business leaders like Mian Mansha, Abdul Razak Dawood, etc.
Following are the few expert definitions on Success:
“One should be brave and courageous enough to take risks and tough decisions and boldly accept their consequences, as it is one of the most essential components of the spirit of entrepreneurship.” Mian Muhammad Mansha, Chairman, Nishat Group/MCB.
“Success has many sides, it is about being a good family man, and that means being a good husband and a good father. One should always struggle to be a good Muslim and give back to society. If you accomplish and create an institution, that is a great achievement!!!” Abdul Razak Dawood, Adviser on Commerce, Textile, Industry & Production and Investment with the status of Federal Minister
“No matter what the institute is, the major emphasis should be on the development of the inner soul and mind. Education is the ability to analyse and understand... values are the fundamental touchstone on which a professional is made.” Hussain Dawood, Chairman, Dawood Hercules Corporation.
“The biggest success is that you have contentment. Losing hope is not allowed in our religion. You should be persistent. If you are constantly working towards some goal, the divine help is also there for you. If you don’t have a goal unfortunately, things would go bad for you.” Sikander Sultan, Chairman, Shan Foods.
“Hard work, sincerity and passion ensure success in life. If you believe that by going after short cuts and by trying to hoodwink others you can achieve success, you are gravely mistaken. Real success demands long continuous struggle characterized by persistence and perseverance.” Dr. Ishrat Husain, Adviser on Institutional Reforms and Austerity with the status of Federal Minister
“The word ‘impossible’ is simply non-existent in a leader’s vocabulary. A thing seems impossible, if you think it is impossible. The best quality of a leader is that he dreams big, he is an idealist.” Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan.
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We have tried our level best to place equally all these visionary leaders instead of ranking them under any particular competency order. Every individual is a larger than life figure and stands out among the crowd. One should not misunderstand someone who is at the beginning or at the end. The position is in alphabetic order. While compiling these success stories, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and interviews of CEOs & Leaders or our research-process focus is on our purpose- built questionnaire shedding light on four dimensions of leadership and management as mentioned below:
1. On Economy, Business & Finance we asked: With the country sliding back into serious economic crisis and creating extreme joblessness, how to fix the economy? Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays. How to create job providers / entrepreneurs rather than job seekers? We are not poor in resources but in poor governance, could good governance help us deal with this dilemma? What is your take on good governance? What are the challenges and opportunities in your industry/sector?
2. On Human Resource, Education and Development it was asked: With the commercialization of educational institutes, are you happy with the quality of business graduates being produced? What is leadership to you? Are leaders born or made? What are the challenges for the business leaders in Pakistan? Differentiate between a good manager and a good leader? What are the core competencies of leadership that you want to see in our new managers & business leaders? We are facing a dilemma in professional ethics. How can we inculcate a sense of ethics in our managers? What are the HR challenges and strategies regarding employee retention, motivation, engagement and performance appraisals at your company?
3. About the Company and Its Future Plan: What are your vision, mission, core values and shared behaviours that define your corporate culture? Do you have the high performance team with the right skill-set, mindset and value-set to lead the business growth? Is training, coaching and mentoring a high priority for you? How much time/resources do you devote to this? Can you share your contribution towards CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)? What steps should be taken to empower women professionally? Does your company have any harassment policy? Please share your best management practices for others to follow as a benchmark? Do you have any plans of expansion? Where do you see your organization five years down the road? Does your company envision being Pakistan’s multinational?
4. Personal and Professional Life Revealed: Please share with us your professional background as how it all started? How would you define your leadership and management style? What has been the toughest decision that you had taken so far? Define success in three key words or phrases? What is your idea of happiness? From where do you get your inspiration, personally as well as professionally? What is your favourite book on personal &professional development that you would recommend others to read? What do you consider to be your greatest achievement or failure? How do you manage workplace/business stress? How
| XVIII | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | do you keep your work-life balance? Any significant note of hope to the younger generation of business leaders, entrepreneur, and managers.
This exclusive book bridges the gap between business and academia to provide continuous learning opportunities. The purpose of this book is to promote reading & learning culture, healthy community, renewed value system, a strong family institution & developing excellence in human beings. This humble effort is aimed at making a difference with individuals, organizations and communities by attempting to bring change in their current cognitive framework. The focus of this book is to “learn from others” experiences, providing a space to build positive relationships, bringing new insight & inspiration and developing leadership with new consciousness.
By the grace of Almighty Allah, previous edition 2014 was dispatched to more than ambassadors, high commissioners, chambers of commerce, federations and diplomats of 100 countries. We got a huge response from them. This humble effort of the book does not claim anything big but can make a big difference by creating softer and corporate images of Pakistan in international ring.
This book is also part of the syllabus of many business programs for students of entrepreneurship and management. It is doing positive branding for Pakistan by highlighting the success stories of Pakistani entrepreneurs. This book is bringing a intellectual revolution in Pakistan by reviving the book-reading culture among the students and teachers, in particular.
IF YOU DO NOT BUILD YOUR DREAMS, SOMEBODY WILL HIRE YOU TO BUILD HIS DREAMS.
| XIX | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | Leadership of Muhammad (SAW): Lessons for CEOs By Wali Zahid, CEO, SkillCity
In a survey of 150 chief executives on ranking key leader skills and abilities, decision-making came at the top.
Learning: when it comes to making complex, high-stake decisions, CEOs’ wits are often tested. Sometimes they succeed in making timely and sane decisions. At other times, they are beset by poor judgment, bad counsel and looking at the wrong end of an issue. Now, most CEOs, grads of Ivy League or Oxbrige universities have access to Western best practices, styles, models of decision-making – from rational decision-making to analytics-based decisions to using intuition and gut feel. Have they ever wondered that they can learn the decision-making from the best leader on earth – The Prophet Muhammad (SAW)? If not, why not? In a recent CEO study by this writer, only 3 out 10 CEOs said yes to this question: ‘Ever thought how The Prophet (SAW)’s personality could be a guiding factor for you in doing business, making decisions, empowering others? If yes, in what ways?’ The Prophet (SAW)’s model was consultative decision-making. Whenever a complex issue arose, he would gather his sahaba (companions) and let them come up with suggestions and scenarios. Their opinions could be very very diverse. But at the end of that brainstorming, they would come up with a consensus decision.
Case in point: Battle of the Ditch (Ghazwa-e-Khandaq). It was an unusual suggestion by a Persian sahabi, Salman Farsi, to dig a ditch around Madinah and save it from the onslaught of Quraysh- Bedouin army of 10,000. This tactic, unfamiliar to Arabs at that time, could only come through a participative discussion in which sahaba could contribute to the decision-making process in a free manner and an Arab would not have preference over an ajami (non-Arab).
Consider your next big decision: Going into a new geography, launching that product, criteria for next batch hiring, appointing COOs in various divisions. How would you use The Prophet (SAW)’s model of decision-making? Who would involve without creating and in- and out-group? How would you treat their unfamiliar suggestions? How would you build consensus in your MC/leadership team?
In my forthcoming booklet Prophet Muhammad (SAW): Leadership lessons for CEOs, I look at three ways CEOs could learn from the Prophet (SAW)’s leadership style: personal leadership, people leadership and task leadership.
Personal leadership Even before he was appointed Prophet, many things stood out. I will mention two.
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One, how he kept his word. He was known as sadiq and ameen and trusted by all. In today’s management-speak, we call it reputation management. How would you like to be known and referred to by your peers, employees, customers and vendors when you are not in the room?
Two, how he used his time with focus and self-discipline. He was a leader without a title. Remember the occasion when Quraysh tribes were quarreling on who get the first right to place Hajr-e-Aswad in its place when the Kaaba was rebuilt? They decided that whoever comes first next morning, they will allow him to settle it for them. And guess who came! Muhammad. An early riser. A reflector. A one-God-worshipper. Not appointed Rasool yet. Using his wisdom, he asked all tribes to put Hajr-e-Aswad in a piece of cloth and bring it to the Kaaba. He then put it in its place. How would you use your time and focus today? How would you avoid trivia, so widespread in today, thanks to technology and unnecessary social obligations on the CEO time.
People leadership Many lessons. I will mention five.
1 How he communicated with sahaba. His communication was non-hierarchical. In spite of being a Divinely-appointed Prophet, he treated his sahaba with peer-like respect. He would sit with them socially and eat with them. Like, many CEOs in Northern Europe and Japan take lunch at employee cafeteria. It’s an example he set. When a Bedouin would visit his assembly for the first time, he would ask: Who’s Muhammad? This question demonstrates that Muhammad (SAW) was not visible to a stranger because of his robe, the way he would sit, the sitting place, or even the air most CEOs carry while in management team meetings. He would also use light-hearted humour. This contrasts with Machiavellian powerplay principles which insist that humour lowers your power over others. Hence, we see so many CEOs with such serious countenance because they want to be in control. How would you create a peer-like environment among your workforce? How would you remove the ‘shock-and-awe’ accessories – the glasses, the watch, the branded clothes and the limited-edition, custom-made luxury car.
2 In today’s management-speak, his leadership style was transformational, not transactional. His offer – worship one God, do good and enter paradise – was so powerful that people were pulled towards it with their free will without any wages. They were intrinsically motivated to pursue that goal and didn’t need the leader’s push. Compare this with today’s corporate workforce. They are being paid premium salaries and par benefits and you still can’t push them to achieve their mutually agreed business plan in a fiscal year.
3 While he led people, he accepted dissent. Unlike most CEOs today who want yes-men, and yes- women around them. Case in point: During the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, Hazrat Umar (RA), strongly opposed the
| XXI | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | conditions of treaty with Quraysh, which were quite demeaning to visiting Muslim convoy. The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) didn’t reprimand Umar (RA) for his loud objections. Although Hadiths quote that Umar (RA) repented those words and reaction for the rest of his life. How do you treat your direct reports who disagree with you in public space? If their intent is genuine and their judgment flawed, would you still keep them on your team or show them the door?
4 What is most striking is the Prophet Muhammad (SAW)’s exemplary emotional quotient (EQ) as a leader. In accomplishing his mission, he showed persistence and never lost hope. I can quote several examples. Remember when people in Taif threw rocks on him he bled profusely and almost collapsed. When the angel Jibraeel came to him and said that if Muhammad wanted, he would blow the mountains over the people of Taif. Instead, he prayed for the people of Taif. Or recall the woman who used to throw trash at him. When she didn’t do that for a few days, he went to inquire about her at her home and found her unwell. Or when his life’s mission was accomplished and Makkah conquest happened, he forgave all sworn enemies. For his team’s development, through Divine guidance and by being empathetic, he introduced gradual self-regulation in establishing new values and code of conduct – one bit at a time. E.g. Elimination of riba (usury/interest) and prohibition of alcohol. How would you treat customers, employees and peers who wrong you? How would you enforce corporate values and still be empathetic?
5 No job is worth taking if you have a failed marriage or your children are ignored. The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) created a fine balance of work, family and personal prayer time. You may recall that he would prolong his sajda if grandsons Hasan and Husain would sit on his back during prayers. How would you make sure that your family is part of the ambition that you carry – whether it’s the next, most-prized job or creating a social impact. Are they part of your do-to list?
Task leadership Many lessons again. I will mention eight. Briefly.
1 Problem-solving: He used timing and wise acts to avoid controversy. E.g. change of Qibla direction. Upon Divine guidance, he turned his and the congregation’s face towards Makkah while they were praying. Or, where to stay on the first night of arrival in Madinah. He told everyone that he will stay wherever the camel he was riding would stop for the rest.
2 Consultative decision-making: We already have discussed this above. In addition to the companions, he would seek counsel from his wives too.
A case in point: When after the signing of Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, the sahaba, still in a state of shock and disbelief, refused to change their ihram dressing and wear regular clothing on his request. His wife Umme Salma was travelling with him. It was her idea that the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) doesn’t need to make a verbal request to the sahaba and instead just action it himself. The Prophet (SAW) came out of camp and removed his ihram dress and wore regular clothes. The companions just followed suit.
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3 Entrepreneurial training: He didn’t give them fish; he taught them how to fish. Case in point: A man of Ansar came to him seeking alms. The Prophet (SAW) asked him if he had something to sell. He brought a piece of cloth and a wooden bowl. The Prophet (SAW) asked the sahaba to buy. This raised two dirhams. The Prophet (SAW) asked the man to buy an axe with one dirham and start gathering firewood and sell. He visited the Prophet (SAW) when he earned 10 dirhams.
4 Allocating work: The Prophet (SAW) only had 23 years to develop a team which would spread Islam in all parts of the world. He used a method what now know as strengths-based assigning: he picked what was the best in people and created the best job-person fit. Based on people’s individual capability and preference, he assigned them the roles like kaatib-e-wahi, teaching, negotiating, envoys. He appointed for potential. Case in point: At the time of being asked to lead the Khaibar expedition, Hazrat Ali (RA) had been unwell. The night before, the Prophet (SAW) had given good news to sahaba that whoever gets to lead the expedition, Allah and his Rasool are pleased with him and he is pleased with Allah and his Rasool. Hazrat Umar (RA) says that he never wished for anything. But hearing this, he spent all night praying that he gets the lead. The next day, Hazrat Ali (RA) was assigned the task.
5 Delegating: While delegating tasks, the Prophet (SAW) saw the suitability. Case in point: At the time of migration (Hijrah) to Madinah, Hazrat Ali (RA) was asked to stay back and sleep in his bed and return the amanat while Hazrat Abu Bakr (RA) was asked to accompany the Prophet (SAW) to Madinah as a companion.
6 Training people: This topic is so massive that I am working separately on this: The Prophet (SAW) as Educator. Please pray that this gets the completion soon.
7 Appraising: After 10 years of serving him as a private servant, Hazrat Anas (RA) reported that the Prophet (SAW) did not penalise him after a mistake had been made.
This reminds us of getting rid of today’s performance appraisal system, the purpose of which is to highlight the gap in promised versus actual results only after a year has passed. If at all, perhaps time for futuristic appraisal plans.
8 Succession management: in his 23 years of leadership, the Prophet (SAW) had a succession pipeline in place. He left behind four trained khalifas who would carry out his mission after his death and spread the Divine religion to major parts of Asia and Africa. Before we close, a final lesson in avoiding the CEO derailment. Corporate CEOs become derailed either because of burnout, family issues, their ego, power struggles or worldly greed. The Prophet (SAW) and his companions established that his followers didn’t have to!
What’s in it for us? All of these actions are practical, doable! Muslim CEOs can follow these things in daily work life. The question is: will they? Or when they?
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Twelve Traits of Leadership according to Holy Qura’an Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), while unfolding the traits of leadership said “Everyone is custodian of his/her subordinates and is answerable for his job on the DAY OF JUDGEMENT.” Following are the traits which a leader/head must possess. Taqwa (Fear of Allah) Human beings should avoid committing sins. Unless one has no fear in his heart, one cannot avoid sins. To achieve Taqwa, one should imagine the wrath of Almighty Allah. Ikhla’as (Sincerity) It is imperative for everyone to achieve the Will and Pleasures of Almighty Allah instead of doing a task for the sake of public happiness. Shukka’ar (Attitude of Gratitude) After getting any comfort, a man should thank Allah. Saba’ar (Patience & Persistence) Patience is of three kinds. Saba’ar Alta’at (Performing Prayer, Fast, Haj and Zakat); Saba’ar Anaal Massia (To keep away from doing offences) and Saba’ar Alal Shaed (To remember Allah at difficult time). Sadda’aq (Truthfulness) To achieve a height of a task is called Saddaq, based on Aqwaal, Afaal and Ahwaal. Commitment to a task is Aqwal; Every task should be according to Islamic teaching is Afaal while all tasks should be according to Hadith and Sunnah is called Ahwaal. Tawaza’a (Submission) A man should consider himself as a meek and modest and do not even think of taking revenge upon anyone. Hikma’at (Wisdom) Intellectualism bestowed upon a soul by Allah is Hikmaat. One should talk and debate intellectually and rationally. Tawakka’al (Trust in Allah) If a person does utmost to accomplish a task and seeks Almighty Allah’s Blessing for its result is called Tawakkal. Ikhla’aq (Ethics) Ethics are necessary to live a prosperous and progressive life as these are natural. Without ethics, this world can become a mess. Hasoul-e-Ilm (Seeking knowledge) Imam Malik (RA) said knowledge is a high-merit asset and one can ascertain insight through knowledge. Shuja’at (Courage) The trait of courage protects a man from the agonies and woes and that man becomes a hard rock against difficulties and challenges. Shura’a (Consultation) To consult the people concerned and not impose any decision upon others is called Shura. Reconciliation on an issue should be achieved while opinion should be given when inner self is satisfied.
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Top 10 Behavioral Leadership Competencies of 100 Performing CEOs & Leaders of Pakistan This indigenous study is about the leadership trades of Pakistan’s top CEOs, business leaders and entrepreneurs. Leadership related to the corporate sector is distinguished from other sort of leaderships since it deals only with economy of the country and plays a vital role in development and growth of the country. This is leadership that brings success to people and the country at national and international levels. This topic will highlight the key factors, styles, attitudes and characteristics behind the success of business tycoons of this country featured in the book “100 Best Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan”. Lots of work has been done on the topic of leadership, but unfortunately, no serious and solid work is available on the leadership of Pakistan’s business people. Due to this reason, this minute but comprehensive qualitative study has been done to bring forth idiosyncrasies and leadership qualities of business tycoons of this country. It is important to know particular traits of these business leaders to determine the factors of their success. The aim is to identify these behavioral leadership characteristics and help metamorphosing an ordinary businessman into a successful entrepreneur of this country while, on the other hand, such characteristics would be best guidelines for starts-up for running their business on successful lines. Some people believe the real cause of their success is a stroke of luck, while some are of the views that some mysterious forces are behind their business triumph. But, in reality, there are concrete factors constantly working behind their success. To study this approach it was needed to work on it.
RESULTS Leadership is not a term but a dynamic process that makes any person successful. As far as a business person is concerned, he does not take this term for granted; rather, he gets success by passing through this process and the volume of success depends on how effectively he sharpens his acumen during this period. Business community, all over the world is considered to be very successful, affluent, satisfied, and role models for the upcoming generation. Everyone wants to know the secrets of their successful business. On these grounds, this research has been conducted so that these secrets should be revealed to ordinary people too. The following are those factors frequently recognized by most of the business leaders: • Emotional Stability • Optimism • Assertiveness attitude • Business knowledge/excellence • Professionalism • Effective management style • Family’s support • Strong belief system • Integrity • Global Vision
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This research totally focuses on Pakistani CEOs and business leaders in context of their respective local environment and circumstances. Their business models and successes could be compared with their international peers. Analysis, drawn from the given data reveals ten major factors although they are different but closely correlated with each other. The first factor they use for their success is ‘optimism’ and this is their Pollyannaish bent of mind towards life that helped them to compose their success in this world. The 1st subject reported very clearly, “We should not lose hope or think that we cannot get out of difficult situation, all the leading people and countries were able to achieve glory only after braving hard times”. In this regard other two subjects reported the importance of clarity of vision and global mindset. This shows the leader’s positive approach towards future and hope for better results in terms of success. The 4th subject reported “leadership is the ability to see things differently, bring about change in the people showing them new directions, raising hopes and transforming culture”. The 5th subject said, “Leaders are those who raise hopes amongst people. Visionary leaders are those who can convey their message to people in an effective manner and then inspire them. They are who can articulate the vision”.
The other important theme extracted from their success interviews is assertive attitude of CEOs and leaders that provokes confidence in their abilities and themselves. All the subjects narrated in different ways only one uniformed opinion and that is how to be efficient, be strong and take risks in business regardless how difficult the situation is. As 1st subject in his interview said, “A leader should possess the willingness to lead people upfront and take risks. Leadership is having the courage to stand up, bring about change and be counted for your actions”. The 2nd subject reported, “Your independence and your own decisions lead you towards great success”.
Another combined theme extracted from these interviews is business knowledge, excellence and humility of business leaders, different leaders report differently about the key factors of success in business that totally depends on the leaders himself. The 1st interviewee said, “ Quality of education, knowledge about the business and your own dreams, skills, excellence in your work, your own values, humility, and sense of direction take you towards great achievement in business field”. And the 2nd interviewee said, “Your hard work, struggle, commitment, passion and strong beliefs lead you towards success”. And the 3rd said, “We must be recognized as true professionals who possess humility and also provide decent services.” The 4th subject in the interview very clearly defines in his own way: “Naik Niyati, clarity of vision, dedication and team work are the values religiously followed in our organization and I assure you that by Allah’s grace, guarantee success”. Most of the interviews find the characteristics of self-fulfillment, strong belief in oneself, sense of ethics, ability to inspire others and education that contribute to business leaders’ personal and professional success. Discerning all the qualities mentioned above can bring out the secrets of their success at their personal and professional levels.
Professionalism or professional attitude of a leader in business is a common theme among the 100 success interviews. Professionalism involves what I find from the coding of the 1st interview are strictly adhering to rules, objectives, management, human resource, transforming culture,
| XXVI | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | professional environment, clear destiny and continuous learning. These are rules they adopted in running their respective organizations.
And other important findings about this topic are the necessity for a leader to have business knowledge and take responsibility about the business, following the long term strategy and, focusing on the quality rather than quantity. The 4th subject quoted that a business person should keep the business at his/her own hands so that they can explore the new ways and capitalize everything they use in business. Subject 2 reported keen interest in work and time management as the right things to do in business. He said, “I used to work for more than fourteen hours a day, from eight in the morning till eleven at night. But all through that time. I only had one thing in my mind that I have to excel and get ahead in what I was doing”. And about the maintenance of quality he said, “I have never compromised on it. Moreover, I believe that one should always exceed customer’s expectations i.e. always give your customer something extra. From the time I used to sell cloth on the roads. I learnt the basic lesson of selling quality products, yet perfection is a literary name that you can give to this endeavor”. This is what we call a thoroughly professional attitude in business. The 4th interviewee said, “We neither lent nor borrowed money, rather we expanded within our own resources. Because of the fact that I did not have an easy access to money, my competitors always had an advantage over me in this regard, we worked harder and always believed in the strength of our culture and values.”
The most interesting findings are that the leadership style of these leaders is totally in line with our own culture and context. From the coding of 100 different interviews about the style of management you can identify a common management style. What the 1st subject reported about his own management style is “ability to lead people, show new directions to employees, ability to motivate people, retain your key employees, team work, and encourage strong points of your employees and empowering your key employees in your organization.” The 2nd subject answered that one should “promote a family-like environment in your office, participate with staff, maintain cordial relationships with workers, conformity with each other, and most importantly focus on solutions rather than problems”. The 3rd subject clearly reported, “ Training and development of employees is an important part for the leader to promote team work, transparent dealing, aligning staff with same goals, respecting employees and encouraging an interactive style of management. I have a mixed leadership style, a mix of democratic and autocratic. I would say an interactive management style”. The subject of the 4th interview said, “I clearly enunciate my vision to the top tier of my company’s management and allow it to travel down to the concerned sections in the management hierarchy”. Subject 5 said, “It is a very difficult question. I think, it is very necessary to know how much knowledge you have about your business, your market and your products. This knowledge must be communicated to your colleagues and juniors”.
Family plays very important role in their success. Supportive and caring relationship with your family and their encouragement leads you to happiness and success. We found from all interviews that all successful leaders unanimously reported the role of their families behind their
| XXVII | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | success. Some stated that their fathers are their role models, and that their parents’ prayers and inspiring families are the main motivation of their success. 1st subject reported, “I am very lucky to have a wife who shares my dreams. Work-life balance is easy for me because she gives me a lot of room to fulfill my wishes”. 2nd subject said, “My parents were very simple people. They did not have great ambitions. They always wished for their children to learn good things and to develop into better human beings. In fact, my brother has always been a source of inspiration for me. I always looked up to him for guidance”. 3rd subject said, “My father is my inspiration both personally and professionally”. 4th subject said, “My parents are my role models in my life”.
Faith in God plays a vital role in the development of the system of their beliefs. Being Muslims they strongly believe in the blessing of Allah as they think if you leave all your cares and worries to Allah and pray to Him for success, Allah will definitely help you. So there is a strong stream of beliefs in religion present in every successful business leader as the 1st subject said, “One should always struggle to be a good Muslim and give back to society”. The 2nd subject reported, “This is all about the blessing of Allah I always seeks help from Allah in my matters”. The 3rd subject said, “I adopt the Islamic values in my business and I never go against the Shariah Laws”. The 4th subject clearly said, “Success comes by Allah’s will! There are people far more brilliant and talented than I am, but were not able to achieve so much as I have been blessed with. All of this, I believe, is because of the will of Allah Almighty”. We conclude that there is nothing mysterious behind their success since they exhibit their talents by doing hard work that leads their business to great success.
Conclusion It is concluded that the abovementioned factors which significantly contribute to success in business and life are: 1) Optimism, 2) Assertiveness, 3) Professionalism, 4) Effective management or leadership style, 5) Family’s role, 6) Faith in God, and 7) Integrity 8) Emotional Stability 9) Global Vision, 10) Business knowledge. These are considered common secrets of success and behavioral competencies among 100 Performing CEOs & Leaders of Pakistan, according to the latest research conducted by CEO Club Pakistan and Manager Today Magazine.
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IF PEOPLE CRITICIEZE YOU, HURT YOU OR SHOUT AT YOU, DON’T BE BOTHERED. JUST REMEMBER IN EVERY GAME AUDIENCE MAKE THE NOISE, NOT THE PLAYERS.
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POLITICAL LEADERS & OF PAKISTAN
Inspiring Interviews And Their Success Stories
If people criticize you, hurt you, or shout at you, don’t be bothered. Just remember, in every game audience makes the noise, not the players! | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan |
IMRAN KHAN Prime Minister of Pakistan
CEO Club: What is Leadership to you? How can we develop future leaders? Imran Khan: The word ‘impossible’ is simply non-existent in a leader’s vocabulary. A thing seems impossible, if you think it is impossible. The best quality of a leader is that he dreams big, he is an idealist. The bigger one dreams; the greater will be the setbacks, harsh times, disappointments, frustrations and mockery that he will have to face. These are the times of crisis that reveal or uncover a true leader with real calibre and capability. Difficult times test the capability of a leader as the fire tests the steel. It is a leader who stands up and gives a sense of direction to the ordinary men in the times of crisis. That leader never loses focus for his aim. Once you compromise on your goals and aims, you are finished. The compromise on one’s vision is an unlimited compromise. However; it is the quality of a true leader that he stands tall in the times of crisis and takes a firm stand for his beliefs and vision. Once a leader stands up against all odds, he has to take on a lot of pressure and he learns to cope with pressure by consistently dealing with it while facing difficulties at the same time. It is his resistance that makes him a strong leader. Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for twenty seven years, but his struggle had started much earlier. We can take the example of our Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H), the way in which he braved in the face of hardships. When a person takes on a challenge, it is the very time when his reserves of capabilities start emerging from within. The power of taking pressure is learnt well when one remains persistent in the face of trials and tribulations. Anyone who gives shortcut precedence over long struggle can never become a true leader. This has been a great problem with Pakistanis that they always consider military rule to be the best course, as we accept anyone to be a leader if he is a controller or authoritarian by definition. Another trait is that a leader is never servile. Quite conversely he is the one who not only gives people a hope in the times of crisis but also gives them a foresight into it, and they in turn, trust him. An even bigger quality of a leader is his selflessness. If our leaders start preferring their country’s interests over theirs own, it is only way that our country can prosper. In fact, there is a saying that either a leader can make money for himself or for his country, you cannot do both. And finally a capability that particularly characterizes a leader is that he makes big decisions and takes risks. Thus a leader who is always on the defensive
| 2 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | can never overcome a leader who has a killer instinct, who is attacking as well as aggressive. A leader does not follow public opinion; he leads it; he sells his dream to the public.
What is your opinion that how can corruption be eradicated? Independent Accountability Bureau and independent judiciary are the two main checks against corruption. Besides, the Election Commission should not allow people with records of corruption to contest elections. If criminals are allowed to contest election and spend unlimited money to finance their campaign, decent candidates cannot compete with them.
What should be done to improve the sagging economy? If there is no rule of law, you cannot control corruption and therefore it will not improve. We would also have to come out of the so-called war on terror which is draining our resources. We should also ask America to pull out of Afghanistan to restore peace in both the countries. Unless we convince the US to quit Afghanistan, foreign investments will not increase due to security situation. Our government will continue to apply cuts on development expenditures.
What remedies would you prescribe to bring back the money that has been transferred abroad over the years by various leaders? Do you know such politicians and bureaucrats? It would be a huge amount. But unless there is clean government in Pakistan it won’t be possible to hold such people accountable. The government should register cases against the people who have accounts in foreign countries. The US government is also taking action against its citizens having bank accounts in foreign countries.
Would you like to suggest any short term solution to end load shedding? It could be overcome by controlling electricity theft and through better management. A huge theft of electricity is going unchecked in Pakistan.
We need an Ataturk? Can you be the one? No. He’s not my model. You can’t force your people to become westernised at the point of a gun. My models are Jinnah and Mahathir of Malaysia.
INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTABILITY BUREAU AND INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY ARE THE TWO MAIN CHECKS AGAINST CORRUPTION. BESIDES, THE ELECTION COMMISSION SHOULD NOT ALLOW PEOPLE WITH RECORDS OF CORRUPTION TO CONTEST IN ELECTIONS.
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DR. ISHRAT HUSAIN Adviser to the Prime Minister on Institutional Reforms and Austerity with the status of Federal Minister
Profile: Dr. Ishrat Husain is currently Advisor to the Prime Minister on Institutional Reforms and Austerity with the status of Federal Minister. During 2016-17 he was Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC. He had earlier served as Dean and Director IBA between 2008 and 2016 and was Chairman, National Commission for Government Reforms for two years from 2006 to 2008 with the status of Federal Minister. He was appointed the Governor of Pakistan’s Central Bank in December 1999. During the next six years, he implemented a major program of restructuring of the Central Bank and steered the reforms of the banking sector. As a member of the economic management team of the Government, he played a key role in the impressive economic turnaround of Pakistan. In recognition of his meritorious services he was conferred the prestigious award of “Hilal- e-Imtiaz” by the President of Pakistan in 2003. The Banker Magazine of London declared him as the Central Bank Governor of the year for Asia in 2005. He received the Asian Banker Lifetime achievement award in 2006. The President of Pakistan conferred upon him the highest civilian award of Nishan e Imtiaz in 2016 for his outstanding public service. Dr. Husain had a distinguished career at the World Bank for over two decades 1979-1999 and rose to become Chief Economist for Africa; Chief Economist East Asia and Pacific; the Bank’s Director Poverty and Social Department ; Country Director for Central Asian Republics. Mr. Husain has maintained an active scholarly interest in development issues. He is regularly invited as a speaker to international conferences and seminars and has attended more than 100 such events all over the world since 2006. He chairs/ serves on the Boards of several research institutes, philanthropic and cultural organizations. Dr. Ishrat Husain obtained Master’s degree in Development Economics from Williams College and Doctorate in Economics from Boston University in 1978. He is a graduate of Executive Development program jointly sponsored by Harvard, Stanford and INSEAD.
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CEO Club: In the light of your several decades of experience as an economist, what is your over all assessment of Pakistan’s economy? Dr. Ishrat Hussain: Pakistan’s economic history can be divided into 2 phases: the pre-1990 years and the post-1990 years. Despite numerous setbacks and upheavals such as the influx of millions of refugees, Indo-Pak wars, East Pakistan debacle, Bhutto’s nationalization policy and Afghan War, our economy continued to grow at an average rate of more than six per cent and thus, we were one of the top economic performers among developing countries and became role model for them. We had surpassed even India whose annual growth in those years was just 3 per cent. One of the major causes of this excellent performance was the presence of strong institutions, such as: PIDC which paved the way for massive industrial growth, WAPDA which was instrumental in building Tarbela and Mangla Dams, and PIA which played a key role in establishing Singapore Airlines and Emirates Airlines. But unfortunately, this growth momentum could not be maintained after 1990, because of the politicization, non-functionality and violation of merit in the institutions that deliver public services and facilitate the private sector to do business. The crippling energy crisis, the precarious law and order situation and the miserable plight of educational and medical services resulting from the break down of public services institutions have led to the decline of the country’s economy to such an extent that even Bangladesh is far ahead of us. To put the economy back on track and to regain the lost glory of the past, it is the urgent need of the hour to reform, restructure and revitalize all such institutions before it is too late.
Why is it that despite its best efforts, government has not been able to attract a substantial amount of local and foreign investment? Domestic as well as foreign investors feel secure and confident only when they have continuity, predictability and consistency of fiscal policies, which we do not find in Pakistan. Here uncertainty is compounded as tax rates and economic policies can change at any time without any prior notice. As a result, we are still striving for 15 per cent investment rate, which in India and Bangladesh is 30 per cent, most of which comes from domestic savings. In 1991, the then Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao who belonged to the Congress Party began liberalizing the Indian economy in order to integrate it with the rest of the world. The initial response of the investors was not so enthusiastic, because they wanted to see if these policies would be retained by the next government. When the BJP government headed by Vajpayee came into power, it continued the liberalization policy with a greater emphasis, which boosted the confidence of investors and the country’s economy began to grow at the rate of more than 7 per cent. In Pakistan however, every new government reverses the policies of its predecessors, whether they were good or bad. Unless this tendency is changed, there can be no real progress on the investment front. The ruling party and the opposition parties must agree on some long term economic policies which would remain unchanged, no matter who comes to power. In this connection, the talk about the charter of economy is a positive development.
To what extent is the human resource development vital for the progress of the country’s economy? In the 21st century knowledge based economy is more important than agriculture and industry for propelling the economy in the right direction. For this very reason, it is of utmost importance to invest heavily in the education and training of our huge young population which is our greatest asset.
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There is no denying the fact that the number of educational institutions in our country is on the rise, but most of the graduates produced by them are mere degree holders without possessing any real knowledge or skill. As a result, their degrees prove worthless for them in the job market—both domestic as well as international—which require plumbers, mechanics, electricians, technicians, air conditioning experts , nurses, paramedics, Software developers and other such skilled workers. Thus, if we are really keen to fully benefit from the vibrant energies of our youngsters, we must focus on their technical, vocational and professional skill development and training.
How can we promote the much needed entrepreneurial spirit in our youth? Entrepreneurship and innovation which are the keys to success in this modern age can be developed and encouraged when there is a level playing field available for everyone. If law abiding and tax paying citizens have to compete with tax evaders and money launderers, they can never hope to make any real headway despite all their innovative ideas and entrepreneurial skills. Keeping this fact in mind, the government is trying to bring within the tax net all those who belong to the formal as well as informal sectors to provide level playing field for everyone. This transition may create some short term disturbance, but it will eventually lead to nurturing of entrepreneurship in the country . This policy is being loudly opposed by those who have hitherto been deliberately hiding their real assets to avoid tax payment. But now we have an integrated data base system with which we can go after all those who do not honestly file their tax returns.
The PTI government came into power last year with a lot of beautiful promises and tall claims about change and prosperity. But there is a general sense of despair among the masses regarding the performance of this government. How do you analyze this situation? As a whole, we are a nation of impatient people, who want to see instant results without bothering about the long term effects. We are making a huge transformation of the economy and quite naturally, those who want to maintain the status quo and whose personal interests are at stake, will be disturbed and upset. We must remember the old saying “no pains no gains.” For the sustained long term economic progress, all of us must bear some pain and make some sacrifices. But at the same time, if after five years, the economy does not grow at six or seven per cent rate and the living standards of people do not rise, you will be fully justified in demanding explanation from the government about its policies. But at the moment, you must wait and see and give us an appropriate amount of time to implement our fiscal policies.
What measures can you recommend for tackling the widespread unemployment in our country? It is generally believed that large scale industry can generate massive employment opportunities. This may not be the case with Pakistan, at least for the time being. The reason is that industry makes up only 20 per cent of our economy, while agriculture accounts for 24 per cent. Services sector on the other hand, makes up 56 per cent of our economy. Thus, in order to tackle unemployment, we are left with no option but to upgrade the level of our services sector. For instance if you produce something that costs 40 dollars, only 5 dollars will come from its manufacture in the factory and the remaining 35 dollars will depend on services such as financing, insurance, accounting, designing, transportation, wholesale and retail trading, etc.
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Don’t you believe that extraordinarily tough financial rules and regulations will create a sense of panic among investors and depositors, who might be tempted to shift their business activities to other countries? I believe that there must be proper checks and balances regarding financial transactions. It is true that the privacy of depositors should be protected. But at the same time, if some suspicious transaction is detected in an account, the bank authorities have the legal and moral obligation to report the matter to the tax officials. This is the only way to bring an end to the evil practice of money laundering and fake accounts.
The PTI government might be pursuing a reformist agenda, but the soaring inflation caused by the seemingly uncontrollable rise of the dollar against the Rupee is adding to the misery and frustration of the poor. What steps does your government intend to take in order to alleviate the sufferings of the marginalized sections of society? Despite its meager resources, government feels itself duty bound to provide maximum relief to the poor and the needy, who have no assets and are bearing the brunt of the pernicious effects of inflation. 2 hundred billion Rupees are being spent on the transfer of cash to 5.6 million households having 30 million people living below poverty line. Besides this, Rs 216 billion have been allocated to provide subsidy to 75 per cent consumers of electricity who fall below 300 units.
Do you believe in a bright and prosperous future for Pakistan? If we had earnestly acted upon Quaid-e-Azam’s golden principles of unity, faith and discipline, we must have been living in entirely different conditions today. We must ask ourselves as to whether we only want to satisfy our own personal needs and greeds or wish to leave a peaceful, progressive, strong and prosperous Pakistan for our children and grandchildren. Currently, we are engaged in a futile and endless blame game, with the opposition and the government, provincial and federal governments, private and public sectors blaming each other for all the troubles and turmoils facing the country. Unless this mindset is changed, there can be no real hope for a better and brighter future for our country. The sooner we realize it, the better. Moreover, we must not forget that we have a Prime Minister who is the sincerest person I have ever found among all our politicians. He has no personal ambitions for himself or his family and possesses a very soft corner in his heart for the poor and the needy. We must strengthen his hands and give him a chance to do something tangible for this country and its people.
“ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION WHICH ARE THE KEYS TO SUCCESS IN THIS MODERN AGE CAN BE DEVELOPED AND ENCOURAGED WHEN THERE IS A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD AVAILABLE FOR EVERYONE.”
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ABDUL RAZAK DAWOOD Adviser on Commerce, Textile, Industry & Production and Investment with the status of Federal Minister
Profile: Abdul Razak Dawood graduated in Engineering from Newcastle University UK and in 1968 obtained his Master degree in Business Administration from Columbia University, NYC, USA.
At present, Mr. Abdul Razak Dawood is the Chairman of Descon, which is involved in Engineering & Construction, Chemicals and Power. Descon Engineering is a Pakistani multinational company operating in five countries, holding five overseas manufacturing units and employing more than 14,000 workers (50% of whom are based overseas). Descon’s employees make up a wide diversity, comprising 20 nationalities working in Pakistan and abroad.
Abdul Razak Dawood is a former Minister of Commerce, Industries and Production, Government of Pakistan and former Director of the State Bank of Pakistan.
Abdul Razak Dawood has been involved in education for many years. From 1975 to 1984, he was a visiting faculty at the Department of Business Administration of the University of Punjab. He has been involved with the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) from its inception and has been its Rector since 1986. He is also involved in Namal College, being set up in Mianwali.
He became the trustee of Shaukat Khanam Memorial Hospital at its inception and remained with the hospital for 10 years.
Abdul Razak Dawood was the first Chairman of the Pakistan Business Council (2006-2010) and currently serves as a Director on its Board.
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CEO Club: With the country sliding back into the recession, a dire lack of jobs is being created. In these circumstances, how can we create job providers rather than job seekers? Razak Dawood: Firstly, we cannot create jobs by becoming a trading country only, we have to industrialize more and become a manufacturing country. Secondly, we can develop our economy by progressing in the agricultural sector. Of late, Pakistan has lagged behind in many areas except agriculture. Despite floods, we have been doing quite well in this sector for the last few years.
We are not poor in resources but managers and good leaders, how can we bring about good governance and leaders to deal with the dilemma of joblessness? Very few Pakistani companies and some of them being multinational have been paying special attention to the proper utilization of the human resource tool; Engro being one of them. However, I think that most companies in Pakistan, including Descon, have a long way to go in this regard.
Being the patron of the prestigious institutions, LUMS, do you think that the commercialisation of educational institutions have undermined its value. Are you happy with the quality of education being imparted at these institutions? I am not satisfied with the quality of education at all, and for that reasons that we formed LUMS to raise the bar. I was very happy that I was able to meet some of the faculty people from Sukkur IBA for they are doing a good job. There is no doubt that education is getting better gradually, however, we still need to raise our standard much higher than it is today. We lag behind countries like India, China and Malaysia in many fields.
What is leadership according to you? Is there any difference between a manager and a leader? Leadership is the ability to see things differently, bring about change in the people, showing them new directions, raising hopes, transforming culture and be counted for your actions. There is a great deal of difference between a manager and a leader. A good leader needs not to be a good manager and a good manager may not be a good leader.
Are leaders born or made? Basically, one is born with the ability to lead, nevertheless, you can always learn a great deal about leadership and groom yourself to be a leader. Unfortunately, we do not have enough leaders. And when I say we need leaders, I do not mean leaders in politics only, but in all fields like education, media and agriculture.
What are the HR challenges and strategies regarding employee retention, motivation, engagement and performance appraisals at your company? First of all, we are not happy at all when people leave us. We are very careful about retaining our key employees. I think that the reason people leave an organization is either because they see no future there or no one had showed them the career path and that is where the department of human resource should step in to deal with these issues. Salary structure, boss or culture of an organisation can also become a reason to quit a job.
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What is the corporate culture at Descon? Firstly, The culture of teamwork is encouraged at Descon. Secondly, we encourage an open and candid environment at our company. One should be able to voice his or her opinion and company should also listen to the employee. Our third aspect is that we are a learning organisation. Whether it is human resource, control system or technology, we are constantly learning to achieve excellence. We have a very professional environment where my own sons have assigned roles and have to seek permission from their bosses, regardless of the fact that they are shareholders of the company.
Do you have any succession planning for Descon? If the next CEO of Descon has to have the last name Dawood, then I do not think that we would have been fair to the company or to professionalism.
Should education be the priority before coming into practical business, what do you recommend in this regard? I would recommend people to let their children get good education and then let them work outside for a while. I am very clear on that because I have also gone through it as far as my family is concerned. My two sons did three years of work in non-related business in a different environment. I think it helps them understand the norms and behaviours. Whereas, when I returned to Pakistan after completing my studies at New York, I was made the managing director of the company within a week. This was a norm then in Pakistan. I could never risk doing that to my sons.
Define success and happiness? Success has many sides, it is about being a good family man, and that means being a good husband and a good father. One should always struggle to be a good Muslim and give back to society. If you accomplish and create an institution, that is a great achievement! One who needs the least is the happiest person.
How do you manage your work-life balance? I am very lucky to have a wife who shares my dreams. Work-life balance is easy for me because she gives me a lot of room to fulfill my wishes.
What was the toughest decision you ever had to make in your career? The toughest decision was when I had to ask my previous CEO to leave, who had worked with me for the last thirty years and whom I trusted completely.
Which is your favourite book on leadership and personal development? There is a book called ‘Built to Last’ by Jim Collins and another one titled ‘Talent Masters’, which is all about human resource management. I have a habit of studying books keenly instead of just reading them.
What is your message to the youth of Pakistan? My message to the next generation would be never to lose hope. No matter how adverse the circumstances are, opportunities are always available for the people who see it. Every cloud has a silver lining. Despair is forbidden in Islam. Allah says never to give up hope.
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LEADERSHIP IS THE ABILITY TO SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY, BRING ABOUT CHANGE IN THE PEOPLE, SHOWING THEM NEW DIRECTIONS, RAISING HOPES, TRANSFORMING CULTURE AND BE COUNTED FOR YOUR ACTIONS.
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NAEEM UL HAQUE Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs with the status of Minister of State
Profile: Having Master’s degree in English Literature from Karachi University and LLB from Sindh Muslim Law College Karachi, Naeem ul Haq is well-versed in banking, finance, corporate sector and law, with several years of practical experience in investment banking and capital markets in Pakistan, Europe and North America. A PTI stalwart, he is one of its five founding members and has been closely associated with IK for the last 37 years. Currently, he is acting as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs. In the following interview, he unveils his party’s ambitious reformist agenda aimed at transforming Pakistan into a progressive, prosperous, peaceful, modern welfare state.
LEADERSHIP COMES WITH EXPERIENCE, EXPOSURE AND MATURITY. A GREAT LEADER IS A MAN OF EXCELLENT CHARACTER, INTEGRITY AND VISION
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CEO Club: Naya Pakistan has almost become a buzz word these. Would you like to explain what this phrase really means? Naeem ul Haque: Pakistan is by no means a poor country. It’s only a poorly managed country, whose governance structures and institutions have been destroyed by rampant corruption, mismanagement and political interference of our former rulers, with the result that despite our huge human and material resources, our economy is still in tatters and we are still living under the heavy burden of ever increasing foreign loans. This appalling situation can only be remedied by completely changing the old rotten economic, social and political system, through good governance based on merit, institutional reforms and across the board accountability. By doing so, we can lay the foundation of a progressive, prosperous and peaceful welfare state, with a debt free and vibrant economy, capable of providing free education, free medical care and free social security benefits to the masses. This is our concept of Naya Pakistan and our bold initiatives such as Ehsas Program are the means to achieve this ultimate objective.
How do you plan to tackle the enormous economic challenges facing our country? Due to the acute shortage of resources, our economy may not grow so fast this year. But as we generate more resources by bringing in more investment from abroad and boosting our exports, we hope to see a much faster growth of our economy in the coming years. Currently, services sector has a much larger share in our GDP than agriculture and industry. I personally believe that the stunning technological advances of our time have given us wonderful opportunities for making rapid progress in the agriculture sector. In the past, we had been focusing on the development of a few selected industries, such as the textile industry. It’s the urgent need of the hour to pay adequate attention towards other industries as well. Our grand housing scheme when it becomes fully operational, will surely give a big boost to the growth of several other industries.
We are a nation of young people, most of whom are in a state of deep despair and despondency on account of the alarmingly high rate of unemployment in the country. What initiatives are you planning for overcoming this problem? Our brilliant, talented and energetic youth are our greatest asset and we want them to fully utilize their innate faculties in various ways. We have already unveiled our ambitious plan of building five million houses. It is estimated that for the construction of one house, at least 3 labourers are required. In other words, the construction of five million houses will generate at least 15 million jobs. As the construction process gathers momentum, wood, steel, cement and many other industries will also flourish, resulting in the creation of innumerable jobs. Besides this, we have decided to offer interest free loans to young men and women who aspire to start their own businesses. As a whole, we are hopeful of generating as many as 10 million jobs in the next five years. The emphasis is on promoting and encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit in our youngsters.
SME sector if fully developed can positively contribute to the over all economic growth of the country. Have you chalked out some plan for the development of this vital sector? Unfortunately, despite its huge growth potential, the SME sector was largely ignored and neglected in the past. The little bit of growth that was seen in this area was mainly confined to a few large cities like Sialkot, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Faisalabad, etc. We intend to spread the SME network in a
| 13 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | much wider area, covering most other towns and cities of the country. We are even considering the possibility of opening another stock exchange solely devoted to the enlisting of small and medium size industries.
Are you satisfied with the role of media in our country? There is no denying the fact that there has been a phenomenal growth of media industry in Pakistan over the past few years. But it has not yet reached maturity level. Instead, it is still dominated by sensationalism or yellow journalism and therefore, does not truly portray and represent the wishes views and problems of the masses. With a greater sense of responsibility and stricter adherence to the ethical norms, our media can become a better tool for reflecting our actual problems, values, culture and religion.
Can we expect some changes in the country’s foreign policy under the leadership of Imran Khan? Imran Khan is a visionary leader and is sincerely interested in having cordial and peaceful ties with all countries, especially with our immediate neighbours. Last month, we had a very productive and constructive meeting in Makkah with the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who has recently paid an official visit to Pakistan. This warming of relations at the top level is likely to remove the feelings of mistrust between the two countries and widen the scope of commercial relations between them. The opening of the Kartarpur corridor reflects our keen and earnest desire to have close friendly ties with India. A few months ago, the Prime Minister went on an official trip to Iran and he will shortly be visiting the United States to have a meeting with the US officials including President Trump.
Does CPEC really have the potential of becoming a game changer for Pakistan’s ailing economy? CPEC is a massive program that offers marvelous opportunities for the economic growth of Pakistan. As a matter of fact, it is going to be a great blessing not only for Pakistan but also for China and Central Asian countries, because Gwadar will give them a much shorter route to the emerging markets of Middle East, Africa and Europe.
What type of reforms have you planned for our educational system? The Prime Minister has always had a dream that there should be a single uniform system of education and uniform curriculum based on our national objectives, for all our educational institutions, whether they are public, private or religious ones. We should have a single unanimously agreed curriculum to be taught at all schools, to give the students a much wider and easier exposure to our culture, history, religion, modern sciences, philosophy and literature. It should fully equip them with the latest technological advances and enable them to fully benefit from Information Technology. We are vigorously working on this project and the results will soon be visible.
There has always been much talk about the problems caused by our traditional bureaucratic system. Does the PTI government have some plans for tackling this all important problem? The unnecessary delays and complications caused by the traditional intricate and complex bureaucratic procedures and barriers have done more harm than good and have become a serious
| 14 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | impediment in our growth. We are, therefore, making concerted efforts to completely change the way bureaucracy thinks and works in our country, so that the problems of the people could be solved in a much easier manner and in a much shorter time.
In the light of your experiences and observations, can you tell us which qualities a person must have to become an ideal and inspirational leader? Leadership comes with experience, exposure and maturity. A great leader is a man of excellent character, integrity and vision. He also possesses the will and the ability to execute his vision and transform it into a living reality by inspiring his followers and by leading them from the front. He is well aware of the role assigned to him by the destiny and performs this role with a sense of responsibility, by being fair to everyone and by strictly adhering to the principle of meritocracy. Without any doubt or reluctance I can say that our Prime Minister the perfect embodiment of all these noble virtues. That’s why fate has chosen him to become our leader at this critical juncture of our history.
Would you like to mention some of your favourite books? There are a number of books which are very close to my heart and I wish that others should also read them. One of them is A Study of History, a 12-volume universal history written by the British historian Arnold J. Toynbee. In this book, Toynbee has traced the development and decay of 19 world civilizations in the historical record, applying his model to each of these civilizations, detailing the stages through which they all pass: genesis, growth, time of troubles, universal state, and disintegration. Another book that modern educated Muslims must read is Allama Iqbal’s Re- construction of Religious Thought in Islam. Iqbal wants us to reconstruct Islamic thought with a fresh approach rather than clinging on to what previous Muslim scholars had already said. This book is a major contribution to the philosophical and spiritual dimensions of Islam, especially from a revolutionary point of view. Its target audience are not devout Muslims at all, but primarily the non-practicing Muslims who are mesmerized by the onslaught of secular, liberal and atheistic thinking of our time. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking is another book worth reading. Hawking writes in non-technical terms about the structure, origin, development and eventual fate of the universe. He talks about basic concepts like space and time, basic building blocks that make up the universe (such as quarks) and the fundamental forces that govern it (such as gravity). He writes about cosmological phenomena such as the Big Bang and black holes. He discusses two major theories, general relativity and quantum mechanics. I am also greatly inspired by Will Durant’s book “The Story of Philosophy’”, in which he profiles several prominent Western philosophers and their ideas, beginning with Socrates and Plato and on through Friedrich Nietzsche. Durant attempts to show the interconnection of their ideas and how one philosopher’s ideas informed the next. Last but not least, there is Gibbon’s book about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Among the Urdu books, one of my favourites is Musaddas-e- Hali.
Who is your role model? My role model can be none other than Imran Khan, although he is younger than me by two years. His character, personality and incredible leadership skills have made him an inspirational figure for me. Let’s wrap up the interview with your message for our youth
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SAYED ZULFIQAR ABBAS BUKHARI Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Overseas Pakistanis & Human Resource Development with the status of Minister of State
Profile: Besides being an ardent supporter and close associate of PM Imran Khan, Sayed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari (popularly known as Zulfi Bukhari) is a cricket enthusiast, entrepreneur, business tycoon and film producer. Presently, he is acting as Special assistant to the Prime Minister for overseas Pakistanis and human resource development, with the status of minister of state. The following interview reveals how he is working vigorously and tirelessly to transform into reality the vision of the Prime Minister, whom he regards as his friend as well as role model.
THE VISION IS TO BRING THE COUNTRY OUT OF THE QUAGMIRE OF DEPRIVATION, DEPENDENCE AND CORRUPTION AND TO MAKE IT AN IDEAL MODERN WELFARE STATE, SIMILAR TO THE STATE OF MEDINA, ABOUT WHICH HE OFTEN TALKS IN HIS SPEECHES AND INTERVIEWS.
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CEO Club: Being so close to the Prime Minister, you must be fully aware of his vision. Would you like to explain it in simple terms? Sayed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari:The vision is to bring the country out of the quagmire of deprivation, dependence and corruption and to make it an ideal modern welfare state, similar to the state of Medina, about which he often talks in his speeches and interviews. It is a gigantic task that cannot be accomplished overnight. It requires a complete overhauling of the whole system which is full of holes from top to bottom.
What in your opinion is human resource development and how do you plan to achieve it? I believe it to be the most important form of development in the 21st century, especially for a country like Pakistan with a huge population of over 200 million people. The concept of human resource development has undergone a significant change in this age of digital technology. There was a time when while hiring a driver, we only wanted to know for how long he had been driving. But now, we also ask him if he can use WhatsApp and Google Map accurately and efficiently. It means that in this age of information technology, specialization and skill development, if our people do not equip themselves with the latest technology in a thoroughly professional manner, they will become isolated, stagnant and obsolete. For providing skill-based education to our youth, we need vocational and technical training institutions all over the country and this is exactly what we are planning to do. Technically skilled labourers are in high demand in the international market. They can become a huge source of remittances for our country and can thus, contribute to the over all growth of our country’s economy.
What type of obstacles and challenges are you coming across while attempting to implement your glorious vision? The first major challenge is the lack of capacity building in the country. If a person intends to get involved in some corrupt activities, he can easily find a team of corrupt officials eager to collaborate with him. If on the other hand, someone is ambitious of reforming the system and making it corruption free, it’s extremely hard for him to find the required number and type of people who are sincere and capable enough to assist him in his noble mission. Then, there are some old rules and regulations that don’t allow you to remove corrupt people quickly and retain good people for a long time. Another mammoth challenge is that we don’t have some accurate and appropriate key performance indicators to correctly evaluate the performance of officials. Last but not least, there is a genuine lack of goals, objectives and vision in almost every department. Ministers are only interested in their ministership and same is the case with members of the lower staff. But this is not the case with the PTI government which is headed by a Prime Minister who is a man of vision and gives vision to each and every department.
You must have evolved some strategies for overcoming these challenges. Would you like to share some of them with us? Strategies vary from department to department. Believing that overseas Pakistanis are our greatest asset, in the overseas department, we have done more work in eight months than what was done in the previous ten years. While living in Britain I often noticed that Pakistanis were reluctant to describe themselves in public as Pakistanis. Instead, they like to be known as Iranians, Arabs or
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Turks. We are now trying to give them a sense of identity and ownership so that they may feel proud to introduce themselves as Pakistanis. Under the guidance of the Prime Minister, we are striving hard to facilitate them at every step during their journey from Pakistan to their foreign destinations. In this connection, we are making sure that they are no longer trapped by the bogus travel agents and human traffickers. They are being made fully aware of their rights and opportunities in foreign lands. With reference to the Universal Basic Income, my goal is to bring pension to the level of the minimum wage as soon as possible. No doubt, tourism has a huge growth potential, but I believe that at the moment, we are not in a position to accommodate a large number of foreign tourists. For the time being, we should focus on promoting domestic tourism, developing infrastructure and creating the real sense of tourism culture in our people.
Without a substantial amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) coming into the country, there can be no real economic progress. How do you plan to meet this challenge? After taking office, the first few months were spent in fixing structural systems. Having done that, we have now launched a vigorous and ambitious plan to attract a huge amount of FDI. Last month, during my trip to the UK, I signed contracts worth five hundred million pounds to be spent on sea tourism. I will shortly be leaving for America for the same purpose. A large number of overseas Pakistanis are keen to invest in Pakistan as soon as we are able to provide them the ease of doing business.
How can the Board of Investment be made more effective and productive? Board of Investment is undoubtedly an important institution that can play a pivotal role in bringing more FDI in the country. But the problem is that it has become outdated and needs restructuring, upgradation and empowerment, to enhance its potential capacity and efficiency level. The ex-Prime Minister did not have even a single meeting with the Board of Investment during last five years and thus, made it virtually irrelevant. We are now endeavouring hard to revive its status so that it can achieve its specific goals and objectives. Getting a deal is much easier than successfully closing a deal. For this reason, we are empowering BOI so that it become easier for it to close the deals in a comprehensive and profitable manner.
You must have made some tough decisions in your life. Which of them do you regard as the toughest one? I believe that the toughest decision of my life was coming to Pakistan from England, where I had my family and a well-set business of my own. But I decided to come to Pakistan and now, I believe that it was a right decision, because here, I have a Prime Minister who is always willing to help and support me.
Which factors have contributed to your success in life? The first and the foremost among them is of course my strong faith (Iman) in Allah. Secondly, in the light of my experiences of life, I have realized that in order to achieve success in the real sense of the word, you must encounter some failures, which will teach you how to succeed. I learnt a lot from the initial failures of my business career and as a matter of fact, these failures paved the way for my successes. If a person is always winning and succeeding without ever tasting defeat and failure, he will
| 18 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | surely collapse and break down with the slightest shock or setback. Failures create courage, patience, determination and resilience which are the keys to real success.
Who is your role model or source of inspiration? There can be no role model for me other than Prime Minister Imran Khan. It is often said that the real character of a person is exhibited when he is all alone. Since I am very close to the Prime Minister, I often have a chance to see him alone. The finest thing about him is that when he is alone, he is at his best. Even when he is alone, he is busy thinking how he can perform better and how he can help the poor more effectively. He is always dedicated to his cause whether he is alone or in public.
In this age of general despair and unemployment, what message of hope and optimism would you like to give to our youth? I want to assure everyone through this interview that the present tough times will soon be over. Our ambitious housing scheme will revive dozens of industries and create enormous job opportunities for the people. But at the same time, instead of acquiring degree oriented theoretical knowledge, our youngsters should focus more on skill development, otherwise they will become obsolete.
THE FIRST AND THE FOREMOST AMONG THEM IS OF COURSE MY STRONG FAITH (IMAN) IN ALLAH. I LEARNT A LOT FROM THE INITIAL FAILURES OF MY BUSINESS CAREER AND AS A MATTER OF FACT, THESE FAILURES PAVED THE WAY FOR MY SUCCESSES
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ANDLEEB ABBAS Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Government of Pakistan
Profile: MNA Andleeb Abbas who is the Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the PTI government, has worked with almost all notable local and international organizations in the corporate and development sectors. Specializing in strategic planning, marketing and human resource development, Ms. Andleeb has a distinguished career as a coach, consultant, politician, journalist and writer. A Certified FranklinCovey Master Consultant, Andleeb has been an HR consultant to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, DFID and SDC. She is also a certified Consultant for British Council and American Management Association as well as Management Association of Pakistan. In 2002, she was the only Pakistani to be declared as one of the top 30 strategic thinkers in South Asia by the World Bank and was invited to assist the World Bank in preparing their next 10 year strategic plan. In the following interview, she explains the key points in PTI government’s reformist agenda.
“IF YOU REALLY WANT TO SUCCEED IN LIFE, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO SEE A RAY OF LIGHT IN DARKNESS. IN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS WHEN YOU ARE BEING CRITICIZED BY EVERYONE, TAKE TOUGH AND UNPOPULAR DECISIONS AND STICK TO THEM BOLDLY AND RESOLUTELY.”
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CEO Club: What are the major challenges that the PTI government has to deal with? Andleeb Abbas: We inherited a bleeding and debt trapped economy, which was in ICU. Unable to pay off our debts for quite some time, Pakistan was on the verge of defaulting. It was a matter of survival for us and thus, our first task was to bring the economy out of ICU and stabilize it. Having successfully completed the stabilization and survival phase, we are now passing through the revival phase and hopefully, we will soon enter the third phase, that is, sustainability. Another challenge is making people do what they don’t want to do through institutional and structural reforms, i.e. by breaking the status quo. For years, some of our leading institutions such as PIA and FBR have been bred on rampant corruption which cannot be eliminated if the status quo prevails. Quite naturally, we are facing stiff resistance from those whose vested interests are attached to the maintenance of status quo. They are branding us as failure, but the fact is that in our success they are foreseeing their own failure. However, the biggest challenge is changing the mindset of more than 200 million people who have become habitual of seeing short term developments, without realizing that short term developments have short term impacts. For those who are only delighted by new roads and trains, it is hard to understand that money spent on education will show its output in ten years time and money spent on environment will start making real impact in 20 years time. For real progress, we need long term and sustainable policies, which may create some temporary disturbance and pain, but will be extremely productive in the long run.
The uncontrollable rise of the Dollar and the incredibly high inflation rate, accompanied by soaring fuel prices have raised the cost of living to such an extent that people in general are in a state of shock and frustration and are fully justified in asking as to how long this situation will continue. There is no denying the fact that we are passing through testing times and people are facing some hardships. However, I can assure you that it is a temporary phase and if we remain steadfast in it, good days will soon be knocking at our doors, though it’s hard to give any specific date or deadline. You should remember the old proverb “no pains no gains.” Moreover, you shouldn’t expect a patient coming out of the ICU would start running in the marathon race immediately. We are attempting to increase the bulk of our exports and it may take at least one and a half year. Despite our limited resources, we are making sure that the burden of austerity measures should mainly fall on the rich. Thus, increase in electricity charges will not affect 75 per cent consumers whose monthly usage of electricity is less than 300 units. Similarly, increased gas rates will also cause no problem for the common consumers. Besides this, millions of impoverished people are receiving financial assistance through Ehsas Program and other such charitable initiatives for which billions of Rupees have been allocated.
While fighting on the economic front, the PTI government seems to have lost trust in its old players and has brought in a completely new team. Don’t you think that such sudden and frequent reshuffles will generate a sense of uncertainty and unpredictability, instead of stability and sustainability? A great leader always attaches more importance to the achievement of his goals and objectives than to old faces friendships and relations. Same is the case with Imran Khan, who is fully focused on his mission i.e. building a better Pakistan. For this he needs a winning team. Whenever and wherever he finds a better player, he brings him in his team. This is exactly what he used to do as the captain of cricket team. People may criticize him for taking u-turns, but full credit should be given to him for rising above
| 21 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | personal loyalties and friendships and changing his game plan to suit the occasion and situation. He selects his team members on merit and retains them only if they perform well.
There can be no economic growth without a significant amount of local and foreign investment. But we have seen 52% reduction in FDI over the past ten months. How would you explain this phenomenon? Comparing the first ten months of our government with the fifth year of PMLN government is just like comparing a test match with a one day match. The investment that we brought in during our first ten months is much more than the investment that was made during the first ten months of PMLN and PPP governments. Investment worth 22 billion and 10 billion has been promised by Qatar and Saudi Arabia respectively. Other countries are also eager to invest as soon as they get assurances that we are not going to default. To save the economy from total collapse, we approached the IMF as a last resort. The World Bank and other agencies are also willing to help us. The confidence shown by them in our institutions will encourage other agencies and countries to invest in Pakistan.
Since you are associated with the Foreign Ministry, would you like to mention some of the achievements of your government on the diplomatic front? Until last year, India was branding us as a terrorist country. Bangladesh was not issuing visas for Pakistanis. Afghanistan was not ready to talk to us. Top leadership of UAE and Saudi Arabia had not visited our country for years. Iran also seemed to be siding with India against Pakistan. But now, the situation is quite different. The Afghan president recently visited Pakistan. Recently, Leaders of UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia paid official visits to Pakistan. The way we responded to the Indian attack in February won global admiration for our wise, peace loving and statesmanly leadership. Ambassadors are now being appointed purely on the basis of merit and service level in embassies are improving.
What initiatives are you taking to promote a softer and better image of Pakistan in the international community? In a recently held conference in Islamabad, all Pakistani ambassadors were told to make strenuous efforts for creating a better perception and image of Pakistan wherever they are posted by changing the mindset of the people. We are using our international diplomatic offices to create lobbies for Pakistan by interacting with the top leaders of various key political, social and economic institutions. During my trip to UK last week, I had a fruitful meeting with the British MPs of Pakistani origin and urged them to lobby for Pakistan. Besides making maximum use of social media to project the positive side of Pakistan, we are now facilitating foreigners to come Pakistan without facing much difficulty. Thus, citizens of 170 countries can get E-visas and citizens of 50 countries will get visas on arrival in Pakistan. No unnecessary NOCs are now required for visiting various cities in Pakistan. As a result, Portugal has removed travel advisory to Pakistan. Other European countries are likely to do the same in the coming days. Australian Senators will soon be visiting Pakistan to see for themselves the potential opportunities which Pakistan offers for foreign investors. 2 cricket teams are expected to visit Pakistan this year and the number of tourists is also likely to increase significantly. Prince William and Kate Middleton are visiting Pakistan.
Does your government intend to bring about reforms in civil service and education? We have a special task force for reforming the civil service. But this is the toughest job because as you
| 22 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | know, bureaucrats are trained not to change. But the message of change given by the Prime Minister is loud and clear. Only those can stay in the government whose performance is up to the mark, otherwise, they will be removed. This is exactly what Jack Welch did. As soon as he assumed office, he fired five vice presidents and by doing so, he gave a clear message that for staying in the organization, everyone would have to prove his worth and value. As far as education is concerned, I have to say with regret that literacy rate in our country in the last 5 years has gone down from 60 per cent to 58 per cent. The previous governments only spent around forty per cent of the money which they allocated for education. Apparently, the money allocated for education by us may be a bit less than that of the previous government, but we are going to spend each and every penny of it and by doing so, our spending on education will exceed that of the ex-government. National Literacy Council has devised a uniform syllabus and in ten years time from now, children studying at all government, private and religious schools will be studying the same syllabus.
What techniques have you evolved for overcoming stress? It is often said in the corporate world that a certain amount of stress is good, because it motivates you. However, stress should not be allowed to change into tension, which may paralyze you. In addition to regular physical exercise, spirituality also keeps me stress free. I believe that I am part of a divine plan and have been sent to this world would to do something better for my people and my country by bringing about some positive change, which may be big or small.
Would you like to mention some of your favourite books? The book“Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”has literally changed my life. Whenever I read it, I discover something new in it. Another amazing book is “Hostage at the Table” which shows how to manage your life and profession under extreme stress. George Kohlrieser is a professor of leadership and organizational behavior, psychologist, and veteran hostage negotiator. In his book Hostage at the Table, he states that conflict resolution is not difficult if we understand how human self-esteem operates. He believes that deep within humans reside slumbering powers that most of us do not even activate. These latent powers can revolutionize our lives if aroused and put into action at the right time in the right manner. Bang-e-Dara of Allama Iqbal is another fascinating book from which I have learnt a lot.
Is there anyone whom you regard as your role model? The Black civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King is my political role model, while as a social activist, Dr. Yasmin Rashid is my role model. In the field of religion and spirituality, of course, there can be no role model other than Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Moreover, I am also greatly inspired by the philosophy of Maulana Rumi.
What message would you like to give to our frustrated and unemployed youth? My message for them is that of hope and optimism. Instead of venting out their fury and frustration on Facebook, they should focus on skill development. No doubt, we are passing through tough times, but this is a temporary phase and will soon be over. Housing Scheme will create huge opportunities. Industries will start flourishing within 2 years and there will be more jobs in the country than ever before. So young people need to be multi-skilled to grab opportunities that are going to be coming their way in a couple of years.
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VISIONARY LEADERS & DIFFERENCE MAKERS OF PAKISTAN
Inspiring Interviews And Their Success Stories
If people criticize you, hurt you, or shout at you, don’t be bothered. Just remember, in every game audience makes the noise, not the players! | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan |
SYED BABAR ALI Advisor, Packages Ltd.
Profile: The man behind Packages Ltd., Nestle-Milkpak, Interbank, Ali Institute of Education and Lahore University of Management Sciences is perhaps among the greatest success stories in the world. Only those bestowed with a true spirit of nationalism, combined with a genuine flare of entrepreneurship could, and would, dare to challenge the prevalent dogmas and Syed Babar Ali, the youngest son of Syed Maratib Ali- the doyen of Ali family, is just such a person. His career as an entrepreneur, philanthropist and public figure has been multidimensional and the list of his achievements is rather exhaustive. Besides his diverse roles, he contributed largely to revolutionize the Pakistani educational system by evolving Harvard equivalent university in Pakistan, LUMS. Syed Babar Ali’s foresight coupled with sincerity of purpose helped raise the bar of competition in education sector. Being two decades older than his country and having witnessed every single turbulent twist in history of PAKISTAN, he thinks that our country urgently needs sincere leadership. He is of the view that, as a developing nation, more time is needed to create a system that places value on fairness and merit and punishes corruption, therefore, Pakistanis have a long way to go.
HE HAS ACHIEVED GREAT SUCCESS ON CORPORATE LEVEL AND HIS POSITIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE CONTRIBUTIONS ON NATIONAL LEVEL ARE COMMENDABLE INDEED.
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Success Story: Syed Babar Ali is the true legend of Pakistan. He is the one who wholeheartedly dedicated his life for the cause of Pakistan. According to him, one does not have to be a politician to lead the cause of Pakistan. It is this sense of responsibility that has made him a leader. Whether it was education or entrepreneurship, he has excelled in whatever he has done as a visionary. His choice of business and industry has been both pragmatic and full of social consideration, keeping in mind the development aspect. He has been a trend-setter in many aspects. He is a businessman and a philanthropist, but most significantly he is a social entrepreneur.
The brief history of the Ali family’s dealings in the world of business in India had been quite venturesome. Rife with success through innovation, it wasn’t short of instances of extraordinary determination in the face of certain failure. The patriarch of Ali family, Syed Wazir Ali, was the grandfather of Syed Babar Ali. He started the business in a very small way by opening a shop in Lahore Cantonment around the middle of nineteenth century and later on moved his business to Ferozepur Cantonment. Through his untiring efforts, honest dealings and the support of his two young sons, Syed Ahsan Ali and Syed Maratib Ali, the firm of A&M Wazir Ali became a very successful business of army contracts.
Syed Babar Ali was born in 1926 to this illustrious family. He studied at the University of Michigan in 1947, the year Pakistan became a state. He returned to Pakistan in December that year, ultimately earning his bachelor’s degree from Punjab University in Pakistan. According to NY Times, ‘He has witnessed every turn in its (Pakistan’s) tumultuous history at 83, he feels he has earned the right to give it advice’.
As an entrepreneur and an industrialist, Syed Babar Ali envisioned and set up Packages Ltd. (Pakistan’s largest paper & board mill), Milkpak Ltd. Now Nestle Pakistan Ltd. (the largest food processing company in Pakistan), Tetra Pak Pakistan Ltd., IGI Insurance Compnay Ltd., Tri-Pack Films Ltd. and IGIG Investment Bank. He is the Chairman of Sanofi-Avetis Pakistan Ltd., Siemens Pakistan Engineering Company Ltd. and Coca Cola Beverages Pakistan Ltd. He believes in the joint venture philosophy and most of his businesses are joint ventures with major multinationals.
Packages Ltd. was the first packaging plant in Pakistan. In 1957, its main customers were Pakistan Tobacco Company, Lever Brothers and Lipton- all multinational that had been importing their packaging requirements till then. They extended full cooperation to the new company encouraging it to produce local packaging material to match their specifications. The production facilities at the new company consisted of making cartons out of paperboard and flexible packaging material out of paper, plastic and aluminum foils to serve the packaging needs of the manufacturers. Even in the first year of its operations, the company showed very encouraging results; it made a net profit on the first twelve months’ sales of Rs. 6.3 million and the trend continued thereafter. Packages Ltd. Owes a debt of gratitude for its early success and continuous growth not only to its Swedish partner, Akerlund & Rausing, but also to the affectionate support of Dr. Ruben Rausing, who founded the Akerlund & Rausing, the premier packaging company of Europe. Packages Ltd. was the first important Swedish investment in Pakistan and is probably still the most prominent one today.
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In 1974, Syed Babar Ali convened the meeting of the senior management of Packages Ltd. to study the national business environment and evaluate the probable investment opportunities for the future. At one time he said, ‘If I were interested in making money, I would also have chosen textile or sugar industry instead of taking a risk of investing in the relatively new technology of paperboard packaging. Please understand that I am only interested in assignments that are not only challenging but also have a string element of nation-building through the transfer of new technology to my country’.
Syed Babar Ali has always been genuinely interested in the development of the company and has been appreciative of all efforts towards this end. A culture of self-evaluation and constant improvement permeates the company. Everyone is encouraged to share in perpetual growth through new ideas. However, all development ideas are subject to careful scrutiny and laboratory trials, pilot-scale operation or trail production invariably precedes commercial production. This balanced approach of the management has always paid rich dividends over the years despite a gradual increase in organizations capacity to accept financial challenges. Moreover, Packages Ltd. has always encouraged government functionaries and university students to visit factory premises for mutual learning. The certain trait that makes Syed Babar Ali a social entrepreneur is difficult to identify. There are so many reasons one after another. Some of them are known to everyone and some of them are not known at all. He promoted the cause of World Wide Fund for Nature (earlier World Wildlife Fund) where he served in various capacities, both in Pakistan and at international level, from 1972 to 1996. He was the international President of WWF from 1996 to 1999 succeeding HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. The prestigious position was given to him in the view of his interest and achievements in the field of conservation and was a great honour for Pakistan indeed. He is now the Vice President Emeritus, WWF International and President Emeritus WWF-Pakistan. He is also a member of Layton Rehamatullah Benevolent Trust Karachi and Shalamar Hospital, Lahore.
Syed Maratib Ali, the late father of Syed Babar Ali, has always been a source of great inspiration for him, as he grew in an environment of philanthropy, which developed stronger sense of faith in him. Syed Maratib Ali established Syed Maratib Religious and Charitable Trust Society in 1939 to promote public welfare and education of deserving students and to provide a skilled manpower to the local industry. Then Syed Babar Ali setup Babar Ali foundation in 1985. This foundation gives about a million dollars a year primarily for education and health in Pakistan.
As an educationist, he led the establishment of the Lahore University of Management & Sciences (LUMS) in 1985, of which he has been the first Pro-Chancellor. Whereas, according to NY Times, LUMS is Pakistan’s premier management education institution, which has evolved into the approximate equivalent of Harvard University in Pakistan. In 1992, he founded Ali institute of Education for training of primary and secondary school teachers. He is a member on the board of the following important educational institutes of Lahore: Aitchison College, F.C. College, Kinnaird College and Lahore School of Economics. He is the member of the regional advisory board of London Business School and a member of the Initiative on Social Enterprise at Harvard University. He received honours and awards from the Government of Sweden, the Netherlands, an OBE from Britain (1997), and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree of Laws from McGill University, Montreal, Canada (1997).
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The biggest achievement of Syed Babar Ali was the establishment of Lahore University of Management Sciences where students get the education of internationally standards and are able to compete all over the globe with other students. Babar Ali believes that:
Babar Ali Foundation was established in 1985. Since its inception, the foundation has received contributions from Syed Babar Ali and his family which also included the donation of a plot of his land located on Upper Mall, Lahore, where he constructed a building at a cost of Rs. 28.6 million in 1996.
The objectives of the organization are to build, aid, assist, set up, manage, maintain and run the schools, colleges, institutions of learning and practical training, libraries, museums, galleries, handicraft centers, parks and places of medical aid and relief. Its mission is to promote sustainable development by supporting education, training and research. As well as assisting institutes, libraries and hospitals, encouraging nature conservation, culture and sports. Undertaking measures for the diffusion of knowledge and expertise.
It is a time when deterioration of values in society has crippled the growth of our country, corruption is rampant and laws are flouted. With a volatile political situation and instability in economy, people like Syed Babar Ali, who are legitimately willing to give back to the society without desiring for personal gain, are the only hope at this darkest hour. He has achieved great success on corporate level and his positive and constructive contributions on national level are commendable indeed.
Courtesy: Leading Social Entrepreneurs of Pakistan
ITS MISSION IS TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BY SUPPORTING EDUCATION, TRAINING AND RESEARCH. AS WELL AS ASSISTING INSTITUTES, LIBRARIES AND HOSPITALS, ENCOURAGING NATURE CONSERVATION, CULTURE AND SPORTS. UNDERTAKING MEASURES FOR THE DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE.
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MIAN MOHAMMAD MANSHA Chairman, Nishat Group & MCB
Profile: Mian Mohammad Mansha is one of the most prominent businessmen in Pakistan and Chairman of Nishat Group, who holds diverse and major business interests in textiles, banking, insurance, cement, power, and aviation. Government conferred him with most prestigious award “Sitara-e-Imtiaz” in 2004. He is also first Pakistani on the Forbes list of billionaires.
HAVE FAITH IN PAKISTAN. THE SKY IS THE LIMIT; ONE SHOULD NOT WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING. KEEP ON INVESTING IN PAKISTAN NO MATTER WHAT, YOU WILL EVENTUALLY REAP THE FRUITS.
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CEO Club: What are the various types of business with which the Nishat Group is associated? Mian Mansha: Nishat is engaged in a wide variety of businesses. For instance, we have a very internationally competitive textile business and we export our goods to more than forty countries of the world. With about one and a half dozen textile plants, we became the country’s most profitable textile company last year. Although there are also other cement producers in the country, we are the most efficient and technologically most advanced cement manufacturers producing sixty million tons of cement. We are the first ones to use much cheaper bio fuels in our plants to replace highly expensive conventional means of energy. MCB Bank, which is one of our major projects, has also been twice declared Asia’s Best Bank. With only two percent of our people insured, we realized the huge growth potential of insurance business in the country and thus, took over Adamji Insurance Company and are now focusing our attention on excelling in life insurance and marine insurance businesses. Takaful Insurance is another key area of our interest, though much work still needs to be done for making headway in this sector. Furthermore, we produce ten per cent of the country’s electricity.
Who do you think can run banks better; professional management or entrepreneurs? I think this has been proven beyond doubt that all the big banks are managed better by large shareholders, everywhere in the world. The reason is that shareholders take a long-term view. Therefore, I would suggest having a good mix of professional bankers and long-term shareholders. The prime example is the Santander Bank of Spain, the fourth largest bank in the world by profits and the largest lender in Europe. It has successfully managed to stay out of the cyclical financial problems. It is run by a family with some very smart professionals. In 2008 the bank was declared the best bank in the world by Euromoney.
What are the major challenges confronted by the commercial and industrial sectors of our country? The main challenge is the outcome of our poor economic performance. While all other countries of our region are growing at a rate of more than six per cent, our growth rate is less than three per cent, which is exactly the growth rate of our population, which means that in reality, we are not growing at all. Even countries like Bangladesh are now looking down upon us as a country that should not be taken seriously. But I believe that in view of our huge amount of resources, which are still unused or misused, this is a wrong assessment of our future. Then, there is the volatile law and order situation, which sharply reduces the number of our export orders and prevents many of our foreign customers from coming to our country for direct interaction with us. The crippling power crisis has also come as a shattering blow for our businesses and industries.
Many business empires die a sudden death only due to the absence of a proper succession plan. While marching on the road to progress, has Nishat Group ever contemplated on this issue? We are fully cognizant of the significance of this issue and have, therefore, drawn up a proper succession plan for the coming decades, in order to carry forward our agenda and vision. We have over forty thousand employees and feel no shortage of talented, competent and professional people. With the sufficient availability of such a highly developed and dependable human capital, we feel our future to be bright and secure. My own three sons, who are qualified from American universities, are members of the company’s board and can effectively take my place in the coming years.
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While you are perfectly satisfied about the future of your company, what are your hopes regarding the country’s overall economic progress in future? We are a large country with abundance of human and material resources, which can be utilized properly, if we are able to elect the right type of leadership in the coming elections. In addition to this, we are fortunate to be located in a region which is going to be the epicenter of world’s economic activities in the near future. A country with such strategic, geographical and material advantages surely has a bright future.
Do you have some viable recipe for overcoming the growing problem of widespread unemployment which has been further aggravated by current energy crisis? The recent energy crisis which has virtually brought the whole industrial sector to a standstill, has forced the industrialists to lay off hundreds of thousands of their workers. But unfortunately the strategies, being adopted for meeting our growing energy demands and for reviving the country’s industrial activities, are not wise. . We believe that only hydroelectricity can meet our electricity demands. The water storage capacity of our old reservoirs is decreasing and if we are unable to build new reservoirs, the best solution for our industries is to minimize their reliance on imported and conventional resources of energy and start using our own cheaper and locally available resources. We have got huge deposits of coal and gas which are still lying intact, unexplored and unused. Realising the importance of non-conventional fuels, our newly-built plants will now be running on rice husks, cotton sticks and bio-fuels. In addition to this, the government must end the price distortion of petroleum, diesel and gas.
Despite big challenges, why are you optimistic regarding Pakistan’s economy? I’m still very optimistic about Pakistan. The reason behind my optimism is that now there’s some balance in society. I have never felt as free as I do now. The credit goes to independent media and judiciary. As far as delivery is concerned, politicians are still behind the curve.
How would you like to define happiness and success? One of the major causes of unhappiness and depression is laziness and idleness. Those who work hard from dawn to dusk with a positive mind enjoy a peaceful sleep at night and lead a happy life. A successful person, in my opinion, is he who makes some positive contribution to the development of society and community. A person may be a teacher, doctor, servant or anything else, but if he does something good for the society, he is a successful person.
Are you in favour of women working side by side with men in offices and businesses? I always encourage women to come out of their homes and go to work. I am proud of my wife who runs many of our shops inside and outside the country. One of my daughters-in-law runs a couple of hotels, while another one is in charge of a dairy farm. We try to facilitate the working women in every possible manner.
Any message to Pakistan’s young entrepreneurs? Have faith in Pakistan. The sky is the limit; one should not worry about anything. Keep on investing in Pakistan no matter what, you will eventually reap the fruits.
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A SUCCESSFUL PERSON, IN MY OPINION, IS HE WHO MAKES SOME POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIETY AND COMMUNITY. A PERSON MAY BE A TEACHER, DOCTOR, SERVANT OR ANYTHING ELSE, BUT IF HE DOES SOMETHING GOOD FOR THE SOCIETY, HE IS A SUCCESSFUL PERSON.
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HUSSAIN DAWOOD Chairman Dawood Hercules Corporation Karachi School for Business & Leadership Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund Engro Corporation Ltd
Profile: Hussain Dawood is Chairman of Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd, Engro Corporation Ltd, Karachi. His initiatives are Karachi School for Business and Leadership and Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, which is, globally, the largest World Bank financed social fund. He is also International Advisory Council of the Cradle to Cradle Institute in San Francisco. He serves as a Director on the Boards of Pakistan Business Council, Beaconhouse National University. He is on the Boards of Trustees of the Karachi Education Initiative UK, London and Asia House, London. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Anti-Corruption and is active in its Partnering against Corruption Initiative (PACI). He is the Honorary Consul of Italy in Lahore. The Italian Government in recognition of his contribution conferred on him the award “Ufficiale Ordine al Merito Della Repubblica Italiana”. Previously he was an Advisor to the Ministry of Commerce, Government of Pakistan, Director of the State Bank of Pakistan, Commonwealth Business Council, London, Member of the Karachi Stock Exchange, Member Board of Governors of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre; Member Board of Governors of the GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences & Technology; Director of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Sciences & Technology; Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of the Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital; Senator of the University of the Punjab, and Director on the Boards of the University’s Centre for Advanced Molecular Biology; and Centre for High Energy Physics and Hailey College of Commerce. He served as a Board Member of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), and the Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority, Punjab Government. He is an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, North- western University, USA, and is a graduate in Metallurgy from Sheffield University, UK. | 34 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan |
CEO Club: As a nation, we are passing through very turbulent times, with political instability, energy crisis and bad law and order situation going on. What steps do you think can be taken to turn around economy and administration of Pakistan? Hussain Dawood: The only way to turn around Pakistan economically as well administratively is to have a proper government structure. Right government structure coupled with right people working in it would not only furnish good results but it will also help in overcoming myriads of problems faced by us presently. At the same time, we should have accountability to ensure that power is exercised responsibly. Nevertheless, the absence of accountability, where people work outside their mandate, would only lead to distortions.
What is your take on HR and its development in Pakistan? Progress is not possible without developing human resource. Investing in improving Allah’s creation should take precedence over other gains. If that is not the case then the priorities of such individual are, unfortunately, confused. We should invest more in what He has created rather than what we produced. Human resource development must be our fundamental target. It is heartening to see a change where the soul of an individual is transformed.
Are you satisfied with the quality of business graduates being produced today? No matter what the institute is, the major emphasis should be on the development of inner soul and mind. Education is the ability to analyze and understand. However, one can learn to understand but the way he concludes depends on his values. Values are the fundamental touchstone on which a professional is made.
Unemployment is at its worst nowadays. In a situation like this, how can we create job providers rather than job seekers? The government should take effective and concrete steps to create an environment that is conducive for the economic growth. Everyone has a right to earn livelihood and the conditions that facilitate it. It is a proven fact that development of SMEs can create innumerable job opportunities, however, they have never been properly facilitated in Pakistan. Therefore, we direly need a supportive environment to burgeon economically. Moreover, I must say that we also need private initiative in this regard. By private initiative, I mean lead by the citizens of Pakistan, only this would pave the way towards unprecedented growth and development.
Do we need more managers or leaders? I think both managers and leaders are crucial to the development of Pakistan. Our economy can stagnate and lose its way if there is a dearth of managers or even leaders. However, leaders are generally fewer in number than managers because it tends to be a higher calling than management.
Are leaders born or made? In my opinion, leaders are developed over the time.
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Being an amazingly successful businessperson, would you like to elaborate the core values that drove you to achieve your aim? I have always believed in and practised truthfulness, honesty, justice, integrity and ethics. One should always speak the truth; there is nothing nobler and heroic than that. Nevertheless, one should also have the courage to listen to the truth instead of turning a deaf ear to it because criticism is vital for the improvement of an individual. Whereas, negative criticism does something more than just breaking one’s spirit.
What core competencies would you like to see in our next generation of managers? Instead of focusing on the core competencies of our managers, I think it is more important to create an environment for them to perform well. Setting a situation that is conducive for entrepreneurship and superior performance to flourish is imperative indeed.
How do you maintain your work-life balance? I no longer manage my business directly. We have a thoroughly professional structure at our company, where I rarely check on them. I have no authority to override the method or style of my workers. When I give someone the responsibility, I step back and let him do it his way. In that situation, I resist interfering but the employee has to put his best foot forward by performing.
Who is your inspiration? Our Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has always been my inspiration. HIS behaviour and teachings have always had a great influence on my life.
Define happiness? Happiness begets happiness. If one is able to spread happiness around, then he is blissful. An unhappy person is incapable of spreading joy.
What would be your definition of success? All success comes by the will of Allah.
Any favourite book on personal development that you would like to recommend to others? The Holy Qura’an is my most favourite book. All other books are a means to an end, whereas Qura’an tells us what our end is.
Are you satisfied with the quality of teachers and their endeavours to inculcate ethics and values in our students? To me, teaching is the most important profession in the world, its importance in the development of the country cannot be understated. Teaching is not just about educating students from textbook but to impart Tarbiyat (Training). Tarbiyat incorporated with learning can have lasting influence on our society. The importance of this profession can be realized by the fact that our Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) was also a teacher to the mankind and Allah could not have let His last messenger squander all time in doing something unessential.
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HAPPINESS BEGETS HAPPINESS. IF ONE IS ABLE TO SPREAD HAPPINESS AROUND, THEN HE IS BLISSFUL. AN UNHAPPY PERSON IS INCAPABLE OF SPREADING JOY.
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SADRUDDIN HASHWANI Chairman, Hashoo Group
Profile: Sadruddin Hashwani, the hand behind the famous Hashoo Group of Companies, is a man of many facets. It’s been his leadership skills and the will to fight the odds that has made his group what it’s today, with a vast array of interests in oil and gas, hoteling, IT, pharmaceuticals, ceramics, mining, real estate and trading. He is easily one of the most well-known names in the world of business in Pakistan. He is also considered among the wealthiest. Sadruddin Hashwani continues to extend his empire that encompasses hospitality, manufacturing and oil. “My life has been hard at times. I am a self-made man. By God’s grace, mine has been such a success story. I am very satisfied that I have achieved many of my goals,” he says with humility. “Our family had originally migrated from Iran nearly seven generations ago. My mother was born in Gawadar, which at that time was part of the Sultanate of Oman, and my grandfather migrated to Karachi. Although my forefathers had been in business, my parents wanted me to become a doctor. I was going to a science college at the time and was a very keen sportsman; I used to play cricket seven days a week. Then, I also became involved in the college union,” recalls Hashwani of his early years. He convinced his parents to lend him Rs 50,000 with which he started a business partnership with his sister’s husband.” But that was a huge challenge. At the tender age of 18 he began his innings as a salesman selling steel products to various industries. “I started with steel and moved onto grain. Our very first venture was called Southern Commercial Corporation and we sold food grains in the very inhospitable terrain of Baluchistan.” Eventually in 1965, when he was 25 years old, they got an opportunity to export cotton. The first consignment they sold was to a client in the then Soviet Union. “It was a very small quantity and the ‘giants’ of the export business were all scoffing at us. The first year was indeed a very difficult one for me. It was a challenge.” And in this way the great success story started. | 38 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan |
CEO Club: Pakistan is passing through a very difficult phase. What do you think is the recipe for turning this country around economically and administratively? Sadruddin Hashwani: I believe it is not possible in the existing system of democracy practiced in this country. The process of electing a leader has to be critically analyzed. Right now the situation is very chaotic. The various amendments in the constitution have created a lot of confusion in the country.
We are going through extreme joblessness in the country these days. How do you think can we create more jobs and employment in the country? The biggest problem right now is the energy crisis. All the new proposed projects, such as the IPPs are so expensive with high tariffs that nobody will be able to pay for them. But unfortunately, we don’t have a choice but to purchase it. Dams for power generation, such as the Kalabagh dam should have been constructed about 20 years ago.
The education system in the country has become very commercialized. What do you think is the solution for that? The education system has become so expensive that nobody can afford it. The job of the government is to construct schools and colleges and facilitate the poor, not the rich people.
How can we encourage people in the country to become thinkers? There are thinkers and then there are doers. I think we need doers rather than thinkers. That is what needs to be encouraged.
How do you define leadership? Leadership has to be persistent and stay around in Pakistan. In 1992, I went to Ghulam Ishaq Khan and told him this is a failed system of electing leaders. Unless you have a lot of money and a team of goons, there is no way you could get elected. The system needs to be stronger. There have to be more provinces and provincial autonomy must be strengthened. The system should be replicated like the American system with a provincial governor.
How do you think can we overcome the leadership crisis in the country? As I said, increase the number of provinces and provincial autonomy. There will be leaders produced from that system. Doors will be opened for more people as availability of education will increase. The resources devoted to maintaining the parliament should be directed towards improving the education system.
What are the top three challenges faced in Pakistan and what are the solutions to those problems? Poverty should be eliminated and the cost of education should be brought down.
Of the various political eras the country has gone through, which do you think has been the best for Pakistan and which do you think has been the worst? I think Ayub Khan’s era was the best because the country saw a lot of development with the Green Revolution and the land reforms. Dams were built, resources were optimally utilized. He was a true Pakistani.
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Do you think there is any hope for Pakistan? All the rich people in this country are earning and hoarding up money. They should spend money on education, give scholarships to students, build up schools for free, and build up hospitals. Otherwise people will come and vandalize their homes in frustration.
We have heard that you trust people very easily. What is your opinion about that? It is important to trust people. How can you survive without trusting people? You have to trust people.
What are your plans for succession planning in your organization? I have established the foundation of this organization and invested assets towards this foundation and the organization only. The foundation will be run be by professional people rather than by my family and the income generated will be divided into two parts. One part will go towards zakat and 10% will go towards charitable donations.
Do you think you have the right people to steer your organization? I have all the right people. If you have the right people, you have strength and I do have that strength.
What are the values that you believe in that have helped you succeed to this level? Firstly, I believe in my country and want to do something for it. Secondly, I have made a foundation that is very organized, with allotment for zakat and various other charitable donations, such that all these initiatives should continue even after my death.
How do you manage anger and deal with stresses in your life? If I am angry, I don’t hesitate to share my opinion and thoughts with them, even if there is a conflict. As for stress, I strongly believe that there is no reason to be disappointed and our religion preaches that. I pray to Allah to make my problems easier.
How do you manage your time? I believe in quick decision making and then moving on.
What are your strengths? My core strength is my strong belief and faith in Allah. The foundation of my success is faith. Without faith, humans are vegetables! I try to follow the footsteps of the Holy Prophet. It’s also important not to get demotivated over your failures and losses and I just get over my losses and quickly move on. How would you define your management style? Is it authoritative or participative? I discuss problems with my team, but make the decision myself.
Was there any difficult turning point in your life or a difficult decision that you had to take? I am a very honest businessman who doesn’t steal and dupe customers and always pays his taxes completely. I faced all difficult decisions in my business with a big heart.
What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs in the country? Have string faith, be honest, and don’t do anything wrong so that nobody can point a finger at you.
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Bounties in business and life are gifted by Allah, whatever you earn honestly will stay with you and your family. If the youth has forgotten this ideology, they will have to come back to it again.
How can we inculcate these values in our new generation? It is the job of the parents to teach these to their young children. They should teach good values to their children, give them a good education and give them a good upbringing overall. Education comes from home, not from a school, college or university. It is the responsibility of the parents to inculcate these values in children.
How do you see your business growing five years down the road? It depends on the government’s policies. If the inflation is high, people will not come to stay at hotels. Pakistan’s image has been spoiled so much that foreigners don’t want to come and stay here which affects business. I don’t even like having meetings in Dubai.
Do you think Pakistan is really a land of opportunities? Pakistan has a lot of opportunities. Be it agriculture or mineral resources. For example, the Reko Diq has potential worth of $1 trillion. God has really gifted Pakistan.
What is your opinion on women empowerment in this country? My daughter is running the Honey Bee project which has received acclaim from the BBC. She has changed the lives of the entire northern areas. Now they are encouraging women participation in cattle farming. Women have a lot of potential and power which should be utilized.
Do you believe that the youth can bring about a change for good in this country? I encourage children and the youth that they can become like me one day if they work hard. The youth is very demotivated these days. These children have to be motivated and encouraged to believe in themselves and have strong faith and belief in Allah.
THE EDUCATION SYSTEM HAS BECOME SO EXPENSIVE THAT NOBODY CAN AFFORD IT. THE JOB OF THE GOVERNMENT IS TO CONSTRUCT SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES AND FACILITATE THE POOR, NOT THE RICH PEOPLE.
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KHALID NAWAZ AWAN Chairman, TCS Holdings
Profile: He was born in D.I. Khan and is a Mechanical Engineering graduated from Peshawar University. On his 21st birthday he joined PIA in its heydays to train as a Flight Engineer. It was a job he immensely enjoyed, from operating the systems in a modern aircraft, to the opportunity of seeing the world while still young and free. However the technological advancements in aircraft cockpit design heralded the redundancy of this profession. About that time he was elected as President of the Flight Engineers Union mandated to negotiate with the management an alternate career planning for Flight Engineers. A vigorous interaction with the management resulted in the Flight Engineers being retained but he was sacked. The reason officially given: ‘trying to gain ascendancy’ – whatever it meant. He thus found himself jobless at the age of 33, until a door opened unexpectedly and by sheer chance. He had the good fortune of having an older brother - being 23 years older, he was more a father. After living abroad for many years, he had just returned home, and wanting to set up a business had negotiated with DHL for setting up a Joint Venture in Pakistan. The government allowed a 51% local and 49% DHL shareholding. There wasn’t much capital required but the business was developed from scratch. His brother as Chairman asked him to join and DHL agreed that subject to satisfactory training with them, He could be the M.D. of the Joint Venture Company. They thus commenced business. Soon they realized the need for a local company, as the Joint Venture was restricted to international courier service only. This led to the birth of TCS, with his brother, he as Chairman and MD respectively of both the companies. By the grace of God their business flourished, and time passed quickly. Nearing the end of their first decade his brother and he decided to take some time out to sit and plan the future.
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CEO Club: What does the abbreviation TCS stand for? Khalid Nawaz Awan: The original company “Technology Communications and Supplies” founded in 1983 had a longish name which we dispensed by renaming the company just TCS.
What business strategies would you recommend to our aspiring entrepreneurs and corporate leaders? Our solutions have to be indigenous to our own circumstances. Broadly speaking to our aspiring entrepreneurs, I have the following to say: Lets analyse our resources (some of them I have just mentioned), and then the opportunities and challenge around them. Many business ideas – big and small – would then be born. In this information age and an era of global communication, we can learn from many examples around the world. What is needed is a change of mind-set: rather than mimic the short term outlook and quarterly corporate results that have caused meltdowns in overheated economies, our business models must aim at long term value based on our own socio-economic realities.
OUR SOLUTIONS HAVE TO BE INDIGENOUS TO OUR OWN CIRCUMSTANCES. BROADLY SPEAKING TO OUR ASPIRING ENTREPRENEURS, I HAVE THE FOLLOWING TO SAY: LETS ANALYSE OUR RESOURCES (SOME OF THEM I HAVE JUST MENTIONED), AND THEN THE OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGE AROUND THEM.
In that context, how would you describe TCS? TCS can be described as one of Pakistan’s best known brands. We are a family owned but professionally managed enterprise, born in this country but with global aspirations. Operationally with 7,100 employees and over a 100 million shipments we will deliver this year, we are the largest business of its kind in the Middle East – South Asia region. However in revenue our ranking is much lower, which means we work harder to earn the same amount; conversely it means we can sustain a much larger work force and deliver far more by charging less. This illustrates the point I made to our budding entrepreneurs. Everyday more than a quarter million people either send or receive something through TCS, and we have ‘delivered’, come rain, come sunshine over the past 29 years across the country to customers who range from businesses and government institutions to ordinary people.
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How do you feel about TCS being taught at Harvard and LUMS? For me personally, as its protagonist, it’s an emotional and a very humbling experience. Quite a few times I have been invited to meet and speak to the class (about six times to Harvard, as also the IBA and LUMS) after they have read the case. I have benefitted a lot from interacting with the students and learning from them. Once a student at LUMS, during the Q&A, question my comment and made me re-think my strategy and changed my entire business outlook. A female Korean student at Harvard once argued with her MBA class on a key TCS strength, to my own amazement and learning. I say this is humbling because a business is vulnerable to many risks and pitfalls, so I pray that long into the future TCS continues to live up to its reputation and expectation of its customers.
What have been your main achievements? The achievements are not mine but of the devoted teams I have had the privilege to form. Many of them worked harder than me, and gave me the strength with their devotion and cheer.
So how would you sum up your life and what are the key learnings? I think key learning get instilled in the sub-conscious and are sometimes difficult to articulate; but life has been a great experience. From union leader to a business owner, from the dusty lanes of D. I. Khan to some of the world’s most glamorous places: my life has had its ups and downs, through strange twists and turns.
Do you have a message of hope for our young entrepreneurial readers? Despite the dire economic straits in which we find the country today, the opportunities for our coming generations are immense. As we enter an era of a global shift of economic power from West to the East, Pakistan as the world’s sixth most populous country has some unique advantages. We are a large enough market for our own products, at a cost of production that is cheapest in the world. Although export is essential, the real strength of any economy is its domestic market. Add to it, the huge reserves of untapped natural resources, including water that can be harnessed to produce energy as well as enhance agricultural productivity, in this land once dubbed ‘the granary of the East’. Our Diasporas across the world with deep attachment to the homeland are also a great economic asset and a business opportunity. Whatever has held us back will have to yield to the natural human desire for progress. The vigour and enthusiasm amongst our youth, some amongst them with education and experience abroad, and craving for a better future will drive this progress. And we have to do a lot in order to catch up with the world. I am convinced in no more than a couple of generations we can be an economically prosperous nation. So my message for our next generation is : Get Going.
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WE ARE A LARGE ENOUGH MARKET FOR OUR OWN PRODUCTS, AT A COST OF PRODUCTION THAT IS CHEAPEST IN THE WORLD. ALTHOUGH EXPORT IS ESSENTIAL, THE REAL STRENGTH OF ANY ECONOMY IS ITS DOMESTIC MARKET.
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SAIFUDDIN NOORUDDIN ZOOMKAWALA Chairman, EFU Insurance Group
Profile: Mr. Saifuddin Nooruddin Zoomkawala heads the EFU Insurance Group. He is Chairman of Allianz EFU Health Insurance Limited, EFU General Insurance Limited and Director of EFU Life Assurance Limited. Mr. Zoomkawala was instrumental in exchange of the re- insurance business with General Insurance Corporation of India. He has attended conferences on insurance and economy all over the world and created a joint venture with Allianz of Germany, bringing in direct foreign investment of US$5 million for introducing health insurance in Pakistan. He has been a member of government’s various task forces. During the last 50 years, Mr. Zoomkawala has contributed to the nation’s human resource development by building careers in insurance of hundreds of new entrants in the field, generating a vibrant high-trust culture for corporation within which young cadres have flourished and grown from strength to strength. Mr. Zoomkawala was instrumental in exchange of re-insurance business with General Insurance Corporation of India. He is Chairman of SAARC Council on Financial Services and Insurance and Member, Executive Committee of SAARC Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Insurance Industry Reforms Committee and Academic Council for Pakistan Insurance Institute.
LEADERSHIP MEANS SERVING ALL STAKEHOLDERS AND PROTECTING THEIR INTERESTS. I WOULD PREFER A DEMOCRATIC STYLE SO I CAN HAVE VIEWS OF OTHERS BEFORE MAKING A DECISION; TAKING LEAF FROM A LIFESTYLE OF ACKNOWLEDGED WORLD LEADERS.
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CEO Club: What is EFU Insurance Group’s business philosophy? Saifuddin Nooruddin Zoomkawala: EFU’s policy is to provide non-life insurance services beyond expectation with a will to go an extra mile to satisfy all stakeholders. In the process, continue to upgrade technology, human resource and reinsurance protection.
Would you please share EFU Insurance Group’s brief history with us? The Eastern Federal Union Insurance Co Ltd, at present known as EFU General Insurance Ltd., emerged in 1932 being the first Muslim Insurance Company, conceived as a part of the Muslim renaissance in the subcontinent. EFU is the brand name for insurance products in Pakistan, desired by people of all walks of life. Be it an industrialist, business concern, or an individual (any Pakistani expatriate or local), they know EFU means ‘Your insurance company’. The leadership position of EFU General stands on a solid ground and is based on many different pillars. Three of these pillars are experience, expertise and an exceptional power to protect and build upon a solid asset base. With almost eight decades of insurance underwriting practice, we are Pakistan’s most experienced insurance services provider.
With the country sliding back into a serious economic crisis and rising extreme joblessness, what would you suggest to fix Pakistan’s economy? I believe the crisis faced by Pakistan is due to a deteriorating law and order situation and terrorism. This could be addressed with a dialogue process with stakeholders, bringing them to the table instead of fighting. I am pleased to note that the government is serious on this issue and weighs up all possible avenues.
Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays. What strategy do you think should be evolved to create job-providers/entrepreneurs rather than job-seekers? Pakistan is fortunate in having a majority of young people, with a huge number of talented people in various fields. Unfortunately, the hunt for new talent remains untapped due to lack of education. By providing compulsory education at the primary level and identifying potential talent at an early stage, preparing them in the relevant field of their choice and making them stand on their own feet by providing financial support and soft loan facility, we can help in reviving the entrepreneurial spirit in Pakistan’s youth.
What are the challenges and business/investment opportunities in your industry/sector? Currently, penetration of non-life insurance is less than 0.5 percent of GDP, which is lower than the penetration ratio of our neighbouring countries. Improvement in the GDP ratio is an opportunity for the industry as many areas still remain untapped.
What are three key challenges for CEOs/business leaders in Pakistan? The three challenges are: law and order, tattering economy and market competition.
What are four core competencies you wish to see in young CEOs? The four core competencies are dynamic leadership, technical competence, marketing skills and a strong character.
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We are facing a dilemma in business ethics. How can we inculcate a sense of ethics in our managers? By setting precedents at the top level, educating them properly and also by discouraging unfair means.
How do you define corporate culture? And how to make sure that people live, act and breathe your organization’s vision, mission and core values? By defining a quality policy and educating each and every employee to understand what is actually needed to achieve the corporate common goal.
Do you have a winning team? How do you motivate your team, assess their performance and make them accountable for results? Yes, give them ownership, delegate authorities and make them feel that they are true owners of the unit and are responsible for their results, and reward them as per performance.
GIVE THEM (TEAM EMPLOYEES) OWNERSHIP, DELEGATE AUTHORITIES AND MAKE THEM FEEL THAT THEY ARE TRUE OWNERS OF THE UNIT AND ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR RESULTS, AND REWARD THEM AS PER PERFORMANCE.
Is training, coaching and mentoring a high-priority for you? How much time/budget do you devote to this? What is the RoI of training programmes? We believe that people are our strength. We invest in them time and resources as per our needs. We are proud to say that, today, we have a dedicated and the best-talent team which have made EFU a market leader.
Being the CEO of EFU Insurance Group, what is your strategy for succession planning and developing the next generation of leaders? EFU has maintained its position as a market leader for eight decades. Our focus has always remained on youth and experience, to build a strong winning team.
What are the top three benchmarks for high performing CEOs, who have created long-term value for their companies? Leadership quality, strong character and technical expertise are three benchmarks.
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Can you give examples of corporate social responsibility initiatives on your part? At EFU, all employees are members of the EFU family. We encourage our employees’ family members to join our organization as we have examples of people working for EFU for three generations. Moreover, we encourage our employees to lead a balanced life to become good husbands, wives, fathers, sons and sisters.
Harvard Business Review’s research enlightens us that E.Q. rather than I.Q. is an essential competency for business leaders. Why is Emotional Intelligence important for CEOs, especially in hard times? If you control your emotions, only then you can take right and tough decisions in testing times.
Please list and rank your three job motivators and de-motivators being a CEO? Job motivators: (a) leadership, (b) decision-making, (c) building an image in the market. Job de-motivators: a stress b actions that may backfire c limited time for family.
What’s the best decision you have ever taken? The best decision I took was to accept my present position.
What is leadership to you? What’s your style of leadership? How do you want to improve as a leader? Leadership means serving all stakeholders and protecting their interests. I would prefer a democratic style so I can have views of others before making a decision; taking leaf from a lifestyle of acknowledged world leaders.
How do you manage your anger and stress? Diverting attention to other issues and listening to music or by work out at gym.
Define success in three key words or phrases? Plan, execute and achieve.
What is your idea of happiness/excellence? Smile at the end of the day.
How many employees are on your payroll? 1,300 plus.
Any message of hope to the young generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? There is no short cut to success. Discipline yourself, work hard and you will work wonders.
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IKRAM UL MAJEED SEHGAL Chairman PathFinder Group
Profile: Ikram Sehgal, a retired army officer, is an eminent defense analyst and security expert, who regularly contributes thought provoking articles to English and Urdu newspapers and appears in TV current affairs talk shows and impresses the viewers with his forthright and outspoken views. He is probably the only businessman in the world having a weekly column in several newspapers. He is a Member of the World Economic Forum (WEF); International Organization for Migration (IOM); Director, East West Institute (EWI), a US-based think-tank; and Member, WEF Global Agenda Council (GAC) for counter-terrorism. He regularly lectures on “National Security” and “Smart Power” in the National Defence University (NDU), PAF Air War College and Naval War College. More importantly, as a member of WEF for over 20 years he has been on their Global Agenda Council (GAC) (of experts) for “Counter-Terrorism” and “Anti-Corruption and Transparency”. He is also on the exclusive WEF “Partnering Against Corruption Initiative” (PACI) which works closely with OECD involving MNCs against corruption and money-laundering. He was the first Pakistani prisoner of war in history to escape from Indian PW camp (in 1971). After leaving the Army in 1974, he worked as a commercial pilot before starting his own business currently, he is the Chairman Pathfinder Group Pakistan, which has two Divisions. The Security Services Division includes two of the country’s largest private security companies in Pakistan while the Financial Services Division includes Corporate entities devoted to financial inclusion of the un-banked (85% of Pakistan’s population) in an innovative and unexpansive manner. The flagship company is Virtual Remittance Gateway (Pvt) Ltd (VRG).
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CEO Club: Your newspaper articles and TV talk shows reveal your strong passion for Pakistan, in spite of the fact that Pakistan is generally portrayed as a failed state. Are there any solid grounds for this passion? Ikram Ul Majeed: Pakistan is an inexhaustible gold mine of raw materials, mineral resources, human capital and skilled labour. We have the world’s second largest copper and gold reserves, third largest coal reserves and fourth largest cotton fields and cotton industry. Pakistan is the world’s fifth largest milk producer, sixth largest rice producer and seventh largest wheat producer. Even then, if we have lagged behind other countries, it is only due to our weak, corrupt and inefficient leadership. The talent of Pakistanis is recognized all over the world. Unfortunately, our own media is also projecting our negative image in the outside world. For instance, Marc Siegel, who is one of the writers of ISO 18788 devoted to the grading of private security companies, described our company as a role model for the whole world. Being an American Jew, Marc Siegel was advised for his safety not to travel to Pakistan. But when he came here and interacted with our people, he was so much inspired that now he has become one of the most vocal advocates for Pakistan in the United States.
You have described Pakistan as a gold mine. But how can we transform this gold mine into a real asset? Give us some practical rather than hypothetical suggestions for cashing in on our enormous resources. The first and the foremost thing is that there should be across the board accountability. Accountability without fear and favour is required not just in Sindh, but also in Punjab and the rest of the country. In the past, whenever the army came into power with the promise of accountability, they made the fundamental mistake of running the government, instead of running the people who run the government. Instead of finding solutions to the problems they became part of the problem, even compounding them. In addition to this, appointments should be made purely on merit. There is absolutely no shortage of talent in the country. We just need to capitalize on this talent, this is exactly what we have been doing in Pathfinder Group. Whenever we find a talented person, we speed his or her advance to the highest rank.
You have just pointed out that our sordid state of affairs is due to the inefficient leadership. What type of leaders do we require and how can we groom them? A true leader is appointed on merit and serves the people without any bias. Nowadays, there is so much talk of Mustafa Kamal. There is no denying the fact that he is extremely popular among the people of Karachi, this is just because when he was in power, he served everyone without any communal, linguistic, ethnic or religious prejudices. Despite being a Muhajir himself and appointed by a Muhajir party, he rose above his personal and political background and thus has become a role model for others.
There is a lot of controversy over the performance of private security companies. What would you recommend to enhance their performance and their credibility? Any business involving life and death of human beings, of those being protected as well as those protecting them, requires special attention. The Armed Forces and LEAs have comprehensive rules and regulations but the laws do regulate the private security business how to govern the companies but falls short not only in the implementation of that Ordinance by not addressing the rights of
| 51 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | the clients and the company’s employees. To maintain the requisite standards, basic qualifications levels commensurate (or near commensurate) to developed countries is required. From prevention and deterrence of crime, security guards in the private sector have gone onto countering-terrorism, employees carry guns and can (and do) die in carrying out the job entrusted to them. If they fail to do their job and/or are incapable of doing it, so will the clients! By govt edict, guards deserve to be paid a better minimum wage than the average normal worker reflecting their high-risk work environment and the threats they face daily, conversely clients need protection from companies giving them inferior and/or inadequate service. Unhealthy practices are practiced in the security services industry (and other sectors of industry as well) because of those who avail their services have no value for human life and insist on lower costs. To be competitive the private security companies have to resort to massive undercutting, this cutthroat business result in key areas of deficiencies. Both employers and employees have to cope with the ever increasing prices of basic commodities, increase in prices of petrol/ gas/power, increasing transportation charges and the fast shrinking purchasing power of the Rupee.
Could you elaborate on what various organisations/entities can do to enhance quality performance by security guards? To the credit of the Pakistan Banking Association (PBA) they are in discussion to ensure a common benchmark for the banking industry for strict compliance, viz (1) Adequate compensation package of guards (2) Life Insurance cover and prompt payment thereof (3) Subsidized quality meals for those provided accommodation or when on duty (4) 24/7 medical service by qualified doctors (5) EOBI and Social Securitycoverage for the guards, his family and children (6) Paid Annual, Casual and Medical leave (7) Contributory Provident Fund/Gratuity benefit; Additionally, (i) Welfare Fund for grant of returnable and non-returnable loans (ii) Letter of Appreciation/Performance Certificate (iii) Promotion and increment-oriented Annual Performance Evaluation; (iv) Guards to have some mechanism whereby holidays which he necessarily spends away from his family because of the nature of his duty, or gets compensated adequately thereof. The laws for private security business are comprehensive, they are to be enforced by the Ministry of Interior and the Provincial Home Departments. There is a need for private security companies to be “security graded” by companies like PACRA so that there is a distinction of quality between the companies. The security world is adopting ISO 18788 (or PSC-1) as a standard to be checked out by an internationally company qualified to do so, Pakistan should do so also. One aspect has become terrifyingly clear in the aftermath of the Taseer assassination, how does one ascertain the fidelity of guards assigned to provide security to key personnel? This particular incident raises the serious question of infidelity on the basis of ideology. As a member of the provincial police force, and also part of the Elite Force, Taseer’s killer would normally have had his background checked many times, yet there seems to have been a dangerous chink in the vetting process that was not detected. It only requires one or two persons posted on duty at key places to cause mayhem. All personnel who have unaccompanied (or accompanied) access to sensitive areas and who will perform guarding duties must go through extensive background checks. These checks must include criminal background checks, checks against terrorist watch lists as well as the usual verification of documents and antecedents provided by them.
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Training according to international standards can be divided into two parts, viz (1) Basic Training of 80 hours in the classroom and (2) Weapon Training of 40 hours in the field. The selected training syllabus must be able to cope with fast changing laws, the prevailing security environment and what is required to protect lives and property. The Basic training syllabus must include: orientation, client’s assets, local law and the power of arrest, knowledge about terrorism and criminality, fires and explosions, mission emergency plans, physical security measures to be employed for the task, basic guard duties, basic first aid/CPR, guard force communications, general orders and post orders, maintenance of post logs and preparation of incident reports, unarmed defense and restraint of disorderly persons, The use of personal equipment, access control equipment use and procedures, observation techniques, dealing with government employees and the general public, patrolling, etc. Extended imparting of knowledge about terrorism must include extended sessions on Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
SUCCESS IS ACHIEVING OF GOALS THAT ENABLES YOU TO HOLD YOUR HEAD ERECT WITH A SENSE OF DIGNITY AND PRIDE.
What arrangements have you made for the effective training of your employees? We are the only private security company in the country with well-established training schools in Islamabad and Karachi, where thousands of guards are trained each year. The school in Islamabad is headed by a lady, who is the daughter of one of my Army Coursemates. A thorough professional, during the training of the guards she lays special emphasis on their discipline, physical fitness and character building.
Would you like to share with us some of the difficult decisions of your life? Perhaps, the most difficult decision of my life was to stop working for someone else and start my own business. I had some aviation experience and whenever Sheikh Zaid used to come to Pakistan (1969- 71), I was one of the Army pilots with the helicopters detailed for him. When Col Zulfikar who after retirement handled affairs for him in Punjab heard that I had left the army in 1974, he sent me to Abu Dhabi to fly one of the Shaikh’s helicopters. While doing that job, I was earning a lot but one got the feeling of being treated as a taxi driver. So I took a difficult decision, left the job and determined never to work for anyone. Having made up my mind to start my own business, in 1977, I launched Pathfinder Limited. A person who was my clerk in the office volunteered to go with me as I did not know how to type at a reduced salary as I could not afford to pay him the same salary. He is now one of the three Directors of the company, the other ones being my wife and me.
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In addition to providing security, what other services are provided by Pathfinder to its employees and to the general public at large? We are working on a number of projects for the welfare of our employees and the general public. When people send back money from abroad, they have to pay a very large extra sum on it. For instance, if they send hundred dollars, they are required to pay an extra 18 dollars. Our Financial Services Division has launched an onward remittance project by means of which people would be able to send hundred dollars by paying only an additional 30 cents. It would be mobile transfer of remittances. Similarly, most of the salaried class people have to borrow money at a very high interest rate as high as 240 per cent, named ELENACARE after my second grand daughter. But we would enable them to get loans through mobile phone at a much lower interest rate. We provide medical care to our 15,000 employees, by means of which, they and their 53,000 dependants can go to any hospital in the country for free medical treatment. Furthermore, we facilitate the education of hundreds of children of our employees, including 14 in boarding school.
Is there any book that inspired you and transformed your life? The book that really transformed my life is “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. It taught me the lesson that I should never do any business with the government. I never forgot this lesson even on those two occasions when I was offered a seat of technocrat in the Senate. Despite opposition from my wife, I rejected the offer.
What is your opinion about the present state of democracy? There is no substitute for democracy, however the democracy we have in this country is a sham. First of all a national census has not happened for 18 years, the entire demography has changed. The “Frist past the post” system is faulty, it encourages sectarianism and ethnicity, it must be done away with and if someone does not get more than 50%, the first two candidates should go in for a second round to get an absolute majority. Next the Local Bodies have not been allowed to function for 7-8 years, thirdly the Senate is indirectly elected, a case study in fraud where seats are mostly bought by the highest bidder. No post of responsibility in the country must be indirectly elected including the President. Moreover there must be a system of “Proportional Representation” so that all the stakeholders have a say and no one feels lift out in the matter of governance.
What core competencies can ensure the success of a CEO? A successful CEO possesses integrity of the soul. He is competent and confident enough to believe that he is fully capable of performing the tasks assigned to him. His confidence boosts the morale of his team and they rally around him and work in collective spirit. He encourages them by praising their good work as individuals and as a team. He takes quick decisions and does not delay urgent matters. He mainly focuses on bigger issues and leaves other matters to be decided by his team members, to whom he delegates enough powers.
What is your own definition of success? Success is achieving of goals that enables you to hold your head erect with a sense of dignity and pride. Not even a single penny made by us is illegitimate and this pride in our honest success gives us contentment and peace of mind, one than enjoys a calm and undisturbed sleep.
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A SUCCESSFUL CEO POSSESSES INTEGRITY OF THE SOUL. HE IS COMPETENT AND CONFIDENT ENOUGH TO BELIEVE THAT HE IS FULLY CAPABLE OF PERFORMING THE TASKS ASSIGNED TO HIM. HIS CONFIDENCE BOOSTS THE MORALE OF HIS TEAM AND THEY RALLY AROUND HIM AND WORK IN COLLECTIVE SPIRIT.
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DR. MUHAMMAD AMJAD SAQIB Executive Director, Akhuwat
Profile: Dr. Muhammad Amjad Saqib, founder of the world’s largest interest- free microfinance program - Akhuwat, is a development practitioner, philanthropist, writer and a former civil servant. In recognition of his meritorious services, the President of Pakistan honored him with Sitara- e-Imtiaz, one of the highest civil awards. He is a medical graduate from the King Edward Medical College (Pakistan) and recipient of Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship and Hall of Nations scholarship for pursuing Master’s degree in Public Administration from the American University, Washington-USA. While serving at high-level bureaucratic positions, he resigned as the General Manager of Punjab Rural Support Program in 2003 to completely dedicate himself as a social entrepreneur to the mission of Akhuwat. Dr. Saqib is serving many other civil society organizations like the Punjab Educational Endowment Fund (PEEF), Punjab Welfare Trust for the Disabled (PWTD), Punjab Health Care Commission (PHC), Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, Fountain House, and syndicates of few public sector universities on voluntary basis. He is also the Vice-Chairman of Pakistan Microfinance Network and Chairman of Islamic Microfinance Network. Besides his pro bono work for Akhuwat and other civil society organizations, Dr. Saqib is a highly sought after development consultant, and has provided consultancy to various international development agencies such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), International Labor Organization (ILO), UNICEF, the World Bank, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), USAID and DFID. He is the author of seven books. Two of his critically acclaimed books, “Akhuwat ka Safr” and “Kamyab Log” are amongst the best-selling ones. He has been invited as a speaker at international forums such as the United Nations and World Economic Forum, and prestigious academic institutions including the Harvard University, Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, Warrick and Kings College London.
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CEO Club: Please share Akhuwat`s brief history in nutshell? Amjad Saqib: Akhuwat was established in 2001 to provide interest-free microfinance to low-income families, in order to assist them financially in expanding their own existing businesses or develop new ones. It has since expanded to above 800 branches in more than 350 cities across Pakistan. Till date, Akhuwat has disbursed more than 53 billion rupees to over 2,300,000 families. This powerful and inspiring trajectory is now accompanied by a holistic approach to social and economic development and poverty alleviation through a variety of services offered in education, health and through projects working for the betterment of lives of marginalized and underprivileged members of the Pakistani society. Today, Alhamdulillah Akhuwat Microfinance is the worlds’ largest interest-free microfinance institution.
Akhuwat`s business philosophy (vision, mission & core values)? Akhuwat derives its name from muakhaat or brotherhood, the tradition which was seen in the fraternity formed by the citizens of Medina (Ansars) and the Muhajireen (or Meccans) who had migrated to Medina to escape religious persecution. Inspired by the spirit which induced the Medinites to share half of their wealth with the migrants, Akhuwat seeks to invoke this concept of social solidarity through its operations. For Akhuwat, the metaphor of brotherhood entails the creation of a system of mutual support in society. Akhuwat’s VISION is a poverty-free society built on the principles of compassion and equity. Our MISSION is to alleviate poverty by empowering socially and economically marginalized families through interest-free microfinance and by harnessing their entrepreneurial potential, deliver capacity building and social guidance. Akhuwat’s CORE VALUES are solidarity and compassion and its FIVE CORE PRINCIPLES are: 1. Interest-free Microfinance; 2. Use of Religious Centres; 3. Spirit of Volunteerism; 4. Transforming Borrowers into Donors and 5. Non-Discrimination.
Describe Akhuwat`s product/services profile? Akhuwat primarily gives out interest-free loans to low-income families in order to help them expand or start their own businesses. Akhuwat offers diversified loan products to meet the needs of its clients. The most common type of loan offered is the Family Enterprise Loan that comprises 91% of Akhuwat’s loan portfolio. The loan is known as the Family Enterprise loan because it is intended for the entire family. However, while the entire family is involved during the period of appraisal and lending, the business is undertaken by one member of the family who has the required expertise. The Family Enterprise Loan is designed to strengthen the family unit and thus seeks to make the enterprise a family venture instead of an individual effort. Apart from microfinance services, Akhuwat also offers Health Services that operate through a model clinic, which is based on best practice approach to providing efficient, effective and affordable health care. Akhuwat has ventured into education services. It has adopted 300 schools of the Government of Punjab that are providing free education to above 40,000 students. Akhuwat has established a free residential college for boys in Lahore and a bio-tech research facility in Faisalabad. But the goal is much larger – Akhuwat University, the first-free university, is under construction and is planned to be inaugurated in August this year. Furthermore, we have the Akhuwat Institute of Social Enterprise & Management (AISEM) which is a training and research center. We also run a Khawajasira Support Program in partnership with the Fountain House. Khawajasira is one of the most disadvantaged groups in Pakistan, suffering social,
| 57 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | economic, political and cultural exclusion. The program is about empowering their community through social engagement, provision of small income stipends and striving to reintegrate them into the mainstream of the society as equal citizens. Several Khawajasira are employed in Akhuwat Clothes Bank, which itself provides clothes for free to poor families.
Any remarkable recognition or achievements of Akhuwat in last year? The total disbursements of Akhuwat surpassed PKR 50 Billion in 2017, Alhamdulillah. Through this, 2.3 million families have been supported with interest-free loans. Majority of them are now out of poverty and have become donors for Akhuwat. Akhuwat distributed 1.5 million pieces of clothes among the poor. There are around 50,000 students in elementary schools supported by Akhuwat. Akhuwat University, a fee free university for the poor students is in its formative years.
How do you define culture at your Akhuwat? How do you make sure that people live, act and breathe your organization’s vision, mission & core values? Akhuwat is based on a philosophy that instills core values of brotherhood and compassion in its employees that is the ultimate driving force at work. We want to build a society that is based on the vision of sharing, mutual solidarity and social justice. Our employees are socially-motivated, compassionate people who have internalised Akhuwat’s mission based on the spiritual guidance stemming from the tradition of muwakhat-e-Medina. One of the core principles of Akhuwat is harnessing the spirit of volunteerism, which inspires constant devotion, reinforces commitment to the cause and motivates sacrifice. The organization’s Board and Executive Director work completely in volunteer capacity, and the management echoes the same spirit. They work beyond the call of duty i.e. what is dictated by their formal contract.
Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays and biggest challenge is to overcome joblessness. How to develop more job providers rather job seekers? It must be clearly understood that not everyone can be an entrepreneur, and for us at Akhuwat microfinance is only one element in the fight against poverty, albeit a very crucial one. It is a means to an end, not an end in itself. We work towards enabling people from the impoverished and underprivileged backgrounds to enhance their standards of living through entrepreneurship and become self-reliant. Nevertheless, creating more jobs, creating more opportunities for people in Pakistan is what is needed. Contrary to a general assumption, it is micro-enterprises as well as small and medium enterprises which are the biggest job providers in the developing world. However, massive and faster shifts in poverty levels will come from creation of a vast number of good well-paid jobs. Entrepreneurship is vital in creating these opportunities. People, especially Pakistani diaspora, should be encouraged to take the risk and invest in Pakistan, invest in its people.
How do you define leadership and what leadership style you adopted in your life? Leadership is the ability to rise above one’s own-self and nurture others to grow. It is the process of inspiring others to take actions towards a common goal. A good leader is one who is able to identify a meaningful vision for the greater good, as is then able to channelize a set of followers to work towards that vision in a concrete, time-bound and practically achievable manner. My success as a leader would be to inculcate the philosophy and the five pillars upon which Akhuwat is based, within each and every one of
| 58 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | our employees and volunteers – that if anyone is to ask an employee of Akhuwat, about the philosophy that has guided us, be it a branch manager, an area manager, etc. that they would be able to answer with as much eloquence and confidence as any of the board of directors. Leadership for us is to serve, to sacrifice, to share and to create a sustainable model of development.
What’s the toughest decision you ever made? What did you learn? The first step is usually the toughest and for me that was the decision to leave the Civil Service and transform Akhuwat into a reality. Since then, I have been confronted with far tougher and difficult decisions however now, I have greater faith in the virtues of sacrifice, honesty and service. In the initial years, the doubt that clouds one’s idealism and commitment made every decision leading to Akhuwat, a ‘tough’ one. If I was to make the same decisions now, they wouldn’t even require a second thought. The key element here is that of faith, faith in yourself, in the goodness of people and in God. As your faith increases, even the toughest decisions become easy.
Who is your role model & inspiration, and why? There is no one single role model. Every day we see different good qualities in many people, we learn from them and try to follow them. To give an example though, one person I am inspired by is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose ideas are aligned to brotherhood which is what Akhuwat stands for. He spoke for solidarity, achieved so much in such a short space of time and even eventually gave his life for it. Iqbal’s work for e.g. instills foresightedness, the courage to rise above the self and set on a journey of self-discovery. The message of integrity, faith, discipline and hard work I derived from the life of Quaid- e-Azam. However, for sure, my greatest inspirations in all spheres of life come from the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
How do you manage your anger and stress? During the initial days of Akhuwat, I realized that anger is detrimental to this mission. If you are short- tempered, people will eventually start drifting away. By compulsion, I trained myself to remain calm and not to lose temper. This self-discipline, the ability to keep oneself cool and calm and not to forget one’s mission, is the key to manage anger and stress. Akhuwat means making friends, winning people, building a team and acting together to achieve its vision. If I reacted angrily that would mean I have lowered myself and forgotten my mission. In terms of dealing with stress, I enjoy reading books, writing as well as spending time with my family.
Define success or happiness in three words or phrases? To be surrounded by love, to be guided by passion and to be measured by the ability to serve- that to me is the essence of success.
Any message of hope to younger generation of CEOs, & entrepreneurs. If you seek to serve people, do it with dauntless passion; your results do not define you but your efforts surely do.Even if you do not support Akhuwat as an institution, embrace its philosophy of MuaKhat, that is brotherhood, a philosophy of sharing and compassion, and extend your help to the less fortunate than you. Share your wealth, support others, this should be your greatest reward. Everyone should try and do their part for the betterment of our society.
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SIRAJUDDIN AZIZ Group Financial Institutions CEO, Habib Bank AG Zurich
Profile: Mr. Sirajuddin Aziz is a banker with a career spanning almost four decades. He has worked with international as well as local banks, in senior management positions at various locations including Pakistan, UK, UAE, Nigeria, Hong Kong and China. During his career, Mr. Aziz has contributed to various professional bodies including the Pakistan Banks’ Association, as a Chairman. He has been a regular speaker on leadership, management, credit, trade and foreign exchange at prestigious institutions and forums. Mr. Aziz also frequently contributes articles to newspapers on various subjects.
‘‘SUCCESS IS A SUBJECTIVE CONCEPT AND CAN VARY GREATLY FROM PERSON TO PERSON. SUCCESS FOR ME IS THE FOLLOWING: TAKING CARE OF MY FAMILY, HONOURING THE EXPECTATIONS MY FATHER HAD FROM ME, ABIDING BY MY RELIGIOUS VALUES AND BEING AT PEACE WITH WHO I AM.”
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CEO Club: What are your views on the current economic situation and the way forward? Sirajuddin Aziz: Pakistan’s economy is on a promising growth trajectory. The Country is at the cusp of interesting times, economy-wise. There is significant international investor interest and even locally, consumer confidence and demand are picking up. The wheels of the economy are churning and economic productivity is expected to bear fruit. At the moment, the most crucial aspect is to keep a disciplined and focused approach with respect to foreign and trade policies, as well as infrastructure and human capital development. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the reality that is changing the economic landscape in a fast-paced manner already. We must remain alert and deal with this mega-opportunity in a proactive and optimal manner.
We are not poor in resources but governance! Your views on this? Depends on how you look at it! I prefer to look at it as a glass half full. We have begun the journey towards good governance. Let’s not rush and be impatient for results – these would come, I have faith. We need a clear long-term economic vision that is supplemented by sustained political policies, and attained through unified efforts. We have all the ingredients for the recipe of success. We just need to figure out the proportions and method of preparation now. Pakistan is blessed with immense resources. We have great geographic and geo-political strategic advantages, coupled with physical resources and optimally-aged human capital. We have a significant population strata that comprises vibrant and young talent, which we need to harness and develop for utilization.
Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays. How to create job providers/entrepreneurs rather than job-seekers? The facilitation and promotion of entrepreneurial temperament and skill development is the same as development of any other talent pool within the country. Specialized certifications/programs need to be designed on the subject, comprising education covering soft skills and personality characteristics, in addition to the technical knowledge of day to day business management. A wide array of panoramic managerial and business practices need to be inculcated in aspiring entrepreneurs to prepare them for the commercial challenges that they are expected to face. Instead of being just one ‘course’ in a ‘Business Management Degree’, entrepreneurship should be a detailed and comprehensive study. I believe that an education system that has in its foundation, a good combination of the study of liberal arts, business and commerce is a good incubator for nurturing creativity.
We are facing a dilemma in business ethics. How can we inculcate a sense of ethics into our managers? Firstly, during the recruitment and hiring phases, background checks and personality evaluations are critical when taking on any resource on board the organization. A resource that has a past record of ethically compromised behaviour or subscribes to ethically poor opinions is likely to create problems with regard to business ethics in the future. Secondly, core organizational values and code of conduct should be inculcated in employees. THey should understand that their organization does not value short term profits over long term reputation and standing. This is done best when the senior management displays an exemplary conduct. With
| 61 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | commercialisation of educational institutions, are you happy at the quality/standard of business graduates? And what steps would you suggest to bridge the gap between industry and academia? I speak at university and college events quite regularly and, in such visits, I get to interact with intelligent and intellectually charged students. I do believe that the standard of education these days is quite high in a number of education institutes. The higher education institutes are preparing students of high calibre for induction in their respective professions. But still, the bar can definitely be raised further! Internships, work projects, case studies contribute greatly in giving the world of academia a flavour of the industry. In my opinion, tracking the progress of graduates and taking their feedback as they make their way in their respective industries, can also add value to this process.
What are the key challenges in your industry/sector? I believe that there are no impediments for any financial institution to grow, spread its wings and participate on a wholesome basis in economic development of the country. However, to say that there are no challenges in the path of the banking sector would be incorrect. With the economy picking up, the macro-economic environment will hopefully provide the financial industry the necessary impetus to overcome the prevalent challenges.
What is leadership to you? How do you want to improve as a leader? Leadership to me is inspiring a team and bringing out its synergistic best towards achieving a collective vision. I am a firm believer of the saying that a true leader ignites the fire within his/her followers/colleagues. I believe in leading with compassion and respect. I aspire to assist my colleagues in actualizing their potential instead of single-mindedly focusing on achieving financial results/goals.
What are four leadership competencies of a CEO that you would like to see in our new generation of CEOs? The new generation CEOs should focus on learning & development, interactive management, socially responsible corporate behaviour and poise/charisma (well-rounded personalities). They should also be lovers of books – and read them too!
How do you define corporate culture at your company? How do you make sure that people live, act and breathe your organization’s vision, mission and core values? The corporate culture of HabibMetro Bank, and our promise to our customers, is centred on the value of trust. Within the organization, we embrace an open flow of activity between teams and individuals that respect each other and come together with the best employees have to offer in delivering upon the trust that our customers place in us.
How to develop a winning team? How do you motivate your team, assess their performance and make them accountable to the results? I believe the truest measure of an effective team is the collective result that it produces. As HabibMetro Bank grows from strength to strength, I attribute its success to my team which ‘owns’ the institution in letter and spirit. Motivation among employees is highest when leaders lead by example and work as hard as they want
| 62 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | their team to work. Accountability has to be demonstrated instead of being preached. If I do justice to my job/role and remain accountable for my actions and the organization’s results, my employees will follow my lead. I follow an open-door and open-mind policy in all my communication. I also try to engage directly and actively with as many colleagues as I can, so that there is clear and uninterrupted communication and flow of ideas.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenges? How do you retain top talent in the company? Key talent will not leave an organization that is doing well and providing growth opportunities to their productive/industrious selves. Contrary to popular belief, remuneration does not retain good talent, even if it may attract talent in the first place. Key executives/employees want to deliver their ideas and make a difference; and this is their most primal professional need. As a CEO, I aim to understand the aspirations of every such colleague of mine and attempt to keep them feeling fulfilled in terms of their career.
Is training, coaching and mentoring a priority to you? How much time/budget do you
I ASPIRE TO ASSIST MY COLLEAGUES IN ACTUALIZING THEIR POTENTIAL INSTEAD OF SINGLE-MINDEDLY FOCUSING ON ACHIEVING FINANCIAL RESULTS/GOALS.
allocate to this? Human capital is increasingly being recognized as the only sustainable competitive advantage by corporates across various industries/sectors. I strongly subscribe and prescribe to this paradigm of thought. Learning and Development is my top priority. At HabibMetro Bank, we have a full-fledged dedicated in-house training facility that draws upon the experience of trained faculty and relevant talent from the business field. We allocate a separate budget for the annual training calendar that comprises programs targeted at TNA (Training Need Assessment) gaps which have been identified by the Bank’s human resource function using our core banking system. The system also facilitates the human resource function in evaluating a post-training feedback/evaluation through which training efficacy is assessed.
What steps would you recommend to empower women? Does your company have a harassment policy? When a resource enters the workplace, they should be not be differentiated upon their gender, unless they are being adversely affected by any factor or assignment. I treat my colleagues in a gender-
| 63 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | neutral manner and expect them to deliver accordingly as well. I believe that this in itself is quite an empowering attitude. HabibMetro Bank does have an anti-harassment policy.
Being the CEO of your company, what is your strategy with regard to succession planning and developing the next generation of leaders? Succession planning is of utmost importance to every organization, as organizations are expected to outlast the leadership of individuals. Organizations need sustainable growth, and for the same leadership needs to be sustained as well! At HabibMetro Bank, we believe in honing next-generation leadership through cross-functional and panoramic professional exposure. Where do you see your organization five years down the road? Growth strategy? I shall try answering this question without sounding like an astrologist or soothsayer! Each day, HabibMetro Bank endeavours to bring more value to our customers than the day before. We strive to continuously improve upon our customers’ banking experience with us. Five years down the road, I see the Bank make significant progress on both these fronts. HabibMetro Bank is a subsidiary of Habib Bank AG Zurich, which has a presence in 9 countries across 4 continents. We are, therefore, already a global financial group. Going forward, HabibMetro envisions creating more business value by tapping into the Group’s growing international network further, and enhancing both HabibMetro’s and HBZ Group’s brand value in the international banking arena.
What are the top three benchmarks for high-performing CEOs who have created long-term value for their companies? 1. Such leaders generally either catapult or gradually sail their organizations into a higher-tier of their respective industries, either through a transformative innovation, or internal re-engineering. 2. They also enhance the core corporate culture of the organization in order to increase their collective productive human capacity. 3. By training future leaders from within the organization, they ensure that the organization keeps benefiting from their efforts even when they are no longer there.
Harvard Business Review’s research tells us that E.Q. (Emotional Quotient/Intelligence) rather I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) is a highly essential competency for business leaders? Why E.Q. is important for CEOs especially in challenging times? EQ is a measure of an individual’s emotional intelligence. A CEO has to have the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions. They also need to be able to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and communicate empathetically. They need to be strong and reliable performers under pressure and need to be able to handle stress well. Therefore, their emotional capacity and soundness is of paramount importance. Grace, placid temperament in the wake of a challenge and calmness/ composure are the epitome of an emotionally intelligent leader.
A business speaks the language of digits. To what extent a CEO should be finance-savvy? What are the three most important numbers in a firm’s financial statements? A CEO needs to have a panoramic set of managerial skills. Within this skill-set, a finance-savvy
| 64 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | aptitude obviously ranks high, regardless of the subject, industry or sector. As the CEO of a bank, the most important number on my financial statement is the top line; what my bank earns from its core operations, and what it expends in way of them. These are of the highest priority and are key indicators of its performance.
Any achievement you are proud of? My family is the biggest treasure of my life. I feel a sense of achievement when I see my children living by values that my parents held dear and tried to inculcate in me. This makes me feel like I have done some justice to the responsibility of bringing up responsible, grounded children.
What’s the toughest decision you have ever made? What did you learn from it? The toughest decision that I recall making was sending my children away for education and professional prospects. What I learnt from it, is that sometimes you have to let go of your dear ones to make the bond stronger. If you have educated them with the right set of values, they will go out into the world and make you proud and yet, will not steer too far away.
Who is your inspirational role-model? And why it is so? The memory of my father still lives on in my heart, mind and spirit. His pure, simple and conscientious life continues to inspire my actions. I try to live by the values he instilled in me. I also read extensively about the life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH); this helps me with introspection and self-development. I also learn about management in a challenging environment from several personalities in history.
How do you consider a good work-life balance? Please comment. My family, reading, music and exercise rejuvenate me at the end of a long work day. While the balance is forever tilted in the wrong direction, taking out time for my family and myself makes it all worth it and keeps my soul energized.
How do you manage your anger and stress? I am grateful for having been blessed with an abundant supply of patience and a sturdy set of nerves. I try not to let instances, circumstances or actions of others upset me. I generally remain in control of myself.
Define success in three key words or phrases? Success is a subjective concept and can vary greatly from person to person. Success for me is the following: taking care of my family, honouring the expectations my father had of me, abiding by my religious values and being at peace with who I am.
What is your idea of happiness? Seeing my loved ones happy makes me happy; seeing a smile on their faces makes me feel fulfilled.
Your favourite book on professional development that you would recommend? All biographies and autobiographies are a great source of managerial development for me.
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Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? As a resilient and talented nation, we have a responsibility to our country. Hard work and dedicated efforts will bless our country with exemplary success.
What is your company`s business philosophy (Vision & Mission)? HabibMetro Bank’s Vision Statement reads, ‘Based on a foundation of trust, to be the most respected financial institution, delighting customers with excellence, enjoying the loyalty of a dedicated team, meeting the expectations of regulators and participating in social causes while providing superior returns to shareholders.’
Share your company`s brief history? Habib Metropolitan Bank commenced its commercial-banking operations as Metropolitan Bank in October 1992. Under this name, it remained a highly rated bank till October 2006. When the Bank merged with Habib Bank AG Zurich’s Pakistan operations, the merged entity was named Habib Metropolitan Bank Limited. In early 2012, the Bank’s re-branded identity ‘HabibMetro’ replaced its popular nomenclature ‘HMB’, to reinforce its Habib financial heritage in the market. HabibMetro Bank currently operates with over 300 branches in around 90 cities across Pakistan.
How many people/HR are on your payroll? 4000+
Company`s product/services profile? The comprehensive range of our product suite covers banking services/products such as trade finance, corporate banking, retail banking, consumer banking, Islamic banking, Bancassurance and SME banking. We also offer electronic, web and mobile banking services to our customers, amidst other alternate delivery channels.
Any remarkable recognition or achievements by the company? HabibMetro Bank has been recognized as the Asian Development Bank’s ‘Leading Partner In Pakistan’ for the second consecutive year in 2016. The Bank was also awarded as the ‘Leading SME Trade Bank’ by the ADB at its Trade Finance Program Awards in 2016. The Bank’s Islamic Banking brand, SIRAT, was also recognized as the ‘Upcoming Islamic Bank 2016’ award at the Global Islamic Finance Awards held in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2016. Moreover, the Bank has also received recognition in areas pertaining to customer service quality and CSR.
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AS A RESILIENT AND TALENTED NATION, WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO OUR COUNTRY. HARD WORK AND DEDICATED EFFORTS WILL BLESS OUR COUNTRY WITH EXEMPLARY SUCCESS.
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S. M. MUNEER Chairman Din Group of Industries Vice Chairman MCB
Profile: S. M. Muneer is one of the most prominent businessmen in leather and textile sector having a total annual turnover of Rs 5 billion. His business largely comprises exports to EU, USA, Canada, and other countries. Also the President India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the last few years, he is the activist of trade with India. Former President of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), S M Muneer popularly known as “Bhaijan” also helds top slots of many trade and industrial bodies including Korangi Association, Pakistan Tanners Association, KCCI, etc., Muneer is also the Chairman of Chiniot Anjuman Islamia, an NGO running many hospitals, maternity homes, schools and colleges in Karachi, Faisalabad and Chiniot. Muneer serves as the Vice Chairman of MCB Bank Limited. With experience in sectors ranging from tanneries, textiles and leather garments, Muneer is a consummate industrialist. He serves as a Member of the Board of Directors of CBM and Greenwich College, Karachi and the Director of Shaukat Khannum Cancer Hospital, Lahore. He has been awarded with the Best Export Performance trophy by (FPCCI), the Gold Medallion Award from the International Export Association, UK and Best Businessman of the Year Award from FPCCI. In addition, he has received the Sitara-e-Isaar and the Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 2006 and 2007 respectively by the President of Pakistan. He was awarded an Honorary PhD degree by the Governor of Sindh. Muneer has also served as Chairman of the formerly Export Promotion Bureau and was given the status of State Minister during second tenure of late Benazir Bhutto. He is also a Vice Chairman MCB Bank, Chairman of SBP Report Compliance Monitoring Committee, Member of Physical Planning & Contingency Arrangements Committee and Member of Business Strategy & Development Committee MCB Bank Ltd. He was also conferred Lifetime Achievement Award by the President of Pakistan.
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CEO Club: How did you start this business after your education? S. M. Muneer: After my graduation, I started my business career in 1964. My father had to face financial crises in 1966. I remember we sold our personal cars and used to go by rickshaw. That time I started thinking about finding a job but my father advised me to set up my own business. I initiated my business with just one small Leather factory on rent and then I hired two and then the number became five. I used to work till late at night and used to test the quality of the materials myself. My hard work at that time is now paid off Masha Allah. I have been able to earn a good name in the business and Allah has blessed me with every pleasure of life. My brothers, three sons and four nephews joined me in business after completing their studies. Now they take care of the whole business. However, I help them whenever any problem comes.
Our country is facing extremely crucial phase and the economy is in shambles, law and order situation is so grim, what remedy do you suggest to come out of this situation? The past five years were extremely disappointing due to the bad governance by the outgoing rulers and that’s why the law and order situation has become extremely dangerous and business community had started receiving frequent threats of kidnapping for ransom, extortion and even bomb attack at their doorstep. And as you see, now the law and order situation has automatically become little better and the same police and rangers suddenly become vigil and started moving. The economy is in shambles due to energy crisis reflected in the endless story of gas and electricity load-shedding across the country. The energy crisis in fact has given a serious dent to the economic growth of the country. The entire nation is experiencing the nightmare of energy crisis which has rendered over 10 million people jobless in Faisalabad, Lahore, and other industrial cities of the country. It has become a major cause of concern for me and the entire business community. Pakistan has one of the largest coal reservoirs in the world yet this precious resources lying unutilized so far, water which is associated with life is being wasted for want of water management coupled with lethargy of the policy makers. The most precious water is being wasted into the sea or evaporated due to lack of much needed dams everywhere in the country. If this trend of water wastage continues we would certainly face acute water crisis in the years to come and water would be scarce and precious that might lead to wars in future. I was travelling in a car during my visit to China, I observed that after every 100-150 km there was a dam to support agriculture and cultivation purposes and every drop of rain is stored in these dams in China, they cannot even think of wasting this natural gift, why we cannot do this, what is the hurdle?
Are you satisfied with the standard of education being provided in our country? The standard of education was worst a few years back. However, privates sector has done a great work over the years in this sector though education has become more expensive due to their exorbitant fees. However, I must say that educational standard is getting improved now. Actually here in our country everyone believes in getting any job done through wrong means. Even sometimes people are bound to adopt wrong ways to get some legal job done. As far as education is concerned, very few institutions admit students on merit. I say if someone is not fulfilling the criteria, why he/she should be given admission. We strictly follow the procedure of giving admissions on merit in CBM. The result is not hidden from anyone. Our students easily get jobs in good organizations. This merit rule should be applied to all educational institutions to motivate our generation and make them believe in hard work not in wrong ways.
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It seems like a never-ending debate whether Pakistan should grant the MFN status to India or not. What is your view? It is a very serious matter and in my opinion MFN status must be granted to India for its immense benefits to Pakistan and also for the commitments made at the government level. There are different perceptions in Pakistan, both positive and negative, about the impact of granting the MFN status to India. I think, as the President of the India-Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Pakistan would benefit immensely overall. Pakistan will get a market of 1.2 Billion people and good exposure to improve our global competitiveness. The experience of Pakistani businessmen who have visited India to explore the market has been generally very positive. More Pakistani businessmen should go there and see for themselves. If there are any industries that may be impacted adversely for genuine reasons such as pharmaceuticals, automobiles, agriculture, then the government may place them in a negative list instead of keeping the entire matter on hold.
Pakistan is maintaining a negative list which also includes textile items. What is your view on this given you belong to the industry? The businessmen in textile are not raising any hue or cry. We have accepted and we have no problems. I myself have 6 textile mills in Lahore and we do not need any negative list with India. Take the example of Pakistan’s lawn. Mr. Mian Mansha of Nishat Group and Mr. Bashir Ali Mohammad of Gul Ahmed Group,
THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS IN THE BUSINESS WAS TO HONOUR ALL THE COMMITMENTS WE MADE IN LIFE. WE NEVER TRIED TO DECEIVE ANYONE THAT’S WHY ALLAH THE ALMIGHTY HAS GIVEN US EVERY SUCCESS IN LIFE.
during their recent visits to India, were astonished that all lawn was sold in a blink of the eye. Pakistani cloth has such great demand in India, especially our lawn, which is much superior to India’s and cheaper as well. In a number of exhibitions held in India, Pakistanis have found a good market for their cloth. Even our spices such as Shan Masala are sold out. Pakistan’s exports have started to increase and I have been noticing a significant rise. One of the problems in the past was the routing of trade via Dubai or Singapore which obviously increased the cost. If the same thing is bought directly, cost will automatically reduce.
How do you see trade between India and Pakistan progressing in future? It is my deepest desire that I can drive my car from Lahore, go to Mumbai and Delhi and I wish they can do the same. When I was visiting Lahore, the big businessmen from India had come for the conference, and everyone expressed keen interest in doing business with Pakistan. I wish to see that Pakistan becomes so exemplary that people from the first world countries tell me that your country has become an Asian Tiger and in my opinion, Pakistan has the potential to become one. Unfortunately, there are a lot of self-inflicted obstacles otherwise we are not inferior to anyone. We have good officers; we have good businessmen here
| 70 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | and abroad. Our lawyers and doctors are on top the world over. Pakistan is a great country and has huge potential and Pakistan can become an Asian Tiger provided all of us think of Pakistan as our own. Our elders sacrificed their lives for Pakistan, only to end up with bloodshed among our own now. I have strong hopes that after the upcoming elections, things will be much better. We have to resolve our internal issues because we have a responsibility towards our country.
The country is facing extreme financial constraints and even IMF has refused to grant any further loan. How the next government will cope up this situation? Currently the government is confronted with a widening budget deficit which could only be bridged by finding new revenue generating areas. We should not run after IMF instead we should build up confidence of our own people to develop domestic resources. We have to launch a campaign for revenue generation and to convince the person that entering into tax net does not harm but rather helps to grow on sound footings. Actually every income including agriculture sector should be brought into tax net to expand the tax base. We would have to increase tax base instead of increasing the tax on those already paying tax and the committees working in the FBR should have the representation from various private sectors with a view to expand the tax net and flow of revenue without any harassment to the common man.
How you define success? How to become a successful businessman? One should be dynamic whenever he is going to take any initiative. He should be a man of commitment and honest. The secret of my success in the business was to honour all the commitments we made in life. We never tried to deceive anyone that’s why Allah the Almighty has given us every success in life.
What is the contribution of your group in CSR? Our business group and my family have contributed a lot in CSR and never left behind on any occasion whether it is earthquake or floods or any type of natural catastrophe. We have constructed a college in Chiniot at the cost of Rs20 million. We have also contributing toward health and environment. I am a trustee of Indus Hospital which is a state of the art hospital and offering free of cost healthcare to the poor.
What is your human resource policy? A bad person cannot survive in our company and we never lose a good and competent person. This is the basis of our HR policy.
Any message of hope for the younger generation? Despite worst economic indicators and chaos like situation across the country, I am quite hopeful about the future of our beloved Pakistan. We have got this country after great struggle and many sacrifices. Our forefathers lost their loved ones and even their own lives too for Pakistan. Now if you just look around, we have become enemies of each other. Please think why we are fighting with each other. We must realize that God forbid, in case of any insurgency no one will come to help us. We have already so many enemies around us. We cannot survive in any such condition if we are not united. Let’s come together and work hard for the better future of Pakistan. We have to play our due role. I really wish to see Pakistan as an Asian tiger. This is only possible if we all stay united and work together for the betterment of our country.
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SHAHBAZ ALI MALIK Managing Director, Popular Group of Industries
Profile: Shahbaz earned his graduation by accomplishing his M.B.A in majors of management. He sparked his educational portfolio by completing M.A in Economics & LLB. Currently, he is heading Popular Group of Industries as a CEO which was initially established by his forefathers. Since August 1991, he is responsible for all affairs, executions, and management of Popular Group of Industries. As a leader he served different Associations and took the charge of chairman of different committees at Karachi Chamber of commerce and industry. He has a notable and ravishing portfolio of experience by working as a Commissioner (COC) at PEMRA (2005-2008), as a Chairman at S.I.T.E (SHW), Landhi Association of Trade & Industries and as a President at The Petarian Association (2005). His areas of expertise include project planning and client management. Qualities of strong leadership, diligence, honesty, enthusiasm, and hard work assisted him in accomplishing milestones of appreciation and success. He courageously accepted hurdles and difficulties of life, which gave a boost to his success rate exceptionally.
“IT IS BETTER TO FAIL IN ORIGINALITY THAN TO SUCCEED IN IMITATION.”
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CEO Club: Please tell us how your professional career geared up. Shahbaz Ali Malik: Popular Group of Industries is a family business, which was established by my grandfather in the form of a small popular business in 40’s from Rajhistan. There are total 20 miscellaneous subsidiaries of businesses let me cite few of them: Cement,Sugar, Textile, Juices and Safety matches. We have also onset a charitable hospital as a tribute to my father in Tando Adam. I joined this business at an early age by working as an employee and getting promoted as technical director to CEO.
Because of the unstable economic condition of Pakistan, what crucial challenges are faced by the businesses nowadays and how to combat them? Pakistan has been a victim of critical economic conditions since 1947. Our business suffered some major financial crisis due to the upheavals in the political conditions. The imbalance in the exports and imports has immensely lessened the level of GDP. As a businessman, I learned the tactics of managing all aspects of my business regardless of severe economic instability. The solution lies in consistent hard work and support of talented team. The best tool is to hire right people to manage and supervise your business. Our employees have escalated Popular Group of Industries to new heights of success.
What major opportunities you anticipate in the sector of business in the upcoming five years? I believe Pakistan has the infinite ratio of opportunities in every field of industry, food, and commerce. It has been blessed with fertile land in Punjab, mineral ventures in Balochistan, and mesmerizing scenic beauty in north by Almighty. We export varieties of stuff ranging from rice to needles. Almighty has provided us with long lasting set of opportunities and now it’s our responsibility to utilize it to the maximum. Nothing is impossible to achieve if you are an expert of consistent endeavors. In order to succeed we should invest in infrastructure and communications.
How do you cultivate the idea of working ethics in a family businesses? I think we are entangled in the dilemma of ethics. Every action requires certain ethics. Regardless of being part of this family business, I have worked in my firms as an employee and technical worker. “The success story of family business is always strengthened with the respect of Elders to love with Youngsters.” This honesty and passion with my work has been a live exemplum of determination for my team. Hopefully, government will also enforce people to strictly abide business ethics.
As the owner of Popular Group of Industries, do you hire managing directors for different subsidiaries from outside the organization? Popular Group of Companies is a group of 20 companies, which is headed by 7 members of our family. It is obvious that we need managing staff and Professional Management for the right flow of work. We have set a hierarchy of designations for our each company for perfect organization and production of work.
How we can boost the annual turnaround of a falling company? The priority is to find the root causes of the devastation. Change the strategies of working and planning to minimize the damage. Furthermore, hiring diligent and talented team for the repairing of
| 73 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | faults is the key tool to uplift the turnaround.
What is the toughest decision of your professional life? For me, the stiffest decision is choosing between right and wrong aspects of that decision. It is important to convince yourself successfully about the consequences before doing something. In day- to-day life, I encounter many tough situations where I have to contemplate about taking decisions.
What is the retention rate of employees of your organization? I have been the part of this company for a long time and I can proudly announce that we never try to terminate any of our employees. We facilitate them with family environment, multiple facilities & market competitive salaries.
Who is your lifetime inspiration? Prophet PBUH is my eternal source of guidance and advices. The second origin of enlightenment is my father who has been there with me in my thick and thins. His supportive words and charming personality enforced me to accomplish my worldly goals.
How do you counter stress and work pressure from life? If your work is in cooperation with your passion, you never feel stressed in doing it. I always try my best to maintain balance and stability in all my activities. I have allocated equal time for my family and business so that none suffers. Extremism of anything can damage one’s life horribly. Time can be allocated according to the priority and urgencies. Learn the act of maintaining equilibrium in life. Well, business is a set of challenges in which one has to tolerate the stressful moments and tensions. One has to remain committed to their business or goal regardless of the obstacles and losses.
What is your mantra of success and happiness? Good or pure intention and willingness of hard work are my recipes of success and happiness. Although everyone has a distinct definition of happiness and success, yet the formula of having pure intentions is same. Happiness is a feeling of satisfaction of what you are blessed with. Success doesn’t always count with the finances. Both runs parallel in life.
What is your most indelible book you want to recommend? Can something be more beautiful and rare than Al-Quran? Quran is my favorite book among all because it contains all the teachings of worldly and hereafter life. This book contains all the secrets of success and achievements. The teachings of Quran is unmatchable and useful in all eras of life for practical solutions of worldly problems.
What is the total workforce of Popular Group of Industries? It various time to time but hundreds of thousands people are associated with our organization directly or indirectly. This workforce is our biggest asset and continuous support. It’s because of their dedication and hard work that we have achieved number of landmarks on the map of recognitions. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
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“GOOD OR PURE INTENTION AND WILLINGNESS TO WORK HARD ARE MY RECIPES OF SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS. HAPPINESS IS A FEELING OF SATISFACTION OF WHAT YOU ARE BLESSED WITH. SUCCESS DOESN’T ALWAYS COUNT WITH THE FINANCES. BOTH RUNS PARALLEL IN LIFE.”
| 75 | ARIF HABIB Chairman & CEO, Arif Habib Corporation Ltd.
Profile: Mr. Arif Habib is the Chairman & Chief Executive of Arif Habib Group. He is also the Chairman of Arif Habib Corporation Limited, Pakarab Fertilizers Limited, Fatima Fertilizer Company Limited, Thatta Cement Company Limited and Arif Habib DMCC Dubai. He also serves as a Director in various companies, including Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Company Limited. Mr. Arif Habib has remained the elected President/Chairman of Karachi Stock Exchange for six times in the past and is the Founding Member and Former Chairman of the Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited. He has served as a Member of the Privatization Commission, Board of Investment, Tariff Reforms Commission and Securities & Exchange Ordinance Review Committee. Mr. Arif Habib actively participates in the welfare activities of different organizations. To quote a few, he is the Honourary Chairman of Memon Medical Institute Hospital and remains one of the trustees of Fatimid Foundation and Memon Health & Education Foundation as well as the director of Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy and Karachi Education Initiative.
I AM A SPORTSMAN AND ALWAYS STAY ON CREASE AND MAKE RUNS WHENEVER MY TEAM GETS IN CRISIS.
| 76 | CEO Club: What are the ingredients of success? What is your vision for a successful business? Arif Habib: We are in the investment business and to succeed there are few basic ingredients including honesty, trust and investors’ confidence. These are the values we emphasize on in our organization. Being in the capital market we have learnt that there are times when our clients would like us to make some investments for them, which could or could not be beneficial in the long run. It is at times like these that our core beliefs come into play and we guide and advise them against these investments which in turn build up their confidence in us.
What is your group’s role in CSR (corporate social responsibility)? We are associated with many educational institutions including IBA, KSBL, etc. by sharing our contribution for these institutions’ progress. We also contribute in Memon Medical Institute Hospital, while we have schools in Fatima Group and other places. We have committed a sum of Rs.100 million in six-monthly installments of Rs.10 million over a period of five years for the development of facilities and infrastructure at IBA. ArifHabib Group has also offered to extend its assistance for administration and management of General Endowment Fund as Independent Friend of IBA Trust. We have donated an amount of Rs10 million, being the first installment of the Groups’ committed contribution towards the cause of setting up an educational institution of international
PAKISTAN IS A LAND OF OPPORTUNITIES BUT WE AS A NATION HAVE YET TO EXPLORE MOST OF THEM. WE SHOULD STAY OPTIMISTIC AND STRIVE HARD TO MAKE OUR NATION STRONG. BRING IN HONEST AND COMPETENT LEADERSHIP AGAINST ALL ODDS THROUGH POLLS AND GET ON TRACK TO PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY.
standard to Habib University Foundation (HUF). Javedan Corporation Limited (JCL), another group company, allocated a plot measuring 1 Acre at Naya Nazimabad Housing Project scheme to The Citizens’ Foundation’ (TCF) for the establishment of a school. The total establishment cost of this venture has been committed by JCL. The operational cost per year from April 2012 will be Rs. 1.5 million. TCF will charge a nominal tuition fee to its students. The actual cost incurred to run the school will be far greater, the balance of which will be funded by JCL on a continuous basis. During the year, JCL has donated an amount of Rs. 10.875 million to TCF.
How do you manage stress or crisis? I am a man of crisis. I never get worried whenever I face any crisis. I am a sportsman and always stay on crease and make runs whenever my team gets in crisis. The biggest ever crisis we faced was in 2008
| 77 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | when the stock market crashed. I, however, was lucky at the time by way of I got support from my clients and employees as I refuse to bow down due to crisis.
What is Arif Habib’s vision, mission and core values? How do you make sure that people live, act and breathe your organization’s core values? Actually, the business in which we deal revolves around securing the investors’ confidence. Unless a brokerage establishes its integrity and competency, investors will not rely on their advice. A brokerage house should take all possible steps to gain the confidence of investors.
How do you make sure corporate governance is in place? Being in the capital market, we hold training sessions for our staff as we demand these facilities from our partners. We know that as our staff gets better training they will be in a better position to advise investors and ensure their confidence. We will ultimately gain lasting goodwill in the market.
How much time/resources do you devote to the training and coaching of your team? Frankly speaking, there are few training sessions we offer. However, we encourage them to participate in such sessions and meetings where they can attain capacity building and arrange for those to happen.
What are your strategies regarding succession planning? We are currently finalizing a strategy through which our organization does not become dependent on an individual.
How would you define your leadership and management style? I usually take all my staff on board when I have to take a bold decision. As everyone is aware we started off as an equity business in a humble way and have now reached where we are today. I take my colleagues’ advice and thoughts into consideration before taking any crucial decision.
Any message of hope for the younger generation? Pakistan is a land of opportunities but we as a nation have yet to explore most of them. We should stay optimistic and strive hard to make our nation strong. Bring in honest and competent leadership against all odds through polls and get on track to progress and prosperity. We should stand up and fight against the state of despair and disappointment and contribute in any and every way possible to make our country proud.
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WE ARE IN THE INVESTMENT BUSINESS AND TO SUCCEED THERE ARE FEW BASIC INGREDIENTS INCLUDING HONESTY, TRUST AND INVESTORS’ CONFIDENCE.
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M. JAWED AKHAI (LATE) Chairman, Martin Dow Ltd.
Profile:
I completed my Masters in Business Administration in 1985 from Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, a prestigious business school of Pakistan and began my career at Pharma Link, a family owned business. In 1995, I established Martin Dow as a pharmaceutical marketing company in Karachi, and in 2000 acquired a manufacturing facility in Lahore. My corporate vision to progress through excellence, both locally and internationally, saw light with the acquisition of the pharmaceutical manufacturing facility of Roche Pakistan Limited, a subsidiary of F. Hoffman La Roche Limited (Switzerland) in 2010 along with the acquisition & brand licensing of some of their globally acknowledged top line products and then the recent acquisition of the majority shareholding of Merck Germany in Merck (Pvt) Ltd which is the largest industry acquisition and marked a significant milestone in the company’s history. The result of both acquisitions took Martin Dow Group to the 5th position in the pharmaceutical industry of Pakistan. To get a solid foot-print in the International market, I expanded our business to new horizons, and Martin Dow is now located in the French market in the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical sectors in Gien and Meymac, with the Martin Dow facility in Meymac being inaugurated on March 16th 2017 by Mr. Hollande, the President of the French Republic. Besides managing the business, every leader has a moral obligation to transfer learnings and skills back to the community we live in, and Martin Dow has been a consistent contributor with support to the Health & Education sectors in the country.
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CEO Club: With the country sliding back into joblessness crisis and a high unemployment rate, how do you think to fix this problem and turnaround the economy? Jawed Akhai: Being very bullish on the CPEC taking the front stage in developing Industrial Zones for local manufacturers, the spirit of investment in various sector facilities will definitely have a positive outcome on employment. Greater support for the local industry across all categories will play an important role in job creation as the industry is ready to invest when the business environment improves. And needless to say, superior improvement in the higher education sector will bring highly skilled professionals into the market place.
Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays. How to create job providers/entrepreneurs rather than job-seekers? Pakistan has a sound Cottage Industry and with the “speed and adherence” of the Industrial Policy, will see growth of rural markets, greater employment opportunities and improvement in distribution of wealth. We need to invest with the Cottage Industries, hold their hands and ensure they grow through the powers of expertise and technology.
LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT CREATING A VISON AND THEN MANAGING THAT VISION BY EMPOWERING AND MENTORING A GROUP OF PEOPLE.
We are facing a dilemma in business ethics. How can we inculcate a sense of ethics into our managers? Today, the Family Value system has lost the battle to Social Media. It’s always been the Social Framework that’s played the lead role in developing generations of ethical human beings. Let’s begin the lesson from our homes where accountability of action must prevail. The is a need for formal training in Ethics in the Business Place and until the individual has no fear of being caught & punished, this norm may continue. Most organizations today have a strict code of conduct policy which has improved the level in ethics compliance.
With commercialisation of educational institutions, are you happy at the quality/standard of business graduates? And what steps would you suggest to bridge the gap between industry and academia? Todays graduates are not ready for the real world. Their curriculum remains questionable and the quality of “permanent” faculty is much to be desired. We do not prepare them for the next phase in life, leading them to making swift job changes, poor output on account of skill sets and unemployment. Standards need to be further enhanced by the “Visiting Faculty” who have the on-ground experience
| 81 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | to share with the students and more mandatory work sessions at Corporations will immediately improve the existing situation.
What is leadership to you? How do you want to improve as a leader? Leadership is about creating a vison and then managing that vision by empowering and mentoring a group of people. A compelling vision provides the foundation for leadership and it’s the leaders ability to motivate and inspire his people that helps them deliver that vision.
What are the three key challenges confronting CEOs/business leaders in Pakistan? Key challenges that most organizations are facing are Firstly the environment in which we do business, secondly the quality of HR suitable for our industry and thirdly the inability to create a 10-15 year plan due to the uncertainty of Business Policies created by the authorities.
What are four leadership competencies of a CEO that you would like to see in our new generation of CEOs? Must be an Ethical Business Leader, should have sincerity of purpose, a true visionary and be strongly networked for future growth.
How do you define corporate culture at your company? How do you make sure that people live, act and breathe your organization’s vision, mission and core values? At the Martin Dow Group, we live with a very simple work culture: A culture that respects professionalism and rewards achievements, that encourages teamwork and learning, that ensures there is respect for all with an open door management style with a zero tolerance policy on integrity.
Where do you see your organization five years down the road? Growth strategy? We see ourselves being the Employer of Choice and among the top 3 Most Admired Companies in the Country. Our future is being defined from our vision and mission and will be achieved through innovations and acquisitions. Our growth to 5th place in the past 7 years reflects both the consistency in our strategy and the quality of our teams.
What are the top three benchmarks for high-performing CEOs who have created long-term value for their companies? The top 3 benchmarks in order of importance are 1. Commitment 2.Team Builder and 3. Vision
Can you give us an example of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative you have championed? Martin Dow has been a consistent supporter to the community and one such example is the work we have done with the Pakistan Association of the Deaf. We have pioneered the development of their curriculum for children through the launch of the Deaf Sign Language Research Group that creates books for the hearing impaired. This aspect gives the children fresh hope in improving their communication skills and leads to the betterment of their lifestyle and their future.
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Harvard Business Review’s research tells us that E.Q. (Emotional Quotient/Intelligence) rather I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) is a highly essential competency for business leaders? Why E.Q. is important for CEOs especially in challenging times? The most critical stage for any Organization is to stay ahead of the industry in challenging times. Organization often warehouse themselves to see off the storm, but this strategy will fail 8 out of 10 times. Key to success in challenging times is ensuring that the team stays together, intact. It’s the CEO’s duty to play the role of Team Leader, Motivator and Visionary. Patience and farsightedness will keep the Organization growing and sail them through the rough seas.
A business speaks the language of digits. To what extent a CEO should be finance-savvy? What are the three most important numbers in a firm’s financial statements? Overall, the CEO has bottom line responsibility to his shareholders, hence he must keep his eyes on the Business. However, investment in new technology and investment in HR development are 2 extremely important numbers that are key to the Organization future.
Any achievement you are proud of? Culturally, Martin Dow has a built in motivation to continuously achieving new milestones and it’s tough to single out any one. I am most proud of taking our Company to 5th place in 7 years. And I am happy to inform you that that Martin Dow is the only local Organization in the health care segment to have manufacturing facilities outside Pakistan with the acquisition of the ex Bristol Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical plant in Meymac France,; both are significant achievements for us.
Who is your inspirational role-model? And why it is so? My one and only role model is my father, Mr. Abdul Sattar Akhai, who has devoted over 40 years of his working life in growing the business through sincerity, vision and lots of sweat. His mentoring and knowledge sharing has made me and Martin Dow today’s icon in the Pharma sector.
Define success in three key words or phrases? For me Sincerity, hardwork and faith in God are the key criteria for success.
What is your idea of happiness? Accomplishment is Happiness. In any activity, at work or with family & friends, achievement leads to fulfilment and happiness.
Your favourite book on professional development that you would recommend? It’s a book on the icon of Business America, Jack Welch, titled, Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will.
Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? Always give your heart & soul to the work you do, with a clear vision on where you want to reach. Be honest with the people you employ and work with. If you stay sincere to your purpose, and believe in the Almighty, the sky will never be your limit.
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IRFAN SIDDIQUI President & CEO, Meezan Bank Ltd
Profile: Future of Islamic banking is extremely bright in Pakistan, especially in next few decades, as a large majority of the country’s population has shown acceptance towards a Riba-free banking system and services. Furthermore, the growth of Islamic banking in the number of Muslim adherents has made evident the willingness to convert Pakistan into an Islamic banking hub. Keeping in mind this change in consumer behaviour over the past one decade, it is expected that Islamic banking is bound to prosper in Pakistan in letter and spirit. In the context of this growth at local, international and global levels; the banking sector is going through a paradigm shift; resulting in an intense competitive environment in a dual banking industry. Perhaps this is why a number of conventional banks are already offering Islamic finance products through window operations. Meezan Bank’s President and CEO, Mr. Irfan Siddiqui sheds light on how important it is for banks to know their customers, their interests and the factors that attract them to a given bank. He further highlights Meezan Bank’s growth on consumer side where the Bank is amongst the top three banks in Pakistan, offering car leasing, house finance, laptop & generator financing.
A SUCCESSFUL LEADER IS ONE THAT IS CAPABLE OF REINVENTING HIMSELF IN ORDER TO STAY RELEVANT. FOR ME, A GOOD LEADERSHIP STYLE IS SIMPLY A NARRATION OF ONE’S PURPOSE THAT SERVES AS A MOTIVATOR.
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CEO Club: Pakistan is going through testing times. How can we turn it around? Irfan Siddiqui: Pakistan has suffered negatively from the impact of terrorism in the region. In recent times, however, with the support of the government and the military, the region is witnessing a more stable geo-political climate. Also, with promise and potential of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, we see a renewed hope for stability and economic growth. I believe with a more stable economy comes a greater potential for political stability. Currently, there is a dire need to stock the internal security lapses and to maintain extremists from gaining further control in the region. It is worth highlighting here that we also need to work on projects that shall help to further maximise the efforts of the economic corridor. With a greater focus on building industry and manufacturing hubs, Pakistan will be able to further maximise the benefits of the corridor instead of treating it as a standalone project.
How to bridge the gap between industry & academia? Scarcity of qualified human resource and Shariah scholars is a major challenge being faced by the Islamic finance industry. Meezan Bank, as Pakistan’s first and largest Islamic bank, is striving to bridge this gap between industry and academia to create qualified Islamic finance professionals who can lead the industry to the next level. We, at Meezan, run a rigorous training program for our staff to enhance their knowledge and skills about Islamic banking. The learning initiatives include a comprehensive Orientation Program for all new staff that ensures that they understand the concepts underlying Islamic banking as well as the various products of Meezan Bank; specialized functional modules on various business products and processes.
What hampered your way to success and what encouraged you to move ahead? Islamic Banking in Pakistan is a relatively new concept. The Bank was envisaged and established without first developing a financial feasibility, since the purpose behind the establishment of Meezan Bank was to establish and promote Islamic Banking in Pakistan. Alhamdulillah, ever since our inception, the bank has been profitable since the very first month of its operation. As with any new industry, especially one that is as unique as Islamic banking, there are a number of challenges that need to be overcome. One of the biggest challenges we face relates to raising awareness and education of Islamic banking. Secondly, the creation and adoption of a harmonious set of international best practices and corporate governance is still a major issue for Islamic banking. Meezan Bank has always worked with the vision of establishing ‘Islamic banking as banking of first choice’. We have kept true to this Vision, are driven by it and have never consciously tried to differentiate ourselves from the Islamic banking industry. We believe that Islamic banking offers a distinct customer-centric value proposition and this is what encourages us to move ahead. Underlying these operations are the attributes of complete transparency. Our aim and wish is that the Islamic finance market in the country should grow.
What are the key challenges for Islamic Banking in Pakistan? Islamic banking in Pakistan faces the challenge of creating last-mile connectivity of translating Government’s support for Islamic finance into reality. It is worth mentioning here that, while the Government of Pakistan has shown keen interest in the development of Islamic banking in this region through its strategic 5 year plan, there is still a dearth of Islamic capital market instruments and
| 85 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | this needs greater Government support. For Islamic banks, there is a critical need for the provision of adequate liquidity tools, an area where the Government can play a major role by offering Islamic Banks with instruments to place the excess liquidity of the entire Islamic finance sector at the same rate which is being offered to conventional banks. There still exists an asset/ liability gap management problem for this industry given the dearth of these instruments; and this challenge does not merely pertain to Islamic banks but to Islamic mutual funds, Islamic Takaful as well as to Islamic investors. In Pakistan, the Government and regulators have taken great strides for the expansion of Islamic finance in the region, but much work still needs to be done.
What are four core competencies of inspiring CEOs that you want to see in upcoming CEOs? Determination to forge ahead, industry foresight, strategic experiences and a sense of reality are some of the most important traits that make a successful leader.
How do you define leadership and what leadership style you adopted in your professional capacity? A successful leader is one that is capable of reinventing himself in order to stay relevant. For me, a good leadership style is simply a narration of one’s purpose that serves as a motivator. Leadership style is strongly linked to establishing a responsible culture in the organization. Meezan Bank, in its fifteenth year of operations still follows the journey that leads towards visualizing its vision. We have the right strategy and, Alhamdulillah, have been able to build the right culture for an Islamic bank. To ensure our success, we adhere to the principles of Shariah, continuously strive to adopt international best practices and stay customer-focused.
What were the main reasons for the success of Meezan Bank in Pakistan? Our Shariah-credibility and our customer focus are our strongest assets. We remained focusing from the very beginning on ensuring Shariah-compliance and quality customer service. Our brand personality is modest and humility is in the core of our team. Beside, our customers supported us in the development of Shariah-compliant solutions that cater to a very diverse range of business needs and we are grateful to them for their support. In addition, having the first mover advantage was also a contributing factor.
Do you have a winning team? What are three characteristics of a winning team? No one can achieve any results alone without the will of Almighty Allah and the support of their team members. Alhamdulillah, we have one of the best teams operating in any bank who have committed themselves to the cause of Islamic banking. On the question of characteristics of a winning team - Hard work, honesty, humility and a strong commitment towards Shariah-compliance are the core traits of the Meezan family.
Any accomplishment that you consider momentous in your career so far? Our greatest achievement has been to set up Meezan Bank and see it grow to this level of success. We have helped a very large number of corporates and individuals in switching from conventional banking to Riba-free modes of financing. Our Shariah-compliance focus has, Alhamdulillah, been one of our greatest accomplishments.
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What strategies have led to your on-going success in Pakistan, especially in the recent past? Meezan Bank has always followed a distinct corporate identity as the first Islamic Bank of Pakistan. We realize that one cannot succeed in the cause of Islamic finance without contributing to Islamic banking awareness. This commitment was visible in every phase of our growth, from our cutting- edge services to extensive branch network to a comprehensive Sharia-compliant product menu. At the heart of our strategy lies the customers and how we can help meet their financial needs through Shariah-compliant modes in a market that is primarily dominated by conventional banks. As we grow now, we will establish a strategy that will focus on the growing areas of Islamic banking from corporate to investment and branchless banking. In addition, we are focusing heavily on the consumer segment by providing our customers with financing solutions for their personal financing needs. If you look at our numbers in 2016, you will see that we have optimized our balance sheet and will Insha’Allah continue to gain a larger market share in the country, particularly through penetration in the unbanked sector.
Who is your role model & inspiration, and why? My greatest source of inspiration is the life of the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.), who through his superior personality and noble actions was able to provide the believers and non-believers alike, with an environment that prevented them from getting entangled in a web of sin. Being an Islamic bank, we have strived to inculcate practices that are consistent to our faith in Islam and Shariah and as per the instructions highlighted by the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H).
How has Meezan Bank maintained its iconic image while keeping a balance between modernity and tradition? Maintaining balance is always complex and always constitutes a key element of our strategy. The word Meezan means ‘balance’ and holds paramount significance for us because of the manner in which it defines the culture and personality of Meezan Bank. While we have multiple projects in germination state such as the development of new and innovative banking products that are designed to delight our customers, whilst addressing their needs – all the while staying within the bounds of Shariah; there is also a commitment to serving our customers with the best possible service standards, and that’s where the balance is. As the 8th largest bank in the country, we have the biggest Islamic financial products portfolio. Our consistent commitment to quality has not only helped individual customers but also corporates to shy away from the conventional interest-based modes of banking. Be it personal deposits to corporate financing needs, import / export, consumer finance, financial advisory service etc., we have maintained this balance by providing Islamic banking facilities to all categories of our customers. Meezan Bank has entered into a Vendor and Distributor Financing Program with Karandaaz Pakistan, a private company that promotes access to finance for small businesses through a commercially directed investment platform.
| 87 | MUHAMMAD ALI TABBA “SITARA-E-IMTIAZ” CEO, Lucky Cement Ltd
Profile: Muhammad Ali Tabba, Chief Executive Officer, Lucky Cement Limited has inherited entrepreneurship from his late father Mr. Abdul Razzaq Tabba, one of the most accomplished entrepreneurs in the country. Muhammad Ali Tabba is considered to be a mover-and- shaker of the corporate world.
Ever since he took over, Lucky Cement has been on the road to unmatched success, which is a result of his well-calculated and dynamic business acumen. He belongs to the rare league of industry leaders who possess vision and innovation at the same time. It was under his leadership that Lucky Cement broke on new ground in exporting loose cement from Pakistan. Leading the local market, the company has embarked on expansion in the global arena with two of its joint ventures in Iraq and DR Congo.
YOU HAVE TO FIND HAPPINESS IN LIFE. YOU SHOULD SPEND YOUR LIFE IN A WAY THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY AND KEEPS YOU MOTIVATED TO ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS.
| 88 | CEO Club: When did you take over as CEO, what were the challenges you faced in the early days? Muhammad Ali Tabba: I took over this position after the sad demise of my father, Abdul Razzaq Tabba. Though, I was involved in other businesses, the cement industry was new to me. I joined this business in 2005. Although most of the manufacturing industry has its own dynamics; the operations remain the same. The only dynamics vary in terms of products and the process of production. Once you understand the dynamics then everything becomes easy and understandable. Indeed, the initial few months were challenging. But with the passage of time, I took the control of everything.
What were the decisions you took after becoming the CEO of Lucky Cement Ltd? In 1994, when my late father Abdur Razzak Tabba laid the foundations of Lucky Cement, he had a vision to expand cement capacity and become the largest cement manufacturing company in Pakistan. By the grace of Allah Almighty in 2006, Lucky Cement’s capacity was at 6.5 million tons, which later rose to 7.75 million tons. The day I took over, there were numerous challenges. One was to increase our local dominance and at the same time raise equity outside Pakistan to deleverage our balance sheet. First, I took the challenge to increase our local market share with a multi-fold increase in production. In addition to our plant in KPK, we started a new production facility in Karachi. In the second phase, I decided to focus on improving our logistical capabilities. We increased the number of fleets and ship loaders so that we could capture market share. By virtue of all such decisions, we become the largest cement exporter from Pakistan. In 2007, we pioneered in exporting loose cement from Pakistan. Taking a first-mover advantage, in the last five years, we exported almost 10 million tons of loose cement. As we speak, our plant in Iraq has been commissioned for commercial production and the plant in DR Congo has commenced operations and started production.
What are the challenges in the local cement industry, and how is Lucky Cement different from other cement brands in Pakistan? The challenges in the industry are similar to any other industry in Pakistan. Law and order situation, inconsistent government policies and chaotic political state of affairs cumulatively affects the business activities. The government has no specific road map for development and planning. Whatever money the government collects in the form of taxes, is used to meet deficits, financial losses, state- owned enterprises and debt servicing. The government has very limited budget for infrastructural development. Now, it is the private sector which is creating the demand for cement. In the last five years, there was hardly any growth in the cement industry. This was quite challenging for us because the local market was not supporting us in terms of capacity utilized. We had to look for other options i.e. exports.
Being the top man of the company, what suggestions do you have to turnaround the economy? First, there has to be a stable government in place. Without proper state machinery, it is always a difficult task. The private sector can bridge some gap, but obviously that’s not enough. We have witnessed some very tough times lately, the way things had been in the last 5 years should not be
| 89 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | repeated. You have to be optimistic and committed to bring change that is necessary to turnaround the economy of Pakistan.
What is leadership to you and how do you define it? One of the hallmarks of an effective leadership is a strong character. Leaders exhibit honesty, integrity, trustworthiness and ethics. Leadership is about establishing a clear vision, sharing that vision and inspiring others to perform well. A leader coordinates and balances conflicting interests of all members and stakeholders and steps up in times of crisis and able to think swiftly and act decisively in difficult situations. A leader has to have a vision, road map, ability to meet challenges and possess the charisma and confidence to set a right direction for the people.
You have entrepreneurship in your blood, what do you say about our universities producing business professionals? Are we producing job seekers and not job providers or entrepreneurs? Although school and universities are producing a large number of professionals as this is their responsibility, due to economic impediments, the entrepreneurial development has not been very healthy. Universities should organize workshops to bring awareness for successful entrepreneurship for graduating students so that they can become young businessmen as well. It is also necessary to increase the number of educational institutions to cater the demand of the country.
There is a serious issue of ethics. You are a business leader. You have to fight with the ethical dilemma of the society. How can you develop ethics in our society? I think there are two ways of doing this. First and foremost, we have a responsibility to adopt ethics in our social and professional lives because ethics and moral values have a trickle down affect. It starts from our schools and homes and expands all the way to offices, factories, shops and parliament houses. All those people who influence public life have to take a conscious approach towards all their actions. The other way to inculcate ethics in our lives is through capacity building at schools at the primary level. I think the concept of “a teacher” should just not be a person who teaches specific subjects. He should be someone more of a “mentor” and a role-model for upcoming generations. At the same time, parents should play their role at home as it is just not the school where you learn ethics.
How many people are on your payroll? We have a big Lucky Family of more than 2000 people.
Do you have the right team and what problems do you face in Lucky cement? You have to attract good talent for your organization and that can only be done if you have a good working environment and healthy remuneration with work-life-balance. To ensure all this and supervise our HR practices, we have a board committee for human resource. Moreover, we have a good HR system which strictly adheres to international labour and human rights standards and we have taken very robust corporate governance related measures. I am extremely proud to state that Lucky Cement Limited owes its excellent business performance to the dedication and commitment of its employees
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It’s my pleasure to learn the philosophy behind the logo of Lucky Cement, how is Lucky Cement different from others? Our success is due to the commitment of our management and the continued trust and support of our shareholders who want to see Lucky Cement perform better. Innovation is the key to Lucky Cement’s leadership and its leading position in the market place. We have continuously maintained our position as a top manufacturer through investment in technology and innovation throughout the manufacturing process. Our debt-free financial position and free cash-flow generating ability, allows us to smartly invest in other projects and avenues which would continue to add value to our portfolio and increase shareholder value.
You are a gifted and innovative person, what innovative strategies did you adopt in your organization? Ever since I assumed the office of Chief Executive, Lucky Cement has adopted many innovative ideas to improve its operations. Our state-of-the-art storage and logistics facility at Karachi Port is just one example. Then, we have our power generation facility that harnesses one of the most efficient technology in the region. For alternate energy, we have installed waste-heat-recovery power plant. We have also installed Refused Derived Fuel (RDF) and Tyre Derived Fuel (TDF) plant to reduce our fuel cost and alternate energy to coal, which is also environment friendly. All such innovative projects have enabled us to achieve excellence in a cost effective manner. We are the first company to establish our manufacturing facility outside Pakistan. This is in line with our vision to become Pakistan’s number one cement company. We also evaluate the companies that we aim to acquire, which can help Lucky Cement generate cash flow and mitigate risks so that we do not have to depend on one source of revenue and income.
You are the son of a great entrepreneur, Mr. Abdul Razzaq Tabba, what impact did he have on you and what are the values you are carrying? You always have some role model to follow and my father is my role model. His hard work, commitment to philanthropy and his leadership qualities always inspired and motivated me.
Tell us something about your philanthropic arm – Aziz Tabba Foundation? Incorporated in 1987, ATF is a not-for-profit organization operating and overseeing projects in the field of health, social welfare and education. The Foundation runs two state-of- the-art hospitals in Karachi; 170 bed Tabba Heart Institute (THI) which is a dedicated cardiac care hospital and 100 bed Tabba Kidney Institute (TKI), a specialized institution providing comprehensive treatment of Nephro-Urological disorder. Credibility of business enterprise, particularly of larger ones, is in the utilization of profit, be it for best possible upliftment of its workforce, espousing social, national development causes or for rendering services to mankind as a whole by way of charity to alleviate poverty and serving the neglected and deprived masses. Aziz Tabba Foundation is playing its part to complement the state into fulfilling the constitutional directives of providing basic liberties and to develop a more equitable society. It is our obligation to contribute towards the welfare of the community at large. Aziz Tabba Foundation (ATF) has been established for this very purpose and there are several projects and institutions under the aegis of ATF. In the education sector, we have scholarship programs at IBA, LUMS, IoBM,
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Indus Valley School of Arts and Architecture and other prominent institutions. Additionally, we also provide financial assistance to deserving and talented students for pursuance of higher education, not just within Pakistan but also abroad.
What is the succession planning in Lucky Cement? I believe in professionalism, I believe that one has to harvest and harness leadership by grooming people. Of course, this is a family-run business and succession planning comes not just within the family but also from professionals from outside the family who have the capacity and the capability to lead organizations.
Where do you see Lucky Cement five years down the road? I would like to see Lucky Cement become an international company having operations in different countries. We also want to maintain and strengthen our market position in Pakistan. We want to capitalize on our strengths in order to become a diversified business entity with a visible corporate footprint.
How do people define your leadership style or how do you rate yourself as a leader? I believe in hard work and setting the right examples for my management and people who work for my group. A leader is one who sets direction and motivates people around him.
How do you define success in personal and professional areas? You can convert this into reality by providing the right vision and a road map. You set different bars during the journey and after achieving success, you set new targets to achieve new heights, overcoming challenges along your path and converting them into opportunities.
What is your idea of happiness? You have to find happiness in life. You should spend your life in a way that makes you happy and keeps you motivated to achieve your dreams.
You said that your father is your inspiration; do you have any other role model or your mentor? You always have a role model in life. You get inspired by people who are successful and have created a legacy which has contributed to bring a positive change in people’s lives or who have made a lasting impact in improving the lives of their people.
What is the role of emotional intelligence in making tough decisions? There are moments of real stress at times. At work, when you are under some kind of stress, you have to control your emotions. You try to manage your stress in such a way that it doesn’t create any uncertainty in the organization.
Any good book close to your heart you love to read? I am not a ‘book’ person as I don’t get much time for reading. During my free time, I enjoy watching movies or keep myself busy with family and friends.
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Any message for the younger lot of professionals? Pakistan is a great country and there are many opportunities. We have to work hard, be optimistic, promote our country and become good ambassadors. Every country has its own challenges. It is our responsibility to evolve so that we can work together in overcoming these challenges.
What is the growth rate of Lucky Cement and the approximate sale size? Lucky Cement Limited recorded the highest ever profit after tax of Rs. 12.94 billion for the last fiscal year, which is 4.1% higher than its previous fiscals net profit. We have set new benchmarks for achieving even more impressive revenues and we hope achieve our targets during the current fiscal year.
PAKISTAN IS A GREAT COUNTRY AND THERE ARE MANY OPPORTUNITIES. WE HAVE TO WORK HARD, BE OPTIMISTIC, PROMOTE OUR COUNTRY AND BECOME GOOD AMBASSADORS. EVERY COUNTRY HAS ITS OWN CHALLENGES. IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO EVOLVE SO THAT WE CAN WORK TOGETHER IN OVERCOMING THESE CHALLENGES.
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AFTAB AHMAD CEO, Century Papers & Board Mills Ltd.
Profile: Aftab Ahmad graduated from the University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore in 1968 with a distinction in academics. He worked with Packages Limited in Lahore for eight years, followed by two years as an engineering consultant for the first ever textile mill in Tripoli, before moving to the Azzawiya Oil Refinery Company & Raslanuf Petrochemical Complex in Libya where he worked for another six years. Upon his return to Pakistan in 1984, he joined Century Paper & Board Mills Ltd. in the capacity of Deputy General Manager. He served as General Manager Operations, the Director Operations and finally as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Company in 2008 and serving to date. He helped shepherd Century from conception to reality – starting by selecting the site on which the mills now stand. He oversaw the selection, installation, and operation of seven paper and board machines – in addition to two pulp mills, corrugation plants, and three cogeneration power plants. Two of those machines are particularly noteworthy: a global, state-of-the-art paper-board machine that spans almost a quarter of kilometer in length, and one of the most efficient and effluent treatment plants in the country. Mr. Ahmad is a highly skilled professional and a creative genius. Under his leadership and development of the company, Century – once an empty field on the outskirts of Lahore – now stands as the largest Paper Board Mill in Pakistan and continues to expand in alignment with his vision. Mr. Ahmad serves in a number of prestigious corporate bodies in the industry. He is the Convener of the Pakistan Paper Industry for Engineering Development Board (EDB), Member of Steering Committee of Cleaner Production Institute (CPI), Executive Member of Pakistan Paper & Board Mills Association, Member of Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), Member of the Pakistan Institute of Engineers (PIE), and a Member of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI).
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CEO Club: How did you start your journey? Aftab Ahmad:Beginnings are usually very humble; my father passed away when I was five years old. My mother brought us up in an extremely focused manner, always encouraging us to strive for excellence. We had a very small, hand operated printing press in the house that we would all take turns to operate to supplement the family income – so I had some on hand experience with paper and printing as a child. After my studies as an engineer, I started my professional journey with Packages, who were setting up a paper-board mill in Lahore. I was excited to be a part of it - had it not been for Packages, in fact, I would have gone for higher studies at UT Austin. Packages was a home to me and for my friends and we were very excited with our job of Paper & Board making which was new to us. Incidentally, I had to leave that job and I went to Libya to get hands-on experience with project management. While I was overseas, I kept thinking about those eight years I spent in Packages learning about paper-making processes. In 1984, the Lakson Group of Companies reached out to me to launch a New Paper & Board Project – and I instinctively knew it was my calling. I instantly jumped into it, irrespective of any potential impediment or financial incentive - I was simply in love with the possibility of what we could achieve. By 2008 Century was leading the paper industry in Pakistan. It’s been an amazing journey. I am simultaneously very satisfied and thrilled to say that - beginning with very humble plants, and three second-hand paper machines, today Century is the largest and most modern paper plant in Pakistan on par with any leading international paper company.
What are the organizational values which Century holds onto? Our chairman Mr. Iqbal Ali Lakhani, by his very nature, sees things from a very human and humane perspective - and we have tried to incorporate his philosophy of life in our organization. Century is an organization which believes in team work and is driven by high morals, ethical standards and a sense of family with our people. In 2008, we became the largest paper company in Pakistan – and we resolved that we had to lead not just in the size of our business, but also in the way business was done. Our entire focus since then has been in making Century an organization infused with humility, integrity, and positive energy. Our Core Values are; Customer Centric, Sense of Urgency, Team Work, Humility & Compassion, Integrity, Change, Innovation and Continuous Improvement.
After spending successful four decades in this industry, how do you compare the challenges in the initial and current phase of your career? Three decades later Century is now a huge running business. My challenges are less technical or physical, though those still exist, and more focused on business and growth. My focus is on refining our business vision and strategy, growing our strength, and building a sustainable company with great human resources and organizational strength. On that note - Century is not only good at head- hunting, but also fantastic at retaining the best talent and grooming newcomers. Today, 80% of employees in Century are doing their first ever job. We train them to the best of their potential and they stay with us. Our employee retention is incredibly high; many of our people have stayed with us for their entire careers.
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What are the essential core values which you as a person and as a businessman live by and how do you ensure their implementation? I’d like to answer this question by mentioning my mentor, the late Mr. Rafi Chawla – who transformed me and our organization into what we are. Mr. Chawla was both an experienced executive, and a wise human being. As an executive, he encouraged me – and the company – to take risks and daring initiative. As a man, he exuded humility and remained grounded no matter how high he rose. At this point, I am reminded of an analogy of the Great Banyan Tree in India. During our visit to India, we had the chance to witness the rootless glory of the Great Banyan Tree. The tree’s main trunk had been cut off, due to a disease caused by lightning or termite decades ago. However, despite the trunk being cut – it kept on thriving, growing new aerial roots and now it looks more like a huge forest than a single tree due to its ever-expanding circumference. My dear mentor, Mr. Chawla, looked at the tree and told me “Look Aftab, this is management.” I learnt my concept of decentralization and empowering others to grow together at that point with his analogy of growth and consolidation. It’s a moment I think of often.
What is the dictum which Century adheres to as an organization? I would love to define it in four words: Strive together for excellence. We acquire, and then nourish individual talents, and bring those talents together to the benefit of our company and the community as a whole.
What are some challenges of human resource management? Skills for paper & board industry are not available in the market and we are imparting these skills by extensive trainings and developments. The other significant challenges are lack of passion, impatience, and focus on materialism. Pure materialistic motivation in an organization often limits the efficiency as it damages the ethos of the company. High ambitions; less hard work and in such circumstances, it becomes a challenge to maintain a high performing and motivated organization. That’s why organizational culture is incredibly important to keep the team fully motivated.
What is your strategy of employee retention? The secret of Century success in retaining the employees lies in sense of ownership, empowerment, recognition, team work, and family like organizational culture. Century takes pride in creating a sound environment of rich learning, humility, compassion which wins the heart of employees thus leading to overall job satisfaction and more retention.
To what extent can CSR contribute to employee retention and engagement in an organization? I think CSR can be a great tool to retain and sustain employees. Our employee-retention ratio is far better than any other company in the industry, and I think this is partially due to our investment in CSR. Not only do we socialize with our employees, but we also build relationships with their families as well. For example, Century arranges a series of grand events to host the families of our employees. That builds a social network that helps strengthen the company’s ties to its people, and the people’s ties to their Company. In addition to this, we keep upgrading the schools in our areas with the help of our employees in their respective vicinities. This lifts their self–esteem, allows them to take pride
| 96 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | in being part of the Company, and in turn makes them more invested and involved in what Century believes. So, we move along with a shared vision, and that binds us together. We also offer multi-month computer training programs to our employees’ children following their matriculation exams. They belong to us and we belong to them. Century has also contributed a lot in terms of CSR, like supporting local schools through infrastructure development, medical care through camps, supporting hospitals and much more. As I mentioned earlier, Century gets such traditions and inspirations from our entrepreneur who dreams high and is committed to humility and compassion.
How do you perceive the growth and expansion of the company in the current socio-political discourse? Paper & Board industry is highly capital intensive and it requires socio-political stability for its growth. The industry has a high potential of growth as per-capita consumption of paper and board in Pakistan is only 6-7 kg in comparison with Thailand 80 kg and America 300 kg. The CPEC will further increase the trend of packaging as demand of packaging material will grow even further. The real challenge is the cost of manufacturing, which is increasing every year due to inflation and high cost of energy. Clear and consistent government policies are essential for any industrial growth.
Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays. Do you have thoughts on how to create job providers /entrepreneurs rather job seekers? Our existing conventional education system does not guide students to be entrepreneurs. Though the government has done some effort by introducing TEVTA, and some easy loan facilities, but it’s all still in its infancy. To have a true paradigm shift, we need to redesign and shift the focus of our education system from routine to creative learning. We need to inspire the young generation with local case studies of successful entrepreneurs. We should encourage them to think of problems not as things to be lamented, but rather as opportunities to be harnessed and markets to be conquered. As an aside, capital is often an issue for entrepreneurs. More efficient Angel Investing and VC capital markets need to be created, perhaps through large public-private partnerships. Finally, I’ll add that while the trend of self-employment is on the rise in the service sector and in IT, but it is markedly less so in the manufacturing sector. Maximizing the introduction of outsourcing may be one avenue for opportunities for new enterprises.
What are the core competencies for a CEO to execute successful operations? A CEO must have a deep knowledge of his business, and the vision to foresee and cope with challenges. He should have the ability to explore options, weigh and take strategic risks, exploit his resources and convert threats into opportunities.
What is the most difficult decision which you took as a CEO? A CEO’s life is all about making difficult decisions, but I find it particularly difficult to sack someone – fortunately, at Century, this is very rare. I am a firm advocate that human beings are inherently good and all they need is the right direction and counselling. Cases where extreme actions become necessary are rare.
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What is leadership to you? Leadership is an ability to align resources to create excellence. In my experience, a controlled democratic style helps improve team work, the sense of participation, and ownership of decisions. I’ll mention that leaders are born, as well as developed. Training, trust and team-based projects are helpful in developing leadership qualities in people.
“Nigah Buland, Sukhan Dil Nawaz, Jaan Pursouz Yehi Hai Rakht-e-Safar Mir-e-Karwan Ke Liye”
Harvard Business Review’s research enlightens us that Emotional Quotient (E.Q) rather Intelligence Quotient (I.Q) is an essential competency for business leaders. Why is Emotional Quotient (E.Q) important for CEOs in tough times? Emotional intelligence (EQ) is embedded in Eastern culture. It saddens me that we are learning about EQ from Western researchers. When EQ gained coinage globally, I started researching it and came to the conclusion that Eastern academic structure is deeply grounded in EQ. This concept belongs to us. Noesis (Faiz) is beyond simple knowledge transfer, and grounds us spiritually and emotionally.
“Ye Faizan-e-Nazar Tha Ya Ke Maktab Ki Karamat Thi, Sikhaye Kis Ne ‘Ismaeel (A.S)’ Ko Adaab-e-Farzandi”
How do you manage your anger and stress? I believe that anger is punishing yourself for other’s mistakes. Positive thinking is a great instrument to manage stress. I also use music or poetry as a temporary escape. I am blessed with a happy family life which is also a great source of relief.
How do you define success and happiness? For me, success is a level of contribution to the society, the nation and to humanity. It’s important to note that it is a continuous journey and not a destination. To be successful is to continually improve. Happiness, ultimately, is a state of mind.
What is your favorite book? I like to read books about history and the biography of successful people. Right now, I happen to be reading a book on the Life of Muhammad (PBUH) written with great academic rigor, which offers some great insights into our beloved Prophet as a human being.
What is your message of hope and optimism? Optimism lies in gratitude. As long as we continue to vest our energies in thinking about the past with an unhappy perspective of the present and future, we shall never be happy. Learning lessons from the past is always good – but clinging to it at the cost of ignoring the present moment leads to intellectual and emotional bankruptcy. We have come a long way as a country and as a nation we should be forward-looking with a strong focus on our collective future.
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LEADERSHIP IS AN ABILITY TO ALIGN RESOURCES TO CREATE EXCELLENCE. IN MY EXPERIENCE, A CONTROLLED DEMOCRATIC STYLE HELPS IMPROVE TEAM WORK, THE SENSE OF PARTICIPATION, AND OWNERSHIP OF DECISIONS. I’LL MENTION THAT LEADERS ARE BORN, AS WELL AS DEVELOPED. TRAINING, TRUST AND TEAM-BASED PROJECTS ARE HELPFUL IN DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP QUALITIES IN PEOPLE.
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MALIK RIAZ HUSSAIN Founder & Chairman, Bahria Town
Profile: I was born in Sialkot to a middle class family. I was just 19 when my father’s business collapsed. In 1969 I borrowed some money to start my own business with a small military contract which laid the foundation of today’s success story; Bahria Town. Starting small, I slowly and steadily kept improving my position entertaining small contracts till 1986 and continued to multiply my earnings while religiously setting aside 2.5% for charity (zakat), as a friend of mine once advised. On business tours to Europe, North America, Middle-East, I used to study the latest practices in urban development. I noticed that there were no such practices in Pakistan and wanted to provide a complete living experience to Pakistanis and create awareness amongst the masses as to what real quality of life is all about. In 1996, I arrived at the milestone of my career with the inception of Bahria Town in collaboration with Bahria Foundation of Pakistan Navy but the Navy decided to exit the venture after two years and we bought the navy’s half of the shares along with the rights to the name of the company as a private limited company. From thereon, Bahria Town sky-rocketed and today has the title of “Asia’s Largest Private Real Estate Developer”. Bahria Town has been internationally recognized by various leading media including Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, Gulf News, The National, Euro Asia and many more. Bahria Town has also won 10 international property awards which endorse our focus on quality and delivering the very best.
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CEO Club: With the country sliding back into joblessness crisis and a high unemployment rate, how do you think to fix this problem and turnaround the economy? Malik Riaz: The best way to counter joblessness and unemployment is to create more jobs. And the best sector to do that is the real estate and construction industry which provides direct and indirect employment and business to a multitude of families. Government can facilitate the construction sector by subsidizing materials and allowing tax holidays to propel economic prosperity.
We are not poor in resources but governance.- Yes. That’s true. Pakistan is blessed with treasures of human, technological and natural resources. We are sitting over trillions of dollars but lack of vision, little planning and bad governance are making the nation poorer with every passing day.
Do you believe that good governance can help us to wrestle with this dilemma? What is your take on good governance? Effective planning, intelligent utilization of resources, integrity and the will to deliver can perform miracles for any organization, and governments are no exception to the rule. Improve the day-to-day service standard and a visible change can be seen in the overall situation of the country.
Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays. How to create job providers/entrepreneurs rather than job-seekers? I have full faith in Pakistan’s youth. They are our greatest asset. Entrepreneurship demands planning, determination and resources. I have seen young people with brilliant ideas but little resources to translate that idea into action. Small loans, interest-free entrepreneurship loans and CSR based activities by national and multinational organizations can help bridge the gap between an idea and its implementation by providing the required finances.
We are facing a dilemma in business ethics. How can we inculcate a sense of ethics into our managers? We are facing a deficit of values and ethics not just in business but in every aspect of our life, in Pakistan. Some people equate this impersonal, self centric and cold attitude with professionalism. However, in my view there can be no professionalism without integrity, commitment and a sense of service. These are the values that we strive to inculcate in our workforce of 35000 individuals.
With commercialization of educational institutions, are you happy at the quality/standard of business graduates? And what steps would you suggest to bridge the gap between industry and academia? I won’t agree with you on this. The standards of private sector education have improved, there is no doubt. New graduates are better groomed. They have greater exposure however, what they lack in is professionalism. Faster means of communication and ready availability of entertainment on phablets and tablets have compromised the level of focus among our students and young professionals. Internship and placement programs for fresh graduates can help bridge the gap between academia and industry.
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What are the key challenges and business/investment opportunities in your industry/sector? Trust deficit on the part of the consumers. And I don’t blame the consumers for this. It’s much due to the reckless behavior of my colleagues and informal structure of real estate business in Pakistan. Speaking of the business and investment opportunities, there is an annual demand of 0.5 million houses in Pakistan which alone gives you an idea of the potential of this business.
What is leadership to you? How do you want to improve as a leader? Leadership is all about leading from the front. It’s about giving your team a sense of direction and learning from their experiences and ideas. As a leader I would like to learn more because for me learning is the process that keeps a human being alive and relevant. Once this process stops the decline starts.
What are the three key challenges confronting CEOs/business leaders in Pakistan? Too much of red-tapeism discourages investor. Security situation needs to improve and last but not the least strong institutionalization. These three factors are the main considerations for an investor before making an investment decision anywhere in the world.
What are four leadership competencies of a CEO that you would like to see in our new generation of CEOs? Vision is the key to organizational success. Commitment is the difference between success and failure. Integrity is the foundation of business goodwill, and awareness of issues affecting the communities the organization operates in with a view to help people with a humane heart.
How do you define corporate culture at your company? How do you make sure that people live, act and breathe your organization’s vision, mission and core values? We have a very well defined hierarchy and departments. Alongside we have an inclusive culture which transcends cultural and customary divides to knit our team as one whole with one mission in sight to transform Bahria Town into a prototype of a peaceful, progressive and prosperous Pakistan.
How to develop a winning team? How do you motivate your team, assess their performance and make them accountable to the results? Hire the right person for the right job. Give her/him autonomy in her / his sphere of expertise; give her/him personal targets to pursue without losing sight of the organizational goals. Regular performance audits and reviews from top to bottom ensure maximum performance by every team member.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenges? How do you retain top talent in the company? Competitive salary package, corporate culture and work environment are the most effective tools to retain the best minds in the industry. As an organization we try to provide all this, however even then if someone seems to be in search of pastures new we wish them well because we are here to motivate people to excel in their chosen area of activity and pursue effective career growth.
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Is training, coaching and mentoring a priority to you? How much time/budget do you allocate to this? On job trainings and skill enhancement workshops are integral to our organizational culture. We not only retain the most promising minds but also groom them for future leadership within Bahria Town and even beyond it.
What steps would you recommend to empower women? Women are more than 50% of our population. Leaving this important human resource untapped would be unwise for any economy. Jobs can give women empowerment through employment. As an equal opportunity employer, we offer equal salaries, training programs and growth opportunities to our female employees some of whom are occupying the most prestigious positions in the organizational hierarchy of Bahria Town.
WORK-LIFE BALANCE IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELLBEING OF EVERY WORKING MAN AND WOMAN. MOREOVER, SPENDING TIME WITH ONE’S FAMILY IS ALWAYS IMPORTANT FOR NURTURING A GOOD SOCIETY.
Being the CEO of your company, what is your strategy with regard to succession planning and developing the next generation of leaders? Gone are the days when Bahria Town used to be Malik Riaz Hussain and the vice versa. Today, the organization has grown so big that it’s impossible to build the entire structure around one individual. As I have explained earlier in our organization every team member is a leader in his or her sphere without losing sight of the targets set for organizational growth.
Where do you see your organization five years down the road? Growth strategy? I have full faith in Allah. And it is my firm belief that He will help us succeed. In the next five years, we will focus on retaining our position as the largest private real estate developer not only in Pakistan but Asia, by setting new standards of innovation, commitment, quality and customer-service. We will expand our portfolio by bringing to Pakistan international standard sports, leisure, hospitality and healthcare services.
What are the top three benchmarks for high-performing CEOs who have created long-term value for their companies? Vision, commitment and initiative. Vision gives a sense of direction, commitment is the cornerstone
| 103 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | of performance and initiative is the opportunity for the leader to explore new venues and potential of his team.
Can you give us an example of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative you have championed? Bahria Town is running more than one CSR initiatives. However, for me it’s Bahria Dastarkahn which feeds around 100,000 people every day across all the major cities in Pakistan. The free meal is served in a neat and clean environment.
Harvard Business Review’s research tells us that E.Q. (Emotional Quotient/Intelligence) rather I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) is a highly essential competency for business leaders? Why E.Q. is important for an organization head especially in challenging times? Every top position demands leadership and leadership cannot be effective if it is lacking in emotional behavior and social conduct. Hence, the head of an organization needs to understand business from basics to growth but alongside that president or chairman of an organization has to have the ability to handle human beings. He or she also needs to know different especially challenging situations and how to react to these, making IQ as much important as EQ.
WOMEN ARE MORE THAN 50% OF OUR POPULATION. LEAVING THIS IMPORTANT HUMAN RESOURCE UNTAPPED WOULD BE UNWISE FOR ANY ECONOMY. JOBS CAN GIVE WOMEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH EMPLOYMENT.
A business speaks the language of digits. To what extent a CEO should be finance-savvy? What are the three most important numbers in a firm’s financial statements? Yes digits do matter, no doubt. But only quality of product and services, and a continued quest for excellence lead to success that translates into impressive digits. Then there is self-confidence that comes only with faith, and faith demands us to rely solely on the Almighty and to help his creatures. So, in my experience there is more to this digit game than meets the eye. Sales Close Ratio and Growth Ratio are the most important numbers on the financial statement of any business.
Any achievement you are proud of? From recognition in international media to 10 international awards, every milestone counts. It fills my heart with contentment and motivates my team to perform even better for the next milestone. However, personally for me the smiles on the faces of the beneficiaries of Bahria Dastarkhwan, Free Dialysis and Bahria Old Home are a source of greater pride than anything else. I feel blessed as is I
| 104 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | have been chosen by Allah to serve His creatures. The very idea makes me humble and proud at the same time.
What’s the toughest decision you have ever made? What did you learn from it? In business every decision is tough and when you are running a successful business, the decisions are even more critical because the stakes are always high. So, I cannot point out the toughest decision maybe because I neutralize the challenge by making even the most critical decision with utmost conviction and the best of intentions.
How do you consider a good work-life balance? Please comment. Work-life balance is very important for physical and mental wellbeing of every working man and woman. Moreover, spending time with one’s family is always important for nurturing a good society. Therefore, at Bahria Town we promote work-life balance by following a policy of international standard business hours and annual leaves. How do you manage your anger and stress? In this time and era business-related anger and stress are best managed by keeping a positive attitude and getting involved in social work. It’s kind of a catharsis with a therapeutic effect.
Define success in three key words or phrases? Knowledge. Hardwork. Attitude
What is your idea of happiness? Happiness is inside us. You just need to find time for the small things like smiling, sharing a joke, seeing a flower smile, and above all enjoying what you do for a living. This is happiness. This is life.
Your favorite book on professional development that you would recommend? I cannot name one book as I like ‘Predictable Success’ as much as I love ‘Wisdom meets Passion’. However, for me the best teacher is life including the situations we encounter and the human beings we come across every day. Just keep your mind’s eye open and you will learn a lot that helps shape our perspective on life.
Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? Pakistan is the best place for business in the world. We have the best resources natural, technological and human. All we need to do is to channelize them well, in the right direction to optimize profits. Integrity, dedication and quality make the difference between success and failure.
What is your company`s business philosophy (Vision & Mission)? Bahria Town has the vision to build the future by integrating fresh ideas, impeccable skills, and latest technology to shape a new timeless perspective on life. Bahria Town aspires to set in stone a legacy of quality, innovation and integrity for adding value to the life of our people with each one of our project and initiative.
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Share your company`s brief history? Bahria Town was started in 1996. I started this business after spending more than 2.5 decades in real estate and construction business. On every visit to UAE, Europe and the Americas, I was thrilled by seeing the community lifestyle projects. I always wanted to develop something like that in Pakistan. My wish provided the basis for Bahria Town which was an instant success simply because people had the aspiration for the lifestyle that Bahria Town brought home.
How many people/HR are on your payroll? We have a team of about 35,000 individuals who are like a big happy Bahria Family.
Please share with us your company`s last three years’ average revenue growth in percentage? I’m never keen about digits and stats. Over the last 3 years Bahria Town has achieved tremendous growth. The start of Bahria Town Karachi will usher in a new era of community living in Pakistan. The tallest building in the country 62 storey Icon tower is in the final stages of completion. We are forging strategic alliances with top healthcare brands in the world to start Saudi German Hospital and Harley Street London Clinic in Bahria Town. We are already building 4 Hyatt-Branded Hotels one each in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Company`s product/services profile?
HAPPINESS IS INSIDE US. YOU JUST NEED TO FIND TIME FOR THE SMALL THINGS LIKE SMILING, SHARING A JOKE, SEEING A FLOWER SMILE, AND ABOVE ALL ENJOYING WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING. THIS IS HAPPINESS. THIS IS LIFE.
Real estate development with a mission to introduce international standard residential and commercial projects remains the forte of Bahria Town. Going a step ahead we are collaborating with international brands to introduce world class healthcare, hospitality and entertainment facilities right here in Pakistan.
Any remarkable recognition or achievements by the company? Bahria Town is the largest private real estate developer not only in Pakistan but in Asia. As a winner of 10 international awards and extensive coverage in the international print and electronic media, Bahria Town has earned respect that transcends cultures and continents. My team is geared to do even better. But personally for me now it’s the smile on the face of happy resident on Bahria Town, the trust of our investors, clients and affiliates; and above all the glimmer of hope in the eyes of our Dastarkhawan and free dialysis beneficiaries. Seeing them all pleased fills my heart with the greatest sense of achievement.
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PAKISTAN IS THE BEST PLACE FOR BUSINESS IN THE WORLD. WE HAVE THE BEST RESOURCES NATURAL, TECHNOLOGICAL AND HUMAN. ALL WE NEED TO DO IS TO CHANNELIZE THEM WELL, IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION TO OPTIMIZE PROFITS. INTEGRITY, DEDICATION AND QUALITY MAKE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUCCESS AND FAILURE.
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SULTANA SIDDIQUI Chairperson, HUM Network
Profile:
I belong to Hydrabad , my ancestors were from Sehwan. I received early education in Hyderabad , we are 10 brothers and sisters and Masha Allah all are very successful in their respective fields. But that all credit goes to my mother who persuaded us to get education irrespective of gender. I was not a studious but an average student. Apart from studies my core interest was in performing ARTS. Like dramas, dances and debates. Even for debates I used to travel different cities. I thank my family who supported me in an every stance that I have taken I graduated from Hyderabad. Though I have had an aim to do CSS but it did not happen as I got married in my early age. But I always had a passion to do something great in my life. After marriage I shifted to Karachi. Thereafter 7 years of my marriage I got divorced with my three sons and Masha Allah they all are obedient and a value addition in our society. My younger son Duraid is helping me and looking after the channel as CEO. When I parted with my husband I thought to do something for my children though I am from a well off family but my brothers motivated me to do for my interest to overcome my emotions . At that time PTV announced vacancies in production so, I joined PTV as a producer and there I produced different kinds of programmes. Later, I established a production house in my home, and produced many different hits like, Marvi, Yeh Zindagi etc. My younger son suggested me to establish a TV channel of our own, and he worked hard to make it feasible and listed it into stock exchange.
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CEO Club: What is leadership to you, our leaders born or made, differentiate between a good manager and a good leader? Sultana Siddiqui: In my opinion leaders are born you cannot make anyone a good leader , a good leader leads his/ her team as a whole and face every hindrances with courage and came out with a successful solution .
What is the contribution of HUM channel for dignifying the artist’s role in Pakistan, and in what ways we can make progress in our performing Art and Artistes? It is very necessary to dignify artist’s role. Though new channels have been introduced but institutions are not there to meet the demands of media industry. So, it becomes very difficult for any channel to overcome these issues. We are proud to state that we are contributing more towards development of manpower by providing on ground training to the willing ones. And maybe it is easier for us to train professional because I came from the same profession.
What are the challenges and opportunities in media industry? I would say a lot, because as a growing industry everyone needs to be in top two or three, otherwise they are not going to survive. So, these challenges are going to run the whole show. Because there are so many options available for viewer that you cannot stop them at all. If you won’t produce quality programs viewer automatically will shift to another channel. For being in top you should maintain your quality not quantity, you should be well versed in your profession , be sincere with your profession, use media as an effective medium to convey your messages to the viewer , respect viewer’s choices and it’s not an easy task to do I am telling you. This could only be achieved with a lot of dedication and research. We used to do a lot of research before starting an program like focus group and try to find out solutions for why , how and what?
How would you define your own management and leadership style? Well, I am not an authoritarian kind of leader. I give more liberty to my team and work together with them. I try to learn from youth as well as encouraging them to share their ideas. I do believe in continuous learning and share my experiences with youth as I think knowledge sharing with others is very necessary.
What is the toughest decision you had to take so far? I think establishment of a private TV channel is the toughest decision I have had so far. And not only establishment of a private channel but to make it successful in the audiences , Masha Allah it’s all in front of you that how well I am running this business?.
How do you manage work place and business stress? Planning is the key to overcome stresses though you have some problems to deal with it initially, but in the end you get used to of it. For stress I don’t push myself into it and try to take it as lightly as possible and somehow manage to overcome.
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AZIZ MEMON Chairman, Kings Group
Profile: Aziz Memon is a humanitarian, industrialist and diplomat who serves as the Chairman of the National Polio Plus Committee, Pakistan, for Rotary International, and has dedicated his time and resources to completely eradicate polio from Pakistan. His efforts towards community service are include education, flood relief, health and many other initiatives. The President of Pakistan has conferred him with a “Pride of Performance” award for his dedication to public service. Mr. Memon has also won numerous awards, including the Rotary Foundation Citation for Meritorious Service Award, Rotary International’s highest award “Service Above Self,” and the Rotary Regional Service Award for a Polio-Free World. As an industrialist, he is one of the largest textile manufacturers and exporters, and has founded and chaired numerous industry, trade, and social forums, such as the Pakistan-Japan Business Forum and the Pakistan-Italy Business Forum. He is Chairman and CEO of Karachi Garment City. President United Memon Jamat of Pakistan, President English Speaking Union of Pakistan. Mr. Memon also holds a diplomatic office as the Honorary Consul General, Republic of Suriname.
“OPTIMISM IS A SIMPLE CONCEPT; EITHER THE GLASS IS HALF EMPTY OR IT IS HALF FULL. I HAVE ALWAYS SEEN THE GLASS AS BEING HALF FULL AND I NEVER FOCUSED ON THE OTHER PART.”
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CEO Club: Please share your journey of social entrepreneurship and your work regarding polio eradication and other social causes. Aziz Memon: Our journey in business started almost 45 years ago with a small business that has now grown into a tangible and strong industry. We have made our mark, having done so I believe we should give back to the country and society through which we have earned. So I got involved in many philanthropist activities such as building schools, solar water filtration pumps and providing hand pumps to rural areas etc. We fully understand the importance of education and literacy and support education for all community and to fulfill our social obligation. In the year 2002, in collaboration with The Citizens Foundation, we have established a Primary School “Kings Friendship Campus”, in Winder Baluchistan, with donation of PKR 7.80 million to provide good education for less privileged areas. The school of more than 500 students of the community including boys and girls till Grade 11 is being run by TCF. The school continues to thrive today and provides quality education.
A dream project of the ‘Rotary Club of Karachi PN Model School Lyari’ for which a colossal amount of Rs. 40 million was raised. About 2,500 plus children are being provided English medium education at the school. After becoming the President of the United Memon Jamat of Pakistan he has formed an Education Sub-Committee to work with their utmost focus on bringing a meaningful up gradation amongst the community through continuous providing resources for their education. The United Memon Jamat of Pakistan has also adopted twenty schools covering more than more than 10,000 students and is paying stipends to teachers. Regular Scholarship and financial assistance in shape of admission, tuition fees, cost of books/notebooks and other assistance are being provided to needy and deserving students I am the member of the International PolioPlus Committee and the Chair of the Pakistan National PolioPlus for the last eight years. The eradication of polio has been my passion as well as mission.
Rotary International so far contributed US$134 million to eradicate polio from Pakistan. We need to stop this virus from circulating since it is crippling our children, there is not cure but prevention exists. Unfortunately we are one of the two countries in the entire world left that are still affected by this epidemic. When we started our journey of polio eradication there were 300,000 cases a year in almost 125 countries. Now only Pakistan and Afghanistan are left with a handful of cases. We need to strengthen our children by making them healthy and literate thus enabling the bright future of Pakistan.
Do you feel that affluent and leading businessmen are contributing to the social up-gradation of society in Pakistan? I feel everybody should participate; as a matter of fact numerous legislations have been passed stating that big companies through their CSR need to contribute to the social sector. In India there is a legislation stating that they have to contribute 2.5 percent to their CSR. In our country a prevalent statement that people make is that they give Zakat; that is another area altogether. I feel everybody should contribute irrespective of whether it is on large or small scale.
What are your views regarding the current situation on Pakistan? I am a very positive person and I see a bright future for Pakistan.
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Please share a brief history of Kings Group? Kings Group has a interests in manufacturing textiles, retail, travel, real estate development, medical supplies distribution and clinical research, solar power and energy provision, and in business outsourcing. The core company Kings Apparel Industries (Pvt.) Ltd., has been awarded eight“Best Export Performance Trophies” and eight “Special Merit Trophies” by the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry successively for the last 16 years, for highest export in the category of Knitted Garments. Kings Apparel is a vertically integrated knitwear production company, which was incorporated in 1988. It has established a phenomenal presence in the international markets of Europe and the United States and supplies to major clothing brands and large buying houses. The manufacturing facility has an in-house production capacity of eight million units per annum and exports 100 % of its output. Kings Apparel Industries happen to be the pioneers in organic cotton growth in Pakistan in fields of lower Sindh and Balochistan. Kings Apparel Industries produces the highest quality garments and its entire organizational and production processes are equipped and continuously updated to satisfy the buyers. Kings Apparel is an establishment which cares about its reputation and future. Kings Group is a conglomerate of (09) nine companies having annual turnover of US$ 100.00 million - Kings Textile Industries. - Kings Clothing - Franchisee of United Colors of Benetton, Italy - ACE Travels Aviation and Travel Services - Grand Enterprises - Property Development. - Pacific Commodities, dealing in various commodities. - MEDCO - Medical Services & Supplies Company. - Pure-Aqua – The Water Filtration Company. Orion Solatr Power.
“LIFE IS FULL OF CHALLENGES AND TOUGH TIMES THAT ONLY CEASE WHEN YOU ARE NO MORE. SO AS LONG AS YOU ARE IN THE CIRCLE OF LIFE THESE CHALLENGES HAVE TO BE FACED.”
What are the challenges and opportunities within your sector? There are a lot of opportunities along with some hurdles; electricity, water and logistics are the issues that the government needs to tackle. There is a lot of potential to increase our exports; as I have been saying we can double our exports, hopefully we will manage to do so.
Do you believe in women empowerment? Of course, in the garment manufacturing sector 65 percent of our workers are women. We believe in giving them wages that are equivalent to their male counterparts and providing them with all the possible facilities including maternity leave etc. We are equal opportunity employers.
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How did you feel when you met with Bill Gates? Bill Gates is a very humble and down to earth person; he has a mission and a great amount of passion. He has set aside 10 billion dollars for just one cause that is to protect children from the time of birth to 5 years. Unfortunately we have one of the highest infant mortality rates. It is very sad when today amidst so many facilities a child dies of measles; it is a crime. We have to work towards restoring order in our health care system and there is a lot that needs to be done.
What is your opinion on our educational sector? I feel health comes first and then comes education because it is only when you don’t kill a child before the age of 5 that he/she has the chance to go to school or acquire an education. Therefore we first need to lay emphasis on routine immunization and ensure the health of a child. Then focus on education which is very important; especially female literacy which is very low in Pakistan. Our issues and problems all originate from the lack of literacy, most commonly in areas of FATA and KPK to name a few.
Please tell us about the school that you have setup for farmer’s families? Our schools are just a drop in the ocean; they cannot change the future of Pakistan. The government needs to create an environment that promotes education.
Who is a source of inspiration to you? My late mother was source of great inspiration to me; I owe whatever I am today to her. I have met with many world leaders but the one person who has touched and inspired me is Nelson Mandela, he had a certain charisma and magic that is difficult to put into words.
Are you into the habit of reading and what are some of your favorite books? We need to read to be able to progress; Lord Byron said “A man dies before he learns to live”. Life is a journey we need to learn something new every day. I am fond of reading history and used to read fiction.
Any message of hope and optimism that you would like to give out to our younger generation; Optimism is a simple concept; either the glass is half empty or it is half full. I have always seen the glass as being half full and I never focused on the other part. If you maintain a vision of the glass being half full difficulties become easy; there will be challenges for everyone whether it is in terms of industry, personal life or the history of the nation. If you have a clear goal and a mindset of passion, commitment and dedication you will reach your goal.
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RIZWAN U. KHAN Country General Manager, Pakistan and Afghanistan Region, The Coca-Cola Export Corporation
Profile: Rizwan Khan joined Coca-Cola in 1996. Previously, he has served in a number of different business functions, including Operations, Marketing, Customer Services, Public Affairs and Communications (PA&C). In September 2005 he was appointed as Coca-Cola’s Country Manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan. Prior to joining Coca-Cola, he has worked for 5 years with the Pearl Continental Group of Hotels, as head of sales. He has also served as the first President of the American Business Forum (ABF), for two consecutive terms, which he had helped to establish in 2009. He has also served as the honorary vice-chairman of the Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) for a period of about 2 years. Also, owing to Rizwan’s aggressive leadership, Coca-Cola Pakistan has secured position in the Company’s Top 32 Markets in terms of growing volume share across the system. Over the years Rizwan has steered the transformation of Coca-Cola Pakistan into one of the leading socially responsible organizations in the country, by forging strong partnerships with local communities.
“WITH PASSION AND COMPASSION, ONE CAN TRULY TRANSFORM GENERATIONS.”
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CEO Club: Please share with us your daily routine, your professional background. Rizwan U. Khan: For me time is precious, hence I’m an early starter. Before heading out to work I like to have breakfast with my family and reflect on ourselves. At work, it is rare that any 2 days are the same. Given the nature of our business and countrywide geographic spread, there are a variety of decisions that I have to take, while also supporting my team’s progress on various tasks. Having a great team working on daily operational issues means that I have more time to focus on key areas like sustainable growth of our business. At the end of the working day, usually around 7 pm or so, I try to put in some time in working out or going for a brisk walk before dinner with the family. Regarding my professional background, I joined Coca-Cola about 16 years ago in 1996. Initially I served in a number of different business functions, including operations, marketing, customer services and public affairs and communications. Then, in September 2005, I was appointed as Coca-Cola’s General Manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan. Prior to joining Coca-Cola, I worked for 5 years with the Pearl Continental Group of Hotels, as the head of sales. I have also served as the first President, for 2 consecutive terms, of the American Business Forum (ABF) which I helped to establish in 2009. Also, for a period of about 2 years, I served as the honorary Vice-Chairman of the Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT), an agency established by the government of Punjab to promote investment in Punjab.
Who has been your greatest inspiration? I have been fortunate in life to meet and interact with many inspirational people from different walks of life – corporate executives, political leaders, social workers, academia, sportspersons, even musicians. Then, throughout my life I have been inspired by people from history, and again from different walks of life. Writers and philosophers especially have helped shape my analytical thinking. But the greatest inspiration for me has been and still is, my father. He has been a huge role model for me for uprightness, honesty, hard work and propriety.
What is the difference between Pakistan’s beverage market and other countries? Coca-Cola conducts business in 206 countries and territories of the world, with 2.1 billion servings every day of its products. So, you can imagine that each market or each country has its own local conditions to which our business must respond. One difference on the positive side between Pakistan and many other countries, is the huge and growing youth population of Pakistan. For us this is both a challenge and an opportunity.
How much growth do you observe in Coca-Cola Pakistan, since the time you have been working as the country manager? Our growth over the past few years has been both sustainable and strong- I can say that the year on year growth has been in double digits. However, the FMCG industry has been struggling for sustainable growth within the last few years due to economic downturn and fiscal policies. Do you believe Coca Cola Pakistan is generating significant employment through direct or indirect jobs? Our business has always created significant employment. Today it generates direct employment for 4,000+ people, indirect employment in the supply chain for 35,000 people and indirect employment through a multiplier effect for 450,000 people.
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Is Coca-Cola Pakistan planning to diversify into other lines of products? Coca-Cola globally has been and remains a beverage company. Today on a global basis, we refresh the minds and body of consumers 2.1 billion times a day. At the same time, we are of course continuously developing and launching new products and brands in response to consumers evolving taste preferences to offer them a wider range of choices from low to zero calorie products even.
What is the CSR policy of Coca-Cola Pakistan? Coca-Cola’s CSR policy is based on one fundamental guideline – creating shared value for our shareholders and our stakeholders so that our business can operate in a healthy environment. The stakeholders include our employees, our business partners and our suppliers and vendors, the government, consumers, civil society organizations, local communities and the larger civil society. So, all our CSR interventions, mainly in the fields of water stewardship, environment, education, women empowerment and youth development, are conceptualized, planned and executed to ensure that benefits accrue for all those whose lives we touch through our business. Our CSR portfolio of projects in worth around US$ 8 million.
Please describe the key points of your management style and the most important management strategy you have implemented so far? c Hence, in my management style I like to empower our people, while trying to lead from the front and be a role model.
Huge conglomerates have complex harassment issues, what anti-harassment policy have you adopted in order to avoid such situations? Coca-Cola globally has very clear and well laid-out rules and policies regarding behavior, both at work and outside of work. There is zero tolerance for not only harassment but also any other unruly or unethical behavior that can negatively impact our reputation or our business. However, I have to add that in our 59 years of business in Pakistan, we have never had any complex harassment issue, and I think this is at least partly owing to the thorough diligence we exercise in selecting people to work for us to start with.
Coca Cola Pakistan has recently extended its water sustainability programs in Asia Pacific; what initiatives are planned for Pakistan? In Pakistan we are already working with NGOs like WWF, MGPO, IET, UNDP and Rotary to enhance waste and environment conservation efforts. These projects have replenished over 2.7 billion liters back to the communities annually making Pakistan the first Water Positive Region in the Coca-Cola MENA System. We continue to collaborate with local communities for sustainable growth of our business and well-being of all our civil society.
Is your company profitable in these tough years of economic downturn? If so then, how have sales grown in the last few years? Coca-Cola’s business in Pakistan has grown year on year despite the tough and diversified challenges that we have faced. I attribute this to our good governance and our long-term vision.
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As the future for the beverage market appears brighter and brighter each day, what plans and growth strategies lie ahead in Coca Cola Pakistan’s pipeline? We have recently inaugurated Greenfield plants in Multan and Faisalabad and we are in the process of establishing a greenfield project in Karachi as a part of our expansion plans. We have invested over 250 million dollars in Pakistan in recent years and plan to invest a 500 million dollars in the next 5 years. Our business approach is very consumer-centric and we will continue to introduce new products and brands in Pakistan to meet the evolving demand of consumers.
What are some of the growth strategies that Coca Cola Pakistan has implemented to foray into untapped markets? Our growth strategy focuses on comprehensively understanding consumers of our products and their needs and desires; both present needs and future needs. To this end, we engage with consumers in several ways and at many levels.
How do you define success? What is the best way to achieve long-term success? I would define success simply as being able to make a positive difference in the lives of everyone whom you touch personally and whom your business touches professionally.
How do you see Pakistan’s economy? I think there is huge potential in Pakistan. In coming years the opportunities will be so huge that Pakistan will grow from five to seven percent. We only have to fix fundamental issues of Pakistan. Number one is energy, if we only fix the energy crisis, the GDP will grow to three percent. And if you are able to address the law and order situation, inflation and interest rates, this economy has the potential to grow in double digits by the year 2025.
What is your take on good governance? Good governance is the number one priority in Pakistan. Whatever we have suffered in the last 66 years is due to the lack of good governance. It has to be a performance-based culture; along with that you have to bring systems to track performance. If we have the accountability system for each and every individual, Pakistan will deliver something. Pakistan will become one of the big markets in next three to five years. There are countries which have done the same thing, they improved governance, they created and highlighted the opportunities, and reformed their fiscal and monetary policies.
How can we surmount the problem of human resource management in Pakistan? I think first of all we need to focus on exponentially raising the level of education in our country, both in terms of the quality of education and in terms of its availability to everyone. With greater education will come greater use of inherent intelligence and skills, leading to optimization of our human resources. However, we should continue to create more opportunities for our youth employment. How can we inculcate a sense of ethics in our young professionals? Values are something you learn at home; that is the first institution. The second place is your educational institution where you teach values to children at an early age, that will have a lasting impact on their personalities. Education develops the personality; that inspires people what is right and what is wrong. Pakistan needs to focus on education to create healthy minds.
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What is your take on entrepreneurship and how can we create job providers rather than the job seekers? First of all we should have an entrepreneurship culture here. Then we need to create the right environment so that people have the opportunity to work on their own. It is not the sole responsibility of government as everything blamed on the government, which is not fair. In fact, everyone is responsible; educational institutions, social sector, financial sectors and so on. You need to provide access to finances, access to opportunities, etc. to let people perform. Let the thinking process begin as there are so many ideas that are generally ignored.
How many people are there on your payroll? There are about six thousand people.
Who is your inspiration? My role model is my late father. I have seen him working very hard in life. Then, whatever I am today is just because of Pakistan. If Quaid-e-Azam had not taken the initiative to make Pakistan, I wouldn’t be here where I sit today. So, another hero I follow is Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah for his unprecedented passion and integrity towards our nation.
Your idea of happiness? Be content in life. Be happy in life. And thank God for what you have. Aspire for bigger things but be content.
Your favorite book you like others to read? There is a very interesting book Five“ temptations of a CEO” that I always like to read.
We have compiling book on 100 best performing leaders of Pakistan, what is your take on the scope of these kinds of books? I think it is very good start, I always say that in Pakistan, the corporate sector is very much unrepresented despite the number of employment it has created and the taxes it generates. Manager today has done a wonderful job. I think it is good start; it should have been done a long time back. But it’s never too late.
What do you say about such books and the CEO Summit on how it will create a better image of Pakistan? I think, at this time Pakistan needs a platform, and the business community needs to get together and share their ideas freely and talk about the issues and challenges it faces. In due course of time it will become one of those clubs which will be looked up to. If the right people are there and if the objectives are very clear, it will become a platform where policies are formed for the future.
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“I HAVE ALWAYS BELIEVED IN CREATING STRONG TEAMS, AS AT THE END OF THE DAY IT IS YOUR PEOPLE WHO WILL EITHER MAKE OR BREAK YOUR BUSINESS. THE FIRST CONDITION FOR BUILDING STRONG TEAMS IS, OF COURSE, GETTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE ON BOARD. I BELIEVE THAT AFTER BUILDING A STRONG TEAM IT IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT THAT THE TEAM FLOURISHES AND GIVES ITS BEST.
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ASAD ALI KHAN President, Abacus Consulting
Profile: Mr. Asad Ali Khan is the President of Abacus (since the company’s founding in 1987). He has been associated with PricewaterhouseCoopers (and its legacy firms) for a large part of his career in Australia, Middle East and Pakistan. He has been involved in top-level consultancy at the board level and has acted as a professional board member on corporate boards of several multinational companies in Pakistan and the Middle East. Mr. Khan is the recipient of the ‘Australian Alumni Award for Business Leadership’ by the Australian Trade Commission, Government of Australia and is a fellow chartered accountant from Australia and an alumnus of Hailey College where he did his B. Com with honours; and University of New South Wales where he completed his post-graduation study.
PAKISTAN IS A LAND OF OPPORTUNITY. DO NOT LOSE HOPE IN YOUR COUNTRY. STAND UP AND FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS. YOU WILL SEE A NEW WORLD WAITING FOR YOU
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CEO Club: Share Abacus Consulting’s brief history? Asad Ali Khan: Abacus is a professional services firm providing management consulting, technology and outsourcing services. Founded in 1987 at a small two-room facility with 4 employees, Abacus has experienced exponential growth. Today, the company has an overall employee strength in excess of 2500 and 10 offices in the MENASA (Middle East – North Africa – South Asia) region through which it serves clients in three continents with a global project footprint spanning 24 countries. Abacus serves 23 out of 35 Fortune-100 companies operating in Pakistan, with 150 to 300 clients entertained each year. Abacus has over 400 subject area specialist consultants active in multiple fields, and a track record of more than 1200 successfully completed projects to date.
Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays. How can we create job providers/entrepreneurs rather than job-seekers? The greater the diversity and growth across all GDP sectors, the greater the employment opportunities. Entrepreneurship is one aspect which is capable of bringing rapid growth and creating jobs.
We are not poor in resources but governance. Do you believe that good governance can help us wrestle with this dilemma? What is your take on good governance? I have no doubt in my mind that with effective and honest leaders and managers at the right places supported by robust mechanisms underlying the corporate governance and cross-checks and balances, we can easily resolve the dilemma.
What is leadership to you? Are leaders born or made? I think that the leaders are made. I firmly believe that anybody who can make a difference in the lives of the people with the right value system and a focused approach has the potential to grow into a leader.
What is the difference between a good manager and a good leader? A good manager is one who is able to manage, direct and drive a process or a project with speed and success. And a good leader is able to translate vision into a reality.
What are core competencies of leadership that you want to see in managers? They must be decisive, should have the ability to inspire people around them, should be passionate with product knowledge and have the vision to always stay focused on the bottom-line.
We are facing a dilemma in business ethics. How can we inculcate a sense of ethics into our managers? We need to work at grassroot level to inculcate a sense of business ethics in our people. At Abacus, we have a strong value system which helps to foster a corporate culture that demonstrates living our values complemented by effective communication across the organisation.
Do you have the team to lead the business growth? People are your greatest asset in the service industry. Our internal HR processes are very stringent in identifying the right resource. We have people with high integrity in key positions that are also
| 121 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | visionary, ambitious, open and accountable; who are able to see ahead, focus on the future, lead, shape and inspire and, last but not the least, are compliant with our value system.
What are the challenges and opportunities in your industry? Decision-makers and owners generally think that any investment in technology can wait and the legacy systems are good enough to sustain their businesses. This is a recipe for disaster. We keep reminding them that the status quo is not an option. The only way forward is to disrupt the status quo and embrace the best of the breed integrated technology. This remains our biggest challenge.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenges? How do you retain top talent in the company? Our compensation packages are designed not only from retention perspective but also to ensure its market compatibility. Our performance evaluation system is aimed at recognizing good performers. They are judged on their contribution towards company, client and people. Their performance is then rewarded in shape of increments, promotions, bonuses and special awards to keep them focused and self-driven at work.
Is training and coaching a high priority for you? Our biggest challenge is the retention of our people. We invest considerably on people by providing on-the-job training, internal training and then competence-based training through our alliance partners at different locations inside and outside Pakistan. We provide our people with access to the knowledge economy through global databases and ensure that they remain abreast with the best global practices. We create value in them and that’s the reason that our consultants are in great demand in the industry.
Can you share your contribution towards CSR? We have been very conscious of Corporate Social Responsibility. We do provide advisory services to clients engaged in social and public sectors either on highly subsidized rates or pro bono basis. We also continue to provide financial assistance for flood/ earthquake victims.
What steps should be taken to empower women? Does your company have a harassment policy? Women should be encouraged to play a vital role in the process of economic growth and nation building. Our HR policy is to provide equal opportunities to all. When it comes to harassment, we have an uncompromising policy.
What are your strategies regarding succession planning? We have no outside shareholders in the Company. The Company is held by those actively involved in business at the leadership level. Hence, there is an in-built mechanism for succession and developing the next generation of leaders.
Please shed some light regarding best management practices? My humble advice would be to adopt best governance framework: be honest to yourself, do not misrepresent and deprive your people, vendors and key stakeholders of their rights and strictly follow the value system.
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Do you have any plans of expansion? We are already working on projects in several territories. Right now, we are in a consolidation phase. I am not a clairvoyant but surely, God willing, we should expect our Company to be a much bigger international player in times to come.
How would you define your leadership and management style? I have unwavering faith in corporate governance and delegation of responsibilities and authority, setting the KPIs down to organizational hierarchical structure and then holding them accountable with periodical monitoring and evaluation.
What has been the toughest decision that you had taken so far? By 2003, our company stood operationally integrated into the PricewaterhouseCoopers’s global consulting practice. Following the promulgation of Sarbanes Oxley Act and the sale of PwC’s consulting business to IBM in 2003, we had a choice between ‘being sold to IBM’ or ‘going independent’. On one hand, we could collect a handsome sale price and on the other, going independent presented a very high risk of survival. This was the toughest nut to crack. We opted for the latter course. In hindsight, it turned out to the best option. At the time, we had one office in Pakistan with a man-power of about 60 people. Today, we are over 2500 people across 10 offices in 4 countries.
From where do you get your inspiration? Peter Drucker, the man who invented management, is a good choice for a modern-day thinker and professional role model.
What is your favourite book? I would strongly recommend Peter Drucker’s books
How do you manage business stress? Work hard as much as you can but once you are done, switch off your office mind and then go on to play sports or a physical exercise and spend time with your dear ones.
Any message of hope? Pakistan is a land of opportunity. Do not lose hope in your country. Stand up and fight for your rights. You will see a new world waiting for you.
Any achievement you are proud of? Abacus Consulting has earned many accolades over the period of last three decades. Recently, we have secured 4 awards on Diversity & Inclusion for vision, leadership, recruitment and social responsibility. It is a reflection of our effective Diversity & Inclusion strategy and supporting the best practices in this regard by becoming more diverse globally. We are now among those few future-focused organizations who want to ensure long-term sustainability for the people and the world as a whole. By winning these awards, Abacus has entered into the league of organizations who are working on the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations i.e. ‘A plan of Action for People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership’ for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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AAMIR NIAZI CEO, HRSG People & Business Advisory
Profile: Aamir Niazi is leading HRSG’s People & Business Advisory, which comprises of management consulting, talent and insurance brokerage. His career spans over 38 years of global leadership built on delivering significant results. Prior to this, he was the CEO and Managing Director of Descon Oxychem and Descon Chemicals, both are listed companies. Internationally, he has held senior leadership roles with FMC Corporation LLC in the U.S and British Oxygen Group PLC in the UK. Aamir has been selected for six consecutive years as one of the top 100 CEOs and business leaders in Pakistan. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Pakistan Society for Training & Development, including its President between 2013 and 2016. He has served as Co-Chair for the Border Facilitation of the Pakistan-India Joint Business Forum, a premier platform for fostering a strong relationship between the two countries. Aamir is an advocate for women’s rights and was the Chairperson for the International Advisory Board for Women 2017 and he is the Chairperson for the Advisory Council of Pakistan’s Women Entrepreneurs Network. He publishes extensively on economic, industrial and foreign policy. He is a graduate of Aitchison College, where he was a Valedictorian, Rivaz gold medalist, Cricket Captain and the Head Boy. He went to the U.S for undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Cox School of Business at the Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. He graduated No.1 in his MBA class and won the prestigious SEDCO prize that was the first time in the university’s history, for an international student to have topped since it was established in April 1911.
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CEO Club: Please share your professional background as how it all started? Aamir Niazi: It all started when I worked in a restaurant and as a porter at a hotel to pay for my living expenses, while at SMU as a full time student. These seven years defined how I would approach life. It taught me about character, courage, compassion, dignity of labor, resilience and grit. I learnt about the value of relationships, teams and accepting the learnings from failure. Only to rise from the experience of falling down and converting that into opportunities for delivering excellence.
Through all this, remaining humble and expressing gratitude every day of my life. I was particularly blessed to find exceptional mentors at FMC, Sumitomo, and British Oxygen, who provided outstanding opportunities to grow without boundaries and fears. Those early years established the footprint for my life. I attribute my success to God’s exceptional compassion and His benevolence towards me and my family.
What is the company’s business philosophy, vision and mission statements? HRSG is the largest diversified human capital platform in the country. It comprises of a group companies providing innovative business solutions nationally, regionally and globally. We are proud to work with many of the world’s most prominent multinational and local companies in both the private and public sectors. Some of these include Nestle, Total PARCO, National Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan Petroleum Limited, TCS, National Tuberculosis Program, SSGC, Telenor, PSO, House of Habib, and International Industries. We help our clients and partners with their most valuable resource: their people. The firm has been serving Pakistan and the international market for 26 years. Major verticals include Recruiting, Outsourcing, Business Process Outsourcing, Consulting, Insurance and Tech.
Our Vision: We aspire to enrich the lives and work of people globally.
Our Mission: We partner with people and companies to help them do their best, while living our shared values and culture.
How do you define corporate culture at HRSG? How do you make sure that people live, act and breathe your organization’s vision, mission & core values? 1. People first 2. Excellence 3. Collaboration 4. Integrity 5. Diversity
Please share your company’s last three years turnover and average revenue growth? HRSG is a private limited company, therefore, it does not publish its financial statements. However, the scope of its businesses clearly indicates that it is the largest human capital firm in Pakistan. Having stated that, it is not the scale which matters, but the quality of our commitment in helping clients consistently deliver their operating and strategic agendas. This is the partnership perspective which continues to be most impactful.
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Please share the company’s hiring, IR, training, compensation and talent management practices? retention of key people is one of the biggest challenges. How do you develop and retain the top talent of the company? HRSG’s practice is one of meritocracy. The company resources, develops and retains its staff based on a transparent performance and reward criteria. The firm aspires to resource, nurture and develop the best people.
How much focus is given by your company to training, coaching and mentoring, how much time/budget do you devote for this? What is the ROI (return on investment) of training programs? Training, coaching and mentoring are an integral part of the HRSG’s organizational culture. There is recognition in the board as well as at the executive level, these are the major enablers for a high performance organization.
Do you have a winning team? How do you motivate them? Assess their performance & make them accountable for results? Yes, we have a winning team at HRSG, which consistently delivers outstanding results. Providing the right culture, motivation and respect are the most important things we do. At our firm, we treat team members as equals and listen to them. We have genuine respect for what they do. We communicate with them frequently. Celebrating their wins, helping them meet their aspirations, and thoughtful development are the main ethos.
What are three key challenges of CEOs / business leaders in Pakistan? 1. Creating a strategic vision. 2. Inspiring others and maintaining leadership responsibility. 3. Predicting the future.
What are four core competencies that you want to see in our upcoming CEOs? 1. Vision. 2. Strategic Thinking. 3. Culture/communications. 4. Business and financial acumen.
Being CEO of an organization, what is your strategy regarding succession planning and developing the next generation of leaders? 1. Create a written succession plan. 2. Conduct regular in-depth reviews. 3. Narrow the field to two to three candidates for each position. 4. Measure internal candidates against their peers at other firms.
What are the ethical challenges for leadership? 1. Establish a Code of Conduct, which must not be compromised. 2. Always doing the right thing.
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3. Balance profits with community engagement. 4. In developing people, always check their moral compass. 5. Unconditional transparency.
What’s your style of leadership? How do you want to improve as a leader? My style is best expressed as a leader who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.
Sometimes CEOs are stuck on short-term operational goals at the expense of long-term strategic planning. Please comment? Short-term operating objectives directly contribute to the achievement of long-term strategic goals. Effective CEOs ensure that there are logical linkages between the two. In addition, they have the competence to bring about effective integration, which avoids the risk of short-term goals cannibalizing longer term strategic objectives.
What are top three benchmarks for high performing CEOs who have created long-term significance for their companies? 1. How much value are they creating? 2. How well are they performing against their competition? 3. How well are they performing against their peers?
Why is Emotional intelligence important for CEOs, especially in tough times? Emotional intelligence is one of the vital competencies for a leader. Even a high tech company, a bank or a production facility has to understand that behind every business process, customer decision, and an employee, is a person. People, passions, emotions and decisions can either make or break your business. Understanding how people’s emotions operate in good and bad times is key for your success. People skills will create success or disaster, probably more than any other skill in your business. One wrong person or decision can bring down an entire company. The right people, the right decisions and the right attitudes can create a fortune for you and your business.
Describe an instance where you made a significant mistake being a CEO? Any regrets or key learning? In the FMC-Sumitomo, there was a global manufacturing rationalization decision that was a mistake. My focus was to learn from it and convert that to an opportunity. As a team, we were able to turn that around, and subsequently, experienced handsome returns.
Please list and rank your three job motivators being a CEO? 1. Satisfaction of doing great business. 2. Helping people maximize their potential. 3. Using our business for social entrepreneurship and helping the community.
Business speaks the language of digits. To what extent should a CEOs be finance savvy? What are the three most important numbers in a firm’s financial statements? Finance is the language of business and the CEO needs to have a deep insight into the numbers that
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How do you manage conflicts at workplace and to model solutions for complex multidimensional problems? I follow the ethos. Don’t fear conflict, embrace it – it’s your job. Having said that, I use the following approach to effectively resolve conflict: 1. Clear, concise, accurate and timely communication. 2. Avoid the mistake of letting emotions drive decisions. 3. Define acceptable behavior clearly and publicly, make it known what will and won’t be tolerated. 4. Hit conflict head-on. 5. Understand the WIIFM factor (what’s in it for me). 6. View conflict as an opportunity – I see that hidden within virtually every conflict is the potential for a teaching/learning opportunity.
What’s the toughest decision you ever made? What did you learn from that one? The toughest decision was to leave FMC in the U.S., one of the finest organizations in the world. That was required as our family had decided to return to Pakistan. The learning was that though we leave organizations, the relationships developed over the years sustain, and overcome all geographical limitations.
Any accomplishment that you consider momentous in your career so far? Sixth time inclusion in this book is a matter of pride for my family and me.
Who is your living role model & inspiration, and why? My parents are my role models and inspiration. They taught me how to live life and build a legacy of service, contribution and humility.
How far have you succeeded in managing a good work – life balance? 1. Track my time and manage it well. 2. Taking advantage of options. 3. Learning to say no. 4. Leave work at work. 5. Bolster my support system – never underestimate my family’s support. 6. Nurture and renew myself.
“TRAINING, COACHING AND MENTORING ARE AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE HRSG’S ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE.”
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“EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IS ONE OF THE VITAL COMPETENCIES FOR A LEADER. EVEN A HIGH TECH COMPANY, A BANK OR A PRODUCTION FACILITY HAS TO UNDERSTAND THAT BEHIND EVERY BUSINESS PROCESS, CUSTOMER DECISION, AND AN EMPLOYEE, IS A PERSON. PEOPLE, PASSIONS, EMOTIONS AND DECISIONS CAN MAKE OR BREAK YOUR BUSINESS.”
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HAJI MUHAMMAD RAFIQ PARDESI Chairman, HMR GROUP
Profile: Haji Muhammad Rafiq Pardesi is a Pakistani business tycoon based in Dubai UAE. He is the Chairman HMR GROUP – a leading real estate developer in Pakistan and UAE, and an icon of the textile market in Tanzania. The success of Haji Rafiq is deeply rooted into over a 100 year old family business. He stepped into his family business of textile in 1982 that was established by his father Haji Abdul Rahim Giga in 1956 in Dubai, UAE. Haji Rafiq strategically focused on both trade and regional diversification. He steered and proved his mettle as Giga group then again accepted new challenges and introduced HMR Group in 2015 under his exclusive captaincy. His leadership led the family business to win the Largest Exporter to Non Quota Countries award for the continuous 17 years. Haji Rafiq has earned an esteemed status in African market where his textile business is a synonym of quality and trust; the composite unit in Dar- es-Salaam, Tanzania operates with a workforce of over 3000, which received appreciation of the President of Tanzania for contribution to the Tanzanian economy. He established a Gold Refinery in 2003 at the Dubai Multi Commodity Centre (DMCC) in UAE with Al Ghurair Group. The refinery was setup with annual production capacity of 100 metric tonnes and it was the first gold refinery that started operation in DMCC. Haji Rafiq was managing the refinery as Vice Chairman. His strategic move to diversify the business led him to enter the arena of construction and property development in 2004; Goldcrest towers JLT, Dubai; the World Trade Centre, Islamabad; and Crescent Bay Karachi are key real estate projects undertaken exclusively and with joint venture partners. The Goldcrest View tower in JLT won best developer award of Citiscape for design and quality.
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CEO Club: Could you share with us a bit about how you started the HMR Group? Haji Muhammad Rafiq Pardesi: It wasn’t easy; I started my career by stepping into my family business of textiles in 1982 in Dubai. Focusing on both trade and regional diversification led our business to enter into real estate and gold bullion in UAE, Pakistan and Africa. We reached new heights of success after proving our mettle and accepted new challenges and introduced HMR Group in 2015.When we started, we were basically exporters from Pakistan;even then, we were the largest non-quota exporters in the country. It was around that time when I was transferred to Africa and, later, to Dubai. In Dubai, we are considered one of the top-most organizations since 1956. My grandfather started his business in Dubai. That makes me the third generation and my children are the fourth generation to do business in Dubai.
Does that mean that you have seen the rise of Dubai with your own eyes? Of course, many places in Dubai sprung up in front of us. For example, I am the one who started Jumeirah Lake Towers project in Dubai. There was nothing there except desert and now it is like a garden. More than 100 towers have been built in the area. I invite you to go and see the quality of life over there now.
What is the secret of success of Dubai and how we can replicate this model in Pakistan? Their strength is their facility at decision making; they own their country, they love their country, they love their people and they love their business community. In Pakistan, I feel that one Pakistani does not support the other Pakistani; like as if they do not like each others success. I often wonder why is that?
What are the three economic challenges for Pakistan to turn around this country? From economic point of view, you can see for yourself that many people are willing to come here. I am one such example; I was in Dubai and I transferred here voluntarily. We also want Pakistan to grow. I roam around the world, our children have so much talent but they need a good direction, leadership and support. Look at the children of India –there was a dearth of quality talent in the recent past. Our children can go a long way if they get proper guidance and support.
Where do you see Pakistan in the next five years? It all depends on the decision, if they make the right decision, Pakistan will rise and the sky is the limit. So far, Pakistan always loses out due to our mistakes and bad or delayed decision. The problems we see here in Karachi are nothing according to the time we are in. I mean, imagine; for electricity connection approvals, people are offering proper fees and even bribes. Yet a simple necessity of life is so complicated to get.
You talked about leadership and governance, can you please define both of them? Leaders should keep competent and hardworking people in their teams but constantly weed out the lazy and lethargic elements. If I am the Prime Minister of this country, I should keep an eye on all the Ministers; I should see whether my people are working correctly or not. Look at Dubai – in 14 years Dubai has skyrocketed. Now many countries that were ahead, are far behind Dubai. It means if someone wants to do something, they can do it. People don’t want to leave Dubai; they choose to work for even lower wages as long as they don’t have to leave. That should give you an idea about the quality of life there.
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You are in the list of the makers of Dubai. What have you learnt from the people of Dubai which we can replicate here in Pakistan? I see the strength of their decision-making. We need good decision makers. If I don’t take good decisions while being a Chairman of a company, my company will not flourish as a result. If you are not a good decision maker, don’t occupy the place of decision making. Vacate it for someone competent.
Who will give direction to the people of Pakistan? A leader, of course. When Hazrat Muhammad (P.B.U.H) came, he gave the people direction. Now see the condition of the Muslims, today. Where are we? When a leader will come, they will get a direction. I am not a leader, I cannot direct someone towards the right path, but a leader can do this. It take years to develop something but destruction takes days.
Do you find any reason to be optimistic about Pakistan? If Pakistan gets a true leader, like you hear about Imran Khan, only then can we at least begin our journey towards prosperity. But I feel that the team with Imran Khan is not experienced enough to do things right.
Do you think that Imran Khan’s current team is incompetent? Khan sahib team is comprised of competent and honest players but lot of improvement need to be done. They should be reshuffled, reinforced with experienced professionals and market representatives. Khan sahib has got this chance after many years, that Government, Army and Judges are all on the same page;I’ve never seen this before in my life. This is the only chance but if nothing is done even this chance shall be wasted. There are ministers who are not coming up with innovative ideas and policies rather they are busy in abusing everyone for one thing or another. The question is, what have they done in their own field?What has been their performance? It is easy to point fingers at others. Imran Khan should leave such people and keep good and competent people with him.
How to keep/retain key people, what is the strategy to retain key people? I think a leader or a CEO should have a fundamental love of people;your workers are also human beings. If you exhibit your genuine care and affection for them, only then will you get love in return. Human beings are a blessing.
Whenever you hire a person on a manager level, executive level, HR chief or CFO, what three competencies you see in that person? Their proficiency in their field of expertise, their communication skills and their confidence. Major thing is confidence;even if someone is less qualified but is confident, I believe he can do the job, he will never lose.
Who is your role model and inspiration? I like Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohamad, the Prime Minister of Malaysia. He loves his people and the country. He has led his country to new height of success and despite reaching the age of 93 Malaysian people elected him again as Prime Minister and he is working for the betterment of his country.
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“IF YOU CHOOSE TO SEE DIFFICULTIES AS DIFFICULTIES, YOU WILL NOT GROW. THESE AREN’T DIFFICULTIES, THEY ARE CHALLENGES. OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOU TO LEARN AND GROW AND CONQUER.”
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M. HAROON QASSIM CEO, PharmEvo (Pvt.) Ltd.
Profile: Mohammad Haroon Qassim spearheads the most dynamic pharma company of Pakistan known to the world as PharmEvo (Pvt.) Ltd whose meteoric rise & rocketed journey to the club of top 20 companies amongst more than 700 companies in Pakistan landed him the standing of a leader & a mentor who stands in a class of his own. PharmEvo incredible journey of achieving the top rank in such a short span of time speaks volumes about his leadership, his unmatched vision & let’s-do-it approach. This incredible success is the result of his lead- from- the- front approach and empowerment given to his employees. Haroon Qassim is also running hield Corporation an Oral and Baby Care Company, as a Managing Director. Shield registered double-digit growth & stellar performances year after year as it rose from a common oral care name to the upper echelons of leading household names in Pakistan. Haroon Qassim brought innovative technology to Shield’s products & realigned its product portfolio that transformed the consumers’ experience, a true steward of all that is good & right when it comes to managing and inspiring others. Haroon Qassim career is standing firmly on an educational foundation that provides him the latitude to wield his skill set like a maestro. His education includes Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Loyola University, Chicago one of the distinguished universities in the USA known for its bright alumni who already earned Emmy, Grammy, Peabody, and Pulitzer awards. He also completed his Certified Public Accountant (C.P.A.) from the State of Illinois, USA. He is an insatiable appetite for knowledge that makes him an avid reader.
“AN EFFECTIVE LEADER CREATES AN INSPIRING VISION OF THE FUTURE AND MOTIVATES PEOPLE TO ENGAGE WITH THAT VISION.”
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CEO Club: We are passing through very testing times, what steps should be taken to turn around Pakistan economically? M. Haroon Qassim: First off, we need to restore the element of self-belief. Pakistan was one of the few countries that grew by 6 percent annually between 1960 and 1990 and reduced the incidence of poverty to as low as 18 percent. The widespread negative mindset of our elites and lack of confidence in the capabilities of our own workers, farmers, traders, businessmen, and overseas Pakistanis, is one of the major stumbling blocks that can unravel our growth speed. Growth momentum can also dissipate if other existing or emerging structural constraints and bottlenecks are not resolved on time. Moreover, Japanese history tells us that encouraging and developing the SME sector transformed it into an economic power. Unfortunately, Pakistan couldn’t realize its importance that badly impacted its economic growth. Thus, developing and promoting the SME sector could play a major role in turning around its economy.
How can we create job providers? As I said earlier, promoting the SME sector can also provide an answer to this problem. Without SMEs, big companies may not be able to meet the demand for goods and services in an expanding customer base. A better understanding of labor market needs and skills matching have featured high on the policy agenda of many countries, driven by both rapid technological advances and global competition. Skills matching can also help reduce unemployment, particularly among young people.
We are not poor in resources but ineffective managers. Can effective managers and corporate governance help us deal with this dilemma? Yes, an effective manager makes a decisive difference when it comes to good governance. An effective manager understands the value of employees and how to keep them motivated and engaged can result in a better business outcome. Clear communication from a good manager helps employees understand what is expected of them. Besides conflict resolution & good decision making can also critically contribute to good governance.
Are you happy with the quality of business graduates being produced after the commercialization of educational institutes? Barring those handfuls of business schools that have maintained their standard of education, the education sector is viewed purely as a profitable business venture. That explains the fact that the products being produced appear impressive on CVs but personal interactions prove otherwise. Thus, we can conclude that satisfaction still remains a moving target.
What is leadership for you? Are leaders born or made? An effective leader creates an inspiring vision of the future and motivates people to engage with that vision. According to Thomas Edison, “genius is 01 % Inspiration and 99 % Perspiration.” This is the idea that hard work is the most important aspect of being a leader and only genes are not sufficient. Depending on the combination of both our genetic and our socially conditioned behaviors we will be more or less inclined to have the proper leadership abilities in a given context.
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What are the challenges for the business leaders in Pakistan? Differentiate between a good manager and a good leader? The inconsistent socio-economic condition of Pakistan is a matter of great concern for the business leaders. They can’t afford to snooze even for a single moment. Frequent policy changes, energy crisis, law and order situation and a slim supply of good human resources are some of the challenges that business leaders of Pakistan are battling out. Good managers are good with their deadlines, whereas good leaders provide guidance and vision for the rest to follow.
What are the core competencies of leadership that you want to see in our new managers and business leaders? Vision tops the agenda; good leaders create a vision, a picture of the future. A good leader must sell his vision to everyone and get them on board. He should also know what he should not be doing along with what he should be doing. Last but not least, a good leader should display a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.
We are faced with a dilemma in professional ethics, how can we inculcate a sense of ethics in our managers? When it comes to ethics, the word dilemma doesn’t qualify. Ethics relates to a deliberate choice made with a clear mind, no “if and but” apply. Organizations that are determined to practice ethics do it anyway. They also require every member of their corporate family to comply. Companies have formulated internal policies pertaining to the ethical conduct of employees. These policies map out the expectations of the management from employees and also offer guidance on handling ethical problems that may arise during their course of doing business. Thus, the awareness level is enhanced and people are told that ethics are taken seriously at all levels. Employees are sent to different seminars and workshops to learn about the significance of doing business ethically. Above all, senior management lead by example, by behaving ethically themselves and this, holds the key.
What are your vision, mission, core values and shared behaviors that define your corporate culture? How do you make sure that people live, act and breathe your organization’s core values? Our dream is to build a healthier society by becoming a leading and socially responsible global company through innovative solutions. Our mission is to be a global organization whose philosophy is characterized by a highly refined sense of ethics which is expressed tangibly through its dealings while upholding highest standards of integrity. Our core values are not merely wall mounts but a living philosophy that every member of PharmEvo family lives and breathes. ITREE is the acronym that sums up our core values where I stands for Integrity, T for trust, R for respect, E for ethics and again E for Excellence. Respect: Be considerate, honor the opinions of others and treat everybody the way you want to be treated. Integrity: Never compromise on persistent and unwavering honesty.
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Excellence: Keep seeking brilliance and encourage others to do so. Ethics: Let right conduct be our direction finder. Trust: Live up to the confidence that is vested in you. Lead by example: It’s that simple. At PharmEvo, seniors take the lead in displaying behavior that is consistent with our ethics-related policies. Any deviations are dealt with zero tolerance.
Please share the key business strategies that have led you to this current stature? Bringing new and innovative products have been our key business strategy which has brought us to this standing. Besides a passion to pursue excellence keeps us in overdrive mode all the time.
Do you have a high-performance team with the right skill-set, mindset, and value-set to lead the business growth? PharmEvo is blessed in a way that its unique culture and strong brand recognition attract talented human resources from the industry. People who join us are already aware of the fact that values do not belong to mural plaques at PharmEvo but exist in its true spirit. Those who are inconsistent with our credo are weeded out. Therefore, we have been able to gather a good team that delivers perfectly.
What are the challenges and opportunities of the Pharma Industry? Our industry continues to face significant challenges in an overwhelmingly changing business environment that calls for an equally challenging approach to take advantage of the diverse and attractive opportunities in the marketplace. Pakistan pharma industry is currently undergoing a transition, where it needs to anticipate and adapt to the challenges and opportunities within this evolving landscape, to ensure the uninterrupted supply of innovative medicines through research and development. We are up against increasing challenges – cost sensitivity, global competition, and technological advancement. Besides, a knowledge-based industry, acquisition, and retention of intellectual capital are a constant challenge.
What are the HR challenges and strategies regarding employee retention, motivation, engagement and performance appraisals at the company? Retaining good employees is always a big challenge, and at PharmEvo, we take this very seriously. First of all, we keep our human capital inventory on hand which churns out of our devised appraisal system (forced ranking). Clearly mapped out career progression ladder, a culture of pure merit and constant training and development are a few of the attractions that keep our top talent engaged.
Is training, coaching and mentoring a high priority to you, how much time you devote to this? Training oriented companies spend between 03 % to 05% of their payroll on training and development, and PharmEvo is no exception. We are keenly involved in training and developing our people both on hard and soft skills and that remains as one of our priorities. Training analysis is religiously exercised at PharmEvo where training needs are identified by supervisors and employees are exposed to a variety of in-house and outsourced training.
Can you share the company’s contribution to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)?
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CSR is deeply embedded in our corporate fabric. We are committed to being socially responsible forerunners in the community in which we do business. We care about our customers, our people, and our broader societal role. At this time of sweeping change, we strongly believe that social responsibilities have gained even more significance and we as a company, view it no differently. This is also gratifying that PharmEvo has been recognized for its bold stance to trail blaze in a direction that directly benefits the society, thereby, conforming to its slogan ‘Our dream -a healthier society’. PharmEvo makes its contribution to society through a diverse range of programs that directly enhance the capacity building of people around us. Like wise,in pursuance of our commercial objectives, we never lose sight of our responsibility to contribute to the betterment of our society and we remain committed to balancing environmental stewardship with our corporate goals.
What steps should be taken to empower women professionally? Does your company have any harassment policy? Women in the professional world are playing major roles globally. They should be empowered in the same way as male professionals. Both men and women should be treated equally when it comes to the professional/corporate world. Management takes extra caution to ensure a safe and harassment-free environment for females working at PharmEvo. An open door policy to access top brass also serves as a deterrent against any mishaps. Treating all employees equally, regardless of gender strongly defies the glass ceiling. Being the President of the company, what are your strategies regarding succession planning and developing the next generation of leaders? On a continuous basis, we try to bring in young and dynamic people throughout the company in all departments. This helps us to develop new leaders in our business. Moreover, we also keep a pool of people for succession ready in all departments.
Please share the company’s best management practices for others to follow as a benchmark? Trust is a hallmark at PharmEvo and we practice this across the company which helps our people to feel empowered. A performance culture is based purely on merit, and there is an open door policy, and no hidden agenda.
What is the future of the company five years down the road? The future is very dynamic. We want to continuously enrich our product portfolio and bring new and latest technologies to the people of Pakistan. We want our company to progress at a very rapid pace in Pakistan as well as in the regional markets.
Please share with us your professional background that how did it all start? I started my career with pharmaceutical distribution operations, and an opportunity led me to start a greenfield project of pharmaceutical manufacturing and marketing. I took that challenge, and never looked back since then.
How would you define your leadership and management style?
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Trust in people. Practice what you preach.
What has been the toughest decision that you had to take so far? Firing people
Define success in three keywords or phrases? 1. Personal Satisfaction 2. Acknowledgment by competitors 3. People approaching you for advice
What is your idea of happiness? Doing things for others - whether small, unplanned acts or regular volunteering - is a powerful way to boost our own happiness as well of those around us and on a lighter note, home cooked food
From where did you get your inspiration, personally as well as professionally? I got inspiration from my father both personally as well as professionally. He kept me on my toes, and it is really hard to catch up with him.
What is your favorite book on personal and professional development that you would recommend others to read? I have read many books on personal and professional development but I can’t recommend anything, because, in my opinion, everyone has their own personal style. You can’t read books on personal and professional development and just copy it. Reading such books just helps you to strengthen your strong points and also helps you to look at your weak points. So, I would encourage all to read as many books as they can to learn and improve their skills.
What do you consider to be your greatest achievement or failure? My greatest achievement – none so far, as in my opinion, I have not even scratched the surface. My failure – there have been many, but failures are good teachers though they cost you a lot.
How do you manage workplace/business stress? Salah and exercise.
How do you keep your work-life balance? A wise man told me to create equilibrium in work-life and never try to create work-life balance. Sometimes, work needs more time and sometimes, personal life needs more time; it all depends on circumstances, and one needs to set priorities. For me, family comes first because if my family is happy then only I can focus on my work.
Any message of hope to the younger generation? Keep the focus on what you do. Don’t try to do many things at one time. Do only one thing at a time and success will be at your doorstep.
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ZUBAIR TUFAIL CEO, Tufail Chemical Industries Limited & Former President, FPCCI
Profile: Tufail Group of Companies is one of the largest manufacturing group of basic chemicals in Pakistan. The group’s turnover is more than Rs. 10 billion, which is expected to increase to Rs. 16 billion in 2020, due to expansion of capacity. Company’s main manufacturing facilities are in Port Qasim, Karachi & Lahore. Fully automatic plants were imported from Italy. Mr. Zubair Tufail, CEO of Tufail Chemical Industries Limited and was President of The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry in 2017. The following is an exclusive interview with him.
“A GOOD LEADER ALWAYS INSPIRES, MOTIVATES AND GUIDES OTHERS, ESPECIALLY THE YOUTH AND GIVES THEM A SENSE OF DIRECTION. HE ENJOYS AN UNBLEMISHED REPUTATION AND HAS A VERY NEAT AND CLEAN PAST RECORD.”
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CEO Club: Please enlighten us about your academic & professional background: Zubair Tufail: I was born in 1951 in Karachi, studied at CMS High school and Sindh Muslim Science College, Karachi. After completing the College education, joined family trading business (Tufail Brothers) in 1972. This company was engaged in distribution of Industrial Chemicals, Minerals & Polymers from Japan, Europe, USA & China. In 1994 started manufacturing of Industrial Chemicals in Lahore and in 2008 Setup new plant at Port Qasim, Karachi for the manufacturing of Sulphonic Acid, SLES, Formic Acid, etc. This plant was imported from Italy. Manufacturing is not an easy task in Pakistan, due to multiple challenges like Shortage of Electricity & Gas, as well as high prices. Due to completion of several power plants in recent years and import of LNG Gas from Qatar & other sources. Now Electricity & Gas are available to consumer & Industry, but the price is quite high as compared to neighboring countries.
Law & order situation: Law & order situation much improved in Karachi after 2017 and year 2018- 19 are relatively peaceful in Pakistan and particularly in Karachi. Law enforcement agencies are trying to bring peace and destroy the network of terrorists, but still from time to time terrorists attack at soft targets in some parts of the country. In my opinion more than 90% areas of Pakistan are in peace and I hope that the rest areas will also be normal.
Major Economic Challenges: Pakistan is under heavy Debt of around USD:100 Billion and its repayment remains big challenge. Prime Minister Imran Khan made great efforts during January- June 2019 to stabilize the economy and reached agreement with IMF and secured soft loans from friendly countries of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar & China. Facing huge current account deficit as well as trade deficit. Current imports now reduced to USD:55 Billion against export of USD:24 Billion, thanks to overseas Pakistanis remitting USD:21 Billion to the country. It is required to reduce the imports further by atleast USD:5 Billion in next year and increase the exports to USD:30 Billion in next 2-years.
Karachi & Civic amenities: Karachi is paying about 65% of total taxes of Pakistan, but unfortunately Sindh & Federal Government totally neglected this city of more than 25 Million peoples. Water shortages, poor Garbage collection, non availability of public transport, Worse sewerage system. People of Karachi, particularly workers are going through very tough time and needs attention of both Provincial & Federal Government.
Health and Education: Although after 18th Amendment health & education are provincial subject but provinces are not able to provide good services to the people in both sectors. Still it is responsibility of both Federal & Provincial Governments to provide enough funds to improve health & education sector.
FBR taxation system: FBR targets to collect Rs:5550 Billion till June’2020, which seems an uphill task in view of slow economy, but it is only possible, if manufacturing sector performs well in next 10-months. At the same time tax net must be broaden to achieve the revenue targets. FBR plan a policy to facilitate overseas Pakistanis, who are remitting USD:21 Billion every year.
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JAVED AFRIDI CEO, Haier Pakistan Pvt. Ltd. & Ruba Manufacturing (HNR)
Profile: Javed Afridi, Chief Executive Officer of Haier & Ruba Manufacturing (HNR), is a graduate of Oxford University, UK. Scion of a well-known business family from Northern Pakistan Mr. Javed Afridi as CEO heads the sprawling Haier Industrial Park, the nation’s leading state of the art manufacturing facility with a rated capacity of 3 million units per year of home appliances and electronics. Recipient of the coveted Presidential “Businessman of the Year Award”, Javed Afridi is representative of Pakistan’s younger breed of educated and spirited entrepreneurs and professionals who are bringing a new clarity of vision, enthusiasm and energy to the manufacturing sector. As well-known as he is in business circles in Pakistan, Mr. Javed Afridi, who has perhaps done more than any other individual in recent times to promote sport both at the domestic and international levels, enjoys an even higher profile among cricket lovers right across the globe. He is owner of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) Champions Peshawar Zalmi.
“LEADERSHIP DEMANDS VISION, CONFIDENCE, PASSION, INSPIRATION AND THE STRENGTH TO TAKE THE NEEDED DECISIONS NO MATTER HOW UNPOPULAR THEY MAY BE.”
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CEO Club: With the country sliding back into joblessness crisis and a high unemployment rate, how do you think to fix this problem and turnaround the economy? Javed Afridi: Pakistan is at a critical stage in its development. With tens of thousands of youth graduating yearly and entering the job market government has a tough task ahead to implement policies that will create more jobs and provide new opportunities for our youth. The government has launched quite a few schemes to reduce joblessness and enable people to earn a decent living. The prime minister’s Youth Business Loan Scheme, provincial Self-Employment Schemes, the Yellow Cab Scheme and initiatives in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector are all part of the national effort to create more jobs and opportunities for the people of Pakistan. More needs to be done and I am sure it will be done as a matter of priority.
We are not poor in resources but governance. Do you believe that good governance can help us to wrestle with this dilemma? What is your take on good governance? Good governance is a buzz word in Pakistan today. However I feel that good governance, desirable as it is must also be coupled with good responsible citizenship. While transparency is vital, so too is our solemn duty to pay taxes, and uphold the rule of law. Pakistan’s tax to GDP ratio must be improved to make available more developmental funds.
With commercialisation of educational institutions, are you happy at the quality/standard of business graduates? And what steps would you suggest to bridge the gap between industry and academia? There are a lot of reputable and quality institutions in Pakistan imparting quality education both at the secondary and higher education levels. Education, being one of the most important sectors of national life, Pakistan needs to spend a higher percentage of its GDP on education to provide more schools and colleges, better facilities and well trained faculty. More can be done using the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays. How to create job providers/entrepreneurs rather than job-seekers? To bridge the gap between industry and academia, we must make investments in modern learning to create core competencies to provide much needed skills and enhance productivity. Pakistan’s Vision 2025 Program also identifies knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurship as key drivers of the future economy. I think that’s the way to go forward to make Pakistan a patent selling rather than a patent buying country. Innovation and entrepreneurship is the key.
What are the key challenges and business/investment opportunities in your industry/sector? The home appliances industry is Pakistan has a robust base with healthy competition between indigenous companies and multinationals. Competition within the industry is tough and this is a good thing as it keeps everyone on their toes to innovate and encourage new and ‘out of the box’ thinking into design and production on the one hand and marketing and distribution on the other.
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Any remarkable recognition or achievements by the company? Haier is today a global giant. In just thirty years it has risen from a small washing machine enterprise, to the top of the global pyramid as the inventor, innovator and marketer of quality home appliances. Haier today leads the world with more than 10.5% share of the global home appliance market.
Elaborate on how Haier has been an innovator and inventor in Pakistan. Here in Pakistan Haier has followed suite. Haier Pakistan today leads the Pakistan market in most major categories of home appliances including air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and freezers. The company recently launched its laptop production unit, becoming the first enterprise in Pakistan to locally produce personal computers as part of a major diversification of our product portfolio which also includes mobile phones and led television sets. Haier Pakistan is often held up as a shining example of all that can be achieved under the banner of Pak-China economic cooperation.
What is leadership to you? How do you want to improve as a leader? Leadership demands vision, confidence, passion, inspiration and the strength to take the needed decisions no matter how unpopular they may be. I am passionate about everything I do, and I am fully cognizant of the fact that any decisions I make will have far reaching effects not only on the enterprise I lead, but also on the people who work for the enterprise. One has to strike a fine balance between cause and effect while at the same time ensuring steady progress towards reaching the desired goals.
What is your company`s business philosophy (Vision & Mission)? For me it is my vision, my dream to see Pakistan become a technologically advanced nation. In realization of this dream we at Haier Pakistan are ensuring two things, namely transfer of technology from China and the training and skills necessary to make effective use of technology transfer. In the coming years, we hope to be fully self-sufficient in not only acquiring technology and knowhow but also creating knowledge and implementing it to achieve further technology breakthroughs.
Where do you see your organization five years down the road? Growth strategy? The future for Haier Pakistan as a major manufacturer lies in the extent to which we can achieve the needed diversification of resources and products in line with the changing environment and the ever changing needs of the people of Pakistan. This diversification is already well on the way. Haier Pakistan now produces not only advanced home appliances but also assembles advanced electronics – mobile phones, LED TVs and laptops. The manufacturing facility of which I am the head is spread on 63 acres with I million sq. feet of built up area housing various production units. It has a designed capacity of 3 million units per year.
How many people/HR are on your payroll? We talked about the need to create jobs. We are fully aware of our responsibility in this regard. Haier Pakistan employs a workforce of several thousand including technicians, engineers, designers, and professionals in the fields of planning, manufacture and sales & marketing. Majority of the technical labor force live and work side by side Chinese engineers.
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How do you define corporate culture at your company? How do you make sure that people live, act and breathe your organization’s vision, mission and core values? Our corporate culture in rooted in the tried and tested method followed by Haier China. Every one of our employees is encouraged to think of himself and herself as a CEO. They are urged to display a high degree of team spirit but within that think of themselves as individuals who bear the responsibility to make a positive contribution, no matter how small, to the achievement of the larger goal. This has given rise to a work ethic in which each employee competes with himself on a daily basis. The idea is for everyone to make each day or month better than the previous one.
Can you give us an example of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative you have championed? Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an integral part of the operational policies of Haier Pakistan. It is rooted in the ethos that corporate entities must fully integrate in to the communities they serve and thrive on, share their joys and sorrow, and be a part of their everyday lives. Haier has aggressively pursued CSR activities and continues to do so. At times of major national calamities such as natural disasters like earthquakes and devastating floods, the company has made major contributions in cash and kind to alleviate the suffering of the people. Monthly CSR activities under various programs such as the ‘Haier Ehsas Activity’ are undertaken regularly to enable us to get involved in the general welfare of the people in hospitals, blood transfusion centers and those on active duty, such as policemen and security personnel employed to protect and people of Pakistan. This policy has been a great success, and in return the people of Pakistan have voted with their preference to make Haier the market leader. So it cuts both ways.
“FOR ME IT IS MY VISION, MY DREAM TO SEE PAKISTAN BECOME A TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED NATION. IN REALIZATION OF THIS DREAM WE AT HAIER PAKISTAN ARE ENSURING TWO THINGS, NAMELY TRANSFER OF TECHNOLOGY FROM CHINA AND THE TRAINING ND SKILLS NECESSARY TO MAKE EFFECTIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER.”
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AZIZ BOOLANI SI CE, Serena Hotels - South & Central Asia
Profile: Aziz Boolani heads the Serena Hotels in South and Central Asia with properties in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. He was actively involved in the completion and commissioning of Five hotels including Serena Shigar Fort and Serena Khaplu Palace, in Gilgit Baltistan, which were restored as the National Heritage properties and Dushanbe and Kabul properties. The President of Pakistan conferred the second highest civil award on Aziz Boolani, on 23rd March 2016 for his invaluable contributions in the Hospitality Industry during the last 30 years. He served as the Chairman Pakistan Hotels Association from 2004 to 2006. He initiated a number of community support initiatives from Serena Hotels’ platform including but not limited to Adventure, Sports, Public and Cultural Diplomacy including the Satrang Art Gallery at the Islamabad Serena Hotel. Mr. Boolani has been instrumental in the women’s empowerment program for the marginalized and underprivileged communities through the vocational training under the banner of Karighar, a CSR program of Serena Hotels Pakistan. He is a fellow member of ICMAP and has completed General Manager program from the Holiday Inn University Memphis-USA.
“IN THE DYNAMIC BUSINESS WORLD TODAY, UNIQUELY AS HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY LEADERS, WE MUST TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY TO EQUIP AND MENTOR OUR GREENHORNS TO TRANSITION TO FRONTRUNNERS OF THE COMPANY. THIS POSITIVELY EFFECTS NOT ONLY THE COMPANY BUT THE SOCIETY AT LARGE.”
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CEO Club: Please share your company’s brief history? Aziz Boolani: Tourism Promotion Services Pakistan (TPSP) the owning company of Serena Hotels is a subsidiary of The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED). With presence in eight states, TPSP has the mandate to develop tourism potential in select territories in developing economies, particularly in under-served regions. The company believes in developing and managing hotels and lodges that contribute towards the economic growth in under-developed and culturally sensitive territories. Serena Hotels believes in creating equal opportunity for the local communities while respecting the cultural diversity and environmental sensitivities.
What is company’s business philosophy, vision and mission statement? As part of AKFED’s development ethos, Serena develops and build hotels by using indigenous materials to support local economy while the culture and heritage of the area is respected through the interiors of the hotels. The main focus remains on improving the quality of life of people living in the surrounding of hotels.
How do you define the corporate culture at your company? How do you make sure that people live, act and breathe your organization’s vision, mission and core values? At Serena Hotels, our focus has always been to work with the government in improving the quality of life of the country in general. This is being practiced while operating and managing the hotels on a daily basis. Open door policy, two-way interaction, communication and training and development of our human resources, encourage our team to follow the vision of the company in its true sense.
How many HR are on your payroll? We employ around 2400 associates in Serena Hotels across South and Central Asia.
Company’s key products /services profile? The company currently owns and manages eight (08) hotels and a business complex under the brand name of Serena Hotels & Resorts with Islamabad Serena Hotel being its flagship. Our hotels are located in Quetta, Faisalabad, Gilgit, Swat, Hunza, Khaplu and Shigar. Collectively, these entities continue to create significant impact on the economic landscape of the country, contributing to the benefit of various stakeholders including employees, vendors and Government of Pakistan. The Serena collection of hotels spans across some of the most exotic and enchanting destinations. All the properties enjoy reputation for the highest standards of comfort, service, and product.
Please share your company’s average revenue growth. The company has been escalating consistently at a growth of 10% per annum during the past three consecutive years.
Any remarkable recognition or achievements of the company this year? The World Travel Awards™ are voted for by travel and tourism professionals worldwide, and these awards recognizes industry leaders in tourism and hospitality sectors. Serena Hotels continue to receive coveted accolades in two categories i.e. Islamabad Serena Hotel, being Pakistan’s leading hotel and Pakistan’s leading hotel suite.
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What is the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) your company is fulfilling? The company continues to enjoy a high degree of working relationship and cooperation with the local communities as it respects their cultural, environmental and lifestyle values through responsible business practices. The CSR activities are held under the banner of Serena Hotels’ Community Initiatives which include Sports, Cultural, Public and Adventure Diplomacy initiatives. We continue to strive and create sustainable impact through these programs for the local communities where its units are located. Environmental Impact: TPSP is the recipient of the first prize by Employee Federation of Pakistan in the best occupational health and safety in the service category for successive years. We have been working on a companywide waste segregation, recycling and composting project for properties all over. TPSP is certified for ISO 9001, Quality Management System. Islamabad Serena Hotel (ISH) is certified for OHSAS 18001, Occupational Health and Safety Standard, ISO 14001 Environment Management System and Food Safety Management System (FSMS) ISO 22000. Efforts are made through continuous improvement and best practices for bringing sustainable resource management through energy and water conservation. TPSP works on continuous monitoring of the properties on compliance with local laws as well as stakeholders requirements. Regulatory compliance reporting is shared with government departments including environment protection agencies requirements.
Social Development Impact: TPSP continues to support schools, orphanages and old citizen shelters housing for over 1,200 disabled or under-privileged children and senior citizens. As part of CSR initiatives, Evacuation Drills for fire safety and health & safety awareness sessions were conducted in Mashal School, SOS Village Rawalpindi and Saint Joseph’s Hospice by Islamabad Serena Hotel. Faisalabad Serena Hotel adopted SOS Village Faisalabad five years ago and provide regular support in maintenance of the premises. Similarly, TPSP continues to create sustainable employment opportunities to support and promote the livelihood of the local community. Risk Assessment for Life and Fire Safety for the properties are undertaken and monitored on an ongoing basis. Karighar, a vocational centre located in Gilgit Baltistan, is part of the CSR initiatives of Serena Hotels. Established in October 2016, the centre provides skills trainings to local women in the area thereby empowering them to supplement the household income of the more marginalized and underprivileged members of society. Karighar was set up to facilitate and develop a value chain where women are the primary actors, thereby meeting some of the unique challenges of the region. The center has provided skills training to approximately 150 women so far, in small batches undergoing a three-month training course. Currently, the sixth batch is undergoing training while 34 women are employed at Karighar. Of the employees, we have attempted to hire the most deserving of the skilled trainees and they include a widow and a girl living with disability.
We have also started a new CSR initiative under the Karighar banner, to empower individuals/ communities of Gilgit Baltistan by developing the honey value chain. Gilgit Baltistan is naturally blessed with an abundance of flora and honeybee farming has traditionally been a primary source of income for many inhabitants in the area. The art of honeybee farming is not only practiced by the head of the family but also many of the other family members, thereby engaging both women and the youth in an economically gainful enterprise. The Karighar Honeybee Farming project aims to empower people involved in honeybee farming by providing them with professional trainings
| 148 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | and subsequently purchasing their production at a premium price with guaranteed purchase, hence promoting sustainable livelihood in these remote regions.
What are the challenges and business/investment opportunities in your industry sector? Pakistan provides enormous opportunities in our industry particularly during the last couple of years due to fairly substantial increase in domestic tourism. Going forward, Pakistan needs to invest in the development of secondary cities to foster the environment for domestic tourism growth and sustainability. Pakistan offers a unique and diverse landscape from its urban areas to rural. The tourism attractions can further be developed with support of private sector provided the government offers incentives on cost of project financing, land and tax exemptions.
Are you satisfied with the performance management system and employee engagement program in your company? The company has one of the best performance systems in place. The online performance review helps management to provide timely feedback to its associates, gauge their performance, and design their development program to give them career growth in a fair and transparent manner. At the same time, associates are involved in business planning and various forums to share knowledge like town hall / communication meetings, onboarding and CSR programs. Associates are encouraged to participate in various informal activities that include sports and social events.
Please share with us your company’s hiring, IR, training, compensation and talent management practices? Being an “Equal Opportunity Employer’’, the company has been using e-recruitment system to hire the best human capital in a fair and transparent manner. Meritocracy is the hallmark of our recruitment policy. We have developed in-house training centers which are fully equipped to provide structured development programs for the capacity building of our associates. Our policies are designed to have a full compliance with local as well international IR practices. Pay for performance is the cornerstone of our compensation & benefits policy and associates are compensated based on individual as well hotels performance. To ensure that company’s future talent is strategically managed, a 9-box Talent grid is adapted that provides insight to leverage the value of our human capital.
How much does your company give priority to training, coaching and mentoring, how much time/budget do you devote for this? What is the ROI (return on Investment) of training people? The Company uses Learning Agility Detection Grid to differentiate the potential and to identify development opportunities. Keeping in view the nature of business our development philosophy is 70:20:10, it means 70% of associates development occurs on the job; 20% learning comes from cross exposure and 10% from classroom. With this philosophy, 90% learning and development takes place under direct coaching and mentoring. Investing in people is a long-term investment and so far, return on investment (ROI) is just phenomenal.
What steps should be taken to empower women in corporate culture? Does your company
| 149 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | follow any anti-harassment policy? As a global organization, diversity is high up on our agenda. We strive to develop a culture that provides equal opportunities for everyone and ensures that the associates are treated with dignity and respect. We’re aiming to diversify our talent pool and promote gender balance as a priority and induct females at senior management positions. Have Sexual Harassment Policy in place that aims to create zero tolerance ensuring a dignified and productive work environment free of intimidation & discrimination. Additionally, Serena Hotels Pakistan is the first Pakistani Institution to apply for EDGE Global Gender Certification from International Finance Corporation (IFC) towards strengthening equal dividends for gender equality.
Does your company envision being global or Pakistani multinational? Our company has a global presence in 8 countries with 35 hotels in Africa to Asia.
What are three key challenges of CEOs/ business leaders in Pakistan? Customer satisfaction, human resource development and productivity.
What are four core competencies that you want to see in our upcoming CEOs? Attitude, leadership, attention to detail and business acumen.
We are facing a dilemma in business ethics; how can we inculcate a sense of ethics in our managers? Open door policy, zero tolerance for dishonesty or malpractices and continuous awareness sessions on integrity and ethics and Effective Corporate Governance
“LEADERS ARE ROLE MODELS. A MANAGER MANAGES THE DEPARTMENT OR COMPANY WHEREAS, A LEADER NOT ONLY LEADS THE TEAM BUT TAKES THE ENTIRE TEAM TOGETHER IN ONE DIRECTION.”
Being CEO of an organization, what is your strategy regarding succession planning and developing the next generation of leaders? Continuous interaction and discussion with the top tier on all key areas.
To what extent, are you successful in executing the best practices of corporate governance, defined by SECP, in your company? Serena Hotels Pakistan despite being a non-listed public limited company has implemented corporate governance policies where applicable.
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What’s your style of leadership? How do you want to improve as a leader? I still need to learn human behavior for effective communication and strengthening teamwork for continuous growth of the company.
Do you have a winning team? How do you motivate them? Yes, our team is motivated through appreciation and recognition. That’s the main reason for our growth and success. Appraisals are regularly carried out in an interactive manner followed by counselling and trainings.
Sometimes CEOs’ get stuck on short-term operational goals at the expense of long-term strategic planning. Please comment? Yes, at times one has to manage a balance between short-term goals and long-term plans to ensure the best practices.
What are top three benchmarks for high performing CEOs who have created long-term significance for their companies? Best practices, financial performance vis-a-vis growth and brand value.
Harvard Business Review’s research enlightens us that E.Q rather I.Q is highly essential competency for business leaders? Why Emotional Intelligence is important for CEOs especially in tough times? All business dynamics are based on human support system and therefore emotional intelligence plays the role of an important element in the performance of organizations.
Describe an instance where you made a significant mistake while being a CEO? Any regret or key learning? At times, due to time constraints your decisions are based on incorrect information that may result in wrong decisions. One should have hands on approach and test checks before taking decisions, that may or may not affect the organization as such but as an individual one should have hands on approach.
Business speaks the language of digits. To what extent CEO should be finance savvy? As a CEO one should have good knowledge of finance. The three most important numbers in financial statements are Conversion ratios, Liquidity ratios and Shareholder’s equity.
“THE FOUR CORE COMPETENCIES A CEO MUST HAVE ARE: ATTITUDE, LEADERSHIP, ATTENTION TO DETAIL AND BUSINESS ACUMEN.”
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PROFESSOR DR. FARHAN ESSA ABDULLAH MBBA (GOLD MEDALIST, MPHIL, PHD CEO & Clinical Microbiologist, Dr. ESSAS Laboratory & DIAGNOSTIC Center Engendering the Diagnostic Skills Profile: CEO of one of the largest Medical Diagnostic Chains in Pakistan with International Operations in USA, UK and Middle East, namely Dr Essa Laboratory and Diagnostic Centres; an ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Certified Organisation. Managing Director of Chain of Dr. Essa Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Centres, Dr. Essa 24/7 Pharmacy and Vaccination Centres, Dr. Essa Dental Services and Dr. Essa Institute of Health Sciences. Recipient of top 100 CEO’s of Pakistan Award multiple times including many others in Management, Health, Sports, Entrepreneurship, Environment, Fire and Safety, Education, Corporate Social Responsibility etc. Involved in various professional bodies to improve “Health Care Services” in Pakistan. Convener of Oversight Committee for Malir (Landhi) Jail, Home Department and Government of Sindh made on order of Supreme Court of Pakistan under the coordination of Federal Ombudsman. Life time member PILAP - Public Interest Law Association of Pakistan, Joint Secretary Karachi Vocational and Training Centre for intellectually disabled transforming them into able contributors in the community. Rotary International District 3271 (Sindh & Baluchistan) Governor for the year 2020-21 having served as Chairman of various District Committees since 2004. Encouraging and fostering Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and facilitating incubators and accelerators specially as being current Chairman of OPEN (Organisation of Pakistani Entrepreneurs) and Member of EO (Entrepreneur Organisation) with a vision of encouraging the youth to be the job creators instead of job seekers. Life Member of Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi. Have experience of hosting a Talk Show on News One TV and regularly coming on media as a Technical Expert and conducting press conferences. Joined Government of Sindh as a Commissioned Officer in BPS 17 and resigned in BPS 19 from DUHS. Currently visiting Professor of Liaquat College of Medicine and Dentistry. Involved in R&D and have the honor to publish a number of Research Articles in Scientific Journals and presented data in many Local and International Conferences.
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What was the vision of your parents when they started this wonderful organization? Dr. Farhan Essa: My parents started this venture in 1980, having an immense experience of working abroad and being American qualified Ph.Ds they left no stone unturned to provide their expertise to the people of Pakistan in the form of a top class laboratory dealing with micro biology and infectious diseases. I myself a Ph.D. and micro biologist. The poor diagnostic mechanism in our country provoked us to offer dexterous and operative lab. I joined Essa Lab in 1998 and shouldered my expertise to the vision and mission of my parents which eccentrically focussed on customer satisfaction. Soon after the success of our first centre we started spreading our web and multiply our strength.
How do you ensure the maximum satisfaction of your customers? The people who peep into our centres are highly distressed mentally, emotionally and physically which no doubt make them financially distraught as well. The field in which we are working is very critical, dealing with life and death. But unlike other laboratories, we make earnest endeavours to provide them maximum ease and comfort. For instance, we have arranged separate washrooms for male and female patients, fitted with both eastern and western equipment. For the convenience of customers, we have set up several collection points which remain open throughout the week twentyfour hours a day.
What challenges are you facing in the HR sector and what strategies have you evolved for overcoming these challenges? HR is undoubtedly a big challenge for us. There is a gap between academia and business to what the students are taught in educational institutions and what they actually come across when they enter the field practically. Besides removing the false concepts from their minds, we have to train and retrain them. For this purpose, we have our own seminar halls, where regular training sessions are held, along with interviews, exams and refresher courses.
In this age of competition and open market, retention of good HR is another major problem faced by most of our present organizations? How do you handle this problem? Fortunately, we are blessed that when people join us they glued to us for longer time. We are wrapping up 98% HR retention level in our organization. The facilities and the easy cultural environment we provide to our culture make them motivated. A person working at the bottom can reach the top if he or she has the ability to do so. Moreover, our employees are provided free health care and pick and drop facilities. We are soon going to launch our day care center as well. Such incentives contribute to the retention of our HR.
Would you like to share with us some of the difficult decisions of your life? I reckon that it was undoubtedly opening centre in Karachi, against the framework of hazardous law and order situation. But our success provoked us to climb every ladder with much ease and firmness. Starting off with a lab, we moved to diagnostics, pharmacy, physical therapy and dentistry. We are now planning to start post graduate medical institutions and other such projects for creating more job opportunities for our talented graduates.
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What is your word of advice for our young entrepreneurs who wish to make a mark in the diagnostic industry? Despite law and order and other such huge problems that I have already mentioned, I still earnestly believe that Karachi is a wonderful city with a lot of opportunities for everyone, not just in diagnostic field, but in every field. Our youngsters should remember that whenever they start something new, they have to face some problems in the beginning. But if they are persistent, brave and positive, they can achieve anything in life, through constant hard work, struggle and honesty, because there is no short cut to success. They should always keep in mind what they wish to achieve. If they stick to their goals, targets and objectives and work accordingly, nothing can obstruct their progress. Problems should be treated as new opportunities and the motto should be that failure is no option.
What are your initiatives regarding corporate social responsibility or CSR? This is a very important department of our organization, with as many as thirty people working in it. We have multi-dimensional CSR programmes. Recently, we conducted an eye cataract surgery camp in a village, where more than 1600 patients were treated and 200 of them were operated upon. We are undertaking massive awareness campaigns regarding Hepatitis B and C and anemia or low hemoglobin in ladies which results in severe complications for them. In addition to this, we regularly conduct medical education programmes in order to provide latest knowledge to the doctors who graduated in the 1970s and 80s but have no time in their tough routine to update their knowledge. In England, if a person has some disease, first of all, he contacts his family general practitioner, who refers him to some specialist surgeon or consultant. But here, we don’t have this concept, with the result that the general practitioner has no contacts with specialists and he tries to treat his patients. In order to tackle this problem, we enable to general practitioners to get in touch with the specialist consultants of their area. In this way, they are able to provide better guidance to their patients.
What are core competencies do you wish to see in a good CEO? Besides being a good team player, he should have a positive attitude and excellent communication skills, in order to transmit the right message to the right people at the right time.
In this age of stresses and traumas when most of our people are highly sentimental and emotionally charged, how important is the role of emotional balance of EQ? Our heart pumps blood and we are human beings not robots. However, emotions have to be balanced and satisfied to achieve the desired results. As far as stress and anger are concerned, I keep myself away from such things. I treat every problem not as an issue but as an area of further improvement. Whatever we do, we analyze it objectively to find out where we were right and where we were wrong. We know that things cannot be changed and targets cannot be achieved overnight. Once we decide our targets, we sit in a relaxed mood, hold an open meeting and discuss how to move forward, keeping in mind our strengths and weaknesses and available resources.
Would you like to mention some of the challenges faced by the health care industry, with special reference to Karachi where you are working? The biggest challenge in Karachi for everyone is the pathetic law and order situation, as a result of which, a large number of talented and competent medical practitioners have left the country and
| 154 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | settled in other parts of the world, such as Saudi Arabia, where there is a huge scope for this profession. We are working under Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, which is not so much interested in resolving our problems. As a matter of fact, government agencies create unnecessary troubles and problems for us. There is an acute shortage of nurses and lab technicians. But perhaps, the biggest challenge for the health care industry is the mushroom growth of quackeries, because there is no check and balance and no licensing authority, as a result of which, anyone can open a hospital or lab anywhere he likes. Quacks easily befool and deceive the people. Again, the government is not taking any serious notice of this issue.
Whom do you regard as your role model or source of inspiration in life? Throughout my life my father has been a role model for me. In spite of belonging to a very rich Arab family, my father never took anything from them and achieved phenomenal success in life through sheer hard work and determination. After teaching at Karachi University for quite some time, he went to America and did Ph.D. For 42 years, he taught in five different countries of the world, besides acting as the medical advisor for the Libyan President. He wrote several books and received the award of best professor of micro biology from General Musharraf. At the same time, he was a good sportsman and was the first table tennis champion of Pakistan.
How do you define success? I believe that fall seven times, stand up eight. Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm life is not so complicated and same is the case with success.
What type of books do you like to read and would you like to mention one or two books which are very close to your heart? I like to read autobiographical books which tell the success stories of great people. One particular book that I really like was the one written by Sherbaz Khan Mazari.
“BESIDES BEING A GOOD TEAM PLAYER, A CEO SHOULD HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE AND EXCELLENT COMMUNICATION SKILLS, IN ORDER TO TRANSMIT THE RIGHT MESSAGE TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE AT THE RIGHT TIME.”
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HAJI RIAZ-UL-HASSAN CEO, Cakes & Bakes
Profile: The story of Cakes and Bakes dates back to 1954, when Hafiz Abdur Rasheed, father of present CEO and grandfather of present MD, started off bakery business in the name of Ajmair Confectioners in the posh locality of Gulberg, Lahore. The business excelled as Hafiz Abdur Rasheed had the expertise and experience in bakery, but luck was not on his side; he was sidelined by his business partner and was forced to leave Ajmair Confectioners. Instead of going into litigation, Hafiz Abdur Rasheed once again made a humble start by setting up small bakery in Riwaz Gardens, Lahore with a meager investment of Rs. 1500/-. This time he called up his son Riaz-ul-Hasan, who just turned 16, to run business. Young Riaz-ul-Hasan knew that tough times were ahead and he had to sacrifice his youth but he had no choice; sense of duty and responsibility prevailed. It was autumn, 1972. Riaz-ul-Hasan toiled for next 17 years, day-in and day-out, working straight 15-16 hours a day with just two day offs in these years. For a young lad of 16 years, it was a period of sheer hard work, dedication, and commitment where there was no room for recreation or entertainment. Riaz-ul-Hasan, determined he was, stuck to his guns and moved on against all odds and never compromised on quality and self integrity. Riaz-ul-Hasan got married in 1978, thus adding on to his over-burdening responsibilities of raising his own family as well as supporting six brothers and five sisters. Tons of responsibilities and financial constraints could not stagger the feet of Riaz-ul-Hasan, neither could dwindle his vision; self determination, commitment and will to survive gave impetus to his business. Belonging to a staunch religious family, he performed Hajj through his first ever savings of Rs. 22000 in 1982 and since then he is known as Haji Riaz-ul-Hasan. Haji Sahib sacrificed his youth, desires, ambitions, friends, and entertainments to establish business. Business started paying dividends as Haji Sahib’s tri- cycle on which he supplied bakery products to his valued customers was soon replaced by automobiles.
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CEO Club: Please tell us that what challenges did you face and how did you overcome them? How did the Cakes & Bakes brand come into being? Haji Riaz-ul-Hassan: We had a business with the name of Ajmair Confectioners in Gulberg, Lahore. My father established that shop in 1954 and with his hard work and turned it into a successful business. Our daily sale was in thousands of rupees. I’m talking of the time when people had to go to the bank to get the change of even a 100-rupee note. Business was going well and we had name in the posh area of Gulberg. Unfortunately, in 1971, my father’s partners took over whole business through fraud and cheat, thus depriving him of everything he had. On October 28, 1972 my father once again set up a small shop named, Gulberg Bakery in Riwaz Garden where I worked for eight years. During those initial years of my professional life, I had little money in my pocket so I had to do everything myself. However, things got better gradually. I got married in 1978. We were a big family of six brothers and five sisters. In 1980, I realized that this huge family couldn’t be run through this small shop. I, then, made a decision and told my father that I wanted to start my separate business. My father got annoyed and told me to work with him but I refused. After some discussions, he allowed me to start my business. I started manufacturing and supplied my products to small shops and bakeries. In 1982, I started a little eggs business along as well which is still going well. In 1994, I started thinking that there should be a brand and a proper bakery so the very same year, I inaugurated Cakes & Bakes with its first branch in Samanabad, Lahore. We chose the name, designed the logo and got it registered and took all measures to secure copyrights so that we don’t face any trouble afterwards. In those times, the most popular bakeries were Shezan and Gourmet. We used the food grade packing material which other bakeries were not using. Both Gourmet and Shezan used to do cash handling manually but we installed the first cash register.
Whenever a business is established, the two key challenges for an entrepreneur are cash flow and human resource, how did you overcome these challenges? In the start you have to train the human resource and mostly you have to do things yourself. Alhamdolillah, whatever I do, I do it whole heartedly from the beginning. I teach people and learn from them as well. But I never get afraid of the thought that people will leave me. I always try to help others and I get benefit from that. So, I tried to groom my team and straightened petty issues because when petty issues are solved the bigger problems automatically disappear. As far as cash flow was concerned, I gauged my financial condition and utilized it through a well-thought out plan. I have never tried to accumulate wealth; instead I injected back profits in business for expansion and that’s how Cakes and Bakes grew. But all the same, I always remain cautious regarding halal and haram.
Cakes & Bakes has 57 branches and about 1600 employees. Where do you see your company five years down the road? We are planning to expand our organization to 100 branches in the next five years. Expansion is not an issue, but maintenance of quality is, which we take very seriously. We keep grooming our staff to ensure that only high-quality products reach our customers. It’s a constant effort and our main focus, too.
What makes Cakes & Bakes stand out among its competitors? Look, there are two main things. 1. What is the customer’s demand? 2. Service and price. You have to take everything accordingly and it is only possible when you are strong both mentally and technically. You have to provide a good quality product at a nominal price, which is a great challenge. From day one, we
| 157 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | have kept this in our mind that quality is the only point which can give us an edge over others.
What is your business model - franchising or sole proprietorship? Twelve years back, most of our business model was based on franchising. But unfortunately, the franchise business did not do well in Pakistan. Actually, people here don’t know how to do business. They invest money but they are not business-minded. By chance, I went to a shop and I saw that he had turned off half the lights of the shop. I asked him about the reason. The guy blamed the huge electricity bill. I said, ‘I have a solution for that. You will not have to pay the electricity bill at all.’ He asked, ‘what is that solution,’ I said, ‘turn off the rest of the lights and close the shop.’ How can you run a business without investing in the efforts to attract customers? You tried to control the expenses instead of increasing your profits. Besides that a business requires sheer hard work which people are not willing to put in. We faced numerous problems due to our franchisers. In 2005, my son, Usman came back after completing his studies from the UK and joined the business. At that point, we decided to wind up our franchising model and do little but on our own.
What are the effects of recent price hike and devaluation of currency on your business? Have you laid off your employees? I think laying off is not a solution. People are doing it because everyone has their own business model. We think that we should focus on how we have to sustain in such a bad condition. We are trying to minimize our expenses which are in our control. Correcting the economy or controlling the dollar price is not in my hand. The thing which I can do is maintaining my customers’ satisfaction and increasing my sales. I provide a good quality product at affordable price.
What are the three competencies a CEO or an entrepreneur should have to run his business? I think one must have self-respect and love for his work otherwise you don’t perform well. I don’t think having wealth is success. What matters is your satisfaction and contentment. If you are satisfied with your performance then you are a successful person. If not, then you are an unsuccessful person even if you have billions. I always try to make sure that I don’t make money through deceitful ways. I do my dealings in a simple and fair way and leave the rest on Allah.
As you said that you established this business without taking loans from banks etc. and that you avoided every kind of interest, do you think that a business can flourish this way? Yes. Why not? Cakes & Bakes is a living example. People come to offer us their bank’s services but we refuse. It actually depends on how you are trained. I asked my father about it once. He forbade me. Once in 1980s, there came a scheme for poultry farmers. It offered them three lakh rupees loan to establish their farms. At that time, I was into poultry business too. The scheme was no doubt attractive but even then, I didn’t take it. Money was never my ultimate goal. I love doing my work, the work that satisfies my soul.
What are the core competencies you look for in an employee? Leadership skills. If he is a leader then you can teach him and expect desired results from him. Unfortunately, educational institutes are not producing smart people. They are not polishing students’ intellectual capabilities. What kids are learning about are ways of cheating, copying and cramming.
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Instead of enhancing their intelligence, skills, knowledge and inculcating good values in them, these institutes have locked their minds. Most of the teachers are not well-read and experienced. The gap between academics and practical field is huge. For example, an engineer, when he joins the field, he has zero skill-set. I must say that non-technical education system has ruined our nation.
What is your toughest business decision so far? Winding up the franchise business was a very tough decision. It was like taking a 180-degree turn.
Where do you get this energy from? Who is your inspiration and mentor? Honestly speaking, I try to read Quran everyday with translation and ponder upon the message it gives. I keep thinking about what my Creator says and what I am doing in return. If you only keep reading Quran and apply its message on your daily life, you will keep progressing and nothing can bar you from success. The first verse of Quran asks us to read with the name of our Lord who created but unfortunately that is what we don’t do. We don’t study.
Manufacturing and retail businesses are very tough and stressful since you have your commitments and deadlines. How do you manage your stress? It is very simple. You can take as much stress as you can. It is up to you. You have to keep in mind that you have to take double output out of the same team that you have. You have to plan in advance and give that plan to your team. Keep a follow up and everything will be fine. You face difficulties and you have to devise their solutions accordingly.
What is success? It is peace of mind. Success is when you are happy with your performance. If you are not happy, then you are not successful. Generally, you need a good accommodation, good car, good clothes, children getting educated, loving you and making you proud of their achievements, and having a peaceful home. Alhamdullilah I have everything. I have good health and halal money so I consider myself happily successful.
What is your message of hope and optimism for the youth? Unfortunately, many children hate occupations of their fathers considering them petty. For example, if someone’s father is a carpenter, his child would consider it a menial and unrespectable job ignoring the reality that they got food, education and other facilities in life with the money earned through that profession. Every business or occupation has both positive and negative points. Parents should also inculcate a sense of pride in their kids about their background and their profession. If I go home and start talking negative about my business, I shouldn’t expect my kids to join it. A businessperson should also try his best to grow his small business by accepting new trends and introducing innovations accordingly. If you are educated, you can take your father’s small business to a higher level. A tent service provider can become an event organizer. Someone running a small weaving set up can transform his business into a textiles mill. A shoemaker can give tough time even to Bata. It all depends on your hard work. Many young people come to my office. I tell them to join their parents’ businesses with the intent to revitalize it. Focus on entrepreneurship because a business is for generations to come whereas a job is just for yourself.
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LT. GEN ISHFAQ NADEEM AHMAD Managing Director & CEO, Mari Petroleum Company Limited
Profile: MPCL is an integrated E&P Company, currently managing and operating Pakistan’s largest gas reservoir at Mari Gas Field. With 18% market share, MPCL is the second largest gas producer in the Country with cumulative daily production of 100,000 Barrels of Oil Equivalent. The Company enjoys the highest exploration success rate of 70%, compared with industry average of 33% (national) and 14% (international). The Company plays a pivotal role in ensuring food security of Pakistan as around 80% urea production in the Country is based on MPCL supplied gas. The Company also supplies gas for power generation and domestic consumers. MPCL is an ISO certified Company for Quality, Environment, Information Security, Occupational Health & Safety and Social Responsibility. MPCL is listed on PSX with current market capitalization of around Rs. 160 billion. Major Shareholders of the Company include Fauji Foundation (40%), Government of Pakistan (18.39%), OGDCL (20%), and General Public (21.61%).
“TRUE LEADERSHIP IS ‘LEADING BY EXAMPLE’. I BELIEVE IN EARNING THE RESPECT OF MY SUBORDINATES AND PEERS THROUGH MY ACTIONS. AS A LEADER, I WOULD LIKE TO SEE MY REFERENT POWER GROW OVER TIME IN THE CORPORATE SECTOR IN GENERAL AND E&P INDUSTRY.”
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CEO Club: What is your company’s business philosophy (Vision & Mission)? Lt. Gen Ishfaq Nadeem: Our motto is “Energy with Energy”. At Mari whatever we do is driven as much by National Interests as by commercial considerations. Our Vision MPCL envisions becoming an international integrated exploration and production company by enhancing its professional capacity through highly knowledgeable and talented workforce that builds its petroleum reserves by consistently discovering more than what it produces within Pakistan and abroad; and improving financial capacity and profitability through efficient operations, while taking environmental safeguards and catering to social welfare needs of the communities inhabiting the area of operations. Our Mission To enhance exploration and production by exploiting breakthroughs in knowledge and technological innovations, adopting competitive industrial practices to adequately replenish the produced reserves and optimizing production for maximizing revenues and return to the shareholders whilst maintaining the highest standards of HSE and CSR.
Please share your company’s brief history? Mari Gas Field was originally owned by Pakistan Stanvac Petroleum Project, a joint venture formed in 1954 between Government of Pakistan and M/s Esso Eastern Incorporated, having 49% and 51% ownership interests, respectively. The first gas discovery was made by the Joint Venture in 1957, while the production from the field started in 1967. In 1983, M/s Esso Eastern sold its entire share to the Fauji Foundation. Consequently, it was decided to set up a wholly owned Public Limited Company for acquiring the assets and liabilities of the Project. In 1984, Mari Gas Company Limited (MGCL) was incorporated with Fauji Foundation, Government of Pakistan and OGDCL as its shareholders having 40%, 40%, and 20% shareholding, respectively. The Company took over the assets, liabilities and operational control of the Mari Gas Field and commenced business in its own name in 1985 under the Mari Gas Wellhead Price Agreement (Mari GPA). In 1994, the Government divested 50% of its share and the Company became listed on all the stock exchanges of Pakistan. The Company operated only as a gas production company and was engaged in developing the already discovered Habib Rahi Reservoir in the Mari Gas Field for supply of gas to new fertilizer plants. The Company pursued appraisal activities within its Mari D&P Lease area by drilling step-out wells to determine the extent of the Habib Rahi Reservoir. In 2001, the Company achieved a new milestone when it was granted a license for exploration of oil and gas in addition to the production activities. Since then, MPCL has emerged as a successful E&P company with a proven track record in the field of exploration and production. The Company has grown from the sale of natural gas from an inherited field, to the exploration, production, and sale of gas, oil and other petroleum products from several fields in all the provinces of Pakistan. The name of the Company was changed from “Mari Gas Company Limited” to “Mari Petroleum Company Limited” (MPCL) in November 2012 to reflect its diversified business operations and expanded activities. The Company had been outsourcing seismic and drilling business like other E&P companies. However, in 2013 the Company decided to set-up a services division comprising of a 3D seismic data
| 161 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | acquisition unit, a 2D/3D seismic data processing centre and a fleet of three on-shore drilling rigs. Thus, MPCL became a fully integrated E&P company in the Country. In 2014, an extension of five years in Mari lease period was approved by the Government, extending the development and production rights in the Lease Area till 2019. The extension has enabled MPCL to enhance the recovery and produce more natural gas, which is critically needed in the Country. Since its inception, the Company had been operating on a cost-plus fixed-return formula under Mari GPA 1985. Pursuant to consistent efforts by MPCL Management, a major milestone was achieved in November 2014 when Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet approved dismantling of the Mari GPA and its replacement with an international crude oil price linked market-oriented formula. Dismantling of the Mari GPA has allowed the Company to operate on commercial terms and become competitive to realize its full potential. In October 2015, the Company opted for conversion of Mari D&P lease to 2012 Petroleum Policy to avail the price incentives offered by the Government on production enhancement initiatives. In February 2016, MPCL became the first Pakistani E&P Company to implement its incremental gas production project (Mari Field) and avail gas price incentive on incremental field production offered in 2012 Petroleum Policy. Mari Field marked its Golden Jubilee on December 22, 2017. These were 50 years of meticulous operations and true professionalism as evidenced by uninterrupted supply of hydrocarbons to the Company’s downstream customers.
How many people/HR are on your payroll? The total people on our payroll are 3,665; on company payroll; 1,166, outsources are 2,441, consultants are 22 and trainees are 36.
Any remarkable recognition or achievements by the company? • MPCL has the best exploration success rate in the Country (70%). More than 80% urea production in the Country is based on gas supplied by MPCL to fertilizer sector. • Major awards won by the Company during FY 2018-19, include: • For the first time in MPCL’s history, the Company was included in the Top 25 Companies on Pakistan Stock Exchange for the Year 2017. (MPCL = 16) • “Overall Platinum Award” at the “14th EFP Best Practices Awards on Occupational Safety and Heath” by the Employers’ Federation of Pakistan. • 1st Prize for Management Practices (Oil & Gas Sector) at 34th Corporate Excellence Awards by Management Association of Pakistan. • “Best CSR & Sustainability Award”, “Best CSR Practices Award”, and “Best Sports & Recreational Activities Award” at 11th Annual CSR Summit/Awards 2019, organized by National Forum for Environment & Health. • First Prize for “Best HRM Practices” in the category of Large National Companies, at International HR Conference and Awards 2019, by Employers’ Federation of Pakistan. • “1st Prize for Best Employment Practices” and “CEO of the Year Award” in the category of Large National Companies at 6th Employer of the Year Awards, by the Employers’ Federation of Pakistan. • MPCL Annual Report 2017 won “2nd Position (Fuel & Energy Sector)” at Best Corporate and Sustainability Report Awards by Joint Committee of ICAP-ICMAP.
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• MPCL Annual Report 2017 was awarded a Certificate of Merit in the category of “SAARC Anniversary Award for Corporate Governance 2017”. • MPCL won “RCCI Premier Award” “Company of the Year” and “Fastest Growing Company of the Year” at 31st RCCI International Achievement Awards 2018 held at Baku, Azerbaijan.
What are the leadership competencies of a CEO that you would like to see in our new generation of CEOs? a. Entrepreneurship: The business culture of Pakistan is deficient in entrepreneurship. Pakistani businesses prefer to tread the beaten track and look to the government for protection from competition, subsidies and concessions. I would like to see CEOs who are entrepreneur in the sense that they come up with fresh ideas to allocate available resources, are risk takers and do not wait for government support before undertaking productive investment. b. Integrity: CEOs and business leaders should not compromise on their principals for achieving their goals. c. Passion: CEOs should be passionate about whatever they do. d. Flexibility: CEOs should have a flexible attitude, they should be open and adaptable to changing technologies and environment. e. Time Management: for better time management, CEOs should know how to prioritize tasks; they should decentralize mundane tasks and focus on strategic issues. They should avoid micro- management of affairs.
A CEO’s success largely depends upon a team. How to develop a winning team? There is no doubt that a CEO’s success depends, in most part, on a good team which shares the values and aspirations of the CEO and is ever motivated to implement the plans and strategies for achieving agreed goals. Delegation of responsibility and authority and allowing a certain degree of freedom to the subordinates is a must for developing a winning team. Recognition of each member’s contribution is a must for motivating them. Performance based rewards is a good idea to make people accountable for the results. Main characteristics of a winning team are: open communication, mutual respect and trust, fair contribution by each team member, diversity, commitment to agreed goals and strategy.
“WORK CAN AFFECT OUR FAMILY LIFE AND OUR FAMILY LIFE CAN AFFECT OUR WORK. THEREFORE, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO MAINTAIN A GOOD WORK LIFE BALANCE FOR A HAPPY AND FULFILLED LIFE.”
Is training, coaching and mentoring a priority to you? How much time/budget do you allocate
| 163 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | to this? The primary objective of our HR Function is to ensure that we have the “right people with the right skills to achieve our business goals”. Apart from the superlative foreign and local trainings, effective orientation and On-the-Job-Training programs are in place to familiarize new inductees with the organization and its functions. Periodic field orientation visits are also planned to provide practical knowledge to the new inductees. Special emphasis is placed on the appointment of mentor and training and development of trainees, for which a comprehensive training program to expose them to practical application of their theoretical knowledge is in place. Each year ample budget is allocated for training and development and we ensure that the resources invested in trainings are targeted at areas where training and development is needed, and a positive return on investment is guaranteed. Trainings at MPCL are result oriented and their results have a significant impact on employees’ appraisals /grading. Training Budget: Training budget of 2019-20 is Rs. 367 Million; 2018-19 is Rs. 222 Million and for 2017-18 was Rs. 197 Million.
Do you believe in Women Empowerment? If yes, what steps would you recommend empowering women? a. MPCL takes pride in being an “Equal Opportunity Employer”. To provide equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals, employment decisions at MPCL are based on merit, qualifications, and abilities. The Company does not discriminate in providing employment or growth opportunities based on race, color, religion, sex, origin, age or disability. However, it shall be kept in mind that due to very nature of E&P activities, it is a male dominated sector. Despite that, we try to have an equitable representation of women in our Company. b. Anti-Harassment Policy is in place at MPCL. In March 2010, the Government of Pakistan passed the “Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act”. This Act requires all public and private organizations to adopt an internal Code of Conduct and a complain/appeals mechanism aimed at establishing a safe working environment, free of intimidation and abuse, for all working women. The Company does not tolerate harassment of employees by another employee, supervisor, or any vendor or customer. Employees with questions or concerns about any type of discrimination in the workplace are encouraged to bring these issues to the attention of their immediate supervisor or Manager.
Can you give us an example of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative you have championed? • Being an E&P Company, we have mandatory CSR obligations as we must spend a certain amount (US$ 30,000 per annum) in each of our operated blocks. In addition to statutory CSR obligations, we spend a substantial portion of our profits to develop a healthy, resilient and civilized society. For instance, as per Petroleum Concession Agreement, we are under no CSR obligation at Mari Field Daharki. However, we have been spending huge amount annually on social welfare activities in Mari D&P lease area since inception. Over the years, this area has seen landmark social welfare initiatives benefitting the communities in the sectors of health, education & communication infrastructure. Projects worth over Rs. 1 billion have been undertaken in Mari Field Daharki, since inception. Moreover, now partnering with a development sector organization, we are committed to further
| 164 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | improve service delivery and sustainability of our CSR interventions in the coming years. Apart from Mari Field, we have spent over Rs. 320 Million (since inception) on various CSR interventions, which are over and above our statutory CSR obligations. Advance Level in ISO 26000 (Social Responsibility Guidelines) Assessment MPCL has been placed at “Advanced” Level of performance against global guidelines of ISO 26000:2010 (Social Responsibility Guidelines), in the assessment conducted from 27-30th November 2017. The highest rating, i.e. the “Role Model” Level, can only be achieved if “Role Model” is attained in all domains/standards of ISO 26000 (CSR, HR, Procurement, HSE & Field Operations). MPCL has achieved “Role Model” in Accountability, Ethical Behavior, Respect for Stakeholder’s Interests, Respect for the Rule of Law, Respect for International Norms of Behavior and Respect for Human Rights. MPCL has become the only Oil & Gas Company in Pakistan to be formally assessed for ISO 26000, and the only Company to have achieved the Advanced Level rating.
Harvard Business Review’s research tells us that E.Q. (Emotional Quotient) rather I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) is a highly essential competency for business leaders? Why E.Q. is important for CEOs especially in challenging times? A person with high EQ can decipher his/her own emotions and that of other people. He/she remains calm in pressure situations and while dealing with others. Hence, such a person is more likely to make rational decisions and win over other people. Since CEOs face pressure situations every day and have to deal with a lot of people within and outside their organizations, therefore it becomes increasingly important for them to have higher emotional intelligence in addition to having higher IQs.
Any achievement you are proud of? I am proud that for the first time in the history of the Company, our Gross Sales exceeded Rs. 100 billion mark during 2017-18 and our Profit-After-Tax also reached an unprecedented level of Rs. 15 billion. The results for the FY 2019-20 will be even better than the last year.
Who is your inspirational role-model? Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (R.A)
Your favorite book on professional development that you would recommend? How to Win Friends & Influence Peopleby Dale Carnegie is a must have book for everyone. This book was originally published in 1937, but it is still relevant today and teaches you how to express ideas and inspire people on an everyday basis.
Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? I believe that the fundamentals of a successful state are in place in Pakistan. These fundamentals may not be working to their intended potential, but they certainly do exist. We are bestowed with rich land, water, weather, natural resources, and the best people. We have adequate human resources. Our people are smart, intelligent and resilient. Institutions and regulatory policies exist. Our corporate sector is very vibrant as it is still making profits in adverse conditions. Our younger generation is exuberant; they have strong sense of commitment and dedication to Pakistan.
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DR. KHALID HAMEED Chairman/CEO, Tara Group Pakistan
Profile: Dr. Khalid Hameed, Chairman & CEO of Tara Group Pakistan, is an eminent & renowned Agriculture Scientist and a visionary leader of Agro Chemicals Industry of Pakistan. Dr. Khalid Hameed completed his Ph.D in Crop Protection with distinction from the Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine University of London. Backing with highest qualification from UK, he worked at senior level positions in top ranking MNC’s and in reputed National Groups of Agriculture Sector, as head of Research & Development, Sales, Marketing and as Chief Executive officer. He has developed and introduced a large number of innovative, cost effective & top quality chemistry products to the farmers of Asia Pacific Region for enhancing their Productivity. He established Agro Division of Tara Group Pakistan in 2012, which is presently a leading organization in the Agri. Sector of Pakistan. Under the remarkable and dynamic leadership of Dr. Khalid Hameed, six companies of Tara Group have created a new history in Agro. Industry of Pakistan by achieving biggest sales targets during the last 5 years, and achieved the status of a leading group in agro chemicals. In recognition of his remarkable achievements, Dr. Khalid Hameed has recently been honoured with a globally renowned Gold Award of International Star Leadership in Quality Excellence 2018, conferred a world reputed organization BID Group one in a grand Award Show held at Paris Last month he was awarded “Best Achievements Award of Top Quality Technological Innovation in Agri. Sector”, conferred by the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Earlier he has received various International and leading National Awards of Best Leadership, Top quality Brand, Rare CSR Initiatives and Top CEO Award in Agri. Sector from the President of Azad Kashmir, the Governor Punjab, the Governor Sindh, Federal Minister Planning & Development, Federal Ministers Information, & Petroleum and Advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
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CEO Club: Please share your company`s shared mission, vision, and core value/ behaviour. Dr. Khalid Hameed: The mission of Tara Group is to improve the quality of life of our Customers & Employees by delivering quality services & innovative solutions. The vision of Tara Group is to become a trusted leading Group in Agro Industry of Pakistan. Our Strategic Goal is to achieve a sale target of Rs.10 Billion by 31st December 2020) Tara Group Core Values and Business Philosophy lies in believing: a). Integrity & Honesty in delivering commitments. b). Quality services to deliver quality products & services to enhance the productivity of our customers and to reduce their production cost as well. c). Respect & care by listening to the feedback. d). Excellence in beating our own standards of performance. e). Being a Corporate Social Responsible Organization, Tara Group ensures the health of its employees, community & environment. My prime aim in forth coming years’ is to strive for improving the business status of Tara Group as a leading Pakistani Multinational Company. I believe that our motivated team of energetic employees sharing above mentioned Mission, Vision & Core Values in true sense would Inshallah make that dream true.
Please share your company`s last 3 years achievements? I. Under the Vision and acumen of its leadership Tara Group, has developed and introduced a large number of cost effective & environment / user friendly as well as climate resilient chemistry molecules to the farmers for achieving better yields of major & minor crops, which enhances at least 15 to 20% per acre yields and helpful to decrease at least 10% production cost of the farmers. II. Tara Group’s energetic Sale Champions and franchises created a new history by achieving a milestone of the biggest sale targets to maintain distinctive status of Tara Group as a leading company among other Groups of Agro Chemicals Industry. III. Tara Group has achieved another remarkable milestone by qualifying accreditation of its pesticides & fertilizers labs for the largest range of products under International Quality Standards ISO / IEC 17025: 2005 from the Pakistan National Accreditation Council Govt. of Pakistan. It’s an exemplary pride of Tara Group that earlier not a single company’s lab had yet achieved accreditation of said International Standards for such a biggest range of 25 Pesticides and Fertilizers products from PNAC. By achieving this rare pride Tara Group Pakistan is producing International Quality Pesticides and Fertilizers Products at our “State - Of - The – Art” Chemical Formulation Plant, which is one of the country’s most modern Plant with its top quality assurance Laboratories equipped with world’s most modernized and superior equipment. IV. The chemical formulation plant of Tara Group is being expanded which is one of the most modern & biggest “State - Of - The - Art” Plants in Pakistan having an aggregate capacity of about 10 million bottles and 5 million units of powder and Granule filling. V. Joint Venture pacts with Chinese, Turkish, Japanese, Australian, USA & Mexico based MNC’s were executed to develop and market high yielding corn hybrid seeds for maize & silage production, rice hybrid seeds, water melon & 5 vegetables hybrid seeds, which have gained fastest popularity among the farmers having promising yield potential and most suitable to the local climatic conditions. VI. Tara Group has recently signed a Joint venture pact with CEMB (Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology) of Punjab University for Multi Gene GMO Cotton Seed, which will not only reduce the production cost of the farmers by reducing pesticides sprays, but it will also bring a revolution for
| 167 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | achieving better yield of cotton crop. VII. The Seed Research Farms of Tara Group have been established at Kala Shah Kaku, Mianchannu, Sahiwal and Bahawalpur on the most scientific lines of research and development for advanced Seed Breeding Programme of resilient crop varieties and playing a role of model farming for disseminating most advanced technology to the farmers covering all climatic zones conditions of the country. VIII. During last 3 years Tara Group has achieved various International and National Excellence Awards on Best Achievements from the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Top CEO Honor from the President Azad Kashmir, the Governor Punjab, the Governor Sindh, the Federal Minister for Planning & Development & recently 4 International Awards of Environment Excellence, CSR International Award, Smart Agriculture international Award and Award of Top Agri. Brands, honoured by the Federal Minister Information, Federal Minister Petroleum, Advisor to the Prime Minister, while a world reputed organization BID Group one has recently honored Tara Group with a Gold Award of “International Star for leadership in Quality Excellence” in a grand Award Show held at Paris last month. The said international organization has also awarded two certifications of ISQL 100QC Total Quality Management System and International Quality Brand which is a rare pride of Tara Group in Agro. Chemicals industry of Pakistan.
Please share your company’s quality products and services: I believe that in the race of quality there is no finish line. That’s why our Prime motto is “Grow with Quality & Trust” By qualifying ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accreditation for the largest range of pesticides and fertilizers, Tara Group is providing innovative, top quality cost effective & environmentally safe/farmers friendly as well as climate resilient products of Crop Protection of Chemicals, Hi-tech Certified Seeds and Micro-Fertilizers to the farmers for enhancing their productivity and to reduce their production cost. Being a top ranking Innovative research based company, presently we are manufacturing & distributing more than one hundred registered & branded products range to the farmers, out of which 16 fungicides, 30 herbicides, 5 granules, 47 insecticides & 20 miscellaneous agro chemicals for major & minor crops. To ensure timely supply of quality products at the door steps of the farmers, Tara Group has established a sale network of over 800 Franchises under its two Sales & Marketing Companies i.e.: Imperial Industries (Pvt.) Ltd and Imperial Crops Sciences. The Sales Champions and Franchises of above mentioned Tara Group’s Companies are providing the most advanced technology to the farmers at their steps for optimizing their door per unit profitability and to reduce their production cost.
How do you define corporate culture at your company? And how do you make sure that people live act and breathe your organization’s vision and mission? What most people need to learn in life is how to love people and use things, instead of using people and loving things. The upper management of Tara Group believes that the Human Resource is our valuable & prime asset. The strength of our Group is to work as a motivated team in an open & learning environment, setting up exemplary standards of best performance and accepting challenges with dedication and devotion. The key success of our Organization lies in our mission to become a corporate culture leader in Agro. Industry of Pakistan. The employee’s management program is constantly being improved and updated with on job training & capacity building program as per advanced HR requirements and management strategies, for which Tara Group has signed an MOU with Management Institute of CEO Club for organizing Training Programmers for each category of the employees. Tara
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Group recognizes the outstanding performance of sales and non-sales employees in grand annual and seasonal ceremonies with awards, cash rewards, new vehicles, and promotion on upper rank, bonuses and various other incentives including opportunity of complimentary Umrah. To get relaxed, the HR Division also arranges cricket matches, music shows and recreational incentive tours for the employees in and outside the country. I strongly believe that only that entrepreneur can be efficacious on long term basis who possesses good intentions for others, who is true to his employees and to all the stake holders. This is the very ethical value which we adopt in our company. We ensure that from junior to senior level, every single employee is being treated equally. My doors and mobiles are always open for employees to contact me any time.
What are three key challenges and business opportunities in your industry? GST yet imposed on few agricultural inputs, is badly affecting the purchasing power of the farmers. I strongly recommend that our policy makers should not only reconsider to withdraw GST on all agri. inputs in the forthcoming national budget, but also a sizeable amount be approved every year in the budget to subsidies Agriculture inputs like India & other countries to minimize production cost of the farmers. Another issue to be addressed on war footing basis is to build up big & mini dams to overcome the acute shortage of water for irrigation purpose. Rapid changes in climatic conditions and large scale development of housing projects on fertile Agri-lands can also become a serious threat to our National Food Security in near future. In my opinion these issue may urgently be addressed by our policy makers on top priority basis.
How many employees are on Tara’s payroll? Presently, we have over 1000 employees in Tara Group, out of which 5 are Ph.D. in Agriculture, 200 MSc /BSc Agriculture, over 500 Agri. Diploma holder, 19 MBA, 7 Mcs, 2 CA, 7 Engineers and 265 employees related to general categories. Tara Group is the one of the leading organization where largest human resource is qualified in different Agriculture disciplines, for providing better field services, to the farmers. The coordinated efforts of our most efficient, dedicated and brilliant team of agri. graduates as field sales champions, are no doubt an upper edge of Tara Group in Agri. sector of Pakistan. This is the key factor of our rapid growth achieved with the memorable efforts of our human resource engaged on the philosophy of right man for the right job, for achieving right results.
What are the key challenges for a CEO in Pakistan? There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that one unleashed, can make any vision, dream or desire a reality. Claiming your power inspires other to do the same. Sometimes hurdles are hot really hurdles at all. They must be welcome as challenges test. A CEO must have significant vision to face emerging challenges & crisis of its sector with his brilliant, inspiring and innovative role model approach. He should know how to survive in tough competition; he must have ability to build up an energetic, devoted and dedicated winning team. He should take appropriate measures & effective strategies well before time for motivating its team to overcome the forthcoming crucial business conditions & field controversies.
What is leadership and what is your style of leadership? A great leader is one who knows when to set aside the important thing in order to accomplish the
| 169 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | vital one. Leadership is a management art for developing new horizons and exploring opportunities to achieve desired targets through joint efforts of a motivated team. In my opinion, the most successful leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. The real leader knows that if one plan does not work, change the plan not the goal.
Who is your role model of inspiration? My parents are my role models, who struggled a lot to see me a highly qualified and successful professional in my field. The passion for learning kindled in me by my father who always boosted up inspiration with a classic saying that if you want to achieve glorious success in your life, turn your passion into your profession. Alhamdulillah with the kind wishes & perfect guidance of my parents and blessings of Almighty Allah, I have successfully fulfilled their dreams to become a Top leader of Agro. Chemical Industry.
SUCCESS IS SIMPLE; DO WHAT IS RIGHT IN A RIGHT WAY AND AT THE RIGHT TIME.
Do you have any plans of expansion? Where do you see your organization in five years down the road? a) We would inshallah achieve a turn over for PRs.10 billion within 3 to 4 years down the road. b) Initiatives are being taken to build up the status of Tara Group as a top Pakistani Multinational Company in forthcoming era by starting diversified business of Import & Export through its newly established company entitled Star Industries (Pvt.) Ltd. c) Hi-Tech seeds range will be improved by introducing more hybrid seeds of major and minor crops in near future. d) A multi gene GMO cotton seed would be introduced next year, which would Inshallah bring a revolution of highest yield & would also substantially reduce the production cost of the farmers.
Any message of hope to younger generation & for CEOs/entrepreneurs? The young generation must always remember that your force determines your reality. What you do today can improve your tomorrow. The real opportunity lies within the person not in the job. If you are still looking for a person who will change your life, take look in the mirror & trust your intuition, if you want to know the real way of great success.
Define success or happiness in three words or phrases? Success is simple, do what is right in a right way and at the right time. The secret of success is constancy of purpose. Happy are those whose dreams are ready to pay the price to make them come true. To achieve success and happiness write on your heart that every day is the best day in your life.
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Can you give us an example of Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) initiatives you have championed? Being a Corporate Social Responsible organization, Tara Group under its CSR Policy’s motto “Commitment To A Better Tomorrow” is taking remarkable CSR initiatives related to environment protection, welfare of farming community / general masses and to encourage the new talent of youth. Few of such important activities are as under:- I. To achieve better yield of major minor crops, Tara Group is disseminating innovative Crop Technology free of cost to the country wide farmers through Field Day’s Events, Demo Plots Sampling, Practice field training, distribution of free technology literature, aggressive media Campaigns and National/Regional Farmer’s Conventions are being organized to improve the knowhow of the farmers for achieving better yields. II. Tara Group encourages the farmers on their record yields with prizes of Tractors, Cars, and Tickets for Umrah, Motorcycles and many other Prizes. This CSR initiative is also a unique source of developing healthy competition among the country wide farmers for achieving better yield to strengthen National Food Security & National Economy of the country as well. III. Tara Group is also providing sizeable quantity of effective pesticides with spray machines to the Govt. Organizations for controlling most dangerous Dengue and Congo virus vector. IV. After disaster of flood & heavy rains, Tara Group also generously helped the affected farmers by providing various facilities to cater their urgent needs. V. To protect environment, for the protection of farming community and rural masses, Tara Group is providing environmentally safe, farmers friendly & climate change resilient products to the farmers in the larger interest of general masses. VI. Tara Group is also generously allocating funds for Higher Educational Scholarships being providing to the bright & needy students of Agriculture Universities / Agri. colleges and to the Students of Free Education Universities of Akhuwat Foundation. VII. Tara Group is sponsoring Inter Universities Cricket Championship and International Super Kabaddi Leagues tournaments as well as sponsoring various other rural sports events to encourage the new talent of rural youth.
What steps should be taken to empower women? Does your company have any anti-harassment policy? The women like other walks of life are playing a vital role in the development and growth of Tara Group. The Human Resource/Admin Division, CSR Division and Front Desk Sections of Tara Group are headed by brilliant women. In addition to that a number of women are also working in Finance, Accounts, Marketing, Administration/Audit, Information Technology and other Departments, of the Group. They are being provided equal benefits, facilities and opportunities for promotion on upper rank. Their best performance is recognized in Annual Awards Shows with Excellence Performance Shields, Cash Reward, Bonuses and other various incentives. Women in our Company have also been provided a smooth & pleasant working environment and harassment free atmosphere by adopting strict rules and uncompromising policy in this regard.
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ZULQIURNAIN ALI KHAN Chairman and CEO, Zultec Group / Chairman, Utility Stores Corporation
Profile: Since its inception in 1984, Zultec Group has grown to become a multinational conglomerate enterprise operating out of 21 business destinations throughout Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, United Kingdom and Canada. With more than three decades’ experience under its belt and a growing family of over 500 dedicated professionals, it has pushed forward to become one of the leading companies offering comprehensive industrial and retail trade solutions. Through its multi-channeled solution-oriented approach, Zultec Group offers vast coverage of industrial and retail supplies and manufacturing; food processing facilities; state-of-the-art label generation to supplement marketing and sales; engineering and software solutions; and tracking and fleet management. Mr. Zulqiurnain Ali Khan, Chairman and CEO of Zultec Group is a genuine entrepreneur, a leader with vision, patriotism and spiritual contentment having a passion for creating values and generating growth. Besides this, he is a philanthropist with ethics and compassion. In 33 years of continuous success, Zulqiurnain Ali Khan along with his team of professionals has turned a small startup into the region’s largest technology solution provider. He has done it with a high-performance corporate culture that has become an example of smart management. With his genuine entrepreneurship, he has won the esteemed respect of Pakistan’s elite business and educated community. He has been appointed as President of Pakistan Executive Group (PEG) in Saudi Arabia. PEG is a think-tank body comprising large number of top and senior executives of Pakistan origin in Saudi Arabia. Functioning under patronage of the Embassy of Pakistan, PEG is a business advocacy platform among Pakistani and Saudi companies. PEG includes businessmen and operates with purpose to strengthen commercial/ business relations between the two countries bilaterally.
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CEO Club: How was 2017 for Zultec in terms of business?And to what extent does the current economic situation influence the business development at Zultec? Zulqiurnain Ali: From a global perspective, we were able to significantly increase our turnover in both our traditional core business and the newer business sectors and the current business trend is also in line with our expectations. However, the economic crises particularly the rupee devaluation in Pakistan is certainly noticeable due to much increased costs of import which have significantly affected our revenue pipeline. We are in a “wait and see” mode despite our aggressive investment and expansion plans for Pakistan which have been put on hold. The government must settle the external imbalances, otherwise, we do not see any improvement. We assume that these and other geopolitical crises in Pakistan will affect the business in the current year. However, we can compensate for this through growth in other regions. Fortunately, global presence, broad product portfolio and long-standing customer relationships keep us in a very good shape.
We are not poor in resources but governance? Do you believe that good governance can help us wrestle with this dilemma? What is your take on good governance? I can recall answering this question in my previous interview. Let me reiterate that “Impossible Can Happen” if you stay tenacious to your resolve. We have all it takes to become a great country except sincere, honest and visionary leadership. As a businessman, I would say that best analogy to make a country great is to run it like a company. With a good governance and true leadership, you must have this resolve to press on no matter how difficult the circumstances. In fact, it is this quality that separates the good from the great. Anyone can lead well when conditions are favorable, but it is your conduct in times of adversity that distinguishes you as an excellent leader.
What’s your take on innovation? How do you ensure that innovation favors your bottom line? I strongly believe in disruptive innovation. We are in the technology and services business where we keep ourselves abreast of new developments. There’s a famous saying that “today’s specialty can be tomorrow’s commodity.” This is well applied in our business. We have seen areas like labels and films which have been overly commoditized. What we have learnt is doing a product innovation by taking those areas; refocus them on creating value by innovating a new product line within that commodity. And we have been doing this very successfully. For our labels converting business, we have done this through the introduction of holographic labels, stamps and wads in our portfolio. Some of our recent spin offs like setting up first thermoforming trays manufacturing business clearly articulates our strategic thinking that helps us breathe new life into the marketplace.This has been a sort of disruptive innovation which changed the protein packaging industry and this is our secret recipe for success.
What are the three major factors lie behind Zultec’s ability to juggle its progressive vision with fulfilling its client’s needs? First is the degree of autonomy given to decision making by the senior executives in Zultec. While we are quite structured and run our company like any large, multinational, we are also entrepreneurial. The family touch is there. When an executive feels they are making the decisions themselves without too much bureaucracy and too many approvals, they feel more like the owner of the business.
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Second, Zultec as a group is fearless when embarking on new ventures. We burned our hands initially in food business but never stopped. We reassessed our strategy, learned from that experience and tried again, but this time we succeeded in launching the most advanced dates processing and ready meals factory in Saudi Arabia. The third and the most important amongst these, is our people. We view them as our main capital and the most valuable asset. Because we are a family business, our employees become part of the family. There are even second generation oemployees who have joined our team. To me, this is very gratifying. This is a recognition and confirmation of our corporate culture. We have a strong, confident and very progressive management. The different specialties and blend of my team brings to the table the ability to make one plus one equal 11, not two. Zultec is 35 years old, full of experience and with a vision that remains unchanged: To be a partner of choice for our customers and change the lives of billions around us.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became CEO” and why? I wish I could have someone mentoring me the “Sense of purpose”, the very beginning of your existence. Remember, chance favors the prepared minds. So get ready and continue building the basic entrepreneurial traits in your personality. I will list some of the very important ones here: 1. Start your business now, not tomorrow or next week. One week turns to two weeks which turns to a month and before you know a year has gone by with you making to same promises to yourself that you did last year. 2. It’s your business — not your friends’ or family’s. Your friends and family mean well and would never knowingly steer you wrong. But, their focus is on you and not your vision. They can’t have your vision, it’s yours. All they can do is give you advice based on worry. So do yourself a favor and don’t tell them what you are doing. As Nike says, “Just Do It!” 3. Don’t worry about how. Most people never get started because they spend so much time either thinking about how they need more money or an office or pay their rent or this or that before they can begin. This is a red-herring, and illusion. It will only foster a cycle like a dog chasing his tale. Ask yourself, what can you do, right now?! — — then do it. 4. Don’t sell anything, close. Sales is all but presentation, showing off your company or product to a perspective buyer or investor. The fact that they are there listening to you means at the very least curiosity / interest on some level. But what convinces them to write a check? Its what benefits, the buyer or investor. Closing conveys benefit to your client. You’re expressing to them ROI. (Return On Investment) They want to know that if they trust you with their money or time that there is a direct benefit to them. So it’s closing which conveys sustainable, material success. 5. Follow up, follow up, follow up. Return messages in a timely fashion. Really and truly, please, focus on relationship building. If you were interested and excited about the start of a new romantic relationship with someone, would you return the call, email or text message? If the answer is yes, then do the same thing with your business ventures, clients, etc. Don’t destroy your potential success with a client, investor or other because you were too lazy or apathetic to follow-up.
None of us are able to succeed without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful to? Well, initially my mother nurtured a “Can Do” attitude in me but unfortunately I lost her in my
| 174 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | childhood. The person that mentored me, helped me and inspired me the most over the years would have to be my previous boss Mr. Hans Karl who gave me a chance to learn the nitty gritty of business. He’s taught me how to be assertive and go after what I want, and his commanding and bold guidance is something which developed a true leadership style in me. He’s always been supportive of my passion, helped me to lean in, and pushed me to sit at the table, even when I didn’t think I was ready. No matter where life takes me, I will always have a very special place for him in my heart.
You’ve been a CEO since three decades, what do you think about the skills needed for future CEO’s in general? A single word that defines the major trait of a CEO would be “Execution”. Some of the others which I designate as must-haves for CEO are the Strategic Vision, Accountability and Engagement as the most critical while persuasion, perseverance, innovation and courage as complementing to the critical skills.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenges. How do you retain top talent in the company? Often I have been marked as a tough CEO but my treatment of people is emanated from my passion for perfection and desire to work with only the best. We have very smart people, whom I work with, and any of them could get a nicer job at another place but they are an intensely loyal cadre of colleagues who are inspired by our culture of communicating pride and confidence in them. We value people, trust them and delegate decision making authority that makes them feel proud of the jobs they are doing
You’ve been successful all along your journey. How do you define success, is there an end? Gratification is important. I thank ALLAH Subhanuatallah for what he awarded me. But at the same time I believe that success is never final. My mentor Karl Hans has taught me that with every great success, stop patting yourself on the back because there are always new markets to conquer and more customers to satisfy. As demographics, markets, technology, and global forces continue to rapidly change, so, too, will the needs of customers. For organizations to meet those needs and expectations, they must have leaders who possess the understanding that success is never final.
Which markets do you think will develop in the near future? We see growing demand in organized retail and food sectors within Pakistan and Food Processing & Packaging as a whole. We see an interesting dynamic here. We empower global retailers in Saudi and in Middle East to run their supermarkets using our technologies. We were waiting for organized retail in Pakistan to grow. What happens now is that Pakistan is bucking the trend in Saudi Arabia- where stores are closing or growth has been sluggish. Interesting retail comprises of 18% of the entire GDP of Pakistan. So this as an area where we will direct our focus in 2018-2019. Besides this, the growth in food processing and packaging, within the regions we operate, allow us to significant invest and make bold moves. We plan to kick start our Ready Meals Project in Madina this year. It’s a massive investment and the first and largest ready to eat meals processing unit which aims to provide food supplies to Hajj & Umrah pilgrims, disaster relief camps and Organizational Catering. We also continue to see great potential for our materials supply business primarily the packaging solutions for protein and fresh produce. We’ve plans to expand our thermoforming trays manufacturing business in other areas within MEA. The growth in world population, increase in disposable income
| 175 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | industrializing process will raise demand for larger volumes of higher quality food. So we expect a trend towards a significant quality improvement both in products themselves and in the required packaging.
CEO’s are always visionaries. In today’s business environment, how do you correlate the significance of a vision for performance transformation? I have been asked this a number of times. First and foremost, vision doesn’t capture nearly enough of what is truly required. What is required is a deep understanding of customers, their problems, how their problems can be solved and how technological advances enable alternate solutions. I call this a peripheral vision that describes this trait much more than mere vision does. Peripheral vision is seeing a broader landscape, seeing the context, seeing both the bigger picture and the details and to have this, you really need to get out of the bubble of your desk in the corner office, no matter how high that office might be. I’m inspired by Bill Marriott’s management style and let me share a phrase about him which says “His feet never touched his desk”. As a leader you have to sense what shifts are required along the way to stay a category leader. We cannot simply settle for incremental improvements, we must periodically undergo performance transformations to get, and stay on top. Go all out, looking at all the detail that could make or break your customer’s experience and that’s how you can expect a real performance transformation within your organization.
Can you give us an example of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative you have championed? To me, it’s an obligation towards serving people for what I have been awarded with. There are multi- faceted advantages of giving back to the community. Even our employees want to feel good about working for a company that cares about supporting community. We started with operating two non- profit schools in Saudi Arabia and scholarship programmes for many deserving students in Pakistan, in collaboration with Punjab University and Namal Knowledge City. This year, we feel proud to announce the launch of Zulqiurnain Foundation, a more streamlined approach towards CSR. The foundation aims to support causes like health, education, food and water. Zultec is now contributing 10% of its operating profits to the Zulqiurnain foundation.
How do you define corporate culture at your company? How do you make sure that people live, act and breathe your organization’s vision, mission and core values? It’s certainly not just a list of buzzword that we plaster on the wall in our office. We understand the importance of corporate values on our market outlook and I strictly believe that this requires my personal involvement for maximum impact. Ever since I am running the show, I want Zultec to innovate in collaboration with our customers to make a meaningful impact on the lives of millions around us. This collaboration has been the essence of our innovation as well. Across our organization at all levels, we practice these values in visible ways to ensure that they are put into action. Within Zultec, we have tried having a value that gives equal opportunity to all the employees. We want to provide an environment which makes work feel like more than, just work. Our people embrace change, we share problems together and we celebrate success together. That’s how we go all out to ensure our values are intact and practiced.
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We noticed that you are also the president of Pakistan Executives Group in Saudi Arabia. Tell us more about the mandate of this organization and how it can help businesses in Pakistan Yes, I am the president of this non-profit and non-political organization which has been set up purely to improve the bilateral trade between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. PEG also helps private businesses in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to explore actionable partnerships and investment opportunities. An example of this is the recent visit of Halwani Bros, a leading food processor in KSA, to Pakistan to look for investment avenues. We have recently included the advisory services for businesses to exchange impactful ideas. We would like to facilitate Pakistani businesses to come over to Saudi Arabia. This way on one side we can help Pakistani companies to internationalize business and on the other side, we help to bring in foreign investments in Pakistan.
Every success story has its dark moments. Tell us about yours? There is no such dark story so far but rising from rags to riches was not at all an easier journey. Losing my parents at an early stage of life, coping up the life, education and then continued struggle has been very difficult. But I had this irrepressible urge to do something in life. I believe that the one constant thing in life is change. That doesn’t mean we get used to it or fully embrace it, though. On corporate side, since I started from trading business, much of my monetary and time investments turned upside down when all of sudden our principle partners fall out. Because they saw market was lucrative enough to venture directly. However all of these setbacks actually taught us a lesson. I strong believe that what I am today would not have been possible, had there been no such moments in my life too.
What do you think about the role of a CEO in terms of making decisions firmly and quickly? Intricacies of effective and timely decision making is where most of the CEOs fall into the trap. Sometimes, a wrong decision is better than no decision. High performing CEOs do not necessarily stand out for making great decisions all the time; rather, they stand out for being more decisive. You have to make quick decisions with greater conviction. As for me, I do not wait for perfect information. Once I have 65% certainty around the answer, I have to make a call. And once a path is chosen, I press ahead without wavering. Doing so consistently – even amid ambiguity is what defines a true leader.
What lies ahead for your business? I want to turn Zultec into a brand with three key strengths: Price, Quality & Innovation. Zultec is already known for the earlier two but the third is a continuous process where we have been investing significantly. The next in line is business automation which is the future of businesses. It covers the entire spectrum from production to retail shelves. From the automatic loading of the products into the pack cavity through to intelligent converging concepts and right up to fully automatic box or crate loading and then dispatch to stores. This may require mergers and acquisitions to rapidly expedite towards the goal and our strategy is directed very clearly at the expansion of our expertise in automation and line construction. Our ultimate idea of innovation extends to our corporate attitude. Good companies create good products. The people working at our group should also have the same traits of transforming and aligning themselves to this goal with solid principles. and
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PERFORMING100 CEOs, BUSINESS LEADERS, ENTREPRENEURS, PRESIDENTS & WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE OF PAKISTAN
Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honourably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give
Edward O. Wilson | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan |
ABDUL RAUF JETALSARWALA Chairman, DANY Technologies
Profile: Abdul Rauf Jetalsarwala belongs to middle class family; it was his dream to do something extraordinary for family and humanity. Initially, there was a lot of struggle, he started by working for different companies. After 9/11 the entire world changed and things were stuck, there was a wave of recession, around that time my younger brother was on a trip to Japan he was unable to travel back to the country due to the flights being grounded and other circumstances that surrounded Pakistan at that time and he had to extend his stay. He as a result travelled to Tokyo to analyze their market. A mutual friend knew the markets there and suggested that my brother could have a look at various markets and junkyards. Since we are memon business runs in our blood, he had learned that there were used computers and other equipment related to the same technology available at very economical rates. At the time we did not have a lot of knowledge regarding this field, this was the time period when Musharraf was in power and then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz lifted the ban on importing used computers; this provided us with a window of opportunity to import. The cost of importing one container would cost us somewhere between 15-20 hundred thousand,I gave my brother the go ahead to ship one container. When the equipment arrived everything was new to me and my team, we had an abandoned project in Saddar at the time, I decided to use that to open a market for used computer and named it “Computer ka Shaershah” and did marketing of it using mediums like hoardings and newspapers for advertising purposes. The idea clicked; we managed to attract hundreds and thousands of people who in return provided us with technical knowhow. Since then, Abdul Rauf has been the Chairman of Dany Technologies.
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CEO Club: Please tell us about your journey and the challenges you faced during your initial days? Abdul Rauf Jetalsarwala: I belong to a middle class family; it was my dream to do something extraordinary for ourselves,family and for humanity. Initially, there was a lot of struggle I started by working for different companies. After 9/11 the entire world changed and things were stuck, there was a wave of recession, around that time. My younger brother was on a trip to Japan and he was unable to travel back to the country due to the flights being grounded and other circumstances that surrounded Pakistan at that time, he had to extend his stay. He, as a result travelled to Tokyo to analyze their market. A mutual friend knew the markets there and suggested that my brother could have a look at various markets and junkyards. Since we are memon, business runs in our blood, he had learned that there were used computers and other equipment related to the same technology available at very economical rates. At the time we did not have a lot of knowledge regarding this field, this was the time period when Musharraf was in power and then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz lifted the ban on importing used computers; this provided us with a window of opportunity to import. The cost of importing one container would cost ussomewhere between 15-20 hundred thousand,I gave my brother the go ahead to ship one container. When the equipment arrived everything was new to me and my team, we had an abandoned project in Saddar at the time, I decided to use to open a market for used computers and named it “Computer ka Shaershah” and did marketing of it using mediums like hoardings and newspapers for advertising purposes. The idea clicked; we managed to attract hundreds and thousands of people who in return provided us with technical knowhow. One such instance was when I came across a man who wanted to purchase from us, I asked him “What are you going to do with the product that you have bought since this technology is obsolete?” I told him I would give him an added incentive if he let me know the answer. He then told me that the processors are welded together with gold; once melted we extract the gold and scrap the rest. We not only accomplished ourselves in the electronic business. Our real estate business also received a boost and started producing profits.
What are the 3 critical challenges that you have faced? I personally feel challenges provide you with energy. Whenever, we are presented with a challenge me and my team try to find the opportunities that hide within it. For example post 9/11 a lot of people were demoralized, at the same time some people capitalized on various opportunities and established a name for themselves, which is why I feel we should not shy away from challenges; without them it is impossible to succeed.
How do you define entrepreneurship and what are the core competencies of an entrepreneur? A good entrepreneur is one who has the ability to think about others; whose mindset is not restricted to only making money he/she should have the ability to think about humanity, the country their family and peers. In my practical experience if you have the ability to broaden your horizons, Allah will help you.
What is leadership to you and what characteristics should leader possess? I would not term myself as a big leader. It is only your respect for others that allows you the chance to lead a company or country. Again, I would emphasize on having a broad mindset, you should have a bigger purpose in life that goes beyond just making money even though it is important. Looking at it from another angle you have to ask yourself how are you contributing to the community?
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Have you created sufficient job opportunities? This is a growing field and it has a lot of scope, the electronic industry should flourish in the current era of Pakistan.
As an entrepreneur how do you manage major challenges such as; cash flow management and human resource management? Firstly, human resources need to be regarded as an asset by treating your employees with respect, providing autonomy and communicating a clearly outlined career progression plan. Where cash flow management is concerned, if you implement Shariah compliance in your business and practice it correctly you will not need to neither take out loans nor will you face any hurdles in your work because you will be receiving help from Almighty Allah directly. I feel it is best to try and stay away from interest.
Which competencies do you look for during your hiring process? What matters the most is the position we are looking to fill. For instance, if we are hiring a marketing manager we try and identify if he/she has a spark, whether or not they possess the drive. For the field of marketing I prefer to hire youngsters who come from good universities. A good marketer is one who has unique ideas. We are in the technology sector here things are constantly changing, this field is ideal for millennials therefore we need to project it in a certain manner, so it attracts our youngsters of today who already have a lot of awareness and are technology friendly.
“A GOOD ENTREPRENEUR IS ONE WHO HAS THE ABILITY TO THINK ABOUT OTHERS; WHOSE MINDSET IS NOT RESTRICTED TO ONLY MAKING MONEY. HE/SHE SHOULD HAVE THE ABILITY TO THINK ABOUT HUMANITY, THE COUNTRY THEIR FAMILY AND PEERS.”
What are the difficult decisions that you have made in your life? In 2017, when Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s assassination took place, that period particularly was a dark time for us as individuals and as a nation. The law and order situation was terrifying, industries were being set ablaze, there were many discussions taking place in the business community as to whether or not Sindh would survive, if businesses would survive in this difficult time. My team was in despair and everybody advised me against importing shipments, it was during that time that I followed my heart and my instinct that told me the situation will improve and get better. 2-3 months down the line I was proven right and our business took off the ground and reached great heights.
Where do you see your business five years down the line? There is margin for a lot of growth, we are currently present in 22 cities and have regional offices in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and offices all over Pakistan. We are exporting to 30 countries at present including China, Africa, GCC Countries and Russia, our future plan is to establish global recognition for our brand.
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How do manage your anger and what are your coping strategies? Anger is a natural emotion if someone doesn’t experience I think they are not human. My coping strategies include leaving the situation, if I am standing I will sit down and from a religious aspect I start saying ‘ASTAGHFAR’.
How do you justify the work life balance? When you have a team and you give them powers you feel comfort. When you trust them they deliver. Same rule applies to family; even today I buy fruits myself for my children and more often than not. I cut the fruit and feed it to my children and grandchildren.
How do you define success? According to me success is bringing a change within the society; success is not only power or money its true definition lies in contributing to the betterment of those around you, your family and your country.
Do you believe in women empowerment; balancing gender and allowing them freedom to show creativity in the workplace? I strongly believe in women empowerment and also in the fact that no society can progress without empowering women. 50% of our population comprises of women, I feel that if a society wants to succeed and feels that this can be done without women, then that is merely wishful thinking. Another key factor in empowering women is education. It is only when a female is well educated, can she can effectively play her roles (wife, mother) effectively and influence coming generations. I personally believe that we should provide better work environment to women as per our religion/customs so they can work comfortably.
What is your take on the role of spirituality at the workplace? We are all muslims and it is our belief that we have a complete guideline to life in The Holy Quran, religion does not stop you from anything.
Any message of hope and optimism that you would like to give to our youngsters of today? I myself am a very optimistic person, whatever I have achieved today is by the grace of Almighty Allah after that it is because of this country. Pakistan has given me an identity, business and respect, now it is our turn to give back. I have seen most of the world and can safely say that the opportunities that exist in Pakistan regarding money and recognition are endless. All you need is honesty, consistency, integrity and strong decision making abilities.
“SUCCESS IS BRINGING A CHANGE WITHIN THE SOCIETY; SUCCESS IS NOT ONLY POWER OR MONEY ITS TRUE DEFINITION LIES IN CONTRIBUTING TO THE BETTERMENT OF THOSE AROUND YOU, YOUR FAMILY AND YOUR COUNTRY.”
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ABDUL SAMI CEO, Samad Group
Profile: The business that was initiated with a small rubber factory seven decades ago, has now flourished and blossomed into a highly diversified group of industries known as Samad Group of Industries. Manufacturing a wide range of products to the entire satisfaction of its customers in the fashion, textile, footwear, sports, household and military sectors. Besides being pioneer in the field of contact adhesives in Pakistan, Samad Group has been manufacturing a variety of molded and fabricated products based on polymers and polymer coated fabrics since its inception. This family owned business which is now in its third generation, is perhaps best known to the common man for its uniquely wonderful product Samad Bond which has become a household name in adhesives in Pakistan.
“LEADERSHIP PREDOMINANTLY IS ABOUT TRUST. OWNERSHIP AND BUILDING CONFIDENCE IN YOUR TEAMS DRIVEN BY STRONG WORK ETHICS IS AN ESSENTIAL TRAIT REQUIRED AT ALL LEVELS OF AN ORGANISATION.”
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CEO Club: Please share with us some information about the origin of Samad Group. Abdul Sami: My father Abdus Samad obtained his Master’s degree from Aligarh University and subsequently taught as a professor in the same institution. Following the partition of India, my father migrated to his home town Lahore, where he set up a small rubber factory and began manufacturing rubber hoses, rubber soles and some other molded products. We were the first to set up a state of the art latex foam manufacturing unit, we have been the pioneers in most of our products. In technical collaboration with an Austrian firm, we also built a shoe plant, which due to a division of business went to my uncle in 1962. In those days Latex foam attracted exorbitant sales tax and Excise duty (added together almost 32%). It became impossible to compete with a mushroom growth of small unregistered units manufacturing cheap and substandard foam without paying any taxes, my father, being a man of principles did not resort to unethical business practices to save his business. Instead chose to shut down a huge foam manufacturing unit. This was the time our company pioneered the development of glue popularly known as Samad Bond which became an instant success and a household name in Pakistan. Since 1962, we have been working in close association with the Armed Forces of Pakistan that has resulted in indiginisation of a variety of products previously being imported.
What type of equipment do you make for the armed forces? Once we understood and developed the skill of manufacturing inflatables, we used this technology to produce high speed Inflatable sea going crafts upto 13 men capacity, life jackets, air mattresses, self inflating mattresses etc. We have also pioneered the development individual soldier’s load carrying gear such as rucksacks and chest rigs (12 items in this category which were inducted in the Army like our other developments). We also are the first Pakistani company which has developed specialised high altitude equipment to be used in areas, where temperatures plummet down to minus 50 degrees celsius. Development of antimine shoes was morale boosting for our troops entrusted with clearing mine fields as the injuries were reduced to sprains as against losing a foot or a limb in case of mine explosion.
What changes have you introduce since joining the business? I have always been obsessed with the notion of innovation and creativity, my father had mainly focused on rubber based products and built a great system to meet the requirements of that time. It was a centralised management system where all aspects of business were controlled by him . When I joined the business in early 1980s, I had a strong realization that growth will be impossible without creating a skilled professional middle management and delegation of authority. I began restructuring the organisation, building teams and team leaders and delegating powers. The system has long since attained maturity and of course has its rewards. The process is continuous and keeps on evolving for the better. Our growth has increased significantly by diversification into cellular rubber products for footwear and sports goods exporters and by the manufacture and export of denim garments as well as those made of technical textiles.
Do you receive sufficient encouragement from government while attempting to further promote your business? There are countries in the world where fiscal policies remain by and large the same, no matter which party comes into power. Such sustainable economic policies bolster the confidence of businessmen, who are able to make long term plans without any fear of drastic shift in economic policies. Here in Pakistan,
| 185 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | things are quite the opposite of that one has frequently observed change in economic policies with changes in governments. This seemingly endless uncertainty and unpredictability shatters the confidence of investors who are always forced to make new adjustments. The same story is being repeated now. No business can flourish in the real sense of the word in such a volatile and fluid situation. I wish that a highly skilled and capable think tank is constituted to put in place a well structured, long term economic and industrial growth plan based on our realities and lessons of past.
Being the CEO of a leading business entity, you must have devised some strategy for dealing with your employees. Would you like to share it with our readers? It is commonly observed that individuals heading successful organisations become a victim of a fallacy that they know everything and must always have the last word. This is attitude generally is discouraging for the employees and prevents them from creative thinking and curbs their leadership capabilities. I on the other hand, am a staunch believer in participatory style of leadership and team work wherein everyone is respected. Currently, we have more than 2000 employees and I always inspire them by telling them that they are working not for us but with us, to achieve some common goals and objectives. While taking every new initiative, I encourage all my team members to give their opinion in a frank and candid manner. Moreover, keeping in mind that this is the age of specialization and skill development, I try to ensure that all divisions of my organization are headed by those who are particularly skilled in their respective fields. In spite of the fact that I am the CEO, I regard myself more as a manager with a vision to share instead of imposing myself on my team members, I share with them and invite their suggestions and act on a consensus based policy. It is important that all tiers of human resource share the short and long term strategy of the company.
What in your opinion are the essential characteristics of good leadership? It definitely entails sincerity and leading from the front. Without such attributes, a leader can never win the trust and respect of his followers. A true leader is always willing to learn and improve himself, instead of treating others with arrogance. A good leader possesses the excellent virtue of humility and happily tolerates difference of opinion. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was the greatest leader humanity has ever seen, his followers blindly trusted him being sure of his honesty, piety and sincerity that they were always ready to sacrifice their lives for him.
Retention of key people is a major problem for most business organizations these days. Do you also to face this problem? We still have with us some employees who joined us 50 years ago. In my opinion, the key reasons for people to stay in a company are respect along with self worth. Meaning they feel useful and have a feeling of contribution. Obviously a good working environment and a visibile growth oriented carrier path play an equally important role. We do have a problem of lateral movement of human resource in the garment manufacturing sector. The market is growing at a fast pace and there is a dirth of competent professionals. Naturally a pull is created by new and huge industrial set ups and unreasonably high salaries are being offered.
What are your coping strategies for stress management? I am by nature a positive person. By the Grace of Almighty Allah, I hardly ever feel any stress. I do enjoy
| 186 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | my work. But if at all I ever experience such feelings, I try to overcome them by spending more time with my family and friends.
How would you like to define real happiness and success? You can never relish real happiness unless it is shared. There are many opportunities that come our way every now and then to experience happiness but we don’t really notice them. I feel there is a lot of satisfaction and happiness in adding to the quality of life of people around you. Many a times it is associated with achievement of small or big goals that you set for yourself. I am passionate about gardening and flowers, and I spend a lot of time planning and growing my garden every season. It gives me great pleasure to see the outcome evey year, the happiness is 100 folds when I could share the same with as many people as possible. On a personal level, every time one resists temptations that are against one’s values, it does bring about a certain fulfilment. Fear is the worst enemy of happiness. Many of us live our lives in fear of things that never ever happen. These fears prevent one from testing their full potential and hence deprive you of achievements that could have been yours otherwise.
“A TRUE LEADER IS ALWAYS WILLING TO LEARN AND IMPROVE HIMSELF. INSTEAD OF TREATING OTHERS WITH ARROGANCE, A GOOD LEADER POSSESSES THE EXCELLENT VIRTUE OF HUMILITY AND HAPPILY TOLERATES DIFFERENCE OF OPINION.”
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ABID SAEED Managing Director, Foton JW Auto Park (Pvt.) Ltd.
Profile: Abid Saeed got Master degree in project management from NED. He is currently employed as Managing Director in JW Forland. He is managing various departments including Sales & Marketing along with all technical units including manufacturing. He assists in implementing company strategy as a part of the management team to ensure product recognition and to provide the best automotive product competence with the international market. Furthermore, his efforts for planning vendor industry through technology transfer from China is in line with JW group’s vision to strengthen business relationship with our neighbour nation. He believes Pakistan’s vendor industry has enormous potential and aims to support the development of new and existing vendors. He has a sea of experience in this working portfolio as Head of Operations U.A.E. at Kansai Paint Middle East. He worked as a Project Head in Atlas Battery where he was made responsible to plan, direct, coordinate and lead executing projects and overall operations & management including efficiency improvement of existing operations, capacity expansion and uplifting of work place environment. He is one of the few professionals who supports the concept of international income of Chinese technological transactions in Pakistan. He is a leading personality in the economic zone activity expansion in Pakistan.
“WHERE THERE IS LAND, YOU’LL SEE A FORLAND.”
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CEO Club: Please tell us about your company JW Forland. Abid Saeed: Forland is Foton motor group’s leading unit for making commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles, construction equipment and special purpose products including environmental and sanitation units. JW Forland (est. 2017) is a joint venture between JW SEZ group and Changsha Foton Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd. China (est. 1996). The collaboration is different in nature as compared to other leading Chinese OEMs in Pakistan which are based on TAA – Technical Assistance Agreement. It is the 1st international joint Chinese automotive manufacturing venture in Pakistan. Chinese market sank in the sea of opportunities in Pakistan and invested heavily which is their tech dexterous contribution for the economy of Pakistan. The difference I discovered among the foreign and local entities is of planning and execution. The main flaw is that we focus on the outcomes rather than its efficient planning. Our 90 percent emphasis is only on the numbers which adversely affects the ultimate goal, at JW Forland we’re strategizing more on research & development for sustaining results and to build trust in our products by adjusting the local mindset.
What are the products of JW Forland? Our collaboration with China provides us with the investments of capital, technology and human resource. JW Forland activated its first phase just 3 months ago after completion of our manufacturing facility. We have launched 5 variants of commercial vehicles and trucks ranging from 1-ton to 7.5- ton covering a good segment. In the future, we are working on the launch of passenger vehicles in the expansion phase. The main advantage of this joint business is that there is an influx of Chinese technology in Pakistan. It is a great opportunity for us Pakistanis to experiment with these products. Currently, 30 foreign engineers are working with us with the aim to ensure deliverance of quality.
How do you describe the corporate culture in JW Forland? Every employee of JW Forland is our asset. Our employees are our main treasure and we value them and their integrity. We are investing in the employees for their professional training. Are we the best? No, we’re not, but every day is better than the day before. Our key focus is on diversity & inclusion and we are getting ready to embark upon a journey with the right people. Whose skills are best suited to the company’s need with the belief that each one (of us) is our strategic partner based on a culture that is reliable and constantly refined and lays emphasis on success and people and fully committed to enjoy life creating the personal – career equilibrium.
What is the total workforce working in JW Forland? We don’t use the term ‘workers’ in our entity. Since we’re all part of one big team so we’re all team members’ the strength of which is just over 300 individuals and growing. Phase 1 cap is for around a total of 500 human assets and around 4,000 vacancies with our future expansion plan for which we’ve joined hands with various educational institutions in Pakistan for providing job opportunities and we aim to bridge the gap between the 4 stakeholders i.e. policy makers, industry, academia and the students. The auto-segment in Pakistan is growing and our stakeholders including our suppliers, vendors, dealers etc. have a pivotal role. Our assumption is that our venture alone shall provide around 45,000 direct and indirect job opportunities till touch down of phase 3. We’ve also planned a joint collaboration with China for setting up a technical institution with foreign trainers and faculty so we can fast track the learning curve for Pakistani youngsters.
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How do you support women empowerment? When I was working in Japan at Toyota design center in my early years of career, I was amazed to see the number of women actively participating in the projects. Back then we didn’t find much diversification in Pakistan. The world is progressing and so is our nation, at JW Forland we value women equally, some of them are working with us in the production and manufacturing units too and are considered to be good performers. We’re ready to play a role to change the misogyny culture in professional fields, for this I will say three words women“ can lead!”
How do you visualize JW Forland in future? I believe we are competent and competitive. JW Forland, very soon, shall be known by its durable products and efficient services. My priority and purpose is to maintain the quality level of our products, it’s after sales and focus on our people who have been working diligently in order to make those resulting in ultimate customer satisfaction. My team’s efforts and hard work will soon yield commendable outcomes. We hope to see our products everywhere, soon.
What is your rage coping strategy? Although I don’t get irritated that easily, yet I counter my annoyance by brisk walking and gym sessions. Apart from this, I try spending quality time with my family and it works wonders. We should try and remain calm with our co-workers and must never spoil our professional relations. Stress and tensions ruins business decisions and at times family suffers due to professional challenges.
What is happiness and success for you? Happiness is your choice. For me, happiness is when I see someone succeed. It can be my team, or anyone. Someone’s honest smile can turn into a contagious laughter. Seeing my team grow and their continuous development marks my real success. Its mysteriously satisfying.
What was the most rigid decision of your life? Leaving Japan and migrating to Pakistan was a difficult action for me. Japan educated me immensely about profession and ethics. I’ve been trying to implement those methods I learned from my experiences of Japan in my ventures, which is why I believe to have led many entities. Though, this tough decision has proved to be the most amazing turn in my life. No regrets.
How do you manage with the marketing strategy of your company? We are proud to be a young organization with vast knowledge base and brand-new ideas. We have been busy with our nation-wide drive called ‘Forland Safarnama’ which apparently now is being adapted by the competition too. We’re happy about it as we consider ourselves to be the change agent in revolutionizing the auto-industry. After the inauguration made by His Excellency the Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Imran Khan, Forland went viral on print and social media of both Pakistan and China. There are many magazines and markets who are publishing about our company and its quality products. Apart from this, we’re proud sponsors of our National Hockey Team and we’re involved in many ATL and BTL activations as our dealerships across the country have been developing rapidly. Our CSR campaign #SaafPakistan too is on the rise.
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“HAPPINESS IS YOUR CHOICE. FOR ME, HAPPINESS IS WHEN I SEE SOMEONE SUCCEED. IT CAN BE MY TEAM, OR ANYONE. SOMEONE’S HONEST SMILE CAN TURN INTO A CONTAGIOUS LAUGHTER.”
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ABID WAZIR KHAN Chief Executive, KIPS
Profile: Abid Wazir Khan, Chief Executive of KIPS, born in 1967, graduated in Civil Engineering from UET, Lahore in 1990 and started his career with government job in early nineties. His passion to do something extra-ordinary for his nation diverted his profession towards teaching. And in late 1992 he established an Educational Institution with name of KIPS (Knowledge Inn Preparatory School). Because of his untiring and persistent efforts, commitment and dedication towards the cause of education that small institution has emerged as a famous educational institution of the country. His father Mr. Wazir Muhammad Khan (late) was the legend founder of PASSCO and some of the famous Sugar Industries of Punjab Province. Abid Wazir Khan is the proud inheritant of the illustrious qualities of leadership of his father. He has been a brilliant student throughout his career. He has been a very good sportsman also and took part in cricket, hockey and table tennis. He was also the captain of Departmental Table Tennis team. He won laurels for his school, college and university in the form of numerous prizes and scholarships.
“A SENSE OF ACHIEVEMENT IS SUCCESS, WHICH IS KNOWING THAT YOU PUT IN YOUR ALL AND THEN YOU GOT THE RESULTS, NOT AS JUST A FLUKE. THE SECOND THING IS WHAT WE TEACH OUR STUDENTS: SUCCESS = (KNOWLEDGE + SKILLS) X ATTITUDE. JUST HAVING GREAT KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS ISN’T ENOUGH; THE RIGHT ATTITUDE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT.”
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CEO Club: Please tell us a little about how it all began? Abid Wazir: I graduated in civil engineering from UET and then joined the government services, but I wasn’t satisfied at all. So I opted to enter the education sector mindfully to further my career and business aspirations. I am a nationalist and for me starting this organization in 1992 from my home as an evening coaching centre was a mission with a patriotic vision. In 1998, I started it formally under the current name KIPS – Knowledge Inn Preparatory School, and we have been growing since then, taking steps to formally expand. So from an evening coaching centre, we have grown into a network of schools, colleges, coaching centers and test preparation centers.
What are the key challenges you faced in the education sector in Pakistan? Unfortunately, education is not the government’s priority. We are lacking to aware our people about the worth of education in our society. That’s why it is one the most neglected sector, the education structure is not well defined in Pakistan. It needs many reforms to be done immediately. I believe change can largely be brought through education but we don’t have much help from public departments; rather they make processes even more difficult. This is despite the fact that private institutions are contributing more in the education field in terms of both quality and quantity (of the number of institutions).
Are you satisfied with the quality of graduates the education system is churning out? The purpose of education is to build character, develop strong academics and overall grooming of the students. But the most important development of student after graduation is that is he globally successful or not? However, I have always run this institution with a passion and vision, and there are many others out there who do too. Yet, there are private education institutions providing substandard education, and once again, it’s the government’s responsibility to regulate the quality of education imparted by education at institutions. We do this regulation internally at KIPS, but the government has to do it nation-wide. HEC has worked quite well and you can see the value of our higher education degree has improved from a few decades ago. Other than that, healthy competition among institutions is very necessary to maintain quality.
How many people are there on your payroll and how many campuses do you have? We have around 3000 people working for us and around 150 campuses nationwide.
Do you have any policy for retaining your top performers and employees? It’s certainly a challenge. Replacing a person in the organization is more difficult than anything you ever experienced. We have a very low turnover ratio, and we do that by firstly, building up our culture and inculcating a sense of achievement in our staff. At the same time, financial incentives, respect, training and a healthy professional environment are the main things that our employees acknowledge and appreciate.
What’s your vision? Our vision is to build our nation by providing quality education. We then envision further developing and growing the educated nation we build. We are thinking of improving the quality of life of people by encouraging a positive and farsighted mindset and secondly, by changing their environment.
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What are the core competencies present in CEOs? A positive strong character, leadership qualities, the power to look beyond the horizon and having an innovative mind and vision are of utmost importance. Besides that, having a strong command over your core business is also essential.I believe that every leader of an organization must have gone through the very basic levels.
We are facing a dilemma in ethics today. How can we inculcate a sense of ethics in people? Being educated plays a huge role in inculcating a sense of responsibility in people. Then, there should be a check on the performance of educational institutions, which I already mentioned before. Syllabi, curriculum, textbooks and code of conduct are a few things which need to be addressed and standardized as per our desired culture and future needs.
Who is your role model? Sir Syed Ahmed Khan is my true ideal. He had an unmatched passion for education, his dedication and efforts for education sector are peerless. His diligence always enlightens my passion and dream.
How do you manage stress at the workplace? I feel I have been very fortunate in this regard as I know how to be content. I have developed the ability to process shocks, and I live very simply, making living quite easy for me.
What is success to you? To put your dreams into reality.A sense of achievement is success, which is knowing that you put in your all and then you got the results, not as just a fluke. The second thing is what we teach our students: SUCCESS = (KNOWLEDGE + SKILLS) X ATTITUDE. Just having great knowledge and skills isn’t enough; the right attitude is actually the most important.
What’s your favourite book? I’m inspired by Stephen R. Covey and his book ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’.
We talked about challenges. So what about the opportunities this sector has to offer for new entrants? Everyone aspires to be educated, and hence this sector offers lots of opportunities for people.
What is your biggest achievement? KIPS itself is the biggest achievement, as I built an institution and an organization and not just a money-minting coaching centre.
Where do you see KIPS five years down the road? We have expanded horizontally by building more campuses. Vertically, we’ve added on higher educational levels and intent to start a university soon.
What are the corporate social responsibilities that KIPS is fulfilling?
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We extend services towards social work on non-profitable basis. For this purpose an NGO has been established with the name of FAIDA (Foundation for Awareness & Information Development for All). FAIDA serves a large community of teachers & students for career counselling, teachers training at different levels in various disciplines as well as for academic consultancy. FAIDA launched a comprehensive career counseling campaign for the students of F.Sc. in October 2009; FAIDA Career Counselors have delivered Career Counseling Seminars in different private and public sector colleges of Punjab and NWFP. The forum has been actively involved in creating awareness about the ICT Scholarship Program, amongst students/teachers of rural and non-metropolitan areas.
FAIDA has also been bearing the expenses of a government school in Dist. Okara. Some other projects in the social sector including dispensary and micro financing are also being currently sponsored by FAIDA for the last many years.
What makes KIPS different from other institutions? I believe the passion shared by my team makes us stand apart. We have tremendous passion for education and a nationalist approach. Some of the distinct departments of our organization also make us standout such as: Research and Development, SCCD (Student Care and Counseling Department), QAD (Quality Assurance Department), Training and Publication etc.
Any message of hope for the youth of Pakistan? There is certainly a lot of potential here. We are a land of opportunities and resources, and I feel our biggest strength is our human resource as a nation.
“A POSITIVE STRONG CHARACTER, LEADERSHIP QUALITIES, THE POWER TO LOOK BEYOND THE HORIZON AND HAVING AN INNOVATIVE MIND AND VISION ARE OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE. BESIDES THAT, HAVING A STRONG COMMAND OVER YOUR CORE BUSINESS IS ALSO ESSENTIAL.”
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ADNAN AFRIDI Managing Director, National Investment Trust Ltd. (NIT)
Profile: Adnan Afridi has been educated from Harvard (Bachelors in Economics from Harvard College and Juris Doctorate in Law from Harvard Law School- both Magna Cum Laude). He started his initial career in Strategy Consulting (Monitor Company in the US and Europe), StartConsult in UAE and Pakistan; then focused on Private Equity Advisory He is also the CEO of Overseas Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) representing major foreign investors operating in Pakistan. The youngest CEO of Karachi Stock Exchange (now Pakistan Stock Exchange)- including the chairman NCCPL and Director CDC. He has also been the Advisor Silkbank and then Director Silkbank and Gul Ahmed Textiles Limited. He is also the CEO of Tethyan Copper Company (joint venture between Antofagasta and Barrick Gold). Currently he is serving as a Chairman and Managing Director NITL.
“NIT HAS SELECTED HEALTHCARE AS ITS AREA OF CSR FOCUS. IN ADDITION TO FUNDING, NIT ALSO ENCOURAGES ITS EMPLOYEES TO GIVE TIME TO NON-PROFIT HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION.”
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CEO Club: What is your company`s business philosophy, vision, mission & core values? Adnan Afridi: Vision - To be the leading asset management company of Pakistan and the catalyst for good governance, responsible investor relations and economic development. Mission - To provide competitive investment products across asset classes to a diverse set of retail and institutional customers. To protect minority shareholder rights through effective board representation and provide exemplary investor service through investment in technology and human resources. Be an active source of responsible capital for projects contributing to the national economy. Best Practices - We being the pioneers and leaders of the mutual fund industry in Pakistan, firmly believe in following the best practices in all aspects of corporate governance within our organization, as well as in our investee companies with a view to safeguard the interests of all stake holders. Ethics - We pride ourselves in serving our investors effectively and efficiently, with utmost professionalism and by following the highest ethical standards. Stature - We operate with unimpeachable integrity and unwavering commitment while creating new opportunities for our investors. Trust - We believe in the highest standards of transparency and disclosure, working towards getting better value for our investors which over the years has enhanced the trust of our stakeholders in the management company.
Please share your company`s brief history? National Investment Trust Limited was established in 1962 making it the pioneer of domestic mutual funds industry. NITL is currently one of the largest asset management company in Pakistan with a portfolio of eight open ended funds and two pension funds with overall assets under management of ~PKR 85 billion as of Dec-18.
How many jobs your company created, means HR on your company’s payroll? Approx 200 with plans to substantially increase nationwide sales force.
Please tell us about company`s product/services profile? Largest asset management company in Pakistan with 10 Funds covering entire spectrum of Equity, Fixed Income, Money Market and Pension (both Islamic and Conventional). NI(U)T the equity fund represents 55% of the total equity fund size of the industry.
What are the key challenges & opportunities in your industry / sector? • Lack of penetration in non-urban areas (plan is to develop digital/phone led customer acquisition. • Volatility in equity markets. • Cost of doing business (recently addressed by SECP). • Rising interest rates will attract more funds towards Money Market and Fixed Income.
Any remarkable recognition or achievements by the company? • Became best performing Money Market Fund within first year of launch. • NIT’s Equity Fund is more than half of the total market size of mutual fund equity funds. • Highest AUMS per branch within mutual fund industry.
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What is leadership to you and what are the key challenges confronting CEOs/business leaders in Pakistan? • Leadership - The ability to disrupt without being disruptive. • Challenges - Economic challenges & regulatory challenges
What are three leadership competencies / characteristics of a CEO that you would like to see in our new generation of CEOs / Managers? • Ability to Scale (think Big) • Attract and retain top talent (not be insecure about your own position) • Be effective and continual communicators.
A CEO’s success largely depends upon a team, what are the three characteristics of a winning team? The success of a CEOs lies on the three characteristics i.e. ability to learn, ability to accept new team members and ability to share success.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenge? How do you retain top talent in the company? We here at NIT believe in involving the key people in all decision making processes whereby empowering them to drive the institutional goals through consorted and collective wisdom and professionalism. We don’t calculate our successes individually, instead we benchmark it collectively.
Is training, coaching and mentoring a priority to you? How much time do you allocate for your staff? • Open door policy for all staff at all times • Continually advocate internal and external training
Do you believe in women empowerment? If yes, then what steps would you recommend to empower women at workplace? • Attract top female talent at leadership positions (as this in turn will attract more women to the organisation) • Nominate from female directors on boards of companies where NITL has board seats (currently we have 4 women directors with another 3 in induction process- which would mean 10% of all NIT board nominees would be female).
Being the CEO of the company, what is your strategy regarding succession planning and developing the next generation of leaders? As stated earlier, we here at NIT believe in involving the key people in all decision making processes whereby empowering them to drive the institutional goals through consorted and collective wisdom and professionalism. This inculcates decision making powers and wisdom with enhanced core competencies of successive leaders allowing them to take the driver’s seat, whenever needed.
Where do you see your organization five years down the road in terms of growth strategy and new
| 198 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | initiatives? • NIT is the pioneer of mutual funds industry and has maintained the legacy of being one of the largest since 1962. • Five years from now NIT is to be the industry leader in digital customer acquisition and management. • Introduce Fund management for Private Equity, Infrastructure and Technology Start-Ups.
Can you give us an example of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative you have championed? NIT has selected Healthcare as its area of CSR focus. In addition to funding, NIT also encourages its employees to give time to non-profit health care organization (Our current Managing Director is also the Chairman of the Board of The Kidney Center).
Harvard Business Review’s research tells us that E.Q. (Emotional Quotient) rather I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) is a highly essential competency for business leaders? Why is E.Q. important for CEOs especially in challenging times? To drive sustainable change, it has to be accepted by the entire organisation. To do this the organisation has to be convinced that the business strategy and tactics are consistent with their values and aspirations. This in turn is only possible through an EQ based dialogue and communication between the leadership team and the organisation.
A business speaks the language of digits. To what extent a CEO should be finance-savvy? What are the three most important numbers in a firm’s financial statements? CEO needs to understand the importance and key drivers of financial performance as shareholder value is impacted by these. The three most important numbers in a financial statement are 1. Growth in revenue over same period last year 2. Growth in Operating Margin over same period last year 3. Free Cash Flow.
What’s the toughest decision you have ever made? What did you learn from it? • Declining a professional opportunity that involved relocation to the U.S. • Every decision is a good decision as long as you don’t dwell on the path not chosen.
Who is your inspirational role-model? Bill Gates.
Define success in a phrase? To be looked at as a role model.
Your favourite book on professional development that you would recommend? Winning by Jack Welch and Suzy Welch.
Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? Pakistan is a country where your actions have almost immediate and visible impact- your actions lead to employment, capital formation and real change in people’s lives.
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AHMAD NAJEEB CEO, Albario Engineering (Pvt) Ltd (AEPL)
Profile: Ahmad Najeeb joined Albario Group in 1993. He is currently on the Board of Directors and working in the capacity of CEO and Director handling Business Development & Operations related to the energy sector. He is responsible in AEPL for: • Heading Business Development for the Group including Overseas Business. • Managing relationship with Key Customers and Partners including General Electric, GENCO Holdings and Various IPPs. Managing relationship with Key Chinese EPC Contractors working for projects in Pakistan and the Region. Developing and implementing strategies to open new markets in Africa and the Middle East Region. • Interacting with Developers of Power Projects for providing support in EPC and Technology Solutions & heading Operations and Maintenance business of the Group in Combined Cycle, Thermal and Renewable Projects. He has won multiple Best Performance Awards as GE Partner / Sales Channel in the Region, handled Sales of GE Gas Turbines for Major IPPs and Public Sector in Pakistan including CPGCL, NPGCL, Orient Power, Sapphire Power, Saif Power, Halmore, UCH Power, K-Electric, Bhikki, Balloki and Haveli. He handled Sales of various Operations & Maintenance Agreements, Contractual Service Agreements and Rehabilitation Projects for IPPs and Public Sector. He also handled Negotiations and Sales of various EPC Projects in Pakistan from Project identification to bidding and contract signature.
“LEADERSHIP IS ALL ABOUT SETTING THE RIGHT GOALS, SELECTTING AND MENTORING THE RIGHT PEOPLE, TAKING TIMELY DECISIONS, CREATING A POSITIVE ENERGY AND ATTITUDE AND THEN LEADING FROM THE FRONT.”
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CEO Club: Can you please elaborate about AEPL? Ahmad Najeeb: Albario Engineering (Pvt) Ltd (AEPL) is a one window solution provider in the fields of Energy, Industrial Solutions and Infrastructure. The Group excels in diversified business activities, ranging from Electro-Mechanical Contracting to Civil Construction, Operations & Maintenance, Turnaround and Rehabilitation Services, Fabrication, Renewable Energy, Technical Trainings, Infrastructure Development and Manufacturing of Transformers
How many employees are currently working with AEPL? What’s the nature of their employment? The group has more than 300 full time employees. The construction wing, however has on an average of more than 1,500 staff on board. Similarly, the operations & maintenance division also accommodates technical staff of over 500 on multiple long and short-term projects.
Please tell us about the most rewarding project AEPL has done in the past three years? The company is a humble contributor in supporting its Foreign OEM & Construction Partners and Lead Chinese EPC companies in building over 9,000 MW combined cycle, thermal and renewable projects across Pakistan and in the region, including some CPEC projects. AEPL is also supporting its foreign operations & maintenance partners in managing over 5,000 MW Power Projects on a long-term basis, covering both Fossil and Renewable Technologies including Wind Energy. The last three years have kept us really busy, where we worked on Construction and now operations of three combined-cycle projects with a total capacity of 3,600 MW in Punjab by the name of Balloki, Haveli and Bhikki. Each project was about 1200 MW. At each site, we had 500 to 1000 people and these projects were built in a period of less than three years. Furthermore, we also supported Chinese EPC and construction companies in timely completion of the two large coal projects, one at Port Qasim and the other one at Sahiwal each having a capacity of 1320 MW. Alhamdulillah, we are proud of our association with these projects that has helped the country to reduce the menace of load shedding.
What is your viewpoint about the current state of Pakistani energy & engineering sector? We have seen large additions in our generation capacity recently and now we need to improve, rehabilitate and expand our transmission and distribution network. The government needs to support the local engineering and construction companies to play a larger role in CPEC and infrastructure development. Export oriented industries must be built in economic zones to boost high valued engineering exports as well. AEPL is in the process to create a better future for all and is committed to produce & deliver reliable power to the people of Pakistan
Can you tell us the factors that made your company grow? • I believe, vision is a critical factor here that has helped us to diversify on time and be ready to invest time and money in the areas where growth is imminent. Our company mission is to “Win by providing pro active, innovative solutions and value-added services to our customers” and this has been the key driver of growth. • In AEPL, we have not been shy to learn and adapt quickly. Energy, as you know, has been a very
| 201 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | critical aspect for Pakistan’s growth and over the last decade. We have joined hands with leading international energy sector players to bridge the energy shortage gap. • For this year we have diverted our focus from energy to civil construction and moved into real estate and infrastructure development projects.
How would you describe yourself as a student? I am proud to have topped in Matriculation at my school St. Anthony’s and to see my name on the Roll of Honours for class of 1985. Then I moved on to the prestigious Government College Lahore and finally to University of Engineering & Technology where I did my Bachelors in Electrical Engineering with honours. Throughout my educational career, I have been amongst the top students of the institution.
How do you think one can improve as a leader? Leadership is all about setting the right goals, selecting and mentoring the right people, taking timely decisions, creating a positive energy and attitude and then leading from the front. Being passionate, clear headed and transparent are important virtues. A leader also needs to set in a risk and reward mechanism and give confidence and positive energy to the team to achieve required results.
What’s the percentage of women working in Albario? Because of the nature of the business being construction and maintenance and that too at challenging locations, the percentage is very low. But while we are managing head office openings and internships, we do encourage female engineers to be part of our growing family.
How would you measure AEPL’s growth in the next five years? We believe there will be tremendous growth opportunities in infrastructure, industrialization and renewable energy sector like solar in the coming decade in Pakistan. Hence, we have tried to position ourselves to reap the benefit. Internationally, we have done business in the Middle East in countries such as Iraq, UAE, Saudi Arabia and I see the company being well established in the next five years there. Energy requirements in African markets are growing and we are aiming to get a share of this pie. While talking about Pakistan, we want to continuously grow to become a leader in energy and infrastructure which are our core areas. We believe that with CPEC coming in, infrastructure will be the real driver for the next few years.
How would you define the corporate culture at your company? Corporate culture is about the values, behavior and practices of a Company, its shareholders and employees. At Albario, our core value are ‘’Integrity, Reliability and Quality’’ of Services. In terms of integrity, we uphold transparency and adherence to the law. Being a reliable stake holder with our customers and partners, we always try to set high standards of service.
What’s AEPL’s take on CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)? As the company expands, Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability are part of our culture and we do strive to create shared value for business and society.
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We work closely with institutions like the Rotary Foundation, Shaukat Khanum, Door of Awareness, Shalamar Hospital and play a vital role in improving the quality of life and protecting the environment that we live in. AEPL team has an unwavering commitment to adhere to its environment health and safety policies and procedures and we comply with the spirit and intent of all applicable regulatory requirements.
Can you please name three core competencies a CEO must have? Vision, Passion, Integrity, with the ability to learn from mistakes and lead from the front. You have to be clear-minded about the goals you want to achieve and then set a road map, be connected with the team and finally, have the courage to take calculated risks.
What’s your key to maintaining the work-life balance? In the past, my area of operation mostly was business development and marketing, which required international and local travel. Hence, for almost two decades over the last 26 years, I have travelled extensively in and out of Pakistan. This meant being away from the family on many occasions for days. Now, I have slowed down on travel. Spending quality time with family & friends is a priority and taking time out to relax and enjoy along with work is indeed essential.
How do you manage your stress? By thinking positively and keeping good friends close! You have to sometimes leave business worries in the office and not take them along in your private time with family. One of my personal goals this year is to start exercising regularly.
Do you have any secret for success? Three open secrets! Consistency and hard work obviously, and also the ability to learn from past mistakes and adjust yourself as per the market dynamics and key customer requirements.
What is happiness to you? Happiness has to come from inside and from the people around you. It’s the feeling of fulfillment and positive emotions.
What is your take on “Money can’t buy happiness”? Money is important, there is no denying that, it can buy you all the material things you need. You can have comfort and security through money, but it may not give you happiness, sound sleep, peace of mind, love and health. Some latest studies, do however show that with increased comfort in daily life, happiness increases.
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AHMAD RAFI CEO, ARCO Plastics Pvt. Ltd
Profile: Ahmad Rafi went to Aitchison College and graduated back in 1998. Then, he went to the US where he completed his BBA Honours in Finance & Marketing and had the pleasure of working for a leading retailer as a financial analyst. He is currently CEO & MD of Arco Plastics.
STAY POSITIVE, STAY FOCUSED AND EVENTUALLY PERSEVERANCE SHALL COMMAND SUCCESS!
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CEO Club: Can you explain how you make it possible for plastic to be reusable and recyclable? Ahmad Rafi:When we started this organization back in 2005, our focus was to become a leader in recyclable packaging goods. The core part of our business is to reduce the chopping down of trees and therefore, protect the environment. So far, we have been able to save around 60 to 70 thousand trees (ave. age of 20 years) annually in Pakistan. However, historically the challenge with plastics itself, is that it’s used only once. You will be surprised to know that in a city like Lahore, even to this date, does not have a single landfill site of international standards. Currently, the most of the garbage/ waste of Lahore, finds its way to the area of Mehmood Booti and then the scavengers get something out of that. Our mantra is fairly simple; “Reduce, Reuse & Recycle.”
What motivated you to start recyclable plastic 14 years back, what was your driving force? When I was starting the business, my focus was to be responsible and innovative. Having some experience of supply chain in the past, I felt that there were a lot of opportunities within the Pakistani supply chain space. I felt that minor innovations, technology and well-designed/ thought through, solutions could drive a lot of positive change and profitability for our potential customers.
As a young entrepreneur, what three main competencies must a CEO have? Talking of competencies, I would say empathy is probably number one. Number two for me would be candidness and openess. The third for me is not being fearful of failure. If there is not enough failure happening around you, I think you are in trouble because to me that means your team isn’t pushing the envelope.
Can you please elaborate what leadership is to you? In order to be an effective leader, you have to let individuals be who they are and bring their unique competencies to the table. Motivating people to channel their energies towards a common purpose. Finding a worthy common purpose without trampling over individualities…that’s leadership for me.
In what aspects do you think you need improvement as leader? I think it is listening skills, often we do not listen as much. So, I feel, what I have learnt over time is that you need to listen more and talk less. One of the key challenges in the SME sector is the quality of expression. Especially in a “seth” run organization, team members struggle to put their true thoughts across, often these thoughts are sugar coated. This sugar coating, in my humble opinion, is cancerous for any organization.
Can you please define the mission and vision statements of ARCO Plastics? We aspire to be the regional leader in reusable, recyclable and returnable packaging goods. We want to drive value by keeping our products at the cutting-edge of technology, ensuring our innovative designs are continuously adapting to the changing markets and our customer needs and being environmentally responsible.
What is your stance on women empowerment, do you employ women in your company? My stance is very simple, I think we need to stop looking from the gender lens. If you are a manager of supply chain, it should not matter if you are a female or male. In 2017/18 in our annual board
| 205 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | meeting it was decided that all possible efforts must be made to ensure that ARCO is an equal opportunity provider.
Where do you see ARCO Plastics five years down the road? We see more diversification in our product line. We started with one product and we are close to around 60 products now. In the packaging industry, we want to diversify into many other industries that we feel have a lot of potential. Technology has to be the corner stone of our way forward. Smarter and automated solutions are the only way forward. Recycling and quality recipe development will continue to be a key area of focus for this company. This keeps us environmentally responsible.
How do you interpret the mission of your company to your employees? The transfer process of a vision or a mission is a two-way traffic, in my view it is an ongoing process. You can’t just give a good speech and expect everyone to buy it, you sit down as a team and you talk about the organization’s priorities. At times over the 14 years, our vision would change for the better and at times for worse. We make mistakes, as well, our objectives would also change. So it is a constant ongoing conversation. So as long as you believe that you have got the right team in place you are good to go.
Would you please tell us a a little about yourself, too? I went to Aitchison College and graduated back in 1998. Now, sometimes, when I drop my son to Aitchison, I feel that as if I just left this place yesterday. Then I went to the US where I completed my BBA Honours in Finance & Marketing and I had the pleasure of working for a leading retailer as a financial analyst and I actually came back by accident. This ARCO Plastics is all an accident and so far a good accident!
What reinforced you to continue this project, when you faced problems in it initially? To be brutally honest, initially we faced a lot of challenges both financially and operationally. At one point in time, we were keen to get out of this business but luckily, we had no choice but to make it work. When there is this tight noose of “a goal” around your neck, you have no other option but to achieve it. So, the first three or four years were tough. We worked on finding solutions. We partnered with some MNCs and developed a product that we launched back in 2010. After that, there was no looking back.
What’s your trick to managing stress? Golf! Although honestly speaking, sometimes the game gives me so much stress that I forget about the work stress itself. It’s a great distraction.
What would you like to say to the young entrepreneurs? Your attitude determines your altitude. My father gave me a poster that says this when I was very young. I truly subscribe to this mantra; Stay positive, stay focused and eventually perseverance shall command success!
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“IN ORDER TO BE AN EFFECTIVE LEADER, YOU HAVE TO LET INDIVIDUALS BE WHO THEY ARE AND BRING THEIR UNIQUE COMPETENCIES TO THE TABLE. MOTIVATING PEOPLE TO CHANNEL THEIR ENERGIES TOWARDS A COMMON PURPOSE.”
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AHSAN MALIK COO & Director, Waterlink Group of Companies
Profile: Waterlink Group commenced its operations in 2001, consists of around ten different companies headed by experienced professionals coming from diversified backgrounds. In addition to providing logistical and warehousing services, Waterlink offers land, sea and air freight services, CFS (Container Freight Station/Warehouse) services at Port Qasim and Karachi Port. Besides having special expertise in handling Afghan Transit Trade, Waterlink Group of Companies also effectively deals with custom clearance and all other matters related to logistics, shipping and warehousing. Waterlink is the only multi-national company of Pakistan having its own offices not only in all major cities of the country but also in UAE, USA, Canada and Afghanistan. Mr. Ahsan Malik; the young and brilliant Director of The Waterlink Group highlights some of the major achievements of this family owned business and also points out the challenges and problems faced by the shipping industry in Pakistan.
“A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS LEADER IS CAPABLE OF SELECTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE FOR THE RIGHT JOBS. HE PROVIDES THEM WITH THE RIGHT PLATFORM TO WORK AND THEN HAVING EQUIPPED THEM WITH THE MOST APPROPRIATE TOOLS, SENDS THEM TO THE MARKET WITH FULL CONFIDENCE THAT THEY WILL DO THEIR BEST.”
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CEO Club: Please tell us that in what circumstances did you join Waterlink? Ahsan Malik: I always knew that sooner or later, I’ll have to join my family business. But prior to that, I wanted to complete my studies and gain experience before entering the family business. For this purpose, I proceeded to the UK and got admission in Buckingham University, from where I completed my LLB and LLM. In the meantime, in 2015, while I was still in the UK, my uncle Ghulam Mustafa who had been successfully running the organization passed away, making it necessary for me to return immediately and join the business, in order to take it forward from the first to the second generation. Despite having no previous professional experience, I took up the challenge and continued to improve through constant learning and observation. Throughout this initial period, I had at the back of my mind the inspiring examples of those numerous Pakistanis who are now occupying top positions in leading organizations, in spite of the fact that they had very humble beginnings and no professional or business background.
What lesson did you learn in that initial phase of your career? At the beginning of their professional careers, most people try to do everything themselves and by doing so, make a mess of everything and create more problems for themselves and for the whole organization. Luckily for myself, I soon learnt the lesson that a CEO cannot do everything, nor can he be everywhere meeting everyone all the time. His job is to put the right people at right places, build teams, empower them, trust them and let them demonstrate their skills. Instead of interfering in petty departmental affairs, he just observes and monitors the situation and gives guidance or a word of advice whenever it is needed. This policy enabled me to effectively manage the whole business which is fairly spread out, having several highly diversified companies, each of which has its own dynamics, operations, finances and offices.
What initiatives did you personally take for the further growth and expansion of your business? Immediately after joining the business, I realised that since we had our own infrastructure, shipping, warehouses, licenses, trucks and terminals, we were ideally suited for trading business, by buying and selling commodities, without depending on anyone else. Secondly, in view of gas and electricity shortage in the country, I set up another company for the import of coal from Indonesia and South Africa. Currently, we are the third largest importers of coal in Pakistan and the volume is increasing by 10 per cent every quarter. This business which was initiated by me was started from scratch, is now rapidly flourishing and last year’s turnover was more than ten million dollars.
How has the business community in general been impacted by the coming into power of a new government in Pakistan? Government policies in Pakistan are always unpredictable and uncertain. This is particularly the case whenever a new government takes over. Same thing happened last year during which we saw thirty per cent devaluation of Rupee, increase in interest rates, complete change of import and export policies and new tariff policies, with no development of infrastructure. Rupee devaluation coupled with rising borrowing costs and increasing power tariffs have resulted in massive inflation and brought tough times for all businesses as well as consumers.
Briefly share with us the challenges confronting your particular business. The success of our business is mainly linked to the availability of an efficient infrastructure that includes well-developed rail and road networks, storage facilities and properly maintained terminals, in order to
| 209 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | transport imported goods from Karachi to other parts of the country. Unfortunately, poor infrastructure in the country significantly increases the cost of transportation and makes the whole process lengthy and slow, wasting a lot of time and money. Moreover, Gwadar and Port Qasim are still underdeveloped and all the cargo has to be offloaded in Karachi, which has insufficient storage facilities and cannot accommodate all the ships and their cargo, with the result that many ships have to wait for several days and have to pay a huge amount of demurrage. With the shutting down of KPT Terminal, only Port Qasim Terminal is now allowed to handle millions of tons of coal that comes to Pakistan. The ultimate sufferer is of course the end user, who has to bear the burden of increased costs. We have always emphasized that if the government takes effective steps for the development of infrastructure, the exporters and importers will themselves take care of everything else and businesses will be booming.
Do you believe that when it is fully operational, Gwadar Port would be a game changer for Pakistan’s economy? Gwadar with its unique and strategically important geographical location is a deep sea port, which is capable of handling twice the size of vessels and cargo handled jointly by the two ports of Karachi. Currently, all the cargo from Pakistan, China and other countries goes to Jebel Ali in Dubai, from where it is sent to Europe, Far East, and North America. Gwadar is much closer to China, and other neighbouring countries and thus, if it is fully developed, there will be no need for these countries to send their cargo to Jebel Ali and in this way, they would be able to save a huge amount of money. In that case, it would surely be a game changer for Pakistan just as Jebel Ali has been for Dubai. During Nawaz Sharif’s government, we saw a lot of activity on the Gwadar Port, unfortunately, we are not sure about the present government’s intentions regarding this grand project. All progress on this project seems to be at a stand still.
Who in your opinion is a successful business leader? A successful business leader is capable of selecting the right people for the right jobs. Then, he provides them the right platform to work and then having equipped them with the most appropriate tools, he sends them to the market with full confidence that they will do their best. But if at times, despite their earnest endeavours, they fail to achieve their targets, instead of snubbing them, he greets them with a smile and encourages them to go back to the market with a changed strategy and make another attempt to succeed. An ideal leader never thinks himself to be perfect and in view of the changes constantly taking place around him, he is always keen to learn and change his strategies according to the new situation. He is well aware of the fact that he cannot succeed all the time. At times, he fails and on all such occasions, instead of giving way to despair and frustration, he puts on a cheerful face and learns his lessons for the future. As a matter of fact, his present failures become the basis for his future triumphs. He is an embodiment of mental strength, perseverance, consistency and resilience and more importantly, through his positive behaviour, he transmits these noble traits of his character to his team members. Last but not the least, he’s all the time on the look out for new opportunities and at times, even the slightest hint is sufficient for him to explore and grasp a wonderful opportunity.
Give us your own definition of happiness. In my opinion happiness is about contentment.
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Is there any book that inspired you in life? One such book is The Alchemistby Paulo Coelho. It is an allegorical novel that describes a young Andalusian shepherd in his journey to the pyramids of Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding a treasure there.
What message would you like to give to our youngsters who aspire to make a headway in life? Don’t be afraid to dream big and don’t let the fear of failing hold you back from taking a leap of faith but before you jump, you must do your research. Trust your idea, back it up with research and once that is done, don’t be afraid to go for it.
“AN IDEAL LEADER NEVER THINKS OF HIMSELF AS PERFECT AND IN VIEW OF THE CHANGES CONSTANTLY TAKING PLACE AROUND HIM, HE IS ALWAYS KEEN TO LEARN AND CHANGE HIS STRATEGIES ACCORDING TO THE NEW SITUATION.”
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AHSAN MASHKOOR CEO, C Square Consulting
Profile: C Square is a professional services organization focusing on providing consultancy services along with end-to-end innovative contact center solution deployments. With an extensive client network in the financial, telecom, travel and transport and FMCG sectors, C Square has executed contact center deployments in the Middle East and Africa region. Ahsan Mashkoor contributes avidly to the community through his initiative SEED (Social Education Environment Development), a non-profit organization that provides education and vocational training to ordinary people. Ahsan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Queen Mary, University of London.
“LEADER IS SOMEONE WHO LEADS FROM THE FRONT; WHO IS THERE IN BOTH GOOD TIMES AND BAD TIMES. LEADERSHIP FOR ME IS A PERSON WHO CAN WORK WITH A TEAM, EXECUTE A VISION AND IRRESPECTIVE OF WHETHER THAT VISION IS A SUCCESS OR FAILURE HE/SHE TAKES FULL RESPONSIBILITY OF IT”.
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CEO Club: Please share your professional background and your corporate profile along with your challenges in a nutshell? Ahsan Mashkoor: I have lived in Karachi for the most part of my life; I started from Karachi Grammar School and then later did my Bachelor’s from London. After completing my degree I wanted to come back to Pakistan; I am the youngest of four siblings all of whom are settled abroad. I wanted to come back because I genuinely believed I could achieve something here and contribute positively to society. Upon returning I started working for Teradata as an Account Manager and Account Director. Then a few years later I was hired as the Country Head for Genesys Telecommunications that was owned by Alcatel Lucent. I was responsible for Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan; my prime focus was on building new partnerships and acquiring more sales and business from these countries. There is a very interesting saying “Scarcity is the mother of all inventions”. A year and a half later Alcatel Lucent spun off and sold Genesys, making their team of latest hires redundant and leaving me unemployed as a result. The current CTO of C Square and I put our heads together and decided to launch our own business. We thought if India could export services globally like Satyam, Wipro and provide IT resources at a global level; so could we. The first project that we did was in Lebanon. There was a Genesys customer experience deployment for BYBLOS Bank and we got that project due to our competitive pricing since we didn’t have much choice rather than to make it lean. Our first project went very well so our vision of exporting started taking the shape of reality and during that time we decided to be more aggressive; we hired a small team. Since we had relationships in the Middle East, we spoke to different companies and told them that we could offer the same level of expertise and support as a European or Indian company and so on at a lesser cost. As a result, we started a couple of more international projects. Our biggest breakthrough was in Pakistan when Standard Chartered Bank chose us over a multinational because of our technical knowhow and expertise. For us it was game changer because it was a 200,000 dollars implementation project. It gave us the confidence and encouragement we needed to grow faster and smarter. It has been 10 years now; we provide services and software to 80 percent of the banking industry. The challenge has always been being young and wanting to go into business; working with people who refuse to take you seriously. To counter that I formed an advisory board for myself so we could have expertise and advisory running parallel to all our business endevours. On my advisory board to date we have: • Mr. Veqar ul Islam (CEO & Director Jaffar Brothers) • Mr. Shabbir Baxsamoosa (Ex banker ABN AMRO etc.) • My father Mr. M. Mashkoor Hussain (Ex PTCL head of Operations, Corporate Affairs and Commercial).
What is C Square and what are the factors that have helped in achieving your current status and success? To be very honest I was very inspired by my previous employer Teradata; they had a global consultancy center hub in Pakistan with 1500 resources, those resources were only used for inner region; so any project that they did globally the 1500 people sitting in Pakistan were sent for these projects. So my idea originated from there along with the belief that if they could do it, so could we.
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India has been doing it; obviously the numbers are way different from ours, they are ahead of us. Today I am very proud to say that we are working in Iraq and Saudi Arabia with Saudi Telecom along with Byblos Bank and Alfa these are all big names globally. C Square is a focused customer experience management company. When I say customer experience what I mean is this – ‘millennials’ today and general public interact with brands and businesses over 2 to 3 engagement channels, Call centers, SMS, Websites. They log on to your website or social media (especially if they have had a bad experience) for feedback. We have a technology in partnership with Genesys (who is the number 1 customer experience solution provider in the world); they have channel engagement solutions so if a customer writes something negative on social media or at some point he/she calls the call center of the same brand, the agent should have visibility; knowing that this is the same customer who had negative feedback. We have tools that do sentimental analysis on social media; if someone has written something positive vs something negative we route their interaction to the customer service agent. In the same way if one of the two people is more influential i.e. a politician, celebrity we route them on priority. We basically help organizations keep a track on their customer journey. Obviously it is bad idea if someone calls and you start to sell them something without realizing that 2 days ago he/she has complained about your product. We enable businesses by giving them information about their customer’s journey and experience, their value and what you could up-sell and do better. We work as a bridge between the customers and organizations; in addition another product that we have locally developed is the CRM; that is running in 6 banks along with real estate and logistics. The latest and most interesting was when a year ago we decided that we want to be more innovative. Today if you intend to open a bank account; you need to go to the bank, fill in forms and maybe in an hour or two they will provide you with an account number and let you know that your check book and debit card will be received through mail. We created a machine; all you have to do is, go to the kiosk, provide your information and biometric verification the machine is connected to NADRA, it will carry out your verification and take your picture. Then it will ask you to deposit cash and will then give you a debit card there within a minute. We wanted to simplify the process; today we have sold these machines to Bank Alfalah and the next in line are Allied Bank along with Summit Bank. We are the new kids on the block; there are bigger players than us, fortunately for us we are the software wizards and the parts of our machines are not substandard or low in quality. We are using the world’s best technology; we are sourcing hardware components from France, Canada and all over the world. Our software is made by my in-house team. We are the only kiosk provider whose application is PCI compliant; which is a security compliance that is needed for banking transactions. CSquare offers CRM (customer relationship management), CEM (Customer Experience Management or CX) and Digital Engagement through its products and solutions. Our most recent pride and joy is RUBA – the World’s first Real Urdu Bot Automation that can recognize and speak in our own national language. We launched it at our annual SMARTCX event – where we showcase product innovations, award clients who have collaborated effectively and bring in global speakers so the Pakistani market can learn from them. RUBA was launched live through a demo and the response from the audience was heartening. We are currently working with some clients who want
| 214 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | to incorporate RUBA into their customer experiences, and happy that media has recognized it as C Square’s ‘Urdu-Style SIRI’ in many major publications.
How many jobs has you company created? Today we are about a 50 people company. In the past I have had amazing people work for me in my company, generally the turnover in the technology industry is faster. Personally if one my employees tell me that they are resigning to go to a better job or to go abroad; I am happy for them because they will be our ambassadors for the rest of their life. Our company is made of developers, technical implementation people, project managers and our sales team.
Which competencies do you look for during your hiring process? Since this industry is smaller in size; most of the people we get are referrals. We focus on hiring fresh graduates and are picking kids from universities such as FAST, Sir Syed and trying to procure talent who we can mold and train. Who then can face international clients for instance; one of our resources recently returned after spending 6 months in Jordan he had a previous experience of 2 years in the field. After 6 months his communication and work skills have vastly improved.
Are training, coaching and mentoring a priority to you? Absolutely, we have an open door policy; anyone can ask anybody for help irrespective of rank. We have a very supportive mechanism where the seniors mentor the juniors and tell them how things are done.
What are the key challenges and opportunities within your sector? The opportunities are amazing, exporting services outside Pakistan; generally we have low cost resources available that makes us cost effective according to international standards. The opportunity is immense; going into the international market with my guys; these are fresh engineers with limited experience and they have been able to do astounding deployments. Today I had the general manager of Genesys sitting with me; he told his global CEO in a meeting in San Francisco that whatever project that we have given to C Square whether in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, or Jordan we have never received a complaint. That is an amazing thing to hear and it satisfies me; for us it is important to keep our values, ethics and commitments. All of us know that everyone is guiding and supporting one another, building a reputation is a long term journey as opposed to losing a reputation that takes only a second. We have decided to go long term and build our reputation. The challenges are technical resources and looking at short term gain as opposed to long terms gains. I keep mentoring my team members along with my CTO who also tells them all the time that just getting a 5,000 to 10,000 rupees jump should not be the only reason for switching a job. Fortunately, or unfortunately people switch jobs in every 12-18 months. So even before they are successful in their role they go jump into another one, I think that is a major challenge. The second biggest challenge is the lack of support from the government in terms of tax regulations there are 28 different kinds of taxes. The SME sector needs to be facilitated rather than killing it.
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What is leadership to you? Personally I think a leader is someone who leads from the front; who is there in both good times and bad times. A leader to me is a person who can work with a team, execute a vision and irrespective of whether that vision is a success or failure he/she takes full responsibility of it.
What according to you are the 3 core competencies of a leader? · Team player · Humility; the ability to be humble · Ability to take risks
Do you believe in women empowerment? Absolutely a 100 percent, I honestly have been after my HR team to hire more females, we currently have only 2 females at C Square. I am very passionate about women empowerment and I am also on the board of governors and president of the execution team for SEED Pakistan. SEED Pakistan is an educational based trust that we have established and we have adopted 12 schools from the government in Korangi; where we have three and a half thousand students. We improve the physical infrastructure of the school and then improve the quality of education. We have provided vocational training in the form of tailoring courses, beautician courses, basic CIT courses web and graphic design etc. It’s a free of cost 6 month diploma course; we take 500 rupees from them as a form of commitment and return the money to them when they graduate. We have amazing success stories.
Where do you see your company 5 years down the road? This is a very interesting question; right now we are going through many structural changes in the organization. We are revisiting our vision, in the next 5 years from now I want to be a recognized leader in the customer experience domain globally at least in the Middle East. In Pakistan we have no competition because all the other vendors and companies are just pushing boxes and plugging and playing boxes. We are different we will understand your business requirements and then we will customize those solutions making them tailor made in the customer experience domain. Now working with Emirates Airline, Saudi Telecom and other brands we feel we can be a global player; we are present in Dubai and Bahrain. We have recently won a project in Bahrain and now we are competing against Al Futtaim in a bid that we have won; we can build ourselves into a globally recognized player in the customer experience domain.
Harvard Business Review research tells us that EQ (Emotional Quotient) is more important than IQ (Intelligence Quotient). Do you agree with this? Absolutely, EQ is far more important; IQ is more of your knack and intelligence generally whereas EQ is what makes you navigate and steer in the real world. Therefore EQ is much more superior and important than IQ.
What are the achievements that you are proud of? Very specifically if I may think so it’s been 10 years since I stared my own business; it has been a tough journey. We have been recognized globally in many countries, in fact there are about 70 global
| 216 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | partners in the GCC vision for Genesys out of all there are only 2 gold partners: 1. C Square 2. Al Futtaim That was an accomplishment that I am proud of; another proud accomplishment was being awarded for best service numerous times. National Defense has a been a phenomenal accomplishment for me; being part of the NDU network they have the most prestigious security program in Pakistan, that was a life changer for me it provided me inroads geographically and exposure to people from all walks of life including politicians and bureaucrats etc. Lastly establishing SEED Pakistan is an accomplishment that makes me proud it is for a cause that I am very passionate about.
What it the toughest decision you have made and what did you learn from it? I think it was the decision to give up my UK residency.
Who do you consider as a source of inspiration or a role model for you? 1. Abdul Sattar Edhi 2. My brother who is an investment banker turned entrepreneur
How do you manage stress and anger? Ask my team; the best way to deal with stress is by spending time with your kids. I don’t feel angry frequently when I do feel angry I go out for a drive.
What is the secret of your success? Humility; be humble and stay grounded.
Are you into the habit of reading and would you like to recommend some of your favorite books? I would like to recommend “a” book called “Freakanomics” by Steven Levitt.
Message of hope and optimism that you would like to give out to our younger generation; Where we are today is a result of 70 years of corruption and mismanagement; I am highly optimistic because I see that a change has begun. Our Prophet (PBUH) used to say that our leadership is a reflection of the people. So we are at fault; we litter, break traffic regulations etc. I see people questioning the status quo; I am hopeful that our PM Imran Khan is building a better image of Pakistan. Investments are coming to the country; expats are evaluating their return to Pakistan these are all great signs. I think we are in safe hands with someone who is sincere; his sincerity is reflecting in the changing mindset of our people.
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AHSAN MEHANTI, FCA Managing Director & CEO, Arif Habib Commodities
Profile: Ahsan Mehanti is a Managing Director & CEO of Arif Habib Commodities (Awarded as Top Broker of Pakistan Mercantile Exchange). Mehanti is a renowned business leader & corporate strategist in Pakistan capital and commodities markets. He is an ICAEW Chartered Accountant and Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan, Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales, CAANZ, CIPFA, CPA Canada, CIMA (UK) & the CFA Institute (USA). He also served as Director for Crescent Textile Mills Limited, Arif Habib DMCC(UAE), Rozgar Microfinance Bank and MCB Arif Habib Savings & Investments. He serves on Economic Advisory, Best Corporate Awards / CSR Committee of ICAP and Pakistan Stock Exchange. Ahsan Mehanti is the winner of: • National Medal Of Innovation At fte National Innovation Awards 2017 By Pakistan Innovation Forum • 5th FPCCI Achievement Award • CEO Club Leadership Awards For 100 Performing Pakistan Companies • Diplomatic & Business Club Awards • 3rd Diplomatic & Foreign Investment Award • Rotary International District 3271 Awards • IoBM Award For Shaping fte Future Of Business & Leadership • NFEH CSR Awards • 14th NFEH Annual Excellence Award • Climate Change Innovation Award By Future Forum
“BE READY TO WORK HARD AND DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO COME OUT AS WINNER . PUT IN TIME AND EFFORT. THINGS WORK OUT BEST FOR THOSE WHO MAKE THE BEST OF HOW THINGS WORK OUT”.
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CEO Club: Pakistan is going through testing times. How can we turn it around? Ahsan Mehanti: Pakistan has shown unprecedented improvement in economic outlook namely its equity market performance, foreign exchange reserves, home remittances, LNG deals and CPEC projects. Nevertheless, Structural reforms primarily in health, education, judicial system, infrastructure, investment, taxation and security will help meet its high potential.
What hampered your way to success and what encouraged you to move ahead? Pakistan’s corporate sector is impacted by global economic slowdown. Exports and FDIs are rising. Our corporate performance has been driven by local investors. Equities and commodities markets are primarily institutional-demand driven and Pakistan financial institutions have remained strong in the last decade. By the grace of God, our efforts in strategic planning enabled us to serve Pakistan’s largest client base with record corporate turnover growth in the last 5 years.
What are the three key challenges for CEOs / Business Leaders in Pakistan? Talent management, legislation/regulations and competing in global market place are key challenges business leaders face today.
What are the four core competencies of inspiring CEOs that you want to see in our upcoming CEOs? Service to humanity, flexibility, managing shareholder returns and expectations, customer satisfaction are core competencies of CEOs that inspire me.
How do you define leadership and what leadership style you adopted in your professional capacity? Leadership means a whole hearted commitment to help and influence. fte right approach is to be a transformational leader who motivates and inspire his teams to deal with challenges and changes. We are facing a dilemma in business ethics, how can we inculcate a sense of ethics in our organizations? We expect our people to maintain high ethical standards in everything they do, both in their work for the firm and in their personal lives. We have no room for those who put their personal interests ahead of the interests of the firm and its clients
Do you have a winning team? How do you motivate them? What are the three core characteristics of a winning team? In the service industry, a winning team constantly strives to find a better solution to a client’s problems. We pride ourselves on having pioneered many of the practices and techniques that have become standard in the industry. We select our people one by one. We discuss benefits of success. We keep them interested by promoting competition and setting realistic goals. In the service business, we know that without the best people, we cannot be the best firm.
Sometimes CEOs are stuck on short-term operational goals at the expense of long-term strategic planning. Please comment. We strive to balance our long term performance and short term objectives. We are committed to
| 219 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | shareholder value creation over a long term horizon. We disclose and discuss our long term vision with stakeholders that helps us optimise our short term goals.
What are the top three benchmarks for high performing CEOs who have created long-term significance for their companies? Customer satisfaction, leadership and people management are traits of high performing CEOs.
Harvard Business Review’s research enlightens us that Emotional Quotient (E.Q) rather Intelligence Quotient (I.Q) is an essential competency for business leaders. Why Emotional Quotient (E.Q) is important for CEOs in tough times? IQ is more related to academic intellect. EQ is an ability to influence relevant people or practical situations in tough times. EQ is a real test for entrepreneurial success.
Business speaks language of digits. To what extent CEO should be finance savvy? What are the three most important numbers in a firm’s financial statements? CEO should consider relevance of both finance and non finance objectives in particular its Corporate Social Responsibility. Shareholder Return on Equity, Earnings Per Share and Operational Cashflows are the most important indicators of financial performance.
What are the three key expectations of Board of Directors from the CEO of a Company? Shareholder value creation, financial and non financial performance goals and effective Corporate governance.
“PERFORMANCE RECOGNITION, CHALLENGING WORK ENVIRONMENT AND CLEAR VISION & GOALS ARE JOB MOTIVATORS.”
How do you manage confticts at workplace? Conflicts are inevitable. We manage conflicts through active communication and collective negotiation.
What’s the toughest decision you ever made? What did you learn from that one? My toughest decision was to implement a Business Strategy for Arif Habib Commodities. My learning was consideration for flexibility in attitude, policies and resources to sustain industry leadership. Our Customer Focus and Business Standards led us to lead as Top Brokers at the commodities exchange.
Any accomplishment that you consider momentous in your career so far? We are Ranked as Top Brokers of the Pakistan Mercantile Exchange serving largest client base in Pakistan. Our annual traded value reached Rs360bn in Year 2017.
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Who is your living role model & inspiration, and why? Our Role Model and inspiration is our Group Chairman Mr Arif Habib who despite facing uncertain security & political conditions in past years has invested upto Rs240bn in various sectors of Pakistan.
How far do you succeeded in striking a work-life balance? I manage to balance family and work life. Family has always been a priority for me and I strive to take time out to endure my relationships and reduce stress.
How do you manage your anger and stress? I try to avoid anger in almost all situations. I manage stress by keeping a positive attitude, healthy diet and exercise.
Define success or happiness in three words or phrases? Persistent chase for passion and inner peace.
Your favourite book on professional development that you would recommend others to read? “Good to Great” by James Collins.
Any message of hope to younger generation of CEOs, entrepreneurs and business leaders. “Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out”.Informal or shadow entrepreneurship makes upto 80% economic activity in India.
Keeping in view country’s recent socio-economic and political discourse when there is extreme joblessness, how to fix the economy? Our national cause to develop Job skills and training, promote local and foreign Investment in Infrastructure projects and education reforms in Pakistan will help ease unemployment from 5.9pc at present and reducing this by half within the next decade.
Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays. How to create job providers /entrepreneurs rather job seekers? SME contributes 45pc in emerging economies’ employment. We need to develop Entrepreneurs programs in terms of training, easy access to capital markets, joint ventures and institutional sponsorships in this area.
With the commercialization of educational institutions, are you satisfied with the quality of business graduates? And how to bridge the gap between industry & academia? All of our 177 HEC recognized Higher Educational institutions need to develop a practical approach to business education through case studies, training programs for students and corporate research projects.
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AMIR JAMIL ABBASI, FCA Senior Partner, KPMG Taseer Hadi & Co.
Profile: Amir Jamil Abbasi is a well-known senior partner in KPMG TH, working as the Head of Audit of Middle East South Asia (MESA) region and also the Head of Location of Karachi Office. He is a graduate of Government College of Commerce and Economics in Bachelors of Commerce. He became the member of KPMG in 1994. He played a significant role in establishing the Quality control framework of Pakistan and served as a senior member of the Quality Assurance Board of the Institute of Chartered Accountants till 2014. He is a member of KPMG International Standards on Auditing (ISA) Panel and Vice President and Member Executive Committee of Management Association of Pakistan. His areas of professional expertise include audit, audit quality, and high-quality marketing. He is an exceptional leader with competencies of honesty, diligence, humbleness, and sympathy.
“EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP REQUIRES HARD WORK , PASSION AND ENTHUSIASM. A GOOD LEADER IS ALWAYS AN EFFECTIVE MENTOR FOR HIS OR HER PEOPLE.”
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CEO Club: Please share your corporate profile and professional career? Amir Jamil Abbasi: I earned my graduation in 1980 from Government College of Commerce and Economics and achieved Second Position in order of merit at Karachi level. I opted to engage myself in the field of accounting and business. I qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1984 and became a Partner of KPMG Taseer Hadi & Co in 1994. In 1998, I became a member of the Quality Control Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan till 2008 , this committee was then converted into Quality Assurance Board in 2008 and I remained a member of the QAB till 2014. I joined KPMG MESA, a regional office in UAE, as Chief Operating Officer from January 2007 to June 2009. I was Head of Audit of Middle East South Asia (MESA) region for almost 10 years and was also Head of Audit of KPMG Pakistan till 2014 for more than 10 years and was also the Head of Location of Karachi Office from 2015 to 2017. KPMG has grown in size steadily over the years , and our affiliation with KPMG International and KPMG MESA is very strong . We regularly send sizable number of staff on secondment/employment to MESA Region and other International Firms like KPMG UK and KPMG US .
How do you elaborate leadership in your perspective? It is quite difficult to sum up leadership in a paragraph as it has multiple aspects of the definition. Effective leadership requires hard work , passion and enthusiasm. A good leader is always an effective mentor for his or her people. Creating different career pathways for your team and one of the examples is the opportunity that we provide to our people of international exposure and exposure in different functions like audit tax and advisory. A leader has to be highly diligent and proactive with his business to make it a success . I try my best to be affable in training my people in terms of guidance of modern technology and its usage in the audit and other functions. “Our mission to create right career profiles of our team by inculcating all necessary qualities of professionalism and business acumen in them.”
What key challenges do you endure by working in the audit firms of Pakistan? Multiple obstacles are encountered in Pakistan in the smooth establishment of audit business which mainly include the variation in the quality of audit. Quality and standard of audit are the foremost requirements for us so that we maintain trust of our clients and regulators. We endeavor our best to provide our people with good working environment and continuous training including on job coaching. KPMG in audit has moved to a paperless environment as all audits are done on e-Audit software which has been developed globally and further changes are being made in the same with incorportation of more technology including Artificial intelligence and Automated Audit procedures, we are implementing many of these developments in Pakistan this year and next year as well. “Public trust is our priority.”
You have achieved some incredible triumphs in your life. What was your most astounding and indelible achievement of life? By the grace of Almighty and immense hard work, I have been honored multiple times in my life among which becoming a senior partner of KPMG was the biggest achievement. It was my ambition to of be a recognizable and esteemed partner of KPMG internationally and nationally. I have traveled overall Europe and the Middle East for professional commitments. All credit goes to the numerous
| 223 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | inspiration I received from different people in my life particularly my mentors like Syed Masoud Ali Naqvi and Abdul Hussain Basrai.
What is the ratio of female employees in KPMG? Our current ratio of the workforce is 20% and we are making all efforts to raise it to 30% in next few years to create gender equality in my firm. We are the supporters of women empowerment and we aim to value the female employees of our firm. We celebrate Women International Day and other special days dedicated to the development and encouragement of women. We give special training and run support systems to encourage our female staff to work efficiently.
What are the things that define happiness in your life? My family and firm are my two sources of happiness. My daughters are the purest form of love and comfort for me. I have dedicated my Sunday to my family to give them valuable time and love. Seeing my company elevating to new peaks of success gives me immense joy and happiness. I want to gain the maximum trust of the public in our services and mission.
What is your top recommended book for professional development? “Good to great” by Jims Collins is one of my favorite books. It was recommended to me by a professor at Insead where I have been sent by my firm twice for leadership training. This book epitomizes the ways of turning a mediocre company into a great one. I used the illustrated methods in the book to run my company flawlessly. I am passionate about reading and one of my favorite subjects are Islamic history books and these provide inspiration to me as our Islamic History is replete with great achievements in science and technology and I am inspired how the Islamic empire expanded and by the great conquests. I am inspired by our Prophet Mohammad SAW who was the greatest human being and is beacon of guidance for the whole mankind.
“OUR MISSION TO CREATE RIGHT CAREER PROFILES OF OUR TEAM BY INCULCATING ALL NECESSARY QUALITIES OF PROFESSIONALISM AND BUSINESS ACUMEN IN THEM.”
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“WE ARE THE SUPPORTERS OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND WE AIM TO VALUE THE FEMALE EMPLOYEES OF OUR FIRM. WE CELEBRATE WOMEN INTERNATIONAL DAY AND OTHER SPECIAL DAYS DEDICATED TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF WOMEN.”
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ANWAR UL HASAN COO (Pakistan & Middle East), Orient Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd.
Profile: Guided by the philosophy of “power for all”, Orient Energy Systems (founded in 1996 by 4 professional partners) is a leading Pakistani multinational company that specializes in providing dependable, efficient and cost effective power generation and industrial solutions and services to its diverse range of clients in Pakistan, UAE, Oman, and Bahrain. Textiles, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, telecom, oil & gas, hospitality, power, poultry farms, shopping malls, educational institutions, commercial buildings are some of the numerous sectors served by Orient Energy.
“HAPPINESS IS NOT NECESSARILY LINKED TO MONEY. IT COMES WITH A SENSE OF ACHIEVEMENT AND THE ACHIEVEMENT MAY BE OF A VERY SMALL MAGNITUDE, SUCH AS SOLVING SOMEONE’S PROBLEM.”
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CEO Club: Please tell us about your academic and professional background. Anwar ul Hasan: In 1980, I got Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from NED University of Engineering and Technology. Later, in 1999, I completed my MBA Marketing from CBM. From 1981 to 1988, I worked with a British consultant in Kuwait as Resident Engineer. I then joined Adamjee Engineering in Pakistan as Sales and Service Engineer and worked in that capacity for two years. For the next five and a half years, I remained associated with Caterpillar generator & equipment dealers in UAE, Mohamed Abdul-Rahman Al-Bahar in UAE as Project Sales Specialist. During my long stay in the Middle East, I realized that no matter what you do, you are always treated as a foreigner and you can never become a part of the mainstream life. I, therefore, returned to Pakistan and for almost 9 years, worked as Director at Allied Engineering and Services Limited Pakistan who are the dealers of world famous Caterpillar equipment. In 2006, I joined Orient Energy Systems Pakistan as Director Sales and held that post till 2014 when I was elevated to my present position of Chief Operating Officer.
Which factors have contributed to the tremendous success of Orient Energy in a short span of time? The company was started from a scratch way back in 1996 and since then, it has been progressing at an accelerated pace, mainly due to the fact that throughout our journey, we have never compromised on ethical values such as honesty and integrity. We have never attempted to hoodwink or deceive anyone for petty monetary gains. Instead, we have always honoured our commitments and this practice of ours has established our credibility in the market with the result that people trust us as the best energy company, in spite of the fact that we don’t spend so much money on advertisement campaigns. Our marketing is through “word of mouth” from one customer to another. Another cause of our rapid growth is that we always recruit the best and most talented people and further polish their talent through constant grooming and training both inside and outside the country. Moreover, we firmly believe in delegation of powers and authorize our managers to take decisions. This strategy boosts their confidence and heightens their level of commitment and loyalty to the organization.
Please share with us your company’s vision, mission and core values that define its business philosophy. Ours is an engineering company which attempts to provide industrial solutions and services to improve the efficiency of industrial sector. We aspire to become the market leader and the most dependable power and industrial engineering solution provider in the regions we serve. We are consistently striving to meet and exceed customer expectations in terms of in best equipment supply, engineering and after sales service. We believe in rewarding success and initiatives, encourage teamwork, promote open communication and endeavour to provide a safe and healthy working environment for all. Some of our core values include: Excellence and professionalism in all business activities, cohesiveness and integrity between our values and business goals, respect and prosperity for all stake holders.
How many jobs have been created by Orient Energy? It is a huge organization and currently, we have around one thousand two hundred people working directly with Orient Energy.
What are the key challenges that you have to face?
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We come across multiple challenges, internal as well as external. For instance, with the declining standards of education in our country, it is hard to find genuinely qualified and professionally skilled people. As a result, we have to spend a lot of resources on the training and grooming of our employees. Then, there are challenges related to pricing, cost management and devaluation. Another major challenge is that at times, we have to compete with those who are involved in corrupt practices and do not abide by ethical values for the promotion and expansion of their businesses, while we have a full-fledged compliance department and internal auditor to make sure business is carried on fair and ethical basis.
What strategies have you evolved for overcoming the challenges you have just mentioned? The most important strategy is empowering managers and heads of all different departments, enabling them to take decisions independently. Ours is a huge organization consisting of around 17 departments. Quite naturally, it’s not possible for the CEO or COO to handle all affairs himself. Delegation of powers to the managers concerned makes my task much easier. Moreover, at the start of each year, we assign tasks and targets to all departments and their performance is evaluated on monthly basis. My job is to deal with most crucial and critical matters. Even in such matters, I consult my team members and we take collective decisions.
Which achievement of Orient Energy do you regard as the greatest? As a matter of fact, the illustrious history of Orient Energy is full of numerous achievements and successes. Over the years, it has established its reputation and credibility locally as well as internationally, with the result that around 2000 MW of continuous power (24 x 7) is supplied to industry through gas genset supplied and serviced by us which is 65 per cent of power generation requirement of our industrial sector. Besides providing a full-fledged power generation plant to K-Electric, we are currently upgrading K-Electric’s transmission lines and completing a 50 MW wind project in Gharo.
What’s your assessment of the country’s over all economic condition? In the 1960s, Pakistan was ahead of Far Eastern and Middle Eastern countries in terms of economic growth. Then the 1965 war and the 1971 East Pakistan tragedy had devastating consequences for the economy. Another shattering blow for the economy came in the form of nationalization policy and quota system. In addition to merit-based promotions and performance-based reward and punishment, private sector has a well-organized performance evaluation system, due to which private sector institutions are performing wonderfully well in Pakistan and elsewhere in the world. However, this is not the case with public sector institutions, where promotions are not necessarily linked to performance and even if someone is not performing well, there is no way to remove him from his post. At the maximum, he is transferred to some other place, but still, he retains his job. I believe that government should only control the country’s defence, finance, interior and foreign affairs and all the rest should be in the hands of the private sector.
What steps should our government take to attract more foreign investment in the country? First of all, government should improve the law and order situation so that investors may feel safe and secure. Unfortunately, for those who want to do business in Pakistan, there is discouragement, disturbance, discomfort and delay at every step, due to the lengthy procedures and formalities. A person willing to launch business in Pakistan requires permissions and no objection certificates from several
| 228 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | government agencies and at times, years are consumed in this process. For this reason, people prefer to do business in Dubai, Sri Lanka and even in Bangladesh where government provides numerous incentives, tax rebates and other facilities to the investors.
Are you satisfied with the quality of students being produced by our educational institutions? We have some world class institutions such as NED, UET, NUST, LUMS, IBA, DOW, King Edward etc., which are producing excellent students, who are talented, competent and efficient, full of youthful energy and vigour. They only need opportunities for exhibiting their talents, displaying their skills and utilizing their energies in a positive and constructive manner. The massive brain drain that began in the 1970s and 80s must be stopped and this can only happen if government provides a peaceful and business-friendly environment to the Pakistanis who are working abroad and are keen to return home.
Do you believe that our new government is capable of overcoming the problems that you have just mentioned? I have no political affiliations and yet I believe that those who are at the helm of affairs in the government are quite sincere and keen to honour their election promises and commitments. Of course, the ailments of 70 years cannot be cured within a few weeks or months. Our present rulers should be given adequate amount of time to translate their vision into reality. The release of over 2000 Pakistani prisoners in Saudi Arabia is a significant achievement of present government. Our country is also dragging towards extremism, our youth is full of energy we need to divert their energies toward positive things like sports and other healthily competitions. Why we are not getting any gold medals in Asian Games and Olympians while we are capable of doing so. Government and private sector should spend money on sport complexes all over Pakistan to training young sports persons, who can bring glory to Pakistan and create a positive image of Pakistan in the world.
What in your opinion is real happiness? Happiness is not necessarily linked to money. It comes with a sense of achievement and the achievement may be of a very small magnitude, such as solving someone’s problem. Those who know how to enjoy small things always find something that makes them happy.
Is there anyone whom you consider to be your role model? I regard my father and uncle as my role models, because they taught me the importance of hard work and honesty. I learnt from them that in order to succeed in life, I should treat my work as religion.
How do you manage stress and anger? There are various ways of stress management, such as taking exercise, going to some social clubs and reading good books.
How do you make sure that women get equal opportunities in your organization? Women make up 10 per cent of our total work force. This ratio may be small, but it is bigger than that of many other business entities in Pakistan. Women in our country still generally prefer to work in banking, medical and teaching sectors. But I believe that they should join other professions as well and contribute to the over all economic growth of the country.
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ARSALAN HASHMANI CFA, MAcc CEO, Hashmanis Group of Hospitals
Profile: Arsalan Hashmani is the youngest CEO of a hospital in Pakistan. He is a member of the United Nations Association of Pakistan, the Global Youth Vice Chairman of the World Memon Organization (WMO) and the Vice Chairman of the Health and Education Subcommittee of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A Certified Financial Analyst (CFA), Arsalan is a graduate of the Karachi American School, he has an undergraduate degree in Accounting and Finance, and a Master’s degree in Accounting from the University of Waterloo, Canada. Arsalan is an entrepreneur with experiences of starting and managing several companies. He is the the Group CEO of the Hashmanis Group of Hospitals, with a portfolio of seven hospitals across Pakistan; the Founder and MD of the craftsmen, a full service marketing and public relations firm; the Founder and MD of Cezario Corporation, a real estate construction firm with operations in Canada and Pakistan; the co-founder and CEO of the BDAC (Blockchain and Digital Asset Consulting), an end to end ICO advisory firm; the CEO of Sajid Corporation, a civil construction firm; the Founder of the Building Blocks, a block manufacturing firm and the Vice President of the Hashmanis Medical and Welfare Foundation, a not for profit providing free tertiary healthcare to millions of Pakistanis. Previously, Arsalan has experience working with several international organizations such as the Scotiabank, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Capgemini Consulting, Phillip Morris International and the Government of Canada eHealth Initiative. He has experience managing consulting projects north of $500 million dollars.
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CEO Club: Please enlighten us about your career path and how you developed into a strong leader? Arsalan Hashmani: I started my professional career while studying at the University of Waterloo, Canada. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to work while studying. By the time I graduated I had already worked at four global firms in four different industries soaking experience and wisdom from world class leaders. After finishing my Masters I had the opportunity to work with a leading consulting firms where I helped manage a $500M USD consulting project. While working here I started my own real estate development firm and simultaneously juggled the two priorities. I returned to Pakistan in 2016 and have been managing the Hospitals and other portfolio companies since.
Who is your inspirational role model? My father is my role model. He molded me into the person I am and instilled in me the vision to dream big. This vision allowed me to succeed in life and create an organization that I am proud of.
What is the future vision of Hashmanis Group of Hospitals? Currently we operate seven Hospitals across Pakistan providing services that are at par with international standards. In fact, our Hospitals our so well equipped in Ophthalmology that Hashmanis is counted among one of the best well-equipped hospitals in the world. For example, as an equipment the CT scan for eye – the OCT is more expensive than a regular CT scan; Hashmanis Hospital is equipped with five such machines. In terms of the quality of care and the procedures we offer, we offer procedures that only a handful of hospitals in the world offer. We have an independent research department that performs contributes to the developments the field on a global level. We have a “Not for Profit” wing that helps us perform over 500 surgeries free of cost on a monthly basis. The future vision is to broaden our reach by opening up more hospitals and to equip these hospitals with our own developed human capital. To meet these needs our vision is to start a training institute for different specialties in Ophthalmology and to start a medical and dental college.
Do you believe in gender equality and work place diversity? Of course! We believe that both genders can equally contribute in furthering the goals of the Hashmanis Group of Hospitals. Our current employment structure is a testament to this fact. Our organization is six hundred people strong out of which fifty percent are female workers.
Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays. How to create job providers rather than job seekers? Entrepreneurship is indeed a buzzword that has gained hype over the years however this word is often misunderstood. Entrepreneurship is not all about creating the next unicorn nor is it technology based applications. A house wife who sews clothes and sells for a profit is an entrepreneur. A man who collects used items, recycles and sells for a profit is also an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is not about creating jobs. It is more about identifying a need in the market place and fulfilling that need via a solution. In the process of providing that solution jobs are inevitably created since most executions require a team effort. In essence, yes entrepreneurship creates job and enables entrepreneurs to be job providers.
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What are the key challenges & business/invest opportunities in your industry? The healthcare industry in one of the most challenging industries in Pakistan. Challenges include non-existent government support, mal practice and corruption, and a highly capital intensive industry with low margins. Having said that there are countless opportunities for those willing to sail these rocky waters. There is a shortage of hospital and hospital beds across Pakistan. There is 1 bed for every 1666 people in the country. This tells us there is a huge unmet demand in Pakistan for healthcare. There are only a handful of hospitals that are providing quality of care at par with international standards and these hospital normally specialize in one field. Thus there are tremendous opportunities to be exploited in this industry while at the same time providing quality care for which Pakistanis should not have to travel beyond our borders.
List out the vital prime calibers of a CEO? Hard but intelligent work; scoping and acting on business opportunities; finding, hiring and retaining the right person for the right job; and building a good corporate governance structure are the key attributes that make a leader thrive in the current business landscape.
What are three competencies of a CEO that you’d like to see in our new generation of CEOs? Key competencies that I would like to see in the new generation of CEOs are Integrity, Vision and Persistence. I see many young folks pursuing an opportunity only to find a better opportunity elsewhere abandoning the first opportunity and chasing the second. Without focus and persistence successful is not possible.
How to develop a winning team? How do you motivate your team, assess their performance and make them accountable to the results? Find people who have some goals and striving to achieve those career based goals. Motivate these employees by aligning their goals with your own goals. This creates an innate sense of ownership and drive to achieve the company goals. Monitoring execution and evaluating execution based on key metrics is very important in assessing the performance of your team. Accountability can only be developed if goals are set at the forefront and if performance is measured against those goals. Align people’s career goals with the goals of your organization and evaluate their performance against these goals thereby holding them accountable for their performance. Doing this puts the employee in the driver seat towards accomplishing his personal career goals. This elicits an innate motivation to achieve the corporate goals hence creating a winning mentality.
How do you consider a good work-life balance? Please comment. It is very difficult to maintain a good work life balance in such position. Having said that, I work six days a week from Monday till Saturday. I keep aside my Sundays for family and friends. I don’t expect the same of most of my staff. Most of my staff I make sure has a good work life balance.
What are your major initiatives? We operate under two distinct identities: Hashmanis Group of Hospitals and Hashmanis Medical and Welfare Foundation. These institutions are providing medical services to millions of Pakistanis
| 232 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | yearly. We invest heavily on outreach services and organize around twenty five health camps every month. The Hashmanis Group of Hospitals operates one fully equipped tertiary care hospital offering twenty five different specialties, five state of the art tertiary ophthalmology hospitals in Karachi, one primary Health Care Centre in Ocean Mall. The flagship hospital of the group is located in Saddar where treatments in twenty five different specialties are offered. It is a rapidly expanding seventy five bedded hospital housed with the largest critical care facility in the area.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenges? How do you do that? I have created a family atmosphere in my organization. For them to part of the family the employees have to gain not only my trust but the trust of other members of the family (co-workers). Once part of the family the employees always think twice before even entertaining another offer. Of course to develop this family atmosphere we have to help the employees in their hard times, give them great perks and incentives, and celebrate their successes. We also have to invest in their training and development thereby helping them become the best version of themselves.
Where do you see your organization five years down the road? My organization is a trend setter and the best in the specialized field of Ophthalmology. The organization has evolved into a tertiary care institute providing over twenty five specialties apart from ophthalmology. I see my organization becoming a leader in those specialties as well. Apart from this, my vision is to start a training institute for different specialties in Ophthalmology and also to establish a medical and dental college.
Any message of optimism to the younger CEOs, entrepreneurs and start-ups? Be persistent with whatever you do. Take your time deciding on the path you take but once you make the decision do not sway from it. As humans, we face many temptations, advice from others and obstacles that make us rethink our decisions but always remember what made you take this path. Stay the course, be persistent and there is nothing that can get in the way of your success.
“DREAM BIG AND BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH THOSE DREAMS. THIS IS THE RECIPE FOR SUCCESS THAT HAS HELPED COUNTLESS ENTREPRENEUR’S ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN LIFE.”
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ASHRAF MAYIA Director, Heels Shoes
Profile: Ashraf Mayia is the Director of Pakistani brand by the name Heels Shoes. At a very young age, he learnt the rules of work and life and that made him a survivor of the circumstance. At the age of 17; he aimed to build a new business that will change the horizon of it. He dreamt of opening 100 outlets of Heels in the city. The sincere efforts of him and his team flourished the business and made it a success.
“LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT ADAPTABILITY. A LEADER MUST CHANGE HIS ACTIONS AND STRATEGIES ACCORDING TO THE SITUATION. I STRONGLY BELIEVE IN THE CONCEPT OF U-TURN. ANY OBSTACLE IN THE WAY OF ACHIEVING YOUR GOAL SHOULD NOT CHANGE YOUR GOAL. EVERY OBSTACLE PROVIDES YOU WITH A NUMBER OF OPPORTUNITIES TO EXPLORE.”
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CEO Club: What is the vision and mission of Heels? Ashraf Mayia: We have a broad horizon of the mission. I have dreamt of opening 100 outlets of Heels in the city. I want to set up a family of 1000 people like my team and support. They are my identity and I sincerely want all my workers to flourish in their careers. We are looking forward to initializing a shoe company in 2020 to create employment opportunities for the people. Furthermore, we are focusing on collaborating with local vendors to promote the shoe industry in Pakistan.
What is the total workforce in your organization? We have 500 diligent and corporative workers in Heels.
As you are a hobbyist of traveling, what life lessons have you gained by traveling miles? Well, traveling embedded treasured lessons in my memory. The most worth mentioning is that I grasped new tactics of a being a good leader. It educated me to supervise teams while traveling on work. Traveling on work with your team members is about patience and equal crediting.
What are the steps that helped you figure out, how to be an entrepreneur? The most important concern is that people have a lack of knowledge of doing business on an entrepreneur basis. It’s my request to the wholesale members and consumers to utilize local products on priority basis instead of importing. This is how we can promote our national markets and businessman. Being innovative and dedicated to your ideas makes you an entrepreneur.
Do you think CPEC will bring fruitful results to Pakistan? I want to add one significant element that we need to make ourselves competitive enough with the Chinese. We have to struggle hard to make our people and technology ready to survive in the world of the Chinese. Let’s focus on introducing the latest technology in each sector of the industry. This will also boost employment ratio in the country. Other than that, CPEC will eventually elevate the economic condition of Pakistan.
Are you in support of business ethics? It is the fundamental rule to run business and industries smoothly. Talking about the ethics of business in Pakistan, it is the primary responsibility of the government to facilitate the citizens with regulations and law and order. It is their responsibility to constitute ethics law for business and nurture their implementation.
How do you define leadership? Leaders are born; they put their employees and colleagues first. They put every benefit for their followers rather than being lusty for power they dwell themselves to work and specially smart work. My aim is to build a relationship with my employees. That’s what I think about leadership.
How do you make your team win? Motivation is the biggest uplift to your people. My inspiration reaches them frequently. I try to dedicate my maximum time with my workers to guide them accurately about manufacturing, marketing, and management of the products.
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How do you promote women empowerment in your company? We believe in gender diversity and women empowerment as the basic vote for the women population. A large section of women is employed for the designing department of our company. I want the women of Pakistan to step into the world of professionalism and uplift themselves financially.
List out root competencies of a CEO. A true leader is honest with his work and professional commitments. He or she must be a source of support and guidance to his teammates. The assistance of the team with a leader makes him an exceptional leader. A leader must accept the mistakes and faults of his teammates and workers without hesitation. Knowing your and others’ mistakes and working to compensate for the loss in leadership.
What are the future initiatives of your company? My focus and prime objective is quality centric model of my company, which is obviously the products. We by and large have a focus on delivering and producing products with the best quality in it. We have definite plan to expand our business to masses.
What is the contribution of your company and management for the public? We have set up scholarship facilities for underprivileged students. I have been fulfilling 100% scholarship requirement of local students of medical and engineering. Some of the students of US are also availing this offer. In addition, I have a dream of on setting a hospital in Karachi and by the grace of Almighty, my team has started to work on 5000-yard land.
What is your lifetime achievement? Achievements have no boundaries, since my start up in putting my all efforts to bring up the business. Every single day progression is my achievement. Even a small step towards betterment, I take it as my life achievements. Being optimistic in life, I took all my decision with an approach to excel with passion and persevered stance.
How do you manage your professional and personal life? Not everything remains stable and in equilibrium in life. We have to make sacrifices to achieve our aims and objectives. I try my best to dedicate much of my time to the counseling of my beloved family.
How do you counter stress attacks? Doing regular morning exercise is my healing technique for stress management. I try to eradicate the rage level in myself to protect my mental health.
Any message of hope for the youth of Pakistan. My sincere advice to all the youngsters is to remain in contact with their struggle. Never lose hope when hurdles came in your way. With hard work and consistency try to touch the peaks of success.
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“A TRUE LEADER IS HONEST WITH HIS WORK AND PROFESSIONAL COMMITMENTS. HE OR SHE MUST BE A SOURCE OF SUPPORT AND GUIDANCE TO HIS TEAMMATES. THE ASSISTANCE OF THE TEAM WITH A LEADER MAKES HIM AN EXCEPTIONAL LEADER. A LEADER MUST ACCEPT THE MISTAKES AND FAULTS OF HIS TEAMMATES AND WORKERS WITHOUT HESITATION. KNOWING YOUR AND OTHERS’ MISTAKES AND WORKING TO COMPENSATE FOR THE LOSS IN LEADERSHIP.”
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ASIM ZIA ALAM Founder & CEO, WEBDOC
Profile: Asim Zia has a notable statue in the entrepreneurial fraternity of Pakistan. He is efficiently and flawlessly leading WEBDOC as its founder. His management and professional skills have rocketed the online business to new heights of triumph by gaining access to millions of subscribers. The core reason for his ultimate success is his consistent dedication, diligence, incessant endeavor, and professional approach.
He has strong command on team leadership and support for his business colleagues. He has a developed concrete working profile in the field of e-commerce businesses. His strong educational career has been acted as a ladder to climb the hills of victories. Asim believes in bringing a commendable upgradation of Pakistan by the development of tech based entrepreneur businesses.
“TOUGH TIMES NEVER LAST, BUT TOUGH PEOPLE DO.”
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CEO Club: Would you like to describe the purpose and functions of WEBDOC? Asim Zia Alam: WEBDOC is an online platform for frequent access to medical prescriptions and assistance. By affordable subscriptions to our network, you can easily contact a doctor for any disease or advice instantaneously. You can call, chat or even video call the doctor. The subscription charge is only 20 to 30 rupees per month which is inclusive for 4 to 5 family members. WEBDOC apps are readily available to get downloaded on the systems and mobiles. It’s an efficient and prompt way of getting medical support without waiting for the longed appointments. I designed this system for the accessibility and ease of my fellow citizens.
Tell us from where this idea exploded into your mind? My aim was to serve and help my people generously. I quit my job and stepped up for the development of the idea of WEBDOC. In 2017 March, this app and service was launched and by the grace of Almighty, we have a family of 2.2 million active and satisfied subscribers. These people pay on monthly basis and avail the services for at least once a month. Furthermore, we have collaborated with Telenor and Jazz for customer contact services on calls and messages. We are working with a few of the trustworthy insurance companies for our business and looking forward to increasing the circle of our subscribers. I am considering to provide free of cost mobile contacting service to the subscriber.
How do you compartmentalize your profits from this business? We initiated the WEBDOC services from 8th March 2018 and by our kind dedications and efforts, we reached breakeven point of our business. Since then, we have been flourishing exponentially and working hard for the upcoming successful years.
How you define leadership by your perspective? Leadership is about adaptability and humbleness. A leader must change his actions and strategies according to the situation. He or she must be highly conscious of his decisions and actions with respect to the company. Every obstacle provides you with a number of opportunities to explore.
What element define success? Success comes with passion. Lack of passion, diligence, and enthusiasm will never take you to the peaks of success. It is the result of honest hard work and patience of work. It doesn’t always count with the finances.
Are you in support of women empowerment? 52% of our workforce is women population. Our manager and head of doctors’ association are females. We believe in gender diversity and women development. I really want to visualize the women of Pakistan fostering in all fields of professions.“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
How do you check the eligibility of a doctor for WEBDOC services? To ensure the authentication of a doctor, we have designed an eligibility check criteria. The doctor must have an experience of 3 years after the completion of the house job and must have his or her accreditation of medical degrees from PMDC. We have a team of members who supervise the
| 239 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | authentication of the doctors regularly. Currently, we have 47 doctors employed for WEBDOC, they work on scheduled shifts basis. This system works in a cycle and organized manner.
Are you satisfied with the quality of education of Pakistan of this era? Yes, definitely. I must appreciate the higher education commission for elevating the educational standard of Pakistan. In this era, the horizon of fields of studies has amazingly extended to a new level. Students are flourishing in the fields of IT, artificial intelligence, medical, and business. Most of our technology is controlled by the university graduates ofPakistan. They have my best wishes!
How do you counter stress from your life? I am not an angry entrepreneur because my rage will severely impact on my employees and the reputation of the company. I try to counter my tensions by spending valuable time with my family. Obviously, this is business which is a set of challenges so one has to tolerate the stressful moments and tensions.
“SUCCESS COMES WITH PASSION. LACK OF PASSION, DILIGENCE, AND ENTHUSIASM WILL NEVER TAKE YOU TO THE PEAKS OF SUCCESS. IT IS THE RESULT OF HONEST HARD WORK AND PATIENCE OF WORK. IT DOESN’T ALWAYS COUNT WITH THE FINANCES.”
What is the role of happiness in your life? My family is my priority and the main source of happiness. My son and my wife are my main support and lifelines. Their existence and happiness is my sole survival. The time spent with them in laughter is a treasure for me.
Are you fond of reading? Not really, however, I allocate much of my time in reading success and failure stories of people to improve myself personally and professionally. I watch videos to educate myself to train myself to be number one and succeed astonishingly.
Any message for the youth of Pakistan? We study in order to get a job and work tirelessly for the whole of our life which is extremely abysmal. My sincere piece of advice to the youth is that you should be innovative and determined to be an entrepreneur. Shortcuts don’t work in this practical work. I want the youth to step towards the major task of digitalization of Pakistan and improve technology basis. We are lacking behind the modernization of Pakistan in terms of the usage of the technology. Utilization of the technology will escalate entrepreneurship and employment in the country. Digitalization is the root solution of the crises of Pakistan.
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“LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT ADAPTABILITY AND HUMBLENESS. A LEADER MUST CHANGE HIS ACTIONS AND STRATEGIES ACCORDING TO THE SITUATION. HE OR SHE MUST BE HIGHLY CONSCIOUS OF HIS DECISIONS AND ACTIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE COMPANY. EVERY OBSTACLE PROVIDES YOU WITH A NUMBER OF OPPORTUNITIES TO EXPLORE.”
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ATIF RANA CEO, Lahore Qalandars
Profile: Atif Rana comes from a very humble background; a home which he shared with nine siblings - six brothers and three sisters. While his family was from Sialkot, originally, he had shifted to Lahore. His father passed away at a relatively young age, in 1988, leaving behind his mother, an uneducated woman, to fend for them. But despite these adversities she managed to get them educated; his eldest brother is a pulmonologist, while his eldest sister is an oncologist and has served as the first woman-director of Shaukat Khanum Cancer Memorial Hospital. Another brother, Fawad Rana, who is the face of Lahore Qalandars, is a petroleum engineer. The sister, younger than him, has a Masters’ degree in English Literature, followed by her younger sister who studied Masters’ in Microbiology. Another brother Rana Jawad is the director at Geo TV channel. A brother, who is younger than Jawad, is a chest specialist and Head of Shalamar Medical & Dental College. He’s the next sibling and holds a Master’ Degree in Public Administration. And then Sameen, who is a chartered accountant and has studied from Canada. The credit for having a highly educated family goes to his mother and eldest brother who made it all possible for them.
Atif Rana studied from the University of Punjab but the start of his career was not satisfactory. He started off his career by selling credit cards due to the condition of market back then. Then, he joined Emirates Bank as a ‘Deposit Mobilization Officer’, and within two years he became Head of Retails at the same bank. After four years, he realized; that was not his destiny and had to do something about it. Then with his brother Fawad’s support, he started off the business of lubricants which gradually became huge.
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CEO Club: What is your role in Lahore Qalandars? Atif Rana: Fawad has always been passionate about Pakistan and Pakistani youth. He used to discuss with me how we could contribute towards their improvement. So, when PSL started I told him that this was the opportunity to connect with the youth of Pakistan and payback to the country. He agreed and then we put a bid on the franchise of Lahore. Luckily, we won it. Three of my siblings, including me, are the partners in it. Our roles are pretty clear, Fawad represents Lahore Qalandars, I run the franchise’s operations here, whereas Sameen oversees our international operations, finance and social media affairs. People take the sport of cricket as a means of entertainment and drama. But for us, it’s a platform to unite Pakistan. Looking back over the last 70 years, we have hardly seen initiatives which have given Pakistan a unifying perspective. Cricket is one of those which connect the whole Nation from one end to the other. Our music and film industry didn’t grow much due to certain reasons so our biggest entertainment is to either watch street conflicts or watch a match of cricket. So, cricket is the best way to reach out to the 65 percent of our population – the youth. My brother Fawad asked me to go for Quetta but I chose Lahore because I believe it’s the heart of Pakistan, which unites the whole of Pakistan; and Qalandars made sure of that by winning hearts of many Pakistanis. And that’s probably the biggest reason why we are the major brand of PSL in Pakistan.
Cricket has become overly commercialized. Lots of money is thrown into it for publicity. However, there are people who do not enjoy it like before as some of the matches are thought of being fixed. Tell me how you deal with these allegations? It’s just like any other field which has its own challenges. In my business of lubricants, 52% of the market in Pakistan is counterfeit in which the product is inferior; that doesn’t mean I should leave the business. Take another example of meat, if your meat turns out to be that of a donkey, does that mean you should leave eating meat altogether? Instead you take precautions the next time. In the case of cricket, while we all love the game tremendously but still policymakers neglected nurturing it at the grassroot levels. There was once a time when schools had large grounds in them; now schools are a crowded and congested mess. This is what ended our growth in sports. Where should these kids go to socialize, play and learn in the real world? That is why many of them turn to drugs or other injurious activities. My mother wanted me to become a doctor or an engineer or a chartered accountant, just like any other, because it offers a secure future. But what about sportsmen? Another unfortunate, and perhaps controversial observation of mine is, that people who usually turn to sports are those who are not able to become engineers or doctors or cannot join the Armed Forces. Such people have street level upbringing but since God gave them a gift, they come here and rise to the top and end up catching the eyes of millions. That’s why, we Qalandars are insistent that cricket be taken as a profession. The player development program we’ve been working on since the last three years has helped us involve 495,000 youngsters for trials all around Pakistan. The selection will be based on merit; honesty is the message they’ve taken from us. When we give these players a chance in PSL and take them to Australia, the minimum budget each of our player gets is around $35-40k for a time span of 20 days. Now tell me which job pays you such when you’ve only done Matriculation? Merely based on skill? So, basically, Qalandars give a platform to extraordinary skill and we are proud of that.
According to the media, PSL is a home to many other opportunities because of it being wealthy.
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All these rumours that the media creates about PSL and your team; how do you cope? It’s part of the corruption. Norm is that people think whoever gets ahead, always has skeletons in his closet. Another problem is self-created – we work all year, institute player development programs at the grassroot level; that ends up creating too many expectations in people and if the team, then, loses this comes as a shock and is immediately labelled as intentional.
What’s your plan for the future of the franchise? Do you see this exercise as an investment in people or in finances? We view our Return on Investment in two ways: one being commercial, of course. The other is that if we have made five superstars out of 500,000 trained players, the ROI then doesn’t matter to us. Coming to the commercial point of view, the PSL is perhaps the biggest thing to happen in Pakistan over the last 10 years. It serves as an ambassador of positivity for Pakistan. What people fail to see is that PSL is their own product, not that of the government; it only fails if the people themselves fail it.
“SUCCESS IS HAPPINESS. MY MANTRA OF SUCCESS IS, ‘BE HAPPY, BE POSITIVE, AND BELIEVE IN SOMETHING.’ WHATEVER YOU BELIEVE IN IS WHAT YOU WILL EVENTUALLY ACHIEVE.”
What are the thoughts of our Prime Minister Imran Khan being a former cricketer himself on the work that your organization is doing, and how supportive is he? Well, the Prime Minister indeed is interested in the work that we’re doing and he promises to aid our venture in the future. The Prime Minister is aware that there is no better way to unite his people than cricket. But right now, he’s busy with more pressing matters that impact our nation.
Which of your decisions comes to mind as the hardest one to take? Naming our team “Qalandars” was the hardest, yet given how much the terms means to us, it was also the easiest.
How do you control your anger? I always expect the unexpected. You can’t control the actions of the other person; but you can always control your reaction, is what I’ve always believed in.
Who’s your inspiration/role model? The Holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is my highest role model. Given how much my mother has sacrificed and toiled for us, I gather my inspiration from her.
How do you manage the bulk of your work life? Are you able to balance it with your family life? No, not absolutely. What I do is I provide my family with the best I can offer them. But, regretfully, I have not been able to achieve any semblance of balance for this equation.
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“LEADERSHIP IS ALL ABOUT ENVIRONMENT: WHERE ‘YOU’ CREATE THE ENVIRONMENT BUT THE PEOPLE OWN IT AS THEIRS. ONE NEEDS TO BE A GOOD FOLLOWER IN ORDER TO BECOME A GOOD LEADER, POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT IS WHAT CREATES A GOOD LEADER.”
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AWAIS KASHIF COO, Vigour Impex
Profile: Awais Kashif became COO of Vigour Impex at the age of 37. Since then he has been handling day to day hustle and bustle of the company to planning new strategies for upcoming years ahead, its his daily chores at one of Pakistan’s leading and first ISO Certified company known as Vigour Impex. Kashif has a vast experience in all functions of the business from sales, marketing and operations to handling financial matters. He has been in textile field for the last many years and is a well-known personality among all textile’s moguls of Pakistan and big manufacturers & traders abroad.
“THERE IS NO SHORTCUT TO SUCCESS AND THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH IN THE REAL WORLD. THEREFORE, NETWORK AS MUCH AS YOU CAN WITH RELEVANT PEOPLE.”
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CEO Club: Could you please tell us a bit about your company, Vigour Impex? Awais Kashif: Vigour Impex was established back in 1992 & became the first ISO Certified sourcing house in Pakistan back in 1997. Today Vigour is one of Pakistan’s leading textiles Supply Chain Management solution provider with head office in Lahore, Pakistan and sourcing set ups in China, Vietnam, Egypt, Indonesia, India etc. Our Europe office is based in Manchester England. We are also associated & have strategic partnerships with many leading textiles manufacturers across the world. Vigour has immensely contributed towards increasing exports from Pakistan year on year by supporting our industry at all levels in good and bad times throughout the last 2 decades. Vigour offer complete supply chain management right from fiber to finished products such as Yarns, Fabrics both greige and finished, Home Textiles and Garments. Our cloud base Contract Management System is fully computerized and we use latest management techniques to monitor and improve important KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) i.e. quality, on time delivery, pass yield, rejections, claims, customer feedback etc.
Is Vigour Impex a group or a single company? Back in 1992, Vigour Impex was a company comprising of merely 3 people. That included Mr. Waseem and I along with one other person. Now, we’ve grown tremendously but Vigour is still treated as a single company. However, our strategic partnership and ties remain intact with Mr. Waseem and his UK based company.
How many employees are there collectively? We have 113 team members in Pakistan. Vigour is only company having 32 quality inspectors / controllers which are stationed in different locations such as Karachi, Faisalabad, Multan, and Lahore etc. And around the world, the total strength of team is around 150+. Here in Pakistan, there is no any other Textile supply chain / agency which have even more than even 60-65 team members.
What kind of growth has the company experienced in the last five years? Over the last five years, we have had three really good years from 2014 to 2018. We have our weekly meetings, brainstorming sessions and discussions in which we concluded that we cannot totally rely on the Pakistan textile industry, alone. This led to the development of our supply base in China, India, Egypt, Indonesia and Vietnam due to this, during the last 5-8 years. Now if an enquiry comes, we have options to offer our customers cheaper and better products from these regions. The growth seen due to changing business dynamic has been steady and beneficial but its still a long way to go.
What is your stance about leadership? I joined this company in 1992; as an assistant accountant in 1992 and after 26 years of working in every department, gaining experience in every field and participating in customer acquisition has led to me being promoted to the COO level in 2007 And from all this experience, I can say that: Leadership is a very difficult position to be in. One has to sacrifice a lot, work hard and put in the hours and learn the trade. Only then can you hope to lead people effectively!
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How do you think you can improve yourself to be a better leader and what are the areas you are weak in and you need improvement in them? Every human has weaknesses; nobody is perfect. Often at times, I face a lot of problems too but I believe that with right kind of self-evaluation and taking constructive criticism positively, one can always overcome his or her weakness. So is the case for me. I receive around 700-800 emails every day and handling to that volume of communications along with other tasks keeps me busy in this office all day – I rarely get a chance to leave. In this day and age, you do not get business done sitting in your comfort zone. You have to visit around and network with industry professionals. This was my weakness which I discerned in my action plan. I think I still need some support on this. In buying-houses, response time is the make or break of business. It is the death of your business if you miss a single email or call from the customer. Our business is service oriented therefore, I need improvement in this area using new tools and technology.
Is training, coaching and mentoring a priority to Vigour Impex? Do you invest in trainings, do you feel that your employees need mentoring and coaching? In our company, every head of department (HOD) including himself/herself is responsible for submitting our predefined training form of his team annually. Every team leader knows what kind of trainings his or her teammates require. If someone needs communication skills improvement or product knowledge, the HOD highlights it on the annual forms and submits their feedback. I then decide on that feedback and devise a plan annually for trainings. We then appoint experienced persons for trainings. In our business development division, we have hired people from abroad as well who are experts themselves and are members of different associations. They give lectures and trainings to our employees on regular basis. We have our centralized system of trainings. When the compliance on trainings is submitted, we do quarterly analyses and assessments of those trainings and the resulting improvements.
What is your stance on women empowerment? How many female workers are there in your company? Vigour Impex appreciates the importance of women in corporate world. We have a consistent stance on gender equality in the company and we have complied with laws and ethics to make workplace suitable for females. The number of women in our company kept on fluctuating from time to time. Earlier we had a significant number of women who worked here. Our family like atmosphere not only ensures complete protection of our female employees but also boosts in them confidence and motivation to grow. We are known as a progressive company and well regarded in terms of relaxed policies for pregnancy, maternity leaves and pick and drop issues. If you go back in history, 2-3 females had their husbands posted in other cities and we assisted our female employees in getting their husbands’ jobs in the textiles sector in Multan due to our strong connections with textiles organizations. Collectively, we have 7 females working within our company as of yet. 6 among them have proudly made their place in top positions.
What are the three competencies a good CEO should have in your view? A CEO should have good strategic planning skills, should have research-based thinking and should
| 248 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | be able to critically analyze the situation without being biased. Moreover, he should have leadership qualities to drive his team in the right direction.
Do you want to give any message of optimism to youth? There is no shortcut to success and there is no free lunch in the real world. Therefore, network as much as you can with relevant people. You should become an extrovert and gain professional certifications because degrees don’t come with an expiry date but professional certifications do, which push you to renew them in order to keep your status alive. Make yourself cognizant to the fact that getting the degree isn’t the only guarantor for success. Therefore, keep yourself updated with changing and evolving society; research and educate yourself not every now and then but daily!
KEEP EDUCATING YOURSELF IN ORDER TO GET PROMOTED AND MAKE YOUR PLACE IN THE COMPETITIVE AURA OF TODAY’S INDUSTRY. GAINING KNOWLEDGE IS INDEED AN INSTRUCTION OF OUR PROPHET (PBUH)!
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BILAL AMANULLAH MOTI MD, Windmills Real Estate Valuation Services LLC
Profile: Bilal Amanullah Moti is a result-oriented leader, with capabilities to independently develop strategies and business plans, manage change process, make effective decisions and independently drive execution to achieving strategic objectives. He has a proven ability to manage a sizeable business/ organization in terms of clients, products, services, employees, technology and policies, put together to enhance earnings, growth and reputation. He possesses over total 33 years of Institutional, Commercial and Investment banking and asset valuation experience, with leading banks in the Netherlands, Bahrain, UAE, Lebanon, Pakistan, Oman and Saudi Arabia. He enjoys good relationship with clients, business leaders, professionals’ regulatory authorities, media and other stakeholders in the Middle Eastern, Asian and European regions. He carries international leadership and management exposure as: • Managing Director of Windmills Real Estate Valuation Services, United Arab Emirates • Vice Chairman and Managing Director of ValuStrat LLC, Qatar • CEO & MD, Arif Habib Ltd., Pakistan, • Director of SKM Lanka Sri, Lanka. • Deputy CEO, Albilad Investment Bank (Islamic), Saudi Arabia • Global Head of International (Corporate, Retail and Investment) Banking, BankMuscat, Oman • Vice Chairman of Executive Committee of Bank Muscat Saudi Arabia (Islamic) • Member (Director) of the Board and Audit Committee member of Silk Bank, Pakistan. • Global Leader of Banks Strategy Group of ABN AMRO Bank, Netherlands & Regional Head of Financial Markets Group, MENA and Europe, Netherlands He has done MBA. He is banking diploma holder, a certified Director, and a chartered Investment Banker. He is a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) registered and Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) approved valuer. He speaks Urdu, English, Dutch and Arabic.
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CEO Club: Please share with us your professional background (with challenges you faced) in a nutshell. Bilal Amanullah Moti: Windmills Group provides real estate services, valuations related to residential, commercial, industrial and trading/business properties as per International Valuation Standards governed by Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA), leasing property brokerage and property management. Our valuations are precise and well disclosed. Our team have valued more than 21,000 properties with market value of higher than AED 45 billion, for over 900 clients, across all Emirates of the UAE, GCC and internationally. Our major corporate clients are Rajhi Group, Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (SHUROOQ), Salama Group, Al Masaoud (Al Maha) and Americana Group. We value properties with a scientific rating system. Our valuation process, market and rating analysis, assumptions and calculations are transparently explained. Windmills services are efficient, of high quality, and yet affordable. We have achieved 43% “ahead of schedule” turnaround time in delivering valuation reports to our clients in 2019.
What is your company`s business philosophy vision, mission & core values? Windmills Real Estate Valuation Services envisions to be among the top professional real estate valuation companies in the Middle East. Windmills mission is to facilitate our clients in strategic decision making, increasing their cash generation, maximizing their revenues, minimizing their costs, expanding their business and enhancing their reputation. Our core values are to Serve, Service, Ethics, Results, Value and Excellence.
Please share your company`s brief history? Windmills is a 3 years old real estate services group. Windmills is an award-winning consulting firm in Dubai, UAE. We provide property valuation, value-add, and advisory services as per International Valuation Standards governed by RICS and RERA. Windmills team members have valued more than 21,000 properties with the total market value higher than AED 45 billion for more than 900 clients in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other countries. We have advised clients on maximizing revenues, minimizing costs and organizational efficiency controls. Our valuation reports comply with local and International Valuation Standards promoted by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) at Dubai Land Department and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) respectively. All our valuation reports are supervised and signed by a Member of RICS (MRICS). Our compliance to valuation standards and requirement is also appreciated by RERA. Our valuations covered by an appropriate Professional Indemnity Insurance by the eminent Orient Insurance Company, a member of Al Futtaim Group. Windmills has a strong, long established and trusted relationship with 5,000+ subject matter experts in the real estate, manufacturing, trading and services sectors in UAE and the region. Additionally, we are members of the Dubai Chamber, Middle East Facility Management Association, major National Business Councils.
How many jobs your company created, means HR on your company’s payroll? Windmills Group has a total of 20 employees, and has more than 50 contracted experts.
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Please share with us your company`s last three years’ average revenue growth in percentage? We have served 250+ clients over the last 3 years through writing 1,500+ valuations for the total market value of AED 5 billion plus. We have achieved 700% increase in sales, 34% net profit margin, and 167% return on capital in 2018.
What are the key challenges & opportunities in your industry / sector? The process of valuing property can be arduous. One of the key challenges is understanding the property in detail, via property documents and inspection. Some clients does not provide the initial document requirements and it consumes more time to figure out the features of the property. The other key challenge is the lack of data availability. From time to time, it is hard to fine reliable and precise data. We have to consider looking to other data resources. Explaining the International Valuation Standards to the client to allow them to understand the concept and principle of valuation practice. A detailed, comprehensive analysis and the ability to develop precise pricing and assumptions are necessities. Property valuation requires a scientific method to acquire the market value. Some of the most common challenges in valuing properties are developing reasonable assumptions and documenting the reasoning behind those assumption choices and gathering the appropriate market comparable.
Any remarkable recognition or achievements by the company? Windmills is an award-winning company. We are awarded with the “Top Professional Services Company in the UAE in 2018” award and “Runner Up for the same in 2019” under the patronage of Dubai Economic Department.“Second Place - Best Consulting Company in the Gulf in 2018” award and “Finalist for the same in 2019) under the patronage of Dubai Land Department. “Finalist Position for The Consultant of the Year 2018” award by MEED. “Highly Scored” Valuer Assessment rating to Mr. Bilal Moti MRICS by RICS UK” in June 2018. Finalist for the “Accelerator” and “Sustainable Business Innovation” awards organized by the Netherlands Business Council UAE in 2019.
“FOR ME, LEADERSHIP MEANS ACCOMPLISHING THINGS THROUGH THE HELP OF OTHERS ALONG WITH RESPONSIBILITY. DEVELOPING THE SKILLS OF PEOPLE AND LETTING THE PEOPLE WORK WILLINGLY.”
What is leadership to you and what are the three key challenges confronting CEOs/business leaders in Pakistan? Leadership is all about knowing the way, making the way and showing the way. The three key challenges are the putting together a right team, Team communication to move forward together and Nurturing development alongside their individual strengths.
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What are three leadership competencies / characteristics of a CEO that you would like to see in our new generation of CEOs / Managers? I would like to see conviction in the leaders of our new generation. A leader with conviction should have a mindset to succeed and a strong determination to achieve goals with focus. Another characteristic is being innovative, a leader should always think outside the box, seeking collective information together with potential risks and dangers but are still willing to face challenges. Lastly, collaborative leaders allow people to share responsibility and combine to knowledge, creativity and experience of others.
A CEO’s success largely depends upon a team, what are the three characteristics of a winning team? A winning team should have excellent communication with all the members. They should communicate openly, sharing their thoughts, suggestions and ideas. For me, communication is a necessity to keeping track on the progress. Secondly, the team must be focused. To provide a clear path to aim at the best outcomes and results. Lastly, the team needs to be organized in order to run the company smoothly. Being organized can help to make sure that members are on track and deadlines are being met with efficiency.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenges? How do you retain top talent in the company? Mostly people resign not because of their compensation package or financial development. They move on due to bad leadership. Employees development must be the objective parallel to the organisational development. Organisations retain employees with respect, providing learning exposure and being flexible in case of varying circumstances of the staff members. Top talents in the company should also be nurtured carefully. To retain them you should keep your promises, it is important to consider that any commitments made to employees should be fulfilled.
Is training, coaching and mentoring a priority to you? How much time do you allocate for your staff? Yes, it is a must for me. I share my extensive knowledge and wide experience with my team members. At Windmills Group, we conduct a management meeting every Sunday morning. In the meeting, the employees share the tasks they have done in previous week and the current plan for the upcoming week at the same time I advise them the principle on how they can do it better with time, cost and quality. Each month, all staff members attend online training courses related to customer service, real estate and valuations among other subjects. I allocate about minimum 40% of my time every day dealing with my management team and staff members.
Do you believe in women empowerment? If yes, then what steps would you recommend to empower women at workplace? Yes, I do believe in women empowerment. Women possess deeper tolerance and understanding levels, which are of paramount importance to any business. I commend to promote gender equality through workplace initiatives and advocacy. The steps I recommend is to diversify leadership by promoting women to higher management and governance positions. Support the women and their
| 253 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | need to succeed by mentoring them to improve their leadership methods.
Being the CEO of the company, what is your strategy regarding succession planning and developing the next generation of leaders? Our strategy is to recruit top skilled and independent talent to take over from me. By recruiting and developing the best people irrespective of their gender, age, region, color, religion etc., you can prepare for their future leadership roles. Merit and results should be the decision criteria for developing leaders. We provide extra ordinary training, development exposure and performance review to each staff members every 6 months.
Where do you see your organization five years down the road? Growth strategy and new initiatives? We aim to be among the top 10 real estate services group in the region in the coming 5 years. The five years plan of Windmills is to open branches in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries. In addition to real estate valuation, brokerage, leasing and property management, we plan to add quantity and measurement surveying, technical appraisal, industrial and business valuation and project management services.
Can you give us an example of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative you have championed? Our corporate social responsibility, are advising Dubai Land Department (DLD) and Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) regularly about further improving valuation practices. We have created awareness about professional valuations standards in public. We provide paid students’ internships, free career counselling. 10% of our profits go to donation to charitable organizations. We educate the market by sharing market news every day through our website and social media. We share detailed market research reports every month with our clients through emails, website and social media. Our market research reports convey the Real Estate Performance and Outlook, and also a detailed analysis of underlying key developments in politics, economy, oil price, currency rates, and regulations.
Harvard Business Review’s research tells us that E.Q. (Emotional Quotient/Intelligence) rather I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) is a highly essential competency for business leaders? Why E.Q. is important for CEOs especially in challenging times? Emotional quotient is of utmost importance in times of challenges because it gives the ability to observe people’s emotional feelings, circumstances and modus operandi. E.Q teaches give and take. It allows us to control our feelings and shows empathy when in high pressure, this will utilize emotions to motivate employees to be calm and work toward the achievement of goals.
A business speaks the language of digits. To what extent should a CEO should be finance- savvy? What are the three most important numbers in a firm’s financial statements? No leadership can succeed without profound understanding of technology and financial management. A CEO must understand the numbers in terms of finance. Understanding numbers is helpful to analyze financial growth and strategic initiative in impacting the business financial success. The three
| 254 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | important numbers are Cash flow, Assets and Profitability.
What’s the toughest decision you have ever made? What did you learn from it? After my 22 years of banking experience, I transitioned to set up and run my own business. I am grateful to all the learnings I’ve made through my decisions, and also to family, friends, colleagues and clients to make it a great success.
Who is your inspirational role-model? My inspirational role-model is H.H. Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. In 25 years he transformed Dubai from a village into a flagship city of the country.
How do you consider a good work-life balance? Please comment It should be applied like water and oil. A good way to balance work and life is extremely necessary to establish, execute and benefit from both work and personal life.
How do you manage your anger and stress? I firmly believe that the satisfaction resides in remembering Allah one way or the other. My second- best stress buster is my family. I talk to my wife and children about my day to day challenges and causes of stress, and they magically find and offer ways to get me out of them. I feel relaxed with music as well.
Define success in three key words or phrases? Love, respect, and peace.
What is your idea of happiness? Happiness means doing something for others.
Your favourite book on professional development that you would recommend? I recommend “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne.
Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? The expressed optimism for growth to the younger generation is to have the opportunity to be innovative in today’s killingly competitive market.
“A WINNING TEAM SHOULD HAVE EXCELLENT COMMUNICATION WITH ALL THE MEMBERS. THEY SHOULD COMMUNICATE OPENLY, SHARING THEIR THOUGHTS, SUGGESTIONS AND IDEAS.”
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BILAL SHAHID TATA CEO, Tata Best Foods Limited (TBFL)
Profile: Bilal is the CEO of Tata Best Foods Limited (TBFL), which is part of the Tata Pakistan Group of Companies. Bilal joined the family business after completing his MBA from Cardiff University and decided to venture in to the food industry; he has been the CEO for Tata Best Foods since its inception. TBFL was setup with the vision to transform the Red Meat industry of Pakistan, which is currently scattered and unorganized. The company first established itself in the International markets and is now gearing up to build a strong presence in Domestic market as a trusted name for safe, hygienic and traceable Halal meat. With a focus on quality and outstanding service, the company has managed to develop strong partnerships with Food Importers and Distributors in a large number of countries, including UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, China, Vietnam and Malaysia.
““SUCCESS IS PEACE OF MIND WHICH IS A DIRECT RESULT OF SELF-SATISFACTION, IN KNOWING YOU DID YOUR BEST TO BECOME THE BEST YOU ARE CAPABLE OF BECOMING”.”
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CEO Club: Please share your professional background and your corporate profile along with your challenges in a nutshell? Bilal Shahid Tata: Ours is a family owned business so I have worked here since the beginning of my career; I joined in 2009 after completing my MBA. My objective was to start something new in the food industry; therefore, we set up a company for meat processing and food service distribution.
Any particular reason behind joining the food industry? I foresee food becoming a commodity in limited supply in respect to the world’s growing population; the agricultural produce is not growing at the same pace. I feel that over the next few decades food will become a scarce resource. There is an opportunity, specifically in Pakistan’s meat sector, as there are not many corporate players; till today this remains an ill organized trade consisting of small vendors/ setups lacking in the basic concepts of hygiene, cleanliness etc. I believe this industry holds immense potential if done correctly; the red meat industry should also have big brands like K&N is in Poultry.
What are the various challenges that you have had to face? There are challenges in every business especially when you take the path less travelled and start something new. I personally had no association with food/meat/livestock business, whenever you start something new there is always a learning curve that you have to go through. The most important trait of an entrepreneur is persistence. An entrepreneur will always have to confront challenges and there are so many factors like government policies, currency fluctuations, regulatory authorities and so on that are going to be beyond one’s control. Therefore, one needs to be persistent and remain steadfast in your conviction.
Please tell us a bit about Tata Best Foods? The company is only 6 years old; when we started our target was to export Pakistani meat to international markets, however, today we feel there is more potential in our domestic market. We have a population of over 200 million people in Pakistan; this population continues to grow along with growing spending power and consumer awareness for hygienic and certified products. Our Government has also started to monitor and regulate our food supply and enforcing compliance on food quality. Recently, the Punjab Food Authority has been very active in pursuing food related businesses to follow Food Safety standards; even then it is fairly common to see news regarding adulteration and misdeclarations with regard to the origin and type of meat being supplied to the markets. Consumers want a trustworthy brand and a certified and traceable product. The restaurant industry is booming in urban centers like Karachi and Lahore where many new eateries are opening on a regular basis; the culture of eating out is also becoming increasingly popular. All of the above is creating many opportunities for us because the bulk of our domestic market business is institutional in nature including hospitals, factories, universities and restaurants along with catering. Our main challenge in the Domestic Market is to be able to compete with the Wet Market suppliers who usually have no compliance and quality related costs. However, now our customers are more aware and value the quality and hygiene they get from our products.
How many jobs has your company created? Currently, at Tata Best Foods we have a team of about 200 people.
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Please share the average revenue for your company during the last 3 years? Average revenue is in excess of 20 million dollars.
Where do you see your company 5 years down the road? I see our company as the K&N of red meat. We believe there is a vacuum and we want to create the same culture in red meat as K&N has managed to do for the poultry market.
What is leadership to you? Gaining trust and respect of your team members, these are the foundations.
What are the 3 key challenges that a business leader or CEO has to confront in Pakistan? The first challenge is the quality of HR; finding people with the right qualities, next is the availability of financial capital and lastly profitability.
What are the 3 characteristics of a winning team? Respecting one another, not shying away from work, giving team members due credit to generate sense of achievement. This promotes productivity and strengthens their loyalty and dedication towards their jobs and company.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenges; how do manage to retain your people? I don’t have a conventional style of management; my management style is more along the lines of relationship building and maintaining friendship, trust and confidence with my colleagues. I hardly display anger or negativity towards my team and provide them with opportunities to succeed thus resulting in motivated employees who want to remain with the company.
Are training, coaching and mentoring a priority to you? Absolutely, learning is at the heart of any business. The best leaders are those who continue to learn every day. Learn from their experiences, their mistakes, from mentors, from books. As a leader, it is one of my most important jobs to ensure that my team has the hunger to learn, take risks, innovate and challenge convention.
Do you believe in women empowerment if yes what steps would you recommend to empower women in the work place? I absolutely encourage it and believe in it firmly. My Wife and her four sisters all work and all of them are strong, confident and successful women. My sister graduated from an Ivy League school and is currently working as an academic coordinator at a reputable school. So yes, there are many women in my personal and professional life that I am extremely proud of. In our office we encourage women to participate and take on leadership roles. Most importantly providing them with equal opportunity and treatment.
Which one of your achievement’s are you proud of? I am proud of the fact that I did not just join my existing family business and ventured to start an entirely new business in an industry that had no connection with our textile business.
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What is the toughest decision that you have had to make and what did you learn from it? About 2 years ago our company was going through a rough patch and as a result I had to let go of some people and that was difficult for me emotionally. I learnt that as CEO of a company my first and foremost responsibility was to ensure survival of the company. It was a tough decision but it had to be done.
Please share a piece of advice from your inspirations that has helped you tremendously throughout your career? The one thing that I learned from the beginning from my Grandfather and Father was never to compromise on ethics and morals. This will strengthen your abilities in building trust within your employees and all other stakeholders. Another thing we were taught was that there is only so much you can do and that there is a Higher power up there Who ultimately controls everything. Sometimes the wind is blowing against you and sometimes it’s at your back.
How do you manage your stress or anger? Anger is something everybody faces; we all have different ways of expressing it so. Having a supportive team helps me to manage my anger and keep the stress levels low. I try always to be friendly and respectful with my team; I believe that helps me to get better results from them.
What is your idea of happiness? Happiness is a journey not a destination it is something we are constantly seeking. On the personal side nothing makes me happier than spending time with my children. That, for me, is the feeling of pure happiness.
Do you read often and would you like to recommend a few books? I love to read. One of my favorite books is “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell another book I am reading these days is “How To Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. Few other favorites include, “Good To Great” and the “Lean Start-up” especially for young entrepreneurs.
Any piece of advice you would like to give to young entrepreneurs? You will fail. That is a given. But failure will be one of the most important lessons you will learn. You will fall and then you will have to learn how to get back on your feet. Everybody goes through failure and hardships at some point in their life; it will make you stronger, more resilient and better than the rest. Be persistent and never give up.
Please share a message of hope and optimism you would like to give to our youth? I am an optimist and I always try to look at things in a positive manner whether it is in business or in people. I believe every problem is an opportunity and because Pakistan is so far behind the developed economies, that most of the time one can just see what is happening in these developed economies and try to figure out how to apply those solutions in Pakistan. Challenge convention and keep innovating!
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DANISH IQBAL CEO, Mindbridge
Profile: Mindbridge is a business process outsourcing company that specializes in providing back office support and contact center services to global technology companies. As of today, we have clients in over 35 countries and a hundred cities worldwide. Our vision is to become one of the key reasons for our clients’ success by offering them a combination of high quality and cost effective outsourcing services that are unmatched globally, providing them with a clear competitive advantage. One of the keys to our success is our employees’ attitude towards our work. We like to create a work environment that allows our team members the freedom to excel and innovate,and to achieve and maximize their potential.
“EMOTIONAL IQ TO BE ABLE TO CONNECT WITH YOUR TEAM, PASSION FOR WHAT YOU DO, AND THE PURSUIT OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT.”
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CEO Club: What challenges did you face when you started Mindbridge? Danish Iqbal: The biggest challenge is always creating your core management team, and there is no shortcut to that. It happens gradually through a lengthy process of selection, growth, and working together. Once the team is aligned in their thought process and has the same level of passion and drive towards their work; everything starts to click. Another challenge specific to our business has been the hesitation of global companies in carrying out sensitive business projects in our country. We have been fortunate that through word of mouth, reputation, and our track record of global accolades and awards, companies are willing to overlook the general risk they may otherwise associate with the country.
How do you make sure that your team has the same mission and vision that you do? As I mentioned, there is no shortcut; alignment in our mission and our vision for the future of the company happens over time, as a result of working together and building personal relationships. I believe that more than numbers, graphs and skill sets, emotional connectivity is important. I believe that if you can connect on that level, everything else is taken care of.
What problems are you facing now? Is getting business from global partners still an issue or are there new concerns to deal with? I think Pakistan is set for significant growth in the IT services industry and this sector has a growing reputation as a developing field worldwide. As such, especially with our already established business partners and relationships, obtaining global business is less of a challenge. The government and our country is focused on traditional exports which are extremely competitive and not really growing. I believe more focus should be placed on our sector in terms of human capital development and infrastructure capability.
What’s your stance on women empowerment and how many females are working with you? Twenty percent of our workforce is female, and we have a diversity and inclusion program that supports the narrative for women empowerment and forecasts that this number will soon go up to 35%.
Could you share the company’s average revenue growth in last three years? I can share that I am happy with the growth and would be even happier if we continued with the current trend.
What do you think has been the reason behind this phenomenal growth? We put a lot of time and effort into building the right team and establishing a robust infrastructure. As I mentioned earlier, once such a team is in place, it can establish efficient systems and processes that allow for rapid, exponential growth.
Are you happy with the quality of the graduates our universities are producing now? I believe that the youth of Pakistan is the key to our success. They are extremely talented, intelligent, and hard working and it is the industry’s responsibility to take this raw resource and provide these graduates with industry specific skills. We are implementing this belief through our own training
| 261 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | initiatives.
Where do you see Mindbridge five years down the road? In five years I would like to see Mindbridge emerge as a global company with offices in at least in two or three countries.
Are you planning something else other than this BPO business or do you want to focus entirely on this? BPO is our core business and area of expertise, and competing and winning at this business globally is our primary agenda. We believe that we have enough opportunities to keep growing in this domain and do not feel the need to consider any other opportunities at this time.
Name three competencies a CEO must have? Emotional Intelligence to be able to connect with your team, passion for what you do, and the pursuit of continuous improvement.
Which areas do you want to improve in as a leader? All of the above!
Are there any CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities that Mindbridge is performing, that you would like to mention? We support two hospitals on an annual basis and also provide support to a digital initiative to educate and improve the youth of Pakistani society.
What is your idea of happiness? Being able to spend quality time with my family.
“I THINK PAKISTAN IS SET FOR SIGNIFICANT GROWTH IN THE IT SERVICES INDUSTRY AND THIS SECTOR HAS A GROWING REPUTATION AS A DEVELOPING FIELD WORLDWIDE.”
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“I BELIEVE THAT THE YOUTH OF PAKISTAN IS THE KEY TO OUR SUCCESS. THEY ARE EXTREMELY TALENTED, INTELLIGENT, AND HARD WORKING AND IT IS THE INDUSTRY’S RESPONSIBILITY TO TAKE THIS RAW RESOURCE AND PROVIDE THESE GRADUATES WITH INDUSTRY SPECIFIC SKILLS. WE ARE IMPLEMENTING THIS BELIEF THROUGH OUR OWN TRAINING INITIATIVES.”
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DAWAR RASHID Chairman, Wing Chair Luxury Group
Profile: Everyone of us feels an instinctive urge to own a decent and luxurious house situated in a posh locality, artistically designed, elegantly decorated and exquisitely furnished; so that it may become appealing to the eye, soothing to the mind and comforting to the soul. With this fact in mind, Wing Chair Luxury Group, with its Spanish origin and manufacturing facilities in Pakistan, provides world class interior concept and furniture to its customers all over the world, to furnish their homes, clubs, offices and hotels. Dawar Rashid, who holds an MBA Degree from BZU Multan and was the Recipient Of LCCI Gold Medal And Businessman Of The Year Award By President Of Pakistan In 2016.
“HAPPINESS IS ALL ABOUT INNER SATISFACTION, THAT MAKES YOU STRESS FREE AND ENABLES YOU TO ENJOY A CALM AND PEACEFUL SLEEP.”
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CEO Club: Give a brief introduction of Wing Chair and its activities in Pakistan. Dawar Rashid: Wing Chair that started out in Valencia, Spain in 1985. In 2001 I took the most important decision of my professional career switching from textiles to furniture. And finally launched ‘Wing Chair’ in Pakistan in 2003 and with this many European companies became our partners in progress including world-renowned Italian brand Giorgio Collection. Highly dedicated and motivated employees are constantly busy in the manufacturing of a unique blend of classic and contemporary furniture also exported to five-star hotels, palaces, villas and offices in European and Middle Eastern countries. Our local and international customers approach us being sure that we will give them something distinctive both in terms of product and service. In most cases our loyal customers do acknowledge that they always get true value of their investments with Wing Chair Group. Luxury, prestige, dream and originality are the four words that aptly describe Wing Chair philosophy.
What has been the average annual growth rate of your company in the past few years in terms of revenue? In the past few years, our growth rate has been consistently around 20 percent. Of course growth is always accompanied by certain challenges such as the need to remain consistent. Now that the company is well established in terms of marketing positioning, revenue and reputation, locally as well as globally, it’s time for us to settle down and further consolidate ourselves, in order to strengthen the foundations of the company. The ultimate objective is to transform the company into a major industrial group, so that it may become a significant contributor to the country’s economy, through enhanced value added exports and job creation. Of course, it requires greater emphasis on R & D.
Would you like to share with us the vision and mission of Wing Chair? While selling our products, we actually try to sell our ideas and concepts. More importantly, we try to introduce and promote Wing Chair Attitude, which implies giving full satisfaction to the customers, by means of high quality distinctive products, which are artistically beautiful, unique, extraordinary and matchless with reference to their aesthetic appeal and excellence of quality. Others present in the market may have bigger budgets or may have more sophisticated machines than ours, but one thing is obviously known to them and to our customers that we have consistently maintained our leadership position by delivering large-scale projects with quality. The vision, imagination and inspiration that lend rarity to most of our products are generally considered to be our hallmark. Our manufacturing facilities inside Pakistan give us a competitive and qualitative edge over others. As a matter of fact, Pakistan’s furniture industry in general and Punjab in particular is Wing Chair inspired industry because a number of our former employees are now working with other companies and sharing with them their wonderful expertise and skills. Another cornerstone of our business philosophy is that we always produce for our customers what we show them and they fully trust us in this regard. This attribute of ours, which I often refer to as Reproducibility, gives us an added advantage over others.
Do you feel any difficulty in retaining your employees? Retention of employees for prestigious brands is never issue free. Nonetheless our employees have proven to be quite loyal because they know what we are and what others are. Some of them do leave us and join other organizations in the hope of getting higher salaries and many others start their own
| 265 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | business. But that doesn’t bother me, because I firmly believe that everyone will get only what he is destined to get. Most of our employees however, choose to stay with us, even if they get lucrative offers, for they are well aware of the fact that others will employ them for a short span of time, and after benefitting from their skills, they will kick them out.
How much women involvement is there in Wing Chair? I have a firm conviction that in this age of gender equality, knowledge and enlightenment, quality of life is not possible without active and energetic female participation. With this fact in mind, we invite talented women to join our organization in sales and designing, and they are performing wonderfully well at their respective posts.
Are you satisfied with the quality of graduates being produced by our educational institutions? It has to be said with regret that ours is a degree oriented and commercially driven educational system, which does not create leadership qualities among students. It may award them degrees and enable them to get jobs, but it does not teach them how to face crises and how to come out of them. All through the ages and all over the world, arts and literature have always been integral components of all academic programmes, to produce creativity, imagination, aesthetic sense and artistic taste among students. But this crucial aspect of education has lost its due importance in our educational system, with the obvious result that students pass out without personality development, moral training and character building. As revamping is on its way I am hopeful our institutions will soon be producing many leaders in near future.
In this age of commercialism and materialism, how much importance do you attach to faith and religion? The Quran tells us that Allah is nearer to us than our jugular vein and, therefore, it is of utmost importance for us to remain in contact with Him and ask for His bounties and blessings. The secret of success lies in taking bold initiatives with noble intentions and full Faith in Allah. The first step or initiative should come from your side and Allah will surely guide and support you and gradually make your task easier.
How can we develop entrepreneurial skills among our youth? Every standard definition of entrepreneurship states that its most crucial ingredient is the ability to take risks. Maximum risk is to be taken for maximum profits. It involves breaking the shell, coming out of the comfort zone or burning the boats. Entrepreneurs are born with this rare talent, which they exhibit time and again in their life. Enhanced commercial activity sponsored by the government can also promote some entrepreneurial spirit among our youth.
Have you ever been inspired by someone in life? Yes many personalities inspired me at different stages of my life. But now my passion inspires me. The idea of creating new value added products gives me lot of inspiration. Travelling gives me lot of motivation because you learn a lot. As a Pakistani, I am greatly inspired by the heroic personality of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, whose amazing life story is full of achievements, struggle, prestige, elegance, style and determination. Single handedly, he fought against all his adversaries and
| 266 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | won the battle in a spectacular and triumphant manner. Even Imran Khan’s charismatic personality has inspired me a lot.
How would you like to define happiness? Happiness is all about inner satisfaction, that makes you stress free and enables you to enjoy a calm and peaceful sleep. You can relish genuine happiness by helping others and by spending time in the company of pious, righteous people and people with elevated thinking. I mean it. Another factor that may contribute to your happiness and success is your ability or power of persuasion. If you are able to persuade and influence others in a positive manner, you are successful in the real sense of the word. This is what I learnt at an early age from Dale Carnegie’s world-renowned book “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”
Is there any inspiring book that you would like to recommend for our young entrepreneurs and business managers? They should surely read life stories of Henry Ford, Lee Iacocca & Jack Welch, these three individuals are classic examples of corporate success stories of 20th century. One of my favourite books is “Talking Straight” written by Lee Iacocca who is an American automobile icon best known as father of Ford Mustang.
“EVERY STANDARD DEFINITION OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP STATES THAT ITS MOST CRUCIAL INGREDIENT IS THE ABILITY TO TAKE RISKS. MAXIMUM RISK IS TO BE TAKEN FOR MAXIMUM PROFITS. IT INVOLVES BREAKING THE SHELL, COMING OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE OR BURNING THE BOATS.”
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DR. IMRAN Y. MUHAMMAD Founder & Chairman, (Transformation International Society) & Managing Director, Jofa Group
Profile: Dr. Imran studied in North America and started his entrepreneurial journey in Pakistan as the CEO and Managing Director of Jofa Group of Companies, currently involved in various businesses including Retail Franchise, High-tech Construction, Premium Jewellery, Food Distribution, & Premium Textile whereby some of the commonly known brands are Movenpick Ice cream & Coffee of Switzerland, Mondelez ice creams, Asim Jofa Lawn & Asim Jofa diamond gallery. He is also a Board Certified International Master Instructor of Hypnotherapy for National Guild of Hypnotists (USA) and only NLP Master Trainer in Pakistan trained by all the Co-Creators and Developers of Neuro Linguistic Programming. He is also a founder of TRANSFORMATION International Society which transforms the minds, bodies and souls of individuals worldwide by providing simple and achievable life altering solutions for financial independence through healing, education and vocational training courses. In recognition of his performance in the field of public service and education, the President of Pakistan has conferred on him, one of the highest civil award of Sitara-I-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence). Furthermore, he also received recognition awards by Government of Philippines, Canada & USA. He is also Honorary Consul General for Republic of Philippines in Karachi, Pakistan
“TRUE DEDICATION & SINCERITY TOWARDS THE COMPANY. ‘THE REAL TEAM SPIRIT IS SUPPORTING EACH OTHER; TO BE EACH OTHER’S MOTIVATION AND NOT THE COMPETITORS AND BELIEVING IN EACH OTHER’S POTENTIALS, THIRDLY AND ABOVE ALL HARD WORK.”
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CEO Club: What is your company`s business philosophy vision, mission & core values? Dr. Imran Y. Muhammad:The primary vision & philosophy of the company is to actively contribute to the social and economic development of the sectors in which we operate. Our mission is to provide high end quality products to our consumer market in the best possible way and introduce international market products in Pakistan. The core values of the Jofa Group revolve around integrity, commitment to customers, passion and quality which makes us one of the finest multinational companies in Pakistan.
Please share your company`s brief history? Jofa group of Companies is an agglomerate of multiple business sectors that has taken an expansion route into textiles, luxury goods, construction and premium food brands distribution. Started off in 2002, the group has now expanded many folds over the past decade and now has a substantial portfolio of assets in Pakistan. We are the exclusive franchisee of Movenpick Ice Cream brand since 2002 offering international quality premium ice cream in Pakistan. Further to that Asim Jofa brand is termed as one of the most premium textile brand in the country since 2010.
Please share with us your company`s last three years’ average revenue growth in percentage? By the grace of Almighty Allah, despite of economic conditions and stiff competition we have seen a steady growth in our revenue, and expansion in products.
What are the key challenges & opportunities in your industry / sector? Since, one of the main segments our business deals in is import based and due to the current economic situation of the country and increase in dollar rates along with the increase in duties has made it quite challenging for any import based business to operate within the country. Obviously the impact goes onto the consumers, which somehow affects the business in one way or the other. The other challenge that we face is the grey channel import which hurts the official importers.
Any remarkable recognition or achievements by the company? As the MD of the organization it has always been challenging to maintain the exclusivity of the products and services offered by the organization. Jofa group has partnered with some of the leading businesses in Pakistan and abroad to offer high-end products to its consumers. The company holds royalty in the country for premium niched products including Movenpick ice cream of Switzerland, Movenpick Coffee & Mondelez ice cream. Jofa International has been successfully driving the respective products into Pakistani markets and have emerged as market leaders in their respective categories. Jofa Group is recipient of several awards including Consumer Choice Award, Brand of the year award, FPCCI achievement award, Customer Satisfaction Award etc.
What is leadership to you and what are the three key challenges confronting CEOs/business leaders in Pakistan? According to me, leadership revolves around team-building, team development, and team management. Specific challenges include how to instill pride, how to provide support, how to lead a big team, and taking a challenge to initiate a new venture. Next is guiding change, a challenge of managing, mobilizing, understanding, and leading change. Guiding change as per me, includes
| 269 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | knowing how to mitigate consequences, overcome resistance to change, and deal with employees’ reactions to change. Then comes, managing internal stakeholders, the challenge of managing relationships, politics, and image. This challenge includes gaining managerial support, managing up, and getting buy-in from other departments, groups, or individuals.
What are three leadership competencies / characteristics of a CEO that you would like to see in our new generation of CEOs / Managers? Perseverance, dedication and ability to take risks.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenge? How do you retain top talent in the company? Indeed, retaining key people is the biggest challenge faced by any organization. One must be extremely vigilant and sharp minded to pick up signs. Apart from offering right benefits and incentivizing, it is very important to instill ownership of the company in your workforce. That really does wonders!
Is training, coaching and mentoring a priority to you? How much time do you allocate for your staff? Alhumdulillah, I can proudly say today that thousands of youngsters see me as their mentor & role model, all of them excelling well in their lives. Being a Passionate Trainer & Coach, teaching life changing skills to others has always been a priority to me. In this regard, I make sure to schedule free monthly seminars, workshops or trainings out of my busy schedules & frequent traveling for business routine. I see my staff as my family. They all know that they can come and see me any time, whenever they feel stuck in their lives in terms of either professional or personal growth.
Do you believe in women empowerment? If yes, then what steps would you recommend to empower women at workplace? I believe men and women lead in different ways. Women lead in democratic, consensus-building ways, advocate for their teams and don’t stand out as individual leaders despite more focused and dedicated. To empower women at workplace it has to be completely unbiased, according to me three simple steps shall do the deed. First, remove names from the resume screening process and select candidates for interviews based only on education, experience and other required qualifications. Second, pay people market rate salaries versus making salary decisions based on salary history. Third and most important, change company culture to reward outcomes achieved not hours worked.
Being the CEO of the company, what is your strategy regarding succession planning and developing the next generation of leaders? It is extremely essential to strategize for succession planning since developing the next generation of leaders is vital. Succession planning, like so many other elements of a company’s culture, must be led from the top. Automate most traditional HR roles to free up time. Reviewing talent should be as regular a part of your company’s processes as reviewing your financials. Put in place a plan for each critical role to ensure the company can continue to perform without dependency on any individual. Grow your talent internally, including your top talent. Even with the best will in the world, you’ll not find all your talent inside your organization. If you are a corporate, for example, looking to transform,
| 270 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | technology talent might well need to be sought from outside. If you are a startup scaling up, you’re probably best looking for financial, HR, sales and marketing leaders working in corporates with established processes.
Can you give us an example of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative you have championed? I am extremely proud of initiating Transformation International Society (TIS) which has helped hundreds and thousands of people over more than two decades now, and that is all free of cost. I always believe in giving back to the society and that is from where TIS came into being. At TIS we provide services for mental health healing, educational and vocational training courses transmuting hopelessness, misery and despondency into aspiration, determination and incentive.
Harvard Business Review’s research tells us that E.Q. (Emotional Quotient) rather I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) is a highly essential competency for business leaders? Why E.Q. is important for CEOs especially in challenging times? Absolutely! As we know E.Q is the ability to recognize your emotions and to realize how your emotions affect people around you, so as a business leader, besides having high intelligence it is extremely important to master own emotions as well to better understand the emotional needs of others. It also helps in controlling the temper in stressful situations and calmly find a solution. Since. it helps to reduce anxiety level and stress, it helps to communicate better and defuse conflicts, which in turn encourages empathy and hence to have more improved relationships with subordinates.
A business speaks the language of digits. To what extent should a CEO be finance-savvy? What are the three most important numbers in a firm’s financial statements? Operating cash flow offers a bird’s-eye view of the economic state of your business. Like cash flow, your net profit is a good indicator of whether you’re earning or losing money. Knowing your company’s profit and loss over time allows you to project earnings and make realistic plans for the future, both short term and long term.
Any achievement you are proud of? I am extremely proud of being able to transform peoples’ lives for good. Being able to help them and contribute to the society. Recently, I have launched in Pakistan, the Revolutionary Neuro Navigation “Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation” (rTMS) technology treatment. It’s a non-invasive, non-drug technology which produces up to 90% success in treatment of any kind of mental health illnesses. The six week treatment charges in USA is $ 15000, andAlhamdulilllah , TIS is the First & Only one in Pakistan who is providing this treatment FREE of cost to deserving patients.
What’s the toughest decision you have ever made? What did you learn from it? I believe there have been many instances, I never regret any decision that I make, as per me the toughest sails make the strongest sailors.
Who is your inspirational role-model? Prof. Dr. Tariq Mahmood Head of Department of Radiology, Cyberknife Robotic Radiosurgery &
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Oncology at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Executive Member of Patients Aid foundation (PAF) and Radiology Aid foundation. He is my mentor and I proudly follow his footsteps in philanthropic activities.
How do you consider a good work-life balance? Please comment. Striking that perfect balance between career and family has always been a challenge for us. Our schedules are getting busier than ever before, which often causes our work or our personal lives to suffer. Employees who have a positive work-life balance do a better job at work, so promoting this balance is beneficial to individuals and the company. In balancing, I always keep my family first.
How do you manage your anger and stress? I gain patience and courage because of my strongly-held belief: “Precious metal like gold has to melt in fire, and a diamond has to be cut, polished and go through a certain process before it is converted into fine-crafted jewellery.” Think before you speak and practice deep breathing, imagine a relaxing scene or repeat a calming word or phrase like ‘take it easy. or RELAX’. Following the deeds of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), by keeping permanent SMILE on face can help in managing stress. According to my children, I even smile while sleeping.
Define success in three key words or phrases? Sheer Determination, Hard work, and an Optimistic Attitude.
What is your idea of happiness? I strongly believe that “our lives have more meaning when we serve others.”Therefore, happiness for me, is making the life of every individual I come across with a little better in every possible way. And based on personal experiences, I guarantee you that when you make people happy, you will get more than what you can expect.
Your favourite book on professional development that you would recommend? I am one of the most blessed human being and without any doubt every single success formula I have applied in my personal and professional life is available in our Holy book Al-Quran. Holy Quran is compulsory text book of all my personal and professional programs I developed and teach to students and professionals.
Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? As a message of optimism and not to lose the motivation, I would like to share an extract from my own struggle story that “when I was twenty-five years old, I had started a clothing business in Canada, that too without inheriting a single penny from my family. However, it was met with failures and roadblocks and ultimately I had to close down my business within one year, without making any money out of it.” However, yet you can see where I stand today in the corporate world! What kept me motivated was my strong conviction that: “don’t fall in love with your business and when some business is not working, then it is the right time to close the business and start other one.”
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“LEADERSHIP REVOLVES AROUND TEAM-BUILDING, TEAM DEVELOPMENT, AND TEAM MANAGEMENT. SPECIFIC CHALLENGES INCLUDE HOW TO INSTILL PRIDE, HOW TO PROVIDE SUPPORT, HOW TO LEAD A BIG TEAM, AND TAKING A CHALLENGE TO INITIATE A NEW VENTURE.”
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DR. KAISER RAFIQ CEO, AFOHS Club / Options Group
Profile: Dr. Kaiser Rafiq belong to a middle-class family. It was his dream to go abroad for higher education so he went to the US. He earned his Bachelors and Masters degrees from the US. He made his first attempt to become a businessman in 2005 but unfortunately, he did not succeed and settled in Dubai instead. He has served the ruling family of Dubai as an advisor for almost eight years. He has been doing business by the name of Royal Emirates Group. A group of 27 companies and Alhamdulillah, all doing well. Five years back, he planned to come back to Pakistan, again. Having a rich experience of construction business in Dubai, he started a company, ‘Mechatronics Engineering’ in Pakistan which is doing very well. Later, keeping in mind the keen interest that the people of Lahore have in food, he started ‘Options’ a food chain in Lahore, which got a really great response. The revenue grew by 15 to 20 per cent annually in the last five years. Recently, he did another project with Pakistan Air Force and made its club with the name of AFOHS. This is the first club of Pakistan Air Force, which he looked after as a CEO. Similarly, he also opened a law firm as well, which is doing greatMasha’Allah. He had another dream of promoting Pakistan’s tourism industry. Unfortunately, the previous governments neglected this area but the current Prime Minister’s special interest in its promotion looks promising. He has acquired a satellite TV channel license by the name of ‘Discover Pakistan’ to promote the positive image of Pakistan through tourism and hospitality. Its transmission will go on air, across the world, within 60 days.
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CEO Club: Please tell us about your journey from Pakistan to the US. What did you do there and what made you come back to Pakistan? Dr. Kaiser Rafiq:I am a self-made person. I believe that one must be a dreamer if he / she wants to accomplish something in life. It gives you both purpose and direction. With the burning desire to achieve my dreams, I went to US and there I have earned my Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate degrees. To fund my studies and life there, I worked very hard. Those were really tough days. I still remember that the first day off I took was almost after four years. Our young generation should always keep in mind that real glory is only in hard work, either you do it in Pakistan or in any other corner of the world. With passage of time, a moment comes when you become successful and you realize that you have achieved a lot professionally, financially and experience wise and that is the time when every Pakistani should think about paying back to his homeland. They should take a break from their life abroad and come back to Pakistan to serve it through their means, their knowledge and experience.
In which year did you come back to Pakistan and what businesses are you doing here? My return to Pakistan is still in process. I made my first attempt in 2005 but unfortunately, faced lots of system obstacles and settled in Dubai instead. I have served the ruling family of Dubai as an advisor for almost eight years. I also have a couple of ruling family members as my business partners there. We have been doing business by the name of Royal Emirates Group. We are a group of 27 companies and Alhumdulilah, we are doing really well. Five years back, I planned to come back to Pakistan, again. Having a rich experience of developing new projects in Dubai, I started a first company with the name of ‘Mechatronics Engineering and Construction’ in Pakistan which is doing very well. Later, keeping in mind the keen interest that the people of Lahore have in food, I developed food chain brand ‘Options’ which has become very popular due to its unique ambiance and awesome food taste. The company established several brands and branches in the last five years. Recently, the company joined hand in a project with Pakistan Air Force and developed its Officers club with the name of AFOHS CLUB. This is the first club of Pakistan Air Force which I look after as a CEO. The club in a very short period of time is leaving its footprints on entire industry and growing with good speed. Similarly, I have opened a law firm as well which is not only representing my companies where it’s needed but also providing legal services to Pakistanis living abroad. I had another dream of promoting Pakistan’s Tourism Industry and recently acquired a license for Satellite TV with the name of Discover Pakistan – Tourism TV. The TV Channel has already started broadcasting in 17 foreign countries including US, Canada, Europe and UK through major IP boxes and getting great response. First time the world is able to see the beauty and positive image of Pakistan. Our broadcasting in Pakistan is only few days away. Unfortunately, our previous governments neglected this area but it seems like current Government is trying their best to promote tourism and hopefully they will continue doing so because in my point of view, if promoted rightly – only tourism alone can boost the economy of Pakistan.
Being a successful entrepreneur, please guide us about the competencies an entrepreneur should have. In my opinion, everyone can be an entrepreneur and a successful one too. I am very fond of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, one of the great motivational speakers. He always stresses upon thinking big, dreaming big, and doing big to become big. This is the real philosophy which is very simple.
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Wherever you are, dream big and then chase that dream with full devotion and determination. Believe in what you want, what your goal is and think that it is not far, it is right there in front of you, in your reach! You have to step forward with such a can-do, go-getting attitude. I have also taught in various countries. I have always told my students to become job creators and not the job seekers. There is an American philosophy, too which says that when you are out after completing your studies, think that I am going to create jobs for my friends, my team including myself instead of seeking a job. If you are already doing a job, we used to use a phrase in America that said, “dream to fire your boss”. Do not wait for your boss to fire you and do something yourself and make efforts for that. What is entrepreneurship, you have to seek an opportunity, a gap somewhere either it is in services or products. You have to figure that gap out just as a normal human being, see at your left, at your right, somewhere around you there will be something that you need but when you start finding it you do not find it anywhere or you find difficulty to do so. That is what you have to lock down and work to create that. After planning, we have many institutions available like management house, national incubation centers and CEOs forum, from where you can get the necessary guideline and move ahead. Turn that dream into reality by keeping in mind that I have to create jobs for myself and my friends as well, then the issue of our economy will also get resolved.
What kind of financial and HR related challenges do you face in Pakistan? Financial challenges depend on your business plan. If you have a backup or alternate, you can overcome that challenge. The real challenge is that of the human resource. The problem here in Pakistan is that you find very few skilled people. Unfortunately, most unemployed people do not have the skills and what is even worse is that they aren’t willing to work hard neither for learning nor for earning. They just keep switching here and there. They do not take their careers seriously. We hired a manager for Rs. 100,000 and the tenth day he went on a three-day leave without any intimation and when we asked him about it, he left a resignation letter on the table stating that, I am a Manager and I don’t feel I am answerable to anyone. This is the attitude of our youth. If someone tells me that there is unemployment in Pakistan. I never agree with him. I say that we lack skills, drive and persistence. The time in which we are now, learning is easy. Go online and learn without even getting out of your home. Self-learning can put us in ahead of the game. There are so many CEO’s who never even went to college, but they have done great and now the world is learning from them.
What are the three competencies you look for while hiring a new employee? I would like to go one step back first. Most CVs that we receive in response to a job advertisement are similar to each other. Most applicants seem to have copied and pasted their cover letters and statements like career objectives from some common source. I find it disappointing. Your resume is your first interaction with your potential employer so you should put some serious thought while writing and show interest and effort through your CV. The employer shortlists you on the basis of what you have written in your CV. My request as an employer to my youth is that so much brilliant talent gets rejected due to lousy CVs so work on it seriously. Secondly, whenever you send a CV and write a cover letter, customize both documents according to the requirements of the position you are applying for and how your education and experience meet those requirements. Majority of the job seekers keep sending the same documents to every other employer and most time through bulk mail. When I receive such a mail, I simply delete it because if an applicant cannot make effort to draft
| 276 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | a personalized email to his potential employer, what effort he will put in his work. In simple way, If you don’t know how to sell your services to me, you can never sell my products or services to anyone. Before appearing in an interview, you must do some research about the company you are going in for interview. Everything is available on the Internet and when a potential employee asks me what you do in your company, I wish to say that let us keep that a mystery. If you have come for an interview, you should at least have some knowledge about the company you are going in.
How do you define leadership and what competencies a leader must have? First of all, I would like to say that we have become a nation of followers despite the fact that we all have potential to become leaders. We keep looking at others and do not step forward by taking risks. A leader should be able to think through a situation. First, he must figure out what he has to do in a certain situation and then lead. Secondly, train yourself to think about yourself as a leader even if there is no one to follow you. Until you quit that follower thinking, you cannot become a leader. Thirdly, a leader never hesitates from hard work. The word, ‘impossible’ does not exist in his dictionary.
As you have acquired a satellite channel’s license particularly for tourism’s promotion, please tell us in a nutshell what the potential of tourism in Pakistan is, what changes this TV channel will bring and how this channel will explore this potential? Tourism sector promises immense growth. Many countries are already making billions of dollars out of it. I have served on the Dubai Tourism Board for six years. I witnessed the direct economy generated by Dubai tourism which has gone to 64 billion dollars as of 2018 figures. India has crossed 100 billion dollars already and we are not even near one billion dollars. Tourism has so much potential and it has various categories. Our government does not have understanding of it even now, although our Prime Minister always talk about tourism. Tourism is about creating a story about what assets you have and whatever is available to you, then you have to market that story in best manners. Our domestic tourism count is good but this sector will become beneficial to the country only when foreigners visit our tourist spots. We have set targets as well for our company and above that we have set targets for the economy of Pakistan that how much tourism business we have to inject in our economy.
What is happiness? Happiness is a state of mind. You can have billions of dollars, but you may not be happy. You can have nothing but still you can be happy. It has nothing to do with material objects, environment, weather or anything. It is just a state of mind. It is your choice to be happy or not.
Would you like to give a message of hope and optimism to the youth? Our new generation should keep one thing in mind that if you work hard you will succeed in every kind of situation. Be in the company of positive people. It is important as both positive and negative vibes are contagious and leave long lasting effects. If you are with negative people, you will see everything from a negative perspective and will become a pessimist. Whereas, the company of positive people makes you look at things with an open mind. You become optimist and good things start happening to you.
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DR. OMAR CHUGHTAI Director Operations, Chughtai Lab
Profile: Dr. Omar Chughtai is the Director Operations at Chughtai Lab, Pakistan’s leading pathology lab network. He is an alumnus of Aitchison College, and a graduate from King Edward Medical College. He returned to Pakistan in 2007 after specializing in Pathology from Houston, TX. Dr. Omar has a special interest in the evolving entrepreneurial ecosystem, and spends significant time mentoring young businesses. He is a member of EO, YPO and TiE.
“RETENTION OF TALENTED PEOPLE BECOMES MUCH EASIER IF YOU DULY APPRECIATE AND REWARD THEM FOR THEIR SERVICES AND INCULCATE IN THEM A SENSE OF OWNERSHIP AND PARTICIPATION IN THE TEAM.”
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CEO Club:Please tell us about your academic and professional background. Dr. Omar Chughtai: In the year 2000, I graduated from King Edward Medical College, from where my father had graduated earlier in 1974. After completing residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology from the University of Texas at Houston, I did a fellowship in Surgical Pathology at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. In 2007 I returned to Pakistan and joined Chughtai Lab. I am a Diplomate of the American Board of Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. I am particularly interested in Breast Pathology, GI Pathology and Blood Banking. Being a fellow of the College of American Pathologists, I am a supervisor and I train people who become specialist pathologists and take FCPS exam in Pakistan. I also act as an examiner for FCPS exams and thus, I see myself first as a doctor and then as Director Operations of my organization.
Give us a brief overview of Chughtai Lab and the services provided by it. With the mission of filling the gaps in the health care sector, we started off as an organization way back in 1983, by providing reliable and accurate lab tests. Tests conducted by us may be a bit costlier, but they are preferred by most people on account of their reliability and quick results. With the passage of time, through our discussions, experience and observation, as we noticed more gaps in the health care sector, the scope of our services continued to widen and for the last few years, we have been growing horizontally. Our most successful initiative has been free of cost home sample collection service, started by my father in 2011, with a view to enabling people to send their samples without having to visit the labs themselves. Daily, our team members make more than 300 visits to collect samples from homes. Besides this, we have four medical centers, three in Lahore and one in Multan, which have clinics, pharmacy and basic radiology services. Another medical center will soon start its operations in Faisalabad. Last but not least, we offer home care service, in the form of home care nurses and well-equipped ambulances to transfer ICU patients from one city to another. The idea is to provide those health care facilities which are not easily available to the common people or, which are not up to the mark.
How would you like to define leadership? Organizations rise and fall with their leaders. Success or failure of an organization is linked to its leader. A good leader can lead an organization to the promised land, while a bad one can literally ruin and destroy it. A successful leader enjoys a very close interaction with his team members and is fully aware of what’s going on around him, inside and outside his organization. For most of the time, a leader acts like a shepherd, but at times, he assumes the role of a pied piper.
What major challenges are confronted by the CEOs in Pakistan? The biggest challenge is related to Human Resource. As a matter of fact, there is no shortage of Human Resource in Pakistan. People are qualified, talented and competent, but in general, they either lack experience and exposure, or do not possess the required attitude or mindset. Then, there is a mammoth challenge posed by the uncertain economic conditions prevailing in the country. For instance, everything used in our labs has to be imported from international markets at a very high price. Whenever the Dollar rises against the Rupee, prices of all imported items increase sharply. So the over all challenge is to remain consistent in growth and quality service provision, despite all
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What type of corporate culture exists at Chughtai Lab? The business was founded by my dad and being the CEO, he is very much in charge of the organization and its affairs. His vivid presence and constant guidance is a blessing for us and we still have much to learn from his ocean of experience. However, it doesn’t mean that it’s an entirely family owned and family dominated business. We have a fully developed professional management team in place, and we warmly welcome qualified, competent and dedicated professionals. I believe that is one of the main secrets of our constant and consistent growth.
What practical steps would you recommend for women empowerment? It’s basically a matter of experience and exposure. There are still many people in our country, who have never worked with women or have never seen women enjoying official power and authority. But at the same time, there are many others, who feel no hesitation in working with them or even under them. Environment, upbringing, training and education can play a significant role in this complex issue. It is of utmost importance for the HR departments and organizational leaderships to create a conducive working environment not just for women, but for men as well. But at the same time, it has to be kept in mind that while there may be no difference between men and women with regard to their competence, there are certain genuine problems which women have to face due to the cultural, social, religious and economic norms of our country.
Whom do you regard as your role model or source of inspiration? Of course, my greatest role model is my father, who is the founder and CEO of Chughtai Lab. I have learnt so much from him. Other than that I firmly believe that if someone is keen to learn, the whole world is full of lessons. One can look up to different people for guidance, vision and experience. For instance there is much to be learnt from Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and the people who ran RIM. Lessons are everywhere, but only if you have your eyes and ears open.
What strategies have you evolved for managing anger and stress? Stress is a fancy word for not having your life and priorities in order and that’s not something you fix on a day to day basis. It requires thoughtful reflection on what matters, and what doesn’t and most things don’t matter. As for anger, it is perhaps the most non-productive way to express yourself. It is invariably followed by regret. Experience has taught me to avoid anger as much as possible.
Which is your favourite book on professional management? With reference to professional management, an excellent book is Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t. It is a management book by Jim C. Collins that describes how companies make transition from being good companies to great companies, and how most companies fail to make the transition. The book was published on October 16, 2001. “Greatness” is defined as financial performance several multiples better than the market average over a sustained period. Collins finds the main reason certain companies become great is they focus the company’s resources on their field of key competence.
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“STRESS IS A FANCY WORD FOR NOT HAVING YOUR LIFE AND PRIORITIES IN ORDER AND THAT’S NOT SOMETHING YOU FIX ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS. IT REQUIRES THOUGHTFUL REFLECTION ON WHAT MATTERS, AND WHAT DOESN’T AND MOST THINGS DON’T MATTER.”
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EHSAN SAYA Managing Director, Daraz Pakistan
Profile: In this age of digital technology, E-commerce has revolutionized the age- old concept of shopping. Gone are the days when people had to travel long distances for the sale and purchase of products. Now, with the help of a few clicks, people living anywhere in the world, can promote the sale of their products and buy the things they like. Founded in 2012 by German venture capital firm, Rocket Internet, Daraz is Pakistan’s leading online shopping and selling platform offering more than 4 million products to customers in Pakistan from over 20,000 sellers across the country. Daraz has operations across South Asia with market-leading presence in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Myanmar. Daraz’s young and dynamic Managing Director, Ehsan Saya, who gave up his lucrative career in Canada and moved to Pakistan to help revolutionize commerce in the country by enabling millions of sellers to connect to millions of customers. .
“DARAZ WAS FOUNDED BY PAKISTANIS FOR THE CONVENIENCE OF PAKISTANIS AND IT IS STILL GLOBALLY KNOWN AS A PAKISTANI COMPANY WITH MORE THAN 2,000 PAKISTANI EMPLOYEES. WE WILL ALWAYS BE PAKISTANI.”
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CEO Club: Brief overview of your academic and professional background. Ehsan Saya: I was born in Pakistan but grew up and studied in the Middle East and Canada. When I completed my Honors in Business Administration (HBA) from the University of Western Ontario - Richard Ivey School of Business, the 2007-8 global financial crisis was at its peak. I had decided I wanted to start my career in Investment Banking and It quickly became evident to me that given the market conditions, it would be an uphill task for me to find a job in Investment Banking. But as I was determined not to give up, I got the database of all those who had ever graduated in Investment Banking from my university and contacted them one after the other. Finally, a Managing Director of a leading investment bank, who lived 8 hours bus ride away, agreed to meet me over a cup of coffee. He saw that I wanted the job so badly that I took an 8-hour bus ride to meet him, so he offered me my first job in Investment Banking. For the next 8 years, I worked tirelessly and vigorously with various notable Canadian companies in different capacities and gained valuable experience. After leaving investment banking, I founded my own last-mile logistics company catering to large enterprises in Canada. I had never thought of returning to Pakistan and working here. However, the opportunity to help build a company that I think is actively changing the country for the better was too good to pass up. I decided to move to Pakistan with the aim of promoting the concept of on-line shopping in Pakistan through the platform of Daraz, so that our countrymen may also benefit from this rapidly flourishing global phenomenon.
Daraz claims to be promoting the concept of happy shopping. How would you elaborate this concept? We aspire for Daraz to be Pakistan’s most trustworthy and most reliable shopping platform, so that our people may feel happy and relaxed while shopping and selling at Daraz. The Happy Shopping slogan essentially portrays our belief that shopping should be a fun and enjoyable experience. Hence, we are introducing several new features every month that engage shoppers and sellers and give them an experience that makes them happy.
How many jobs have been created by Daraz for the people of Pakistan? Currently, we have more than 2,000 employees, but more important than this is the fact that more than 20,000 sellers are selling their products from the platform of Daraz. In other words, they are running their homes through the medium of Daraz. Every seller creates upwards of 4-5 jobs, which means we have already created over 100,000 jobs. Our aspiration is to create over 1 million jobs by 2022.
In May 2018, Daraz was acquired by Alibaba Group. Do you regard it as a positive step? As you know, Alibaba is a giant Chinese multi-national conglomerate, operating in more than 200 countries and territories of the world. It enjoys a vast off-line and on-line retail business experience both inside and outside China. It is one of the top ten most valuable and biggest companies in the world. It is the world’s largest retailer and e-commerce company and we at Daraz can learn a lot from their wide ranging global experiences. The strategies adopted by Alibaba for the phenomenal expansion of its global business can help us a lot in solving our problems and overcoming our challenges. Alibaba has done an outstanding job connecting online and offline retail and we believe in order to continue growing, Daraz needs to knitting together online and offline commerce
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Which leadership qualities have contributed to your great success in such a short span of time? A good leader keeps fighting, keeps striving and keeps learning. My leadership style is very co-operative and instead of regarding myself as the most knowledgeable person, I am always willing to learn from anyone and everyone in the room.. A successful leader acts as a mentor for his team members, facilitates them and removes the obstacles that come in their way. He gives them the feeling that while working for the organization, they are working for their own progress as well. This feeling will make them more energetic, more enthusiastic and more loyal to the organization. Furthermore, instead of driving everyone with the same stick, a brilliant leader knows how to deal with different people in different ways, keeping in view their individual differences and diverse backgrounds. In this way, he is a good judge of human psychology and understands the significance of EQ along with IQ. Emotional Intelligence ensures faster growth of the company and proves extremely helpful for the CEO to effectively handle disputes and quarrels within the staff members.
Is there any personal achievement of yours that you are proud of? I believe that an important achievement of mine is daily, early morning routine I keep. I go to the gym, even if the sky is falling or the whole world is turning topsy-turvy. This routine of mine which I follow almost religiously, keeps me fit physically and mentally.
Which decision of your professional life do you regard as the toughest one? Though not necessarily a professional decision, leaving my family, and a well-settled life in Canada and coming to Pakistan was indeed a tough decision. Many people had warned me of the potential risks and hazards that I might face in Pakistan. But as usual, I trusted myself and followed my instinct and accepted the challenge. I think every tough decision comes with its set of rewards – for me, when we have created 1 million jobs and given access of Daraz to 25 million customers in Pakistan, that will be the reward.
Whom do you regard as your role model or source of inspiration? My role model is Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H), who is by all means, the best leader humanity has ever had. I love to read about his leadership characteristics and try to mimic them in my practical life.
Which book would you like to recommend for our young entrepreneurs and business leaders? One of my favourite books is “The Hard Things About Hard Things”, written by Ben Horowitz. It is an excellent book that defines and explains the essential pre-requisites for leadership and entrepreneurship. In the book Ben discusses some of the hardest decisions that he had to take in the most inhospitable situations while leading billion-dollar organizations.
What message would you like to give to our depressed youngsters? I wouldn’t use the word depressed. There is no scarcity of potential, talent and opportunity in our country. The Pakistanis who are working with me at Daraz are as good as if not better than the most talented people I have worked with in Canada. I have an unwavering and unflinching faith in a bright and prosperous future for Pakistan. We need more platforms like Daraz which provide a work environment that is mentally challenging, inspiring, and promotes a healthy, safe, and empowering workspace for every person. We value integrity, teamwork, customer commitment, ownership, and creating change. Every person that works at Daraz lives by those values.
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“HAPPINESS IS ALL ABOUT BALANCE, COMMITMENT AND HARD WORK, WHEREAS SUCCESS CAN BE ACHIEVED BY FOLLOWING THE GOLDEN RULE OF NEVER GIVING UP.”
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FAISAL MUNSHI CEO, Hilal Care and Domino’s Pizza Pakistan
Profile: Realizing the growing needs of consumers’ for high quality and innovative home and personal care products, Hilal Group made a strategic decision to establish Hilal Care, with a simple vision – to design innovative products to improve the quality of people’s lives in Pakistan while also establishing affordable quality focused products that will compete with global brands from all over the world. Faisal Munshi is a young and passionate entrepreneur, who started his career as a Management Trainee in Hilal Foods. His ability to be a quick learner enabled him to lead the Marketing and Sales division of Hilal Foods as Director Sales and Marketing. In order to expand his horizon, he then took up the role of CEO Domino’s Pizza Pakistan where he has taken the brand from 18 stores to 28 stores in a matter of a few years. He has rich experience and passion in creating brands in the Consumer Goods division. Faisal holds a Double Major in Economics and Political Science from the University of Toronto – St George Campus.
“FOR ME HAPPINESS IS WHEN THERE IS LESS CONFLICT AND MORE CONNECTION. FRIENDS AND FAMILY SHOULD COME FIRST. ANOTHER KEY TO HAPPINESS IS TRAVELING AND EXPLORING NEW PLACES, CULTURES AND PEOPLE.”
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CEO Club: What is your take on the three things you would do to turn around the country, if you were given a choice? Faisal Munshi: Firstly, my point of view is that Pakistan needs to drastically reduce its dependency on imports. In numerous cases, imported goods are cheaper than locally manufactured goods due to the questionable import policies and its implementation. The latest amendment in the Import Policy Order requires ingredients’ details to be in the Urdu language, along with Halal certification from restricted certification boards. Policy initiatives like these will make it difficult for imported products to enter Pakistan, similar to the difficulty we have in entering other international markets. With these positive initiatives, Pakistan will no longer be a dump yard for short expiry international products. We are a unique country where we can buy Coca Cola from Pakistan, Malaysia and UK. Why does the customer have 3 choices when our locally manufactured products are of the same quality? Secondly, from an industrial point of view we need to have fair competition in pricing. Imported goods should be fully declared at actual value and all ITPs need to be re-evaluated in order to avoid false/incorrect declaration. It’s no secret that Pakistan has a huge undeclared/unofficial import market, which ultimately affects local brands the most. There should be a fair competitive landscape on pricing. Another issue is the 3rd Schedule of taxation, which states that all products that fall into this category must have the MRP printed on the pack. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for imported goods. This gives retailers an incentive to push imported products since they make a higher margin. Fair competition allows innovation whereas unfair competition delays it. Lastly, we need to understand that GPD growth is directly linked to the performance of local companies. We need policies that support these companies, especially at an infant stage. Apart from that, we need incentives and governmental support to build our export market –not only in textile and agriculture, but all sectors of industry. Approval processes need to be structured in order to create an ease of doing business. We need a business environment where local and international firms can operate freely in order to thrive.
What is your opinion regarding the basic principles of good governance and leadership that can be applied and executed to make a difference? Good governance is directly correlated to accountability. I’ve studied Political Science and Economics from the University of Toronto, so I understand both really well. The first and foremost is accountability - if you cannot hold your leader accountable you cannot expect positive change. Moreover, our bureaucratic structure needs to be reviewed in order to ensure it is entirely merit based. We have a huge young population and a lot of bright minds that can give many positive contributions to our governmental systems, procedures and processes and its implementation. We must have a structure in place where we develop these young people and empower them by involving them in government departments with clear objectives and growth plans. The young people of today will be the trendsetters and the bureaucrats of the future. In addition, you need to have the right set of ethics. One should start taking ethical and moral decisions that focus on poverty, water crisis, infrastructure and industrial development - only then can we survive as a nation. A nation is judged by how it treats its poor and its minorities. Currently we are failing in both these domains. We need compassion at a humanitarian level in order to find the motivation to make a change.
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Are you happy with the quality of graduates being produced by our local institutions since the education system is overly commercialized in our country? We have some very good institutions in Pakistan that are providing employers with some very promising graduates. However, I personally believe that there is a need to question the existing system of education in our country. It is necessary to adapt the real-world aspect of learning in our education system. When these people join the work force, most are not ready for what to experience. This questions their ability on how they are developed through education. Theoretical subjects have their own importance, but the curriculum needs to be updated in a way that gives equal importance to the practical side as well. A well-designed curriculum that promotes problem solving, innovation, leadership and entrepreneurship – this is essential to build professionals who can contribute in adding value.
What are the core competencies you look for during your hiring process? From a HR point we look for passionate, energetic and confident individuals that have a proven consistency in their career. We need smart workers who focus on improving productivity. To lead a team is one attribute but to engage, motivate and collaborate with team members are more important. We look for individuals who we feel can be developed as future leaders and then we invest a lot in developing them. The most important competency we look for is Ownership and a sense of concern. I always say that a job is not just 9-5 – only the attendance aspect is 9-5 but a job is 24/ 7 if you are really focused on achieving your end goals. I love people who are proactive, passionate, take ownership in their work. These are the people who I want in my team.
“WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE FOR A DEVELOPING SOCIETY. WOMEN CREATE A BETTER CULTURE OF RESPECT, THEY ARE HARD WORKERS, WELL QUALIFIED AND IN SOME CASES SMARTER AND MORE ORGANIZED WORKERS WHO ARE LESS DISTRACTED.”
What is the vision and what are the core values that define the Hilal Group of Companies? The core values of our group are;innovation, respect, integrity, trust, teamwork, communication & intiative and drive to do work. I can confidently say that compared to five years ago we have more people with these qualities now. I appreciate the efforts of HR along with the support other departments have provided with. I have a strong belief in ensuring that the organization culture is healthy where everyone is respected equally and employees feel empowered. I truly believe that the office boy serving tea should be given the same respect as the COO. This is the kind of humble culture that creates an environment of appreciation for people to thrive. We must create a culture where people aim to be Number 1, but always act as if they are Number 2. Someone once told me that an
| 288 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | organization is like the human body – 10% of the mass is the brain, whereas the rest are hard working functional organs. An organization should be the same. We need dedicated and hardworking people who can achieve the organizational vision.
Where do you see your organization five years down the road? As a group we want to be leaders in each and every category that we operate in. Hilal Care is a company I started three years ago with the vision to become a FMCG leader in personal and home care. We want to develop strong quality driven local brands. We want to improve the life of the Pakistani consumers by providing innovative products. We want to expand our exports to become global leaders. We are blessed with some of the finest raw materials in Pakistan. We should use these materials in our products and sell them all over the world. As the CEO of Domino’s Pakistan, the biggest pizza franchise in the world, our goal is to be 20 minutes away from each and every household in Pakistan. We constantly obsess about food quality and customer service. We want to be known as the fastest pizza delivery company in Pakistan. In order to achieve this mission, we work with a lot of technology driven products to monitor various things in each and every store. Providing Value is the basis of Domino’s and we will continue to deliver this value proposition in everything we do.
Please share a brief history of Hilal Foods and how it was founded? My late grandfather started Hilal Foods almost 60 years ago. He came from a family where the rest of his siblings were in professional fields of law, medicine, engineering etc. He never wanted to work for anyone so he started with a small candy shop in Hyderabad, soon realizing that there wasn’t much profit in selling other branded candies, he started making his own. From making candies in his house, he moved production to the first factory in Hyderabad with the help of my father. He is one of the pioneers of marketing in Pakistan. Back in the sixties, when his small candy shop was not getting many customers, he decided to install a radio in his shop. As a result, people started storming to his shop to listen to music and the sale of candies increased significantly. When he made TV commercial for candies, people called him crazy. “Who will ever be loyal to candy brand,” was what he used to hear. Ignoring these skeptics, he stayed true to his vision and now we have age old household brands like Khopra Candy, Aamrus, Chooran Chatni, Ding Dong, Fresh Up etc.
How do you manage the two major challenges of cash flow management and talent retention? Cash flow is a big challenge these days because of the sudden crunch due to inflation, depreciation of the exchange rate and the increase of cost of borrowing. During these challenging times one has to sustain and bring their house in order, with a focus on innovative ways of cost reduction through efficiencies, automation and innovation. These challenging times will help us in becoming more agile and cost conscious. These attributes will help us in the long run. I do not see talent retention as a challenge. My philosophy has always been that you won’t always find the right person for the right seat. Therefore you need to look at traits that include passion, integrity, honesty, hard work, dedication and an end-goal vision amongst others. We as an organization identify passionate and competent people and train them to become future business leaders. At Hilal we want to play the role of an institution and hopefully if we achieve this status, we won’t have a problem with talent retention.
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Harvard Business Review research tells us that EQ (Emotional Quotient) is more important than IQ (Intelligence Quotient) for a CEO, do you agree? EQ is the most important attribute of a successful CEO. In Dale Carnegie’s book, ‘How to Win Friends And Influence People’ he says that the best way to get someone to do anything is by convincing them that they want to do it for themselves, not for you or anyone else. Nobody likes to be told what to do. You have to be visionary and then convincing in order to build a team that will win for you.
What is the most difficult decision that you have made in your professional career? To be honest, i am blessed to not have experiened my most difficult decision yet. I believe i will encounter this in the coming years. The best part is that my experience has made me a better problem solver, so i think i will be ready for this when it comes InShaAllah.
What are the achievements that you are proud of? My proudest achievement to date is that in only three years with the right people, vision, and execution we have developed a market leader of body sprays in Pakistan under the brand of ‘Bold’.
Who do you consider as a source of inspiration or a role model for you? My father, Naeem Munshi in patience, people handling and leadership. My father in Law, Mumtaz Muslim in problem solving, taking risks and thinking big.
How do you justify the work life balance? My wife would not agree at all but I do try and prioritize getting home at a decent time in the evening. I would say that my work life balance is good since I get to spend enough time with my kids every day. We have dinner together, I always read to them at bedtime and I try to drop them to school every day.
How do you cope with stress & manager your anger? I unwind by watching football, reading and hanging out with family and friends. I try to converse with people who can teach me a thing or two. Stress only comes when you don’t anticipate things going wrong. So you have to keep expectations low and then celebrate each and every achievement.
Are you into the habit of reading and what are some of your favorite books? I read articles and things that interest me. I am very passionate about astronomy, along with subjects like physics, science, technology and environmental studies. I am not one dimensional, I like to learn about new things in areas other than business.
Any message of hope and optimism that you would like to give out to our younger generation. “It always gets worse, before it gets better.” Do not lose hope or give up because nothing in life is easy. In many ways, I believe this is the way we survive and thrive through our tough times. Never give up. The worst will only prepare you for things that have not yet come. Always strive to win. Fortune favors those who are BOLD!
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“SUCCESS WAS NEVER A PRIORITY. IT’S THE RESULT OF HARD WORK AND DEDICATION. IT’S IMPORTANT TO SURROUND YOURSELF WITH INTELLIGENT PEOPLE. IF YOU ARE THE SMARTEST PERSON IN THE ROOM, YOU’RE IN THE WRONG ROOM. YOU HAVE TO BE PERSISTENT. IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTE FOR SUCCESS. FAILURE ONLY COMES TO THOSE WHO GIVE UP.”
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FARHAN JAVED Director, Graana Group of Companies
Profile: Farhan Javed is a Pakistani marketing, technology & investment leader with a multi-industry experience spanning well over a decade. Javed currently leads the strategic processes and marketing at Graana Group of Companies and renders his consultancy services to the Government of Pakistan and various international clients. He is one of the most sought after communication consultants privileged to advise some of the biggest brand names in Pakistani politics including the incumbent Prime Minister Imran Khan. Javed is a mechatronics engineer by education and a Master of Business Administration from Italy. He brings with himself global professional experience having worked in Italy and Singapore. Over the years he has developed multiple areas of expertise experimenting with unorthodox techniques in digital marketing, communications & PR. Farhan is a tech trailblazer, an avid reader, traveler and motivational speaker.
“YOU MUST KNOW YOUR TEAM’S ISSUES, COMPETENCIES AND IN THE CASE OF THOSE WHO WORK CLOSELY WITH YOU; YOU ALSO NEED TO HAVE A KEEN INSIGHT IN TO THEIR LIKES AND DISLIKES. THIS KNOWLEDGE ENABLES YOU TO RUN A MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE AND RESULT PRODUCING TEAM.”
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CEO Club: What is the future of online property portals in Pakistan? Farhan Javed: Online is the way of life for the civilized world today. Pakistan has over 161 million mobile cellular subscribers with a tele-density of 76.76 percent of which 69 million have 3G/4G data subscription. An additional 71 million are broadband subscribers. This number can only grow. The world-wide-web is already witnessing over 52 percent traffic on mobile devices. For online property portals like Graana.com this averages around 70-80 percent of total traffic on smart phones and tablets. It is therefore safe to say that online is the future of not only real estate but the entire economy. The real estate sector in Pakistan has the potential to match the development pace of the information technology sector. And by virtue of that outpace many other conventional sectors. All that is needed is a formal recognition and regularization of this sector by the authorities.
What unique value does Graana bring to the property portal business in Pakistan? Graana is leading the PropTech wave with its smart digital solutions that facilitate the buying, selling, renting and investment of property. Our unique value lies in the way we have placed ourselves as an ecosystem for real estate development. Our research and development wing is devising new products that promise to disrupt the way the market views online real estate portals. Today Graana is re-defining technology integration, user experience, and design for the real estate sector in Pakistan. Even the real estate portal players have taken note of our best practices in design and user experience and made corresponding improvements to their product.
What do you think about ecommerce and real estate portals? Ecommerce is happening in Pakistan and it is inevitable that it will engulf real estate portals. Global digital commerce sales are marked to reach $6 trillion by 2022. Whereas the Pakistan Telecom Authority in 2017 had projected the size of Pakistan’s retail market driven ecommerce to hit the $1 billion mark by 2020. By some estimates this has been achieved already. However the modality of transactions in real estate will have to be smartly and innovatively determined. At Graana we are already exploring cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain to meet the ecommerce needs of real estate industry.
What scope do you see for artificial intelligence in real estate marketing? By 2021 the spending on AI platforms is expected to reach $57 billion. To have a context consider the 2.6 billion active social media users that are served marketing content tailored to their unique individual needs on a daily basis. Increasingly this is happening without the customers having to inform the brand of its preferences. From customized search results suited to every single customer’s needs without having to input any data to receiving purchase recommendations without any active prompt, artificial intelligence is already redefining the customer journey. So much so that the customer today expects a brand to already know of its preferences. At Graana we are already leading the development of AI platform to enable real estate to reach its full potential in Pakistan. You can expect to see AI based products launched aboard Graana in the near future.
What were the critical challenges that you encountered during your entrepreneurial journey in Pakistan and how did you overcome these challenges? Uncertainty is the biggest challenge that most overseas Pakistanis and foreign investors face in
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Pakistan. This includes low ease of doing business, lack of policy continuity and absence of clear laws and swift processes. Businesses and economic progress do not take prolonged uncertainty very well. Most businesses cease to stay viable and add to lack of confidence of possibly new entrants especially foreign investors. Why then enter the Pakistani market you may ask? As born and bred Pakistanis I along with my partners know the true potential of our people and this God-gifted land. We believe that with the right set of people in our team and stakeholder collaboration we shall together change the landscape for real estate in Pakistan.
What is the potential and scope for growth and what are the opportunities in real estate despite the challenges that arise as a result of Pakistan’s difficult economic situation? There is no real limit to Pakistan’s economic growth potential. Real estate sector has thus far operated as an informal and unrecognized component of our economy. Even then it attracts almost fifty percent of overseas Pakistanis gross remittances of up to $20 billion through formal channels alone. Simply formalizing the real estate industry will multiply the remittances and boost foreign direct investment.
Further our most valuable asset are the 208 million young population. We need to deliver capacity building programs to transform this potential into a precious manpower base that will actuate economic progress.
Re-orienting the masses about investment dynamics as against the current trend of hoarding real estate will also improve circulation of money. Currently the masses block their investment for long term into plots or houses. Instead we must re-educate them to participate into investment schemes based on instalments and rental yields. This will directly support volume of construction and resultantly support up to 200 ancillary industries.
“IF YOU ACT ON WHAT YOU SAY AND HAVE BELIEF THIS CREATES INFLUENCE. THIS AS A RESULT GENERATES A BELIEF SYSTEM THAT EVERYBODY PUTS ENERGY INTO; THIS SYNCHRONIZATION PRODUCES RESULTS.”
How do you manage the two critical challenges regarding talent acquisition and capacity building? Graana is a very vibrant brand. The leadership here brings with itself a very well rounded global experience. Millennials are driving the future of corporates worldwide and considering Pakistan’s young population the choice of strategy was not very difficult to make. The future of Pakistan resides
| 294 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | in how well we as responsible corporates tap into the youth bulge by grooming them to become tech-savvy professionals. Our talent acquisition strategy at Graana has always been focused at tapping into the Pakistani youth. We have extensive hands-on mentoring and capacity building structures that build capacity of both fresh and newly experienced graduates. This model also helps with embedding a value set, culture and work ethic that truly defines the Graana brand. In short we are developing dynamic leaders for the future of Pakistan here at Graana.
What are the competencies you look for during the process of human resource recruitment? We do not believe that you can truly understand an individual by looking at a piece of paper or during an interview. We have a very rigorous probation program where we are willing to bet on people even if they do not perform. We believe that in 2-6 months a person defines themselves, we focus on interpersonal skills and leadership qualities and so on.
What is the paradigm shift that has led to females joining the real estate sector? There is a very famous saying that says “no one studies to be a realtor”. Thus the main human resource challenge is that people do not apply in this sector. While females are increasingly joining the white collar workforce, Pakistan still has to cover a lot of ground to bring a balance. While nationally women are believed to form around 25% of the workforce, at Graana and that too in the real estate sector, we have successfully maintain a 30% female workforce participation. This is very evenly distributed across several levels of seniority thus ensuring a voice for females across the board. The Graana brand is all about diversity and innovation. And innovation is achieved through having people from diverse backgrounds, cultures and values.
What is your take on leadership, how do you define a leader and what according to you are the three most important characteristics of an effective leader? If I were to sum all of it up in a nutshell, the most important characteristic of a leader especially in our environment is that “he should act the talk”. If you act on what you say and have belief this creates influence. This as a result generates a belief system that everybody puts energy into; this synchronization produces results.
What is your take on EQ vs. IQ and which of these two is more effective for a good leader? If a person starting a business does not take the E.Q component into account then it is just numbers and headcounts. This will never bear fruitful and productive results. You must know your team’s issues, competencies and in the case of those who work closely with you; you also need to have a keen insight in to their likes and dislikes. This knowledge enables you to run a much more effective and result producing team.
How do you see Graana in the next 5 years? We do not measure ourselves in terms of numbers. We always see how many lives we have impacted and in what sense. We want Graana and its entities to impact at least a quarter of Pakistan’s population in a positive manner in the next 5 years. Graana aspires to impact as many people as possible across the nation.
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What are some of the difficult decisions that you had to make during your journey to your current status today? At this level of leadership all you do is make difficult decisions. Your decisions are based on your experiences, knowledge, your competence and most of all your intuition. For me returning to Pakistan after experiencing cutting-edge global exposure was a big decision. This was made easy with the support of my current partners since we all shared a common passion for Pakistan. Pakistan’s low ranking on ease of doing business remains a key deterrent for both overseas Pakistanis and foreign investors. However it was our collective belief in Pakistan’s potential in which we all found our true calling. The journey has been demanding but we have cherished every moment of our growth knowing that we are contributing to the progress of Pakistan. And this is feeling alone makes the entire experience so rewarding.
Do you justify the work-life balance? Absolutely. Though it is important to realize the dynamic nature of leadership especially when one is leading an industrial-scale transformation with no precedence. This invariably requires one to re- explore their work-life balance around new responsibilities for the wider good and an impact that transcends ones close family and friends circle. One is able to achieve this balance if one is able to make their family a part of their journey than just bystanders. You will appreciate that all legacy multinationals had entire families following a cause. When that happens you are never away from your family even if you are physically apart.
What is your definition of success? I started off with the conventional definition of success that meant achieving a certain amount of financial and material gain. Eventually you realize that success is contentment; that comes from knowing you are doing something meaningful for your family, friends and your country.
Are you into the habit of reading and please recommend some of the books that have made an impact on you both personally and professionally? Someone very early in life told me that if you want to be successful in life, the most successful formula to do so it to read as much as you can. I used to read an average of 20-30 books a year, currently due to my routine the number of books that I read has decreased. I make sure that I am updated on all the new things that are of relevance to me. I make sure that my learning curve does not stagnate; I am currently enrolled in 7 courses. At the start of my career I did an internship at P&G, my manager there gave me a book called ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins. I would recommend it to all the people who are working jobs as well as to the people who are business owners. Another book that is an all- time favorite is ‘The Art of War’ by Sun Tzu.
Please share a message of hope and optimism for the young startups and leaders of the future. The things that we have on the table right now are a lot more if we compare ourselves to other countries like Japan and Germany when they were growing. There is a lot that can be done and there is a lot that can be produced. Hope will manifest itself when you have firm belief that opportunities will be created. You have to have the right attitude and you need to make sure that you do not give up and hold on firmly to your faith in Almighty Allah.
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“WE DO NOT BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN TRULY UNDERSTAND AN INDIVIDUAL BY LOOKING AT A PIECE OF PAPER OR DURING AN INTERVIEW. WE HAVE A VERY RIGOROUS PROBATION PROGRAM WHERE WE ARE WILLING TO BET ON PEOPLE EVEN IF THEY DO NOT PERFORM. WE BELIEVE THAT IN 2-6 MONTHS A PERSON DEFINES THEMSELVES, WE FOCUS ON INTERPERSONAL SKILLS AND LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND SO ON.”
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FRAZ KHAN Country Head, Meizu Technology Pakistan
Profile: An innovative professional, having top global tech brands experience and exposure to global communication skills. Fraz Khan has worked in top organizations, Samsung, Hewllet Packard, Huawei & Meizu. Known for developing and executing innovative business strategies and performing businesses. He has a proven track record of increasing revenues, streamlining business policies and creating a new business trend with innovations. His area of expertise are Business Management, Sales Channel Operations & Infrastructure Development, Marketing & Brand Management, Retail Marketing, Strategic, & Key Account Management.
“THE PAKISTANI MARKET POSES SOME VERY INTERESTING CHALLENGES – CONSUMER INTEREST AND EXPECTATIONS ARE HIGH AND THE MARKET REMAINS VERY VOLATILE BECAUSE OF VARIOUS FACTORS.”
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CEO Club: Could you please tell us a bit about Meizu? Fraz Khan: Meizu is an international consumer and mobile technology brand with a top-ten ranking in China. It is well on its way to making a major global footprint, now. In 2016, Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group invested more than 600 million dollars into our company. Recently, we have also forayed into the European and Middle East markets. Last year we made significant inroads into the Russian and Ukrainian markets, too. Based on these successes, we have now decided to open up offices in Pakistan, Dubai, and even in North Africa. Overall, we are operating in over 60 countries, at present. What sets us apart even from major players is our attention to R&D. For example, Meizu phones were among the first in the world to have front mounted finger print sensors – for which we even hold the patent. The same technology we developed was used by Apple for the iPhone line of phones. We even hold patents for two different items: the Ring Flash and the Line Flash. We have been at the very forefront of innovation for many years. OPPO Mobiles, for example, recently launched an “in-screen” fingerprint sensor mobile in Pakistan. Meizu, however, had launched that technology in China the month before and we aim to launch the same in Pakistan in the coming month. Meizu is growing remarkably fast in China and we see ourselves coming into healthy competition with the recognized big brands, very soon.
Can you please tell us about Meizu on a more national level now? Meizu entered the Pakistani market, formally, only a year ago. The Pakistani market poses some very interesting challenges – consumer interest and expectations are high and the market remains very volatile because of various factors. Buying power has increased over the last decade and, consequently, consumer interest has swung dramatically in favor of smartphones now. For these reasons, a lot of big brands have entered into the Pakistani market directly, like Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, Honor etc. One of the specific challenges of the Pakistani market is that since there is good demand, most of these big brands have come in with very high investments thus raising the bar uncomfortably high for new market entrants. New entrants are always hesitant to commit to very large investments – and that is applicable everywhere – but that is necessary in order to compete in the Pakistani market.
What has been your personal journey that ended up with you heading Meizu in Pakistan? I graduated from the United Kingdom with a Bachelors in Business Communications. Then I did a Masters degree in International Marketing from University of Leicester, which was one of the top-ten universities in the UK, at the time. The university had a phenomenal program that associated marketing in science not with the Arts – which is how it is normally perceived, but as a social science that involves consumer behavior based on the human psyche. After that, I moved back to Pakistan and my very first job was with AirBlue – a 12,000-rupee job which barely sustained me, at all. The job market in Pakistan, at the time I moved back, was not particularly good so I had to make many sacrifices in the beginning. I’ve always believed that rather than sitting at home, even if you have to work for free – you should work. After that I joined Samsung Mobiles as the assistant marketing manager. I was responsible for revamping the Samsung market, domestically, onto the retail side. Before that the retail market wasn’t particularly optimized. Some of the practices I introduced, after having studied the traditions and norms of the market, were eventually taken up by other players and are now considered industry standards. I’m very proud of that. After that we optimized the retail channel and did a lot of innovative work keeping in mind the constraints of the Pakistani culture and mindsets. I, later, joined Hewlett Packard as the retail manager for the Central Region and was later promoted to the position of marketing development
| 299 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | manager for Pakistan for their printing business. In that, we made a global achievement – we hit #1 market share for Pakistan in the whole South East and Africa region – in my tenure. After that, I moved to Huawei Mobiles. It was a totally different arena for me, given my prior experience. But I had always been very passionate about this sector because the mobile phone sector is a very fast-paced industry. Huawei had a similar situation. They had launched in 2012 and were struggling and could not achieve their goals. When I joined in 2013, the entire Pakistan office had only three employees, two of whom were Chinese citizens. Since we had the responsibilities of almost all departments required to establish and run a complete country division on just three people, in the beginning, it was really a very daunting task. But we did it with grace and dignity – to the point that Huawei’s Middle East division established much later used the systems and processes I developed, to establish the Pakistan office, as their base template. Pakistan was the first country to make a localized TVC for our regional campaign – and that was only because our global management trusted me enough to give us that honor. I developed almost every division at Huawei including administration, finance, marketing, procurement, compliance, retail and sales etc. In recognition of these services, I was given awards at our company’s international congresses every year. I was even promoted to the position of deputy general manager for Huawei Pakistan. The result was that in a meager six months, Huawei had grown to the status of a full company in Pakistan with a market share of nine percent and in a three-year span we have grown that to an eighteen percent market share. To give the readers some context, Samsung – for example – took 10 to 12 years to capture a corresponding market share when it first came into the Pakistani market. So, with that breadth of experience, Meizu reached out to me and the rest is history.
As a professional – selecting an upcoming brand like Meizu while leaving an established brand like Huawei – does that decision really make sense? I think and hope that it does. But it really is in my hands whether it Meizu’s potential does come to fruition or not. See, the reason I went to Huawei when it was at a very nascent stage was because I’ve seen how they do business. The secret to dominance in the mobile sector is product development – and Huawei is miles ahead of its competition in R&D and product development. I anticipate a day when Huawei might even outgrow Samsung and become the market leader – it is entirely possible. But I’ve also seen that keen drive towards product excellence in Meizu too. This is a company that, in its very infancy, was creating value additions to products that even market leaders didn’t offer. So, I foresee a very strong and steady growth for my company and, for me, that is an equation that works out for everyone’s benefit, especially the consumer’s.
What is the toughest decision you have made so far? That is a tough question, in and of itself. Thinking back now, I guess my toughest and most impactful decision was the one I took to leave the UK and come back to Pakistan. I was leaving behind a place where career growth was relatively ensured, where business stability was a given; I was moving to a place where both of these things are completely at risk. It was very tough. But I remember, it was my father’s phone call – those ten seconds of my life which decided my fate – which compelled me to leave everything in UK and come back to Pakistan for my family. I thank Allah for the opportunities that have come my way and for having given me the strength to make the most of them.
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“LEADERSHIP IS PROBABLY A PASSION INSIDE YOURSELF THAT MOTIVATES YOU TO GIVE RESULTS AND GETS YOU WHERE YOU WANT TO BE IN LIFE, TO A STAGE ON WHICH YOU CAN EXCEL AND ALSO HELP THOSE WHO ARE AROUND YOU AND ARE DESERVING.”
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GHAZANFAR AZZAM President & CEO, Mobilink Microfinance Bank Limited
Profile: Ghazanfar Azzam is President & CEO of Mobilink Microfinance Bank Limited since its inception in 2012. He has vast experience & exceptional achievements to his credit in retail, commercial, consumer, SME & micro banking segments including launch of two leading greenfield nationwide microfinance banks in Pakistan i.e. Kashf MF Bank in 2008 (now FINCA) & MOBILINK BANK in 2012. Mobilink Bank, backed by Global Telecom Holdings & Veon now operates with 70 brick & mortar branches and 73,000 branchless banking agents offering micro enterprise loans, micro housing loans, savings, domestic remittances, utility bill collection, mobile wallets, life insurance & G2P & B2P payments through a strategic alliance with Pakistan’s largest telecom operator JAZZ under the umbrella of JAZZCASH. In a career spanning over 32 years, Ghazanfar worked for some of the best banks in Pakistan including HBL, Union Bank, Prime Bank & Bank Alfalah in retail, commercial, consumer & SME Banking segments. In addition, he spent several years as head of training & development at Prime Bank & Bank Alfalah. In recognition of his contributions to HR development & training in banking industry, he was awarded prestigious Hubert Humphrey Fellowship by the United States Government for the year 2000-01 under Fulbright program at. The program included studies at Penn State, PA in HRD & Leadership and practical work experience at ABN Amro Bank, North America and Chicago. Before moving back to business leadership, Ghazanfar worked with Shore Bank International (Now Enclude), a leading international consulting company in SME and microfinance based out of Washington DC and operating globally, as a senior consultant and Head of a USAID funded SME downscaling project in 2005-7. He has extensive global exposure and has been to Indonesia, Cambodia, Turkey, Romania, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Nigeria, Morocco, Oman, Bolivia, United States and United Kingdom.
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CEO Club: Please share your professional journey, your profile and your different ventures with us in a nutshell? Ghazanfar Azzam: I graduated in commerce from Karachi and joined an automobile company as a Junior Sales Executive. Since I have had a few friends who had joined banks, my interest shifted to banking and applied for an entry level position in the largest bank of the country i.e. HBL. Fortunately I got selected and after almost a year of training in banking as was posted at HBL’s Tarbela Dam Colony Branch in Abbotabad Region. Tarbela Dam Colony Branch was one of the finest branches of HBL dealing with large international and national organizations like Siemens, ABB, Hundai, Wapda & Nespak etc. Therefor the very first banking assignment provided me good grounding in commercial and retail banking. At HBL I always tried to do something extra that went above and beyond what was required of me in all of assignments entrusted to me. I continuously strived to deliver beyond expectation; this was the kind of attitude that helped the progression of my career in the banking hierarchy. After 8 years of public sector banking, the early 90’s was the time when private sector banks were again allowed to operate in Pakistan. I joined one of the fast growing new banks Union Bank based out of Lahore. Within a span of 2 years due to my proactive and progressive contribution I was made one of the Vice Presidents of the bank. I was probably the youngest VP at the age of 35. Since I was looking after training of the young management trainees, I developed the taste for learning, training and development. I learned a lot in the process and developed myself as a professional in these years and worked for through 3 emerging banks; Union Bank, Prime Bank and Bank Al Falah in these years. I was fortunate to have a guru/mentor with me Mr.Bakhtiar Khwaja affectionately known as BK who is a well-known name HR, Training & Development in the banking industry. While working with BK, we introduced many new innovations like new subjects and concepts into the banking curriculum and we tried to modernize the banking training programs. The management trainee program that we ultimately ran was considered as one of the most prestigious in the banking industry. Those trainees are now in leading positions; their progression makes me very happy and it feels very good to witness it first-hand. During this training and learning process, I realized that I needed to learn from global sources and not just the local ones. This realization took me to the U.S through the Hubert Humphrey (Fulbright) Scholarship Program. I was granted a one year fully funded scholarship at Pennsylvania State University and went through a specialized program that was designed for international mid-career professionals. The last part of the program took me to Chicago where I gained work experience at ABN Amro North America. I came to know that banks in the US were far ahead of us in innovation, customer experience, operational efficiency and online services including online training and human resource development. After my return to Pakistan I was faced with a choice between training or taking on a business leadership role; I decided that perhaps it was time to take the center stage. I rejoined one of the institutions that I had previously been a part of as Head of Retail & SME Banking, Regional Head and Head of Training. It was a private sector bank that is now a part of Faysal Bank. At that point in time no one knew about microfinance banking. All I knew was that there was a professor in Bangladesh Dr. Younus who had been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his microfinance initiatives and achievements. In 2005 I moved from commercial banking to SME bank consulting and then eventually to microfinance banking.
What is the scale of opportunity that exists in this sector and what are the challenges regarding
| 303 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | stock ops, recovery and other challenges? Banks have two major roles in any economy; one is to generate deposits, savings and make a big pool of money that can either be invested or lent to businesses. An efficient banking system therefore is a pre- requisite for any well functioning economy. In Pakistan, banks unfortunately serve less than 25% of the market on the savings side and less than 5% on the lending side. There are approximately 3.5 million borrowers out of an adult population of 100 million. This means that 95 percent population have no access to finance and is yet to be served. Microfinance institutions now have over 6 million customers so it means that a new small microfinance institution have a much bigger customer base as opposed to more established commercial banks that have been around forever. In terms of opportunity, microfinance banks and commercial banks combined borrowers are still less than 10 million in a population of over 100 million. 4 out of 5 people do not have access to finance; on one hand this is a major issue that the banking and financial sector has not played its role as expected and on the other hand it is also a huge opportunity and microfinance banks are now filling this gap. The challenge or question is simple that over the last 60 years or so, we have provided access to only 10 million people out of a 100 million adults so how soon we can improve access to finance for majority of the eligible population. The answer is simple this traditional brick and mortar model is not going to do it. The only way to do so is digitally which means that if you have a cellphone, you will be able to have a mobile account that enables you to have savings, make utility bill payments, make money transfers and perform other financial transactions in the same way as one does through normal banking. The world has moved at a very fast pace. If you look at the developed economies, hardly anyone goes to the bank branch anymore. You will often hear on the news that XYZ bank is closing 50 percent of its branches this year that they are thinning their networks and trying to serve their customers more and more through digital channels. This digital access is increasing at a very rapid rate and our estimation is that the next 4-5 years will be very critical. Once people get used to using technology for their banking and financial transactions the banks physical locations will become redundant. So if you do not need to go to the bank branch, consider the amount of investment that has gone into and is still going into creating these brick and mortar structures. This needs to stop and investment needs to flow to fast tracking digitalization. Digitalization will reduce cost, fast track access and will promote ease of doing banking. My estimation is that at least 50 percent of the population will be able to benefit in the next 2-3 years as opposed to the current percentage that is less than 10 percent to loans and hardly 20-30 percent on the saving side.
“THE BEST WAY TO CONTROL YOUR ANGER IS BY TRYING TO BE PART OF THE SOLUTION FINDING PROCESS. IF THE SITUATION IS BEYOND MY CONTROL OR CAPACITY THEN I TRY NOT TO WORRY ABOUT IT TOO MUCH.”
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What are the core values, the culture and what are the differentiating factors that set your organization apart from the other microfinance systems? One of our core values is that we are very “customer obsessed”. This means that we do every possible thing that is within our power and capacity to make a customer experience as great and as convenient as possible. If customer service and quality is your mission then you need to figure out how customer experience can be improved and made great. This is only possible if your product and service exceeds the expectations of the customer. If there is any issue in service delivery right from the person who is sitting in a call center who is supposed to resolve small issues right up to the CEO. Whenever a customer is confronted with a problem we consider it our top priority to try and resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We try to learn from our mistakes, improve product or service specifications and not repeat the same mistakes in the future. We have 16 million wallet customers as of today, we are the largest bank in the country in terms of customer base (not in terms of balance sheet) and we won the Bank of the Unbanked Award in 2018. Every one of our customers has 800 rupees as average balance in their accounts but number of customers is over 16 million. This is why we are the bank for the unbanked. If you go around and have a look at our people, you will find no hierarchy; the big guys and the small guys are all sitting together. The basic norm is to resolve the problem as soon as you confront it.
What is the human resource strength of the bank? The bank’s human resource strength is 1300 people; in addition to those 1300 we have over 73,000 retail agents all over the country.
Do you practice gender diversity in terms of women empowerment? As far as urban centers are concerned women are very substantially represented in the workforce and we continue to encourage more female participation at all tiers. Our challenge basically lies in the rural network since the population there is very conservative. In terms of relationship management women find this area challenging to its socially interactive nature.
Where do you see Jazz Microfinance Bank 5 years down the road? I think the next 5 years are going to be very significant for us in many ways. Our outreach is going to grow very fast from here onwards. We are already the largest in our space but I believe that in the next 5 years our network and outreach will grow significantly.
What is leadership to you and what are the two basic characteristic of a good business leader? Leadership demands personal example; the 2 characteristics of a good leader are: 1. Encourage people to innovate give them the space and environment to do experiments and if something goes wrong the leader should take full responsibility for it. 2. Give credit when and where it is due, a leader should do so as quickly as possible.
What are some of the difficult decisions that you have had to make during your professional journey? Due to all the new technology and innovations redundancy has increased. Letting people go and the decision to say good bye to them is always particularly difficult. I was telling my people today that
| 305 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | technology will continue to disrupt the way we do things. You must not be limited in terms of your approach, attitude and skills and you should develop yourselves; learn and relearn and make yourself employable for a number of evolving and new roles.
What are your coping strategies for stress management? I believe that every problem has a solution. As far as stress management is concerned I find that the best remedy is to disengage myself and do something that makes me feel better. Taking a long walk and going for a swimming session are two things that are particularly work for me.
Who is source of inspiration or a role model to you? No one in particular; there are many people from whose lives I try and learn from they include: · Quaid-e-Azam · Imran Khan · Shahbaz Sharif
What are the achievements that you are proud of? My contribution in the development of my trainees and colleagues who have become leaders of today in their own right. They are making a difference in their respected areas. To be able to witness the fruits of my labor makes me feel very proud and happy.
Are you into the habit of reading and what are some of the books that you would like to recommend that have impacted you both personally and professionally? A book that I would like to recommend because it changed my whole outlook after I read it is “Thriving In Chaos” by Tom Peters
Please share a message of hope and optimism for the young startups and CEO’s of the future. Never lose hope if you are unable to find a good job; find something meaningful to do instead of resorting to theft, cheating and lying. Start a small business. Size does not matter, it can be very basic in nature; there should be no shame in doing an activity that generates livelihood for you. Small businesses are the key be it in livestock, poultry, vegetables, services or transport. Think about small enterprises because they grow with dedication and hard work.
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“NEVER LOSE HOPE IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO FIND A GOOD JOB; FIND SOMETHING MEANINGFUL TO DO INSTEAD OF RESORTING TO THEFT, CHEATING AND LYING. START A SMALL BUSINESS. SIZE DOES NOT MATTER, IT CAN BE VERY BASIC IN NATURE; THERE SHOULD BE NO SHAME IN DOING AN ACTIVITY THAT GENERATES LIVELIHOOD FOR YOU.
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GOHAR S. BUTT Chairman & Group CEO, GSB Group
Profile: Gohar Butt is a professionally qualified Systems Analyst and an MBA, he studied at the IBA (Institute of Business Administration) Karachi and started his career in banking with American Express Bank Lahore a little over 30 years ago in 1990. This journey of three decades has included an 11-year career in banking from 1990 to 2001 followed by 19 years so far as an entrepreneur. During his banking career with American Express Bank, ANZ Grindlays Bank and Standard Chartered Bank he worked in various areas including HR and Organization Development, Islamic Finance, Strategic Planning & Change Management After concluding his career in banking EE&T (Equity Exchange & Trust) was set up initially as a management consulting business focusing in the areas of organizational restructuring, human resource management and Islamic finance. In the initial years Mr. Butt led several large-scale organizational developments, change and HR management projects for private and public enterprises and also established a large-scale HR services outsourcing platform for prestigious client’s country wide. In 2007, Mr. Butt established a real estate development business, named Orix Properties Pakistan Private Limited later renamed OPP Private Limited in partnership with Orix Corporation Japan and Orix Leasing Pakistan. In 2008, another business The D’Hamidi Partnership Private Limited was added to the portfolio of businesses. As its Chairman & CEO and as one of the four equity partners of the firm with complete management control the company was restructured and reorganized as a leading advertising business. With its head office based in Karachi, The D’Hamidi Partnership is reputed as one of Pakistan’s critically acclaimed ideas company catering to brand, identity, advertising and event management. Also, in 2008, PEOPLE™ became an international brand from a domestic player under the name and style of People Perfect. PEOPLE now have offices in Pakistan United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates.
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CEO Club: Could you tell us a bit about the GSB group and the companies comprising it? Gohar S. Butt: There are five companies currently operating under the banner of the GSB group. These are: 1. Keystone Properties Private Limited – a real estate developing concern. 2. Heritage Luxury Suites – which is a hospitality brand. 3. People (Professional Employers Pvt. Ltd.) – one of the largest human resource services companies in Pakistan. It was the first company I founded about 19 years ago, in 2001. It specializes in staffing solutions, management of payroll and outsourcing of administrative and HR Functions. To date PEOPLE has hired and outplaced more than 100,000 people worldwide, processes salaries for clients in more than a dozen countries and exports man power through its subsidiary CREW (Company for Recruitment & Export of Workers Pvt. Ltd.) 4. Countryside Natural Products – an interesting new idea where we have tried to establish green houses for intensive farming of flowers, vegetables and fruits. 5. D’Hamidi Partnership is no longer a part of the Group – I sold my shares in that business to my partners after I decided to relocate to Lahore and consolidate.
How many employees do you have working for you under this group? We work on a very lean model, right now. Without counting the resources that we have leased out to clients, I’d say we have around 500+ employees currently. For example, the daily attendance sheet for one of the projects that is under construction may have around 300 people. But our staff that manages that project construction comprises only six people.
Could you tell me about your academic and professional background? I went to the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi. I am a System’s Analyst and an MBA by training. After that, I started working for the American Express Bank in Lahore – my first job was to set up their Data Center in March of 1990. Three years later, I joined Grindlays Bank and worked there for about eight years. That bank was then taken over by Standard Chartered, so I worked for Standard Chartered for two years. It was around then that I decided to quit and go my own way. During my work in the banking sector I have had the fortune of serving as Head of Strategy, Head of Credit & Risk for the First Grindlays Modarba, Head of HR, and MD of Standard Chartered Modarba. In 2001, when I decided to call it a day in banking, I was only 32 years of age.
Serving at such high positions at such a young age, why did you decide to quit? I think one of the reasons was that my drive for entrepreneurship was just too strong. I remember, on the evening of the first day of my first job at American Express, I was setting up a stall at the annual Horse and Cattle Show in Lahore. I guess another reason was, when you rise very quickly through the ranks – in a span of 11 and a half years that I spent in the banking sector, I had risen from the position of Management Trainee to Managing Director with only one more level above me – I guess someone like me gets bored by the lack of adequate challenge. Yet another reason was ideological. As I studied religion with some interest I decided to move away from conventional banking towards Islamic Finance, hence the move to FGM (First Grindlays Modaraba). I didn’t see a meaningful difference in the two platforms except for the terminology and nomenclature. The concept was very exciting but carrying it out in true letter and spirit is another matter altogether. Its marred with challenges the world over not
| 309 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | only in Pakistan. So, I thought perhaps it’s time for an independent flight. What is the reaction of your peers when you announced your resignation? Shocked – I believe would be a correct explanation. Although more explicitly there were three kinds of reactions, one of the reactions can be explained as that of respect and reverence, where some of my them felt that they would also like to follow suit. The second reaction was that of a puzzled look towards me – suggesting that I haven’t thought through what I am doing and will probably regert. The third kind was suspicion and anticipation about what the real reason or story was leading to rumor-mill that I had scored something really big.
None of those theories were true, to be honest. I left because I had developed an appreciation for my own potential, and I wanted to do more, I wanted to do stuff that I believed in, and I wanted to make something big and meaningful of myself.
“BUSINESSMEN, BY THEIR VERY NATURE WHILE THEY ARE AT WORK, CANNOT BE INTROVERTS. IF YOU ARE SITTING AT THE OFFICE YOU NEED TO MEET ANYONE AND EVERYONE THAT IS RELEVANT TO YOUR WORK.”
How was your experience of building your own group from the ground up? My first venture was a water purification plant in Karachi back when even the concept of it was new in Pakistan. It did very well but I wasn’t really passionate about it. It was something I started purely based on the viability of the business but because of the lack of passion for it - I could not see myself carrying on with it for too long. When you are not passionate about something even if you are making money, it becomes an ordeal going to work.
So, I sat down did some thinking and made a list of things I really wanted to do. Things I could spend the next 20/30 years doing and that too happily. These included building and decorating, teaching, problem solving, analyzing and process making etc. From there on all businesses I have gone into will revolve around these things that I like to do.
Accordingly, the first company I founded was a human resource company and that gave me a chance to train lots people hands-on. I used to head major strategy conferences for Askari Bank, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines for whom we did a lot of organizational restructuring too; that was the real me. I was working with people, involving them, conducting strategy meetings, mapping out future plans. We did High Performance Leadership Forums for Union Bank and Askari Bank – we used to take their senior leadership to off sites within Pakistan and abroad, lock them in a conference room and brainstorm the
| 310 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | heck out of the challenges at hand until we came up with a solution that worked & one that everyone owned. This was followed by implementing the ideas I was talking about. Like they say walking the talk. So, another passion of mine is building and decorating. interest brought me to the hospitality industry, and I founded our brand, Heritage, and that business is growing ever since. Our hotel, currently under construction, boasts twice the occupancy potential of our first one and a third hotel is also being planned. Along the way my interest is in gardening and flowers got me into farming. I established a small floriculture business there and started growing Chrysanthemums, Gerbera, Lilies, Gladiolus and we have tried to make the farm as technologically sophisticated and modern as possible – even instituted drip irrigation on the farm in order to maximize efficiency and conserve water. So overall, it’s been an exciting roller coaster journey with some happy memories and some not so happy. A great deal of learning which continues still.
What is the inspiration behind your business strategy? I think its doing what you really like, being passionate about something and then doing it well enough that it is worth acknowledging. You can only be good at something that you like doing all the time; happily, voluntarily and whether you get paid for it or you don’t. Its things like these that when you do really well the world acknowledges your effort and decides to reward you for it by buying your product or service.
What about the company you were last associated with – D’Hamidi? How did you get into the advertising sector? Well, I think anyone who has a love for flowers, as I do, also has a love for good presentation. Back when I was working at the Bank, D’Hamidi was our advertising partner. They did some excellent work for us. Even when I set up business on my own they were instrumental in designing our identities, naming the businesses and planning the marketing and branding strategies. It was a treat working with them. But over the years, due to some bad management decisions, the company came to the very verge of collapse. They lost their office and this group of very creative talent was literally back to working from their garage. When I came to know of this, I met with them and decided to take them on board. I housed them in our office in Karachi in 2005; from there that partnership grew and did some amazing work. The Faysal Bank, Engro, JS Bank logos – that are still in use – were designed by D’Hamidi. We worked with Mobilink Jazz and other exciting campaigns. We even published a book showcasing the work D’Hamidi had done called The Good The Bad The Ugly. But Once I decided to move back to Lahore, I felt that going back and forth between Lahore and Karachi for D’Hamidi would be too taxing on my nerves so in 2011, I started proceedings on dissolving the partnership – which took about four years to do. So now I am not associated with that company, anymore, but it continues to do some amazing work.
Are you an extrovert or an introvert? Businessmen, by their very nature while they are at work, cannot be introverts. If you are sitting at the office you need to meet anyone and everyone that is relevant to your work. But, I admit, I am indeed a very private person. I believe in living a very wholesome, enriched and balanced life. I give my all while I’m at work, when at home I try not to be distracted and spend quality time with my children, my parents and my sisters, a small group of dear friends. With this I need to do my gardening, take my daily walk, read, do my thinking etc. etc. without these I cannot function properly.
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HAMZA TARIQ SUFI Director, Sufi Group of Companies
Profile: Hamza Tariq Sufi is the next generation leader of the Sufi Group of companies. Hamza completed his masters in Strategy Management at the Warwick University and followed with LSE (UK) and INSEAD. Armed with the confidence of his educational achievements, he used his visionary skills to steer the company in new directions. He is instrumental in the introduction of Simply Sufi Premium Chicken products, Hamza Meat and Poultry Raw chicken products and Simply Sufi XPRS QSR (Quick Service Restaurant), a runaway success in Pakistan and has been instrumental in establishing the Group’s presence in UAE, Qatar, UK and Europe.
“WE HAVE EXCELLENT PRODUCTS, OTHER BRANDS MAY HAVE A HEAD START BUT I AM CONFIDENT OF COMPETING SUCCESSFULLY. YOU CAN’T KEEP A GOOD PRODUCT DOWN.”
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CEO Club: Please share with us your professional background or corporate profile (with challenges you faced) in a nutshell. Hamza Tariq Sufi:I did my Masters in Strategy Management at the Warwick University. I am currently the Director of the Sufi Group of Companies. Simply Sufi, Sufi Banaspati and cooking oil, Hamza meat and poultry and Simply Sufi XPRS are four brands that I count as my major successes.
Please share your company`s brief history? We launched in 1952 in Lahore, and started with soap production before later diversifying our portfolio. We are currently among the top five enterprises of Pakistan.
Any remarkable recognition or achievements by the company? We have been very fortunate to have seen increasing success over the years. The recognition we are most proud of is being consecutively awarded the National Brand of Pakistan Award at the Pakistan Edible Oil Conference 4 years in a row. The international availability of our products and the fact that we are constantly innovating and introducing new products to the market are two achievements that I am most pleased with. On top of that, I am also very happy with the continuing growth of Simply Sufi XPRS, our fast food restaurants.
What is leadership to you and what are the three key challenges confronting CEOs/business leaders in Pakistan? Leadership is about being decisive, focused and aware of your strengths and limitations. It is about surrounding yourself with the right people with talent and motivating them towards a unified purpose. The three key challenges I see are the finding and nurturing of talented young people into key members of your business, developing these talented youngsters into future leaders and finally because the modern world is moving fast and new disruptors are always coming up you have to always stay innovative.
What are three leadership competencies / characteristics of a CEO that you would like to see in our new generation of CEOs / Managers? Trust building I think is really important for a leader as is the ability to execute on your visions and being able to quickly adapt to changes in any situation.
A CEO’s success largely depends upon a team, what are the three characteristics of a winning team? Three characteristics I think are really key to a winning team are having excellent communication, being well organized and being goal-oriented.
Do you believe in women empowerment? If yes, then what steps would you recommend to empower women at workplace? Yes, of course. Empowering women in the workplace is absolutely something that any business must strive for.
Can you give us an example of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative you have championed?
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We have been long-time supporters of underprivileged children. SOS children are an organization that we have supported for many years and they do great work helping young children from underprivileged backgrounds.
Harvard Business Review’s research tells us that E.Q. (Emotional Quotient/Intelligence) rather thaan I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) is a highly essential competency for business leaders? Why is E.Q. important for CEOs especially in challenging times? As I said, I think the ability to build trust and to adapt to changing situations are both really important for a leader and to be able to do these things, you need to have good Emotional Intelligence. If you are not self-aware with good social skills and have empathy, it will be difficult to be a great leader.
Who is your inspirational role-model? My father is someone I have always looked up to as a figure of great inspiration and someone I try to constantly emulate.
How do you consider a good work-life balance? Please comment. I think it’s being able to prioritize between your work life and your personal life. Now this can change from person to person. Some people are have different priorities but in the end you need to ensure that you are able to give yourself and your family an amount of time that is appropriate for your mental and personal health.
How do you manage your anger and stress? Stress is a very real part of business and learning to manage it is so important. So, I try to be mindful of my state of mind and to do that I try to stay self-aware and be understanding of why I am feeling this way and then work on dealing with the situation in a calm and structured manner.
Define success in three key words or phrases? I see success as accomplishing goals, leaving a legacy, and being able to give a quality life to my family and community.
What is your idea of happiness? For me, happiness is the satisfaction I get from achieving my goals.
Your favourite book on professional development that you would recommend? Management - Tasks, Responsibilities and Practices by Peter Drucker is an excellent book on management development is a must read.
Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? Be innovative, continue your growth and not just professionally but also in your personal life. Be inspiring and surround yourself with the right people. And with enough hard work and determination, you will be able to accomplish any goal you set your mind.
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“LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT BEING DECISIVE, FOCUSED AND AWARE OF YOUR STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS. IT IS ABOUT SURROUNDING YOURSELF WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE WITH TALENT AND MOTIVATING THEM TOWARDS A UNIFIED PURPOSE.”
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HASEEB AHMAD Executive Director, Sitara Chemical Industries (Pvt.) Ltd.
Profile: The young, dynamic and energetic Haseeb Ahmad is the son of the prominent industrialist Muhammad Adrees and the grandson of the legendary entrepreneur Haji Bashir Ahmad, who started Sitara Textile business from a scratch and paved the way for Sitara to become a leading business conglomerate of Pakistan. Haseeb is the Executive Director of Sitara Chemical Industries Limited, which was incorporated in 1981. In 1985, SCIL started producing caustic soda, initially at a rate of 30 metric tons a day. The plant’s capacity was gradually increased to the current level of 610 metric tons a day.
“I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT THE DESIRE FOR EARNING MORE AND MORE MONEY SHOULD NOT ISOLATE OR DETACH YOU FROM YOUR FAMILY. WEALTH EARNED AT THE COST OF IGNORING YOUR FAMILY IS A MERE TRASH.”
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CEO Club: Please tell us about your professional and academic background. Haseeb Ahmad: In 2009, I did BSc Honours from LUMS and on the first of July that same year, I formally joined my family business. Being the only offspring of my parents, since my early childhood, I noticed that my father was keen to prepare and train me for my future responsibilities. Thus, for ten years, from 1999 to 2009, I used to work regularly with my father for two or three months during summer vacation. It was a kind of MTO program devised by my father. As a result, when I formally joined the business in 2009, I found myself in a familiar environment, with nothing new, and I was well-acquainted with all those who were working with me. Since then, I have been so heavily involved in business activities that despite my earnest desire, I have not been able to find time for further education. In the meantime, in 2008, a tragic incident took place in the form of my mother’s sudden death. The grim tragedy came as a shattering blow for me and sent me into deep depression and for a while, life seemed dull, empty and purposeless. It took me quite some time to fully recover from this shock. During this whole period, I continued to work, but in a rather mechanical manner, without any particular zeal and zest. It was only after my marriage in 2012 and the birth of my kids that I began to discover a new meaning and a new purpose of life.
Briefly share with us the history of Sitara Group and its diversified business activities. Following the partition of India in 1947, my grandparents migrated from Amritsar and after a 6-month stay in Gujranwala, permanently settled in Faisalabad, where my grandfather Bashir Ahmad began selling cloths from door to door and street to street, carrying them on his shoulders and then, on a bicycle. Later, he arranged a makeshift stall in front of a house and shortly afterwards, rented the drawing-room of that house. As his hard work began to bear fruit, he purchased that house and opened a retail store. With the passage of time, as he made more money, he, along with his brother, who is my real maternal grandfather, set up Faisalabad’s first power loom. It was the beginning of Sitara Textile, which is the parent company of Sitara Group, which now consists of a number of companies, engaged in a wide variety of activities. Sitara Chemicals is the flagship company that employs around 2400 people. We also have an energy company, whose main concern is power production. All businesses are based in Faisalabad and are being looked after by different members of our family. My father Muhammad Adrees is the CEO of Sitara Chemicals. In all, Sitara Group has around ten thousand employees. Over the years, we have made phenomenal progress and during the last three years, our annual growth has been 15% to 20%.
Would you like to mention some of the core values that act as guiding principles for the business activities in Sitara Group? My grandfather who founded the business, also laid down the basic values and principles to be followed by all the people associated with the business in the times to come. These values are still very much vibrant in our business and we feel proud to follow them. Honesty and integrity figure most prominently among them, followed by openness, supportiveness and respectfulness. Besides being self-critical and accountable, we are always prepared to take up challenges and have deepest regard for our customers, business partners and employees. Maintaining the quality of our products and services has always been and will always be our top priority. As a principle of policy, every commercial venture of ours must be accompanied by some CSR initiative. Thus, in 1979, my grandfather laid the foundation of a hundred-bed hospital named Aziz Fatima Trust Hospital, which was inaugurated by
| 317 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | the then President of Pakistan. It is now by all standards, Faisalabad’s best private hospital, having 12 incubators and 12 ventilators, along with ICU. Besides almost full occupancy of beds in indoor, more than 700 patients are being benefited daily from outdoor. OPD has been established in a newly constructed centrally air-conditioned building. It consists of General and Executive OPD.
How would you like to define leadership? Leadership is a very vast and complex term, involving several factors. It is an all-admitted and undeniable fact that good leadership has been the most important factor contributing to the consistent growth of most of the family-owned businesses of Pakistan. To me, the first and foremost characteristic of a genuine leadership is to devise an excellent value system for the business, based on integrity, honesty, professionalism and proper succession plan. Those who started and consolidated our business left for us clear guide lines regarding what to do and what not to do, where to compromise and where not to compromise. For instance, an important feature of our business is that in general, we don’t like to hire women. But when we hire them, we provide them a very safe working environment, in which they are told not to stay in office after Maghrib, even if there work is still pending. As a result, the people of Faisalabad in general, prefer to send their girls to us, being sure that they would be much safer here than elsewhere.
What type of corporate culture exists at Sitara Chemicals? Our corporate culture is clearly and unambiguously defined. We have a written constitution that clearly mentions the powers and responsibilities of all officials from the top to lower management. Thus, there is a proper system and mechanism for each and everything.
Where do you see your company in five years time? By the Grace of God, we are the largest producers of caustic soda in Pakistan, producing 610 metric tons daily. In this connection, we are far ahead of all our competitors. With the addition of a new plant, our capacity is likely to increase considerably in the coming years. We have our own power plant and are self-sufficient in energy. Moreover, we have an excellent technical cell and research and development department. In the coming five years, we hope to retain and further consolidate our position as market leaders in Pakistan in the field of caustic soda. Further diversification of our business is also very high on our agenda for the next five years.
Is there any personal achievement of yours that makes you feel proud? SAP is a German multinational software company known for making enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. ERP software allows organizations to manage business operations, and usually refers to suite of modular applications that collect and integrate data from different aspects of the business. Prior to my joining, our company hired the consultant but was unable to succeed in its implementation. I took the initiative and got it implemented, which made our system far more efficient. When my father got busy and became the President of FPCCI in 2015, he told me to oversee the execution of the entire coal power plant. I took up the challenge and worked tirelessly for the next 18 months and made it operational on June 29 2016, one day before the June 30 deadline that we had set for its completion.
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Who is your role model or source of inspiration? My role model is of course my grandfather Hajji Bashir Ahmad, with whom I spent a lot of time and from whom I learnt a lot. In fact, till my O-Level and A-Level, I used to sleep in his bed room. People often address me as “Chotay Haji Sahib.” I travelled a lot with him and during these trips, I had the opportunity to learn many things from him. Whatever I learnt from him is now proving extremely useful for me.
How do you manage your anger and stress? By nature, I am a calm, composed and cool-minded person and this aspect of my personality saves me from unnecessary stress and strain. I fully understand the fact that we are all human beings and anyone can make any mistake at any time. The thing that matters more is not committing mistake but admitting it. Whenever someone comes to me in the office and admits his mistake, I generously forgive him, regardless of the loss that I have suffered due to his mistake. Moreover, I always act upon open door policy and anyone can just open the door of my office and talk to me.
In the hectic routine of your life, how do you maintain work-life balance? Whatever the situation may be, I have a fix time for leaving office, that is 6 o’clock in the evening. After reaching home and offering the Isha Prayer, I have dinner with my family and spend an hour playing with my three kids, two sons and daughters. Every year, I have a 15-day vacation which I spend with my family, visiting various places. I firmly believe that the desire for earning more and more money should not isolate or detach you from your family. Wealth earned at the cost of ignoring your family is a mere trash.
“TO ME, THE FIRST AND FOREMOST CHARACTERISTIC OF A GENUINE LEADERSHIP IS TO DEVISE AN EXCELLENT VALUE SYSTEM FOR THE BUSINESS, BASED ON INTEGRITY, HONESTY, PROFESSIONALISM AND PROPER SUCCESSION PLAN.”
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IMRAN ANWER CEO, Engro Polymer & Chemicals Limited (EPCL)
Profile: Imran is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and has over 20 years of experience. He worked with Deloitte for about 8 years as Manager Corporate Finance, then joined Engro as Manager General Accounting in 2005. He transitioned to Engro Foods as CFO in 2007, where he was instrumental in getting the business to emerge as market leader in dairy liquids. Subsequently, he served as CFO Engro Fertilizer before finally being appointed as the CEO of Engro Polymer & Chemicals Ltd in 2015. Imran has a blend of corporate traits which have helped him deliver value during his career at Engro. His robust leadership style, strong business acumen & developed commercial sense were exhibited during important roles which include acquisitions & listing of Engro Foods Ltd. Imran is a member on the Board of Engro Eximp Agriproducts Pvt. Ltd.
“THE MANTRA OF SUCCESS IN ANY SPHERE OF LIFE IS TO IDENTIFY YOUR OBJECTIVE & FIND THE BEST ROUTE TO GET THERE. WORK HARD WITH A STRONG FAITH & CONVICTION & SUCCESS WILL EVENTUALLY FOLLOW.”
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CEO Club: What is your vision regarding Pakistan? How would you turn around the fate of our economy if given the chance? Imran Anwer: First of, I am an optimist for Pakistan as I see immense potential. I would classify our current economic scenario as a rough patch which will eventually pass & Pakistan will emerge stronger than before. In terms of economic policies & strategies which are currently being deployed, I tend to agree with some & with some I don’t. One the macroeconomic front core focus areas remain the same. Our Current Account deficit needs to be narrowed down and our fiscal deficit requires to be addressed, especially the state-owned enterprises who have incurred significant losses. I recall speaking with a CEO of a local bank recently. He informed me that the banking density of Pakistan is just about 20%, meaning that 80% of our population remains unbanked which shows huge potential. Especially, when you put it in comparison with the mobile density of Pakistan which is currently crossing over 70%. If we convert similar numbers into banking density, we will see a very different Pakistan. It is true, we are going through a difficult patch. We will experience a modest growth of GDP over the next year or two, followed by a strong uptick which I hope will continue for a long period of time
What is your take on good governance and what are the basic principles that can be applied to help the trajectory of the country and its economy? Good governance can only be achieved with the right set of people in the right place. Anything shorter than that, you have a problem to deal with. Therefore, we need to develop clarity in our systems, & allocate people effectively while ensuring they have a conducive working environment & they will deliver. During my career, I have witnessed many such instances and I am a firm believer that such principles do ensure good governance and yield positive results. Engro for instance, has delineated a clear set of values which any prospective employee must possess. These include an impeccable character marked by honesty & integrity. Should have passion for the company, community & country, a strong eye for safety of self, others and environment. After we identify these people, we provide them a clear boundary and a conducive environment to operate autonomously.
Are you satisfied with the quality of education and graduates being produced that are joining your company? We mainly deal with graduates from engineering and business schools. Although I believe there is good potential in our youth, the quality of graduates is somewhat mixed. Some institutes churn out good talent that comes to us & we further develop their skills enabling them to take on leadership roles later in their careers.
One the other hand, some institutes fail to deliver quality graduates which results in a real disparity between the output of different institutes. This is an area of grave concern which requires urgent attention. I feel this shouldn’t happen, however this problem is not just faced by our nation only, it happens throughout the globe.
I also think along with technical knowhow, we should help our graduates with character building. Development of this side will remain crucial in times to come. This aspect remains align to our existing educational structure. There could be many ways to address this issue, role modeling being one of them.
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What are the core values/competencies that we need to inculcate in managers/education system that hold great importance? Our first objective should be to help define & understand success. Unfortunately, the idea of success in Pakistan has become synonyms with money. Money can surely be termed as a small part of success, however it is not the definition of success Integrity is an important value which we must instill throughout our value chain of human development. Our graduates must know that no short route exists for success and many hurdles must be crossed in order to succeed. The idea of overnight success and money is clearly an impractical myth. Then we need to inculcate the spirit of appreciating & understanding the journey of struggle, hard work and dedication along with introspection. I am a firm believer in the idea that everyone should have a personal idea of themselves a few years down the line.
What are the three critical challenges in the chemical sector that Engro Polymer & Chemical faces? Of the few challenges that I have faced in my career, one of them is inconsistency of policies. Overnight changes in policy completely shakes up the entire business structure & related parties from lenders, shareholders to especially foreign investors. This confidence takes years to build. Therefore, I have tried to convince the government to continue with adopted policies & in case a dire need arises to revisit these policies then relevant stakeholders should be brought on board to reach the most beneficial solution. Another challenge is steep cost rises in Pakistan. This is faced non discriminatorily by everybody and this needs to be addressed as these costs end up making our product uncompetitive when we compare it to global products. On the flip side when we talk about challenges, we also must look at the opportunities; I see great opportunity for the chemical sector in Pakistan as we currently import US$ 4 billion worth of petrochemicals (dry and liquid petrochemicals). We need to produce these products in our country by developing a coherent strategy. This will enhance a number of important factors for Pakistan; • Current amount deficit • Employment generation • Technological advancement • Development of downstream industry in this field • Development of logistical infrastructure The opportunity is huge & I urge key decision makers not to let this opportunity pass as US$ 4Bn worth of imports in a country that is currently facing a dollar shortage merits close attention. In a time when we have devalued our currency by ~ 33% both exports & import substitution have taken paramount importance as they are fundamentally similar. I believe that import substitution is lower hanging fruit that can be achieved with relative ease against exports.
What do you suggest how can we motivate and inspire our local entrepreneurs to develop businesses in Pakistan? As my forte is the chemical sector, I can quote to you instances from initiatives taken in China & India in this sector which helped develop local entrepreneurs. What maybe relevant for chemical sector may not be applicable to other areas. In India a chemical council was developed which proposed the creation of a chemical sector in a city. Of the outlined objectives, one of them was to nurture entrepreneurs who could develop the downstream industry. This was an entire ecosystem built that revolved around a petrochemical
| 322 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | sector & it has worked well. In China, a chemical park exists which houses all industries in the value chain. The output of one industry is the input of the other industry. This not only increases the economies of scale of the industry but it also ensures an effective ecosystem of optimization in terms of manpower, technological development, optimization of costs and etc but it also boosts downstream initiatives. Hence,when we look at India today, their total chemical sector is worth US$ 55Bn whereas Pakistan is ~ US $5Bn. India is about 11 time larger than us in the chemical space. This means we must learn from our regional peers and see how we can further add value.
What are your challenges and achievements during your 4 year tenure of being CEO Engro Polymer & Chemicals? It has been quite an interesting journey since I joined EPCL. Given the initial ideas of divestment by our shareholders it started off with a difficult undertone. This process isn’t easy for employees or the management, especially when the employees are highly elastic in terms of moving to other opportunities, & on top of that the business is facing losses. It took me a while to understand the business as it was my first foray into the chemical business. Staying positive during such testing times was a challenge. I understand that people who run the business are its biggest asset. Therefore, during my 5th month, I took the leadership & the middle management team of about 45 employees to Naran. Sitting in a scenic area by the river bank, I opened up to my team. I clarified that the decision of our shareholders to divest wasn’t one I took. It was their business and they had the right to decide whether to keep it on their books or to sell it. However, it was important to note that no matter what happened, the plant would continue to run and the requirement of people to run this business would remain. Therefore as a team, we had two options. Either we could jump ship or we could commit ourselves to run the business in an improved fashion, enhancing the business value by making it financially viable & thus providing our shareholders with an economical proposition to stay with us. At such a point, you can only hope to connect with your people and when that happens a lot of good things follow, I think we connected. Towards the end of this trip, we had a strategy that rested on increasing business efficiency, reliability, driving business growth & diversifying the business. The rest, as they say is history. If I recall correctly, it was in May ’17 when Ghias Khan (President – Engro) invited our management team to his house & announced the good news of Engro Polymer becoming a strategic part of Engro’s long term vision. Ever since then we have continued to work on our strategy & have been expanding into new products and improving our bottom line. Our company results depict a clear picture of our performance
What are the 3 core competencies you look at while hiring? A clear set of guidelines is designed to ensure hiring the right talent across the Engro group. All hiring decisions are vetted against these traits.These traits include; • Core values such as ethics & integrity • Passion to Excel • Leadership potential • Business focus I am particularly sensitive about integrity, passion to work for the company & orientation towards safety when I take a hiring decision.
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What are your strategies for retaining talent? We have two mainhiring streams at Engro Polymer (1) The apprenticeship trainee program We hire people, who have completed preliminary education in form of diplomas. This batch undergoes a rigorous classroom & on the job training of about two years before they join the field.
(2) The graduate trainee & engineer program Through this program, we hire young engineer graduates. They receive a year long training in which they are exposed to multiple manufacturing areas. During this period, they are acquainted with both technical and softer knowhows of the company. They are integrated with the belief system at Engro, its values, required competencies & culture of the company. Towards the end of the year, they are hired based on their performance. After this is done, we have an elaborate career progression which is communicated on a timely basis. It’s a system that has the leadership’s continual focus to ensure it remains transparent & effective. During this process our objective is to help people develop on multiple fronts. Such a focus is rare in many other companies of Pakistan. However, we consider this integral because of the value it creates and the potential it enhances for our people& the future of the company. Additionally, we have a constant and a strong feedback system. Every year there is a thorough exercise of revisiting last year’s performance and opportunity areas are identified and candidly shared. The intention is to ensure the process of constant improvement. Engro Polymer & Chemicals today stands at ~ Rs. 35 Bn top line which will hopefully increase to Rs. 50 Bn after our expansions come online, however, that is not the end. Our vision is to lead Pakistan in Polymers & Allied Chemicals with an International Footprint. We strive to create value on multiple fronts in the lives of people who are not very affluent. We will have 4 schools with The Citizens Foundation which will cater 1,200 children, a fully operational OPD for 50 patients a day & 6 clean drinking water plants to help alleviate the community and give back. I believe that such a value system is appreciated because young millennials today look at more than just money whilst making a working decision. They want to be associated to a bigger purpose & an idea of constant development. At the end of the day, if you truly care for the people who work with you and ensure they develop, a stronger affinity forms that somewhat transgresses beyond only money. That is what we strive for at EPCL. Having said all of this, I completely understand and appreciate the idea of exploring new opportunities. I firmly believe in providing a comfortable space to make such decisions. We also have very comfortable rehiring policy
Where do you see Engro Polymer & Chemicals 5 years down the line? I have always expressed my excitement about the future of Engro Polymer & Chemicals Ltd. Once we reach the Rs. 50 Bn topline mark in the next three years, we will take form as the leading chemicals company in Pakistan. I believe that this will be just a scratch on the surface of value creation as there is a huge market of US$ 4Bn & we are well placed to introduce new products in the country. If we can make this happen, & I’m hopeful we can, we will significantly contribute to Pakistan’s economy by reducing current account deficit, employment generation & bringing advanced manufacturing technology to Pakistan. I envision Engro Polymer will play a vital role in not just value creation for our shareholders but also for Pakistan.
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What is your take on the importance of EQ (Emotional Quotient/Intelligence) being a must for today’s CEO? I recently realized after someone questioned me regarding my daily time allocation that over 50% of my time is spent on people in terms of development, selections, mentoring, & coaching. Therefore in todays world EQ has become as important as IQ for a CEO and it is important to find a balance between the two.
What is the most difficult decision you have had to make during you professional journey? There are a lot difficult decisions that come your way in your professional career. I am particularly sensitive about taking decisions which revolve around optimizing manpower. I think taking hard decisions is an integral part of leading and we must not shy away from it.
Who is you inspiration/role model? I have many role models; one such person is our chairman, Mr. Hussain Dawood.
What are you coping strategies for stress management? Walking on daily basis helps me unwind.
How do practice anger management? Managing anger is an important aspect of management. At times I speak my mind, whereas sometimes I exit the situation for a while to reassess myself and the situation. Usually when the stakes are high, I sleep over things which I think generally helps with patience and perspective
What is your idea of happiness? Happiness is a combination of little things in life. Eating ice cream, going out for coffee with friends, and stepping out for a dinner with my wife.
How do you justify the work life balance? I try my best not to be away from home on weekends. My priority is to ensure I spend that time with my friends and family.
What are your reading habits and would you like to recommend any books? I was an avid reader. I think a great sense of leadership, patience & management can be derived& learnt from reading about the life and the dealings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Are there any quotations youfind meaningful and would like to share? “Hard work without supplication is pride; Supplication without hard work is stupidity”- Rumi.
Any message you would like to give regarding hope/optimism for our young aspiring CEO’s? Appreciate the value of work. No work is small. I feel our youth passes up on lucrative opportunities because they deem them to be small, while they search for something big. Life will bring you more opportunities once you start taking them.
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IQTIDAR AHMAD CE, Outreach Marketing Services (Pvt.) Ltd.
Profile: Coming from a family of doctors, engineers and army officers, Iqtidar Ahmad is the CE of Outreach Marketing Services, a Lahore-based Sales & Marketing services and Business process outsourcing company. Skilled in business strategy development and execution, marketing, sales, distribution and financial analysis, Iqtidar is a general management professional; with several years of practical experience in notable multi national corporations both inside and outside Pakistan. The bulk of his professional experience is related to FMCG sales, distribution, marketing, Channels & key accounts management, business planning & strategy. The success of Outreach within a short span of 07 years is a glaring manifestation of his entrepreneurial genius and marketing skills.
“LEADERSHIP IS ALL ABOUT PERSONAL CREDIBILITY, LEADING FROM THE FRONT, EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION, HUMILITY, EMPATHY AND GOOD EXECUTION.”
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CEO Club: Please tell us something about your academic career. Iqtidar Ahmad: I was born and brought up in Lahore, where I studied at Crescent Model School - Shadman and Divisional Public School - Model Town. After my high school I took admission in Hailey College of Commerce - Punjab University where I completed my Bachelors in Commerce, Auditing and Accounting. Later, I got an MBA degree in marketing from Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan in 1992. I believe I am a passionate life time learner . In my corporate career I have attended several management and executive programs organized by prestigious national and international institutions. The major ones being Strategic Marketing Program, Business excellence For Leaders from global business school i.e IMD- Switzerland, Senior Managers Development program from LUMS . In 2014, I attended an Executive Education Business Program arranged by Columbia University – Columbia Business School. It focused on Personal Leadership, Psychology and Organizations. In addition to these, I participated in an Executive Education Program i.e Leading Professional Service Firms from Harvard Business School, Cambridge Massachusetts, USA.
Tell us something about your professional background. Way back in 1992, textile was the main attraction for any good MBA in Pakistan and I too launched myself into the corporate world by joining the textile knitwear company Ammar Textiles in their production department. I stayed there very briefly though enjoyed and learned a lot. Giant American brands like Levis , Gap were main customers of Ammar Textiles in the 90s. Then, I moved to a German multi- national company KSB Pumps Pakistan , where I visited various industries and got three months training at their manufacturing site in Hasan Abdal. I had my first official foreign training also at KSB. That was in Singapore and very exciting too. For the next one and a half year, I worked with KSB Pumps as Marketing Executive. A towering personality Mr. Manzur ul Haq was CEO of KSB Pakistan at that time who did my selection interview and also the exit interview.
Then comes the next move and in January 1995, I joined Pakistan Tobacco Company which is subsidiary of top global tobacco group i.e British American Tobacco (BAT)and since then, there has been no looking back. After my 6 months trainings where I travelled all over Pakistan , my first role was as Area Manager Rawalpindi in North region of company and just after year and half got a secondment and moved to BAT- Middle East based in Saudi Arabia. There I was posted in Jeddah looking after western territory cities all along the Red Sea coast. I was a bachelor at that time hence travelled extensively in Saudi and saw places from vast expanse of deserts to places where you get snow in winters. After 2 years assignment, I came back to Pakistan and then headed various Sales & trade marketing regions in Punjab and Sindh provinces, worked as brand manager and marketing development manager at company head office in Islamabad. In 2003 I left PTC and joined a Philadelphia-based American chemicals company called FMC Corporation as its National Sales and Marketing Manager. However as we say “ First cut is the deepest “ in 2004, I rejoined British American Tobacco and worked in Pakistan for two years after which, in 2006, I was again seconded to BAT - Ukraine as Head of Sales, Distribution & Trade Marketing.
Living in an eastern European country with lot of culture , communist history and diverse landscape was very exciting. It was very rewarding from the professional point of view. My son Sulaiman was also born in Kiev- Ukraine. After my stint in Ukraine I came back in 2008 and was made Head of Sales,
| 327 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | distribution and trade marketing for Pakistan as well as Area lead for South Asian countries, that is, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. PTC grew its market share sustainably in those years and we achieved decisive industry leadership. Leading the core frontline function of company in those years was very thrilling. PTC is a fantastic organization with strong legacy , superb people and strong brands. It grooms you in a well rounded way and provides ample opportunities for professional growth. Main professional stamp on my personality is that of PTC. As all good things come to an end, a major opportunity came in my way at the end of 2011 which provided me chance to become an entrepreneur and employer from an employee. I took this opportunity, resigned from PTC and hence founded Outreach Marketing Services in November 2011. Though I was reluctant to take this opportunity but support from seniors in company , my elder brother and wife helped me in taking the plunge. Outreach started with PTC as its first client and now we have moved on with multiple national and multinational companies as our valued clients . Since then no looking back , Alhamdullilah.
Give us a brief overview of Outreach. Outreach Marketing Services Private Limited is a national marketing activation, services and consulting company founded in 2011 and headquartered in Lahore. Basically, Outreach deals with providing a spectrum of sales, marketing services planning, execution and man power control. Some of its core areas of service are trade marketing services; activations, direct consumer communication, merchandising, BPO/Outsourcing, rural sales & distribution development, distribution consultancy, sales trainings, organizational design and head-hunting.
“A CEO MUST BE COMMERCIALLY VERY SHARP AND SAVVY. HE SHOULD POSSESS EXCELLENT COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND KNOW HOW TO SPEAK, ACT, REACT AND BEHAVE IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS. ANOTHER HIGHLY EFFECTIVE COMPETENCY OR ATTRIBUTE WHICH A CEO MUST HAVE IS CANDOUR, THAT INCLUDES TRUTHFULNESS AND BREVITY.”
Why was the task of heading Outreach given to you? Outsourcing is not a new business in Pakistan. In fact, there are a number of outsourcing companies operating in Pakistan and some of them are much bigger in size than Outreach. We are not doing traditional manpower outsourcing and just providing people and running payroll. We try to integrate the full process and do design, develop, execute and evaluate a sales and marketing activity or program. We handle a full value chain of service. We prefer long term programs and commitment
| 328 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | and do KPIs based working. In this way we operate like a specialist and trusted partner for our valued clients. Investment is very important for any business but in my view personal technical skill set , innovation , ethics and integrity are more important than just money. This is the foundation of modern entrepreneurship and start ups . You bring a good workable idea which can be scaled up. Investment can be arranged and follows through.
Would you like to share with us your own definition of leadership? Leadership is all about personal credibility, leading from the front, effective communication, humility, empathy and good execution. A person may be an outstanding strategist, but he cannot be described as a genuine leader unless he has the ability to transform his vision into reality through proper execution. He/ she should be an inspirational role model and walk the talk. The binding force between him and his team/ followers is “ Trust”.
How would you like to further improve yourself as a leader? It is a continuous learning process. Leading a service-oriented organization that provides services to multi national companies is a challenging job, full of responsibility and stress, putting the leader on his toes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and urging him to be aggressive in pursuit of his objectives. We dont work alone . We live and work in teams, groups , family and society on a broader scale. It is imperative that you make others understand and believe what you want to achieve . It is your responsibility to give them clear guideline , tools to perform and authority to implement. During the course of your work one has to take tough decisions and that is where empathy and deep understanding helps you . Personal discipline is also very important for a good leader. I do not feel shy to share that during some of the tough situations I sometime get in a reactive mode, though it has come down a lot . However, I am constantly trying to learn how to react on such occasions more prudently. Modern neuroscience says that we can rewire our brain as well even in mature age . We can change our habits. There are certain characteristics which are part of our DNA, and there are certain other things which we can acquire or learn in any part of our life through constant practice and determination. As long as we are alive, there is always enough scope for learning and improvement. With this realization, I have removed a number of short comings from my personality and my self-development or self-grooming is still going on and will always go on. Lastly meditation helps a lot and best form of meditation for us is offering our Namaz and praying to Allah Almighty . Once you start doing this with complete honesty , see the magic.
Which core competencies can ensure the success of a CEO? As the main decision maker, the CEO must be commercially very sharp and savvy. Moreover, he should possess excellent communication skills and know how to speak, act, react and behave in different situations. Another highly effective competency or attribute which a CEO must have is candour, that includes truthfulness and brevity. This is what I have learnt from the story of Jack Welch, who was the Chairman and CEO of General Electric for twenty years, during which the company made phenomenal growth in terms of revenue. One of the major causes of his success was his downsizing program, under which he laid off lot of employees because of company situation and whose performance did not match his standards. Due to his aggressive policies, he came to be known as Jack Neutron. But he persisted and during his tenure, the company’s value rose four thousand per cent.
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How much time and money do you devote for the further grooming and training of your employees? Ours is a service oriented outsourcing company that mainly believes in on-job training. However, on account of my personal commitment and passion, and despite limited resources, I make it sure that all of my senior managers and assistant managers should attend training courses offered by the leading institutions. We generally start with functional training which is followed by managerial and other forms of training. Most of my staff has attended trainings at LUMS , PIM , Franklin Covey .
What’s your policy regarding women empowerment? I am a strong advocate of giving equal opportunities to men and women. My own wife Shazia who is a psychologist by education, is one of the directors of the company and actively participates in HR and other planning. Unfortunately, we are unable to induct a large number of women because our core business is related to field work in the market and also requires intercity travelling. There are some projects where female team members were more suitable. A major part of our workforce were female staff in those projects . One project which I remember now was for British Council Pakistan regarding their examination invigilators.
How do you maintain your work-life balance? I try to maintain it by spending all the holidays with my wife and three kids: two daughters and a son. I don’t recall any holiday that I spent in Pakistan or outside Pakistan without my family. I play with them, watch movies together , go for shopping and sometimes I cook for them . Then I have a close circle of good friends. We meet often . Maintenance of work-life balance becomes much easier if you lead your life in accordance with your priorities. You should not try to sacrifice the interests of your family at the altar of your business, otherwise, you will lose your peace of mind.
What makes you angry? Financial losses don’t make me angry, because they are part of the game. However, I am outraged by the dishonesty of people, especially if someone deliberately lies. That is a big no no for me .
What in your opinion is real happiness? Real happiness is not necessarily related to the accumulation of a huge amount of wealth, building magnificent villas and driving most sophisticated cars. Real happiness in my view is if you enjoy what you have now . Live in the moment. Stay contended and have gratitude. That does not mean one should do less effort or become lazy. Genuine happiness can also be felt when you are able to make some positive change in someone else’s life. That is a higher level of happiness.
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“LIVE IN THE MOMENT. STAY CONTENDED AND HAVE GRATITUDE. THAT DOES NOT MEAN ONE SHOULD DO LESS EFFORT OR BECOME LAZY. GENUINE HAPPINESS CAN ALSO BE FELT WHEN YOU ARE ABLE TO MAKE SOME POSITIVE CHANGE IN SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE. THAT IS A HIGHER LEVEL OF HAPPINESS.”
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IRFAN AHMAD KHAN CEO, Nova Care (Pvt.) Limited - DVAGO Pharmacy & Wellness Experts
Profile: Irfan Khan is a notable and distinguished corporate finance professional and entrepreneur with the extensive experience of 25 years in the financial, food and healthcare sectors. He holds an MBA degree from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and Masters with major in Economics from Punjab University. Before venturing into pharmacy business, Mr. Khan was associated with South City Hospital, Karachi. His seven years engagement with South City Hospital, as an Independent Director, was instrumental in turning around the hospital into a profitable and quality service providing organization. His passion for healthcare sector, led to the creation of DVAGO Pharmacy & Wellness Experts which has very aggressively expanded its foot print in Karachi and Hyderabad. A service of this kind has been unavailable to the people of Karachi, despite living in the 21st century. DVAGO aims to change the current environment by providing quality products, lab and medical consultation services, ensuring constant availability of authentic medicines and wellness products. All the medicines at DVAGO are kept in ideal temperature conditions and delivered through expert, empathetic pharmacists. Keeping the need of the masses in mind, DVAGO has also taken the initiative to serve the under privileged segment of our society. DVAGO is doing it by taking these international standard pharmacies to the underprivileged segments of our society by partnering with the hospitals. He has initiated the concept of bringing modern technology to improve other aspects of the health industry to bring beneficial changes. With his consistent hard work and enthusiasm, he has succeeded in transforming the lives of the people. He is a man of virtues who has a firm belief in qualities of integrity, sincerity perseverance and tem work.
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CEO Club: Please tell us about your journey of being a part of Nova Care Limited commenced. Irfan Ahmad Khan: Pakistan’s pharmacy sector has remained untapped by the wave of modern developments. For years, people have been relying on local medical stores and chemists that sell medicines without the supervision and expert advice of a qualified professional. Not only has the medicine been sold under unqualified pharmacists or ordinary store keepers, some of the medicines are not even fit for use for being stale, expired, counterfeit and sometime unfit due to unfriendly temperature control. People have no way of determining whether the medicine they are buying from these stores are original and suitable for them or not. Secondly, due to unskilled workers in the chemist store, there are huge dispensing errors. This increases the risk of further ailments and major health problems in the country. Three years ago, I dreamt of establishing a delivery channel in the healthcare space where people can get international standard services and current channel imperfections are addressed. By the grace of Almighty I succeeded in accomplishing my aim of initiating an international standard pharmacy operations under Nova Care (Pvt.) Limited with a brand name of DVAGO Pharmacy & Wellness Experts.
What new developments you have embedded in your company? We have actually evolved the health care sector by bringing a number of alterations. Authenticity, affordability, availability, temperature control, qualified pharmacists, free home delivery and store timing are few prominent features of our brand. DVAGO Pharmacy & Wellness Experts is a modern pharmacy concept where medicines are sold following some of the best international standards. We have provided best possible working environment to our team and 60% of our pharmacists are females. We take pride in employing such large number of female staff and are providing them with ideal work environment.
How do you define the concept of “Wellness in pharmacy”? Wellness is up gradation of quality of life by adopting best health guidelines. Our qualified team assist our customers to understand their health conditions by offering free tests and advice. Furthermore, we have developed special diabetic socks. We have also launched DVAGO water in innovative packaging, at affordable prices, based on best possible quality standards.
Being an entrepreneur of a dynamic organization, how do you combat HR obstacles? I am very fortunate to have partnered with one of the largest industrial group of the country. They are running different businesses for 70 years and have achieve highest excellence standards. They provide us with valuable support to handle any possible challenge in the business. HR pool currently available in the market has never been exposed to the service standards that we have set for ourselves. Resultantly, we have to select the right talent and the train them to ensure our brand promise is effectively delivered.
What is your vision and mission statement of Nova Care Limited? DVAGO Pharmacy & Wellness Experts is a modern pharmacy concept where we are not just dispensing medicines but we believe in providing a complete health experience to our customers by providing free check-ups and free consultations by our qualified pharmacists & doctors.
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Our vision is to be a PHYGITAL organization, provide international standard comprehensive healthcare services to our customers with nationwide coverage.
What hurdles does an entrepreneur face while processing his or her business in Pakistan? Many factors obstruct the development process of entrepreneurial startups in Pakistan. The major upheavals are caused by out dated legislation, untrained and underdeveloped manpower, misdirected education system, depleting ethical and moral standard.
Please state any of the toughest decision mended by you? All the right decisions bring you the fruitful result and all the inaccurate decisions bring precious lessons to shape life accordingly. That’s how I encounter day to day business decisions where I have to be extremely cautious for the respective consequences.
Who is your eternal inspiration? My lifetime inspiration is Prophet PBUH. His life, personality, sayings and actions are a practical implementation of Islamic and Quranic teachings. On the footstep of his commandments, we can secure all our dreams and aims. Nothing is impossible to achieve if you have vision and will power.
What main competencies do you evaluate when hiring an employee? I always keep two aspects in mind while assessing an individual for possible induction in my team. These are integrity and attitude. A person which these two qualities can achieve success in any spheres of life.
Where do you visualize Nova Care Limited in the upcoming 5 years? I want to be the best healthcare service provider of the country with nation-wide coverage with comprehensive healthcare portfolio.
Please recommend some of the indelible professional books you read? To be honest, I don’t read much. I usually read Harvard Business Reviews and research reports. These causal readings help me acquire the right professional skills.
How do you define success and happiness in your perspective? Both these terms runs parallel in life. Both are feelings of gratitude, contentment and achievements. Success is another synonym of happiness.
How do you manage the stability between family attention and professional life? The consistent support of my beloved wife is the main source of countering stress issues in my life. I usually choose to remain calm and patient in stressful moments.
What achievements in life makes you feel grateful and humble? DVAGO is my biggest achievement in life. The most hearted and nurtured dream of mine has been finally turned into a reality. Through this platform, we can serve large population by taking care of their healthcare needs.
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“ONE SHOULD DREAM AND ALMIGHTY HELPS IF YOU ARE ON RIGHT PATH. SECONDLY, FAILURE TEACHES MORE THAN SUCCESS. THIRDLY, YOU CANNOT GET SUCCESS WITHOUT HARD WORK AND YOU HAVE TO LEAD FROM THE FRONT TO INSPIRE YOUR PEOPLE.”
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IRSHAD M. SHEIKH CEO, Asmar Group
Profile: Irshad M. Sheikh is the CEO of Asmar Group that includes Asmar Textile, Asmar Paints, Asmar Textile, Asmar Corporation private limited and global containers. We are ISO 9002 certified company and have achieved the trophy of the best exporter of Pakistan for the year 1998 – 1999. Asmar Textiles, has been the largest Quota holder and named at the top in the industry.
“LOVE WHAT YOU DO, DO IT WHOLE HEARTEDLY, HAPPINESS WALKS RIGHT BY YOUR SIDE”.
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CEO Club: Please share with us your professional background or corporate profile (with challenges you faced) in a nutshell. Irshad M. Sheikh: Asmar Group is a customer focused organization. We do our best for the customer satisfaction. With this in mind we have developed work methods geared to give attention to each and every step when carrying out our projects. Our manufacturing procedures ensure to deliver products within set time table. We take pride to state that we are ISO 9002 certified company and have achieved the trophy of the best exporter of Pakistan for the year 1998 – 1999. We have also received excellence awards. We manufacture jeans, shorts, jackets and shirts, twill trousers, ladies skirts, rompers and jogging suits etc. Asmar Group is a dedicated team of professionals and has the integrated business systems that support them. The members of the team have vast in the field of garments. The team is fully devoted to face the market challenges and work hard to come up to the expectations of the customers. We share success with our customers and believe to grow with them.
How many jobs your company created, means HR on your company’s payroll? We totally do have 1500 employees in our group.
What are the key challenges & opportunities in your industry / sector? The key challenges would be political environment, the rest we should know how to make things work, as where there is a will there is a way.
Any remarkable recognition or achievements by the company? We take pride to state that we are ISO 9002 certified company and have achieved the trophy of the best exporter of Pakistan for the year 1998 – 1999 We have also received excellence awards.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenge? How do you retain top talent in the company? By managing and strengthening corporate relationships and giving confidence and free hand to the team to make decisions with in their respective departments, hence brings out better results.
How do you consider a good work-life balance? Please comment. Good work life comes from commitment and honesty with one self, and if I were to say that I balance a good work life, it would not be complete truth.
Is training, coaching and mentoring a priority to you? How much time do you allocate for your staff? It is like parenting a child daily before the day starts and at the end of the day if needed, you have to motivate your staff.
Where do you see your organization five years down the road? Growth strategy and new initiatives? Whatever I have done in life I have been the best at it. Asmar Textiles, has been the largest Quota holder and named at the top in the industry. Asmar Paint is known to be a visionary company, so it
| 337 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | has already made it to the top due to the best quality products. Executing new-growth strategies will never be easy, but we constantly strive to take new initiatives for the growth of our company and people working with us.
What’s the toughest decision you have ever made? What did you learn from it? My toughest decision was when I had moved from Pakistan to America. I have saved my family; living there is a different and difficult culture. We fought for our independence for Pakistan so why move away from this country; therefore, coming back in time was the best decision I ever made.
Who is your inspirational role-model? The inspirational role model for me is my father. He was the bravest leader of Khaksar Tehrik, during the time of independence.
Define success in three key words or phrases? 1. You should know how to make things work 2. There is no shortcut in life, so Be ambitious to attain success 3. Communicate well and Develop a positive outlook
What is your idea of happiness? Love what you do, do it whole heartedly, happiness walks right by your side.
What are three leadership competencies / characteristics of a CEO that you would like to see in our new generation of CEOs / Managers? I would like to see leaders not managers; 1. Realistic optimism. 2. Prudence 3. Conflict Management.
Your favourite book on professional development that you would recommend? Crisis Management.
“GOOD WORK LIFE COMES FROM COMMITMENT AND HONESTY WITH ONE SELF, AND IF I WERE TO SAY THAT I BALANCE A GOOD WORK LIFE, IT WOULD NOT BE COMPLETE TRUTH.”
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“ASMAR GROUP IS A CUSTOMER FOCUSED ORGANIZATION. WE DO OUR BEST FOR THE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION. WITH THIS IN MIND WE HAVE DEVELOPED WORK METHODS GEARED TO GIVE ATTENTION TO EACH AND EVERY STEP WHEN CARRYING OUT OUR PROJECTS. OUR MANUFACTURING PROCEDURES ENSURE TO DELIVER PRODUCTS WITHIN SET TIME TABLE.”
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ISPHANYAR M. BHANDARA CEO, Murree Brewery Co. Ltd.
Profile: Murree Brewery is a public limited company and the oldest company on the subcontinent’s stock exchange. Murree brewery started in 1860 in Gohra Gali, Murree mountains. In 1947, the brewery was acquired by the grandfather of Isphanyar M. Bandara and it has remained in the family ever since. Isphanyar M. Bhandara is, currently, the CEO of Murree Brewery. He is also a Pakistani politician and was member of the National Assembly of Pakistan. He was elected as a member of the National Assembly on a seat reserved for minorities in the Pakistani general election (2013-2018). Mr. Bhandara is a collector of classic / vintage cars and polo sports.
“EVERYONE IS IN SEARCH OF A SHORT CUT, BUT THIS TENDENCY WILL NOT WORK, IT’S A CURSE, WE WILL HAVE TO ABANDON IT AND HAVE TO WORK HARD TO MOVE FORWARD.”
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CEO Club: When Murree Brewery came into being and who laid its foundation stone. Isphanyar Bhandara: Murree Brewery is a public limited company and one of the oldest company on the Kolkata stock exchange. Murree Brewery started in 1860 in Gohra Gali, Murree. It was founded by the British at the time of the Raj to cater for the needs of the British troops stationed in present days Pakistan and it continued to work at Gohra Gali from 1860 to about 1890. Then it was shifted to Rawalpindi, at present location. It came into our family in 1947 when my grandfather bought over the majority shares from the British at the time of partition and he had to decide whether he had to be on Pakistan-side or the other and my grandfather decided to buy the shares and stay on the Pakistan side. That’s how it came in the family in 1947 and I am the third generation, from my grandfather to my father and then to me, so this is the brief history of Murree Brewery.
Would you like to tell us about you, your academics and being a CEO of Murree Brewery. Date of birth: 18 November 1972. Place of birth: Karachi, Pakistan. Resident: Rawalpindi. Religion: Zoroastrian (Parsi). Qualification: St. Mary’s School, Lalazar, Rawalpindi. International School of Islamabad (American School). Ryan High School, Dallas, Texas, USA. Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Sir Syed College, Rawalpindi – 1995-96 Master of Business Administration (MBA) from School of Business and Commerce, Islamabad (1998-1999). Experience: Joined the family business, Murree Brewery Co. Ltd., Rawalpindi - one of the oldest public limited companies of the sub-continent - in 1997 (part time). Joined Board of Directors of the company in 1998. Worked at various departments/positions within the company such as Lathe Machine Operator, Assistant Store Keeper, Laboratory Assistant, Sales Officer, Deputy General Manager, Tops Food & Beverages, Director Group Procurement. In June 2005 became Executive Director till 2008 and later on appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the Murree Brewery Group of Companies after the demise of my father in June 2008. The company has branched into the manufacturing of food products, fruit juices, glass containers and Murree Sparkletts drinking water. The traditional activities of the Company are brewing and distilling of fine liquors and beers. The company has also increased the product line and capacity. Attended various LUMS workshops on business. Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan on seat reserved for Minorities (2013-2018). Representing and helping following Minority communities of Pakistan :- Parsis, Sikhs, Baha’is, Buddhists and Kalash. Currently President of Rawalpindi Parsi Anjuman. Letter-writing to The Editors of national and international Dailies / Weekly. Doing social and welfare activities.
What are the major products of the company? Yes, we make all sorts of products and we make very famous brands, such as Big Apple and many
| 341 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | flavored malt drinks. We make fruit juices, Jam, Ketchup Vinegar mineral water etc. Our products are made from pure malt and barley. In other words, it is like ‘Sattu’ , what we have in our villages. Moreover other drinks are colour based, they don’t have a nutritional value. I do not allow my young children to have energy drinks and other colour drinks because they are not good for health. But our products are not artificial, they are actually made from malt, wheat and barley. So ours is full of nutritional value like having ‘Sattu’. So other than alcoholic we have a long range of nonalcoholic products, beverages juices, ketchups and everything that we do, we do ethically. We are certified by all the government organizations. We are ISO 9001, 14001, HACCP & OHSAS Certified and have many other certifications. We also have ‘Halal’ certificate for our nonalcoholic products. We comply with all rules and regulations of health and also contribute around Rs. 5.5 billion to the national exchequer.
Tops Food and Beverages (1969) Tops Food and Beverages, a division of the Company, was established in 1969. It processes fruits and markets fruit juices and allied food products. Two manufacturing units are located in Rawalpindi and Hattar (KPK). A Tetra Pak packaging facility was added in 2001. The Hattar plant was installed in 1992. Tops food Rawalpindi unit is producing Tetra Pak juices and is well equipped with state of the art Tetra brick aseptic machines. Tops Hattar plant is producing juice, drinks, jams, vinegars, ketchup, squashes. Both plants are Halal, ISO9001, HACCP and ISO 22000 certified from world’s renowned certification bodies. Murree Glass, the glass container division of the company, established in 1974, manufactures glass containers of all types for the company and other food and beverage producers. It has recently begun operation of new Furnace complete with 03 Feeders. The new project consisting state of the art machinery / refractory imported from EU countries has increased manifold the Division’s productivity and profitability making optimum use of most modern Italian Electronic I.S. Machines. Factory is located in Hattar (KPK)”. Murree Sparkletts (2011): Water Division.
Murree Sparkletts was acquired by Murree Brewery group in 2011 and is located in Hattar (KPK). Murree Sparkletts is bottling premium quality drinking water. Murree Sparkletts expanded its production facility in 2015 by installing latest filling lines. Murree Sparkletts is an ISO 9001, ISO 22000, HACCP and PSQCA certified company. We cherish our past. We are the industry leaders in the present and accept challenges of the future. We have launched for the 1st time in Pakistan, Murree Sparkletts premium water in glass bottle which is available in 330ml & 750ml & now launching carbonated bottled water.
“GOOD WORK LIFE COMES FROM COMMITMENT AND HONESTY WITH ONE SELF, AND IF I WERE TO SAY THAT I BALANCE A GOOD WORK LIFE, IT WOULD NOT BE COMPLETE TRUTH.”
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As CEO of your company, what type of challenges you have to face while running your juice business? Our biggest threat or challenge comes from the non-organized sector, in which there are a large number of people who are running the juice business in the form of a cottage industry in streets and muhallas. They neither pay their taxes, nor get themselves registered. In the absence of strict copy right laws in our country, without any hesitation or difficulty, they use the bottles and labels of other companies and promote their own products, which may not be of a good quality, but are much cheaper in price. During the past few years, the purchasing power of the common man has collapsed and now, the main priority for the people is the price and not the quality. With this realization countless non-registered juice companies are successfully expanding their business, by selling low quality products, at a much cheaper rate. Even in the organized sector, there are some who don’t honestly pay their taxes and utility bills and nor do they strictly abide by the labour laws formulated by the government. Such short cuts and wrong-doings produce an atmosphere of unhealthy competition, which is damaging and challenging for us as we don’t compromise on quality and like to follow the law in letter and spirit.
How do you cope with such huge difficulties and challenges? I tell my staff that challenges and difficulties are there, but we have to march forward with honesty. I will be wrong if I believe that one day, all problems and difficulties will disappear, because such a day might never come. In such a dismal situation, the only thing that we can do is to make the best possible utilization of all the available human and material resources and this is exactly what I try to do.
How do you fulfill your social corporate responsibilities? There are a number of ways in which we fulfil our social corporate responsibilities. First of all, we make every endeavor to provide quality products to our customers, so that they can have the worth of their money. Murree Brewery was running an excellent school which was snatched away from us as a part of Bhutto’s policy of nationalization. But even now, we assist that school in repair and maintenance. Bhandara Foundation, based in Lahore is actively involved in various charitable activities that may be described as an philanthropic arm of Murree Brewery. Many prominent people like Justice ® Nasira Iqbal are associated with Bhandara Foundation which regularly assists various charities and hospitals and other humanitarian organizations. Darakhshan is a Project of Association for Special Persons. It was established in 1961 in Rawalpindi for providing skills trainings to special persons of the society in multiple fields of life. Murree Brewery is helping Darakhshan by providing free building, electricity, security and other essential necessities to keep serving these special people. So far hundreds of students have successfully learnt and now generating income to upgrade their lives. Besides this, whenever someone comes to us with a request for financial assistance, we never say no and try to help.
You were also Member of Parliament, What you had done so for, for the welfare of minority community. As MNA, despite the limited resources, I had done my best to serve the community. The welfare of ‘Kalasha’ people. I had given projects and schemes worth three crore rupees in‘Kalasha’ valley. I had
| 343 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | built small community centers in South Punjab and interior Sindh for Minorities. I had extended financial help to poor people belonging from various religious minorities. I unfortunately appealed and protested with my own government that the funds being given to MNAs is a laughing stock. In such a situation how can you expect from any one to deliver. People also expect projects to be executed, financial aid to be given. But the funds are lesser but I had done what I can do in my limited capacity and will continue in future also.
Being one of the oldest companies of the sub-continent, Murree Brewery has maintained its standard in quality products. What is the main reason behind this? We do not compromise on quality. We keep quality conscious staff and we do not compromise on raw materials and most of our raw material is imported and carefully selected.
Do you think the existing business environment in Pakistan is friendly and the present government policies are business friendly? Not presently. Various Government departments and Utility departments try their best to harass business people as well as corporate houses which discourage growth and business in general. Creating hurdles is a mindset. It cannot be changed easily. A businessman is seen in this country as a fat cow. The impression is that every businessman is loaded with money; he has a lot of money to throw away this is a wrong impression. When you squeeze a businessman, he will shift his industry to other country. Then why are we expecting foreigners to come into Pakistan? Current atmosphere is not “business friendly”.
Murree Brewery is known for patronizing Polo. Are you sponsoring other games or not? We sponsor the oldest Polo tournament since 1904. But it will not be out of place to mention here that I would like to donate to hospitals, charities rather than sponsoring charity balls and concerts etc.
You are found of classic cars, would you like to tell us about your existing fleet? It is my hobby to collect old cars. Everyone should have passion of something, some collects guns. But I like collecting old Mercedes having models of 60’s 70’s & 80’s and you don’t count your children, it’s a bad omen.
In the end would you like to give some message to the people? Definitely, there is a message. This is a message which a German told me, ‘Pakistanis want to get rich overnight, without hard work, which is absolutely not possible’. He said look at Germany which totally destroyed back in World War-II. Look, where they are today. Look at Japan which was totally destroyed, look where they are today. I am also Pakistani, and I am proud of it, but we as a nation need to work hard with honesty and avoid short cuts to prosperity.
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“IN SUCH A DISMAL SITUATION, THE ONLY THING THAT WE CAN DO IS TO MAKE THE BEST POSSIBLE UTILIZATION OF ALL THE AVAILABLE HUMAN AND MATERIAL RESOURCES AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I TRY TO DO.”
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JALAL MEGHANI Deputy Managing Director & CFO, AdamJee Life Assurance Co. Limited
Profile: Jalal Meghani is the Deputy Managing Director at Adamjee Life Assurance Company Limited. By profession he is a Fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan. He was engaged with Adamjee Life since the start of the Company in 2008 as its Chief Financial Officer and was among the key members in developing the Company as one of the top most life insurers in private sector at present. Mr. Meghani has an overall experience of more than 17 years at senior management level responsible for financial management, planning & budgeting and organization development in diverse business sector including the multinational Aga Khan Development Network. He has also spent short time in Sri Lanka and Tanzania on special projects. He has a great passion for studying different sets of organizational cultures and its impact on the deliverable. He likes to read legal fiction & biographies and is an amateur pianist.
“IF YOU HAVE ENABLED YOUR NEXT GENERATION TO SPEND A QUALITY OF WORLDLY AND SPIRITUAL LIFE BETTER THAN WHAT YOU EXPERIENCED.”
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CEO Club: Let us start with your professional journey, how did you start? Jalal Meghani: I was basically involved to assist my father in family’s retail business after graduation but the business operating environment did not allow opportunities for personal development. The mastery in numbers and business economics was in the family DNA. The inspiration from the group of friends including some of the second generation members from paternal side of the family, allowed me to continue studies and I chose to become a Chartered Accountant. Post qualification, I started my career with a textile group in Pakistan including a six month stint in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Thereafter, I was offered to become a Partner of a mid size chartered accountancy firm where I spent three years as a Partner for assurance services. Realizing that I cannot add much value to my career continuing with audit/assurance services, I took up the position of Chief Financial Officer in Aga Khan Health Service (AKHS), Pakistan, which is a constituent member of the multinational Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). With AKDN I found a lot of opportunities to interact with different stakeholders nationally and internationally, including the multinational donor agencies, with the objective to develop sustainable financial model to improve quality of primary & secondary health care in Pakistan. During this time, I was also seconded for four months in AKHS, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, to restructure their financial model providing further opportunity for cross culture interactions. In 2007, AKDN embarked upon the project of developing micro heath insurance model for rural community with the engagement of consultants from Canada. It was the first such model launched in Pakistan with the involvement of AKHS, as a primary health gate keeper, the insurance as a service provider and village organizations for mobilization & collection of premium. The micro insurance project later opened the gate for different service providers to explore financial inclusivity for the underprivileged societies which is now advancing fast with the help of current technology. That project also provided me an opportunity to be approached by Hollard International - a South African Insurance Company – who were interested in a joint venture with Adamjee Insurance to start a life insurance Company in Pakistan. As a second appointment in the organization, I, along with my CEO, were tasked to establish the Company from the scratch. This involved obtaining life business license from SECP, handling foreign equity participation, development of vision, mission, strategies, long term business plan under the Board’s guidance and a continuous organization development with growing needs during the Company’s evolution cycle. That was the most exciting journey of my career where I was engaged prior to commencement of business up until now when Adamjee Life is one of the top most private sector life insurers in Pakistan. This was considering the fact that Adamjee was a late entrant in the life insurance market when all other major private sector insurance providers already had a separate and a matured life insurance line of distribution.
How did you take challenges and made them your strength during this journey? In this journey of developing a life insurance Company from the scratch we were fortunate enough to secure tremendous support from the sponsors to experiment and to make mistakes and to learn from those. This had made the initial years very exciting and we knew that we can grow only if the company will grow. Also since there was no baggage, the implementation of strategies and plan had witnessed full buy in from the team. With that landscape your initial achievements and learning are naturally going to be your strength as we move on to face changing dynamics of the ever evolving organization.
What is leadership to you? In my view there are three underpinnings of leadership; the first is the IMPACT of your persona to get
| 347 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | desired results, second is your INFLUENCE in spreading passion for the purpose of your existence and the third one is the INSPIRATION you stimulate as a role model in your teammates’ life.
Retention of key people is very challenging. How do you retain your key talent? It is indeed a challenging task considering the millennial mindset of materially achieving too much in a short span of time. What we do to retain key people is to let them know that we are working on a fast track towards their career path which includes targeted training & development and to prepare them for a next level role. Furthermore, since we have focused from the start on developing a culture of empowerment, respect and inclusivity; employees tend to look beyond monetary benefits only while planning any move.
How do you focus on mentoring, coaching and training your staff? We have a dedicated training department with training leads in each of the region where our distribution foot print is present. They are responsible for conducting ‘Foundation Course’ for the new entrants and a refresher course for our existing direct sales staff. Since the staffs in the field are involved at the first level interaction with the customer to pitch a relatively complex financial product, the training is therefore a key function with high budget allocation for any life insurance company. Furthermore, we have a separate function for organizational development as well which otherwise focuses on targeted trainings & development according to need identified during performance appraisal cycles. As said earlier, since we have a very inclusive and open environment, employees do not hesitate to ask for a help. It is given that all of our senior management team should be accessible if there is a need for counseling and mentoring for a particular staff.
How do you manage your anger and stress? By postponing to respond on the subject matter for at least 2 4 hours. By the way, I also believe in the benefits of few short span meditations every day.
How do you define success in a single phrase? If you have enabled your next generation to spend a quality of worldly and spiritual life better than what you experienced.
Apart from digits, do you like to read books? Yes, I like reading legal fictions and biographies.
Any message of optimism to youth from your side? If you are not optimist then you are a non-starter; you have to start with optimism. You should to be able to motivate yourself every day; to take every day as a new day because life will definitely pose difficulties and challenges at every stage. The present age is very fast paced and will be faster and competitive by the day. We can see that younger lots are becoming rich with lot of new start ups at the age of 28 to 35. This means that there are lots of new opportunities these days with the fast changing world. The youth should see that positively, particularly those who live in developing world for e.g. in West & East Africa and South East Asia where there is too much to work towards better quality of life. You will ultimately succeed if you are focused and disciplined in working upon these opportunities.
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“IN MY VIEW THERE ARE THREE UNDERPINNINGS OF LEADERSHIP; THE FIRST IS THE IMPACT OF YOUR PERSONA TO GET DESIRED RESULTS, SECOND IS YOUR INFLUENCE IN SPREADING PASSION FOR THE PURPOSE OF YOUR EXISTENCE AND THE THIRD ONE IS THE INSPIRATION YOU STIMULATE AS A ROLE MODEL IN YOUR TEAMMATES’ LIFE.”
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JAMAL AKBAR ANSARI CEO, Akbar Associates Group
Profile: Jamal Akbar Ansari, is the Chief Executive of Akbar Associates Group, a large business house with niche presence in oilfield services, heavy engineering, LPG transport & marketing, oil & water reservoir management, barites & carbonate mining, IOT and IT & IVR-CRM solutions. He brings to his current position over thirty-five years of highly diversified and rich industry experience from his associations with AAG, Schlumberger, Geohydrology Section of Kansas Geological Survey, Alaska Department of Power & the University of Alaska. In addition to his professional commitments, Jamal remains actively involved in socio-economic & socio-political initiatives and discussions. Jamal has had the honor of being part of Pakistan army. Though he left early, he continued his close association with the institution through his course mates, many of whom rose to be general officers. His course had the honor of having a four start when General Rashid Mahmood was appointed to be the CJSC. Jamal holds MS degrees in Geology & Petroleum Engineering and is an author of many papers & publications. He is an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) since 1980, was winner of the SPE Western Region Student Paper Contest in MS category in 1982 and was the founder Secretary and later Program Chairman & Director of the Pakistan Section of the SPE.
“A CEO SHOULD BE READY TO TAKE THE BLAME BUT PASS THE CREDIT AND HE SHOULD KNOW WHEN AND HOW TO DELEGATE TASKS.”
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CEO Club: Could you tell us a bit about Akbar Associates? Jamal Akbar Ansari: My late father Mr. Mohammad Akbar Ansari founded Akbar Associates. He was from the first-generation of Pakistani oil explorers and petroleum engineers, having joined the Attock Oil Company Limited as a young engineer in September of 1948. After working with Attock Oil Company for over three decades he founded Akbar Associates in 1983 as engineering consultancy, which later diversified into indenting and with the Grace of Almighty Allah today is a multi-faceted business house with interests in Heavy Engineering, Mining, LPG, IT & Hospitality sectors. Plus, we are always on the lookout for opportunities specially in the technology sector.
How many employees do you have, overall? We have over 300 employees – mostly skilled to highly-skilled.
What is your family’s background in this field? Well, I, like my father am a petroleum engineer by training. I am a graduate of the University of Kansas, USA and following in my and in his grandfather’s footsteps my son also graduated from my alma mater. My brother and I run the company – he is an architect by training but he joined my father well before I did. I joined in 1989 and he and I have been working together ever since, growing, making mistakes, falling down, learning and getting up again… that has really been the story of our company. But, Alhamdulillah, we have done well.
Could you define the vision and mission behind the Akbar Associates Group? Our vision is simple, ‘develop into a national company, where making a profit is secondary to our core values – honesty, full measure, no harm to environment & people we work with and quality of products & services we deliver – while maintaining continuous value addition for all stakeholders’. In pursuit of this vision we have ensure that all our operating units have their QMS, EMS & OHS programs accredited and certified to ISO standards. Our commitment to fair circumspect business is manifested in a fully implemented business ethics policy that is independently certified by Trace since 2012. In addition we have a robust and fully implemented anti-human trafficking policy.
Can you share your company’s average growth rate over the period of time you’ve managed it and why is that? Alhamdulillah, we have grown at an average of 20 percent per year over the last 20-25 years. But over the last three years, this growth rate has been impacted severely because anti local business policies of the government, specially for the local engineering sector.
Well, engineering sector in general and heavy engineering & steel hasn’t been a priority area for government since the 70s. The reason has been adhoc, totally non-coherent and shortsighted approach of the policy makers. It is because of this very reason that we still remain an economy struggling to find its feet. The natural economic progression is from an agriculture economy to an industrial economy to a knowledge economy. Growth in all three segments requires strong engineering base, which Pakistan lacks. From basic agriculture implements, to industrial machinery, to tools necessary for growth of knowledge, we are dependent on imports. Government policy or lack there of impacts corporate entities the hardest because we are actually legally bound to follow
| 351 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | the policy mandatory compliance purposes. If the policy is structured to be detrimental then we have little in the way of defense in the matter. In fact, the more compliant and circumspect a company, the higher the impact it will feel and the more vulnerable it becomes. So, what the general public is facing now started to affect us some years ago. The lack of understanding & support, the consistent uncertainty in policy governing the engineering sector in particular has played havoc. Added to this has been dumping by the Chinese based engineering companies.
What is your stance on CPEC? To quote President Jiang Zemin of China, “In Pakistan, it is now very important that we try and separate the “truth from facts” CPEC is a fact. Now we need to find the truth behind it. Ask any businessman and he will tell you that you don’t take a dollar-debt to build roads. And if you are taking dollar-debts to build roads… then there is something very seriously wrong with the equation. Mian Nawaz Sharif Sahib has a legacy that may haunt him for many years to come. Having said that, it was CPEC and Shabaz Sharif who have augmented the present power generation capacity with an additional 11,000 megawatts. To me CPEC is only a means but certainly not the final destination.
You mentioned Pakistani leaders. What are, in your opinion, the three essential requirements for being a leader? I think leaders should have three basic traits: 1. Integrity – that people can trust. 2. Brave – to take difficult decisions & tackle problems head-on, and 3. The most important, the ability to pick a good team. There is no fourth requirement for a leader. Historically, we have had leaders who were perceived to be honest and who were relatively brave but they all failed in picking a good team.
“LETS, WORK TO SEPARATE THE ‘TRUTH FROM THE FACTS’, WHICH IN OUR CASE HAVE BEEN MADE MORE COMPLEX IS SEA OF LIES.”
In your opinion, are two essential qualities for a CEO to possess? 1. A CEO should be ready to take the blame but pass the credit. 2. A CEO should know when and how to delegate tasks. My father used to say people get paid more to get the job done than to do the job themselves. That is because it is more difficult to get good work done from others than to do a good job yourself.
What is Akbar Group’s corporate culture like? We make a conscious effort, sometimes at take great pains, to ensure that all our employees are
| 352 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | treated not only fairly but also with compassion. As a company, we take great pride in being a family. The fact that starting from the very first batch of colleagues who joined the team,, we have not had to fire even a single one. People from that batch are either still working with us at relatively senior positions or have retired after fulfilling their terms of service. We believe that starting from the peon all the way to my office, all positions work for the same company and the same cause – the only difference is the burden and responsibility that each position brings.
Being a US graduate and Pakistani business owner, are you comfortable with the quality of graduates coming out of our universities? No. Not just a small but a very big No! Our engineering schools, unfortunately, refuses to produce engineers. It’s a very disturbing phenomenon. What we are producing are basically mechanics. Our engineers are very good in fixing a problem but generally lack the ability to frame a problem. Just like, it takes a good doctor having the required analytical skills to diagnose an ailment and a team of highly skilled scientists to find a cure. While, most can prescribe a treatment. The situation with our business schools is relatively better. The reason is that we got IBA rather early and were able to sustain it too. LUMS added a new dimension. This hasn’t been the case with the engineering schools. Though, NUST and GIK are beginning to offer some hope.
What is, in your opinion, the one problem that holds Pakistan back from success? We are drowning in a sea of lies. The truth in Pakistan is lost or hidden in this huge and ever growing pile of lies compounded by the fact that we all tend to have our own set of facts.
Yes we are a free society. We all have and of course we all are entitled to our opinions. But it does not end here. We all also have our own sets of data and facts. This is where the trouble starts.
The primary reason for this, other than culture, is that there is no central depository of data and if there is one it is neither known nor assessable to the common folks. Also there is strong governmental control on information.
This control on information coupled with lack of proactive planning has taken focus away from our strengths to fire fights and covering failures. This, when practiced as government policy results, what I call, for lack of better terminology, africanization of Pakistan. Like Africa, Pakistan is blessed with abundance of resources, both human and natural, but mismanagement and incompetence has destroyed the basic fabric of the society. Two strong case studies of how abundance of resource can destroy a country look at Mexico and Nigeria before and after they discovered oil. May be the same has or is happening to Pakistan after the green revolution. Lets, work to separate the ‘truth from the facts’, which in our case have been made more complex is sea of lies.
Let us all resolve to be part of the effort to separate the truth from facts so that we can plan a correct course of correction for us as individuals and for our country at large.
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JAWAD AMIN KHAN Managing Director, ZAFA Group
Profile: ZAFA Pharmaceutical Laboratories Private Limited, the parent company of ZAFA Group, was founded in 1973 by its current Chairman, the legendary Mr. Muhammad Amin Khan, with the slogan of “medicines for all” and to ensure that no one should suffer from want of medication. The business which was launched with just 5 products and 1 factory and a humble investment of Rs. 200,000, has flourished significantly over the years, and has now become a multi-billion rupee multi-national company, having 9 state-of-the-art manufacturing plants and marketing offices inside Pakistan and 22 other countries situated in Middle East, Africa, South America and Central America. The illustrious ZAFA Group now consists of more than 15 companies including 3 pharmaceutical companies and others dealing with printing, edible oils and pharmaceutical packaging.
“HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS ARE LINKED TO CONTENTMENT, HARD WORK AND HONESTY AND UTILIZING ONE’S TIME AND RESOURCES IN A CONSTRUCTIVE MANNER.”
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CEO Club: For quite some time, Pakistan has been facing dire economic problems, desperately in need of bail out packages. How is it possible to turn around this dismal situation? Jawad Amin Khan: It’s time for us to understand the simple fact that for sustainable economic growth, we must consolidate the businesses and industries operating in the private sector. Industry whichis the backbone of economy, is the biggest provider of blue collar and white collar jobs and therefore, rapid industrial progress can create tremendous job opportunities and bring down crime rate, by engaging the youth in constructive activities and bringing an end to economic disparities among various segments of society. No economic turn around is possible without strengthening the hands of industrialists by addressing their genuine problems and grievances.
On account of your longstanding association with the pharmaceutical industry, you must be fully aware of the challenges and problems hindering its growth. Would you like to mention some of them? For several years, our biggest headache has been the non-existent pricing policy. When we got our last price increase way back in 2002, one dollar was worth 68 Rupees. Since then, value of the dollar against the Rupee has more than doubled, significantly increasing the cost of production and adversely affecting the industry and the common man. In view of the ever increasing price of fuels and sophisticated machinery much needed for automation and upgradation, we are fully justified in demanding a reasonable price increase for our products, to save ourselves from the damaging effects of the devaluation of the Rupee. Then, there is the issue of sales tax, which is in most cases has to be paid by the buyers or consumers. But in our Pharma industry, it is imposed not on the finished products, but on the manufacturing components such as packaging materials. This inevitably leads to cost addition. Furthermore, in order to penetrate into bigger foreign markets, we are in desperate need of internationally reputed consultants. But most of them are extremely reluctant to come here due to the precarious law and order situation. To be honest our regulators sitting at DRAP do understand our problems but whenever they take any steps it is highlighted in such a negative way that the industry suffers. Hopefully, our new rulers would understand the gravity of the situation and try to provide us some relief.
How do you evaluate ZAFA’s performance since its inception? In the early 90s, we were only a hundred people and had the annual turn over of less than a hundred million. Now, ZAFA is a multi-billion group of companies engaged in a wide variety of businesses in addition to the main Pharmaceutical business. Currently, we have around 5,600 employees, more than half of whom are women. We have our own manufacturing plant in Africa, from where our products are sent to the entire region. Moreover, we were the first Pakistani company to send our medicines to North, South and Central America. CPEC related projects are likely to give us greater access to the Central Asian markets.
Are you satisfied with the level of professionalism in our commercial entities? Lack of professionalism and poor governance are some of the major irritants seriously undermining the growth of our businesses. Instead of working in Pakistan, good professional managers like to settle abroad, not just for the sake of salary, but also for a more peaceful, more secure and more conducive environment. In addition to this, our young professionals are also lacking in professional
| 355 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | commitment. Apparently, they may be staying in the office for 12 hours, but during those 12 hours, they waste a lot of time and do not do as much work as professionals in other countries do in 8 or 6 hours.
What core competencies can make a good business leader or CEO? A good business leader or CEO is absolutely clear in his mind about his company’s goals and objectives and pursues them aggressively and relentlessly, with the active involvement, support and participation of all the team members. He possesses an indomitable will to march forward through hard work and strict adherence to the lofty ethical values, such as hard work, honesty, integrity, commitment and fair play. He has an unwavering, unflinching and implacable faith in Allah, in himself and his team. He knows the art of building an excellent winning team by involving all the people, praising them and telling them where they are right and where they are wrong.
In this age of entrepreneurship, how can we create more entrepreneurs? Entrepreneurs are risk takers and have a non-conventional mindset. While people in general like to keep their money safe by purchasing defence saving certificates, gold or pieces of land, entrepreneurs launch bold initiatives and invest whatever money they have into their own business ventures. They are born with this particular bent of mind and begin to display it at a very young age. If a person doesn’t possess this type of attitude by birth, no institution can create it in him.
Family owned businesses often suffer a sudden decline when non-professional family members are appointed to key posts. What policy have you formulated to avoid this unfortunate happening? Our policy in this regard is absolutely clear and unambiguous. If any of our family members is capable of managing the company’s affairs in a thoroughly professional manner, he will be given a post with full powers and full backing. Otherwise, if he is keen to remain in contact with the company, he’d better stay in the board and enjoy the profits. When I joined my father’s business, he trusted me and believed in my professional skills. In the past 28 years, I have proved time and again that my appointment was purely on merit. I have played a key role in the acquisition of several companies, all of which were going in loss at the time of acquisition. With the assistance of my team consisting of highly professional and competent people, I have been able to turn around all these companies which are now yielding hefty profits. I am currently managing the ZAFA Group, which has 10 Pharmaceutical Formulation and API facilities at Pakistan and also has presence in Africa with its own production facilities. My job includes managing a team of Chartered Accountants and Cost Accountants, Professionals of sales and marketing, highly trained Pharmacist and Chemists, engineers looking after our glass business and this exciting mix makes everyday worthwhile. I also manage the profitability of individual divisions and keep myself upto date with the support of my team. My duties also include keeping an eye on profitability and performance of international marketing offices of the Group and ensuring that they all perform as per the targets given to them.
In the hectic routine of your professional life, how are you able to maintain work-life balance? Maintaining work-life balance becomes all the more difficult when you are running a huge business group, consisting of highly diversified businesses, employing thousands of people, men as well as
| 356 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | women. In such a situation, the role of your family members assumes greater importance. They must understand the complex nature of your job and try to adjust, adapt and accommodate themselves accordingly.
What are your coping strategies for tackling anger and stress? No matter what you do, at times, you are bound to get frustrated, stressed and outraged. However, while venting out your fury, you should make it sure that the other person fully understands that you are doing it for his own benefit, further improvement and greater success. You should try to convince him that he has the potential for further growth if he avoids his earlier mistakes. Thus, anger should be expressed in a positive manner, so that the other fellow should be fully convinced that you don’t have any personal grudges against him.
What type of books do you like to read? I am not a good reader. Instead, I am a good listener and observer. I’m always greatly inspired by the success stories of those who succeed in the teeth of opposition and fulfil their dreams despite multiple challenges, trials and tribulations. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was one such person who did not like to give up, whatever the situation might be. I too never give up and take up every challenge courageously and resolutely.
How would you like to define happiness and success? Happiness and success are linked to contentment, hard work and honesty and utilizing one’s time and resources in a constructive manner. I perfectly believe that time and money consumed in tax evasion and other such unlawful activities, should be spent on the development of one’s business. One should always have high aims and aspirations and should continue one’s struggle to achieve them. The person who doesn’t believe in continuous growth and development should better die. Whenever I get some spare time, I spend it on planning more acquisitions. I try my best to do whatever I can for my employees and how can I contribute in further development of our individual businesses. Work hard, work honestly and work smart. Whatever you do, give it your best and success will be yours.
What are your optimistic views on the future of Pakistan? We, the nation of more than 200 million people, are strongly united to make Pakistan a well-developed and prosperous nation to live in. We should make considerable efforts to eliminate obstacles from our routes of success. Being a Muslim, we should respect everyone’s beliefs without any discrimination of race and creed. I would like to quote the most important teaching of Islam is to serve the humanity. We must create an atmosphere of sympathy and fraternity in our country. Our mission should be same that is to elevate the economic status of our motherland.
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JAWAD MIRZA CEO, CallCourier
Profile: Call Courier recognizing the need of delivering these items on time at buyer’s doorstep introduced COD Services nationwide. With 24 to 48 Hours delivery time Call Courier delivers to more than 400 destinations, covering every corner of Pakistan. What makes Call Courier client’s most trusted COD service is its automated software and mobile application. It not only gives an online booking facility but also real-time tracking and update of each shipment. Call Courier is the sister concern of Excel Group. It was established in 2003 with an aim to serve the need of millions of people across the nation. Call Courier values every customer it picks up from and delivers to. Providing a professional and on time service is important to us as well as maintaining both a friendly and professional relationship with our customers. With changing times and needs Call Courier takes pride itself on service reliability with innovative solutions.
“HARD WORK, FAITH IN ALLAH AND PASSION FOR YOUR WORK / CAUSE IS THE RECIPE OF SUCCESS.”
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CEO Club: Please share your professional background and your corporate profile along with what is the secret to your success as a CEO in a nutshell and does being fit play a role? Jawad Mirza: I was reading about the four hormones that are very important for one to produce, one of those hormones called Serotonin is derived through exercise. I from a very early age have been interested in sports and that is something that I have continued to participate in. My business partner and I have been friends since childhood; we graduated from Lahore School of Economics in 1999. After that both of us got jobs, even though my friend’s father is a renowned industrialist. I think that every individual should venture into the workforce regardless of the background they belong to. They should get jobs so they can experience the challenges, hardships and environment, if a businessman or industrialist just hands over a position to their child they are going to they are going to lack the exposure and experience. As a result the individual is going to become pampered and unable to handle criticism from others. My Father passed away in 1997 so getting a job was a necessity for me. One should gain exposure and experience that comes from working for an organization even if your intent is to start your own business. You should know how to deal with your employee base, which will only happen when you have spent time being an employee yourself. When I established my courier company, I was the first courier and I delivered the shipment myself. I did so because I wanted to identify the hardships and challenges of being a courier. I wanted to be able to address and solve those problems when I hired my own riders and be able to properly help and guide them. In 2003 Mr.Adil Mansoor called us, we were both working at that point and I at the time had no significant investment, all I had was a car. I asked him what we needed to do; he advised us to open a courier company and explained the ins and outs of doing so. He advised us to take on bulk courier and not do 24 hour deliveries. My business partner and I both invested 400,000 rupees each and started with a total of 800,000 rupees. We had an office with two rooms and 10 couriers and we started a courier company that delivered Lahore to Lahore only. We then went and pitched attractive packages to the corporate industry; our first order was given to us by Mobilink. We had to deliver 500 letters for them within Lahore and we were very happy with our accomplishment. That is how we started and we kept working hard and Almighty Allah kept opening new ways for us.
When you established your company what were the challenges that you had to face in terms of human resource and finance? We started on a very small scale. I always advise people to start of small, then understand it and then master it. My advice for young entrepreneurs is that they should have complete knowledge of whatever it is that they are starting. They should have a clear vision and aim. I had no experience of the courier business; I had held jobs in the areas of sales and marketing. Then an opportunity presented itself and someone was willing to guide us and I agreed to it. I thought to myself that this is not rocket science, all we have to do is we need to deliver a package to a certain address and then inform the client that the delivery has been made. When you convert this into numbers the service is bigger and different all together but at the time we started it was different because we started on a smaller scale. I learnt a lot during this period because of our small-ness there was a lot of interaction with human resources, with all the employees and so on. When our office boy was absent, I used to cook and make
| 359 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | tea for everyone and we used to eat together as well. Something that gives me an immense sense of pride is that out of the 10 couriers that started with us, 8 of them are still with us. It has been 16-17 years now, this is something that I feel is my success story. It was because of this close interaction that I learnt a great deal about employee retention. Frankly speaking we did not face a lot of problems from the government. A lot of people advised me against going into business but I faced no such issues. I think that if you have the right ingredients your dish will always turn out right. You should always have the right intentions, you should not con people or make commitments you know you cannot keep, be honest, earn your livelihood through the right means, refrain from betrayal and fraud and maintain the etiquette of doing business. These are the only ingredients you need. If you practice the above you will automatically become technically strong. If you have the passion, work hard, remain down to earth, humble and treat your employees like colleagues. If you practice all of this, your employees will not leave your company for a 5-10 percent salary hike and go somewhere else.
What sets Call Courier apart from the rest and what is your competitive edge over the rest of your competition? The difference is that we operate within a certain domain. When we tried to grow our domains, we were not all that successful. We were the first entrants in laser printing we started before our competitors TCS and Leopards. We also shifted our paradigm from bulk mail to COD (Cash on Delivery). We are different from the rest because of the fact that if we are doing one service, our entire focus lies on that one service. Before us there was no concept of same day payments, before us customer services was not as oriented. Now if you order a product online and you are a working individual who is not at home during office hours but you have given your home address for delivery. We will deliver your package after 6pm this form of delivery is called ‘time stipulated delivery.’ You can specify the time and location of the delivery. Previously it used to take 15 days to make payments to the client. We started same day payments. We made innovations and also introduced artificial intelligence along with geo-tagging etc. A courier is not paid what he should be paid. Our Group Chairman Mr.Adil Mansoor has very interesting criteria for success. One day he said to me that the day your courier starts to earn 40,000-50,000 rupees a month, I will then believe that you are a success.
How much time do you spend grooming, coaching and mentoring your employees? When our staff was somewhere between 300-500 people every courier and his area used to be on my fingertips. Now I visit my branch offices very often, it is very difficult to address all of them personally since we have grown in numbers. This is why I give motivational speeches and address them as a group in courier hall meetings. We also have a training program to keep our couriers up to date with the new apps that are being launched. Initially all the information was compiled on paper as opposed to now when everything is digital in nature. We are the only courier company that provides 95 percent real-time online delivery status.
How do you manage cash flow challenges? I think when the company is green there is no such challenge. We changed the angle of our business
| 360 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | by 360 degrees. Therefore I can draw a comparison between the two. Previously our clients list was made up of mainly banks and all stellar or seller? companies. The payment period used to be 3-4 months, so you had to compensate the cash flow for that amount of time and this used to be a huge problem. Now our business is in cash, our clients include Sana Safinaz, Sapphire, Khaadi, Beechtree, Limelight etc. Suppose you have placed an order online for a suit that costs 5,000 rupees, our job is to deliver it and collect the 5,000 rupees and then deduct the amount which is ours. We give the remaining amount to the concerned company; therefore the advantage for us is that we get paid up front. The liquidity is better in this mode of business.
What are the core competencies a CEO should possess in order to run a successful company? He/she should be a very honest person. They should practice honesty in all aspects of business. They should have complete understanding of what is going on and not overcommit.
What are some of the difficult decisions that you have had to make over the last 10 years of your career? The most difficult decision that I had to take was in May 2017, at the time nearly all the banks and stellar companies were our clients. Banks like National Bank, Habib Bank, Meezan Bank, Bank Islami etc. were all our clients. We used to print statement of accounts along with credit card bills etc. for them. We used to print, pack and deliver them. At times it took about 3-4 years for us to get business of some banks like MCB. It took me three years to land MCB as a client and I used to visit them once or twice every month. To forego all of that business and hard work, to say goodbye and write letters to all these businesses and tell them that we will no longer be working with you due to the decrease in prices was incredibly difficult. For i.e. in 2005 when we started the cost of printing, packaging and delivering an average two page bill was 35 rupees. The petrol price then was 54 rupees a liter, in 2016 this price came down to 14 rupees due to competition. That is when I had to stop and say no. This was a blessing in disguise for us, since now the concept is to “Go Green” so all the bills and credit card statements are turning towards email billing. It is now when I have I left the business that I have found out that only 20 percent of that business now remains.
What is you biggest achievement? My biggest achievement is that today I am in the position for you to interview me. I started with only 400,000 rupees and 10 employees; today that number has gone up to 2,000.
Who is a source of inspiration or a role model to you? Adil Mansoor.
How do you manage stress? I manage stress by keeping my faith strong and unwavering in Almighty Allah. Allah kept making miracles happen that reaffirmed my faith. One very interesting incident was when a Jew asked me if I would convert to Judaism if he convinced me that Judaism is a better religion than Islam. I said no I would not. He then asked me why not. I said that Islam is the religion of my ancestors, my forefathers,
| 361 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | my parents and my family. If I convert I will be a social outcast. He then said that if that is the case, how are you better than the Jews of the time of your Prophet PBUH. They did not convert due to this very fear; that means you are a Muslim by chance rather than a Muslim by choice. This incident and statement affected me deeply and it led me to supplicate to Almighty Allah. I read up on other religions and I made a pact with myself that I would be a Muslim by choice. I read up on a number of other subjects like human anatomy, astronomy, science etc. This led my faith in a Superior Being to get stronger, whenever I went through stress I left it all up to Allah.
What is your recipe of success? • Hard work. • Faith in Allah. • Passion for your work/cause.
What is happiness to you? Happiness is in doing welfare, spending time with my mother, with my family and friends. Seeking happiness in welfare was something that I learnt from my Father. In 1995 my Father was diagnosed with tongue cancer. At the time Shaukat Khanum was not as developed as it is today there was nothing surrounding it. I used to take my Father for his chemotherapy sessions every day, then chemotherapy was also not as advanced as it is today. There were a lot of ill side effects. Therefore I had to give my Father injections to put him to sleep. Since my father was a doctor by profession his standing instructions were that he should be woken up if there was a patient who needed him and that the patient should not be sent away. This is when I learnt that his work was his passion; he had tongue cancer but never got surgery done because it would cause a speech impediment that would create issues in his practice. This is how I learnt that happiness is all about giving.
Are you into the habit of reading and what are some of your favorite books? A book that I would like to recommend everybody to read is “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.
What are the competencies that you would like to see in the younger generation and what is your message of hope and optimism that you would like to give out to our younger generation? Warren Buffett is known as the second richest man in the world and he is the world’s no. 1 philanthropist. He has said that when you are hiring, look for three things in a person. 1. Ability 2. Initiative/ ability to think out of the box. 3. Honesty When I interview youngsters for key positions I ask them about their strengths. Whoever does not include honesty on their list, I guide them that even though honesty is the most underrated; it holds the utmost importance. If you are honest you will practice it in all areas of life and in your work. There are no shortcuts in life; you have to go through a learning curve. Success also has a learning curve and a journey to get to it. There are no shortcuts in life but there is a long way because your personality also needs to be shaped. So always take the long route, enjoy it and live one day at a time.
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“THE CORE COMPETENCIES OF A CEO IS THAT HE/SHE SHOULD BE A VERY HONEST PERSON. THEY SHOULD PRACTICE HONESTY IN ALL ASPECTS OF BUSINESS. THEY SHOULD HAVE COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT IS GOING ON AND NOT OVERCOMMIT.”
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JUNAID ESMAIL MAKDA President, Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) & CEO, Makda Group of Companies
Profile: Besides being the President of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Junaid Esmail Makda is also the Chief Executive Officer of Makda Group of Companies which comprises of Makda (Pvt.) Ltd, Gaseous Distribution Company (Pvt.) Ltd (GDCL), Makda Industries, Makda Enterprise, Friends Real Estate, Friends Packages, Friends CNG, Fuel Star Service Station and Makda CNG Services. Since 1980, Junaid Makda is in Knitwear and Woven business, Managing, Administering, procuring all types of Textile requirements from Yarn to Exports. One of his companies is also engaged in sourcing and representation of international companies. He is also in CNG and Real Estate Business and one of his company Imports and Exports Chemicals & General Commodities.
Moreover, Junaid Esmail Makda has also offered his services from time to time as Member for Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KW&SB), Sectoral Advisory Committee, Environment Climate Change & Coastal Development Department, Government of Sindh, Provincial Steering Committee, Services, General Administration & Coordination Department, Government of Sindh, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), Sindh Solid Waste Management Board, Government of Sindh, Industrial Liaison Committee, Industries & Commerce Department, Government of Sindh, Coordination Committee, Labor & Human Resources Department, Government of Sindh, Member Advisory Committee (South), Federal Tax Ombudsman and National Centre for Dispute Resolution (NCDR).
Being the President of Karachi Chamber, Junaid Makda is also a Board Member of 22 Universities and Colleges in Karachi and is also on the Board of Directors of numerous public sector institutions.
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CEO Club: Could you please tell us a bit about yourself? Junaid Esmail Makda: I belong to an established business family and I am running my own business for over three decades. Initially, I was associated with textile business involving manufacturing and exports of Knitwear, Woven, and Yarn. I achieved noteworthy success as an exporter of knitwear under the flag of Makda Industries. Subsequently, I endeavoured that we will have to improve our packaging capabilities in order to increase the quantum of exports. So, I established our own plastic factory with the name of Friends Packages where we manufactured different kinds of materials which were previously imported to Pakistan like HDP, LDP, LLDP, PVC and PP. Successively, I further expanded my business portfolio and diversified in other sectors including CNG, Real Estate and trade of Chemicals & General Commodities. I am now the Chief Executive Officer of Makda Group of Companies which comprises of Makda (Pvt.) Ltd, Gaseous Distribution Company (Pvt.) Ltd. (GDCL), Makda Industries, Makda Enterprise, Friends Real Estate, Friends Packages, Friends CNG, Fuel Star Service Station and Makda CNG Services. My aim and objective have always been to serve the Nation and to establish self-sustaining institutions which are able to run on their own. After being elected as the President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) in 2018-19, I have the honour of heading the premier and largest Chamber of Pakistan. I am grateful to Mr. Siraj Kassam Teli - Chairman Businessmen Group (BMG) for reposing confidence in me and nominating me as the presidential candidate of BMG for KCCI’s elections in which our BMG group won all the seats by a wide margin. I have excelled to this level after serving at KCCI for many years in different capacities particularly as Vice President – KCCI, Chairman, KCCI’s International Affairs – Liaison with International Chambers formation of joint Chambers and MOUs implementation of Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), Chairman, Industry, Investment & Privatization Su-Committee KCCI and Chairman, KCCI Legal Affairs, Estate Management & Hospital Sub- Committee. Moreover, I am offering my services as Governing Body Member of Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KW&SB), Sectoral Advisory Committee, Environment Climate Change & Coastal Development Department, Government of Sindh, Provincial Steering Committee, Services, General Administration & Coordination Department of Sindh, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), Sindh Solid Waste Management Board, Industrial Liaison Committee, Industries & Commerce Department of Sindh, Coordination Committee, Labour & Human Resources Department of Sindh, and National Centre for Dispute Resolution (NCDR) as well as on the Board of Governors of 22 universities and educational institutions. Formerly, I have served as President, Pakistan- Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PAJCCI), Chairman, Bombay-Karachi Joint Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Chairman, All Pakistan CNG Association, Patron In-Chief, All Pakistan CNG Forum, President, SITE Association of Industry, Chairman, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PHMA), Director, Sindh Industrial Trading Estates Ltd., Director, Sindh Board of Investment SBOI, Chief Coordinator, Commissioner–Karachi Chamber Liaison Committee (CCLC), Coordinator, Governing Body Police Chamber Liaison Committee (PCLC), Coordinator City District Govt. – Chamber Liaison Committee (CGCLC), Honorary Secretary, Dhoraji Cooperative Housing Society and Dhoraji Housing & Relief Trust. Moreover, I am also Life Member of SAARC Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Karachi Club and Member Advisory Committee on Deutsche GIZ GmbH, Germany. I have also served as the Executive Committee Member of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry. Besides, I have served as General Council Member of ICC World Chambers Federation (WCF) and Member
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International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) National Committee Pakistan Chapter, Chairman, Steering Committee on Espire Project Bavarian Employers‘ Association (bfz) GmbH, Chairman to represent on US AID Pakistan Firms Project, Member Governing Body, PHMA Institute of Knitwear Technology and Managing Director, Pakistan Hosiery & Textiles Manufacturers Inc., USA. I enterprise to deliver the best of services at every forum due to which decision makers recommend my name for inclusion on the boards of different institutions and organizations. I have fearlessly fought against injustice, corruption and malpractices in the system. I have been able to get many tax anomalies and ambiguities in rules and laws rectified. I am happy that my efforts and successful endeavours are having positive bearings on Economy, Business and Industrial Community as well as on the society. Pertinent to mention here that my successful advocacy in the matter of GIDC to the Government caused great relief for CNG sector whereby due to my effective and pragmatic role the GIDC Cess Amendment Act was enacted resulting to 50 percent exemptions and relief for the CNG sector and revenue generation of billions of Rupees for the Government. Similarly, during my tenure as President of Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce & Industry I advocated to promote Pak-Afghan Transit Trade and effective Border Management between two countries to enhance revenue generation, trade and economic growth. I have also successfully convinced the Government to provide business friendly and enabling environment and ease of doing business.
What is the role of KCCI in the economy of Pakistan? Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) is a very vibrant Chamber which is striving hard to serve the business and Industrial community. There are over 55,000 direct and indirect members because KCCI oversees seven industrial zones which function as sub-licensees and affiliated with KCCI under the Trade Organizations Act. Nearly 70% of the revenue collection is contributed by the members of the KCCI. Roughly, over 500,000 tax payers belong to KCCI out of the total one million tax payers. KCCI has been providing all types of services to facilitate its members. KCCI issues budget recommendations, conducts research studies, creates government-business- academia linkages, participates in CSR activities and organizes seminars, events and exhibitions. KCCI holds a mega international exhibition namely My Karachi – Oasis of Harmony every year where local and foreign companies / exhibitors actively participate. This event attracts immense participation of around a million visitors in three days. KCCI is working hard in promoting a soft image of the country. KCCI has been successful in resolving several issues related to ease of doing business, taxation, energy availability, infrastructure, reducing cost of doing business and creating a business environment that is more conducive and investment friendly. Resolution of these issues are instrumental in attracting a lot of FDI into the area. KCCI is committed to protect and promote the interest of trade, commerce, and industry in Karachi and elsewhere. The KCCI’s International Affairs Committee maintains a meaningful connection of Karachi Chamber with its foreign counterparts. I as the Chairman of International Affairs Committee have signed more than 100 Memorandum of Understanding for mutual cooperation, exchange trade information and delegations, etc.
Where do you see KCCI five years down the road, what role KCCI would be playing after 5 years? The role that the KCCI is currently playing is one of facilitator and bridge connecting stakeholders, foreign missions and the government. While I would like to tell you our plans for the next five years,
| 366 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | what we have actually achieved in the last decade or more is especially impressive; we have worked and toiled through a war-like law and order situation in the country. There is a Police Chamber Liaison Committee which I established with the help of other sector leaders. I helped them plan its projects and efforts to provide justice to the common man. Recently, with our intervention and demand, Governor of Sindh Mr Imran Ismail established Industrial Liaison Committee at the Sindh Governor’s House, as well. Our policy is to support the Government on all matters of national and public interest. We strictly believe in supremacy of law and justice, good governance and ethical business practices. However, whenever legitimacy has been deviated I have raised a strong voice towards such deviations till the matter has been redressed. We fully support the Business and Industrial Community on all legitimate matters and demands in the light of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, relevant laws of land and fair business practices. Nevertheless, if anyone is found being involved in any kind of wrong-doing gets no support from us because we at KCCI firmly believe in “Rule of Law” and its implementation. This legit journey of Karachi Chamber is continuing to serve the Business & Industrial Community as well as our country – Pakistan. Over the years, KCCI has achieved several milestones and it will continue to do public service in future as well. KCCI is taking productive measures to improve its service quality and remain abreast with the new technological advancements. KCCI is focusing on modernizing its Information Technology infrastructure and Research & Economic Development capabilities. KCCI has introduced video conferencing solutions to increase communication and enhance its reach out with its affiliate Associations, Pakistani Missions abroad and Foreign Missions in Pakistan. I see KCCI to be acting as a major think tank for government policy making and it will be the most prominent centre for the promotion of trade and commerce equipped with most modern facilities.
What is leadership to you, how do you see business leadership? To me leadership is all about influence, where a person is able to successfully direct the energies of the team towards a common objective of moving ahead in the right direction to achieve the desired results. A genuine and true businessman is always a Leader who does not impose his leadership on others to create followers but in reality the Great Leaders are the ones who create more Leaders. All those who are able to do good business in any kind of tough situation, and are able to stand out as good business professionals are, in my opinion, really leaders to be appreciated. A successful businessman is one whose activities not only benefit himself but also his associates as well as the society in general. A true business leader builds up his empire through honest means by utilizing his business acumen and the available resources.
Your message of optimism for the youth? My message to youth is that they should work hard and gain as much knowledge as possible in their area of their interest. If you are able to become an expert of your field, success and money will follow you in your career. The youth of Pakistan should not be disappointed, no matter how hard the circumstances may be. Education should be their first priority, and they should have faith inAlmighty Allah who is their sole provider. I will advise the youth to prefer entrepreneurship after completion of their academic career. Even after getting professional exposure the learning process should not be stopped but they should continue to seek knowledge and also spread the knowledge to others.
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KASHIF AZIZ KHAWAJA Country Manager, Footwear Servis Industries Limited
Profile: Kashif Aziz Khawaja is an experienced businessmen and people leader with a solid 20-year experience, including last 7 years at Top Team level. He has worked in Pakistan, Australia, Hong Kong, Vietnam and South Korea and being a member of Asia Pacific regional marketing leadership team has provided a strategic and business overview of Asia. He’s been actively involved and drove strategic change management in the current and previous 3 roles, encompassing strategy redefinition, portfolio redeployment and organizational restructuring. Currently, he is serving as Country Manager, Footwear Service Industries Limited.
“IF YOU WANT TO GROW, YOU NEED TO DO WHAT YOUR BOSS DOES, WHICH OBVIOUSLY PUTS ADDITIONAL PRESSURE AND WORKLOAD ON YOU.”
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CEO Club: Could you tell us a bit about what you do and specifically about what ShoeBox is? Kashif Aziz Khawaja: I am heading up the domestic footwear division of Service Industries Limited with complete P&L responsibility. Our operative business is divided into the segments of retail and wholesale. Our retail unit, which we started three years ago and are in the process of expanding, is branded as ShoeBox. It is a multi-brand one-stop-shop for the entire family for shoes, handbags and accessories with nationwide stores. We also have a wholesale unit which is called Klara. I am also responsible for our Gujrat factory which employs around 3500 people and is engaged in manufacturing shoes for local and export markets.
How many employees do you have at the Servis Group? Service Industries Limited employs around 10000 people, the headcount for domestic footwear division is around 4,000.
What is your idea of leadership? Simply put, leadership is the ability to implement the vision of having a tomorrow that is better than today. Any person who genuinely feels the great burden of that responsibility and yet takes on that challenge can be seen to be a leader. It does not necessarily have to be the top guy; whoever is working towards actually creating a better future, in my view, challenges the status quo and is a leader.
What is your approach towards improving your work environment? It is a constant process. The first challenge of leadership is to crystalize what you want to achieve. The second thing is to focus on the collective view of future. After that, having the right people on the team with the right attitude and competence is fundamental. Once that is done the only thing left is to create a culture of enablement and encouragement.
What are the three core competencies, a CEO must have? The core ingredients of a leader are strategic view, Originality and Empthy. A leader must have a clear strategy. Strategy has to be razor sharp and it has to be a clear set of choices. When you talk to people about strategy, they will give you a whole list of how they want to be good at everything, which in my view is not a strategy. Strategy is a choice of what you are going to be good at and what you are going to let go. A leader has to have originality. The leader is not perfect per se but has that something that people can see and respect. That quality could be different for different people and organisations. It becomes your identifier and differentiator. Another thing is the natural empathy; your ability to connect with people. Having a strong presence but also offering the teams to openly say what they believe in.
Employee retention is a big issue these days, what about you? I have never faced this issue. I believe people do not leave companies, they leave bosses. Employee retention is an issue if you have a lousy culture, and if you have bad managers in the organization. If you create a lousy culture, you do not give people the self fulfilment. If you kick people all the time unnecessarily and without reason, you would not be able to create a team. With reason, people understand. You can give people a tough time to improve their performance, but it should not become
| 369 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | the norm of your organization. When I joined BAT Vietnam, it was a big chalenge. The economy was booming and everyone used to have their resignations in their back pockets. The market turnover rate at that time there was around 20% but our organisation had a 30% turnover rate. Within two years it went down to 10%. So basically, if you connect with people the right way and you push the right buttons, you will not face this issue. Market competitive compensation and perks are given. You, as an organization, have to consider that and it is one of the basics for talent strategy foe any organisation. If your organisations is facing this issue, it is time to reflect and figure out what is wrong with the Company (not the employees).
People say that when you keep changing jobs, your CV becomes less effective. Is that so? No, it happens when you switch companies, not jobs, then people think that you are not loyal. If you are getting a bigger job every three years, it is good. Your philosophy in your job should be that besides doing your job well, you also do 30% of your boss’s work. That’s how you will start picking up the elements of his/her job and eventually you learn all the secrets of your boss’s trade. At this point, you become promotable and no one questions your promotion. When I was marketing director, I used to talk about profitability, commercials, production and quality because I knew marketing and I had done it for 15 years. My credentials were solid and I did not need to prove to anyone that I knew marketing.
What is your stance on women empowerment? Pakistani culture is a culture where you have your own self-created boundaries and limitations for women and some are created by so called protectors. We as leaders need to consciously think about it and create the environment where women get an equal opportunity. It is an uphill task, but needs to be done. You cannot exclude half of your population and grow as a country. I think the biggest hinderance to female empowerment in Pakistan is their mobility. The maid that we haad in Vietnam was 50 years old used to ride a bike and had a mobile phone. I see this as the key to changing the landscape in Pakistan. We have to make the bikes and motorbikes safe and popular for women in Pakistan.
How many are women out of your 4000 employees? Almost 400-450 of them are women. Of course, some of the jobs require tough physical work and that’s where females are not fit for that type of job. In Gujrat, there is an altogether separate unit of female employees for stitching.
Where do you see your division and the organization overall five years down the road? We endeavor to double our turnover and profits in five years across all three business units and embed the culture of stretch in our teams to make this growth sustainable.
How do you cope up with your stress? There is always going to be stress when you get to senior and responsible positions. Because that is where the buck stops. It is important to convert the pressure into urgency to create solutions. Instead of getting bogged down with crisis, it is important to focus your mind on “what needs to change” or “what do I do different”
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“PAKISTANI CULTURE IS A CULTURE WHERE YOU HAVE YOUR OWN SELF-CREATED BOUNDARIES AND LIMITATIONS FOR WOMEN AND SOME ARE CREATED BY SO CALLED PROTECTORS. WE AS LEADERS NEED TO CONSCIOUSLY THINK ABOUT IT AND CREATE THE ENVIRONMENT WHERE WOMEN GET AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY.
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KHADIJAH SHAH Creative Director, ÉLAN
Profile: Khadijah Shah is the creative force behind the label ÉLAN— a brand that has over the years cemented a place amongst Pakistan’s leading Fashion Couture Houses. Khadijah inherited her passion for design at an early age from her mother Aneela who had a small atelier and loyal clientele for years before ÉLAN was formally launched. After completing her BSc with Honors at the London School of Economics, Khadijah returned to Pakistan and started setting a vision for expanding the atelier, which is now known as ÉLAN. As the creative director of ÉLAN, Khadijah is respected for her combination of intricate embellishments, flattering silhouettes and attention to detail. Each collection is conceived with glamour, elegance and versatility in mind. In March 2012, Khadijah launched her debut seasonal unstitched printed lawn collection which is now considered the most anticipated lawn in Pakistan each season. In 2014, ÉLAN added to its portfolio ÉLAN Vital, a casual avant-garde ready to wear diffusion line and also officially launched an e-store where customers from across the globe can purchase ÉLAN’s Luxury Prét Collection and ÉLAN Vital. In a short span of ten years, Khadijah has expanded her label and created an effective and influential place for ÉLAN in the fashion industry.
“ÉLAN IS A VERY HIGH-END, LUXURY BRAND. IT HAS HIGHER PRICE POINTS THAT TARGETS THE UPPER SEGMENTS OF SOCIETY.”
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CEO Club: Could you share with us highlights of your journey in building a big brand as a woman entrepreneur in Pakistan? Khadijah Shah: My training was from the London School of Economics – with a Bachelors Degree in Politics. I came back to Pakistan in the early to mid-2000s; it was then that I formally launched efforts to establish a brand which later grew and evolved into ÉLAN. Although my mother was in this trade, on a very small level, but back then the entire fashion industry in Pakistan was in its infancy. There were very few fashion brands, no fashion outlets, no fashion shows, no exhibits or even government support of any kind. Fashion was considered less of an industry and more of a day-to-day activity. Cutting edge fashion was a very small niche market, if one could even call it that. My mother had a small workshop in the house; for her it was more of a passion-project rather than a serious business. Although I had no background in this trade, my interest was really piqued when I started working with her. With constant input from my father, Dr. Salman Shah, who is a renowned economist and business mind, the seed of ÉLAN started to formulate in my mind with both of my parents as the guiding force. I took over the workshop from my mother and started to reformat our entire effort into a more business- oriented setup rather than the artisan model it was working on, till that point. In 2005-2006, we shifted to this building that my father owned and started operations from here. Eventually the market started to respond to the quality of work we were putting out; orders started coming in which led to an inevitable increase in workforce. Customers started to approach me for their regular clothes, bridal attire and evening wears – that was an especially instructive period for me since it gave me an idea of what was most in demand. I started to develop fashion lines based on that customer input and even my husband, Mr. Jahanzeb Amin, joined me in my work; he is currently the CEO of the company. We started to develop Lawn clothing – this gave us an opportunity to reach out to a larger market and establish ourselves as a national brand rather than the Lahore-centric perception that prevailed about ÉLAN, earlier. I started off with eight workers. Now, we employ more than 500 people in the company. I was also instrumental in starting Sapphire’s retail business and managed it in collaboration with its management for three years. Recently, we have also launched a new sub-brand of ÉLAN, called Zaha.
What’s the difference between ÉLAN and Zaha? ÉLAN is a very high-end, luxury brand. It has higher price points that targets the upper segments of society. Zaha is our high-street brand that is doing ready to wear and unstitched for consumers. So, I guess you could say that the differentiating feature of both is the price point and the market segments that they cater to. But we put equal love and attention in both of our brands.
Since you have a lot of experience with the retail industry, what are some of the key challenges this sector is facing and what is your strategy to overcome these problems? Obviously, rupee devaluation and rising prices do have a very detrimental impact on sectors such as ours. Not only does it hit us in terms of limiting buying power of consumers but also, as an industry, there are certain items that simply have to be imported. Silk, for example, has to be imported and is a major component of our unstitched fashion lines – in dupattas or shawls. Shoes, bags and other fashion accessories also rely on silk which is coming from China and the Far East. When the price of the dollar increases, it creates several hurdles for us both as a manufacturer and as a retail vendor. As a designer, the only option left for us is to look for other, alternative materials that can be locally sourced. For ÉLAN, since that caters to upper segments, we can afford to continue importing silk. But for the high-street
| 373 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | range, we will need to look at other choices. In a way, it will be good for our local small industry and manufacturers since brands like us will now turn to them instead of to foreign sellers. This may also result in an overall improvement in local product quality too, since big brands will demand better quality local products.
What would you identify as the main challenges you face, today, as a CEO and founder of a large brand in Pakistan? For me, because I am seen as one of the market leaders in fashion, every other fashion company wants to take away your trained human resource. It is very difficult, under these circumstances, to retain talent in the organization. So, one of our main challenges is to keep our employees happy enough so that they decide to stick with our company despite temptations. Another problem is one of maintaining an efficient cash-flow. For a company like ours, we don’t just manufacture and sell – we also expand. That requires taking money out of the running cycle to invest in something that is yet to contribute back to the kitty – it is always a balancing act.
What are the corporate values of ÉLAN? One of the first things my husband did, once he joined ÉLAN as its CEO, he created a solid foundation for corporate structuring at our company. At a fairly early stage in our organizational development, we brought in Department Heads, Quality and Compliance Personnel, Human Resource Managers, Finance Professionals etc. I think what that did was give our company the strength it needed to expand as fast as it did.
Team is very important for any organization’s success. Do you think you have a winning team at ÉLAN? One of the things that I pride myself on is that when any new candidate is inducted into the business, I have always been very hands-on about their training and very available to them for any concerns or questions. That facilitates a much more direct training. Where you’re sitting right now is basically my office; you will notice it has no door, there are no walls, there is practically nothing to stop anyone in my company to come to me directly regarding any concern they may have. The added advantage is that I’m sitting here and keeping an eye on everyone’s work. So, I can safely say that the people I have hired, trained and mentored over years and who continue to work for me, today, comprise the best team in the fashion industry throughout the country. I have no doubts regarding their potentials and their skills.
How would you rate the importance of emotional intelligence of a CEO for the success of a company? I think its very important because in the work environment, today, job satisfaction is a key indicator of worker loyalty and retention. If you want employees who give you good productivity, who take ownership of their tasks and your company then they need to be happy people. The management needs to emotionally connect with the employees. You can’t have a “Seth” attitude – especially in the fashion industry. The product we give is so specialized; the product itself is so emotional that people have to connect with it in a personal way. Aesthetics have to be catered to and these are intrinsic qualities that can’t be faked. If someone likes your product, they will buy it; if not then they won’t. Fashion isn’t a basic need in that sense – it is voluntarily consumed. So, for us, emotional intelligence is crucial.
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“A WOMAN LEADER MUST HAVE CONFIDENCE, A VERY STRONG CHARACTER AND BACKBONE. YOU CAN’T BE SOMEONE WHO CAN BE PUSHED AROUND OR SOMEONE WHO COMPROMISES ON PRINCIPLES OR QUALITY MERELY FOR EXPEDIENCY. YOU CAN’T BE SOMEONE WHO GETS SCARED EASILY – RESILIENCE IS KEY TO BEING A WOMAN LEADER, IN PAKISTAN.”
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KHAWAJA AMMAD KHALID SIKKA Director, Happilac Paints
Profile: Khawaja Ammad Khalid Sikka is a Director Sales and Marketing of one of the leading brand HAPPILAC. The brand was founded by Late Khawaja Abdul Razak Sikka. He joined his business in 2007 and got initial training from his grandfather Khawaja Abdul Razak Sikka. Happilac Paints is a subsidiary of KARSS PaintIndustry (pvt.) Ltd. The company has held a paramount position in providing paint related solutions; both nationally and internationally. The founding father of the company; late Khawaja Abdul Razzak Sikka established the KARSS Paint Industry in 1978. Since then the company has grown and been refined by the dedication of three generations. The company was started off with a limited product list and now has a highly diversified list of products that are being manufactured in its state of the art production facility. The decorative and industrial products offer unique paint solutions and have been praised by all our clients. The company has embraced research and development as a prime pillar which has revolutionized the products in terms of quality and customer satisfaction. At KARSS we have a perfect balance of experience and professionalism which allows us to serve our clientele with unique and innovative paint solutions. Apart from local markets, Happilac exporting, quality products to Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Qatar. His vision is to make his company as number one in Pakistan.
“TRAINING IS A MANDATORY AND FUNDAMENTAL PART OF ANY BUSINESS, WITHOUT TRAINING YOUR PEOPLE AND GIVING THEM THE RIGHT TOOLS TO WORK WITH, HOW CAN WE EXPECT THEM TO PERFORM.”
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CEO Club: Please share with us your professional background or corporate profile in a nutshell as to how it all started? Kh. Ammad Khalid Sikka: It was started back in 1978 by my late grandfather Khawaja Abdul Razzak Sikka. I took my training from him.
With the country sliding back into joblessness crisis and a high unemployment rate, how do you think to fix this problem and turnaround the economy? Monetary policy. Cutting interest rates to boost aggregate demand. Education and training to help reduce structural un employment, reduce minimum wage to reduce real wage unemployment.
We are not poor in resources but governance. What is your stance on this? Pakistan is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources, but also one of the poorest in management.
Do you believe that good governance can help us to wrestle with this dilemma? What is your take on good governance? Governance is the process of establishing favourable policies, monitoring their implementation and judging the outcomes based on key metrics, with good governance, we have policies that will nurture the economic growth.
Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays. How to create job providers/entrepreneurs rather than job-seekers? You create entrepreneurs by creating an environment that caters to investment and does not cater to government control and influence. We have to trust the private sector and trust our schools to educate our youth in order to give back to our great nation.
We are facing a dilemma in business ethics. How can we inculcate a sense of ethics into our managers? It is our belief that the first hurdle we must jump over is the status conscious that so many people suffer from. When we worry about status, titles and images rather than simply doing right things, we will always have issues relating to business ethics. We need our people from top to bottom to worry more about quality of work and morality and then business ethics will bleed into that.
With commercialisation of educational institutions, are you happy at the quality/standard of business graduates? And what steps would you suggest bridging the gap between industry and academia? Our country has a great education system. The problem is that more people cannot afford to attend these wonderful schools and with the current economic and political climate. It is difficult to entice our youth leaders to stay in Pakistan when there is such a divide in so many areas. We need to make education and opportunities accessible to all Pakistan on all platforms.
What are the key challenges and business/investment opportunities in your industry/sector? Business leaders in Pakistan are mostly affected by inconsistent policies of the government and lack
| 377 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | of support from the government. So, if the government can initiate good governance, I do not see any problems for businesses to grow in this country.
What is leadership to you? How do you want to improve as a leader? To be a leader is not how you “lead “ people, but how you show them how to empower themselves, and to improve as a so – called leader, You must not dictate to others, but show them how it is done by your own actions.
What are the three key challenges confronting CEOs/business leaders in Pakistan? From my limited experience, the key problem facing Pakistani businesses is the brain drain. Due to our lack of desirable economy, many of our talented and skilled people are leaving to go abroad for better pay, better career development etc. If we can make Pakistan more enticing for them we would all benefit.
How do you define corporate culture at your company? How do you make sure that people live, act and breathe your organization’s vision, mission and core values? We call ourselves the Happilac family. For a reason. This is how we view each other here, as members of family. What that means to me is that when one family members needs assistance, we all come together and help, even if it is not in our area. We do not leave anyone behind to fail, this methodology has worked wonders for us, and our success in recent years is a testament to that.
How to develop a winning team? How do you motivate your team, assess their performance and make them accountable to the results? You develop a winning team by caring about the people who work with you. Not treating them as employees but as family members who you support, through mistakes and errors, and through their successes. Standing beside them and giving them the confidence and support the need to shine.
What steps would you recommend empowering women? Does your company have a harassment policy? If we trust women with our offspring, then how can we not trust them with our companies? Women bring a dynamic to the workplace that no man can. They are a key element to any business. Yes, of course we have a zero-tolerance policy to any harassment, racism, sexism, ageism etc.
Where do you see your organization five years down the road? Growth strategy? I see Happilac as the largest paint industry in Pakistan, and I would love to see this vision becoming materialized. Our growth strategy is simple, best possible quality with right price.
What are the top three benchmarks for high-performing CEOs who have created long-term value for their companies? I don’t think that there are mandatory benchmarks, as each company is different and has different visions and goals. I think a good rule of thumb is a good working environment, a team mentality and consistent growth.
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Can you give us an example of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative you have championed? Some of the organizations that Happilac is a part of supporting are; Shahid Afridi Foundation – Health Care and Education non-profit organization. Here’s a look at how the HAPPILAC is helping everyone play their part. Providing basic educational kits: The idea is to encourage educated members of the community to help out people around them by delivering basic educational material to them. Participants of the campaign distribute educational kits, provided by Happilac Paints, to people helping out in their households, workshop employees, laborers etc. These educational kits consist of: • A student course book “Asaan Kitab”. A teacher’s guide, which provides a comprehensive 30-day training program strengthening small start-ups working for the cause. Happilac Paints has taken the initiative to financially strengthen various similar start-up programs imagining innovative ways to educate the underprivileged members of the society. • Donate with every purchase: To raise donations for the cause, Happilac has introduced promotions on its flagship products. • SOS village • Rehman Foundation: Health Institution • Munawar Foundation: Education Development Institute
“QUIT SEARCHING FOR BIGGER THINGS, IT’S THE SIMPLEST THINGS IN LIFE THAT GIVES YOU THE MOST HAPPINESS. PUT OTHERS HAPPINESS OVER YOURS AND YOU SHALL NEVER BE IN DISTRESS.”
Harvard Business Review’s research tells us that E.Q. (Emotional Quotient/Intelligence) rather I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) is a highly essential competency for business leaders? Why E.Q. is important for CEOs especially in challenging times? E.Q is always more important in management roles because at the helm of affairs of any company, people management is one of the biggest challenges. CEOs or any business leaders must be able to manage a large group of personalities to create synergy.
A business speaks the language of digits. To what extent should a CEO be finance-savvy? What are the three most important numbers in a firm’s financial statements? I don’t believe it is mandatory for a CEO to be finance man, that’s what we have a CFO for. He should not be blind to finance, but again, his team is vital. He must trust and believe in his lawyers and his finance team.
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What’s the toughest decision you have ever made? What did you learn from it? Many, in a position like mine, you always must take tough decisions. It can be related to the organization, can be an HR related issue and/or a personal matter but when you take a trust and have faith in God that decision will be for the better.
Who is your inspirational role-model and why it is so? My grandfather is my role model. He taught me so much about life and business that I could write a thesis on it. The key business points he taught me is work straight and forget who likes it or doesn’t like it. You won’t keep everyone happy all the time so don’t try, just do what’s right.
How do you consider a good work-life balance? Please comment. We have to give our all in every situation, when I am home, work is not on my mind, and my whole effort goes to all and when I am in the office, it’s Director Sales and Marketing mode, so personal life is off.
How do you manage your anger and stress? Anger and stress management is easy. You cannot take things personally. You must acknowledge that it is work: people will make mistakes, and decisions will not always be easy. If you keep that in mind and just strive to do your best, stress is not an issue.
Define success in three key words or phrases? Unity, synergy, happiness.
Your favourite book on professional development that you would recommend? Quarn E Pak and Ahadees
Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? Do not love money, love humanity. Do not strive for business success, strive for excellence in anything you do. Serve God and do the right thing. Morality cannot be measured by numbers, live with morality.
What is your company`s business philosophy (Vision & Mission)? The vision of our company is defined in three words“Excellence, Significance and Institutionalization”.
How many people/HR are on your payroll? 400 plus
What is your company`s product/services profile? Architectural paints industrial coatings, decorative paints, industrial paints, wood protective series, texture paints, ancillaries, road safety, road marking paints, conschem - construction chemicals.
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“RETAINING TOP TALENT, IS A CHALLENGE DUE TO THE BRAIN DRAIN EPIDEMIC THAT AFFECTS US ALL. IT NEEDS TO BE JOINED EFFORT FROM THE PRIVATE SECTOR ALONG WITH THE GOVERNMENT TO MAKE PAKISTAN TO ENTICING PLACE THAT WE ALL KNOW IT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE.”
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KHURRAM AZIZ KHAN CEO, Pakistan International Container Terminal Limited (PICT)
Profile: Khurram Aziz Khan was appointed as CEO of Pakistan International Container Terminal on July 1, 2017; his extensive career spans over a period of 20 years in the Container Terminal Industry. Mr. Khan is the holder of a Masters degree in Container Terminal Management from Middlesex University, United Kingdom. Since 2014, Mr. Khurram Aziz Khan has been associated with ICTSI and is currently appointed as the CEO of ICTSI Container Terminal in Pakistan “PICT” (Pakistan International Container Terminal Limited). International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) is in the business of acquiring, developing, managing and operating container ports and terminals worldwide. During the span of his career, Mr. Khan has held several senior management positions internationally and locally in the industry. He brings to PICT 20 years of experience in Container Terminal industry, and prior to joining, he has been working with DP World, and took on several posts within a span of 16 years. His last holding position at DP World was Chief Operating Officer of Djibouti Container Terminal in Africa. He is the holder of a Masters degree in Container Terminal Management from Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom. During his current tenure as CEO of PICT, Mr. Khan has used his market knowledge and leadership skills to bring new managerial incite to the company. Additionally, the Company improved its ability to handle move volume and optimized its operating cost contributed to improve its profit margins.
“DON’T BE AFRAID OF PEOPLE WHO MAKE YOU PUSH AROUND, BECAUSE SOMETHING WILL ALWAYS MAKE YOU GET UP. IF YOU DREAM, THEN WORK TOWARDS THAT DREAM TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.”
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CEO Club: Please tell us your about the background of your company. Khurram Aziz Khan: Pakistan International Container Terminal Limited was incorporated in Pakistan as a private limited company in June 2002 and subsequently got listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange. Infact, PICT is the only listed container terminal of Pakistan. In 2012, ICTSI (International Container Terminal Services, Inc.) acquired majority shareholding of PICT thereby making it the only multinational listed container terminal of Pakistan. ICTSI is a Philippines based leading container terminal operator and is in the business of acquiring, developing, managing and operating container ports and terminals worldwide. PICT currently has a BOT contract with the Karachi Port Trust for the operations and management of common user container terminal at East wharf of Karachi Port. Since day one, PICT has been making concentrated efforts in establishing and maintaining a sustainable footprint on the economy of Pakistan through continuously pushing the boundaries of innovation and taking leads at various initiatives. This reflection of commitment has been recognized through several awards and accolades. PICT has been declared amongst the Top 25 Companies based on comprehensive criteria being defined by Pakistan Stock Exchange to evaluate the overall performance of the listed companies in Pakistan. PICT has won this prestigious award consecutively for the years 2014, 2015 and 2016. The exemplary effective management style of PICT has been acknowledged by the Management Association of Pakistan (MAP) through Corporate Excellence Award for service sector during the 31st 32nd and 33rd MAP Corporate Excellence Awards. Further, PICT won Best Practices in Occupational Health & Safety (2nd Prize) awarded by Employers’ Federation of Pakistan (EFP) & International Labour Organization (ILO). Winning these awards is an expression of our commitment towards innovation, best management practices and contribution towards economic growth of Pakistan. It further strengthens our determination to continue our key role in supporting Karachi’s leading position as a hub for trade and business.”
How many jobs has your company created? Currently PICT has been engaging approx. 1000 employees. Apart from that, through various stakeholders more than 5000 people are indirectly associated with us. Inherently, that equates to more than 3,000 jobs that are associated with us through different contractors, to facilitate and contribute in our service.
What are the key challenges and opportunities in your sector? The container terminal sector in Pakistan especially Karachi faces two-fold challenge in terms of lack of proper road infrastructure and under-developed road transport system. Every container terminal has a limited space which can accommodate a specified number of containers for a specified number of days. Therefore, the aforementioned challenges and any allied negative performances in the road transport sector leads to congestion within the terminal which results in increase in cost of doing businesses both for the container terminal and the consignees. Almost 40% of the container volumes being handled at Karachi port is destined for upcountry, which comprises of 1100 KMs of transportation distance. Currently, trucking is taking care of shifting these container volumes which is not only increasing pressure on the road network but also adds to the
| 383 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | cost of transportation. A more intense use of rail as part of the containerized freight delivery logistics system can be a game-changer for Pakistan as it will help enable Pakistan’s increasing demand for imported containerized goods to be met efficiently and will also provide an opportunity to participate in global supply chains. In the past couple of years, our government realizing the importance of improved rail network has taken several initiatives including joint ventures with the private sector. PICT being the only container terminal at Karachi Port with a working railroad link is aggressively working with the railway authorities for unlocking this hidden potential at Karachi Port and expect to get major share of container volumes due to this added facility.
What is leadership to you? I would not refer to any particular definition of leadership. My perspective on leadership is all about the ability of developing good terms, influencing others, establishing two way communications and most importantly dignity. There are many finer details: • Correct placement of manpower • Motivation • Empowerment • Delegation • Keeping accountability • Ability to make sound and strong decisions The team is dependent on its leader and if he/she is unable to establish an effective connection or communication, there will be challenges.
What qualities do you look for during your hiring process? Similar to any established entity we have a complete mechanism in place for hiring people. The three main qualities which we look for during our hiring is integrity, professional competence and passion for growth. We being a container terminal have huge investment in handling equipment and infrastructure. These equipments are very sophisticated and need extreme care and expertise for operating. Further, the operational side of our company is more sensitive due to inherent safety risks. Therefore, while hiring operational staff we also look for the individual’s attitude towards safety and compliance with procedures. Accordingly, we provide extensive training to our employees in-house and abroad for the same.
Do you believe in women empowerment in container terminal industry? Diversity within the container terminal industry is one of the greatest challenges which us and our competitors are facing right now. Container terminal industry has a long history as a male dominated organisation with a shortage of female applicants and women with strong industry experience. PICT being part of ICTSI group, is committed to a fresh approach to diversity strategy. We believe that by addressing this issue within our workforce we can encourage greater representation of women in operational management roles across all areas of our business and the industry as a whole. As of to date, we have remained successful in implementing our diversity strategy resulting in female staff being effectively trained and working in various departments, including Operations, Human Resources, Finance and Customer Services.
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Harvard Business Review research tells us that EQ (Emotional Quotient/Intelligence) is more important than IQ (Intelligence Quotient) Would you agree with this? In my opinion, both are equally important. In management, when we talk about the emotional aspect we are referring to leadership; emotions have a strong role for obvious reasons. My perspective is that if one does not possess a good IQ, it may affect the rationality that is needed to control one’s emotions.
What achievements are you proud of? One of my achievements has been the developing human capital with expertise in container terminal management that is not only beneficial for my company but for the industry as a whole and for our beloved Pakistan.
What is one of the toughest decisions you have had to make? What did you learn from it? We make tough decisions every day and are still learning. The day that we stop learning, we will no longer be fit for this job.
Who is your inspiration/role model? Not one individual in particular, I derive my inspiration from different people in different areas of life in and out of the industry.
How do you manage your anger/stress? As we discussed, that you need effective IQ to control emotions like anger, I don’t deal emotionally in my work. When you hold a leadership position in a company you need to look at the broader perspective and control your emotions. If you let your emotions cloud your judgment, decisions are likely to get affected.
What is your idea of happiness? Most people think of happiness as “feeling great” and that’s indeed an experience of which we can never get enough. Happiness is much more to me. It’s my answer to all of life’s questions, miracles, and conundrums. Life goes up and down, and I want to be present with everything it brings. I want to show up as a complete person, engage with an open heart and mind, with my senses open, feelings available, thoughts flexible, and my actions in alignment with the way of life. Life is big, so it needs a big response. I say “Yes” to whatever life throws at me, whether it feels good or bad, whether I want it or not, whether it gives me pleasure or pain.
Any message of optimism/hope? Pakistan has immense potential in all areas which our youth needs to tap. There is plethora of research available through which we can learn how to progress in right way. Our talented youth and abundant natural resources can be effectively and efficiently used for generating growth for Pakistan. My special message to youth “Don’t be afraid of people who make you push around, because something will always make you get up. If you dream, then work towards that dream to make it happen.”
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M. SALEEM KHAN TANOLI CEO, FAKT Exhibitions Pvt Ltd.
Profile: M. Saleem Khan Tanoli is an active member of Pakistan China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry, German Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GPCCI), Asian Federation of Exhibition & Convention Association (AFECA) and Italian Development Committee (IDC). He is also the Vice President-Pakistan of Asia Advertisement Association (AAA), Chairman South of Global Research and Facilitation Council (GRFC). In the past he was appointed as Senior Vice Chairman of standing committee on Foreign Affairs of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) 2016, Vice Chairman of FPCCI’S Standing Committee on “Foreign Affairs” for the year 2015, Regional Standing Committee on “Fairs, Exhibitions and Trade Delegations” for the year 2013. A dynamic and a savvy professional entrepreneur, with an experience of 16 years in multitude areas of exhibitions, services & manufacturing industry, M. Saleem Khan Tanoli is the CEO of FAKT Exhibitions Pvt. Ltd., Silverstone Inc. FAKT Travel & Tours, FAKT Services. He holds a realm of success, accomplishments and worth exploring experiences. Consecutively organizing profitable exhibitions, the man possesses pioneer skills and unbeatable aptitude to conduct well administered trade events. He affirms the partnership of Pakistan with the global village to work for the betterment of the entire sphere. He considers tradeshows; conferences and exhibitions play a fundamental role in the reinforcement of the perception of a developing nation. Mr. M. Saleem Khan Tanoli deems to provide his utmost efforts to enhance the positivity by organizing successful conventions of international and local business-to-business entities. Reaching the heights of success at this stage; this enterprising individual dreams and envisions a prosperous Pakistan by exploring the resources to the uncharted prospects.
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CEO Club: Please share your journey of entrepreneurship in a nutshell. M. Saleem Khan Tanoli: It was always my dream to own and run an internationally recognised business enterprise. I was fortunate to have the right partners to get me started on this wonderous journey. Primarily, FAKT Exhibitions came into being as partnership between me and my friends. Later on I acquired 100 percent shares of the company. We are the pioneers of organising the first trade exhibition IGATEX in the newly built expo center in Lahore in 2010 with already a rich experience of organising trade exhibitions in Karachi. By the grace of Almighty, FAKT Exhibitions is now the most successful and the largest exhibition organising company in Pakistan with over 17 year in the business and 25 international events in our portfolio held every year.
Being a dynamic entrepreneur, what key challenges do you face in the startup? In the beginning stages having strong partners I did not face any adversity. However, circumstances changed due to the political turmoil in 2007 resulting in the eventual dissolution of our partnership as the exhibition industry in Pakistan was suffering great losses. Those were indeed very difficult times for me but I believe that the way an adverse situation is handled is what truly matters. Those tough times could not shatter me, on the contrary they helped in finding the courage to face those insurmountable challenges. Through dedication and untiring effort with the help of Almighty, we managed to not only survive but eventually attained new heights and success.
In terms of the Human Resources, what factors do you assess when hiring an employee? Talking about human resource management, I encounter general issues like retention and training. Maintaining a smooth HR of an organization is a real challenge for an entrepreneur. I believe for every organization, effective and strategic human resource management allows a business to grow and attain a competitive advantage. We practice the same in our company as our minimum eligibility criteria for an employee is graduation. My primarily concerns while hiring an employee are talent, diligence, and passion of a candidate equally as the qualifications. Human Resourse plays a vital role for achieving firm’s growth and success through people. FAKT Exhibitions is proud to have a highly qualified workforce with team members who have graduated from high ranked Universities and through their expertise, skills and passion are contributing towards the success of our organisation.
What is the future of the exhibition industry in Pakistan? Exhibitions have become a vital tool for marketing of new technologies developments and to bring the sector professionals and stakeholders under a single roof. Trade exhibitions help to project and manage a positive image of the country nationally and internationally while generating massive revenue for the country.
What root competencies of an entrepreneur makes him extraordinary? I think integrity and courage are the utmost qualities of a leader to head his business. An entrepreneur is the second name of a risk taker. He or she must be determined to face the consequences of taking challenges.
What is the significance of real-time training and mentoring sessions for an entrepreneur? Every entrepreneur is obliged to allocate time for the development and mentoring of his managers and
| 387 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | other team members. He or she should focus on producing managers and employees alike with the versatile mindset and innovative approach.
Which achievement of yours make you feel gratified and contented? By following my passion, it was unusual task to be hold prominence in exhibition sector. Thankfully, through the stage of FAKT Exhibitions, I have been successfully representing my country on international platforms which depicts a positive perspective of Pakistan universally. In 2013, UFI which is a global center of exhibition worldwide included my nomination for electing chairmanship. Considering the fact presence as nominee was itself a big achievement among top notch CEO’s, Directors, and Entrepreneurs; the result turned out to be gratification when I was elected as First Vice Chair of UFI Asia Pacific Region. Yet, it also springs a great contentment when I got successfully elected for the leadership of Asia Advertisement Association in China.
How do you maintain an equilibrium in professional and personal life? I am very close to my family and always try my best to balance my professional and personal life.
What is your strategy of combating stress in life? I believe in the power of Almighty and hand over all my worries to Him. I am the type of person who never complains about my problems with anyone. I believe in taking firm actions to relieve the stress in my life. If a situation cannot be changed then I do not worry about it .
What in your opinion is your key to success and happiness? I have never believed in associating success with money only. Most of the people define success only in terms of material well being. Yet true success is experienced by walking in alignment with the needs of your soul. Success is the internal satisfaction and gratification which is a continuous journey and not a destination in itself. Happiness is the feeling of being humble and thankful for all the blessings and achievements bestowed upon us. Ultimately, happiness is a state of mind.
How do you view women empowerment in your company? I am a proud supporter of women empowerment. Hence, I have applied the equal opportunity policy for my employees. I completely disagree with gender bias and discrimination. I want Pakistani women to flourish in every sector of business, industry, and economy. A large number of women are happily working and contributing positively in our organization . “A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.”
Can you give a message of hope and inspiration for the youth of Pakistan. Pakistan is a land of tremendous opportunities and I strongly believe that its talented youth has a bright future to explore. There is no alternative to hard work for success in life. One has to follow and chase the dreams and have a firm belief in oneself and Almighty Allah. Concentrate on your power of establishing your startups and innovation. Realize the importance of being an entrepreneur in a fast paced world where everything is transforming to digitization. The more you enhace your skills, the more value you can offer to your employers, partners, colleagues, friends and family.
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“PAKISTAN IS A LAND OF TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITIES AND I STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT ITS TALENTED YOUTH HAS A BRIGHT FUTURE TO EXPLORE. THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO HARD WORK FOR SUCCESS IN LIFE. ONE HAS TO FOLLOW AND CHASE THE DREAMS AND HAVE A FIRM BELIEF IN ONESELF AND ALMIGHTY ALLAH.”
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MAJ. GEN. IMTIAZ HUSSAIN SHERAZI, HI (M), SITARA-I-ESAR (RETD) COO, Army Welfare Trust (AWT)
Profile: Maj Gen Imtiaz Hussain Sherazi (Retd) is the Chief Operating Officer of Army Welfare Trust. He is a seasoned military professional having served at various high-ranked positions including Commandant Army School of Logistics, Murree. He holds a Master of Science degree in War Studies. In addition Imtiaz Hussain Sherazi is on the board of Askari General Insurance Co. Ltd. and Askari Life Assurance Co. Ltd and on the board of many other business units of Askari Group.
“A LEADER MUST HAVE TO BE COMPETENT, PRAGMATIC AND VISIONARY AND HE MUST HAVE A STRONG SENSE OF MORALITY ALONG WITH SOLID ETHICS AND VALUES THAT CAN INSPIRE OTHERS.”
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CEO Club: Please share your opinion on the critical challenges currently faced by Pakistan and how you think these challenges can be overcome? Maj. Gen. Imtiaz Hussain: In my personal view, we are facing this present turmoil due to economic mismanagement of during last 10 years. This has resulted into over borrowing and non-productive projects; and now the government is facing great difficulty in the repayment of internal and external debts. We are a very resilient nation, in past number of times, we have overcome the crisis. We have grown despite numerous difficulties which makes me very hopeful. If sincerity is there, the leadership is sincere, honest than we will take out our country from any turmoil. My opinion on this is that we must stay determined, we must obey the government’s policies on economic discipline and we must pay taxes. If we do not pay taxes, we must not expect the government to perform well.
What is your take on the good governance of this country? We must be very honest to ourselves; people need to have good intentions, determination and integrity; this is first step to clean our polluted society. We need honest and educated leaders; there is no dearth of leadership in this country but the problem lies within our system. This election system only allows the rich / powerful people to become part of the current system. This is totally contingent and dependent on the masses, if the people are educated, they will select good people. Education & awareness to the masses should be our first objective; our people should be literate and they should know who is in the best interest of this country.
Given the economic scenario, what are the impacts that Army Welfare Trust businesses have faced as a result? Forty Five years ago, Army Welfare Trust made modest beginning, in 1971with seed money of Rs. 0.7 Million. Today it is a shining example of success and resilience. Our raison d’etere is to generate funds for the welfare of shuhada of Pakistan Army and their next of kin. For example if a gentlemen embraces martyrdom at the ages of 25-30; his family is then left at the mercy of society. There is no public welfare outfit that will look after the affected families hence the Army looks after them by providing shelter and education for their children and so on through this money earned by AWT. Both AWT and Fauji Foundation are contributing in the development of country in many areas, like education, health care, Science & Technology. AWT is providing employment to over 30,000 people out of which 80% are civilians. This way we are contributing in the growth of Pakistan’s. Our aim is to provide employment to the people of Pakistan and we are taking corrective measures for sustainability.
What are the critical challenges in terms of human resource that AWT faces and what are the strategies regarding training, grooming etc.? We are very particular about human resources because it is HR that runs an organization. In areas like IT, finance, purchase, business development and investment, we select the best available resource in the market and we consider them as our asset. After selection we carry out career planning and send them for training programmes.
In your opinion what is the importance of EQ vs. IQ for CEO positions? In the army there is very well known saying “there is a difference between a commander and a leader”.
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A commander commands the mind whereas a leader commands the hearts. Our seniors used to tell us that a leader is one whose presence is felt when he enters and when he leaves his absence is felt. Therefore it is better to be a leader as opposed to being a commander. In leadership you can draw maximum energy from your subordinates when you start winning their hearts. There are certain traits of leadership one needs to have: • You need to be very competent. • You should have a strong sense of morality along with solid ethics and values in addition to being a person that inspires others. • You should be pragmatic and visionary.
What are some of the most difficult decisions you have had to make throughout your journey with AWT? When you are sitting in such positions, you have to make tough decisions. Whenever I take a decision my supreme concern are the interests of AWT; whether someone like it or not. I never went for popular decisions; I always go for right decisions.
What are some of the achievements that you are proud of? I remained consistent with my objective and worked hard to achieve goals. I always try to do my best throughout my career in Army & AWT.
Who do you see as a source of inspiration or role model? Spiritually and morally my role model is our Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Muhammad Ali Jinnah is my other role model due to his outstanding work ethics.
What are your coping strategies for stress management? Introspection is one of my main coping strategies; talking to myself and pondering over my decisions, saying my prayers 5 times a day and playing golf when I have the time are all things I do to keep my stress manageable.
How do you manage you anger? I am famous for the control, I exert over my anger; I regulate and channelize it. One must have control over his nerves while he is making such a critical decision or working on these critical positions.
What is your recipe of success? I have been associated with the army for the last 40 years; I have learnt and seen a lot. I firmly believe that you need to make a commitment to yourself and you need to conquer yourself. You need to have the right intentions and work as hard as you can. Maintaining a fine balanced approach in life.
Are you into the habit of reading and what are some of the books that you would like to recommend to other? Due to some commitments I am out of touch with reading stuff, otherwise I am fond of reading books & love to read on subjects such as history and biographies. The books that have inspired me are The Holy Quran and Nahj-ul-Balagha.
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“YOUR OBJECTIVE SHOULD BE TO WORK HARD AND DO YOUR PART TO THE UTMOST OF YOUR ABILITIES. REMAIN CONTENDED AND THANKFUL FOR ALL YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH. THE WISH LIST IS A VICIOUS CYCLE AND IT ONLY LEADS TO UNENDING JOURNEY, NOTHING IS EVER ENOUGH. TRUE WEALTH LIES IN THE SENSE AND BELIEF OF CONTENTMENT, HOPE IS A TONIC THEREFORE, ONE SHOULD NEVER LOSE HOPE. REMAIN CONNECTED TO RELIGION AND KEEP YOUR FAITH IN IT; FIRM AND UNSHAKEABLE.”
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MARGO ABDEL AZIZ Director, International School of Choueifat – Lahore
Profile: Margo A. Aziz is currently the Director of the International School of Choueifat – Lahore, member of the SABIS® Network, a global educational organization present on five continents, in twenty countries with 55 schools and over 70 thousand students. Ms. Aziz has been in Pakistan for the last ten years. Before that she worked in the field of management and education in the United States, the Middle East and North Africa. She holds degrees in business administration and quality management. At present, she is taking courses towards Executive MBA at Harvard University.
“DOING WHAT YOU WANT TO DO AND LOVING IT. HAVING FRIENDS WHO STAND BY YOU IN EVERY SITUATION. BEING HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU HAVE.”
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CEO Club: Could you please tell us about SABIS® Educational System? Margo A. Aziz: SABIS® Educational System is one of the oldest educational systems in the world. It was established in 1886. It started as a school for girls; an opportunity for them to be able to attain quality education on a par with boys, those days. Sooner than later, parents of boys approached administration to include enrollment of boys. From that moment, SABIS® became a co-educational system. SABIS® is a global education network that has an active presence in 20 countries on five continents and educates over 70,000 students in its 55 schools. Some of our schools are private whereas some are operating under public-private partnership. We also have schools for the middle-class income groups which we call CADMUS schools, in countries like Kurdistan and Northern Iraq. Recently, our President Mr. Carl Bistany, on his visit to Lahore for the 25th anniversary, announced that we would plan to open another school in Pakistan, as well. The International School of Choueifat-Lahore (ISC-Lahore) is the first and only SABIS® Network school located in the Indian subcontinent. ISC-Lahore first opened its doors in September 1992 to 134 students in KG1. Over the years, and based on the solid reputation it has developed in the community, ISC-Lahore has grown to a full K-12 offering education to close to 1,000 students every year. The name Choueifat is in recognition of the first school which was established in Lebanon. Some of our schools carry the name Choueifat while others are called SABIS® International Schools.
What is the total strength of SABIS® staff working in 20 countries? Nearly 9,000 both in the schools, corporate offices in Lebanon as well as in regional centers.
Please share with us the last year’s revenue growth rate of your schools in percentage? The school has grown steadily over the years. To take a full advantage of an excellent education offered, parents are encouraged to plan to have their children here from preschool until graduation in G12 - it is an important commitment for the families but we are proud to have many students who spent their entire basic education with us before going to the universities in Pakistan or abroad. We are successful in keeping our number of students steady, despite challenges we may encounter.
What do you think are the three major competencies a CEO must have? It depends on the field. The first one that comes to my mind is strength – to be able to deal with the risks and failures and to stand by what you believe in. The others are perseverance and consistency - pursuing the vision, mission and proving your loyalty to your institution. A CEO needs to be a believer in himself and passionate about his/her work as well as supporting and developing the staff of an organization.
How do you make sure that SABIS® is invested in the mission and vision statement? How do you instill the same passion, energy, and vision that you possess in your staff? Through a number of ways. One of them is through the mission statement which is displayed in every office to remind ourselves what we are here for. Before the beginning of the academic year, we have a week or 10-days’ long orientation. We prepare ourselves for the new academic challenges. Moreover, for the well-being of our organisation, we organise get-togethers and joint activities such as cricket matches and appreciation lunches and dinners to bond with each other. As senior management, we look out for the mission statement to see if it’s still valid or needs changes. Staff is offered in-house professional development and opportunities to attend courses and conferences offered by other organizations
| 395 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | or online. It’s important for the senior management team to create culture of professionalism, accountability, and management with human face. We strive to walk the talk and lead fulfillment of both the mission and the vision.
Is employee retention a problem for ISC-Lahore? Not at all. People are satisfied and valued here. They love the culture. They feel appreciated and are taken care of. Yes, there are policies and rules at SABIS® we all have to respect and act on accordingly. But it is important that the staff has an understanding of what is required and why. We have open lines of communication between staff and management to make sure that we have all community on board. It’s hugely important in our culture. Staff is empowered, every idea, every opinion, every suggested initiative is given due attention. One of our best resource is our people. We value them a lot.
Where do you see ICS five years down the road in Pakistan and on the international level? I see ISC expanding into two to three high-end campuses in Pakistan. One more probably in Lahore and another in Islamabad. I think we can also contribute to the quality of education through our presence in Karachi. I would encourage my corporate office to open schools for the middle-class income groups in Pakistan. Another possibility is that we might go virtual soon where students will be provided courses online. Introduction of full-time or partial online education will definitely produce more confident and independent students. Their dependence on teachers only will be reduced.
Who does the quality-check at SABIS® Educational System? And how is it maintained? Each school is accredited. We, as a network, are also accredited which is very unusual. Accreditation puts you on certain standards, accountability and responsibility to the level where if you don’t meet them, you lose it. Some people claim that the standards are rigid, but it’s not since you have to show improvement. What they mistake it for is that it’s a motivator for you to improve and if you don’t show the required level of performance then definitely accreditation will no longer be there. Accreditation is usually offered for between five to seven years at a time. In the meantime, we have to do a yearly report of how we are progressing based on the accreditors remarks and feedback, which we receive. We have to show either finished product or already in progress because it takes a number of years to achieve the end. Towards the end of the accreditation of one year, we do our own reflection and study here for the accreditation visit which is usually for about one week and observes every aspect of running of the school, interviews parents, students, government officials etc.; it tries to gather the larger picture. In the meantime, we have day to day accountability here which is our system of different types of exams, from weekly, periodic to term finals - immediate checks of grades of students, attendance, punctuality, infractions and missed exams. Through the academic management system of variety of reports, students, teachers, principals have an immediate and accurate picture of the student’s gaps and academic standing and if required can take an immediate action to provide the necessary support. These are the items through which we maintain our standards of quality.
Coming back to you, Margo, tell us about yourself please. I believe myself to be a very fortunate person for having received good education. I was born in Poland then left for Australia where I continued to live until I got my first degree from the University of Sydney. Then I started working for the US government for a number of years. I worked for them in both Poland
| 396 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | and Middle-East where I was based in Cairo, Egypt. During my stay in Cairo, I felt a tremendous urge to go back to the school. So, I joined a Master’s programme in quality management . Later on I moved to the State University of New York’s System Administration. This is the biggest Public Education University System in the United States. I was associate director for the international programmes. When I heard from SABIS®, I was not sure it’s really an opportunity for me but a very good friend of mine said something very interesting to me. She said, “Listen, any job you will do now it will just be pieces of management of doing this and that, if you will become a school director, you’ll have to bring all of the pieces together. You will close the circle. I’ll send your letter and CV and let’s see what happens.”
And that’s how I came to SABIS®. Coming September, it will be my 12 years of working relationship with SABIS®. I started with SABIS® in Cairo as a trainee gaining insights of all the operations of the school. After five months, I received a call from our President Mr. Carl Bistany who greeted me with good news about securing my visa for Pakistan where I would be managing the school. From that moment my current position is my mission dedicated to my students and ISC community. I’m fortunate to have this opportunity and to be member of SABIS organization.
How has your working experience been here in Pakistan, in a nutshell? In a nutshell, it’s a huge but professionally worthy experience, an adventure I would say. I’m the kind of a person who can deal with situations where you don’t know what is going to hit you the next moment. But having an opportunity to offer young people here top quality, competitive in the global world, education, is enormous responsibility but also enormous satisfaction. I’ve been received here with great hospitality and generosity. It’s a rewarding experience in my life.
How are you so energetic? Do you work on yourself or is it genetic? It has always been like this for two reasons. I am a people’s person. I love people and they fascinate me. I have also been fortunate that whatever I did, I loved it and it was, and is, meaningful. It small ways, it either changes or impacts lives of others in a good way. Every morning coming to school and seeing and talking to my students - that’s the best energy boost one can get!
What is your favorite movie, actor and book? ‘Godfather’ is my favorite movie. I am a fan of George Clooney, Gwyneth Paltrow and some other actors. My favorite book professionally is “Getting to Yes”. On the lighter side, the novel that I really like and just finished reading is American‘ Marriage’.
What are the two things that you want to see in people? Honesty and loyalty.
Would you like to give a message to the youth? Don’t give up. You are living in historical times. Creating history and making your mark is not easy. It takes courage and hard work. Our youth is capable of bringing a positive change in society. I have very high hopes for them.
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MAROOF A. SYED President & CEO, Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP)
Profile: Maroof A. Syed did his O and A levels from Karachi and then went to US for his undergrad as well as graduate studies and stayed there for 25 years. There, he started his career at Intel and TI before being part of three startups - two of which went to acquisition and one went to the public market. After a successful tech career, he was looking for a second-innings and his academic background in Engineering, Economics and Public Policy came to the fore. He had done his graduation from Harvard and his undergraduate studies from Rensselaer – both of them the finest institutes in the world. It believed that gave him an edge to look at things from multiple perspectives and not have a static world view. He was looking for an opportunity that combined policy, tech and economics – ending up at CERP was a very natural result. It is an institution founded about 10 years ago by five Economists, Asim Khawaja, Atif Mian, Adnan Khan, Tahir Andrabi and Ali Cheema.
“LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION ARE EXTREMELY MISUNDERSTOOD WORDS. I WOULD SAY THAT INNOVATION IS NOT ABOUT RED WALLS AND YELLOW FURNITURE- IT IS ABOUT CULTURE. CULTURE OF DESCENT AND CULTURE OF FAILURE IS VERY, VERY IMPORTANT.”
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CEO Club: You head one of the most prestigious economic research centers in the country. Could you tell us a bit about how your journey brought you here? Maroof A. Syed: I did my O and A levels from Karachi and then I went to US for my undergrad as well as graduate studies and stayed there for 25 years. There, I started my career at Intel and TI before being part of three startups - two of which went to acquisition and one went to the public market. After a successful tech career, I was looking for a second-innings and my academic background in Engineering, Economics and Public Policy came to the fore. I had done my graduation from Harvard and my undergraduate studies from Rensselaer – both of them the finest institutes in the world . I believe that gave me an edge to look at things from multiple perspectives and not have a static world view. I was looking for an opportunity that combined policy, tech and economics – ending up at CERP was a very natural result, I think. It is an institution founded about 10 years ago by five Economists, Asim Khawaja, Atif Mian, Adnan Khan, Tahir Andrabi and Ali Cheema.
Why did you come back from USA? As much as I enjoyed living and working in the US – It was not fulfilling and something was missing. To me developing countries are like unfinished paintings where each stroke means much more than in the developed world. In the U.S., you can may change the frame or the lighting meaning the work has a narrower space for impact. In Pakistan, you can really do a lot because there is much more to do. In Pakistan you may not choose the canvas but you are completely in control of choosing the paint, the colour, texture, its look and feel- the stroke is much more meaningful here. So that is what brought me back, I was thinking about it for a long time, I chose a mid-sized institution to work. Big institutions always have some sort of politics, your whole time there is passed learning and negotiating those equations.
What does CERP do, exactly? It’s all in our name: Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan started from quantitative research and now we have four additional verticals: Executive Education, Survey, Analytics and Advisory. What we do is basically and fundamentally try to understand policy issues in Pakistan through research. Subsequently, we use that research and skillset to implement change at the policy level. We have 23 programs – we work on education, tax policy, skills development, procurement, women empowerment, women mobility.
Who buys your products? In some cases, it is the government that uses our research and insights because it helps them frame policy. In other case, government partners also need our research to partner effectively with the public sector. Out of 23 programs, 15 are in Punjab, one in Karachi, one in Islamabad, four in KPK and we just signed our first program in Balochistan. We are the only think tank in Pakistan that is actually operates at the national level. On the private sector side, we offer advanced analytics building on the unique combination of econometrics and algorithmic techniques (ML/DL and AI). We believe that the Pakistan firm (private sector) needs to transform its product and process design methodologies through data-driven decision making.
Do your clients instruct you on what to do research on or do you come up with your own ideas? We spearhead the research on our own, our approach is very different. We want to do certain types of research to understand our questions and based on that we seek either grant money or position our
| 399 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | revenue generating stream accordingly. We function as a non-profit. People in Pakistan think a non- profit is the same as a charity but that is not so. We have many projects with government institutions, with Punjab Government, SECP, with State Bank of Pakistan etc. For example, NSPP (National School of Public Policy) is the institution where bureaucrats come to learn and we have already trained 2,300 CSS officers - which is almost 37% of the entire CSS core. So, we are actually teaching them what data driven decision making is all about.
What is your stance on leadership? Leadership and innovation are extremely misunderstood words. I would say that innovation is not about red walls and yellow furniture- it is about culture. Culture of descent and culture of failure is very, very important. When the stakes are very high and failure is extremely costly, people will choose not to take risks. But If you never take chances you will never be (entrepreneurial). A lot of times people think that leadership is only glorified management, how many people you have, how much authority you have. In fact leadership and authority are two different things. You can exercise leadership without having authority and I will soon be teaching this course in LUMS on leadership. In fact, leadership is about mobilizing people in an adaptive environment. If you are answering questions from a book, that is not leadership, if you are using some manual and saying that this is the process or the procedure, that is not leadership. Leadership is to mobilize people towards your vision in an ever-changing environment.
What about employee- retention, has this been a problem for CERP? We try to provide a flexible, collaborative and learning environment where it is not about the number of hours you are at your desk, but rather the outcomes and results you produce. We have flexible hours which allows people to balance their life with work. That said, in certain aspects on certain verticals it is still a challenge but, in most cases, we have people here that have been working with us since we started almost 10 years ago. More and more people, I feel and see, want to stay here.
Where do you see CERP 5 years down the road? As a think-tank, I want to expand our reach and scope. If I am fundamentally changing policy at federal, provincial, local levels seems redundant, then, I think, I will have reached my goal. The thing about CERP is that, we feel that sometimes mostly people come and make their own institution, I distinctly did not want to do that. I think what people do is for their own name, I am not about that. A building cannot be built from 7th floor downwards, your building stands on the foundation, so my foundation is very strong.
What is your stance on women empowerment? I would say that “Yes, it is extremely important because women labor participation is only 25% (one of the lowest in South Asia). Our three largest programs focus on women empowerment, in terms of outreach. Pairing urban women to job markets by providing mobility (transport), career services, etc. This allows us to understand and research the question of how mobility constraints prevents women from working and accessing jobs. The interesting part is that while we think that people tend to invest less on girls – this trend has now completely changed. Parents are very practical about such matters and they allocate more resources and capital on the smartest kid, it does not matter what gender the child has. When you have scarcity of resources, you have to take difficult decisions. When you do not have scarcity, you say everyone is special and you allocate equal resources to all.
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What difference you saw in the environments of US and Pakistan, one pro and one con? I think the big positive is the impact that one’s contribution can create in a developing country like Pakistan. This thought energizes me every day when I come to work. Organizations in Pakistan, particularly family businesses, are too set in their ways of top-heavy decision making and compensation. Their decisions are also gut-based rather data-driven.
Describe three qualities a CEO must have? I think in my view a CEO has to enable people. Do not surround yourself with the people who just agree with you. You have to be fundamentally comfortable with the fact that you function in a marketplace and dissent should be celebrated, not put down. Many times, we see many personality-dependent institutions in Pakistan, if you take that personality out, the institution collapses. So, the focus should be to make that kind of institution that runs forever. It does not matter you are in that institution or not. CERP is not me or the founders of the board, it is about people that work here. Implementing such an attitude is easier said than done though.
How do you manage work-life balance? That’s the tough part. My wife is an ophthalmologist and we have to sort of balance that, she has her conferences and I have mine. I think the challenge in a CEO life is that there is a lot of information you have that you cannot unnecessarily share with everyone. So, you have to be able to manage and have outlets. I love spending time with my kids. You have to find moments that allow you to relax and unwind and sort of not think about work. But work-life balance, I think, is a big challenge... one that I have not fully figured it out yet.
Any book that is close to your heart? There are lot of books, I am a big Noam Chomsky fan.“Understanding Power” is one of my favourites.
“AS A THINK-TANK, I WANT TO EXPAND OUR REACH AND SCOPE. IF I AM FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGING POLICY AT FEDERAL, PROVINCIAL, LOCAL LEVELS SEEMS REDUNDANT, THEN, I THINK, I WILL HAVE REACHED MY GOAL.”
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MEHER KASHIF YOUNIS MD, Model Steel Group of Companies
Profile: Meher Kashif Younis is leading the reputed and renowned multinational steel industry of Pakistan, Model Steel. Model Steel was established in 1969 in Lahore and since then it is integrated for the manufacturing and distribution of steel in Pakistan. He has a true, caring & loyal attitude towards his valuable and honorable customers. His areas of expertise of research and development in steel production, utilizing and importing new technology in Pakistan, and boosting corporate consumer behavior of the business. His ideology is based on the principals of quality, sincerity, and truthful intentions in the business career. His mission is to remain sincere with the machines, employees, consumers, society, and eco-friendly to the environment. The slogan of the success of Kashif is,“Glorious in the hearts & minds of our customers through truthful intentions sincerity & quality.” He is the man of dignity with qualities of competency, sincerity, honesty, diligence, endeavor, and reliability with his work.
“A GENUINE LEADER IS HONEST WITH HIS WORK AND PROFESSIONAL COMMITMENTS. I ALWAYS EMPHASIZE THE MARVELING OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE.”
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CEO Club: Please share the story of Model Steel. Meher Kashif: 15 to 20 years ago, my father initiated the business of the distribution of steel product in Pakistan. Prior to this, he was handling the business of import of steel scrap from Germany and selling in Pakistan. He updated his venture by turning it into a factory which melts, renews, and mound the imported steel into new customized products. Model Steel is inherited by me through my father who worked hard and passionately to upgrade it to multinational standard. In 1990, this company was integrated into the overall distribution and supply chain management of steel in Pakistan.
When did you join Model Steel? I joined Model Steel in 1998. I suggested the name Model so that our products can be niched and recognized.
How many companies are leading under Model Steel? Currently, 5 industries are running under Model Steel. Model Steel enterprises work for the rolling and folding of the steel. Black Volt steel was established in 1998 which is responsible for the import and distribution of the steel. Other companies include Meher Steel. Model Steel 1, and Model Steel 2. All the industries are working for different and individual purposes.
What is the total workforce of your company? 2500 is the total count of the employees out of which 400 are permanent and rest are employed on a contractual basis.
What is the annual revenue generation of your industry? By the grace of Almighty and the consistent dedication of our team, we have reached 350 tons per annum capacity. We are elevating to new heights of triumphs and profits.
What are the mandatory competencies of a CEO? A genuine leader is honest with his work and professional commitments. I always emphasize the marveling of emotional intelligence. He or she must be a source of support and guidance to his employees. The support of the team with the head makes him an exceptional leader. A leader must accept the mistakes and faults of his teammates and workers without hesitation. I have always worked according to a well-organized plan and schedules which eases my tasks for me.
Who is responsible for the marketing of your products of Model Steel? Model Advertising is a team responsible for the creativity, advertising, marketing, and execution of the products of Model Steel. This team assists us in creating a valuable place in the market.
What is the scope of employee retention in your company? My management and I are highly corporative and friendly with our employees. We have facilitated them with annual ample leaves, bonuses, and medical facilities. They are highly satisfied with the management thus returning us with productive work. You hire the best people you can possibly find. Then it’s up to you to create an environment where great people decide to stay and invest their time.
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What improvements in your leadership skills do you expect to see in the upcoming years? I am focusing and stressing on the skills of financial modeling of my company. I am training myself to adjust my profits and losses in a balanced way. In addition, I am considering to marvel the art of future planning and forecasting of the business for the smooth running of the system. The role of the CEO is to enable people to excel, help them discover their own wisdom, engage themselves entirely in their work, and accept responsibility for making change.
At what level do you visualize Model Steel in the upcoming five years? I am planning and working enthusiastically to entitle and include my company, Model Steel, in the list of 100 fortuned companies in Pakistan. I want to rocket this industry to new heights of unimaginable success to make the dream of my father comes true. My employees are my priority and I respect their contributions.
THE REAL POWER OF A LEADER IS IN THE NUMBER OF MINDS HE CAN REACH, HEARTS HE CAN TOUCH, SOULS HE CAN MOVE, AND LIVES HE CAN CHANGE “
How do you counter your rage attacks? Well, I have always been an angry and impatient person in my personal and professional life both. As time passed on, my interaction with my employees and experiences has convinced me to learn the art of patience. After understanding the significance of patience and calmness in life, my level of rage declined drastically. Now, I try to tackle things calmly and intelligently in my life by reducing stress in my life. I exercise and walk regularly.
What was the toughest time of your professional life? The most difficult part of my professional life was that I had to, unfortunately, dismiss some of about 35 employees of mine due to some unforeseen circumstances. I was suffering from some financial and technical problems in the company because of which I took this decision. All of my 35 employees were highly competent and dedicated to their work. They are mentored and trained under my supervision. Anyway, I am looking forward to calling them again to join the industry soon. I hope they get the best of what they deserved.
How do you define happiness? Your family is your happiness. A happy family and a glad self is the ultimate achievement of happiness. Contentment and gratified of what one is blessed is the best way of thanksgiving.
Please quote a valuable message for the youth of Pakistan If you really want to achieve something in life then respect and love your parents more than anything in the world. Their prayers and blessings will act as a key to all the locked doors. Furthermore, eradicate the concept of shortcuts of success and money. Your hard work and dedication to your aims and goals are the steps to touch the sky of success.
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“IF YOU REALLY WANT TO ACHIEVE SOMETHING IN LIFE THEN RESPECT AND LOVE YOUR PARENTS MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE WORLD. THEIR PRAYERS AND BLESSINGS WILL ACT AS A KEY TO ALL THE LOCKED DOORS.”
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MIAN MUHAMMAD KASHIF ASHFAQ CEO, ChenOne Stores Limited
Profile: Mian Muhammad Kashif Ashfaq was born on 25th March 1976 in Toba Tek Singh. He belongs to a very well-known industrialist family. He had basic education from Faisalabad and went abroad for higher education. He is well-known in his home-town Faisalabad & Lahore for community & social services. Mian Muhammad Kashif Ashfaq is the CEO of ChenOne Stores Limited. ChenOne is a subsidiary of Chenab Limited. Mian Kashif Ashfaq introduced lifestyle concept first time ever in Pakistan with the name “ChenOne”, these fashion stores became one of the greatest business successes in Pakistan. Today ChenOne is considered leading fashion brand and a real trendsetter. ChenOne is known for its vast range of trendy, fashionable garments and exceptional quality in Textile sector. ChenOne is committed to providing quality products with premium services to enhance customer loyalty with the brand.
“ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS BASED ON INITIATIVES, CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, AND DEVELOPMENT. THAT REQUIRES A LOT OF SACRIFICES, ESPECIALLY IN TERMS OF SOCIAL LIFE.”
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CEO Club: Share the success journey of your brand under the umbrella of the Chenab group. Mian Muhammad Kashif: I was related to a business group and right from the days when I was in my matriculation, I used to actively participate in business meetings and learn about running a business. After completion of my higher studies from the University of Leeds, UK. I decided to do something exclusive that no one else was doing in the textile sector of Pakistan. At that time, the Chenab group was already a leading export of home textile products, so we had the product. Gradually, I took over the Chenab group and began to look after everything. The main challenge was the availability of the good human resource in the retail sector as there was no concept of decentralized retailing. However, we progressed rapidly in the past years. Today, we have 48 branches across Pakistan and 6 in the Middle East.
Where do you see ChenOne in future? We want to expand to Europe and the US. We don’t want to have exclusive standalone stores; we’d rather have store-in-store and later we will have our own stores.
How many people are on the payroll of ChenOne? How do you develop your human resource? There are about 1500 employees in ChenOne and 95% of them are permanent. Human resource is a very challenging issue; all new brands that came, they simply took employees trained by ChenOne without going through lengthy pieces of training as we do. Now we have in-house training departments that offer customized training. Furthermore, external training is also being provided to our employees on a regular basis.
How do you ensure top customer service by your brand? The key training area for our employees is customer service, where they have to be really taught the art of dealing with a customer gracefully. We have a very active & efficient Customer Care Department which keeps the record of customer queries and the solution provided. We have centralized customer Helpline to provide timely solution of customer queries. We are also following the mystery shopping concept, through which we evaluate the performance of our managers and regional managers. We also have an internal compliance management department which audits our branches regularly on defined parameters.
How do you define the corporate culture at ChenOne? Currently, there is a mixed culture at ChenOne and I’m not very satisfied with it. At times, people who are good with their work are not loyal to the company, while those who are loyal are not that good at their work! We can’t get involved with each and everything and this is a major issue, not just in our company, but all over Pakistan.
There is a market perception that ChenOne is an upper-class brand? Have you ever thought to cater to the lower middle class? The target market of ChenOne is for the upper class. We want to keep it exclusive and maintain our quality of designs and services. We believe that we offer value for money; in fact, you will see a remarkable difference in the quality we offer.
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What are the recent achievements of ChenOne locally and internationally? Our major recent achievement is an agreement with a Chinese group which has started buying ChenOne home brands from Pakistan. They are displaying ChenOne products along with their furniture and they will also have exclusive ChenOne stores in China. Considering China is a very big market, we are very positive about this achievement.
How would you define entrepreneurship in your own words? Entrepreneurship is based on initiatives, creativity, innovation, and development. That requires a lot of sacrifices, especially in terms of social life.
How do you maintain a work-life balance as an entrepreneur? My wife is a very supportive woman. She helps me in business as she understands the issues and problems I face. She is very accommodating.
How do you manage the cash flow in your business? The main strength of the retail business is that it is cash-based and we get the money by the next day maximum. So there is no cash flow issue as such unlike in other B-to-B businesses.
“A LEADER HAS TO BE VERY PROACTIVE AND FAST IN MAKING DECISIONS. YOU CAN’T SUCCEED IF YOU CAN’T FORECAST THE FUTURE.”
Which key numbers in the balance sheet do you keep a particular eye out for? We set a goal that we have to achieve 15% of the total sales as net profit. This is the target we work on. However, it is becoming more and more difficult. Still, I’m positive that it will improve in a few years.
What has been your average growth in the last 2-3 years? At average, we have been growing between 15-18%. Annually we are projecting a 22% growth this year and a turnover of about Rs. 6 billion. We will be opening some big stores this year in Karachi, Lahore and some other cities that’s why our projections have gone up for this year.
What is the reason that your brand has been a bit slow in introducing more innovative products in the last 4-5 years? I think we have been catching up quite fast. We launched several brands for women and men for a wide range of fabrics, ready-made apparel, and home textiles. Our sales have been increasing thanks to the introduction of these newer brands and also various new marketing strategies, such as package selling, turnkey-basis home decoration, etc. In turnkey home decoration, we have in-house interior designers who will help decorate clients’ homes within their budget.
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What has been the most difficult decision have you taken in your professional career? Closing a store has been a very difficult decision for me. I have been a very positive person; I opened shop in the Diplomatic Enclave of Islamabad, thinking that they will take the products to their companies and build Pakistan’s image abroad. But ultimately, it had to be closed down because of minimal success. Other than that, we started with a very big setup in the food sector, and there are huge overheads and we can’t even close it now. We should have started with a smaller setup, but now we are intensively working to improve our management in the food business.
How do you manage your anger? I’m not a very angry person. I generally do not talk a lot when I am upset over something. That is the best way to suppress my anger.
How do you define success in three keywords? Success is continuous hard work, honesty, and dedication.
Who is your role model? My parents and my family are my true inspiration, especially Uncle Latif. He sowed the seed and his assiduous work has built our business to where it stands today.
How do you define leadership? A leader has to be very proactive and fast in making decisions. You can’t succeed if you can’t forecast the future.
Are you happy with the new business graduates? Not really. Even designers that come have bookish knowledge and are not practically trained. More practical training during studies should be inculcated in the education system.
How many women are working in the ChenOne group? We encourage women a lot. We facilitate them in various ways. I strongly believe they are more serious and more committed. But the only disadvantage is that due to social issues, they do not continue their jobs after they get married. We prefer hiring females as customer service executives. We even decided to have a female on the cash counter.
Do you want to give any message for the youth of Pakistan? The youth either want to become managers or they want to go abroad. My message to them is that they should be patient and must go through a process of hard work. If they want to excel, they must have to perform extraordinarily, right from the start.
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MIAN ZULFIQAR AHMAD MD, Mezan Group
Profile: Mian Zulfiqar Ahmad was born into an Industrial family. His father along with many hardworking spans of Industrial Entrepreneurial endeavors inspired me into this struggle. Our forefathers before partition were in trade and industry. Since after and throughout Bhutto’s Nationalization phase in the 70s they struggled tremendously but showed resilience. First, it was his Grandfather and then his father and his brother who established and strengthened the business and in 1983, they took over a textile industry sick unit then opened up the Edible Oil division and thoroughly established the business and organization followed by the introduction of Tea and Beverages in 2014. He studied at DHA College Karachi and then IQRA University. Top performance in studies was never his forte, however he always remained in the leading position amongst my group of friends. He was very active in extracurricular activities. After his education; he joined family business in 2001 and significantly contributed in developing Mezan Oil as a brand.
“I ENCOURAGE WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AT ALL LEVELS. MANY WOMEN WORKING FOR OUR VARIOUS AGENCIES HAVE PARTICIPATED AND CONTRIBUTED WITH THEIR ENTHUSIASM, CRITICAL THINKING AND CREATIVITY TO THE GROUP.”
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CEO Club: Could you please tell me a bit about Mezan Group; how many companies come under its umbrella? Mian Zulfiqar Ahmad: The Mezan Group consists of Edible Oil, Paracha Textile Mills, Mezan Tea, Mezan Beverages, Hamza sugar Mills and Mezan Executive Tower in Faisalabad. This tower functions as our Punjab Regional Office. We also operate a rental property management firm in Faisalabad.
How many employees are working with this Mezan Group? Mezan is a huge group with approximately 8,000 employees working across Pakistan.
Does the group have a chairman as well? Yes, my father Haji Riaz Ahmed is the Mezan Group Chairman.
Are any of your siblings working with the company too? Yes, my younger brothers Mian Naveed and Mian Khalid are partners and directors in the group. Together the three of us have equal responsibilities across the group with different designations.
Can you please explain the mission and vision statement of Mezan Group? The vision of this group is reaching well being, goodness and happiness in all spheres of society locally and globally. Always striving for honest livelihood is an unfathomable “ibadat”.
It is very refreshing to see people think like this. What is your reasoning? It all started by our grandfather. Of course it is his vision to seek from Allah SWT while you deal with man which has passed on to us through my father.
Can you please tell me what three key competencies must a CEO have? Most importantly dedication, followed by sound vision and hard work. If you are dedicated and the responsibility that you have taken is your priority and you are hardworking and honest, definitely you will get results sooner or later. This is my firm belief and faith. I believe that if you obey these three rules, nothing is impossible for you to achieve.
Could you please tell us a bit about your own background and how you ended up at the Mezan Group? I was born into an Industrial family. My Father with many hardworking spans of Industrial Entrepreneurial endeavors inspired me into this struggle. Our forefathers before partition were in trade and industry. Since after and throughout Bhutto’s Nationalization phase in the 70s they struggled tremendously but showed resilience. First it was my Grandfather and then my father and his brother who established and strengthened the business and in 1983 we took over a textile industry sick unit then opened up the Edible Oil division and thoroughly established the business and organization followed by the introduction of Tea and Beverages in 2014. I studied at DHA College Karachi and then at IQRA University. Top performance in studies was never my forte, however I always remained in the leading position amongst my group of friends. I was very active in extracurricular activities. After my education I joined our family business in 2001 and significantly contributed in developing Mezan Oil as a brand. Mian Naveed Riaz, my younger brother
| 411 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | also has a very important role in shaping this brand. Mian Khalid Riaz, our youngest brother joined us later in 2009 who looked to emulate on to the then built equity following us as leaders alongside of course our father. One individual cannot do all this on his own, everyone has to play their role in this life. The older generation – like that of my father – had its own mindset and style. One of the biggest challenges was to eventually accept the need to change. One prime example of this was the need to add Diverse Human Resource who will work as your partners in the growth of your company and not as your employees. Therefore inculcating this thinking in the Founders and its employees was a very big challenge at the start. But today Masha’Allah, our team is very professional and if you count the brands of Pakistan, our different Brands across all categories regularly stand tall as the top three brands within their categories.
What was your latest venture? We recently set up Mezan Tea and Mezan Beverages and both these divisions are running successfully across Pakistan. We are constantly making efforts to expand our market share and make a special place in the hearts and minds of our consumers across the Nation.
How do you make sure that your employees share the same mission and vision as you do? The most important thing is that we give ownership to our employees as discussed earlier. We have professional COOs in every company and we have assigned certain roles and responsibilities to them. The policy-level decisions are reserved for the board members and rest of the decisions are handled at the COO level.
What is your stance on women empowerment and what percentage of employees in your group are females? I encourage women empowerment at all levels. Many women working for our various agencies have participated and contributed with their enthusiasm, critical thinking and creativity to the Group. We have nearly 100 women employees in the group platform, working out of the office for their convenience, however reviews are gathered in a quarter regarding their working conditions and their valuable input is sought towards improving general performance of the company.
“FOR SUCCESS YOU NEED PRAYERS FROM EVERYONE, COMPLETE HONESTY AND DEDICATION. I ALSO BELIEVE THAT LUCK IS IMPORTANT. YOU CAN DESTINE YOURSELF TO SUCCEED AND YOU ABSOLUTELY WILL BY THE GRACE AND MERCY OF ALLAH S.W.T.”
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Does Mezan group parktake in any sort of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activity? We do such activities but it is our policy that we do not want to treat it commercially. These activities are very important and I want to give this message to all establishments and general public from this platform that every Muslim is answerable in the hereafter. When all is said and done, no matter how rich you are – only two things will ever serve you, truly. The money that you spend on others is what remains surely hereafter as Sadqa e Jaria. I strongly believe in Sadqa e Jaria.
Where do you see this Mezan Group five years down the road? As mentioned earlier our mix of Brands are placed in the top 3 whether it is Mezan Oil, Mezan Tea or Mezan Beverages. We take great care at each stage of the value chain to ensure that our Brands stand out in every aspect such as premium quality, attractive packaging, aggressive sales and marketing strategies and all other aspects of providing consumers with the best possible brand offerings. We take great pride in the fact that we have the most modern and innovative brands across our categories. In beverages there are two global giants namely Coca Cola and Pepsi and you do not see any brand after them who is as successful or popular. Cola Next is the only brand that is now rapidly emerging as a third popular beverage brand in Pakistan.
Where you do see them or specifically Cola Next in the next five years? Cola Next has become a well known brand in Pakistan within a relatively short period of time and in the next five years you will see it in the leading position, Insha’Allah.
How do you manage your anger and stress? Earlier I used to be a very flustered CEO primarily due to the fact that I handled everything myself and did not believe in delegating. However, through the passage of time, I learnt that the more you delegate responsibility, the better your personality and your work become. I spend a major part of my time with our employees and business partners. If I am not dealing with them as a family and I have a bossy attitude then the desired results will not be achieved. I will never be able to make anyone feel like my partner and a valued part of the Mezan family. I set very clear goals and targets for my team and fully expect them to deliver the desired results. If they are not achieving the desired goal, I will not scold or misbehave with them. I believe in constant guidance and nurturing with a series of warnings issued to non-performers. If the individual still does not manage to raise his or her performance level we gradually phase them out of the company through a systematic process and bring in replacements. I believe this is the way a good company should work.
How do maintain this work life balance, does this mean that your kids and family always complaining that you are busy at office most of the time? I am a firm believer in work life balance which has made life a little easier and more systematic for me. I have a good work-life balance, which of course shifts time to time given the situations, however I make sure that I spend ample time with my family on a daily basis. I believe in policy making while my team runs the rest of the operations. If I have an idea in mind I openly share it with my team. I also have an open-door policy that allows anyone to approach me if they are facing any problems including the staff under Mangers.
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MOAZZAM RASHEED CEO, Bin Rasheed Colors & Chemicals Manufacturing Co (Pvt) Ltd
Profile: The idea of starting this company was conceived 30 years ago. We were already dealing in some colours and related raw materials but never had the idea that we could even become colours and chemicals associated products manufacturers and scientific solution providers for the Pakistan industries. It all happened during Hajj pilgrimage back in 2002 or 2003. Moazzam was there with his family. In that city, he saw a lot of companies like Bin Laden, Bin Dawood and so many others. They inspired him a lot. Fortunately, he got enough time there to think thoroughly about his business and its progress. After getting free from his prayers, he used to come back to hotel and kept jotting ideas down on a diary. When he came back to Pakistan, he told his brother about a plan, that they should go into the manufacturing business. Both discussed it in detail and finally agreed. They started the company as a dealership group and named it after our father, Sheikh Abdul Rasheed.
“WHEN IT IS ABOUT WORK, I THINK ANGER IS REQUIRED SOMETIMES. YOU HAVE TO SHOW YOUR ANGER BUT USE IT DIPLOMATICALLY TO GET YOUR OBJECTIVE. TOO MUCH LENIENCY IS ALSO NOT GOOD.”
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CEO Club: What challenges did you encounter in the beginning? Moazzam Rasheed: All industries of Pakistan, not specifically the chemical industry, are competing with multinational companies (MNCs), which is on the other hand is a blessing as MNCs bring technology, resources and a lot of ideas to the local people, which we can use to groom ourselves. When we started this business, we were the only Pakistani company producing master batches other than an MNC set up in Pakistan 25 years ago. We started with a very small capacity of about 60 tons a month. Now after 12 years’ hard work, I can proudly say that we are the biggest company of our field in Pakistan.
What is your per month capacity now? Now we are producing approximately 1100 tons a month.
Where do you see yourself now from the time you started this venture? Every day, I learn something new. When I came into business, I was an 18 years old, chemical engineering student. My transformation into what I am today took a long time. I am much humbler now.
Please let us know about your company’s average growth rate. We should exclude this year and also the last year as global economy was not that good. Specifically, in Pakistan we had a lot of issues, like elections and so many other things. So on an average, we are growing approximately by 11 to 12 per cent a year.
Please tell us about the Pakistan Chemicals Manufacturers Association. What is this association about and what do you do there? I am linked with three associations namely Pakistan Coating Association as chairman. This association has four different segments i.e. paints, inks, adhesives, construction chemicals and sealants as well. Besides, I am Vice Chairman to Pakistan Chemicals Manufacturing Association. This association is primarily an umbrella covering the whole Pakistani chemicals industry and also the petro chemical industry. We have all the top 100 leading players of Pakistan as our worthy members and this association is playing a vital role in the growth of chemical and petro chemical industy in Pakistan as it is specifically negotiating with the government about the installation of the new projects on the government base as well as the duty and customs tariffs. We are very much on the front-end negotiating with many other countries as well. We also take pride in the fact that this association is recognized by different government departments
How many employees are working under the umbrella of Bin Rasheed? Approximately 560 people and you would be very much surprised to know that the ratio of engineers to executives in our companies is much higher than the MNCs in Pakistan.
Are you satisfied with the quality of graduates our universities are giving now? Fortunately, the managements of universities have finally recognised the gap between the industry and the academia. So now they are giving relevant courses to the students, e.g, how to behave well in an organisation, how to communicate well etc. We have a very prestigious institute: Lahore Chamber
| 415 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | of Commerce and Industries (LCCI). There we have different standing committees, including the one for industry and academia linkage. They are very much active and they have so far become successful in connecting industry with the relevant departments in universities. Now university vice chancellors, professors and students have regular meetings with the industrialists and entrepreneurs. Now they know what kind of human resource is required by the industry.
What is leadership? The structure and hierarchy of any company is like a pyramid, and the leader is on the top all the time. He should be held responsible for everything. He should be the one who is more flexible, who is more caring. He is just like the father of a family so a leader can only be successful if he makes people feel that they are in one family.
What is your stance on women empowerment and how many women work in your company? Contrary to that I would say that within our organization and in our circle of business, we may have the biggest community of females. 15 out of our 70 engineers are females and in our commercial office, 12 to 15 employees are females out of 70 to 80 employees. But let me explain it that we have a mix of everything in our company, like we have followers of all religions in our company, we have all ages in our company and we have all genders. We have a mix of everything. The issue is that on females end they need cooperation from their own families.
Our company’s slogan from day one is that we should make managers instead of taking managers so we try to hire fresh engineers either male or female, so that they grow in our company and become something in the end. But unfortunately, most female employees leave either after getting married or after having kids. We, however, extend all our support to them so that they keep a work-life balance. At the time of hiring, we now assess the level of commitment shown by a female job seeker. If she is recently married, we do an interview of her husband, too and if she is single, her father is interviewed. The reason behind it is that females are our best employees because once they understand and adjust in the environment, they lock the thoughts of leaving or switching the company. Their focus is very clear and normally they come to the office, do their work and go back. Whereas the young male employees despite having been warned by their teachers think that they have to switch at least six jobs in three years.
Do you believe in succession planning? Yes, the planning is on the way and we are expecting that most probably by the end of 2019 or during 2020 we will offer IPO of this company. We will make this company public. In the next five years, our working will be focused on shifting this company into a corporate company so that it becomes a management-run establishment. It is very important that everything gets settled in a way that when our younger generation takes over, they adjust themselves in the mold instead of driving it in different directions.
How do you control your anger? Do you get angry easily? When it is about work, I think anger is required sometimes. You have to show your anger but use it diplomatically to get your objective. Too much leniency is also not good. Everybody takes you for
| 416 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | granted. So you should be angry in a very controlled way. If your anger is uncontrolled then you are hurting yourself.
You started your business from the scratch so you must have seen many ups and downs. What is the toughest decision that you have made so far? There were many, because previously we were into four kinds of businesses. We were into intending/ indenting business, then we came into commercial import, then we got into manufacturing, now we are also into exhibition and event management business. We also went into scientific instrumentation and also into the business politics of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry so everywhere, tough situations came up asking for tough decisions but I believe that tough decisions come in everybody’s life.
A little advice is that keep some selective people around you from whom you can take advice. The one who is confident that I can take any decision, even his decision can sometimes prove wrong. Even though you are the expert of your line, you should have at least two advisors with you. Do whatever you want to do but do it after consultations. In my life, I have taken many decisions both good and bad by myself. Sometimes, you have to take the risk. If a businessman does not know how to take a risk, then he is not doing the business.
What is your idea of happiness? Happiness is everything. If you are satisfied, you are happy.
Is it easy to be satisfied? In my opinion, it is about giving. You become happier by giving than taking. If you have learnt about giving then it does not matter how much money you have in your pocket. I have seen many rich people who are reluctant to give but there are those too who do not have enough but they are fond of giving. Happiness is directly proportional to the quantity that you give to other people.
“THE STRUCTURE AND HIERARCHY OF ANY COMPANY IS LIKE A PYRAMID, AND THE LEADER IS ON THE TOP ALL THE TIME. HE SHOULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING. HE SHOULD BE THE ONE WHO IS MORE FLEXIBLE, WHO IS MORE CARING.”
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MOHAMMAD ASIF PEER CEO & MD, Systems Pvt. Ltd
Profile: Rising through the ranks shows a professional’s commitment to the mission and values of their organization. Mr. Asif Peer serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director (MD) of Systems Limited, the same company where he began his career as a software developer in 1996. He also serves as a Member of the Board of Directors. Having majored in Computer Sciences at the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES) in Karachi, Peer was able to position himself in the lead for a job at Systems Limited as soon as he graduated. He demonstrated sheer tenacity by also completing his MBA in Marketing and Finance from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi only a year later. This was enough preparation for Peer to assume a more challenging role at the U.S. office, as he took on a wider array of responsibilities, focusing on delivery and management of software projects. He went on to serve as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Visionet Systems, Inc. from 2008 to 2012 in the US before returning to Pakistan and taking charge of Systems Limited as CEO. In his current role, he works very closely with his customers, partners, vendors, and government institutions while leading the multi-million dollar expansion program for Systems Limited. One of his biggest accomplishments is the successful initial public offering of Systems Limited that was held at the Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad stock exchanges in December 2014, where investors oversubscribed three times over at the upper price band of the company stock. Under his esteemed leadership, the company has won several accolades, including Microsoft Country Partner of the Year, multiple PSEB IT Export Awards since 2016, membership of Microsoft Dynamics President’s Club in 2014 and 2015, and 14 P@SHA ICT Awards in 7 categories over the past 5 years. In October 2018, Peer was made a member of Pakistan’s Council of Business Leaders, charged with providing recommendations for improving the nation’s business environment, increasing investment, and driving exports.
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CEO Club: What are four core competencies of inspiring CEOs that you want to see in your upcoming CEOs? Mohammad Asif Peer: A CEO of an organization is the captain of a ship. He is expected to have several competencies to effectively steer the ship in the right direction and keep it there. A CEO should be a strategic thinker with an ability to develop others. He should be an exceptional communicator and most importantly a technology-driven individual. I also believe that a CEO should be courageous enough to play to win, in contrast to playing not to lose.
Any remarkable recognition or achievements of company in last year? 2018 gave us many successes and reasons to celebrate. Systems Limited became Microsoft Country Partner of the Year for Pakistan because of our strong performance in Microsoft cloud and ERP solutions. We received two awards from the Pakistan Software Export Board, including Top IT Services Exporter, and we won two P@SHA ICT Awards for Supply Chain Logistics and BPO. Each award is a testament to our entire team’s talent and dedication to excellence, and I expect nothing less from them. 2018 was also the year that Systems’ revenue crossed the Rs. 1 billion mark. We are growing extremely rapidly; our revenue has increased by over 80 percent since 2017. One important contributor to this increase is our newly-established office in Germany, which continues our history of steady expansion to major global markets. Our pool of talented technology professionals has also grown. We currently have over 3,500 employees that offer a comprehensive skill set to our clients. We are dedicated to cultivating top talent in the technology sector and will continue to expand our team over the next several years.
Please share with readers business strategies for a CEO to move to the next level? It is important for a CEO to ensure his company is always working on ways to reinvent itself. Here at Systems Limited, we have always introduced innovative concepts. Recently we have invested in a Fintech venture called OneLoad that is poised to transform electronic payments in the country. Seeking new opportunities through expansion is another powerful strategy. Systems follows a multi- pronged business strategy whereby we grow vertically by adding new business units and horizontally by establishing new international offices.
What are the challenges and opportunities in the IT sector? One of the key challenges in our country is the perception of IT as merely a support function. It is so much more than that! This is the main reason why IT does not get the desired budget and investment in our country. Moreover, export is limited due to domestic instability, since we face challenges in attracting foreign customers. On the other hand, we also believe that there are many opportunities in Pakistan, both current and future. With existing companies growing, young entrepreneurs promoting a pro-IT culture in their respective organizations, and an increase in the number of start-ups and incubation programs, we believe that IT has a bright future in Pakistan. Collaboration programs between the academia of Pakistan and the IT industry will create a new generation of entrepreneurs and technologists, now students, who in turn will bring a pro-tech mindset into the business world and pave the way for unprecedented growth of the IT industry in the years to come.
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What is the future of software development in Pakistan and its export to other countries? The quality of skilled resources in Pakistan is much higher than those of countries competing with us. For that reason, it is safe to say that the future of software development (and its export) is bright in Pakistan. What we need to do is ensure more and more people get trained in IT and develop those skills without compromising on the standards set by the industry. We need to synergize the capabilities of local, regional, and international partners to allow us to capitalize on our highly skilled human resources. This is our competitive advantage in the global market; it’s not just about cost and labour arbitrage, but also our esteemed expertise in digital technology.
What scope do you see in software marketing and its export in comparison to India? Given our current capacity, we are doing quite well, no doubt. However, once you take a deeper look at the statistics, it becomes clear who is doing better. Compared to the kind of support Pakistan gets from its expatriates, non-resident Indians are involved in home affairs at a much deeper level, helping create an international network that generates greater employment and economic growth for India. Then we must consider how easy it is for a foreign investor to get a visa to visit India, and how favourable other countries are while processing business and work visas for Indians. And then we multiply all that with their population, where the sheer number of IT graduates produced each year overshadows those by Pakistan. The picture painted here might appear bleak, but it is still very promising, especially with the kind of initiatives being taken by the private sector. What Pakistan needs to do to compete in this industry is to stretch its horizons, make optimal use of the resources we have, and go over and beyond the expectations of our international customers. This will create a positive image of our country and give us the trust we need to operate in an industry fuelled by competition and innovation.
“EQ HAS TO DO WITH PEOPLE’S ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND, COMMUNICATE AND EXPRESS EMOTIONS IN A SYMPATHETIC OR EMPATHETIC MANNER.”
What are your vision, mission, core values, and shared behaviours that define your corporate culture? We believe that behaviours are values turned into actions, and that is what delivers results. Our mission is to become the number-one IT and IT-enabled services provider through our tested methodologies, processes, frameworks and customer-centric resources while working within our ever-expanding niches. This cannot be achieved unless our stakeholders share the same values as us. We call our seven fundamental values the Systems Way. We strive to always be honest and transparent to our clients and colleagues. We always remain respectful to people and our surroundings. We show
| 420 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | empathy and concern for our clients and team members. We always try our best and never give up on what we commit to. We courageously take on challenges and believe in our ability to win. We adhere to the highest ethical standards in business and other spheres of life. Finally, we always keep ourselves open to learn, with a play-to-win growth mindset. Our values translate into our vision of a corporate entity that believes in continuous innovation, enhancement of service offerings, superior financial results and increasing value for our clients and trusted shareholders.
What are the HR challenges and strategies regarding employee retention, motivation and performance appraisals at Systems Ltd? Our business success relies on people more than any other factor. Finding, recruiting, retaining, and motivating our talent is our top priority. Today, young professionals are more worried about making money than making a career, and with the freelance boom, retaining talented people can be difficult. But since we are expanding both horizontally and also across several verticals, we invest in our people to ensure that we continue to work with the best. We offer our employees a lifestyle rather than just a job. They manage their own time, have plenty of recreational activities while at work, full medical coverage, and international exposure. We also offer employee development programs through which many Systemers gain certifications, diplomas, and even degrees, all paid by Systems Limited. These are just some of the things we do to ensure that our talent sticks with us through thick and thin.
How can we inculcate ethics into our managers? I believe ethics and values are things that have a trickle-down effect, so it all starts with the senior management. If you want your middle manager to inculcate ethics in the way he or she operates, he must be supported by an environment that is conducive to ethical practices. This is only possible if seniors already set a good example for others to follow. I know I did. Another important thing, which is driven from our fourth value – honouring commitments – has to do with words. Words without action are meaningless. You can’t promise one thing and deliver something else because if you do, the trust placed in you will evaporate and impact our relationship negatively. Behaving in a fair and honest way is of paramount importance for a CEO who wants to inculcate ethics into his employees at the managerial level.
Do you have a winning team? How do you motivate them? What are three core characteristics of a winning team? Absolutely! No company, no matter how well managed it is, can win consistently without such a team. We motivate them through respect, recognition, and reward. I believe synergy to be the core characteristic that drives other significant attributes that make a team successful. A winning team is built upon trust and respect for one another, shares a mutual vision, and aligns its efforts to achieve the vision.
Is training, coaching and mentoring a high priority for you? How much time/resources do you devote to this? As mentioned before, our company is one of the few companies that support an employee’s decision
| 421 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | to undergo further training, whether it’s a certificate, diploma, or even a degree program. We are an IT organization that believes in constant innovation. How can we thrive in this industry if we don’t devote all the time and resources we can to improving our most important asset of all?
Do you have any plans of expansion? Where do you see Systems Limited five years down the road? Being a technology-agnostic company, we are always building and further strengthening our centres of excellence. We achieve this by replicating business growth models from one geography to another as we continue to expand. I think we have a keen eye for innovation and product development, and if we keep diversifying like this, our global footprint is bound to see even more additions. We have already established offices in Pakistan, United States, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and most recently in Germany. We expect to reach our target of 5,000 employees by the end of 2020.
Why do you think leadership is important for an IT office? Leadership is an important trait for any office, but if you work in IT, you will need to bank on leadership skills after a while if you want to progress faster and become a champion. I always tell my team leads they should aim to be good leaders because being good technologists is just not enough if they want to achieve the results they project.
What is your idea of happiness? Happiness is that feeling where your soul is at peace and you have a big smile on your face. You will see that smile on my face when I’m with my family or when I’m at work, working on a new project or opportunity that generates jobs in the country that gave me everything.
What steps should be taken to empower women professionally? The first thing we need to do is stop taking gender into consideration while making evaluations, as this often has a negative impact on women. We are an equal-opportunity employer and we believe in strength through diversity. In fact, we believe that whoever, irrespective of gender, is capable, should be given a chance to excel. We have a performance-based culture and we work hard to ensure that people feel valued and good work does not go unrecognized. I’m happy to report that this culture empowers women to grow, as we’ve seen more women rising through the ranks at Systems Limited. We work hard to foster this positive energy.
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is more important than I.Q. What is your point of view? EQ has to do with people’s ability to understand, communicate and express emotions in a sympathetic or empathetic manner. IQ, on the other hand is an assessment of an individual’s intelligence. To be a good leader, you need both IQ and EQ, as you need all the leverage you can get while working on a project, managing a team, meeting deadlines, and managing stress. The importance of EQ led us to include empathy as a core value of the Systems Way.
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“HAPPINESS IS THAT FEELING WHERE YOUR SOUL IS AT PEACE AND YOU HAVE A BIG SMILE ON YOUR FACE. YOU WILL SEE THAT SMILE ON MY FACE WHEN I’M WITH MY FAMILY OR WHEN I’M AT WORK, WORKING ON A NEW PROJECT OR OPPORTUNITY THAT GENERATES JOBS IN THE COUNTRY THAT GAVE ME EVERYTHING.”
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MUHAMMAD ARIF Managing Director, BOSS International
Profile: Muhammad Arif established the brand BOSS as a project of Koh-i- Noor Hi-Tech (Pvt) Ltd. in 1991. By the grace of Allah, the Company has gained an excellent reputation within a very short period of time. BOSS is a leading manufacturer of washing and drying machines in the region and dominating the local market due to its high precision products and, now, also growing to capture international markets, especially USA, Africa, Middle East and South East Asia due to its innovative designs and quality. BOSS now has over 26 years of experience in the field of Home Appliances Manufacturing & Distribution. We have a highly skilled and qualified research and development team. A highly motivated and technically sound middle management and production staff as well as a very efficient aftersales service throughout Pakistan and also in foreign regions.
“I DON’T GET ANGRY. I ALWAYS ENJOY MY WORK AND THE SECRET TO ENJOYING WHAT YOU DO IS TO NOT CHEAT ANYONE, EVER.”
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CEO Club: Could you please tell us a bit about your company? Muhammad Arif: I established the brand BOSS as a project of Koh-i-Noor Hi-Tech (Pvt) Ltd. in 1991. By the grace of Allah, the Company has gained an excellent reputation within a very short period of time. BOSS is a leading manufacturer of washing and drying machines in the region and dominating the local market due to its high precision products and, now, also growing to capture international markets, especially USA, Africa, Middle East and South East Asia due to its innovative designs and quality. BOSS now has over 26 years of experience in the field of Home Appliances Manufacturing & Distribution. We have a highly skilled and qualified research and development team. A highly motivated and technically sound middle management and production staff as well as a very efficient aftersales service throughout Pakistan and also in foreign regions.
What would you say has been the pivotal difference that sets you apart from your competitors? Our continuous improvement over the last three decades is what keeps us in the top 1 per cent of our industry. We are dedicated to providing the highest quality products as well as exemplary customer service and support. BOSS is known throughout the world for integrity and for our ability to handle customized orders affordably and efficiently.
How do you ensure you product’s and service’s quality and consistency? BOSS due diligence solutions are innovative, cost-effective and based on robust bench marking. Our countrywide network of partner law firms, that can provide on-the-ground assistance, and nearly two decades of anti-bribery expertise, BOSS offers superior quality and competitive pricing. We understand the importance of providing our clients with the highest level of service. We work to make concrete relationships and give complete satisfaction to our clients through a team of trained “Wealth Managers” in different parts of the country.
Your evaporative coolers are considered the finest in Pakistan. What is the secret behind this product’s success? While certain details are always part of a company’s product confidentiality, I can say with confidence that we are the only ones who make this ground-breaking evaporative air cooler. Its performance is tested as the best for cooling. Imagine a 1.5-ton air conditioner consumes around 2000-3000 watts. Whereas the substitute we are giving creates a zone of comfort for the user and only consumes 140 watts. Furthermore, it even runs perfectly on the UPS.
When did you launch this product? We have been active in the evaporative cooler segment for the last three years. Within three years our company grew to become the second biggest manufacturer of evaporative air coolers due to its unique capability. Keep in mind, this industry is over 40 years old in Pakistan but no one made such an innovation like BOSS did. Similarly, our third category in home appliances is in water heaters, instant gas water heaters and instant electric water heaters. We are the first company in Pakistan which introduced instant electric water heaters in Pakistan. These are very high-performance products. We have analyzed the products of the whole world, and all three of these products i.e. our evaporative air cooler, instant water heater and washing machines are of world-class quality.
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400 people are working under your supervision and you have been running this company for so long; what is your stance on the importance and effectiveness of good leadership? I think such growth and innovation is a direct result of good team work; when you establish a very good team, then you are a good leader. By definition, without a team you cannot be a leader. For this it is very important that in every segment and on every level your team members should believe in dignity of work and honesty.
What are the three competencies that a person should have for being a CEO? The most important thing is that whatever you choose to do should be done after due deliberation and collection of information to the best of one’s ability. You should have complete association and dedication to your work. Similarly, your team will not associate with their work if you don’t have association with the work you are doing, and you will not be able to lead your team. When you are unable to lead your team, you cannot achieve your goals. Secondly, a CEO should be visionary and his vision should be broader than that of other people. He should have a unique thinking and it is that capacity for greatness that makes him a successful CEO.
What do say about your company’s corporate culture? In different eras, different kinds of things remained popular. Once, it was the time of technology and then came the era of information. Now I think it is HR (Human Resource) that one should invest more on. When you invest and give priority to the HR, good corporate culture is automatically developed at the organization.
Where do you see Boss International in the next five years? I think in the next five years we will be in a position to outshine all the multinational brands with respect to our three flagship home appliance products.
What was your company’s revenue growth in the last three years? Our annual growth is more than 50%, which is all due to this innovation. The ideas we introduced are new, different and special.
What do you think about women empowerment? Are women encouraged here in Gujranwala to work? I regret that the space for working women, here in Gujranwala, is not satisfactory. But slowly, this realization is spreading. It is due to this awareness that women are gradually coming in various professional fields and they will gradually get empowered.
Do you work on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) like education or health? We have a regular annual budget specified for this purpose and we work on that. But I don’t believe in advertising what we do for the good of the community on any forum.
Are you happy with the quality of graduates our universities are producing? Of course, the graduates of today are more knowledgeable if compared to the graduates of our time, though they are not as tough or hardworking, unfortunately.
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THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS THAT WHATEVER YOU CHOOSE TO DO SHOULD BE DONE AFTER DUE DELIBERATION AND COLLECTION OF INFORMATION TO THE BEST OF ONE’S ABILITY. YOU SHOULD HAVE COMPLETE ASSOCIATION AND DEDICATION TO YOUR WORK.
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MUHAMMAD IDREES CEO, NovaMed Pharmaceutical (Pvt.) Ltd
Profile: Muhammad Idrees was born in Lahore in 1963, and completed his bachelors from Islamia College and immediately started working afterwards as a Medical Sales Representative in CCL Pharmaceuticals. Within a few years, due to his performance, he was promoted to, first, a Field Manager and then to an Area Sales Manager. During this time, multiple areas in Punjab including areas of Lahore, Chakwal, Sahiwal, Gujrat, Kasur etc. fell under his responsibility; an obligation which he undertook with great diligence and commitment. With the passage of time, in 2003, he decided to establish his own pharmaceutical company – something which had been a long time dream of his. In 2005, he left CCL Pharmaceuticals after a service of 23 years, to invest all his energies into the manufacturing plant that was under construction. NovaMed started its production in 2006, and since then he has served as its CEO. In 2016, he also constructed another facility for the manufacturing of healthcare and OTC products which is Novamed Healthcare (Pvt.) Ltd.
“A LEADER HAS TO SET AN EXAMPLE FOR OTHERS TO FOLLOW, AND SUPPORT HIS TEAM AND DRIVE AND MOTIVATE THEM TO ACCOMPLISH THEIR GOAL. HE SHOULD HAVE A CLEAR VISION OF WHAT HAS TO BE DONE.”
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CEO Club: With the country sliding back into joblessness crisis and a high unemployment rate, how do you think to fix this problem and turnaround the economy? Muhammad Idrees: One of the major reasons for the massive unemployment in Pakistan is the gap between the number of job opportunities and the skilful workforce available. Since economic development has slowed, industrial activity as well as foreign investment has deteriorated. This, along with the devaluation of our currency has curtailed new businesses and prevented existing businesses from expanding, thereby decreasing job opportunities. Furthermore, with the current political situation, increased prices of the basic necessities required by the industry – fuel, electricity, natural gas, water - companies are forced to financially constrain themselves, and become more stringent with the number of people they employ. To address this issue, reforms need to be introduced in every sector. Policies regarding import and export should be re-visited in consultation with the key players, most of whom belong to the private sector. Although, Pakistan has always been primarily been an agricultural country, at this stage, there is an urgent need for an increase in industrialization. Policies and strategies need to be devised which promote technology upgrade, enhance the business climate and support small and medium industries with their basic necessities. Only then, can we hope to avert this crisis as the industry is, after all, the driver of economic growth.
We are not poor in resources but governance. If you look at the statistics, the amount of natural resources in Pakistan are abundant. Pakistan has the second largest coal reserves, second largest salt mines, massive copper and gold reserves, seventh of the largest wheat and rice production capacity. It has massive potential for the generation of energy through renewable sources as well. However, despite all this, due to political instability, corruption and the weak law and order situation, these resources have not been utilized efficiently; and as a result Pakistan depends heavily on foreign aid and debt and is facing devaluation of its currency, and has to deal with severe energy, food, water and unemployment crisis.
We are facing a dilemma in business ethics. How can we inculcate a sense of ethics into our managers? Good ethics are integral for the long term success of any organization. To address the lack of business ethics in this day and age, it is important to educate people to take ownership of their work and responsibilities. Learning itself is a continual process, and people must develop a habit of self- reflection to identify their mistakes and shortcomings and strive for improvement. It would be ideal if the modern curriculum in schools could be modified to instill ethics, values and self-awareness during an individual’s upbringing.
With commercialisation of educational institutions, are you happy at the quality of business graduates? One of the reasons why companies often ask for 1-2 years prior experience while hiring is because fresh graduates often have zero practical knowledge about how corporations generally function. It takes a minimum of 4-6 months of time and investment to teach fresh employees about the internal working and procedure and type of work they will be doing. To address this issue, it is important that students are given sufficient practical training during their university years. Much like how a house- job is necessary for doctors, universities should arrange internship opportunities for their students in
| 429 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | collaboration with industries.
What are the key challenges and business/investment opportunities in your industry/sector? One of the key challenges is the fixed retail prices that are set by the government in the pharmaceutical industry. The devaluation of the ruppee, and hike in prices of raw materials and packaging materials (95% of which are imported) has led to an instrumental increase in the manufacturing costs of most drugs while the retail prices at which these are sold remain the same. Simultaneously, the array of duties imposed on imported material including customs duty, additional duty and regulatory duties on raw materials and machinery has damaged the industry financially, and has hampered the technological advancement of companies as new, more hightech machinery takes millions of rupees to install. While the pharmaceutical industry has to meet the international (Good Manufacturing Practices) requirements – the machinery, QC equipment, softwares required to do so are imported and imposed with heavy duties and a 17% sales tax which the companies have to bear on themselves as there is no output tax on medicine. These high duties and sales taxes are a cause of dire concern as they impede the growth of the local pharmaceutical industry and simultaneously hinder companies from upgrading themselves to produce quality products at affordable prices.
What is leadership to you? How do you want to improve as a leader? Leadership is all about leading from the front. A leader has to be prepared to meet new challenges and contingencies, and assess the situation and make decisions accordingly. Sometimes, things might not end up the way planned, but one should not be disillusioned by failure and instead learn from it to not repeat the same mistake again. In my case, I hope to keep learning new business concepts from my experience and implement them effectively. I endeavor to learn from successful business models and apply them to ensure that the company benefits and grows in the future.
“HAPPINESS IS AN INTERNAL FRAME OF MIND THAT IS DEPENDENT ON HOW ONE REACTS TO THE CHANGING ENVIRONMENT.”
What are the three key challenges confronting CEOs/business leaders in Pakistan? Firstly many leaders often face challenges with the policies that are in place. Particularly, in the pharmaceutical industry, where prices are regulated and many raw materials are imported – any fluctuation in the rupee or increase in taxes can be a devastating. Secondly, acquiring new technology and machinery to improve quality or working conditions to meet international standards is becoming more and more difficult for small and medium sized industries due to increased prices. Likewise, there is also a need to close the gap between the industry requirement and the potential employees. Pakistan has a lot of talented individuals, however, their proper grooming with regards to business ethics and values, and practical training early on in student life is required to polish these individuals so they can contribute to the economy.
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How to develop a winning team? How do you motivate your team, assess their performance and make them accountable to the results? First of all, the initial selection of the team members is very important. You need to have a competent, hard-working, driven team to ensure that the set goals are met. Your interaction with your team is extremely important and varies from situation to situation. At times, you need to be firm with them regarding certain matters, while at other instances, a softer approach is much more effective. Different departments are judged differently to assess their performance, but it is better to have an objective method of measuring performance. Ensuring accountability requires training, a continuous follow- up of any task given and a system of reward and punishment to ensure that people own up any task that is given to them or falls under their job description.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenges? How do you retain top talent in the company? The key people in the company are given franchise benefits, recreational tours, fair salaries and other benefits. They are rewarded for their achievements and have the utmost support from the management in case of any equipment, hiring or assistance they may require. They are allowed to make their own judgments and their ideas and suggestions are always taken into consideration before the top management makes any major decision. They are always respected and appreciated and are considered as major assets of the company. Overall, one has to build a good relationship, develop a bond of trust and maintain a healthy, open work environment to win the loyalty of his employees.
Is training, coaching and mentoring a priority to you? How much time/budget do you allocate to this? Training and coaching is essential for an efficient, optimal functioning workforce. For the unskilled employees, coaching sessions ensure that order and discipline is maintained at all times. We also allocate around 4% of our budget to yearly trainings of the technical team to ensure that they are up to date with the quality and the regulatory requirements of the industry. The managers further give sufficient, frequent trainings to their subordinates to guarantee that standard operating procedures are followed at all times.
What steps would you recommend to empower women? Women are an essential part of the pharmaceutical industry and you will often find highly capable women in managerial posts and positions of responsibility. While hiring, each applicant should be considered on the basis of their competence, and gender should not play a role in the evaluation of their performance or promotion. Our company has zero tolerance for any sort of harassment. Any such rare case is dealt very firmly, with a full-fledged investigation and strict consequences for anyone who is found guilty. As stated before, women form a large part of our work force, and we try our best to accommodate the female staff and officers in any and every way possible.
Where do you see your organization five years down the road? Growth strategy? When the company was established initially, the business model we adopted was that of contract manufacturing for different clients. Now, years down the line, we are stable enough to start our own sales and marketing. In the next few years, we will be primarily targeting export and the local market to
| 431 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | further increase our profitability. Simultaneously, in our company, we are constantly working towards modernization. Hence, we hope to further upgrade both our pharmaceutical and nutraceutical facilities, to ensure smooth and more efficient production of drugs and healthcare products.
Any achievement you are proud of? My company and how far we have come is a matter of great pride for me. We started off with a small manufacturing unit, consisting of only 25 people, most of which were fresh; and now 12 years later, we stand as tall giants with multiple sections of pharmaceutical products and a total staff of around 480 people. It was a journey filled with problems and crisis, but I am extremely proud of how far along we have come.
What’s the toughest decision you have ever made? What did you learn from it? The toughest decision was probably leaving my old company. I had a very stable, wellpaying job, and a prestigious position and leaving such secure life - especially for new business which had an uncertain future – was one of the toughest decisions I had to make. However, it taught me that sometimes it’s important to take a risk if one wants to excel in life. Such risks should be calculated, drafted out in detail and all other alternatives should be considered before taking the plunge.
Who is your inspirational role-model? And why it is so? I have found inspiration from many life stories over the years. I feel like if you come across an article where the protagonist faces the same difficulties you are facing at that point in time – you connect with that person on an emotional level and never forget. I recall being particularly fascinated by the biography of Abraham Lincoln - of how a farm boy living in extreme poverty became the president of the United States, of how he was mostly self-taught and how he struggled through problems when he came into office. It brought things into perspective – that great leaders have always had to go through troublesome complications to achieve their goals.
How do you consider a good work-life balance? Please comment. For a good work-time balance, it is importance to pace yourselves and set your priorities straight. It’s vital to set time out for yourself, spend some time relaxing and de-stressing yourself from the pressures of the workplace. It is equally essential to spend time with your family and friends, make yourself available for them and their emotional needs. If all the aspects of one’s life are in balance, only then can one truly achieve peace of mind and function optimally both in their workplace and their personal life.
How do you manage your anger and stress? If I get upset or annoyed at a certain a situation, I leave the task and distract myself with other matters for a while. After around half an hour, once my frustration normalizes, I resume the task with a fresh mind. I find this always works for me. Stress on the other hand, is a constant. It’s important to develop healthy coping mechanisms to manage stress and anxiety effectively and not let these emotions interfere with one’s work. Over the years, eventually, a person becomes mature enough to deal with the stress that accompanies such a position of responsibility.
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“MY MESSAGE TO YOUNSTER IS TO READ, TO FOSTER CRITICAL AND INNOVATIVE THINKING SO THEY LEARN TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX TO SOLVE PROFESSIONAL PROBLEMS. WHEN THEY DO REACH THE HEIGHT OF SUCCESS, TO REMAIN HUMBLE, LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE HAVE TO SUGGEST - ESPECIALLY THOSE WITH MORE EXPERIENCE. TO DEVELOP A POSITIVE OUTLOOK ON LIFE AND KEEP MOVING FORWARD - TAKE FAILURE AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES, TAKE IT AS A CHANCE OF SELF- IMPROVEMENT AND INSTEAD OF THINKING OVER IT TOO MUCH; MOVE ON.”
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MUHAMMAD IMRAN GHANI CEO, Tri-Angel Electronics (HISENSE)
Profile: Muhammad Imran Ghani got his Master of Business Administration (Marketing) degree from UK in Year 2000. He has worked as Share Holder & Executive Director from 2001 to 2018. Later he started a business with White Goods Import and distribution in Pakistani Market on a small scale. During 2001 as being Exceutive Director his primary responsibilities included making major corporate decisions, managing overall operations and resources of a company, and acting as the main point of communication between the board of directors and corporate operations. As R & I, we had been appointed to start distribution of Kenwood from (UK) in Pakistan dealing in various Kitchen Appliances. The very next year during 2002 we have been offered Samsung (Korea) Distribution of Home Appliances. After which we enhanced our sales distribution network all over Pakistan and till 2005 we have established 6 branches in major city of Pakistan. His vision was to promote Electronic Appliances Industry and start manufacturing of all home appliances. We worked hard and established assembly plant which was install by the Koreans. The first plant was Microwave Oven in Year 2003 and later, we started Split Type Air conditioners. After 2 years, we launched our local brand Homage and established 3 divisions in the company 1. Kitchen Appliances 2. Home Appliances 3. Power Appliances In 2009, we were able to deal with 6 more branches and total employees raised to 750 numbers. We started collaboration with Chinese reputed firms and installed many new Manufacturing Plant as follows; 1. Assembly Plant of Inverters with 4 lines 2. Plant for Generators. 3. Plant for Washing Machines/Washer 4. Manufacturing Plant for Refrigeration 5. Manufacturing of Water Dispenser 6. Manufacturing Plant for Storage battery
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CEO Club: Why Hisense, what is your competitive edge and what are the key success factors? Muhammad Imran Ghani: During our research we found that the market is divided into two segments: 1. Branded LED TV’s (Samsung, LG, Sony) 2. Local and Chinese brands LED TV’s (TCL, Haier, Orient, Ecostar, Chaghong Ruba) We wanted to bring the best quality of LED TV’s to Pakistan that is why we brought Hisense; research has shown that Samsung and LG market shares are declining and with the passage of time Sony is will also lose its market share. The reason behind this is that the Pakistani market is now very price conscious and competitive, our customers want high quality at a reasonable price. Hisense globally is number three. Hisense actively takes part in global sporting events i.e. last year they were one of the sponsors for the FIFA World Cup and next year Hisense is actively taking part in Euro 2020 promotions. Global brand association will help us leverage our brand equity in Pakistan in the longer run.
Is there a difference in terms of price, quality, durability and customer experience? Pakistan consumer is not very much aware about LED technology; the panels that we are importing and delivering to the market are of category A-plus. There are different categories in the LED TV panels ranging from A-plus, A and B-plus. When you go to the market there are a number of Brands that are offering you the same 32 inches LED TV but the panel quality may not be the same as ours which is A-plus. A customer only realizes once he experiences the picture quality, once he takes the product home.
What is your strategy for growth in the economically challenging times of Pakistan? We are looking forward to being the number one brand in Pakistan in the next five years because we are analyzing the market and its size carefully. The share of the rest of the brands is declining; the products that are available as I said are not delivering high quality therefore we think we can cater to the market demand. Secondly we have started the factory and our production is in line after which we have the distribution channel ready. Currently we have a network of 250+ dealers all over Pakistan; our target is to reach 1000 dealers by July 2020. This increase in dealers will lead to an increase in market share. At the same time we’re trying to provide better after sales services through our service centers that are owned by the company along with contractual service centers, currently we have 32 service centers all over Pakistan.
What are the two major challenges you face as a CEO in terms of finance and human resource? When we started our factory we saw that there is a shortage of technically skilled individuals in Pakistan, the reason for this was also because there was no LED TV manufacturer in Karachi. Hence information sharing and expertise was lacking in our industry. We asked our Principal company, Hisense China to help us in this regard; they came to Pakistan and trained our people. This was one of the key challenges that we faced when we started production. The second challenge was the decline of our currency since our major business is based on imports.
How do you manage your human resource and are you satisfied with your work force? We have inducted workforce and each of these individuals and departments have employed special
| 435 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | skills. Each member of Tri-Angels Co. has a proven track record historically which is why they are part of Hisense family. We have a competent team and on an average each member has 10 years or more experience working in consumer electronics division. The problem in Pakistan is that big organizations do not provide training we are looking to rectify this problem and provide training to our employees, sales teams and brand merchandisers to further enhance their skillset.
What are the three core characteristics that you look for during your hiring process? The core characteristics are honesty, team player and ability to adapt to technology.
What is your strategy for the retention of key people? I believe that when you give respect; you earn respect in return. I have come across many people who are working for different organizations with higher salary packages but they are willing to switch their jobs and take a lower salary packages because they do not feel respected and acknowledged by their management teams. Therefore my strategy for the retention of key people is to give respect and treat them equally as colleagues instead of acting as their CEO.
“HAPPINESS TO ME IS IN THE SMALL THINGS SUCH AS HELPING OTHERS; I DERIVE HAPPINESS BY MAKING OTHER PEOPLE HAPPY.”
What are the achievements that you are proud of? I think my work at R&I Appliances as an executive director has been my biggest achievement; we had set up seven factories and our sales growth was 25 to 30 percent annually.
What is the toughest decision that you have had to make during your career? The toughest decision was leaving my previous organization; it took me two years to withdraw myself. Another difficult decision was to take my ailing father to China that was a particularly tough decision but I took him to Beijing, China where he successfully recovered.
Who is a source of inspiration and a role model to you? My father has been a great source of inspiration to me as he was a very honest, loving and kind person to others especially his family and friends. Another person that I have learnt a lot from and was a role model to me is my colleague Mr. Khalil Ahmed Sheikh. When I started my business with him, he had an experience of 40 years. His hard work and devotion was a real inspiration for me.
Do you justify the work life balance? I divide my everyday life into three parts that include: offering prayers, spending time with my family,
| 436 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | looking after my business. Therefore not much time is left for socialization.
How do you cope with stress? I have very good people around me and I share everything with my team including timelines and consequences. I believe that when people are aware of the consequences they perform to the best of their abilities.
Where do you see your company and Pakistan in the next five years? We are looking forward to being the number one brand in Pakistan in the next five years. All this will be possible with the blessings of Almighty Allah and hard work and continuous support of the Hisense family. As far as Pakistan is concerned, in other countries I see governments doing macro level projects but in Pakistan this is not the case; here most of the contribution is made by the private sector which is why the growth of Pakistan is very slow. However, CPEC projects and any major new Oil discovery can place Pakistan in a much stronger position than where we currently stand.
Do you have a work out regime? I do have a workout routine but at times it is difficult since I travel a lot; occasionally I like to play golf.
How do you practice anger management? Feeling angry is natural when you work in Pakistan. I feel I have good control over my anger and I do not make people uncomfortable, whenever things do not go according to plan it is my belief that it is for the best and the part of Allah’s plan.
Any message of hope and optimism that you would like to give out to our younger generation. I feel hope for the people of Pakistan and I want to see the adaptation of technology which is a key factor. Technology will drive the future, if our new generations use it well. I would like our youngsters to consider the impact of environmental hazards and take measures to save our environment from further harm.
“I BELIEVE ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS; THUS TALKING LESS AND DOING MORE. ANOTHER THING I FIRMLY STAND ON IS THAT WHEN I TAKE A DECISION I DON’T LOOK BACK NO MATTER HOW MANY CHALLENGES AND HOW MUCH STRESS IT MAY CAUSE.”
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MUHAMMAD MIKAIL KHAN Managing Director, Raaziq International
Profile: Mikail Khan has been associated with Raaziq Group, a diversified conglomerate, for over 12 years. He has been serving as the Managing Director / Director in multiple Group Companies covering diversified range of businesses including Logistics, Manufacturing, Engineering, Public transport, Real Estate Development and Product Sales & Marketing. Under his leadership, the Group has attained huge upgrades and expansions in these areas. During his career of 10 years at Raaziq, he has had an immense experience in carrying out various assignments pertaining to Business Valuation, System Designing & Implementation, Risk Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Feasibilities Studies and Project Appraisals.
He holds a degree from the University of Melbourne. He has also attended many international management programs, workshops and conferences.
“SUCCESSION PLANNING IS VITALLY IMPORTANT FOR ENSURING THE CONTINUED SUCCESS OF ANY BUSINESS. ORGANIZATIONS OF ALL SIZES ARE NOW FOCUSING ON SUCCESSION PLANNING TO ENSURE THE LEADERS OF THE FUTURE ARE IN PLACE.”
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CEO Club: Could you please tell our readers a bit about your journey to success and what your company has achieved, so far? Muhammad Mikail Khan: After completing my post graduate degree in Business from University of Melbourne, Australia, I worked with a Shipping Line in Dubai for some time. I joined Raaziq 10 years back and started working as a Sales Executive and made my way up gradually. During this period, I led various assignments pertaining to Business Valuation, System Designing & Implementation, Risk Management, Mergers & Acquisitions and Feasibilities Studies. After the unfortunate demise of my father in 2016, the major challenge for myself and my brother was to carry on his legacy with the same spirit. He was successfully leading the company since 1982. Today Raaziq comprises of 8 companies. Apart from being the Market Leader in Logistics, our Legacy Business, we successfully expanded into many other industries including Manufacturing, Real Estate Management, Automotive Engineering, Travel Management, and Product Sales & Marketing. Our very recent investment has been in Public Transport where we will be launching a quality intercity Bus Service. We have also invested in some Government Projects i.e. we are operating Feeder Metro Buses in the City of Multan and few others are in the pipeline.
How much time do you dedicate to coaching and mentoring of your staff? As a leader, I dedicate a significant part of my time coaching and mentoring my staff. This not only helps in building a better relationship but the employees are more likely to buy into the company vision and work harder to succeed. Coaching helps to mitigate problems sooner rather than later while Mentoring builds loyalty and employees become willing to go an extra mile because they see promotions and bigger success in their future. Additionally, a leader must have an open mind to learn from his employees as well. I believe in participative leadership where I continue to involve my key people into decision making process.
What was your most difficult decision in the last three to four years? With the ever increasing knowledge bank and the evolution of process refinement, the hallmark of a modern management should be its willingness to be open to change. The challenge is striking a balance in what produces a better bottom line based on productivity, efficiency and technology on one hand and meeting social responsibilities on the other. We at Raaziq went through some restructuring exercises over the last couple of years that involved some tough decisions as we had to take some strategic shifts. The most challenging part was handling the Change Management. We believe that the key to change management is to continuously educate and bring employees mindset to a level where change comes across as logical rather than impositional. The projects were closed successfully but involved some tough decisions to be made.
How many women are working for your group? Do you believe in women empowerment? I strongly believe that Nations, Businesses and Communities can benefit from the implementation of Programs and Policies that adopt the notion of women empowerment. Empowerment of women is a necessity for the development of a society, since it enhances both the quality and the quantity of Human Resources available for development. In Pakistan, females make approximately 48 percent of the total population and without their active participation, we cannot achieve the required level of growth rate. Raaziq believes in empowering women and strongly encourages hiring women not only on mid-level
| 439 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | positions but also at senior positions. Our company policy dictates that by 2020 we have to have at least 30% women in our White Collar workforce.
How many HR is on your payroll? Over the years, Raaziq has successfully grown to create job opportunities for over 3,500 people. Our HR growth rate has been over 20% per annum since last few years. As an employer or business owner, we are fully aware of the fact that the workforce is one of our greatest assets in achieving organizational goals. Our HR and Business strategies are completely aligned and the HR team plays a key role in building up the right team for our businesses to grow at the desired level.
What are some of the challenges that your company faces? Pakistan is unfortunately facing the worst financial instability in its history. There is a dire need for improvement in the economic condition, broadening the tax base and zero tolerance for racketeered money. The rupee has been repeatedly devaluing and this is responsible for fueling inflation affecting businesses and masses. Having said so, our country is undoubtedly blessed with all kinds of resources i.e. national resources, all four seasons important for agriculture produce; fertile land and we are fairly a young population i.e. over 65% of the population is under the age of 30. The development of OBOR initiative is likely to open many opportunities. We have to assess the opportunities, do gap analysis and deploy all kinds of resources in the most optimum way. This is a shared responsibility of state, corporate sector and civil society with a leading role of the state to create a business enabling environment for private sector led growth. The current Government is making an effort through taking Private Sector on board. We are part of this initiative at three different forums and making our contribution to help build business and investment friendly policies.
How has your company fared in terms of growth, over the years? Our average growth has been over 15% per annum; we are Alhumdulillah growing every year. We have successfully expanded into many other industries over last one decade as mentioned before. Research has proved that companies that integrate their key system of records will grow their revenues at a faster pace. Increased productivity and efficiency is the key to reducing costs and maximizing revenue, which can then be invested into growing the business. That has been the key for us; we have heavily invested in technology to develop and integrate our supply chain that helps us in getting where we want to be.
What are the two / three key strategies of retention, because retention is severely painful and a headache for a CEO? As the employer, we are fully mindful of the fact that ineffective hiring or losing a pivotal staff member can prove extremely costly. To ensure retention, we regularly review our recruitment and appraisement processes. We also believe in sharing prosperity of the company with the employees in order to inculcate partnership spirit. Additionally our HR team plays a key role in developing various programs to build up capacities of the talented people that the company hires. This helps us in showing them the career path to build up loyalty and ensure retention.
Any achievement you are proud of in your life? Seven years ago, as a very Young Director, I took on a project of Manufacturing within our company
| 440 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | that was purely service based. It was tough to convince the Board to expand into a different industry at that time. However we inaugurated the plant five years ago and MashaAllah today that plant is six times the size it was. We are now in the process of setting up some more Manufacturing Plants in near future.
Being CEO of your organization, what is your strategy regarding succession planning? Succession planning is vitally important for ensuring the continued success of any business. Organizations of all sizes are now focusing on succession planning to ensure the leaders of the future are in place. Organizations that take succession to the next level are likely to achieve a crucial competitive differentiator and will be more prepared for turbulence in a rapidly changing market. We at Raaziq hire young talented people, build their capacities and show them a career path. It helps in building loyalty as well as retaining them to grow and contribute towards the development of the organization.
Do you have any plans of expansion? Where do you see your organization five years down the road? Raaziq has been continuously growing both vertically and horizontally over last 4 decades. Starting with 6 people at Lahore as a Customs Clearing Agent to be turning into the most potent force in the logistics & supply chain industry employing over 3,500 people. We have grown to become the largest Logistics companies of Pakistan and there is no full stop. Additionally, through incorporating a strategy of innovation & diversity, Raaziq has expanded its portfolio of business activities to cover a wide spectrum with a keen focus on Manufacturing & Technical Engineering. Raaziq has been boldly investing in Pakistan and we look forward to continue to innovate and to present Raaziq as a very capable and financially sound business partner for our stakeholders. We are committed to constantly evolve our modern and futuristic software for the management of information within the company and for creating transparency for our Supply Chain solutions.
“LEADERSHIP IS THE ABILITY TO LOOK INTO THE FUTURE TO CREATE A LONG TERM VISION AND TRANSFORM IT INTO REALITY THROUGH BUILDING A WINNING TEAM. TO REMAIN CONNECTED WITH THE TEAM AND DELEGATE RESPONSIBILITIES WITH CLEAR CUT ACCOUNTABILITY LINES. TO REMAIN DIGNIFIED AND LEAD PEOPLE BY PERSONAL EXAMPLE. ”
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MUJTABA JAFAREY CEO, JS Fuel (Private) Limited.
Profile: Mujtaba Jafarey has over 28 years of global diverse professional experience in the oil and gas mid and downstream industries; and has held senior positions at multinational and national companies including Total Oil Asia Pacific, Singapore, Total Parco Pakistan Limited, Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited, Global Energy Infrastructure, and Shell Pakistan Limited. A seasoned professional with sound judgment who has travelled widely and successfully multi-functioned in various capacities in diverse environments, Mujtaba Jafarey has a broad portfolio that includes greenfield projects, retail engineering, business development from new market entry to revitalizing existing networks, sales and operations, and petroleum marketing. Starting his career at Shell Pakistan Limited his last assignment was that of Manager Standards and Operations for Pakistan operation. TOTAL the Oil Major from France made a market entry in 2001 and Jafarey was amongst the pioneers of the operations on Pakistan as Head of Retail Development. Total was the first Multi-National to enter Pakistan after Shell and Caltex, companies that have now been in Pakistan for over 100 years. TOTAL under his management was able to commission 200 stations within the first 7 years along the length and breadth of Pakistan. Jafarey held the position of the Vice President Retail Sales /Development/Engineering and Strategy before being seconded to the Asia Pacific Regional Office, Singapore, in his new assignment as the Manager Corporate Development for the 17 countries reporting to the Regional HQ. Jafarey moved back To Pakistan in 2012 and joined Byco Petroleum Pakistan ltd as the President & CEO Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited. He is currently heading up a new startup of a downstream Oil Marketing & Sales Company in Pakistan.
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CEO Club: Tell us about professional life. Mujtaba Jafarey: I started my career in 1988 with the best company in Pakistan to be in, Shell Pakistan Limited, to be perfectly honest with myself I am what I am today because of the training and the grooming that I received at Shell. I stayed at Shell for 12 years, serving at different assignments and positions in all the major markets of Pakistan. I resigned from the position of Manager Retail Standards and Operations in 2001. 2001 was the year that TOTAL the Oil Major from France entered into a Joint Venture with PARCO, the largest refinery in Pakistan to set up a retail network in Pakistan. I was seconded to the Asia Pacific Regional Offices in Singapore in 2009 as Manager Corporate Training with the responsibility of identifying the training needs, development and rolling out of training programmes to bridge the gaps for Middle and Senior Management teams for 17 Operating Companies in the Asia Pacific Region. I resigned from Total Asia Pacific to return to Pakistan for personal reasons in 2012 and joined Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited as the President & CEO of the Oil marketing and refining business, Roll out of Byco Lubricants brand and the business segment was I believe one of my key achievements as CEO. A year ago, I joined the Jahangir Siddiqui group to start a new Oil Retail and marketing Company. We were awarded the provisional license in the second qtr of 2018 and are presently are in the process of developing new oil storage facilities, and InshaAllah you will see our retail network coming up across the four provinces of Pakistan very soon.
How do you counter anxiety and stress from your life? Simple, I detach myself from all conflict and stressful situations and give myself time. There is always a reason for someone to react the way they did, there is always a reason for the situation that you find yourself in, reflect on what brought you to that situation, someone is being unreasonable, try and step into the his shoes, and think it through, there is always a reason, if you can identify that you can solve it, if you know the cause, you can address that. I think as managers or supervisors it is very important to stay calm in all situations because if you react you become part of the problem. Having said that let me admit there have been times that I have been in very stressful situations, I have panicked and I have overreacted, and I have suffered because of that… but I’m human and to err is human!
What is your customized definition of success and happiness? Contentment; a firm belief in that FACT that whatever comes to you is with a reason, be it happiness, contentment or sorrow and grief. Just be content on what you have and always strive to improve, compete but with dignity, yearn for something and work your hardest to achieve your goals, fight but with honour. I believe in giving everything my best and then leaving it to Allah. He never disappoints you! You have to find that nirvana and that inner happiness and then nothing else matters. Aim for the stars, but always keeps your feet firmly on the ground and you will never fall or fail. Give respect and you will always get respect, spread happiness and laughter and you will find contentment and peace. Success for me is holding my head high with dignity and pride in the firm belief that I have always put in my best effort with integrity and commitment.
What key challenges are faced by the struggling businesses of Pakistan? Things have definitely improved in terms of the overall law and order situation in the country but it’s not too far back in our history when the main commercial hub and the city with the only port was in
| 443 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | turmoil. What to say about foreign investment, with intermittent power and gas our local industrialist and entrepreneurs were moving business outside the country. And then to top it all was the rampant corruption. Here can be no business and no investment with this abysmal a record. For as long as I remember, I have been hearing about the enormous potential and resources that we have in this country. Sitting in our Mosques, Temples and Churches we have been praying for the earth to open up and display its treasures or a lightning bolt from the skies above to flaunt our potential. What good is that potential and the resources if we don’t have the skill set or the mindset to appreciate or exploit that. Look at the share of youth in our population, there is hope there if we can provide them with the right skills and the right tutoring and not just the degrees that we are churning out in the hundreds or thousands every year but the right and the affordable education, schooling that is available to the majority and not just the minority. We should be able to identify the gaps and then corrective action should be taken in the curriculum, in the programmes being offered at the College and University level to give them the right knowledge base and the needed skills for them to come and join the workforce at the right level and contribute towards building the nation.
What is your strategy of employment performance assessment? As managers and leaders, the first step is to give clear and measurable objectives, SMART OBJECTIVES, challenging yet achievable, Identify the weaknesses and strengths of your teams, discuss their goals, discuss their strengths and weaknesses, recognize their training needs and chalk out a complete programme to bridge the gap. The team should be able to understand and appreciate and own their targets, and once that is done then comes the transparent and “ruthless” assessment exercise. One of my strengths is “I hope” is my strong interpersonal skills I am a peoples person, I enjoy working in teams and I thrive in an environment of trust and conviction. I give full freedom to my teams to make their own decisions keeping in mind the overall objectives and goal. The only thing that I cannot tolerate is someone betraying my trust and compromising on integrity.
Recommend your most jewelled book for developing professionalism in oneself? To be perfectly honest with you, I have never read the “Improve your Management Skills in 10 days” “The Perfect CEO” or The Management Guru” type of books in my life. I am an avid reader and read whatever I can get my hands on. As for my favorite books or authors there have been many, but my all time favorite author is Khail Jibran.
Please quote a message of optimism for the upcoming young CEOs’ of Pakistan Believe in yourself and never lose hope. Listen to understand and not to reply, respect others opinions. The grass might be greener on the other side of the fence but it’s for you to make the patch where you stand even greener. So believe in Pakistan, believe that you can make a difference, have faith in your teams. Remember you need Charisma, very strong interpersonal skills; you should be leading by example, never ever lose that personal touch with your teams and keep all your actions above board. One thing that I have always struggled to cope with is Intrigue and Politics at work place and it is always the incompetent and the weak who indulge in this, purge your organizations of these jokers, stay away from them and you will never fail.
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“THE ONE THING THAT I HAVE ALWAYS TOLD MY TEAMS IS THAT IT’S FOR ME TO GIVE YOU THE WINGS BUT TO UNFURL THEM AND TO SOAR HIGH TOWARDS THE SKIES IS UP TO YOU.”
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MUNSARIM SAIF Director, Ismail Industries Ltd
Profile: Ismail Industries Ltd that commenced its operations in 1989 with the manufacture of candies, jellies, bubble gums, lollipops, chocolates, toffees and marshmallows under the brand name of CandyLand, has now established itself as Pakistan’s largest manufacturer and exporter of confectionery items, which are being sold locally as well as in more than 40 countries situated in almost all major continents of the world. With a work force of more than 8 thousand employees and its 11 manufacturing units equipped with the most sophisticated state-of-the-art technology, it has now become an extremely successful group of industries having a highly diversified portfolio, engaged in the manufacture of several other items such as biscuits, potato chips, peanuts and plastic films, under various internationally acclaimed brand names. The following is an exclusive interview with Mr. Munsarim Saif, who is the Director of Ismail Industries Ltd.
“PAKISTAN IS A LAND OF TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITIES AND HUGE POTENTIAL RESOURCES, WHICH STILL LIE UNEXPLORED AND UNTAPPED.”
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CEO Club: Please tell us that how long you been associated with Ismail Industries and what challenges have you come across during this period? Munsarim Saif: I joined this organization as a manager at the time of its very inception way back in 1989 and have not shifted my loyalties since then. Those were the days when the company had a small set up with no factory of its own and quite naturally, marketing of products in the presence of well- established companies was a huge challenge. However, during the last three decades, we have grown consistently and significantly, with the result that cash flow is no longer a challenge for us. The nature of challenges has been changing from time to time and the current challenge is how to maintain the growth momentum in the face of ever increasing costs in a highly competitive atmosphere.
Would you like to share with us the vision, mission and core values which define the business philosophy at Ismail Industries? We aspire to provide best quality products to the consumers at affordable prices. We have always endeavoured to introduce new products in Pakistan and make them available to the common man. They are affordable for the rich consumers, but they are beyond the purchasing power of the common consumers. Our mission is to bring them within the grasp of the common man, without making any compromise on their quality. In all segments of our business, we maintain the highest quality control standards and regularly conduct quality assurance programs at all levels. In this connection, we have got ISO-9001 and ISO-22000 certifications, along with SANHA certification to make sure that our products are Halal. We aim to consolidate and strengthen our position as the most technologically advanced company in our field in a competitive environment. Team work, fairness, belief, leadership, hard work and integrity are some of the core values of our business.
In addition to the lofty values that you have just mentioned, which other factors have contributed to the phenomenal success of your organization? I attribute this success to the concerted and collective efforts of all members of our team, especially the higher management that consists of highly motivated, experienced, competent, dedicated and thoroughly skilled professionals, driven by a strong passion for work, honesty and integrity. The business consists of a number of divisions and companies, all of which are headed by those who are most suited for the job and have been selected purely on merit by the owners.
During your long professional career, you must have made several difficult decisions. Would you like to mention some of them? Taking right decisions at the right time is of paramount importance for the success of a CEO. Decisions have to be taken, sometimes very quickly, because, there is no scope for procrastination or lingering on indefinitely. The CEO must have the guts to take decisions and the courage to own them. I too have made several tough decisions, especially at the time of cutting down on work force, starting new sections of the business and launching new products.
Attaining and retaining quality HR is a mammoth challenge for most businesses these days. Is it also the case with you? We are lucky to have a management consisting of some of the finest professionals available in the market. They know what to do and how to do it in the best possible manner. Retaining them is not a major issue
| 447 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | for us, as we take full care of them and try to facilitate them as much as we can, with a sense of compassion.
Who in your opinion is an ideal business leader? I believe that an ideal business leader enjoys complete trust and confidence of his people. They have no doubts regarding his sincerity and commitment. They obey and follow him not out of fear of compulsion, but out of respect and love. He inspires them by practically exhibiting his noble attributes such as hard work, passion, honesty and integrity. Moreover, he is a good decision maker and takes right decisions at the right time with a futuristic vision.
Now that the age-old gender-based biases are collapsing all over the world, what is your policy regarding women empowerment and provision of equal opportunities to women? Men and women are recruited by us depending on the nature of work assigned to them. Thus, 35 to 40 per cent of our day time factory workers are women. But their percentage is much less in the plastic division, because that work is not so suited to them.
How much importance do you attach to E.Q (emotional intelligence) for the success of a CEO? There is no denying the fact that EQ is of utmost importance for the success and progress of a CEO, because it adds value to his vision. It broadens the scope of his imagination, enabling him to imagine himself in someone else’s shoes. This greater awareness of human nature makes it easier for him to understand why someone behaved in a particular manner in a certain situation.
Whom do you regard as your role model or source of inspiration? In my personal life, I have always looked towards my mother for inspiration and guidance. It is she who inculcated in me a strong passion for hard work and taught me the value of honesty and integrity. In the professional world, my role model and source of inspiration is none other than our chairman Mr. Muhammad Ismail, who is undoubtedly a visionary and legendary person.
The job of a CEO is very hectic and stressful. What strategies have you evolved for managing stress and anger? There was a time when I was a sportsman at the national level. But now, on account of my tough and busy routine, I no longer have enough time for sports and physical exercises. Now, I enjoy taking part in discussions, relaxing with my friends and listening to music. With regard to the other part of your question, I would like to say that over the years, I have learnt through observation and experience how to control anger and how to manage it in a constructive manner.
How would you like to define success in your own words? To me, success is not necessarily linked with money. It is based on your sense of achievement or feeling of fulfillment that makes you proud to think that you have made some positive contribution for some good purpose. The positive change, value addition or contribution may be very small. But if it gives you happiness and satisfaction, it is your success.
What type of books do you like to read? I was a prolific reader of books in the past. However, due to my professional activities, now I hardly find
| 448 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | time for reading. But whenever I get some spare time, I like to read literary books, such as the poetry of Faiz, Ghalib and Iqbal. These books show the tender side of human nature and are thus, a welcome relief in the dull and mechanical routine of life.
You have just stated that you were a good sportsman in your youth. How do you view the over all situation of sports in our country? Games can play a pivotal role in the physical, mental, moral, emotional and social development of people. Besides encouraging competitiveness and team work, they teach us how to behave at the time of victory and how to react at the time of defeat. There was a time when we were the world champions in hockey, cricket, squash and snooker. Even in other games such as badminton, basket ball, volley ball and tennis, our performance at the international level was not so bad. But now, unfortunately as a nation, we seem to have forgotten the importance of games. Most of the schools and colleges do not provide sports facilities to their students, who spend most of their spare time glued to their laptops and mobile phones, which are doing more damage than good.
Are you optimistic about our country’s future? Pakistan is a land of tremendous opportunities and huge potential resources, which still lie unexplored and untapped. The only things missing in our country are good governance, sincere leadership and optimistic vision. In my opinion, our biggest loss is the massive brain drain taking place as a result of our talented youths leaving the country in large numbers and settling abroad in the hope of better opportunities. If the country is to progress in the real sense of the word, a conducive atmosphere must be provided to our youngsters, so that they may not be tempted to go somewhere else.
“I BELIEVE THAT AN IDEAL BUSINESS LEADER ENJOYS COMPLETE TRUST AND CONFIDENCE OF HIS PEOPLE. THEY HAVE NO DOUBTS REGARDING HIS SINCERITY AND COMMITMENT.”
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MURTAZA HASHWANI Deputy Chairman, Hashoo Group
Profile: Murtaza Hashwani earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Santa Monica, California and have attended several advanced management programmes in Ivy League Universities, but like many entrepreneurs, most of his learning has been on the job. Previously, he served as Chief Executive and Director of several Hashoo Group companies including CEO of Pakistan Services Limited, Chairman & CEO of Tejari Pakistan, Director at Hashwani Hotels Limited, Director at Zaver Mining, and Director at Gelcaps Pakistan Limited. As CEO & Deputy Chairman at Hashoo Group he’s actively involved in overseeing our hotel division and other investment activities in Pakistan while also guiding the business strategy and vision at the group which has interests in multiple industries including hospitality, education, technology, real estate, technology, investment, mining, oil & gas exploration, and production, and manufacturing. Both Hashoo Group and Hashoo Foundation are strong legacies built by my father, our Chairman, Mr. Sadruddin Hashwani. Through his vision, Hashoo Group has always been committed to Pakistan. We keep our businesses here because we believe in supporting our country and I’m really proud of where Hashoo Group is now and where we are going.
“GENDER DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IS ONE OF OUR PRIMARY GOALS. WE BELIEVE THAT IMPROVING GENDER DIVERSITY IS VITAL TO BUILDING A PROSPEROUS COMPANY IN THE LONG-TERM.”
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CEO Club: Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays. Can entrepreneurship create more job providers than job seekers? Murtaza Hashwani: Hashoo Group’s heritage of entrepreneurship and reputation of excellence in service started with my father in 1960 as he built Hashoo Group from a small cotton-trading company into the multi-vertical company it is today. You could say that entrepreneurship is in our DNA. Entrepreneurs today have even higher potential to create companies that solve problems and employ people both directly and indirectly - at all levels of society. The startup ecosystem in Pakistan is full of smart, passionate people who are supported by both the public and private sectors and have attracted mentors and investors from all over the world. I think entrepreneurship in this country deserves the buzz it’s getting. Hashoo Group is a strong supporter of entrepreneurship. Through the Hashoo Foundation, we have an active programme of supporting women entrepreneurs in Gilgit-Baltistan. Among the thriving community of honey producers, Hashoo Foundation has trained 1,300 women in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral in honey-bee farming, linking them with markets to enhance their livelihood. This source of income improves their standard of living and social status, enabling the beekeepers to support their families. Hashoo Group also supports local organizations and events that contribute to the growth of startups like the National Incubation Center in Islamabad, Startup.pk, Connected Women, Momentum, and WeCON.
With the country sliding back into joblessness and a high unemployment rate, how do you think to fix the problem and turnaround the country? We are optimistic about the economy of Pakistan and, therefore maintain our decades-long commitment to the country. Our business focus has always been and will remain in Pakistan, which is why we are investing in education and contributing to job creation to address this challenge. Over the past few years, Pakistan’s travel and tourism industries have been thriving in parallel to growing business activity. The travel and tourism industries are some of the fastest growing sectors in the world, and Pakistan is no different. The new government recognizes the potential that tourism carries and has made significant strides toward growing this industry in Pakistan. In line with the vision of the Prime Minister, we are opening a hospitality management school in Islamabad in September 2019. The Hashoo School of Hospitality Management will offer a two-year hospitality diploma for students in Pakistan, who will then have the opportunity to complete an additional third year at Sheffield Hallam University to achieve a BSc in international hospitality management. Combined with the vocational training programs offered through the Hashoo Foundation, we offer training and education for all levels of hospitality jobs. Based on the growing investment in the country, Pakistan will require trained professionals at all levels to meet the demand of the booming industry. We currently employ more than 5,000 people, and with the openings of four new hotels this year, we’re creating more than 1,000 new jobs and thousands more indirectly as our supply chain expands.
What are the key challenges or opportunities in your industry? We see many opportunities for the development of technologies that support the hospitality and tourism industry. More and more business is being done via smart-phones now that the telecommunications companies in Pakistan have built and expanded 4G and LTE networks. As Pakistan moves toward installing 5G technology, endless opportunities for E-Commerce and mobile phone-based innovation
| 451 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | are abound. We’re launching new mobile-friendly websites for both Hotel One and Pearl-Continental Hotels, we upgraded the Wi-Fi in all of our five-star hotels, and we are looking for more ways of integrating technology into our hotel operations. Through technology, we’re going to increase the ease of doing business and interacting with our hotels significantly over the next few months. We’ve already seen a 200 percent increase in our online bookings in the last two years, and we expect this trend to continue.
What is leadership for you? How do you want to improve as a leader? Leadership means empowering your team to add value to your organisation in their own way. This requires trust on both sides, the commitment to ensure that my team has the resources they need to do their job, and the right amount of accountability to keep us on track to reach our goals. My father inspires me as a leader, and I have learned from his example. It’s his vision and guidance, coupled with the values of dedication, hard work, and constant growth that continue to drive us as a company and we hope to take Hashoo Group to the next level from the legacy he has created.
What are the key leadership competencies of a CEO that you would like to see in our new generation of CEOs? As much as 60 percent of the population in Pakistan is under the age of 30, and the future belongs to them. The world is now changing at a pace that many leaders haven’t seen before. As this new, digital-native generation joins our ranks, successful CEOs will need to be flexible, cultivate curiosity, communicate well and often, and provide clear direction. In this vein, we created a training-specific division. In less than two years, we’ve conducted approximately 10,000 hours of training for our employees. This includes our Star of the Future Program, which was specifically designed to increase the capacity of our senior management and groom future general managers and C-suite leaders. We wanted to be able to cultivate the next generation of leaders in our company to provide a clear path for growth from within. We launched the Star of the Future Program in September 2018 with the first cohort of 40 people. In two years, they will be trained cross-functionally and in essential soft skills so that they are ready to step into higher positions in the organization.
How do you define the corporate culture at your company? How do you make sure that people live, act, and breathe your organisation’s core values? We have five core values that define our corporate culture. They are belief, growth and development for all, recognition, innovation, and trust. • Belief: Hashoo Group believes in the betterment of every employee – our work culture embraces everyone and offers equal opportunities to learn and grow. • Growth and Development for All: Those who find themselves working with us will see that competence and merit is the only basis for job security. Our people blossom in an environment filled with opportunities to learn and align with best practices in our industry. • Recognition: When the standard is high, the drive to achieve is even higher. We offer performance- based evaluation, incentives, and appreciation for work well done. • Innovation: We believe in interacting with all team members and encourage everyone to participate in conversations about how to make our company better. This openness fosters a spirit of enterprise and innovation. • Trust: With transparency comes trust, our team cooperates and supports each other with a sense of
| 452 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | ownership and a healthy respect for differing opinions. Candidness is a virtue that doesn’t go unrecognised in our group.
What steps would you recommend taking to empower women in the workplace? Gender diversity and inclusion is one of our primary goals. We believe that improving gender diversity is vital to building a prosperous company in the long-term. By making inclusion a priority, we send a message to the women and men in our teams that they are equally valued. We set sustainable goals to increase gender diversity at all levels, and that fosters an environment of empowerment. We create policies that create a great working environment for all staff regardless of gender, which allows for better work-life balance. We believe that improving inclusive practices is essential to building a prosperous company. In addition to supporting the women and men in our company, we also sponsor organisations such as Women on Board, and we are members of U.S.-Pakistan Women’s Council.
Can you give us an example of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives you have championed? Hashoo Foundation is our official CSR arm, and through its Hashoo Livelihood and Social Protection Programme, the foundation has already benefitted a total of 194,556 women and men across Pakistan. As of June 2019, the foundation contributed to providing 419,551 individuals access to quality healthcare and facilitated 343,461 children by enabling them access to quality education. The foundation has served in empowering 1,193,876 women through programmes to end all forms of discrimination against women and girls and provided access to drinking water and hygiene facilities to 129,290 women, men and children. Through their Skill and Enterprise Development Programmes, they have empowered a total of 246,396 youth and sensitised as many as 200,000 youths in urban and rural communities on climate action responsibilities. The foundation has engaged 140 organisations and 12 networks for socio-economic development goals across Pakistan. In addition to that, our hotels are also engaged in local CSR activities throughout the year. We recently planted 5,000 trees in each of the cities where we have hotels. We also organised activities such as setting up a blood donation camp in Rawalpindi and a Diabetes Control Camp in Karachi and establishing a water tank to provide drinking water to the locals of Muzaffarabad.
“LEADERSHIP MEANS EMPOWERING YOUR TEAM TO ADD VALUE TO ORGANISATION IN THEIR OWN WAY. THIS REQUIRES TRUST ON BOTH SIDES, THE COMMITMENT TO ENSURE THAT THE TEAM HAS THE RESOURCES THEY NEED TO DO THEIR JOB, AND THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF ACCOUNTABILITY TO KEEP US ON TRACK TO REACH OUR GOALS.”
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NADEEM BESSEY CEO, Alpha Insurance Company Limited
Profile: Nadeem Bessey is a seasoned insurance executive with over 30 years of experience with the insurance industry, particularly: business development, management and analysis. He has worked at State Life Corporation of Pakistan across multiple divisions, including: investments, finance and account, group and pension and health and accident. Under his leadership, State Life has established the health insurance division, securing three mega social health protection government project. The programs have been successfully implemented, enrolling over 30 million individuals, and providing treatment to over 300,000 patients. Mr. Bessey has a vast experience working with industry insiders and key decision makers. He has engaged with government agencies at all levels, working with the Chief Secretaries and Secretary Finance of all provincial governments, and senior officials of Pakistan Armed Forces. He has worked with international organizations including GiZ, KfW, OPM, Asian Development Bank and World Bank. Mr. Bessey has international exposure attending several conferences, workshops and study across the globe.
“LEADERSHIP, COMPETENCE, DISCIPLINE & HARDWORK ARE FEW OF THE QUALITIES THAT A CEO MUST HAVE.”
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CEO Club: Tell us about your journey and how you landed here as a CEO? Nadeem Bessey: When I look back, it has been quite the journey, with many twists and turns along the way. After my initial studies in Lahore, I was fortunate to be accepted to the MBA program at Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi. I joined State Life Insurance in 1984, right completing my MBA. My first posting was with the investment division, suited to my education. After ten years of crucial development, I was transferred to increasingly challenging trouble spots in the company. Management (I worked for ten different Chairpersons) believed in my ability to lead teams to fix problems. In 2015 the Federal Government of Pakistan and the Provincial Government of KP, both announced their desire to launch social health protection programs for the less fortunate segment of the population. State Life Management tasked me with establishing the Health Insurance Division. With limited resources my handpicked “core team” managed to win 3 out of 4 of the tenders and implemented the programs, insuring over 30 million lives across the country within three years. This is frankly astonishing, even to me! Upon retirement from State Life, I wished to continue to develop organizations and people. Alpha Insurance is the perfect place for me to be right now. I am excited to be here, and I believe the industry will take notice of Alpha Insurance very soon.
What are the key challenges of this industry and how government is supporting it? There are several challenges the industry faces. The external challenge is the lack of demand for insurance products; in Pakistan people have to be convinced to purchase insurance, they don’t see any value. The industry internal challenges are several and may be summed up as inefficiencies. There is very limited quality human resource, as the industry is not seen as an attractive career choice. The industry has not done a good job in training and developing their professionals; human resource is an afterthought. There needs to be massive investments in information technology, comparable to the work done by the banks.
What is the opportunity this industry has? The insurance penetration rate is hardly 0.3% of the GDP compared to our neighbors (e.g. India,) this is embarrassingly low. They enjoy a penetration rate more than 400 % of Pakistan. There is tremendous room for improvement and growth.
Why are people hesitent to come to insurance sector as a start of their career? When I started my career, insurance was considered a secure and respectable job. Over the years, new industries have developed and flourished. They understand the success of their business was solely driven by the quality of their products, and more importantly their people. They attracted the top tier talent. The insurance industry didn’t adapt to compete for human resource. Safe secure jobs are not a selling point to the today’s employment pool. The insurance industry must change their human resource strategy to attract the right talent.
Define three qualities that a CEO must have? 1. Leadership: particularly lead by example. 2. Competence: your people need to believe you know the nuts and bolts of their business. 3. Discipline and hard work: there is no substitute, no short cut, no other way to reach the top.
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Pakistan is facing a dilemma in business ethics, how do we inculcate a sense of business ethics in our managers? Ethics has to be a priority, something people are recognized for. It is human nature to pursuit activities that are recognized and rewarded. Unfortunately I have never heard of an individual who was recognized solely for his ethical practices. I know countless examples of individuals who are rewarded for delivery of sales and profit, regardless of their questionable practices to procure the business. Training is an integral part to instill this belief in people. I don’t mean actual “classroom” training – but the on job training taking place all the time. Managers must reward people for “doing the right thing,” and discipline individuals whose business practices are perhaps legal, but certainly unethical. Currently we spend too much time chasing sales and profits and not enough time building a trustworthy brand.
What is leadership to you? How would you define it? Great leaders help others see possibilities, where there is none. Great leaders realize the importance of “people,” and have a gift for recruiting and developing multidisciplinary diverse teams whose collective sum is greater than their individual contributions. Great leaders inspire people to contribute passionately towards this possibility. Great leaders respect and sincerely care about their teams, and in turn people care about their vision.
“DON’T BE PART OF THE SYSTEM; BE PART OF THE CHANGE.”
How do you keep your team motivated? What is the strategy? People must be passionate about the results of their work. It doesn’t matter what the job – if you are a sweeper, be the best sweeper you can be, knowing how important your contribution is to the hygiene of the office. Without your efforts, the office will not be a welcoming work environment, and perhaps even make office workers sick. When you have passion, you will never lose motivation. If you work for anything else, you will lose your drive, one day. Always have passion for your work. I instill this belief in my team. My style of management is participative management. I actively seek input and insight from my team. I empower them to develop their ideas. Of course, the ideas must fit the overall vision and roadmap of the organization. Not only do I have more passionate teams working towards a single vision, but the results are often revolutionary.
What are the coping strategies to manage stress and anger? There are two kinds of stress – stress resulting from events outside of your control, and stress resulting from poor preparation. I diligently plan, and for the things outside my control, I pray. Getting emotional will only create more stress.
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What is the toughest decision you have ever made? It is never easy to remove someone from their job. I always think not about the individual (as they deserves to be fired) but his family who will inevitably feel the effect of my decision.
How do you define success or happiness? My greatest joy is family. If I am able to ensure my children are happy, making valuable contributions to our society, what more can a father wish for. That is a far greater success than any of my professional accomplishments. I am very fortunate; without the people around me, from my parents, my family, my friends and work colleague, I would be sitting in a very different chair. Whenever possible, I support those who are not as fortunate. There is no greater happiness than knowing you change someone life for the better.
How you balance your work life? I am committed to my work, and keep very strict and long hours. I am equally committed to my family. Finding the balance is admittedly one of the most difficult challenges for me. I have discovered it is not the amount of the time, but the quality of time one commits. When there is a conflict, I often consider, which I would regret not doing one month from now. The decision is then easy.
Who is your role model? My parents. They believed in the goodness in people, and raised my siblings and me with good, solid values. If all parents believed this, there would be no need for anything else for this world to be a better place.
Who is your living role model? Imran Khan. He is a true leader; passionately working towards his vision, despite the obstacles.
Any message of hope to the youth. Pakistan has immense potential. • Don’t be part of the system; be part of the change. No matter how small – each transformation is part of the larger effort for change. • Don’t complain, innovate. If you desire a product or service, so do millions of other Pakistanis. Always look forward. There is tremendous potential for a great future in this country.
“GREAT LEADER REALIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF “PEOPLE,” AND HAVE A GIFT FOR RECRUITING AND DEVELOPING MULTIDISCIPLINARY DIVERSE TEAMS WHOSE COLLECTIVE SUM IS GREATER THAN THEIR INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTIONS.”
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NADEEM YOUSUF ADIL Chairman & Partner, Leader Audit & Assurance and Risk Advisory, Deloitte
Profile: Nadeem Yousuf Adil is currently chairing the Board of Deloitte Yousuf Adil is one of Pakistan’s leading professional service firms, providing audit, tax, enterprise risk services, financial analysis and consulting to a wide horizon of local and multinational clients. The firm has a workforce of more than 700 competent employees. He has some exemplary professional qualities which have entitled him as a man of dignity. He has firm beliefs on the rules of loyalty, sincerity, integrity, competency, and leadership.
Nadeem works with organisations operating in a wide range of industries including, financial sector, energy, media, manufacturing, and services sector. He is leading the audit and assurance practice of Deloitte Yousuf Adil and has 24 years of experience in public practice. He has served as the President for the year (2016-17) and Vice President for the year (2015- 2016) of the ICAP and has served as a Member of the Council since 2009 and member of Southern Regional Committee for a four year term (2005- 2009). He has also served as Chairman and member of various committees of ICAP including PSTAC, Financial sector and Examination. He has also served as a Board member of Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA). He also has the experience of working for Dubai Assurance practice as an engagement partner on various audit clients during March to June 2008. He completed his accountancy training in London.
”THERE IS SOMETHING THAT IS MUCH SCARCER, SOMETHING RARER THAN ABILITY. IT IS THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE ABILITY.”
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CEO Club: Please share your educational background and professional career? Nadeem Yousuf Adil: After earning my graduate degree, I went to London to develop my career in the field of accounting. After achieving professional qualification, I returned back to Pakistan and joined my father’s practice in 1996. The practice was established from a small room with a team of few employees in 1972. In 2002, we became the member firm of Deloitte and since then, we have been elevating it to new peaks of achievements.
Please share a few of the significant lessons you have learned in your professional life? The most important lesson my professional career has taught me is that to there are no shortcuts in life. Any achievement in any field requires dedication and endeavor.
What key challenges do you endure in the audit and assurance business in Pakistan? The audit is the most regulated business segment in our profession. It has been growing vigorously since last decade. The key challenge is to be able to manage the risk and manage the cost and time pressures at the same time.
How do you elaborate leadership from your point of view? The accessibility of a leader to his team or people is called leadership. A great leader is always a great mentor for his or her people. A leader should strive consistently to inculcate some important qualities like resilience and competency. I make it a point to make myself available to our team members to converse about professional hurdles, to get motivation and inspiration about building professional career. “A great leader is always a great mentor for his or her people.”
What is your lifetime indelible achievement? After becoming member firm of Deloitte in Pakistan, we grew to build multi-faceted practice with a strong and competent team of 700 employees. Our trainees have grown to become partners in the firm and by the grace of Almighty people who qualified with us are acting as CFOs of blue chip companies.
Can you mention few of the mandatory competencies of an auditor? An auditor must have an excellent command of analytical and financial skills. He should also develop communication skills and an attitude of professional skepticism.
What was your most astounding achievement of life? My father, Mr Muhammad Yousuf Adil, started the firm in 1972 with the dream of building an institution. I joined the practice in 1996 and we were lucky to become member firm of Deloitte in 2002 and Alhamdulillah we have recognized our selves as one of the top four firms of Chartered Accountants in the country with presence in Karachi, Lahore, Multan and Islamabad.
How do you manage your personal and professional life? One needs to keep a work life balance. I believe in spending quality time with the family. I like visiting Art galleries and Museums. I find water very soothing and like to go for boat rides.
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Define success in three root words? There is a famous quote of Winston Churchill that “success consists of going from failure to failure without loosing enthusiasm. I firmly believe in that and for me success is not what you have but who you are”.
What perspective do you hold for happiness? My life defines happiness as contentment and satisfaction. Being gratified and satisfied with all the blessings you are granted is happiness. Real happiness does not come with money. It is the inner feeling that you made a difference is some body’s life.
Who are your lifetime inspiration of success and hard work? My father and mother are my constant source of inspiration and influence. Their personalities and mindset are 100 percent inculcated into me. All the credit of my success goes to my parents and my wife because of their eternal support.
What is your top recommendable professional book? I liked reading “7 habits of of highly effective people”by Stephen Covey which ultimately helped in upgrading my thinking by creating a balance in my professional work. This book educated me exceptionally about the importance of being effective in professional and personal life. I also read books on strategy..
List out few competencies of a leader. A leader must respect every teammate in his business to take respect in return. You have to be an inspiration to motivate others to work. Third competency is to be a life long learner. One should have the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn.
Can you quote a message for the young entrepreneurs of Pakistan. We need to educate our youths to stop searching for short cuts to success.. Success is not a shortcut. It is a mixture of enthusiasm, diligence, patience and hard work. We, the Pakistani, must hope for the best and work with determination to improve the economy and circumstances of Pakistan. Trust your skills rather than your luck. They also need to understand the digital disruption.
What is your employee performance assessment strategy? When I assess some one , I see not only the milestones he has achieved but whether he has been able to develop people working with him.
What is the ratio of female employees in your company? Although the percentage of women workforce is increasing but still is quite low. We are determined to increase the ratio more by providing flexible hours, long maternity leaves and allowing them a career break. We have one female partner in the firm.
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“A LEADER MUST RESPECT EVERY TEAMMATE IN HIS BUSINESS TO TAKE RESPECT IN RETURN. YOU HAVE TO BE AN INSPIRATION TO MOTIVATE OTHERS TO WORK. THIRD COMPETENCY IS TO BE A LIFE LONG LEARNER. ONE SHOULD HAVE THE ABILITY TO LEARN, UNLEARN AND RELEARN.”
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NAEL AHMED Country Manager, Abudawood Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd
Profile: Abudawood Pakistan was formed in 2008 as a fully owned subsidiary of IATCO, (Ismail Ali Abudawood Trading Company). IATCO started off as wholesaler in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1935. Operating in six countries, the company’s annual revenue exceeds well over US $ 5 billion.
Nael Ahmed was appointed as the first Country Manager of ADP (Abudawood Pakistan). Nael started his career after his MBA from IBA Karachi and then MS in Business Economics from University of Nebraska in 1991. After a short stint with Fuji Film, he moved to Pepsi Cola International where he worked for over eight years. He joined Reckitt Benckiser in Oct 2000 as a Sales Director. After three years, he was promoted and moved to Srilanka as Country Manager. After working in Reckitt for over eight years, he joined Abudawood Trading Company in 2009 as a Country Manager, where is still employed.
Leading from the front, Nael has put together a wonderful team which has delivered outstanding results year after year. Huge proponent of transparency, integrity, ethics and fair play he has instilled very strong values in his team of 2000 strong employees.
“LEADERS DON’T DEMAND RESPECT, THEY COMMAND IT BY THEIR ACTIONS AND ARE FOLLOWED BECAUSE PEOPLE TRUST THEM AND THEIR CAPABILITIES NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE FEARED.”
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CEO Club: What values have you been focusing on during your illustrious professional career? Nael Ahmed: I think humility, integrity, mutual respect and transparency are such strong values to adhere to that one rarely loses sight of how to go about conducting business or living life. It is pretty naïve to think that in ever changing world and so many extraneous variables one can always play the cards right. Instead one should be judicious, take positive approach and be willing to hold all stake holders accountable. I thank Allah Almighty and prayers of my parents for the success and blessings I have in my life. I do whatever is possible within my value framework to achieve the goals and then accept the outcome. If the results are not desirable I start all over again with renewed resolve and enthusiasm though with new approach and more openness towards encountering the variables. One of my core values is my loyalty and love for my Country. I believe in constructive criticism and acknowledge the challenges we are faced with as a nation but at no stage do I become or accept hopelessness with regards to future of Pakistan. However, it is important for us start taking substantial and concrete steps towards moving forward as a nation. The world does not have time, patience or desire to wait for us to get our act together. Pakistan’s youth is its greatest strength and there is hardly any other country in the world so richly blessed with all sorts of resources.
Please share with us some of the major mile stones of your academic and professional career, leading up to your present post. I was an average student in the initial years of academics. Scrapping through intermediate and Bachelors, it was quite a wonder that I got admission at IBA. Studying at IBA and living in IBA hostel with a group of amazing individuals was an experience I still cherish. While at IBA, my father passed away which had a great impact on me and my outlook towards life changed. After completing MBA from IBA, I followed my mother’s desire to pursue another Master’s degree, this time in Economics. My eldest brother who lives in USA completely funded my education. After our father’s death, he automatically assumed the role of supporting the entire family in one way or the other. Everyone, I knew advised me to stay back in USA but I wanted to come back and took the flight back home four days after the graduation. My first job was at Fuji films where I worked for almost two years. Next I joined Pepsi Cola International where I worked across Pakistan initially as a Franchise Manager and then as a Franchise Director. I was doing extremely well and Pepsi valued me but then a very challenging opportunity came by. Reckitt Benckiser was being restructured in Pakistan and they needed very aggressive top men. I could not say no the challenge. Pepsi was very upset with me. I even got a call from Zein Abdallah, who later on went on to become CEO and President of Pepsi Cola International to stay back but being who I am I could not resist the challenge presented to me. I joined Reckitt as Sales Director and became part of a great team which completely changed how the business was done. Later I was promoted to the position of Country Manger Srilanka, which turned out to be another fabulous experience. It was once again a turnaround situation and I was fortunate to lead a group of very dedicated and committed team. While still at Reckitt I got a call to take on a challenge in newly formed company which had come into existence through a local acquisition. I had no knowledge of Abudawood but one more time the challenge presented to me was too attractive for me deny. I came back to Pakistan and became part of an outstanding group. Working at Abudawood and with team of highly talented individuals has been the greatest experience of my professional
| 463 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | career. Abudawood Pakistan is a young company led by young people who are probably the best in Sales Management, Distribution and Logistics. I am truly fortunate to be heading this unit and working of a group whose values are firmly embedded in how we do business. In many ways we are outliers which makes it all the more interesting.
What strategies did you adopt for the restructuring of Abudawood Pakistan after assuming the role of its leader in the country? Taking reins of a struggling company is always a very exhilarating experience. There is so much you can do and anything can go wrong. To start with you have to firmly establish values and business guiding principles and then relentlessly pursue the stretch goals. Being a privately registered firm I can’t reveal the results but let’s say we have more than tripled the business in seven years. It is important to note that we are a large company and growing from a large base is so much more valuable and enjoyable. Any company is first its people and then anything else. Throughout my career I have focused on developing right people and providing a very conducive and enabling culture. We are very careful about who we recruit and how they are trained and developed to take on challenges much bigger than their work experience. Other than people, we are very system and process oriented with flexibility to encourage entrepreneurship. We believe that we have developed and deployed the best Sales and Distribution management tools to manage the business. We empower young people within a framework, watch over them so they don’t make big mistakes and then get out of their way to prove themselves and deliver envious results. We also take pride in the fact that 23% of our managers are females. This is a sea change from the days when even males from good universities hesitated making career in this industry. Apart from the gender diversity, we encourage diversity of thoughts as a result of which teams come up with innovative solutions to the most complex problems. I take so much pride in the fact that we have an open environment in which teams work fearlessly without minding their backs. There is a concerted efforts to keep the environment clean from politics and intrigues. This keep everyone focused on work resulting in high productivity and unmatched buzz in the air.
What are the key services provided by your company and how do you ensure the smooth running of the various segments of your business activities? We see ourselves as integrated service providers to our business partners. Abudawood currently offers Sales Management, Distribution, Logistics, Trade Marketing, Brand Management, Merchandising, Warehousing, Distributor Management, Key Accounts Management and other Sales related services. All functions work closely with immense debates in boardrooms. However, the debates and challenging others are confined to boardrooms where the dust must settle before teams walk out. After that everyone gets down to delivering their piece which is fully integrated to and is part of a bigger goal.
Could you please highlight some of the challenges that you have to face while conducting your business? Abudawood by and large faces similar challenges like other business. However due to the nature of our business, we get affected severely by security situation or general law and order disturbances in the Country. Other than that, the government could work on developing a better understanding of
| 464 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | business needs and providing more conducive atmosphere to attract investment. The government personnel responsible for working with business community should engage more with the leaders from different industries to rollout policies that are equitable and attractive. Businesses and investments are not meant to last an election term, they must continue for decades and that is how the policies should be looked at.
What core competencies should a CEO possess in order to run his organization successfully? Humility, courage, business acumen and integrity par excellence. No one is indispensable and no one can do it alone. As the saying goes, “graveyards are full of indispensable people”. The leader should be okay with being led as well as lead depending on the situation. It is important to give credit where it is due and hold yourself equally responsible for the failures of the team. I place tremendous importance to treating every individual with dignity and lot of respect. This is not only everyone’s right, it also creates great loyalty among employees and motivates them to own their work even more. Indirectly, it plays a great role in individual’s family life. People who are respected and valued at work, go home motivated and give quality time to their loved ones which makes family dynamics more conducive for children who will be leaders of tomorrow.
How would you like to define leadership in your own words? Leaders don’t demand respect, they command it by their actions and are followed because people trust them and their capabilities not because they are feared. Leaders take full ownership of the failures and generously share the achievements. Leaders are courageous, are thoughtful, understand complications, are reliable and they have this uncanny ability to see through the clutters and come up with a simple and straight forward solution. I can go on for hours on this.
A good CEO is always a good decision maker. Would you like to share with us some of the tough decisions of your life? My decision are anchored in my faith in Allah therefore in all honesty I don’t find decision making that difficult to handle. I do the due diligence and make a move. People are generally afraid to make decisions due to the fear of outcome and subsequent consequences. But you can’t live a life nestled in a cocoon. I not only have a bias for action myself, I also encourage others to make decisions as well. Decision making is a privilege which must be handled with care and full responsibility. I read somewhere that one of the greatest tragedies is to give decision making power to people without accountability.
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NAIM ANWAR MD & CEO, Crescent Star Insurance Limited
Profile: Naim Anwar, Managing Director & CE Crescent Star Insurance Ltd, one of the oldest Insurance companies of Pakistan, (1957) listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange and registered with Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan. Before joining CSIL in 2013, he was associated with Picic Insurance Ltd as Deputy Managing Director and with Adamjee Insurance Ltd, as Executive Director, where he worked for 17 long years in various areas of business ranging for Operations of a large Branch Network, Sales, Underwriting & Claims, Reinsurance, HR, and other areas on business as a complete strategy. Mr. Anwar has an accounting background with vast experience in areas of industry before joining Insurance. Currently he is also Vice Chairman Insurance Association of Pakistan (IAP).
“COURAGE IS FEARLESSNESS IN A FEARFUL SITUATION. COURAGE IS DOING THE THINGS YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY DO.”
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CEO Club: Please share your professional background in a nutshell. Naim Anwar: I belong to a professional business oriented family mostly in Textiles and Leathers and accordingly gained my initial experience in industry, before moving to London where I did my Level 1&2 of ACCA along-with work. I came back to Pakistan in 1992 and joined Adamjee Insurance Company in 1993 which helped me in gaining immense experience and knowledge of Insurance & Banking with other technical aspects of business. I served Adamjee Insurance in various positions over my carrier from Branch Head, to Divisional Head, to Executive Director heading all areas of business finally from Head Office. Between AICL and CSIL, I worked with Picic Insurance Ltd as DMD, before joining CSIL in 2013, and led the restricting of CSIL raising its paid up capital from PKR 121 million to current PKR 1.07 billion. Within the group we manage three subsidiary companies having Food Franchises (Brands), Luxury Products, Technologies and investment in a large steel Mill, where I sit as Chairman on the Board.
Please elaborate a few of the root challenges you face in developing the insurance sector of Pakistan? The main challenge has been the low penetration of Insurance in Pakistan (0.80%), as opposed to 4.5% in India and 8% world average, while highest being around 16%. Awareness of Insurance has to be more effective. Though Takaful companies and windows have provided alternate solution to conventional Insurance, in Pakistan, however the sector needs urgent attention by the government to create EASE OF DOING BUSINESS while staying within the regulated sector.
How has the fragile economy of Pakistan has affected the insurance sector? Insurance is heavily dependent on the economic activity. Exports and Imports affect the Marine business, while expansion in industry caters to the range of Fire and erection policies, while Auto Insurance is also heavily dependent on the spending power. Pakistan needs to develop the untapped market plus a basic need for the pollution in health insurance. Stable economic policies is the need of the hour, for Insurance sector too, as it is for all other activities.
In your perspective, what are the vital competencies of a CEO in your perspective? A good CEO must build around him a capable team and should lead from the front. Lead by example is what a CEO must excel in. A good CEO must delegate authority but yet, have knowledge through internal controls and monitoring. He should be powerless till the system operates smoothly and should only intervene where need be and a Veto power is needed in case the team differs.
Being the CEO of a dynamic insurance company, what definition of leadership do you hold to make your company worth-mentioning among the notable organizations of Pakistan. A true leader does not seek followers he wants to teach others how to be leaders. He does not impose his leadership on others, nor does he take away anyone’s autonomy. When time comes to take credit he makes himself invisible, but he is the first to arrive at the time of need and will never shrink away in fear.
How do you manage to create a commendable and cooperative team? Once again the fact remains LEAD FROM FRONT AND LEAD BY EXAMPLE. Empower people
| 467 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | with accountability and transparency. Train and share experiences.
What is your stance on women empowerment? I completely disagree with gender discrimination. I think once doesn’t have to empower women, as I think they are as empowered as men and at times more. I feel the question itself should never arise and should be just taken at PAR.
What role emotional maturity plays in the career development of an employee? Without emotions nothing works. While being emotional is not taken as a good habit, but being emotion less doesn’t work either. Every person’s maturity level of emotions is different and is attached with many aspects including domestic and family and the background including educational in one has grown into. Level of maturity of emotions also depends at which level an employee is working at. The maturity level grows with the path of career as it grows.
Please quote a message of hope for the bright future of Pakistan. PAKISTAN and only PAKISTAN is the future of our youth. I would strongly ask the youth to stop looking elsewhere and it is only Pakistan which can give you a bright future as this country has everything one can dream of. Pakistan has all crops, all weathers, rivers and mountains and a population of 200 million out of which 2/3rd is between 19/30.
Who is your lifetime origin of inspiration? My parents are my evergreen source of comfort and stress counters. Their valuable piece of advice and prayers are my stress counters. They are the comfort of my eyes and heart. Their struggles and personality have assisted me all my life in improving myself to be a better human being.
“A GOOD CEO MUST BUILD AROUND HIM A CAPABLE TEAM AND SHOULD LEAD FROM THE FRONT. LEAD BY EXAMPLE IS WHAT A CEO MUST EXCEL IN.”
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“A TRUE LEADER DOES NOT SEEK FOLLOWERS HE WANTS TO TEACH OTHERS HOW TO BE LEADERS. HE DOES NOT IMPOSE HIS LEADERSHIP ON OTHERS, NOR DOES HE TAKE AWAY ANYONE’S AUTONOMY. WHEN TIME COMES TO TAKE CREDIT HE MAKES HIMSELF INVISIBLE, BUT HE IS THE FIRST TO ARRIVE AT THE TIME OF NEED AND WILL NEVER SHRINK AWAY IN FEAR.”
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NUSRAT MUNSHI CEO, AGP (Pvt.) Limited
Profile: Nusrat Munshi is an MBA graduate from Institute of Business Administration and accomplished her second MBA from Queens University-Canada. She has a sea of quintessential professional experience of 28 years. She was elevated to the designation of Managing Director in 2009 in AGP Limited and prior to that she served commendably as a Head of Finance, Information System and HR. Her dedication, endeavor, professional skills, diligence, and motivation rocketed the company to the peak of success. She successfully steered the Company during the critical process of change in ownership in 2014 after which the Company has emerged much stronger with a long term horizon and focus on growth. The company was successfully subscribed and listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange in 2018 under her able leadership. She has also worked with HSBC Canada and was the Regional Corporate Head at HSBC, Pakistan before joining AGP Limited. She has a wide horizon of the professional portfolio which includes working with HSBC in Pakistan as well as Canada and has experience of over a decade in Treasury, Corporate and Credit.
“BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN PAKISTAN; THIS COUNTRY NEEDS US; THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF TALENT OR RESOURCES IN PAKISTAN.”
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CEO Club: Please elaborate how your journey initiated and how you established your career smoothly? Nusrat Munshi: Well, I accomplished my MBA from IBA and did post-graduation with majors in marketing and finance. I started my career with banking and worked in this segment for over a decade in Pakistan. I then migrated to Canada for a few years and worked with HSBC Canada which was an enriching experience for me. During this employment, I enrolled and completed my Executive MBA from Queen University, which is globally acknowledged for its business degree. I then returned to Pakistan in 2006 and after a year at HSBC, I decided to change my path and moved to the Pharmaceutical sector and started working with AGP (Pvt) Ltd as the Head of Finance. I made this change as I wanted to try something new and totally different as I felt that my learning in banking had stagnated and the opportunities to learn something new were few. Since 2009, I am serving AGP as a Managing Director and let me add, that the last eleven years have been the most enriching years of my professional life. The tough times in my career path have always led to something better and worthwhile and one learns immensely through the entire process. Complacency for a more than a few weeks is not conducive to professional growth; I have always taken challenges at work as an opportunity.
Please mention the vision and mission of AGP Limited. How do you expect it to serve the nation in the coming five years? AGP is a pharmaceutical manufacturing and marketing company and is a part of the OBS group, which is the 10th largest set-up in Pakistan. According to the statistics of IMS, the size of the Pakistani retail pharmaceutical market is USD2.8 billion growing at a 5 year CAGR of 12%. Given the low per capita spent of under USD14/- per annum, the prospects of growth in this segment remain promising. We are focused to remain an integral part of this growth in Pakistan. Pharmaceutical industry is a technical and one of the most heavily regulated industries in Pakistan. There are approximately 700 registered manufacturers in Pakistan, of which 50 control roughly 90% of the market. The top 50 companies will continue to be dominant players in the industry given the high barriers to entry in this segment. We are committed to improve the market value of AGP Limited in coming years. Pharmaceutical industry is one of most important industrial sector of Pakistan. With appropriate focus, government support and consistent policies it can be a significant contributor to the economy; both in the domestic and export markets. We are already a significant player in the pharmaceutical sector and will continue to do our part in this crucial segment.
What mandatory business ethics you would like to share with us? We operate in a very sensitive industry. One of the most important aspect is to ensure that quality of our product is consistently maintained. Significant human and capital resources are allocated to maintain the quality of the drugs manufactured at AGP. AGP has worked with global pharmaceutical giants like Eli Lilly, Alcon, GSK, UCB and Vifor over the past 3 decades because of which our quality management systems are strong and well developed. Apart from all the systems that we have in place, we have one simple rule; if the product is good enough to be consumed by our own family and loved ones, then only it should be released in the market. We confidently consume our own products; AGP is proud to provide free of cost medicine to all its employees which is also a testament that we stand
| 471 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | behind our product.
What key challenges are faced by pharmaceuticals companies nowadays? Almost 95% of all active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products in Pakistan are imported. The sharp devaluation in the last one year along with the increase in inflation has put a lot of pressure on the pharmaceutical industry as it operates in price regulated market. The second major problem that has plagued this industry for the past many years is the menace of counterfeit products. According to a WHO study done in 2012, almost 45% of the drugs sold in Pakistani market are counterfeit; Market players believe that this percentage still holds true in 2018. An iron hand and great resolve is required by the drug regulatory authority to control this menace. Our next door neighbor, Bangladesh, the pharmaceutical counterfeit is non- existent. Bangladesh now has 9 FDA approved plants in the country whereas Pakistan has none. In order to mitigate our vulnerability to currency, we need to focus on exports and that is possible through incentives and addressing of local issues such as counterfeit which are robbing the industry of almost 45% of its market. If these fundamental issues are resolved, the pharmaceutical industry has the potential of becoming the most robust and contributing sectors of the Pakistan economy.
How supportive is your company when talking about women empowerment? Out of 1400 staff at AGP Limited, we have 13% of women workforce. Majority of them are employed in the production and packaging department. Some are also working in Finance, Quality Control, and Marketing. Women bring in different skills set to the table which is why gender diversity is extremely important for the optimum growth of an organization. We believe and practice this at AGP and try and encourage woman to come forward and play their part. More than half of Pakistan’s population is women, how can a country prosper if half of its population is not professionally productive? I think more than men, it is the women as mothers, mothers in law, wives, daughters, daughters in law, sisters and sisters in law who can bring a change in thinking.
What are your views on women leadership? I will speak about leadership in general, not women leadership per se; I always lead from behind and try and fully empower my team while take the front seat and lend them support and guidance as and when needed. I strongly believe in delegation and empowerment.
What three qualities a CEO must embrace in himself or herself? In my opinion, integrity is the most important quality in a leader. The second most important is being a team player; one is only as good as one’s team. Then there are other important aspects such as competency, meritocracy, loyalty and sincerity.
What are the new initiatives of your company for its employees? With the belief that education is the most precious gift that we can give our future generations, we started an education assistance program for the children of our employees. This program provides 100% support for post-secondary education anywhere in Pakistan. I am happy to report that many staff members took advantage of this scheme and changed the destiny of their future generations.
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What are your recent achievements? AGP’s name is associated with quality medicine in the market. We have a significant footprint in the Gynae and Paeds segments. With a recent partnership with Mylan, which is the one of the largest branded generic companies in the world, we have now entered Hepatology and Oncology as well. AGP got listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange in March 2018; I would like AGP to be remembered as a company that made a significant difference in improving the quality of life of people in need of health care solutions.
Who is your inspiration? My father is my role model. Although he passed away when I was very young, his integrity, sincerity and deep sense of commitment to Pakistan has left a permanent impression on my mind and I try to live on his principles personally and professionally.
How do you manage to cope up with stress and panic in such a busy life? My daily exercise routine of 45 minutes as soon as I return from work has worked wonders for me has helped me cope with my stressful schedule.
How do you define happiness? Happiness is contentment. The richest wealth is health and wisdom. The strongest weapon is patience. The best security is faith and the greatest tonic is the ability to laugh at oneself and the greatest force is love. Surprisingly all are free! Always remember that greed is the biggest enemy of contentment and contentment is the master key to happiness.
What is your treasured book? My favorite book is “Art of War”. It is an old book by a Chinese author, Sun Tzu; I have read it many times and have always learnt something new each time.
Words of advice for the young generation of Pakistan? Be the change you wish to see in Pakistan; This country needs us; there is no shortage of talent or resources in Pakistan, it is merely the utilization and correct channelizing. Another thing that I strongly believe in is that we need to lose this cynical and negative attitude and focus on positivity and goodness and present and market Pakistan in a much better light to the world.
“ I ALWAYS LEAD FROM BEHIND AND TRY AND FULLY EMPOWER MY TEAM WHILE TAKE THE FRONT SEAT AND LEND THEM SUPPORT AND GUIDANCE AS AND WHEN NEEDED. I STRONGLY BELIEVE IN DELEGATION AND EMPOWERMENT.”
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OMAR FAROOQ CEO, Interwood Mobel Pvt. Ltd.
Profile: Interwood, going on with its evolution is making continuous efforts to stay on top of technological advancement, thus, leaving a great impact on the Pakistani furniture industry. Founded in 1974 by Mr. Farooq Malik, Interwood Mobel is Pakistan’s leading manufacturer and retailer with a wide range of product categories, namely: Office Furniture, Home Furniture, Kids Furniture, Kitchens, Doors, Wardrobes, Flooring and Lifewares. It caters to the need of corporate clients as well as domestic clients and provides value for money. Ever since its inception, Interwood has concentrated its efforts in giving best value to the customers by providing them with functional and well-designed furniture. Interwood Mobel CEO, Omar Farooq, who with his simple and innovative approach wants to take the business global.
“COMPANIES THAT FAIL IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AND DO NOT INVEST IN WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT WILL LAG BEHIND, HENCE DISAPPEAR IN THIS COMPETITION DRIVEN WORLD.”
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CEO Club: Please tell us about your academic and professional background. Omar Farooq: After graduating from Government College Lahore in 1991 with Mathematics, Statistics and Economics as my main subjects, I proceeded to the UK and got B.Sc. degree from Brunel University, London, in furniture Production. Upon my return to Pakistan in 1995, I joined my family business as production director, I was promoted by the board as Chief Executive Officer in January 2012.
What initiatives have you undertaken to give a more modern and professional outlook to Interwood? When I joined the organization, it was just a basic shop using basic tools of carpentry. In this highly competitive business environment of today, there can be no survival and growth without innovation technology and system. With this basic fact in mind, we undertook a vigorous modernization plan, the cornerstone of which was hiring thoroughly professional people.
The company is more highly qualified by professionals heading various departments of the business contributing to the company’s rapid growth. During the last decade the company has grown by 30% annually and established 13 showrooms in 3 regions to penetrate the market, all the while maintaining two of its core values; Innovation, and continuous growth. In fact, the whole corporate culture in the company has witnessed significant changes in the past few years. We are now planning to reach out to other cities and capture more customers through the use of digital technology.
Who are your principal clients, and which major projects have you so far executed? In corporate sector our clients are Emaar, Avari Hotels, Pearl Continental Hotels, Agha Khan University, Namal Education, IBA, Allied Bank, Sindh Bank, PTCL, Atlas Honda, Civil Aviation and many more. In Retail sector we are having 13 showrooms in Lahore, Sialkot, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Karachi. Also, we are having our dealers in Multan and Hyderabad.
In this highly competitive world, what distinguishes Interwood from other players in the market? Interwood, going on with its evolution is making continuous efforts to stay on top of technological advancements, thus, leaving a great impact on the Pakistani furniture industry. Focusing solely on providing its customers with the best quality products, Interwood stays ahead of its game by making the best out of its Research and Development department. Acquiring new technology along with reducing costs is helping the organization greatly in executing critical, time consuming and innovative production processes with ease. Therefore, we are able to successfully meet all challenges in production, and bring them at par with international standards. In the last two years the company plant area has grown by 30%, thus enhancing production capacity by 3 times. The plant area of the company is around 600,000 SFT and is equipped with more than 300 machines that perform various woodworking activities in different sections of different production stages.
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Would you like to share with us the vision and mission of Interwood and the core values that define its business philosophy? Our vision is to achieve excellence. Our mission is to become a world-class manufacturer of furniture, kitchens, doors, wardrobes, Office and Lifewares. We are committed to a constant improvement and innovation in designs, system and quality of our products and services. We strive to give the customer best value for money. Our earnest endeavor is to upgrade the skills, knowledge and the standard of living of all employees to international standards. We have a genuine concern for the environment and safety of the communities we operate in. We believe in 6 core values: righteousness, commitment, quality, equal opportunities, innovation and continuous growth.
How would you like to define leadership? Leadership is all about taking the right decisions at the right time without delay. It also means facing challenges, addressing issues and tackling problems in a systematic and professional manner, so that the routine operations of the business remain undisturbed and uninterrupted. I believe that leadership is not something that can be taught. It involves self-evaluation, positive attitude and sense of responsibility and honesty.
How do you groom yourself as a better and more efficient leader? I am member of YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) founded by Ray Hickok in America, in 1950. It is a global network of young chief executives with approximately 24,000 members in more than 130 countries of the world. YPO is the global platform for chief executives to engage and learn through exchange of ideas. I am representing Pakistan on the regional board of YPO as Finance Officer.
What core competencies do you like to see in the upcoming CEOs? To me, important attribute of a successful CEO is his humility, along with a strong eagerness to learn. One should never believe that he knows everything. Instead, he should always be an ardent learner and an attentive listener. If there is something that he doesn’t know, he should be bold enough to ask someone to help him out. Besides this, he should be an embodiment of honesty, commitment, passion and hardwork.
What mechanism have you evolved for the constant grooming, training and mentoring of your staff? After developing a professional HR team, Interwood is focusing to bring in skilled, qualified and experienced professionals to manage various segments of our business. We are, therefore, rapidly moving towards this direction.
We have divided our training mechanism into two major categories, Skill development program for our workers, and for that we have collaborated with external partners such as PSDF (Punjab Skills Development Fund) and DTI (Descon Training Institute) and secondly Management Training Program (MDP) for our management employees which enhances their professional and core managerial skills. By using this mechanism, we are moving in the right direction to train our human capital more effectively.
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How many women are working in your organization and are you satisfied with their performance? Having women in the workforce bring a lot of positive changes in the organization. Interwood is taking several initiatives to diversify its workforce across board. Currently our gender diversity is around 5%. Induction of women in Interwood is encouraged for all departments, from production to sales (80% employees of R&D are women). We believe that women bring in unique perspective of taking responsibility in achieving targets and goals. We intend to increase our gender diversity numbers in coming years as we are an equal opportunity employer.
The growth of your company puts a heavy responsibility on your shoulders to contribute to the growth and welfare of society as a whole. What steps have you taken so far to fulfil your corporate social responsibility? There are several ways through which Interwood is making contribution to the society however we believe that if we educate in skills development, they become better members of the society. Hence, Interwood sponsored DTI to build complete lab for carpenters’ training. We also keep supporting others education sectors to contribute our role in making our country a better place.
We want your own definition of success and happiness. Success is the outcome of hardwork, passion, commitment and honesty. Happiness is when dreams are achieved and some extra ordinary thing is achieved by living simply.
“ SUCCESS IS THE OUTCOME OF HARDWORK, PASSION, COMMITMENT AND HONESTY. HAPPINESS IS WHEN DREAMS ARE ACHIEVED AND SOME EXTRA ORDINARY THING IS ACHIEVED BY LIVING SIMPLY.”
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RAHEEL IQBAL CEO, The Gamestorm Studios (Pvt.) Limited
Profile: Raheel Iqbal is the CEO at The Game Storm Studios Pvt Ltd. He is an entrepreneur and Business person. The Game Storm Studios is the leading mobile apps and games development company in Pakistan consisting of multiple gaming brands and greatly involved in developing all the major genres including AR & VR. The Game Storm also happens to be the authorized training center for Unity certifications in Pakistan. Raheel has a whopping fifteen years of experience in investing the field of IT industry and e-commerce startups. He is also the co-founder and investor in ConsoliAds – a complete ARM platform for publishers, as well as the co-founder of TelloTalk- Pakistan’s first instant messaging platform. He is extremely passionate, driven and has the smarts to back his investments.
“A CEO MUST HAVE DISCIPLINE, PERSISTENCE AND FOCUS IN HIMSELF WHILE LEADING A TEAM TOWARDS SUCCESS.”
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CEO Club:Could you tell us a bit about yourself and how your company Game Storm Studios came to Life? Raheel Iqbal: I’m a Professional IT Software Engineer and graduated from Engineering University Lahore, back in 2004. During my final year of graduation there came a software competition in which I participated and presented my final project which, back in 2004, was new in the market; the idea flourished. I did the whole project on my own because I was eager to do it despite the fact that it was one of the hardest of tasks which nobody wanted to partner on. I was given my space in the university for the project, and after taking my lectures I use to spend the rest of my time on the project.
What was your drive to do this project? Why not go for an easier one? I use to write code in QBasic Programming Language way back when we had Windows 95 systems. During my FSC years I learned more about it and thus I knew programming is going to be my passion. When came upon the time of selecting my field for graduation I opted for Programming, even though my father was reluctant as he was a Textile Engineer himself and wanted me to go down that path.
How did that project in UET help shape your life? After completing my project I presented it in a software competition where students from FAST, NUST etc. also participated. I presented my project in AI and Occupational category and won the 1st prize. So, even before my final exams I was already employed.
How long did you work as an employee? Also how did you get introduced to entrepreneurship? I worked as an employee for 6 years - from 2004-2010. During my years as an employee, I also worked in NETSOL. Since the beginning, my motto has always been that whatever work needs to be done, I’ll do it. Don’t ask if I pull it off, just give the order and I’ll do it. I do believe that this attitude has paved the way for me to get to where I am, today. I had always been afraid of initiating a startup project because of the fear of failure. My partner, Usman Sheikh, after some time tried to convince me that it was time we took the initiative or the opportunity might fade out in the future. I still wasn’t convinced. Although, at that time, he had received a job offer in Dubai, which he rejected for a small startup of his own. And that is what motivated me. In 2010 mobile-apps were a new & hot trend, and so I was fortunate enough to receive an offer to create a mobile-app. I ended up creating the app in only a week. Usman and I had a clear approach that, “If you don’t learn how to make money without money, you’ll not be able to make money having money”. If you can learn to make a dollar, you can make millions of it. There was this $1,500 job to make an app which I completed in 2-3 weeks and then I left the job. It was a hard decision for me indeed. But it was the that I had started my own startup. We started with mobile apps with the name of OZI Technologies, which has now become a group, home to 500 companies, Game Storm, being one of them. Initially, some of the challenges were us not having enough space to sit and work properly, not having a team because of lack of capital. Our mentor provided a space in his office. Startup culture was new at that time and people only looked for jobs in established companies. With time we were able to overcome these challenges. One of the principles of being successful in any business is that you need to have a better strategy. You can’t rush for money. It takes it time and you have to go through the process which is applicable to everything in general.
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Tell us more about Game Storm. Starting with mobile apps and services, we started getting projects for games. On a side note, I had never played a single video game back then. We’d make about $30K-40K monthly from gaming projects. We had a contract of 6 months with a client who wanted us to shift his web games to Android and iOS. Back then there was no engine for android like nowadays. So, we faced the challenge and made a small android engine for Gamification, Animations etc. We created our own engine, thus, were able to create more games on android.
Please tell us how do you choose a team or the people that work with you to have similar attributes and mindset as yours? Well, our highly skilled HR department maps the objectives and vision of the company and picks potential candidates accordingly. We have orientation sessions in which we align our employees to our objectives. We also have monthly evaluations in which we examine the tasks which have been completed or left incomplete. For the uncompleted tasks, the HR have one-on-one sessions with the individual, especially the new-comers because of their energy and the drive, to channel it accordingly.
How much do you believe in women empowerment? How many women are working in your company? Around 40 percent of our staff comprises women. Our graphics designing and aesthetics department consist of a large number of females. My company definitely boasts a strong female presence.
How much do you believe in training and coaching your employees? Too much. That is the core thing. Our tier-2, and tier-3 management are shareholders of the company. We help them and it allows them to work even harder for the progression of the company.
How do you sum up this positive attitude of yours? Is it inherited or is this just who you are? It’s a combination. Part of it is inherited. Good schooling, I believe. And the rest of it, is polished by my mentors, environment, the challenges and of course my own self.
What do you do to keep up with the pace of this positive attitude if anything affects you negatively in anyway? One needs to put in conscious effort to de-attach oneself from negativity and opt for finding solutions to the current problem, and onto the next. I think that is what defines happiness.
How do you manage stress in your life? Whenever I feel stressed I either go for a run or swim or even hit the gym. I believe that if you counter stress with any physical activity, it boosts your thinking.
Any message of optimism for youth? There is no shortcut to success. Be positive and remain positive. Also, it’s Pakistan’s time. The country is rising. Startup culture is growing and more international companies want to invest here. So, I think it’s the best time for youth to do whatever they want to do. They just need to give every task their 110 percent.
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“IF YOU DON’T LEARN HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITHOUT MONEY, YOU’LL NOT BE ABLE TO MAKE MONEY HAVING MONEY.”
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RANA ASIF ALI COO, Gerry’s International Pvt. Ltd. Licensee of Federal Express Corporation
Profile: Rana Asif Ali, Chief Operating Officer – Air Express, Gerry’s International, and spearheading FedEx Pakistan’s complete operations; has put the company on an extremely progressive path. He has, by instilling result driven strategic thinking in the management culture, formed another inimitable leader in the market. He was born and brought up in Multan, where he completed his F.S.C and then shifted to Islamabad, where he studied Software Engineering and got an MBA degree. He started his professional career as a teacher trainer and software developer, but very soon, he realized that he could not unleash his real potential in such professions. With this sense of self-discovery, he joined DHL and worked there for almost 15 years and later joined FedEx in early 2015. He has not only innovated company’s operation but is taking it to another level by going in diversification which is creating newer ventures and brands. Gerry’s International is one such recent accomplishment. The company, an online shopping venture stood prudent from the day of inception. As forward thinker he knew the value of the right time and launched it in the market following envy of many in this field. Rana Asif Ali’s carries a discerning, near two decades of rich management experience having worked with a global company. Working with global peers his trend of management syncs perfectly with international standards. His turning around FedEx Pakistan GSP in terms of expansion and record revenues, has carved a milestone in Gerry’s history. His visionary management is preparing upcoming executives following his footsteps. His Human Resourcing and then developing them as agents of change is adding mammoth engine to the companies’ success.
“SUCCESS COMES WITH HONESTY AND THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS HONESTY IS BEING HONEST TO YOURSELF.”
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CEO Club: Can you briefly tell us about your academic and professional background. Rana Asif Ali: I was born and brought up in Multan, where I completed my FSc and then shifted to Islamabad, where I studied Software Engineering and got an MBA degree. Although I started my professional career as a teacher trainer and software developer, yet very soon, I realized that I could not unleash my real potential in such professions. With this sense of self-discovery, I joined DHL and worked there for almost 15 years. However, despite the positive work environment, I recognized the need for a switch in order to further advance my learning and to reignite my drive and vigor towards my work as a result of which I joined FedEx in early 2015.
What’s your assessment of the over all performance of FedEx, especially during the last 5 years? FedEx has been operating in Pakistan for the last 30 years. However, in the past 5 years since I have been there, it has recorded phenomenal growth. Together we have undergone major structural, environmental and cultural changes and now lay great stress on employee happiness along with customer satisfaction. That has resulted in higher motivation levels and smoother processes across the entire organization. I have developed a strong attachment with this organization and now, I treat it as my own baby. You can also call it a strong sense of ownership due to which I am striving for its progress and the progress of all the people who are working for it.
What are the major challenges faced by the courier industry in Pakistan? With only a small number of players, courier industry is a relatively smaller industry. However, like other industries, it too has fierce competition amongst the key players. We are not manufacturers but service providers and thus, our progress is closely linked to the progress of other businesses. Just like other businesses, we have also been hit hard by the soaring inflation and the sharp rise of the Dollar against the Rupee, causing massive increase in costs of doing business. Despite that, we have grown significantly during the past few years on account of the untiring efforts of our team members.
What competitive edge does FedEx has over other competitors in the industry? The quality of our service is the key difference. It takes 2 days to send something from Islamabad to Karachi or from Karachi to Islamabad. But through FedEx, you can send anything from Pakistan to anywhere in America in less than 48 hours. Our business commitment is 72 hours, but we deliver goods in 48 hours and thus that’s what gives us the competitive edge.
Would you like to mention some of the core values and key objectives which act as the driving force behind your business activities? We aspire to be the best business partners for our customers by providing them the best possible services. With a team of highly motivated people, we want to be a profitable network for the perfect satisfaction of all the stake holders.
Who in your opinion is a good business leader? A good leader may not be an excellent speaker, but he is surely a great listener, who patiently listens to the perspective of others before giving his own perspective. He is emotionally connected to his people, who always feel free to talk to him. Until a few years ago, middle and lower management people were often found passively and silently obeying the senior management. But now, everyone
| 483 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | has a voice and everyone wants to be heard. I, therefore, often tell my staff members to encourage open culture within their team and with me. Thus, during the town hall meetings, instead of telling them what I want from them, I mainly focus on listening to what they want me to do for them. We encourage openness and ask our teams that what support they need from the management and me and for that we hold regular sessions/dinners with the teams to stay connected on an emotional level.
What strategies have you evolved for overcoming the challenges related to HR and cash flow? By means of good planning, cash flow can be managed somehow or the other. But finding the right people for the right jobs is surely a mammoth challenge. Realizing the importance of this problem, we have designed an annual structural training program for employee succession and motivation. Moreover, retaining the key people is also a huge challenge, because at times, people leave you even for minor growth and benefits. I believe that for the first few years, the employee needs the company and afterwards, if he has really performed well and developed his skills, he becomes an asset for the company. It is therefore, of utmost importance for the companies to provide effective incentives to their talented employees to retain their loyalties and services. In this connection, open door policy can play an important role. The top officials including the CEO should always be accessible to everyone. Besides this, employees must be given the impression that the growth of the company will also contribute to their own growth and progress.
Whom do you regard as your role model or source of inspiration? I have always been inspired by the personality of my mother who gave me the confidence to face the world. Being a working woman herself, she had to attend business meetings quite frequently. She used to take me to such meetings even when I was 2 or 3 years old, although at that time I couldn’t speak properly. The exposure that I got while attending those meetings at such a young age boosted my confidence level to such an extent that now I don’t feel any hesitation or fear even while addressing to thousands of people.
In the light of your personal experiences, how would you like to define success? Success comes with honesty and the first step towards honesty is being honest to yourself. Without being honest to yourself, you can’t be honest to your family, friends, job and to the organization you work for. Furthermore, honesty creates in you the sense of ownership and in my opinion, it’s better to own a few opportunities and grow those opportunities than having thousands of opportunities which you don’t own or can’t justify yourself.
What’s your recipe for controlling stress and anger? In the moments of stress I swim, which gives me a lot of freshness and relieves me off stress. As far as anger is concerned, I believe that the first thing a person should learn after becoming CEO is how to keep patient and silent and listen to others. There are many ways of conveying or communicating your grievances to others. In the early years of my life, I spent some time working on radio, where I learnt how to speak to the point and in a careful and calculated manner. One may wish to say a lot, but one must say only those things which suits the occasion and one should speak the right words.
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Do you believe in women empowerment? My mother, wife and sister are working ladies and quite naturally, I want more and more women to join the professional world. I have often noticed that in general, women spend more time at the desk during working hours and demand fewer breaks than men. Moreover, they are more loyal to the organization than their male colleagues. In our total work force of around 400, 5 to 10 per cent are women, most of whom prefer to work in the offices. At this point, I would also like to mention that we were the first courier company to induct female courier in Pakistan and later, others did the same.
Do you have any message for our hopeless and unemployed youth? I believe that is imperative for our educated youth to dream high. It gives them the motivation to work harder and build great careers for themselves. The problem however arises because the young workforce enters the field with unrealistic expectations of what the corporate world will be like and are therefore disheartened by the initial struggles that come their way. Throughout my professional career, I never encouraged myself to ask for promotions and yet, I was repeatedly promoted because wherever I went, I worked with full passion, sense of ownership, honesty and determination, with the obvious outcome that my performance convinced my employers that I really deserved to be promoted. In every organization that I worked for, I was described as a trouble shooter, because I was always more than willing to go wherever they wanted me to go and undertake any task that was assigned to me.
“LEADERSHIP IS PROBABLY A PASSION INSIDE YOURSELF THAT MOTIVATES YOU TO GIVE RESULTS AND GETS YOU WHERE YOU WANT TO BE IN LIFE, TO A STAGE ON WHICH YOU CAN EXCEL AND ALSO HELP THOSE WHO ARE AROUND YOU AND ARE DESERVING.”
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RASHED RAFIQUE BUTT VP & GM, Novo Nordisk Pharma
Profile: Rashed Rafique is a notable Changing Diabetes® ambassador and a reputable profile in the business arena of Pakistan. As the Vice President & General Manager of Novo Nordisk Pakistan, he is leading with his inspiring charisma and offering Life-Changing Careers® to his team. Rashed strongly believes in Novo Nordisk’s Triple bottom Line principle and uses it as guide for decision making in business ensuring that is financially, socially and environmentally responsible. Under his strong leadership, Novo Nordisk has won many CSR awards for various voluntary programs and diabetes awareness activities. Rashed’s belief on ethical workstyle, inclusion & business collaborations with people from diverse backgrounds, has rocketed Novo Nordisk to a new height of achievements. He leads his people not only to change their professional life by offering them challenging tasks ; but also ensure that they play a role in making a real difference to the world they live in. Rashed puts people first in everything he does, that generates sustainable results & stimulate his team’s commitment towards serving people with diabetes in Pakistan. Rashed is a self-made man who graduated from College of Business Administration in 2003. He started his career as a Sales representative in Bayer then moved to Eli Lilly, becoming a part of the sales management. In 2010, Rashed joined Novo Nordisk as Sales Director and in a short span of six years, rose to the position of General Manager. In March 2018, he was appointed as Vice President of Novo Nordisk Pakistan. Rashed dedicates all his achievements to his family and the great teams that he had the privilege to lead. Rashed is happily married to his lovely wife Noshin and has three daughters and a son. His favorite quote is by Kristen Butler: “Don’t spend your whole life trying to prove.”
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CEO Club: Tell us how you attained the designation of Vice President of Novo Nordisk? Rashed Rafique Butt: For this, all the credit goes to one of my best friends, who convinced me to join the pharmaceutical sector. He presented me the perpetual scope of pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan and how I can be part of making people lives’ better. After becoming a part of this sector, I realized that it was indeed the perfect professional field for me. I declare it to be one of the best decision of my life as it helped me in exploring my potential and talent. I have always been keen to travel and meet with different people, and as this profession requires both extensively, things turned out to be exciting for me. Hence, I dedicated my time, hard work and efforts to achieve excellence in my job and help people to live healthier lives. I thank Allah Almighty, my very supportive family, all my life-teachers, mentors and the excellent teams that I had the pleasure to work with; I could not have done it without them.
How you prepared yourself courageously to encounter an obstacle in your way of success? Life surprises you with many challenges at different levels in your personal and professional life. The keys to overcome such hurdles is hard work, honesty, diligence, and positivity. Our new generation seem to be more impatient than ever before, expecting overnight success. Whereas, I believe in patiently endeavoring to attain a position in life as one would receive what they are destined for. I am firm believer that individual success comes from team success, therefore I pay strong attention towards developing high-performing teams.
Pakistan is suffering from the abysmal recession. How can we overcome from this unemployment storm? In my opinion, there is a need to establish different industries especially cottage industry to empower women. If the government does some intelligent taxation relaxations for the corporate sector and provide a safe environment; then many international investors and companies will be interested in doing business in Pakistan. We have a highly talented human resource pool but we are facing a brain drain because there aren’t enough jobs in the country. We see the same people making headlines in business, engineering, medical, IT and even entertainment area in other countries , why we cannot use the same talent to grow Pakistan. I am confident that there is nothing Pakistan cannot do if we focus on it rightly.
What category of opportunities will pharmaceutical be serving in upcoming 5 years to the people of Pakistan? The pharmaceutical sector has immense opportunities for Pakistani’s as it is the most stable and regulated industry. Hence, we have seen a tremendous growth of local and multinational pharmaceutical companies in the country. With an exponential growth in the population of Pakistan and underdeveloped health care infrastructure, the need for pharmaceutical companies has increased. The latest data shows that there are more than 26.7 million people living with diabetes in Pakistan and every 4th person above 20 years is diabetic. If this figure keeps growing with the same rate, then we will be among the top 08 countries with highest diabetic population in 2045. This puts a very big responsibility on our shoulders as an organization focused on diabetes, but the battle cannot be fought alone. Therefore, we are working rigorously to establish public-private partnerships to overcome this expanding epidemic and help people live a better life with diabetes.
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Did your company take any initiative to counter the harm caused by diabetes? Yes, we have numerous projects to help people living with diabetes. We have collaborated with the federal & provisional government on large scale projects to help prevent and also better manage diabetes. Recently, we have been collaborated with Wasim Akram, the brand ambassador of Novo Nordisk, to spread awareness about diabetes by organizing events and running media campaigns to convey the message of healthy living to people.
Are you satisfied with the educational standard of recruitments in your company? Yes, we have our educational standard defined for each position in the company which is inclusive and ensures that opportunities are given to the talented people. Besides education, we are a firm believer of experience, attitude and the will to learn, which also form the basis of recruitment in our organization. We have ample career opportunities in particular for pharmacy and business graduates. Our sales trainee program is a unique program that enables the participants to receive on-job training and gain field experience.
What are your views on business ethics? In my view, there is no other way of doing business than doing it the ethical way. Pharmaceutical is a highly-regulated industry and we have very strict rules to follow while running the business. We must take extra care, right from research till delivery to ensure that we live by our internal business ethical policy & local government policies. In Pakistan, there is a need for more awareness and strict implementation of business ethics.
How would you elaborate leadership from your point of view? After reading numerous books on leadership I will give you my favorite definition that is for me describing leadership in its essence: “Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential.” (Bennis) Good and strong leadership ensure you have long-term sustainable growth. I think only those companies can survive that know how to develop their talent and leaders from within as there is a limit of what you can buy from outside and retain.
BEING SATISFIED WITH WHAT YOU HAVE AND KNOWING THAT YOU HAVE DONE EVERYTHING TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITIES, IS “SUCCESS” FOR ME.
How do you evaluate your team and motivate them to work efficiently? I believe in developing people by giving them challenging jobs that will satisfy them and their intellectual hunger. For their soul, I believe in giving them respect and good people to work with.
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My team works hard every single day to raise the reputation of Novo Nordisk. And my management team and I ensure to inspire our team by celebrating their achievements and dedication. We make our employees feel that they are a valuable part of the company which motivates them to do more. In addition, our organization believes in retaining talent which is why we offer tremendous growth opportunities to our employees.
Being a head of the company, how much you allocate for the training of your employees? We are a strong believer of 70:20:10 rule for the development of our employees. Learning & development model for employees in Novo Nordisk consist of 70% on the job learning, 20% through others and 10% learning through course/ trainings. Besides the conventional training programs, we have many international cross-functional projects, talent development programs, mentorship and buddy programs. training and development is incorporated right from the beginning of an employee’s journey with Novo Nordisk Pakistan.
What’s the ratio of the female workforce in your company? In NN Pakistan, 80% of the organization are sales. as a growing organization, we focus alot on gender diversity which is evident from 18% ratio of females in NN sales force vs 04% female ratio in pharma industry in Pakistan. This is because we offer them safe working environment and respect so they can deliver at their best with complete peace of mind. Through our family get-togethers, we also show to families the workplace of their family members which further strengthens their confidence in our strong culture.
What achievements of your company has been officially recognized? I feel proud to share that in the last survey of PSHRM, we were recognized as the “Best Place to Work” just because of our healthy and engaging culture within the organization. Besides that, we are consistently winning the CSR award over the last four years for our various diabetes awareness and education projects rolled out through multiple electric and print media for the public.
What is your lifetime achievement? My dear mother always said that I was one of her most caring child. For me, this is my lifetime achievement. I always strive to be a good son, husband and father. At the end of my life, if I have been able to foster and nourish my relationships, it will be my lifetime achievement.
What was the toughest decision of your professional career? I left my family in my home city, Sialkot at a very early stage to move to a bigger city for my professional growth and gain. It was quite tough to leave everything but eventually, that decision proved to be the best for my career.
How do you manage your work with a tough schedule of traveling? I always get support from my family; they are flexible and adjust to my tough routine. I am blessed that they understand my work and feel responsible as well for the good cause we are all working for. In return, I ensure to spend quality time with my family.
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How do you cope up with stressful moments? My method is to remain calm and not to panic in any problematic situations. Spiritual healing comes from prayers , whereas physically I love to walk and play squash for 30min which is more than enough to release stress.
How do you define success and happiness? Being satisfied with what you have and knowing that you have done everything to the best of your abilities, is “success” for me.
What are your top recommended books? The best book I have read so far is“Built to Last:Successful Habits of Visionary Companies” by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras. Collins and Porras say that visionary companies are like a cult – you’re in or you’re out! Since their core ideology does not leave much room for compromises, visionary companies only settle for the best employees who share same mindset. This is why new employees will either thrive or leave very quickly. I believe, for any organization to thrive, they should have a set ideology that is the driving force of everything they do.
What is a value of hope for you? Hope is priceless; it is one of the blessings of Almighty that keeps the spirit of living alive in human beings.
“I BELIEVE IN DEVELOPING PEOPLE BY GIVING THEM CHALLENGING JOBS THAT WILL SATISFY THEM AND THEIR INTELLECTUAL HUNGER. FOR THEIR SOUL, I BELIEVE IN GIVING THEM RESPECT AND GOOD PEOPLE TO WORK WITH.”
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“LEADERSHIP IS A FUNCTION OF KNOWING YOURSELF, HAVING A VISION THAT IS WELL COMMUNICATED, BUILDING TRUST AMONG COLLEAGUES, AND TAKING EFFECTIVE ACTION TO REALIZE YOUR OWN LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL.”
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RASHID ISLAM Chief Executive Officer, Waresa Group of Industries (Pvt) Ltd
Profile: Rashid Islam is the Chief Executive Officer of Waresa Group of Industries (Pvt) Ltd, since 01-January 2019, belongings to a second generation business family. He loves to innovate new product ideas and marketing plans that shown creativity and strong synchronization to trends. As turnaround specialist, he brings bottom-line expertise as well as refreshing and energetic approach to corporate division. He is a Gold Medalist in his academic historys, he is MBA (HR) and LLB from University of Punjab. Waresa group of industries is one of the renowned footwear industry in Pakistan. The Group has been related to the field of shoes since 1970, now by the grace of Almighty Allah group has been developed its two well renowned brands Deluxe & Reef Land which were established in the year 1999 and 2011. Since then it has been fast developing, growing and diversifying by the leaps and bound. Now a days Deluxe & Reef Land commands premium are rated as among the most popular company in footwear of Pakistan. Waresa uses the best domestic and foreign raw materials and never compromises on quality. It is for this reason that it not only has command over Pakistan market but also executed several export orders successfully. Insha Allah by the 2025 Waresa Group will operate on self-sufficient model by achieving targeted sales in manufacturing, retail, wholesale and global trading.
“LEADERSHIP IS LEADING FROM THE FRONT, IF YOU WILL DO SOMETHING; YOUR STAFF WILL ALSO DO. MOST OF THE TIME, PEOPLE DON’T LIKE TO COME OUT OF COMFORT ZONE.”
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CEO Club: Please brief us about Waresa Group. How many companies are working under its umbrella? Rashid Islam: Waresa Group is a business concern having manufacturing, retail and wholesale operations. Primarily, there are two leading brands established under the umbrella of Waresa Group including Reefland (a leather shoes brand), having more than 20 retail outlets in different cities of Pakistan and Deluxe (a casual footwear brand) is well known in a wholesale business, for which we did a pilot project of MSP (Moving Sale Point) in Lahore and achieved tremendous results.
How many employees are there in the Waresa Group? There are around 600 employees in the Waresa Group in retail, wholesale and the manufacturing units.
Your Company deals in the wholesale and retail at the same time. How is this experience? Yes, we deals in both Wholesale and Retail business at the same time. It is good but also very challenging. By the grace of Allah Almighty, we are doing good. In future, we are focusing more in expansion of retail operations.
How is the demand for that? Alhamdu lillah, demand is good. Even customers are contacting us regularly to know about openings of Reefland outlets in their cities. We are offering the Franchise too.
If you are going into the franchise model, how are you going to monitor the quality and other things? Once you have a controlled quality system, you are no need to worry, it works in an excellent way.
Being a young CEO, let us know about your idea of leadership? Leadership is leading from the front, if you will do something; your staff will also do. Most of the time, people don’t like to come out of comfort zone. So, you have to keep pushing them in a way that they don’t get de-motivated and remain productive.
As a leader what do you want to improve in yourself? Punctuality.
What are the three core competencies a CEO must have? A CEO should be honest to his work, himself and to his staff. He should be disciplined. I think everything revolves around these two things: honesty and discipline. The third thing if you ask again, is that a CEO should be a hard working.
Are you happy with the quality of graduates our universities are producing now? Quality is tested at laborites. It should be the first question whether laborites are good enough to test the quality. Workplace is like a laborite. In my opinion, quality of graduates is still better than the quality of entrepreneurs. Fresh graduates are raw when they come to the workplace. They come with the proper education but entrepreneurs are not competent enough to give them right direction or to
| 493 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | transform their experiences. There should be linkage between universities and business forums. Curriculums should have revised in a way that practical knowledge should be at least 40 percent while theory shouldn’t be more than 60 percent. They should have orientation of the industry during their education. There should be public-private partnerships in which different industries, associations and universities gather on a single forum and formulate some kind of strategy to form a link between industry and academia. These days, establishing this link is more important than focusing only on the quality of the graduates.
Do you have an employee retention policy? Alhamdullilah we have so many old employees in our team who are working with us since long. For retention, we give different awards and incentives to our employees in our annual functions and appreciate/acknowledge their efforts. Without a team you cannot achieve anything and that is why I don’t use ‘I’ word for achievements. I use ‘we’ for that. But when you want to grow, you have to focus not only at oldest but also at competent.
Where do you see Waresa Group five years down the road? It is the vision of our company that by 2025 we will be selling our products to the international market through innovation and on the basis of data driven decisions.
What is your product line? Is it just comfort footwear or luxury footwear is also in your product line? We have sub brands in different categories like “Flash” is Sports brand, “ICONA” is Fashion brand. “Reefine” is Formal and “Reox” is casual.
What is your idea of happiness? My family and friends are my source of happiness.
How do you maintain your work-life balance? Fifteen years back, I used to give too much time to business. But later things changed when I got married and God blessed me with family. Now I have to manage time between family and business. Business is not suffered in spite of less time because my experience has made me more efficient at the same time. Earlier, I was all involved but now I have to just lead and get the things managed.
Would you like to give a message to our youth? Focus on your studies and Sports for the time being rather than focusing on earning money. Focus should be different at different stages of life. Studies and sports are the only responsibilities of you. If you will perform your current responsibilities excellently, will perform your future responsibilities excellently by nature.
Please share your recipe of success with our readers? Throughout my education, I used the strategy of doing hard work and smart work simultaneously. By using this strategy, I also became a gold medalist. When something becomes your passion, you enjoy it and become successful as well.
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“QUALITY IS TESTED AT LABORITES. IT SHOULD BE THE FIRST QUESTION WHETHER LABORITES ARE GOOD ENOUGH TO TEST THE QUALITY. WORKPLACE IS LIKE A LABORITE. IN MY OPINION, QUALITY OF GRADUATES IS STILL BETTER THAN THE QUALITY OF ENTREPRENEURS. FRESH GRADUATES ARE RAW WHEN THEY COME TO THE WORKPLACE.“
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RAZA ELAHI CEO, Elahi Group of Companies
Profile: Raza Elahi completed his MBA in marketing from AMI IQRA University, Karachi and joined Ehali Group of Companies as a group director. He is also currently serving as CEO, Steel complex and Chaudhri wires Pvt Ltd.
“I WAS A NOBODY IN THIS FIELD/ INDUSTRY. MY ACHIEVEMENT IS WHEN PEOPLE COME UP TO ME AND RECOGNISE ME FOR MY WORK.”
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CEO Club: Harvard Business Review’s research tells us that E.Q. (Emotional Quotient/ Intelligence) rather I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) is a highly essential competency for business leaders? Why E.Q. is important for CEOs especially in challenging times? Raza Elahi: Emotional Quotient is also very important in order to make the right decisions- to be resilient- to be patient- to be tenacious in your arguments - to learn from failure not to be demoralised by it- to read the person across the table. Emotional maturity is in a sense : essential.
What steps would you recommend to empower women? Does your company have a harassment policy? Women empowerment is achieved through education which then guarantees equal jobs and benefits. At work - harassment in any form is not acceptable considering the respect that Islam has kept for women. It is not easy for a women to step out in a purely man dominated work space to provide for their families. We need to facilitate this endeavour as much as we can.
Can you give us an example of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative you have championed? My father and forefathers recognised their corporate social responsibilities. Every year I distribute 2000 Ration amongst the workers all around Pakistan; i feed more than a 1000 people daily in Ramadan as a dastarkhan is set near my home. I have also started free food for the entire staff at my factory on a daily basis. Every deceased member of my factorys staff, keeps getting their monthly salary to their family.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenges? How do you retain top talent in the company? Retention of talent is difficult but not impossible. Work needs to be interesting and rewarding. Give credit where due and reward good work.
Any achievement you are proud of? I was a nobody in this field/ industry. My achievement is when people come up to me and recognise me for my work.
What’s the toughest decision you have ever made? What did you learn from it? Taking my father to Delhi for a dual Kidney and Liver transplant, not knowing whether this was going to work or not. Taking that risk. I learnt that we plan and plan but He is the greatest of planners and Knows best.
Who is your inspirational role-model? And why it is so? My father. He moved to Sialkot in his twenties with a pair of clothes and a pair of kids. In two decades he was one of the most well reputed and financially stable man. People who start from ground zero upwards. Self made men.
How do you consider a good work-life balance? Please comment. A good work life balance is spending the entire Sunday without checking in on work. Long weekends
| 497 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | and holidays spent travelling with family.
How do you manage your anger and stress? I ‘work out’ my stress away and sleep over my anger issues. There is no other healthier way to run a factory/ production unit.
Define success in three key words or phrases? Profits, Recognition and Comfort.
What is your idea of happiness? It is when the people around you are happy. You must be doing something right.
Your favourite book on professional development that you would recommend? This book is my inspiration. It is extremely motivating to read about successful men and women who have shaped and are shaping Pakistan’s future.
Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? I have seen young people incredibly despondent. Their future seems difficult to them without living a day of it. Its not. One step; one day at a time. You don’t need a genius to succeed. Just the correct motivation in the correct direction.
“THIS BOOK “100 BEST PERFORMING CEOS & COMPANIES OF PAKISTAN” IS MY INSPIRATION. IT IS EXTREMELY MOTIVATING TO READ ABOUT SUCCESSFUL MEN AND WOMEN WHO HAVE SHAPED AND ARE SHAPING PAKISTAN’S FUTURE.”
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“WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IS ACHIEVED THROUGH EDUCATION WHICH THEN GUARANTEES EQUAL JOBS AND BENEFITS. AT WORK - HARASSMENT IN ANY FORM IS NOT ACCEPTABLE CONSIDERING THE RESPECT THAT ISLAM HAS KEPT FOR WOMEN. IT IS NOT EASY FOR A WOMEN TO STEP OUT IN A PURELY MAN DOMINATED WORK SPACE TO PROVIDE FOR THEIR FAMILIES. WE NEED TO FACILITATE THIS ENDEAVOUR AS MUCH AS WE CAN”
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REAR ADMIRAL JAMIL AKHTAR HI(M) T.Bt. Chairman, Karachi Port Trust (KPT)
Profile: Rear Admiral Jamil Akhtar HI (M) T.Bt, assumed charge of Chairman Karachi Port Trust in December, 2017. He has the distinction of commanding Pakistan Navy Surface Ships, Pak Marines and Special Forces setup of Pakistan Navy during his illustrious career as Naval Officer. He got commission in Operations Branch of Pakistan Navy in June, 1983. He later served the Special Operations Forces for a long period. He also underwent US Navy SEAL Course at San Diego California in 1989. His important staff appointments include Training and Operations Officer with Special Services Group (Navy), Directing Staff and later Chief Instructor at PN War College Lahore, Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Training at NHQ), Chief Staff Officer to Commander Pakistan Fleet, Commander North, Director General Naval Intelligence and Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (Admin). Rear Admiral Jamil Akhtar is a graduate of Indonesian Command and Staff College as well as PN War College. He completed his Armed Forces War Course from National Defence University, Islamabad, in 2005. Before joining KPT as Chairman, he was the Director General Pakistan Maritime Security Agency at Karachi. As DG Pakistan Maritime Security Agency, he played a sheet anchor role in the implementation of many new maritime related policies. During his tenure of PSMA, sea crimes were at the minimum and many smugglers got arrested. He made lot of contributions in spreading awareness to curtail the environmental pollution. Rear Admiral Jamil Akhtar has been awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military) and Tamgha-e- Basalat (Gallantry) by the Government of Pakistan.
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CEO Club: What is the difference between commanding a ship as opposed to commanding KPT? Rear Admiral Jamil Akhtar: As far as KPT is concerned it is more along the lines of managing the affairs related directly to the economy of Pakistan making it a very big responsibility. As commanding a ship is a matter of great pride for every naval officer in that you get a chance to show your real self of courage, management skills and leadership. Ship’s command prepare you for higher arrangements by instilling skills such as the feel of the sea, mastering maritime technology, management, including crisis management, coordination with higher authorities and looking after subordinates.
How would you describe KPT’s significant role in the economy of Pakistan? Karachi Port Trust is one of the most important organs in Pakistan’s economy. Pakistan’s economy relies heavily on trade; 95 percent of this trade is done through the sea. So all trade that comes to Pakistan irrespective of import/export; 95 percent of this activity is through Karachi Port or Bin Qasim Port. A major chunk that of almost 60 percent is through KPT, hence KPT is transforming its existing facilities at par with best international standards to facilitate businessmen. If the port were not there it would have cost the nation an exorbitant amount. The most economical and cheap mode of trade is through the sea enabling movement of cargo in bulk. Almost 55 million tons of cargo handling is being undertaken at Karachi port annually, if the same cargo was to be handled by road or air the resulting cost would have been almost unbearable. Therefore consistent, dedicated ways and means to reduce costs, making trade more efficient and facilitation of businessmen are needed.
Do you think we are up to the mark on our strategy regarding our ports that is in accordance with current time and need? Gradually and slowly KPT has done very well in keeping up with the modern trends and also in cargo handling growth and port infrastructure improvement. The cargo handling capacity at present in KPT is 150 million tons. Our surplus capacity can cater for any additional trade that may occur in the future, which may and could arise as a result of economic growth. The same applies to Port Bin Qasim and Gwadar. As far as ports are concerned, we have not done too bad but maybe we could have done even better; had we invested more in maritime sector some 30/40 years ago.
What is your opinion on the prospective regarding CPEC and what are our strategies concerning expansion of our ports? Major ports are basically those that handle huge bulk cargo; the smaller ports undertake local trade through barges etc. fishing is an activity that is associated with minor ports. Gwadar should have been developed 30/40 years ago. Realistically speaking, maybe the concerned authorities did not think the population in the surrounding area was sufficient for this measure. In terms of strategic thinking if Gwadar had been developed 30 years ago we could have participated in the overall economic activity of the region; the kind of potential that had been exploited by the ports of Dubai and Oman, we could have had our share in it. Although we lost on that count maybe the present situation coupled with the prospects of belt and road initiative along with CPEC will result in achieving more fruits and opportunities than before. One should learn from the past and continue to move on to the future. We still have enormous potential at Gwadar and other Ports of Pakistan, if we can manage to formulate policies and set the ports on a track of development in the correct manner; we will be unbeatable in
| 501 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | the entire region.
Do you see the CPEC as a game changer? CPEC is defiantly a game changer, it is a very sensible initiative and a way through which we, China and Pakistan, are enabling development of infrastructure for handling of trade with other countries within the region and beyond. As a result the following positives will come about: • Development of efficient connectivity i.e through road, rail, airports and ports. • Promotion and development of economic hubs known as special economic zones • Enablers for trade and economic activities generating opportunities When economic activities receive a boost they start producing commodities that in return need to be exported to other countries. Thus highlighting the role of ports where ships come in, creating opportunities for the transport of raw materials into the country. This sets in motion a chain reaction of livelihood, job opportunities, cash inflow; outflow and prosperity. All of the above are key factors in the definition of a thriving economy; ultimately leading to promotion of wealth and productivity for the country and its people; therefore CPEC is a complete game changer.
What are the challenges within the maritime sector? The biggest challenge for the federal, provincial, city government and KPT is pollution. The amount of pollution we currently face has reached a dangerous level; everything has started to face a negative impact due to pollution. We are dumping over 500 million gallons of chemical and sewerage into our sea area surrounding Karachi. This is proving to be disastrous not only to the aqua life but also to our infrastructure by causing our jetties, ships etc. to deteriorate/ malfunction due to the corroding of pipes and other machinery and shortening the lifespan as a result. In addition over 12-13 thousand tons of solid waste is dumped into the sea everyday causing difficulties for the fishing industry as well. We need to declare pollution emergency in Pakistan especially at Karachi to control it. On the other side the biggest challenge for Karachi Port and its survival is connectivity. Unfortunately the area surrounding KPT has been exploited by encroachers in the past leading to encroachments which have restricted our potential for growth and development of new roads, bridges and connections with the hinterlands. Since Karachi has grown into such a large city it has become difficult for us to spare land for the said purposes; restricting our ability to exercise KPT’s real potential. As mentioned earlier, we have a capacity of handling 150 million tons of cargo but are unable to do so mainly because of limited connection with the hinterland. A ship carrying 50,000 tons of cargo comes in; 2,000 trucks are deployed to disembark cargo, this will result in the choking of all roads leading towards the port. Thus creating a negative impact on every citizen of the city. Connectivity is an important part of KPT’s future planning.
Where is our government lacking, are there any coping mechanisms or strategies? Our policies have generally been firefighting in nature as opposed to being fire preventive. When you think in terms of prevention; you develop skills and capabilities accordingly, you ensure that your materials are not substandard or susceptible to fire thus eliminating the chances of there being a fire instead of calling a fire brigade once everything is ablaze. We need to think in terms of fire prevention by thinking of 20 to 50 years down the line. This is what we are doing; Mr. Ali Zaidi (Federal Minster Maritime Affairs) has brought up a concept of connecting ports, we have proposed to develop a
| 502 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | freight corridor which will not run through land due to problems already mentioned therefore we have decided to build the freight corridor through the sea similar bridge in Hong Kong. Our plan is to build an expressway linking KPT to Port Bin Qasim and to the National Highway and M-9 motorway along with rail connection, LNG and white oil pipelines. This will result in quick turn of ships, make the port busier by allowing more ships to come in without impacting negatively on the city roads and the lives of common citizens. We are trying to pursue this project on the basis of Public Private Partnerships because we don’t want to add to the current debt situation of the country by taking more loans.
What are your views regarding the current situation of Pakistan and the various challenges faced by the country? The potential of our nation is tremendous; our leadership needs to be able to channelize all this potential and energies in the right direction. There is no other choice; challenges of any kind create opportunities but the catch is to be able to identify and exploit these opportunities and this is an area we lack in. I hold no doubt that we can succeed just like those many countries that succeeded before us; all we need to do is to capitalize on our resources and opportunities. I am very hopeful for the progress and future of Pakistan.
What is your defination of leadership? To me, the leadership is the ability to gain trust and confidence of those around you. A fine example of one of the greatest of leaders is the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah who invoked people’s implicit trust through his character, words and actions.
What are the achievements that you are proud of? Personally I am proud of every day of my life because I try to achieve something everyday, I hail from a village that had no basic amenities; I used to walk 4-5 miles a day, my journey from that time till today is an achievement. My greatest achievement has been being a part of Pakistan Navy which is one of the best services in the entire region. I am also proud of many good things that I have been able to achieve for my country.
What is the secret to your success? Patience; there are no shortcuts to success; you have to give your best consistently. It is a long journey and I would say be patient and consistent in your endeavors.
What is your idea of happiness? Small things make me happy. Success stories relating to Pakistan make me tremendously happy.
Please share a message of hope and optimism for our youth. Pakistanis as a nation are the greatest; our happiness index is a lot better than our eastern neighbor. We are one of the most philanthropist country and our potential is absolutely marvelous. We need to forgo our differences that we have created on the basis of language, caste, creed and sect; we need to unite if we want to gain our rightful place in the world.
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RIZWAN SAADAT Executive Director, Leopards Courier Service (Pvt.) Ltd.
Profile: Rizwan Saadat is an extremely zestful, passionate and energetic young Executive Director of Pakistan’s largest logistics organization, Leopards Courier. His particular contributions to Leopards Courier, his family business, include launching over 10 different services under his leadership of 10 years, doubling revenue, achieving a consistent growth rate of at least 22% per annum, and adding extensive resources to upgrade delivery systems, including the induction of a cargo aircraft dedicated exclusively to Leopards Courier. Currently, Rizwan Saadat leads over 7000 employees throughout Pakistan as Executive Director. Rizwan Saadat believes in empowering teams and relying on teamwork to achieve goals. He also maintains a non bureaucratic open door culture and makes it a point to interact with all managerial segments of his organization. He believes that is the most effective way to find long term solutions and build employee morale-by being approachable. Rizwan Saadat is a member of various worldwide organizations based on developing entrepreneurial ideas in order find opportunities to interact with people from all sorts of industry backgrounds, including E.O. (Entrepreneurs Organization) and the Young Entrepreneurs Federation, because he believes, the best learning takes place by sharing personal stories of triumph. On the future forefront, Rizwan Saadat is already strategizing the process to turn Leopards Courier from a logistics firm to a full-fledged supply chain management solutions giant. For Rizwan, the future will be full of changes.
“THE IDEA OF HAPPINESS IS TO ALWAYS HAVE THE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL ABILITY TO FIND SOLUTIONS TO MY PROBLEMS.”
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CEO Club: Please share with us your professional background or corporate profile (with challenges you faced) in a nutshell. Rizwan Saadat: Well, I joined the family business as a part-time trainee at the age of 19, and I interned in various departments within our organization such as customer service, courier, sales and operations for 1 year. After that, I became fascinated with the growth potential I saw in the business so I left university to become a full time assistance executive with our regional director at the time for 2 years, before becoming Executive Director. As far as challenges are concerned, as managers we are responsible for solving them on a daily basis, but the most difficult one during the beginning of my career was understanding and managing labor relations within our organization, especially in operations.
What is your company`s business philosophy vision, mission & core values? Business Philosophy: To provide value for the money, innovative and growing services to form mutually beneficial relationships with our customers. Vision: Growing foreign investment and industrialization are driving Pakistan’s economy in the right direction. Along with this, we are seeing a phenomenal growth in the courier and logistics sector of Pakistan. Our insights on what our customers really want gives us an edge, to deliver beyond just the promise. Mission: To serve our customers with a strategic focus on meeting their diverse courier and logistic needs and to offer new products and services including customer facilitation based on innovative technology Core Values: Efficiency, Affordability, Quality, Innovation, Due Diligence
Please share your company`s brief history? Leopards Courier was founded in 1983 by Jehangir Shahid in just 5 major cities of Pakistan. By 1989 we had expanded our delivery network to 54 cities, and we launched our international service in 1995. Our company continued to expand in both network and employees, by 2003 we had over 3000 people employed with us. In 2007 we drastically upgraded our I.T. infrastructure, and introducing bar code scanning for tracking shipments was an important part of that initiative. By 2015 we had expanded our retail outlets coverage to over 500 outlets to expand our B to C segment, but one of the largest milestones was achieved in 2017 when we acquired our own branded aircraft for overnight deliveries, and rebranded the entire corporate identity of our brand.
How many jobs your company created? I am proud to say that we have created over 6500 jobs in Pakistan, today.
Please share your company`s product/services profile? Our Range of Services Include the following: • Overnight Express: delivery within 24 hours in over 1500 nationwide destinations • Same Day Express: pick up and door to door delivery within the same city on the same day • Flyer Express: a sealed flyer for important and confidential documents. This is especially popular for passports • Leopards Box: is designed to meet customized shipping needs based on different weight capacities
| 505 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | such as 1kg, 2kg, 5kg, 10kg and 25 kg. The price of the leopards box is inclusive of shipping • Economy is a more affordable service for shipments that are not time sensitive • Cargo Express or Overland, includes LCL, FCL, Door to Door delivery and Hub to door delivery of full containers and heavy shipments • Cash on Delivery is offered to online sellers wishing to sell their goods in over 1500 destinations of Pakistan, with payment collected on our client’s behalf, and delivered to them, within the promised payment cycle. • Giftwifts: Our nationwide gift delivery service for corporates and walk in clients, with customized options for large orders. • Print And Mail Services: Digital printing, and automated Inserting and Stuffing, which can be printed, packed and delivered directly, all in one facility. • Warehousing for storage of products, along with supply chain management and delivery solutions, if required • International for international deliveries all over the world
What are the key challenges & opportunities in your industry / sector? Logistics is brimming with opportunities today. A trend which can be a game changer for logistic companies is the growth of e commerce in Pakistan, which provides the opportunity for logistic companies to develop more sophisticated services. Another exciting element of this new trend is the opportunity logistic companies are finally getting to market to and develop interest with an end consumer instead of a business, which again opens up the possibility of developing a wide range of services to cater to them. Also, some challenges we face include finding trained people who can drive our growth forward within this newly developing sector, coupled with mitigating the effect of the inflationary trend in Pakistan which has increased all our input prices.
Any remarkable recognition or achievements by the company? We are the first logistic company of Pakistan to install auto sorting technology, where all incoming shipments can be sorted automatically by destination. This is an important step in improving the quality of our service.
What is leadership to you and what are the three key challenges confronting CEOs/business leaders in Pakistan? Leadership means collaborating with others to drive your organizations goals. That collaboration can take the form of coaching, inspiring others, or simply working together to solve problems. Key challenges confronting C.E.O’s today are definitely the slackened attitude of our government organizations which make it hard to resolve legal hold ups, and finding skilled labor with a learning potential.
What are three leadership characteristics of a CEO that you would like to see in our new generation of CEOs / Managers? Empathy for employees and customers, Preparedness, and the ability for calculated experimentation, I believe it is very important to connect with your team on an individual level, so decision making can be practical. Also it is important to be well acquainted with the technical expertise of your field
| 506 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | before skipping to a decision making role so you can be effective. For example, before I took up my current position, I trained as both a customer service representative and a courier to understand our organizations systematic processes. Also, it is important to share a combined vision of the organizations goals with all employees associated with your organization, and be aware of global practices and service standards to strive towards a culture of continuous innovation for your organization.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenge? How do you retain top talent in the company? I try to give my team the autonomy to make decisions in their respective roles and follow through with them. Also, maintaining transparency of performance within the organization and linking rewards to hard work is an essential way to motivate people to perform and help them envision their future with us.
Is training, coaching and mentoring a priority to you? How much time do you allocate for your staff? Training and Coaching are a large part of our business philosophy. Recently we have taken it one step further by formalizing a training calendar every year focusing on various departments and services, but I have always had an open door policy so my employees are able to communicate with me without bureaucratic protocol.
Do you believe in women empowerment? If yes, then what steps would you recommend to empower women at workplace? I believe empowering women is now more important, not just from a humanitarian viewpoint, but from a practical viewpoint as well. Looking at the current expenses that households now have to incur in order to afford basics, it is no longer feasible to survive on single income families, which means more women must enter the workforce. I believe the most important step to empower women in a workplace like ours is to place them in positions where they will have a chance to grow and excel in a safe and supportive environment.
Being the CEO of the company, what is your strategy regarding succession planning and developing the next generation of leaders? I believe a growing business needs an influx of young people and new ideas coming in. Needless to say, both go hand in hand. A part of our succession planning initiative is to introduce young professionals in all our divisions at beginner level positions to train them to become leaders. That is why we have an MTO program in place, which I oversee myself so that I can personally learn from minds unaltered by creative restriction.
Where do you see your organization five years down the road? I believe an organization like ours has the capacity vastly expand the service portfolio. I believe 5 years down the road, our organization, and in fact the entire logistics sector, will become more customer centered and will be able to connect with customers on a more personal level. That is already happening today. As a result, we will have many opportunities to launch B2C businesses,
| 507 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | such as C.O.D. Other similar concepts will follow. Our growth strategy in this regard is simple and is based on our core values of dynamism. We want to remain a transparent organization with our employees as far as new developments are concerned so new ideas can come in and be nurtured. Simultaneously, developing transportation channels to enhance service quality is also very important.
Can you give us an example of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative you have championed? The effort that we made as an organization to provide relief for the flood victims affected by the floods of 2010 was a CSR initiative which created special memories within our organization. We took responsibility to physically deliver relief items to victims, and our zonal offices were on board for the effort, so it really promoted a feeling of connectedness in our organization
Harvard Business Review’s research tells us that E.Q. (Emotional Quotient) rather I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) is a highly essential competency for business leaders? Why E.Q. is important for CEOs especially in challenging times? I think E.Q. is important because it allows for the human element of intelligence to exist, while I.Q. doesn’t leave as much room for it. It’s simple, a good solution is only as effective as it is practicable, and being empathetic and truly understanding the restrictions your team is facing can help you come up with practical solutions.
“LEADERSHIP MEANS COLLABORATING WITH OTHERS TO DRIVE YOUR ORGANIZATIONS GOALS. THAT COLLABORATION CAN TAKE THE FORM OF COACHING, INSPIRING OTHERS, OR SIMPLY WORKING TOGETHER TO SOLVE PROBLEMS.”
A business speaks the language of digits. To what extent a CEO should be finance-savvy? What are the three most important numbers in a firm’s financial statements? Having the financial facts define the decision making taking place in an organization is very important, so a C.E.O should be extremely financially oriented. The three most important numbers in our financial statements are Liabilities, Receivables and Cash Flow. It is important to know how much money from customers has been collected and how much is still pending in order to maintain healthy cash flows, so it’s all connected.
Any achievement you are proud of? There are many, but an achievement that really stands out from the rest is our recent acquisition of a branded aircraft for cargo movement for our overnight service. It is a milestone for us.
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What’s the toughest decision you have ever made? What did you learn from it? Some of the toughest decisions I have made have been while eradicating corruption from my organization, which meant letting go of some key personnel within the organization at the managerial level, who were not only involved in the corruption but the cause of it. I learnt that taking action against unethical people is always the right decision, no matter their level of skill and seniority, and I also learnt that the show must go on, with or without anyone. Everyone is replaceable if they are causing enough damage.
Who is your inspirational role-model? My inspiration as a business-man will always be my father. He has a very unique style of passionate leadership, which is extremely customer oriented and focused on finding real time solutions to problems. Also, his faith in his own ideas, the passion with which he pursues them, and the thorough research he puts into decision making are traits I aspire to.
How do you consider a good work-life balance? Please comment. Well I have a son, and for me it is a priority to make time for him, so maintaining a good work life balance is important for me. I do it by organizing my day well, and by not procrastinating so I get my work done effectively, in time.
How do you manage your anger and stress? I usually start my day with exercise, which is a great way to manage both stress and anger. I feel this prepares my mind for decision making by increasing mental clarity.
Define success in three key words or phrases? Health, Stability, Continuous Learning.
Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? I feel the political and economic situation can often make the business opportunities in Pakistan look grim and challenging, however, I would like to encourage all entrepreneurs to launch their businesses with calculated risks and thorough market research, because on the bright side, we have a growing population base and people who are willing to be loyal to businesses that truly add value to their lives. For example, the addition of our C.O.D service was one an experience for us.
“I BELIEVE EMPOWERING WOMEN IS NOW MORE IMPORTANT, NOT JUST FROM A HUMANITARIAN VIEWPOINT, BUT FROM A PRACTICAL VIEWPOINT AS WELL.”
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SAADIA MANSHA Director, Nishat Agriculture, Nishat Dairy & Nishat Sutas
Profile: Saadia Mansha started from knitwear manufacturing and export business of her father at a very young age. She worked there for almost 10 years then after a break, she started the dairy business. It has been running for almost seven years, now. The location is ideal, right off the motorway. It’s on 165 acres of land, with 150 employees. Dairy is one part of our business. The other part of the business, that she look after, is agriculture that is a completely separate business. There we have got over 1,000 acres of land where we do farming and export. We export Rhode grass. It’s a fodder for cattle and horses. Our dairy business goes by the title, Nishat Dairy (Pvt) Limited while Nishat Agriculture Farming Limited is our agriculture business that started about three years ago. We are now in the process of buying another 850 acres in South. Our agricultural farms run exactly on the same model as in Europe. Everything here is mechanized, so we don’t need to use labour. We have taken the labour aspect out of farming completely. Even the harvesting is done by machines. However, the machine operators are labourers of course, so we have under 50 people working there.
“I DON’T THINK HAPPINESS IS SUPPOSE TO BE A GOAL. BEING CONTENT IN ANY SITUATION, ONE IS ABLE TO FOCUS ON THE RIGHT THINGS, IN MY OPINION. FOR ME MY DAUGHTER IS THE SOURCE OF MY HAPPINESS.”
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CEO Club: Pakistan’s dairy market is going to witness an intense competition next year as Nishat Dairy (Pvt) Ltd is poised to launch premium quality milk brand. Please tell us more about this new venture of yours. Saadia Mansha:This new project is something we have been considering for years because on the back end we were doing milk farming so forward integration seemed like the best possible solution. Also the problem in the industry is that there is only one big company which is Nestlé, and the farmers’ reliance on Nestlé is very high; it means that they dictate the terms of engagement. So in a business when there is only one major customer, you never really get paid well. The local dairy farmers were not finding it feasible to sell milk at the cost being offered by the main player. Despite being one of the main producers of quality milk, we were also selling our milk to Nestle and Engro. I think on the back end that was one of our issues that dependence on only one major customer with the dairy would never work in the long term. In these challenging circumstances, this is the right time that Nishat Dairy entered the next phase i.e., launching its own premium quality milk brand. This brand will also meet another market requirement for high quality dairy products. Being in the industry, I know what is available and as a mother I would never give it to my child. This was one of the reasons for me to get into this industry to be able to provide quality milk products to everyone.
Please tell us about Nishat Sutas Dairy Limited? Nishat Sutas dairy limited is the company being incorporated that will be launching the dairy related products and be the consumer facing company. Our goal is to be in the market by the end of 2020 to invoke “love for milk!”. We will be going into dairy based products. Kids are close to our heart so we will definitely cater to products for them. Our projection is to reach 10billion revenue in 5 years time.
What comprises your products’ range? Will it be milk only or other products as well? With primary focus on quality pasteurised milk products, we are in the process of giving final touches to our product portfolio. It will be a wide range of products from milk to yogurt to cheese, and yes, to some products especially for kids as no local company caters to kids, as of now, in the market.
Please apprise us of the revenue growth and the ups and downs you face in your agriculture and dairy businesses. These businesses are very difficult. When you are in dairy, your asset is your livestock. Also the environment that we operate in is extremely harsh. Summers are tough. Monsoons are even harder. If you understand the dynamics of the amount of heat one cow produces, which is equivalent to 100 humans, so when it becomes hot and humid it is all about management. You can face disease outbreaks and other issues despite following the vaccination protocols. It is a very complex business to manage because anything can go wrong at any time. Our target was to take it to 3,000 milking cows which would be around 7,000 herd size. Around November we will hit that target. In the summer, the revenue drops significantly, say we have an average of about 28-29 liters milk, it goes down to 24-23 liters. But, I think, by the end of the next year we will probably be touching Rs. two billion.
What is your mission statement for the existing company and the company which you are now going to launch? It is not a glamorized business. Instead, it is a male-dominated industry where women are not seen
| 511 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | handling the farms. Still we have managed to achieve so much especially against the hurdles this business faces such as the weather, which is out of our control.
How do you define the corporate culture at your companies? I think corporate culture gets defined slowly since it’s not a developed industry in the county. I don’t think human resource is a big challenge. It’s very fragmented, not properly industrialised that way. Graduates that come into these fields from agricultural universities, unfortunately are not taught the practical skills. They have to be taught on the job. We mostly take in fresh graduates because they are easier to train.
Are you happy with the graduates the universities are producing that come into your employment? Like I said we have to train them. Since they are not taught anything practical so when they come into the field, only then they realize that dairy is not a cup of tea. You have to work 24/7.
How do you manage your stress? I am very collected that way because I have seen stress from a very early age and since I have been under a lot of difficult circumstances so I think one learns to cope with stress with time.
What is your idea of happiness? I don’t think happiness is suppose to be a goal. Being content in any situation, one is able to focus on the right things, in my opinion. For me my daughter is the source of my happiness.
How do you manage your work life balance? I work when my daughter is in school. When I pick her up, I come home and my work day is formally over.
Who is your role model? No one. I do take inspiration from people and then I move on. If I am reading a book and there’s something useful I will take it and use it for my own improvement. One needs to keep modifying oneself because the world is constantly changing.
Where do you see your project five-years down the road? We will like it to have some impact on people’s lives. The idea should be that whichever market we target whether we go nationwide or we start from a few cities, we would probably like the products to be used in three out of four households and become the daily part of their life.
Any message of hope and optimism would you like to give the young girls out there? I think it comes down to social media. For me, I would rather utilise my time elsewhere. People just need to prioritise the stuff that is more useful and focus on it.
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“I DON’T THINK HAPPINESS IS SUPPOSE TO BE A GOAL. BEING CONTENT IN ANY SITUATION, ONE IS ABLE TO FOCUS ON THE RIGHT THINGS, IN MY OPINION. FOR ME MY DAUGHTER IS THE SOURCE OF MY HAPPINESS.”
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SAIRA AWAN MALIK Vice Chairperson, TCS Holdings (Private) Limited
Profile: Saira Awan Malik is a corporate lawyer. She worked at the London office of international law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP from 2009-15, focusing on corporate and financial transactions, including cross-border mergers & acquisitions, restructurings and capital market issuances. In 2016, Saira joined her family business, TCS (Pakistan), and is the Vice Chairperson of the Board of TCS Holdings Pvt Ltd. Saira received an undergraduate degree in History from Yale University in May 1999. She studied Law at the University of Cambridge (2001-3) and subsequently completed the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law in London. She was called to the Bar of England and Wales in October 2007. Saira has served on the board of the British Pakistan Foundation (BPF) since 2012. In April 2013, she launched the BPF Women’s Network. She is also a founding member of the British Pakistani Lawyers’ Association and the Pakistan International Film Association.
“A LEADER IS SOMEBODY WHO FIRST OF ALL NEEDS TO HAVE A CERTAIN DEGREE OF IMAGINATION, TO REALLY BE ABLE TO HAVE A VISION IN ORDER TO LOOK BEYOND WHAT OTHERS CAN SEE.”
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CEO Club: Please share your professional journey with us along with your company’s journey and challenges in a nutshell; Saira Awan Malik: I am a corporate lawyer by training and I worked for 6 years at an international law firm in London, doing a mix of general corporate and capital markets work; that is my background. TCS is our family business that I always intended to return to. About 2 years ago I left my law firm job and joined TCS as a Director on the Board of TCS Holdings company and I am currently the Vice Chairperson, TCS Holdings. In this position, I oversee in a more strategic way the direction of our overall group. As you may know we have businesses in the following verticals: express couriers, logistics, trucking, warehousing, e commerce etc. At the holding company level, I have a broad remit to oversee the group’s existing businesses and future growth plans. TCS was founded in 1983. When it was established, given the environment at that time, it was not possible to send a document or parcel from point A to point B with ease within Pakistan. The postal service has always existed, but at that particular point in time it was also mired in its own inefficiencies,. TCS laid the groundwork for the delivery infrastructure of this country. TCS started in 1983 and by 1985 we were already in 100 locations countrywide. Right now, we have over 900 delivery points. TCS has substantially invested in the logistics infrastructure of this country that did not exist in the past. So when we talk about enabling commerce, I would go as far as to say that TCS as a company has revolutionized communication and commerce in Pakistan. TCS at its core is an entrepreneurial company. In some ways we consider ourselves to be doing a great public service because there is no part of the country that we do not reach. Currently the business has evolved and there are a number of different verticals we operate in: · Express courier · Overland trucking · Warehousing · E commerce · Gift delivery · Travel and tours TCS is essentially an ecosystem and we view ourselves as a platform. We want to continue being the logistics backbone of the country.
The contrast between corporate law and your family business must be very different. Did your previous training help you in your current job as Vice Chairperson, TCS Holdings? Corporate law is good training for whatever you intend to do later in life. Law teaches you to be analytical, to be able to assess risk and liability, although sometimes lawyers tend to be very risk aversive whereas in business you need to be a little more willing to take risks. In my experience as a corporate lawyer I worked very closely with a number of companies and on the capital markets side as well with debt and equity issuances, and of course you really understand not just the levers that drive businesses but also about their risk mitigation strategies and overall trajectory. So as a corporate lawyer the insights you gain, these entire lessons can be drawn and applied to your own business. I feel that sometimes I still think as a corporate lawyer but I treat this as a positive in my business role now.
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How did you face the challenges thrown at you during your transition from corporate law to TCS Holdings and how did you turn those challenges into strategies? I was faced with two main challenges. The first challenge is that I haven’t really worked in Pakistan before and the second challenge is that I have never worked in the logistics sector before. I feel very privileged to have a platform like TCS as the foundation on which to understand the logistic sector. So I take both these challenges more as opportunities and I am using this time during the early years of my role to educate myself more about the kind of opportunities that exist in Pakistan in this space.
What are the company’s core values and its business philosophy? The company’s vision, our mission statement, is that TCS is and should continue to be the logistics backbone of the economy. This means that as a platform, we want to continue to enable commerce in all its forms, both traditional as well as digital. Our core values have remained the same as they were when our company was founded in the 80’s. · Trust · Respect · Ethics · Justice · Profitability through efficiency These were the core values that were laid out by the Chairman of the company when it was founded. The greatest strength of TCS in the 36 years since it has flourished has been that we are very closely integrated at the grassroots level across the spectrum of the economy and demographic of Pakistan. Now, when we look at the next stage of our growth, we want to use those strengths. We see a lot of exponential growth in logistics but also in our role, in being the ecosystem that is so integrated within this country and its economy .
How do you view the current economic situation of Pakistan and what are the opportunities and challenges that you can identify? As a business leader in Pakistan I feel that there are a lot of challenges; particularly in the kind of economic environment that we have seen in the last 6 months to a year has been very challenging. When you operate in Pakistan, you unfortunately operate against a backdrop of political uncertainty. In terms of the macro picture, there is a fiscal/monetary uncertainty/ unpredictability going forward. However, this is also a time of great opportunity in Pakistan and when I look at it from a logistics perspective and where we see our business, the growth that needs to be achieved in Pakistan is remarkable. Therefore, we see grounds for optimism. The belt and road initiative and CPEC are all part of the bigger story of how Pakistan is going to come into its own economically.
Where do you see your company 5 years down the road? As I mentioned we are an entrepreneurial company and when we see an opportunity, we like to explore it, regardless of whether w may have done it before or not ;although of course there have to be synergies. For example, there is an international trucking convention known as TIR. Pakistan became a signatory about 2 years ago and TCS is the first company in Pakistan that has the TIR license; TIR essentially allows cross border customs-free transportation of goods. That is an area that we are going into and we see a lot of potential for boosting regional trade through the TIR.
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What are your strategies regarding succession planning? My father Khalid Awan set up this business and is the Chairman of our Board. He is a visionary and somebody who sets the strategic direction of this company. As his second generation I am the Vice Chairperson of the Board and my brother Qasim Awan is a Director with a management role in the Ecom Solutions team. In terms of the second generation we are well positioned to take this vision forward. Our succession planning is in place.
How would you define leadership? A leader is somebody who first of all needs to have a certain degree of imagination, to really be able to have a vision in order to look beyond what others can see. So I think imagination and vision are the first component of leadership and I see both these attributes in my father; his vision is always quite futuristic. The second is perseverance. Leadership means you have to stick to your guns, and have the ability to not give up. The third is courage; this is the most important component perhaps because along the journey there are going to be many challenges and there are going to be many tough decisions. A leader must have all three attributes.
What are the 3 key challenges that CEO’s and business leaders are confronted with in Pakistan? Some of the challenges I mentioned earlier such as political uncertainty, operating against unstable/ unpredictable macro financial environment and in addition, I think there are also challenges in terms of human resource although there is a lot of talent in Pakistan and we just have to think of way to train the available talent and maximize their potential In that respect we are proud of the role that TCS has played in the last 36 years as having shaped the logistics industry of Pakistan. TCS in many ways has played the role of the University of Logistics. People who have learnt here have gone on to contribute significantly to different sectors not just logistics.
Harvard Business Review research tells us that EQ (Emotional Quotient) is more important than IQ (Intelligence Quotient). Do you agree with this? Both are equally important. IQ at the leadership level is very important and one should not discount it. You need to have the ability to make decisions based on your analytical skills and your ability to separate the wheat from the chaff. EQ is critical because you are running an organization where you have teams working with you. Therefore EQ is imperative for all leaders to be able to work through differences, build consensus and rally people around the common vision.
Do you believe in women empowerment and what are the steps you would recommend to empower women in the workplace? Of course, I believe in women empowerment and women have so much to contribute to the workplace. I feel women need to be encouraged and they should be provided with the equal opportunities that are free of prejudice, on the basis of merit. Women have to be enabled in a slightly different way and there has to be a nuanced approach. As a first step business leaders and corporate heads need to understand and recognize that the contribution of a woman make in the workplace is worthwhile.
What is an achievement that makes you proud? I am most proud of the fact that I have been able to juggle bringing up of three daughters and
| 517 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | maintaining a fulfilling work life. I am extremely career-oriented so I am happy that I have been able to achieve that balance.
How do you maintain a good work life balance? From the perspective of a working woman the most important things is to have a good support system in place enabling you to give your work as well as family life its full due. I think it ultimately comes down to perseverance. Just don’t give up on your vision and things will fall into place I always knew I wanted both aspects and so I put systems in place that helped me achieve that goal.
What it the toughest decision you have made and what did you learn from it? One of the toughest decisions was giving up my legal career in London and making a transition to the family business. It was tough on many levels because as a lawyer I had devoted my academic and early years of my professional life to pursuing that goal; I saw a career track which gave me intellectual stimulation and the career fulfillment that I wanted. What led me to Pakistan and TCS was the fact that I saw a lot of opportunity, right now I see this country going through a very dynamic stage; I also see our company in a growth mindset. It was a tough decision but when I look back I have absolutely no regrets.
How do you manage stress and anger? Thankfully, I don’t suffer from anger management issues. Stress comes and goes and I am good at compartmentalizing. The one thing I have realized in so many years as a professional is that stress needs to be managed, otherwise it becomes counterproductive.
Define success in three words? Success is when you feel that your life has a bigger purpose and you are able to achieve the goals you had outlined for yourself.
What is your idea of happiness? Contentment for me is actually the key to happiness.
Are you into the habit of reading and what are some of your favorite books? I enjoy reading a lot. I mostly read fiction but I recently read a non-fiction book that impacted me greatly and has stayed with me and it is called “If This Is a Man” - this book is a memoir written by Italian Jewish writer Primo Levi.
Any message of hope and optimism that you would like to give out to our younger generation. As a Pakistani I feel so proud and happy to be working in a Pakistani company and I feel that there is a bright future ahead. We should all put our heads down and excel at whatever it is that we are doing; Let’s try to create centers of excellence in our own little spheres. When we put them all together, this country is going to grow by leaps and bounds.
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“I BELIEVE IN WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND WOMEN HAVE SO MUCH TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE WORKPLACE. I FEEL WOMEN NEED TO BE ENCOURAGED AND THEY SHOULD BE PROVIDED WITH THE EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES THAT ARE FREE OF PREJUDICE, ON THE BASIS OF MERIT.”
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SAJID ALI ABBASI Founder & Group CEO, Times Group (Pvt.) Ltd
Profile: Prior to becoming an independent Entrepreneur and CEO, Mr. Abbasi started his professional career from a growing construction company in Karachi (Paragon Constructors Pvt. Ltd.) as an engineer and progressed to the level of Senior Project Manager, subsequently served in UAE & Qatar on various diversified projects lastly in a Foundation Engineering Company in Pakistan (Sea Rock Drillers & Constructors) as General Manager.Sajid Ali Abbasi have remained impetus behind successfully execution of various mega projects in Pakistan, UAE and Qatar. It was the natural progression to start his own company, he also heads Engineering and Management Divisions of the Company and works alongside his team on daily basis. As a Group Chief Executive Officer (Group CEO), Sajid Ali Abbasi led Times Group through an extraordinary company culture that has affirmed it as industry leader by his hard work, commitment and workman-ship. Tracing Mr. Abbasi career path, we will find that he had just the right combination of foresight and strength in his Character, Pioneering strategies that beat current dogma of construction industry and propels development forward, He is a maven of science and champions his cause as a keeper of an impressive legacy for excellence in Engineering, Management and Construction, whilst raising concerns about future directions of Sustainable prosperity. Throughout out Mr. Abbasi career, he holds Strong background in project development, optimization of team potentials, liaising with internal and external stakeholders and operational management from technical, practical & administrative standpoints also with an outstanding history of managing projects from initial conception, through development, to implementation.
RESILIENCE IS SUCCESS! BELIEF, A CAN DO ATTITUDE AND DETERMINATION.
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CEO Club: Please share your company’s profile. Sajid Ali Abbasi: Times Group is Pakistan’s most forward thinking hexagonal entity operating in Engineering, Management and Construction industry of Pakistan, supported by cohesive subsidiaries. A fully organized engineering, management, construction, builder and developer group, skillfully specialized in executing geotechnical engineering, buildings (high-rise) and infrastructure works in all sectors. We at Times Group manage the projects all the way from the initiation stage to execution up to completion. Our role ranges from builder and developer to undertake all range of specialized services includes engineering (design & coordination), management (project management & value engineering), construction execution (innovative construction techniques & materials), maintenance and operations.
Could you please tell us a bit about your journey? How did you start and get to where you are now? I’m basically a Civil Engineer with Masters of Engineering Management in Construction Management. I passed my degree from NED University of Engineering and Technology in 2006. I started my career at Paragon Constructors as junior engineer and worked there from 2007 to 2012 with brief stints elsewhere too. We registered the Company “Times Enterprises” in 2010 but I formally joined in late 2013. We did some small projects initially, since we were just starting out, by the end of 2013 we got our first mega project named “Bakht Tower”. This is the tallest building in Pakistan (2016-2017) with a 750,000 Sqft built-up space; this was a gigantic breakthrough for our Company. Subsequently we emerge the Company “Times Enterprises” into the Times Group - a private limited company in 2014 and added more businesses like Times Crete, KF Management, SN Entrepreneurs and Times Welfare Trust etc. which are at various stages of operations. Since then we have been working on some major projects like the KASB Altitude Tower (32 Story) project at Clifton Karachi; Marina View (23 Story) project at Boat Basin Karachi, Commercial Complex and Seaman Center buildings for Gwadar Port Authority and Nespak at, Engineering Block at Bahria University Karachi Campus and Karachi Chamber of Commerce Head Office at Clifton Karachi. We also have our own Ready-Mix concrete plant in operation at Korangi Industrial Zone Karachi. We work for multiple sectors including both, public and private sectors. Our Entire Organization geared in line with our company Vision, Mission and Philosophy: to advocate our idea of implementing “Engineering, Management and Construction” throughout completing various projects of diverse nature.
How many employees do you have in your group? There are about hundreds of employees in our group. Our organization structure is divided into different divisions and departments. The engineering management division is dealt by the head office and is staffed by a Chief Manager overseeing a team comprising managers, quantity surveyors, junior engineers etc. Then we have an engineering execution division that is a project-based team comprising project managers, construction managers, supervisors, construction engineers and safety engineers etc. We also have a finance division, an administration& HR division and an MIS division. Additionally, our skilled and non-skilled labor can extent to a total of more than 500 contractual workers. This can
| 521 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | vary given how many projects we have going on concurrently; one project requires, at minimum, a team of about 100 people. But for larger projects, like at the peak of construction at Bakht Tower, we had a dedicated team of about 450 workers just for that one project.
There are some specific challenges we face in Pakistan across all sectors. One of these is a crisis of governance and management; what is your take on the issue? One should be very clear in how you do work in your company; because I’m a professional engineer, and quite happy that a lot of professionals are coming into the field, filling this gap, so overall improvement has occurred in the sector. For our business the first thing we did when building our firm was to also build a set of procedures, policies and strategic plan to run the system. Our first step when starting a new project is to make a work breakdown polices. This comprises a broad project management plan – which includes the overall plan for the project including the roles of all partners and stakeholders; and a construction management plan – that delineates our internal departmental responsibilities and deliverables and a project execution plan that outlines all activities and how those activities are going to be executed by all relevant departments and teams in a coordinated way. We have also, recently, applied for an ISO certification which will help us streamline our compliance and reporting regime. So, you can imagine there is a great need for management skills in our sector.
I THINK IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FOR OUR YOUNGER GENERATION TO BE HOPEFUL DESPITE ALL OPPOSITION. ONLY PEOPLE WHO KEEP HOPE ALIVE ACTUALLY REACH ANY PLACE OF PROMINENCE IN LIFE.
Pakistan also faces a huge dearth of business ethics. How can this problem be overcome? It really is a big problem. It is the government to make proper rules to protect business ethics and promote potential entrepreneurs, as we do have authorities and bodies to regulate it but they too have been compromised by the cartels; this is especially visible when several companies bid for a lucrative project. In such a cartel-based sector, it is extremely difficult for new entrants to get a good foothold. If things continue the way they are, and with the entry of mega Chinese groups under CPEC – there will come a day when market saturation and barriers to entry for new Company will be so tough that no new entrepreneur could possibly be created in Pakistan. I think there is also a problem of cartelization in business ethics –I mean business ethics aren’t even followed when a professional switches from one organization to another. Trade secrets and confidential information are on risk, local work and product quality needs to be brought at par with international standards because the world we live in is like a global village and everything is on palm with the emergence of IT sector in Pakistan, and everybody has good exposure to the world outside, expectations have risen tremendously. This is why our imports have increased so much, because local services and goods are not of good standard. Level playing field should be provided for all business
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What are the key challenges you face in your sector? I think any new business faces an enormous challenge in securing opportunities. I’m not saying that opportunities do not come your way – Allah makes ways and means for opportunities to come your way, of course. But the challenge is in how you secure your opportunity from the clutches of cartels. The second challenge is in successfully concluding the opportunity that you get. There are a lot of factors and allied industries involved in doing this. For example, if you’re just starting out and you just got your first opportunity then who will trust you enough to give you resources on credit? The third challenge starts once you successfully finish your project. How you market that project and present it to the market. Your next project or opportunity depends solely on how well the market perceives the quality of work you put into your previous assignments so you need to focus on presenting the excellence of your work glowing at all costs.
How do you manage a team so that it learns how to win? All effort is linked to team work; nothing can be accomplished without a strong team. I think you can only successfully manage a team by becoming a leader rather than a boss. A leader learns to trust his team and it is that dynamic that teaches the team to perform up to the leader’s expectations. One needs to give the team a level playing field to realize their potentials and hone their talents. The level of responsibility delegated to the team must also be enlarged by sufficient motivation. And if someone makes a mistake unintentionally – the leader shouldn’t blame any particular individual rather should take the responsibility of the mistake himself so that no one loses confidence in themselves. Although there are number of professionals working in our sector, already, we try to have a very strong reward system in place for hard work. Incentives have to be made clear at the beginning of the task so that the team performs well.
SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP IS NOT ABOUT BEING TOUGH OR SOFT, SENSITIVE OR ASSERTIVE, BUT ABOUT A SET OF ATTRIBUTES.
What would you consider to be your crowning achievement over the course of your career? By the grace of Allah there are a lot of achievements in my life because I started my company back when I was only 29 years old. I’m 34 years old now and I am Group CEO of Times Group is a huge blessing of my Allah. I would say that building Bakht Tower in just 16 months is a crowning achievement – it’s a ground plus 32, 140-meter-high building. Other than that, our experience at building high rises in Pakistan is unmatched – even now we are working on various high rise in Karachi in just few years of establishment. We have set a trend for fast-paced high-rise construction in Pakistan which has forced investors, buyers and other stake holders to follow these new standards.
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What is the toughest decision you’ve ever made in your life? To be honest, I haven’t really felt that any of the decisions I’ve taken have been too tough for me. I think that if you believe in yourself by the grace of Almighty then anything is possible. We have only had a small journey so far – it still remains to be seen how hard future challenges will be for me and my business. But, I feel, deciding to build a huge project like Bakht Tower – when we were still new and even resources were meager – all alone was the toughest decision that I’ve faced up till this point.
How do you manage stress and anger given the nature of your work? The best way to manage your stress and mitigate anger is to delegate authority along the reporting chain. There was a time when I used to take a lot of stress and worked from the morning to 11 pm at night but ever since I’ve built up my team and delegated authority, I feel that, my life has improved a lot. I feel that it has given me the space to live my life and plan the strategic and general direction of my company’s future.
Entrepreneurship is the buzzword these days. What is your view of entrepreneurship? An entrepreneur can only be formed by one of two things: opportunity or idea. But, in Pakistan, there is no real appreciation for good or novel ideas. All the new generation of real entrepreneurs, like Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates or Steve Jobs only got a chance to realize their potential because their countries and societies had built platforms which made it easy for them to go from concept to execution and, later, rewarded those people for their accomplishments. Such societies make it easier for talented people to get loans, support, training and investment rather than makes more difficult. We have no such platforms or systems. For someone in Pakistan to implement a fabulous idea, that person will have to first go and get support from a person of influence and lose a majority of that potential earning because the investor will get the idea patented in his own name.
What are the core competencies that a CEO must have in order to progress? I think a CEO is more of a think-tank; he or she should be involved with the intellectual and strategic progress of the company. Any CEO that gets into operations eventually burns himself out to capitalize the competitive advantage of the market, which he could achieve. All companies, in which the CEO was focused on planning for the future, have prospered while the rest have largely stagnated. The CEO should have a certain amount of patience so he can realize who fits in where, in the company. For that, the CEO also needs to necessarily be a good listener.
What is your message of hope for our younger generation? I think it is extremely important for our younger generation to be hopeful despite all opposition. Only people who keep hope alive actually ever reach any place of prominence in life. You should first have hope from Allah accompanied by a confidence in your own ability to deliver, otherwise you won’t get anywhere.
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RESILIENCE IS THE CAPACITY OF COMMUNITIES IN COMPLEX SOCIO- ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS TO LEARN, COPE, ADAPT, AND TRANSFORM IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY.
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SALMAN ASLAM Executive Director, Century Packages Private Limited
Salman Aslam holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration and International certifications in various areas of International trade, Corporate Banking and Printing and Packaging. He brings with him almost 2 decades of experience in international trade, relationship management, and structured trade finance and production efficiencies. Strong acumen for setting up start- ups and infrastructure. He started his career working for his family owned business enterprise, which specializes in providing Printing and Packaging solutions before moving on in to banking where he served for 12 years on various management positions; privileged for serving International Banks such as Citibank, RBS, Barclays and UBL. Shrewd business strategist and tactician, optimistic, consistently sources and secures new opportunities across the world utilizing numerous contracts. His area of expertise included Executive Leadership, Business Development, Corporate and Investment Banking, Financial modeling, Strategic Planning, Budget and P&L, High Level B2B and Cultural Diversity. He has strong understanding in International and Structured Trade with experience in Trade legislation. He has hands-on experience of developing trade and businesses in multiple countries including US, Canada, Oman, U.A.E and China etc. Salman currently is guiding, advising, leading, developing, steering a team of professionals in a variety of sectors including but not limited to the Printing, Packaging, Information Technology, Contracting, Branding and Food Businesses across Pakistan, Canada and Middle East. He has been instrumental in assisting his people in building their Corporate Portfolio particularly training them on Business Planning, Budgeting and Achieving Revenue targets for the organization. In his leadership role Salman’s responsibilities includes grooming and developing of Senior and Middle Level Executives for his group companies. Apart from this business acumen Salman is a seasoned philanthropist. He served as Chairman CSR committee of Federation Of Chamber Of Commerce & Industry, FPCCI (2017) where he has been engaged various community development projects. He is currently serving as Senior Vice President of D.H.A Lion’s Club and honored to be a Founder Member of Pediatric Heart Foundation (NICVD). He has been currently appointed (2019) as Chairman, Printing & Packaging Industry by FPCCI to represent the industry. He is an executive committee member in various trade organizations including Pakistan Association of Printing and Graphic Arts Industry (PAPGAI) and Korangi Association of Trade & Industry (KATI).
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He has served as Senior Vice President for Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) in 2018. He is serving as Chairman Business Council, Pak Indonesia (FPCCI) since last 4 years. Due to his strong knowledge of Banking Industry - he has been representing FPCCI Standing Committee on Banking, Finance and Monetary Policy since last 3 years as Senior Vice Chairman. During discussion on businesses - “CENTURY GROUP” brings diversified experience in various business segments including Printing and Packaging, Ecommerce, Media, Trading and Engineering and Contracting. According to Salman “these are really exciting and challenging times and I strongly believe that in such economy only those businesses which creates opportunities with deep understandings of customers’ expectations and leading-edge in operations, services, sustainability and values can survive with success”. Century Packages Private Limited is our flagship company and one of the leading printing and packaging house in Pakistan. Management of Century Packages carries over 4 decades experience. We are still enhancing our trading business in global markets and serving our customers with premium products in cost effective manner. Our e-commerce platform covers vast range of items from fashion accessories, human food and home appliances. I hold this esteemed organization by the blessing of the Almighty Allah and I’m proud to say that currently my Team manages all the business segments with dignity, experience, excellence, love & prestige. Currently Pakistan is going through an era of economic transformation. Government aggressively wants to implement new systems to support the common man. Legacy of feudal seems to an end soon. Prime Minister Imran Khan is an honest person and globally recognized because of his previous experiences, commitment and honesty. International community is taking him seriously. His recent visit to United States of American is a great success for all Pakistanis and Overseas Pakistanis. It is a privilege for everyone considering the respect and overwhelming welcome given to PM by the west which is testament of strategic importance of Pakistan considering its a world 6th Largest populated country with nuclear power. There are lot of challenges in Pakistan from healthcare, education and unemployment to law and order. Government has taken all the aggressive steps to handle the issues, whereas, recent measures taken by the government has resulted in double digit inflation (July 10.2% YoY) and triggered up the above issues. Major contributions come from gas, electricity, housing and food price increase. I can see and expect that inflation to remain elevated till the end of the year on the back of lagged effect of 22% currency devaluation during last 12 months. However, the preemptive interest rate hikes of 575bps during last 12 months have somewhat curtailed inflation from spiraling out of control. Government policy to widen the Tax based network is excellent but the implementation should be strategic, monitored and controlled where I can see lot of room for improvement. Gas prices have increased on average by 63% during July 2019. Electricity prices have risen by Rs1.5 per unit during the month to Rs14.9 per unit. In basic food, you can observe inflation where the prices of chicken, onion, tomato and powdered milk have also increased substantially. Government initiatives particularly related to FY20 budget sets an ambitious tax revenue increase of 34% which would be inflationary in nature. However, a halt in SBP borrowing as agreed with the IMF would somewhat restrict inflationary pressure in FY20. FY19 Current account deficit is 32% lower (US$13.6bn) as compared to FY18 with imports down 9% YoY and exports down 2% YoY. This shows that currency devaluations of 22% over last 12 months are having the desired impact of restricting imports. There are lot of initiative needs to be taken by the government and system needs to be improved. I am optimistic that Pakistan has a very bright future and we ALL Pakistanis has to play our role to achieve the success for our people, county and as a nation. Pakistan Zindabad Pakistan Paindabad !
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SALMAN SIDDIQUI Director, Ehsan Chappal Store (Pvt.) Limited (ECS)
Profile: Salman Siddiqui did MBA in Finance from Pak-AIMS in 1995. He used to live in Samnabad and studied at a school named Radiant Way. But for Matriculation, he went to Central Model High School. After that, he studied Statistics and Economics as major subjects at Government College (GC) for 4 years from 1988 to 1992. Although, after his MBA I just haven’t had time to do more formal studies – just some short courses here and there.
“WE ARE NOW WORKING MORE ON OUR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT CAPABILITY AND WE PLAN TO SPEND MORE ON R&D IN THE FUTURE, AS WELL. SO, THE CAPABILITY WE WANT TO BUILD RIGHT NOW IS TO SERVE THE FUTURE CUSTOMERS WHO KNOW WHAT THEY WANT.”
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CEO Club: What were the challenges your family faced in the early days of establishing the business and how did they overcome them? Salman Siddiqui: We started our business in 1953 from very humble beginnings. Ehsan is my father’s name and my grandfather started this business naming it after my father – his eldest son. Our dad still tells us to always remember our beginnings, to always remember where we started; one can’t know where one is going without knowing where one has been. My grandfather came from a very rich family that, due to adverse circumstances, hit rock bottom. For this reason, he was a very humble person. Our father used to tell us that our grandfather had a quality to engage with the customers on a very personal level; the empathy was always there to understand the needs of the customers. In that era, most of the products were not on display; there used to be just one display in the store. So, you had to read the mind of the customer and you had to present the right product. That is how it began. An example of empathy for customers’ needs: we started making extra-large sizes 43, 44, 45 when it was not fashionable and the most amazing thing was that these sizes served transgender people. A lot of transgender people would come to get their shoe size because none of the stores at that time, that I know of, used to make shoes in their sizes. To me it shows how genuine empathy for the customer can transform the entire shopping experience at one hand and image of the brand at the other. My father always used to say that give extra value for money to your customer; give your customer something extra for his or her money.
What are the core values which define ECS? Culture is changing and people are changing, too. I cannot say that we hold the same values that we practiced 50-60 years ago as an organization. But one thing that has remained consistent is to pay, whatever is due, on time. To this day, we pay all the vendors the next day they deliver their goods – no credit lines. Alhamdulillah for over 60 years we have not delayed the salaries of our staff for even a single day. My father says that if we have committed to a thing, we have to do it. My father used to wear shirts with two pockets - which were never in fashion, really. Once I asked him why he wore those kinds of shirts. He said he did it to keep money in the pockets so that as soon as somebody made a delivery he could pay him immediately. My father did not like to keep anyone waiting for their money - even for it to be drawn out of the cash drawer or some locker.
What is your perspective on changing market conditions? Traditionally there had always been information skewness between businesses and customers. Businesses had more product and market information than the customers did and usually businesses used to exploit that gap to make money. Now, due to influence of social media and other channels of information, this information gap is shrinking: now customers know about the product as much as we do. This is a very new and interesting challenge for us and I see it as a very positive development. It keeps us on our toes. Now you cannot bluff, you have to be open about your product, admit what you are and acknowledge your shortcomings. It is easier, now, for us to learn because we are getting feedback that is relevant; only a decade back this was not the case.
How many employees do you have at ECS? We have about 1,000 staff out of which 70 work at the managerial level.
How many retail outlets of ECS do you have? Any plans to go abroad.
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Sixty plus shops all over Pakistan. While we are discussing going international, the operational cost of having stores abroad is too high. Average selling price and the price points we offer our customers do not support that kind of operational cost; but we are still looking into it. We are trying to bring up a model that can actually be sustainable.
The China factor is a challenge to every shoemaker in Pakistan. People are importing from China and selling here; meanwhile you are an indigenous brand and you have to pay the taxes too. How do you manage this challenge? This is something which is a business fact and we have to work around it. Of course, our costs are high; our import costs are high and so is our operational cost to maintain a team of competent managers. We try to manage such factors through making a mix of the products. Alhamdulillah, ECS, compared to most local brands, is sourcing more from Pakistan. More than 75% of our products are locally made – not from China. But we have to import a lot of the raw materials to keep up the quality of the product.
Where do you see ECS 5 years down the road? Alhamdullilah, we are now working more on our product development capability and we plan to spend more on R&D in the future, as well. So, the capability we want to build right now is to serve the future customers who know what they want. The market is increasingly becoming demand-driven and now customers don’t stay silent if they don’t like a collection or if they have any issue with individual products. Customers are very proactive now and it makes it easier for us to discuss their opinions in our board meetings, in our decision making, through social media, through participation and consultation with the customers, through focused groups and surveys. 5 years from now I see a company which has a much larger product development and innovation capability. Top of our agenda is to make formal shoes that are comfortable.
What is the one thing that, in your opinion, sets you apart from your competition? ECS does not have an outward focus on competitors, we do not discuss competitors as much as we consider industry standards. We do not tend to be swayed by the decisions made by the others; we focus on what we want to achieve and the whole team is geared towards it. We have come to understand that you can get guidance in business from the teachings of Islam. The Holy Quran is not a book for recitation, in every business practice you can get guidance from it. We have started exploring that and we are trying to build practical points out of the Holy Quran and out of the life of Rasool Allah (P.B.U.H.). Many things can be learnt from these noble sources.
Who is your role model and inspiration? My role model and inspiration is Hazrat Muhammad (P.B.U.H). Apart from him, I have learnt a lot from my father. I may or may not want to be exactly like him but that gentleman has a lot of qualities that I certainly wish I had. Especially the way he has inculcated certain values in our organizational DNA. My mother passed away in 2000; she was the one person that has always amazed me and has been a great source of motivation for the whole family.
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“ECS DOES NOT HAVE AN OUTWARD FOCUS ON COMPETITORS, WE DO NOT DISCUSS COMPETITORS AS MUCH AS WE CONSIDER INDUSTRY STANDARDS.”
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SAYEEDA LEGHARI MD & Chairperson, Sukkur Beverages Pvt. Ltd
Profile: Mrs. Sayeeda Leghari’s success story with SBL, Sukkur Beverage Limited, began in 2013, by buying out and consolidating shareholdings. She took the charge of Sukkur Beverages Limited (SBL) - A Pepsi Cola International Franchise as the Chairperson and Managing Director. Since the last five years, the company’s transformation is an unprecedented success story of organizational growth. Sayeeda Leghari is the only female bottler in the entire Pespsi Co. system; she has directed the company to great success through her vision. Among her many milestones, introduction of the Gen2Green water treatment plant, which is the first and the best of its kind existing in Pakistan, has been a remarkable achievement by SBL. Another notable success is the installation of high speed Krones filling lines and blow mold machine that is self-sufficient for Pet Production. Under her management, SBL evolved with state of the art infrastructure and automated control systems. The latest addition under her achievements as the Managing Director and Chairperson for SBL is the installation of a new Canning Plant which is only the 3rd in Pepsi Co. Pakistan. Sayeeda Leghari has been on the Executive Board for the last eighteen years and has held an elected post as the Public Relations Secretary of child aid in Asia at the National Institute of Child Health Karachi and Member Steering Committee & Screening Committee Education Department, Government of Sindh. In her quest towards education and literacy in Pakistan and to serve society, she has adopted Government schools in Karachi and an additional five in Sukkur with an amassed strength of thousand pupils. She is also the author of the bestselling book, “Pakistan Heritage Cuisine”, which states about the history of food. The book launch took place in November 2017 and she also won the Prestigious Gourmand World Award 2018. “For CEOs today, it’s all about achieving growth and efficiency through innovation. It’s not about product innovation so much anymore as about innovating business models, process, culture, and management.”
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CEO Club: Please tell us about your journey triumphed to reach this level of recognition. Sayeeda Leghari: Well, I am a true voter of “no gender discrimination in professional life”. I became part of this firm six years back on shareholdings and partnership basis. As this franchise is located in the rural area of Pakistan, Sukkur, I aimed to develop it in all the aspects of the business and bring it to par not just in Pakistan but also globally. By the grace of Almighty, it gives me immense pleasure to say that today my franchise is counted amongst the best in the world.
Can you share your strategies utilized for flourishing the firm incredibly? The only strategy I employed was to produce high-quality products with no tolerance for any dishonesty. After manufacturing, I focused on the right tools of marketing and sales. With the consistent endeavors of my team and me, we were able to achieve good results.
Please share your perspective of smooth professional work? I started working from the of 18, it wasn’t in the bottling business. My grandmother Mrs. Razia Ghulam Ali she was the first female industrialist of Pakistan after she passed away I ran her business that was founded by her Pakistan Pipes & Construction Co. (Pvt.) Ltd. . Since then, I have been working tirelessly and diligently to fulfill all my professional and personal goals. My mantra of a peaceful life is to create a balance between my work and my personal responsibilities. I hope there comes a time when there will just be leaders. Irrespective of gender; I hope we have a future where we condition our people to become strong and capable leaders. We enable a vision that supersedes the gender bias.
Who is your source of inspiration for maintaining such a tremendously successful life? I would entitle my grandmother, father, and mother in the frame of inspirations. As I told you that my grandmother was an industrialist, so the strength of working as a business-women is inherited. My father and mother are a great origin of support and love. My father and the confidence and courage that he provided has been instrumental in where I am today. My parents have instilled some exemplary qualities in my behavior which assisted me in sustaining my career. “My father used to always say that I am not a leader of men instead I am a follower of women, which I always found precious”
What key challenges did you combat while concreting the walls of your professional life? Likewise other’s journey of struggles and accomplishments, I faced many upheavals which convinced to continue and win my race of hard work. I remained stagnant with my aims and objectives for building up my professional career. My focus is also branched towards community services as well. To cite, I initiated projects of schooling and health care services for children in Sukkur. More than 3000 students are studying in the school with the hope of brightening their futures. The ratio of male and female students are equal, promoting equality and no gender discrimination alongside. “We need to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves. We have to step up as women and take the lead.”
In your opinion, how you can ameliorate the standard of education in Pakistan? The condition of educational platforms in Pakistan are getting critical and worse than before. It’s high
| 533 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | time to recognize the flaws in the system and rectify them urgently. As a nation, we cannot compete with the world without improving our educational portfolio. For this, we can do educational modeling in which we can take other successful countries as our models. We can imitate their applied strategies of uplifting the educational standards. We should convert our syllabuses to English from primary to higher to lead in the globe. “No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women by depriving them of education.”
What are the key competencies of a CEO as a leader that are vital? I believe the qualities of respect for your team, confidence, and grasp over your qualification play a significant role in shaping oneself as a perfect leader.
What is your stance about women empowerment in Pakistan? Women Empowerment is being critically debated worldwide. In Pakistan, we have merged cultural values with religious instructions which have worsened the issue. Our religion has already provided us with rights and freedom. “Feminism isn’t about making women strong. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.”
How do you motivate your team to work better? I inspire them by giving them credits for all their efforts and hard work. Every employee deserves recognition and credibility for their participation. Good leaders organize and align people around what the team needs to do.
What are the achievements that make you proud? Keeping my professional success aside, I think the way I have been balancing my personal life and family makes me feel satisfied and humble. For any working woman, it’s a real juggle but that is what makes achieving and maintaining balance all the more fruitful and meaningful and that is why I regard it as an achievement.
How do you counter stress from your life? The general consensus of all my family members and the members of my team is it that I vent it out. One of the key lessons I have learnt throughout my professional journey that the more successful you get; the more self-control you need to exercise.
Please metion some of your indelible readings of all time? I am fond of reading since my childhood. I have read all kinds of genres during the different phases of my life. I have loved fiction, for the longest time two of favorites were Gone With The Wind and Scarlett O’Hara O Hara.
Please quote a heartfelt message for the young generation of Pakistan. Please learn to climb the ladder to success; one step at a time; slowly and steadily. There are no shortcuts to success.
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“FEMINISM ISN’T ABOUT MAKING WOMEN STRONG. WOMEN ARE ALREADY STRONG. IT’S ABOUT CHANGING THE WAY THE WORLD PERCEIVES THAT STRENGTH.”
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SHAFIQ AKBAR CEO, Graana Group of Companies
Profile: Real estate has over the years established itself as the most favoured investment opportunity for both local and overseas Pakistanis. An estimated $15 billions were invested into the real estate sector last year solely by the overseas Pakistanis from around the world. Despite its immense potential, the real estate of Pakistan remains to be an un- recognized and un-regulated crucial component of the national economy. Property portals are today playing the role of a catalyst in the development of how transactions take place in the real estate sector. Technology and data are redefining everything from transparency of transaction to pricing dynamics to market segmentation. As the CEO of Graana Group of Companies, Shafiq Akbar has his focus set to transform and revolutionise the real estate business in Pakistan, and develop it along modern lines in order to make it the country’s most vibrant industry. His success story discusses the dynamics of the real estate business in Pakistan, he explains how he intends to give it a new face through digitization and research.
“FIRM FAITH IN ALLAH AND HIS WILL IS A GREAT STRESS RELIEVER FOR EVERY TRUE MUSLIM. WE FEEL STRESSED AND TENSE WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS WHICH IS SHOCKING, UNEXPECTED AND BEYOND OUR CONTROL.”
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CEO Club: What is your vision for Pakistan’s real estate industry? Shafiq Akbar: I follow the joint vision of the great poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal and Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Pakistan is blessed with the most diverse set of real estate driven economic opportunities. My vision is to unlock the economic potential of the real estate industry with state-of-the- art technological innovations and a fully integrated commercial experience for both the seller and the buyer. We have already made headway and created new opportunities for the real estate sector to grow in Pakistan.
What type of challenges are you coming across while attempting to revolutionise the real estate business in Pakistan? In its Doing Business 2019 report, covering 190 countries, World Bank has ranked Pakistan at 136 and India at 77. Both the countries have improved from their 2018 rankings with India jumping 23 spots and Pakistan only 11. Why is it that India with around 5 times more population is ahead? Ease of doing business is the new standard indicator for any foreign investor including overseas Pakistanis. Currently overseas Pakistanis remit a total of $20 billion via documented channels and reportedly almost $10 billion via other means. Whereas reports suggest that $300-$500 billion wealth of Pakistanis is parked abroad. Pakistan’s current nominal GDP is reported at approximately $283 billion. This is a decline from approximately $315 billion in 2018. You can well imagine the immense boost our economy can get if Pakistanis are incentivised to move even a part of their wealth back to Pakistan. Real estate can do this job if properly recognized and supported by the government. We are actively advocating with the government to make the current processes and requirements more transparent and more responsive to facilitate overseas Pakistanis to invest back in Pakistan.
What compels you to advocate a key role for real estate to lead economic growth? The value of global real estate was estimated at $280.6 trillion towards the end of 2017. This included commercial and residential properties and forestry and agricultural lands. In comparison the total value of all the gold ever mined is in the vicinity of $6 trillion. How is it possible that any country would not seriously consider real estate as an integral driver of economy? Countries that have realized this potential have experienced sustained economic growth. Take for example China that our government frequently refers to for economic good governance practices. China has historically leveraged the investment potential of its real estate sector to sustain and boost its GDP. In 2016, the adjusted value add of real estate to Chinese GDP was approximately 12%. This was preceded with an average of approximately 10.5 percent contribution between 2010 and 2015. The role of real estate in the revival and sustenance of economies is very real. Pakistan too can break its current GDP growth barriers with policy-making and regulation.
How do you think the real estate sector can help Pakistan project a promising image for investors? The answer lies in bringing transparency to the real estate sector. Studies show that highly transparent markets claim 75% of all commercial real estate investment globally. Pakistan can strive to compete for its share in global real estate investments with the introduction of clear laws and regulations, professional standards, transparent market practices and easy access to data. Currently we do not even have uniform rules and regulations for the buying and selling of property. The negative effects of this are visible in rampant litigation issues and associated costs of time and money. This issue alone is a red light for foreign
| 537 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | investors and a heavy deterrent even for local investors. Legislation in this regard can easily be done within six to eight months. All it takes is a realization of sheer economic losses that can be turned into billions in taxation and billions more in foreign direct investments.
In what perspective do you see the value of real estate business in Pakistan? As a matter of fact, very few of our people have an exact idea of the real worth and value of real estate business, globally as well as locally. Real estate comprises 90 percent of world’s total wealth. The global wealth in mid of 2018 was estimated at $317 trillion. At the end of 2017 the value of global real estate was estimated at $280.6 trillion. This underlines the deciding influence of real estate on the global economy. You may be surprised to know that the value of current commercial real estate inventory in Pakistan is estimated to be more than $250 billion that can be turned into a $1 trillion worth investment opportunity. Additionally, real estate development is always accompanied by massive industrial progress, which creates huge employment opportunities.
Currently, the manufacturing or industrial sector accounts for 20 per cent of our GDP. This 20 per cent share has created around 12 million jobs. You can very well imagine how many more jobs can be created if there is further industrial development in the country. We have the human resource and land required for industrial development. All we need is effective planning and proper infrastructure, which can be supplied by the real estate sector.
“I STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT A LARGE NUMBER OF PROBLEMS FACING OUR COUNTRY TODAY ARE THE PRODUCT OF FLAWED POLICIES. EVEN IF SOME WELL-JUDGED POLICIES WERE MADE, THEY COULD NOT BE PROPERLY IMPLEMENTED.”
You claim that you are attempting to give a new face to the real estate sector of Pakistan. How do you plan to do that? As a first step, we have launched an ambitious project of digitizing the whole country. In simple terms, we intend to computerize all the land record, so that with a single click, people may easily know the estimated price of any plot, house, and commercial or industrial unit anywhere in the country. Dedicated members of our team are vigorously working in different parts of the country. Much of our work in Islamabad has already been done.
It is an all-admitted fact that there can be no real economic growth without a significant amount of foreign and local investment. How can overseas Pakistanis be convinced to invest in Pakistan? In 2016 our neighbour India had hosted an investors’ conference branded ‘Make in India, which was attended by more than 2,500 foreign and around 8,000 local companies. Inspired and encouraged by the
| 538 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | government initiative, $222 billion investment pledges were tallied by the end of the conference. This can also happen in Pakistan.
Most overseas Pakistanis are willing to invest in their native country. All they require is safety, security and certainty. Unfortunately, they only find uncertainty, unpredictability, insecurity, chaos and confusion. There is a huge demand for real estate development in Pakistan. At least ten million houses are needed, in addition to a significantly large number of hospitals, hotels, shopping malls, parks and educational institutions in every nook and corner of the country. We have all the data with us and can easily tell which building is required in which part of the country. Overseas Pakistani investors are lined up, keen to invest in real estate as soon as they get the required guarantees and assurances.
You have talked much about the immense opportunities offered by real estate business in Pakistan. Do you think we have qualified human resources to run this business smoothly and efficiently? Qualified human resources are the most important aspect of any development plan. Next to agriculture, real estate is the second biggest employer in Pakistan and yet, it is the most ignored sector. There are no training programs for real estate agents. Real estate should be taught as a subject in our educational and vocational training institutions. We are constantly in touch with the leading higher education institutions across Pakistan that provide us their most talented graduates willing to take up real estate as a profession.
We are also conducting extensive research on real estate in Pakistan and plan to publish it for the benefit of all governmental and industrial stakeholders. It is high time that our lawmakers recognise the potential of real estate sector and effect the much needed legislation to reap the benefits of industrialization. Furthermore, if special courts are set up for settling real estate related issues, it will significantly reduce the load of the higher judiciary.
What prompted you to return to Pakistan when you were well settled in the UK? You are right in thinking that after 15 years in the United Kingdom and running well established businesses it was a big decision to move back to Pakistan. I attribute my success to the pursuit of a larger vision to give back to my community and my country.
Like most other Pakistanis, I also wish that Pakistan should progress and prosper to its fullest potential, so that our children and grandchildren may feel proud to live here. With all our honesty and sincerity, we are ready to lend a helping hand to the fulfilment of this cherished dream.
Everyone is inspired by someone in life. Who inspired you during your academic and professional career? Like every patriotic Pakistani, I am also inspired by Allama Iqbal and Mr. Jinnah. In fact, my admiration for Allama Iqbal encouraged me to set up the Iqbal Institute of Policy Studies which is a policy think tank. Moreover, I have always been greatly inspired by the legendary philanthropist, the angel of mercy, Abdul Sattar Edhi. My fourth ideal is, of course, my father, who always taught me to face the challenges of life with courage and determination.
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Everyone has his or her own definition of success. What’s yours? Success is generally measured in monetary terms, which may not be the right approach. Money is important and essential, but it cannot buy real happiness, which in my opinion is the name of inner satisfaction and peace, which comes with the idea that you are a source of some improvement and change in the lives of others.
What are your strategies for stress management? Firm faith in Allah and His will is a great stress reliever for every true Muslim. We feel stressed and tense when something happens which is shocking, unexpected and beyond our control. On all such occasions, if we remember that nothing can happen without the will of Allah, we can easily overcome our feelings of stress.
With your hectic routine, do you find it easy to maintain a work-life balance? If you believe that you can start a business and run it successfully, especially in the first three to five years, without disturbing your work life balance, you are mistaken. Successful business always demands sacrifices, especially when it is in its initial stages. Quite often, you have to ignore your family life, you may not wish to do it but this is unavoidable.
What type of books do you like to read? I love to read autobiographies of world renowned politicians, diplomats, professionals and entrepreneurs. They teach us how they were able to steer their boats out of the whirlpools of trials and tribulations.
You have mentioned Iqbal Institute of Policy Studies. Could you please tell us something more about it? I strongly believe that a large number of problems facing our country today are the product of flawed policies. Even if some well-judged policies were made, they could not be properly implemented. Under the auspices of our institute, we are spending a considerable amount of money to develop excellent policies for various sectors, keeping in view current trends and requirements.
What message would you like to give to our young generation? One third of our population, almost 70 million are between the ages of 15 and 35. These millions of youngsters are our greatest asset. In the light of my personal experiences and the results of global surveys, it is quite evident that Pakistani youth are amongst the most talented people in the world. All they need is a sense of direction and suitable opportunities. My message for them is that in these rough and tough times, instead of giving way to frustration and despair, they should remain positive and optimistic. They must have some higher aims for which they should be ready to put in their best efforts. At the same time, I would like to urge all stakeholders to effectively utilise the enormous energies and talents of our youngsters by showing them the right direction and by creating new opportunities for them through rapid industrial growth.
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“SUCCESS IS GENERALLY MEASURED IN MONETARY TERMS, WHICH MAY NOT BE THE RIGHT APPROACH. MONEY IS IMPORTANT AND ESSENTIAL, BUT IT CANNOT BUY REAL HAPPINESS, WHICH IN MY OPINION IS THE NAME OF INNER SATISFACTION AND PEACE, WHICH COMES WITH THE IDEA THAT YOU ARE A SOURCE OF SOME IMPROVEMENT AND CHANGE IN THE LIVES OF OTHERS.”
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SHAYAN AKBERALI CEO, Amreli Steels Limited
Profile: Shayan Akberali became the CEO of Amreli Steels in August 2017. He received a degree in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University, USA and worked at Lehman Brothers in NYC, before moving back to Pakistan and joining Amreli Steels. He had served the company as a Managing and Executive Director since his appointment in 2002.
“HUMAN RESOURCE IS THE GREATEST ASSET AND ONE OF THE BEST INVESTMENTS A COMPANY CAN MAKE. WITHOUT GOOD HUMAN CAPITAL, A COMPANY’S GROWTH WILL BE LIMITED.”
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CEO Club: What challenges have you faced in your time as the CEO of Amreli Steels and what new opportunities is the organisation currently exploring? Shayan Akberali: Doing business in Pakistan is proving to be extremely expensive and even our imported raw material is being taxed by the government. Without a strategic vision for the Iron and Steel sector, very little strategic development can be brought about by the private sector itself. We require the government to provide us with a level playing field, to ensure adequate law and order and to provide us with supportive infrastructure for our projects. This can go a long way in helping us expand our business and will lead to the overall economic development of the country. Currently, we are exploring new opportunities that should help us develop new sources of revenue generation for our nation. Our market share has increased tremendously in the last few years and we are aggressively spreading our footprint across the nation.
Can you please elaborate on some of the issues you face in terms of human resource? We as a nation are severely lacking when it comes to human capital. The manufacturing sector needs skilled and educated workers. Many of our workers lack basic education, which is the minimum pre requisite to be eligible for a job. We, at Amreli Steels, provide the necessary training required for our employees to increase their productivity at work; however this is not a substitute for the foundation of a good education. The government needs to invest in the educational infrastructure in the country in order to cultivate a skilled workforce.
How big is the workforce at Amreli Steels? Do you have special training sessions for your employees? We have a total of 1200 workers, out of which 300 are part of the management and executive function. We have a very robust in-house training program which continuously upgrades the skill matrix of our existing workforce through self-learning and sharing of experiences.
As the CEO, do you take the time to nurture your employees? One of my key responsibilities is to develop the HR function of the company, keeping in mind the best practices deployed in the market. We are poised to become an employer of choice and are working towards having one of the most progressive HR functions in the industry. A lot of my time is spent on strategic HR development, which works very closely with the HR&R committee of the Board.
What do you think are three qualities that a CEO must have to establish a successful organization? 1. Leadership 2. Adaptability to change 3. A very high level of E.Q.
What are your views on leadership? In my opinion leaders are born and not crafted. It is something that is naturally instilled in a person and which he or she further develops through sheer hard work and passion. With effective leadership, one can transform an organization to achieve great successes.
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How does your organization value human resource? Human resource is the greatest asset and one of the best investments a company can make. Without good human capital, a company’s growth will be limited and you will not have the intellectual fire power that modern organizations needs to meet the demanding requirements for continuous change and to adapt to a new reality.
Can you tell us something about your vision for Amreli Steels? My vision for Amreli Steels is that it should become the first million tons steel producer in Pakistan, with one of the most technologically advanced and cost efficient plants in the region. I would like Amreli Steels to become a Pakistani multinational company and I believe we are well on our way to achieving this vision.
According to several research studies, successful CEOs are emotionally intelligent. What do you think about this? Every human being has both EQ and IQ in varying proportions. I believe that one’s experiences and exposure to the world has an impact on a person’s IQ. At the same time, I believe that being emotionally intelligent is far more important for successful CEOs who lead progressive and successful organizations.
What is the importance of decision making in your position? As a CEO, you have to be a skilled decision maker. You have to be quick and accurate in your decision making; otherwise your team will become disengaged and demotivated. Our financial modeling and software technology are the sole drivers for the decisions that our management team takes. You cannot always be right and hence one should take decisions aggressively and ensure that the ratio of right to wrong decisions is 80:20 or lower.
Who is your inspiration? My father is my role model. I inherited my business skills and strategies from him. His whole life serves as an example for me in terms of values, mindset, and personality.
How do you deal with stress? Stress and hurdles are a constant part of life. My strategy for fighting stress is by balancing my personal and professional life. I take an hour off every day to exercise which refreshes and rejuvenates the mind.
How do you measure success? Making and enjoying wealth is just NOT a priority for me. I believe in innovation and being productive. Accomplishing the impossible is real success for me.
How do you define happiness? I believe happiness lies in being grateful and content for what the Almighty has blessed me with.
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Do you believe in women’s empowerment? Yes I do believe in women’s empowerment. Gender diversity is important for any company operating in the modern world. However, at the moment our head office is situated in Karachi’s SITE area, which makes it difficult for women to commute because of security issues. In future, we are planning to shift our head office to the center of the city which will make it much easier for women to work at Amreli Steels and help the company in achieving its goal for a diverse workforce.
What is your company doing for the community? We are a very environmentally conscious company and do our best to make the manufacturing process sustainable. For instance, we have developed a new water recycling system to counter the water scarcity issues in the city. You need a large quantity of water to manufacture steel, so we switched to a cost-effective solution that was environmentally friendly as well. We are also in the process of restoring an old heritage building in Karachi as a way to give back to the city in addition to our other CSR activities.
Are you optimistic about Pakistan and its youth? There are infinite sources of opportunities for business and industry in Pakistan. We need to educate our youth and explain to them to stop searching for ways to achieve instant success. There is no shortcut to success. It is a result of hard work, patience and perseverance. We as a nation must work with determination to improve the economy and welfare of Pakistan.
“LEADERS ARE BORN AND NOT CRAFTED. IT IS SOMETHING THAT IS NATURALLY INSTILLED IN A PERSON AND WHICH HE OR SHE FURTHER DEVELOPS THROUGH SHEER HARD WORK AND PASSION.”
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SHEIKH ABID MAHMOOD Chairman, Golden Pearl Cosmetics (Pvt) Ltd.
Profile: Almost everyone of us (young and old, male and female) is beauty conscious and wishes to appear more attractive and more charming. This instinctive love for beauty and beautification has given birth to the global cosmetics industry worth billions of dollars. Cosmetics may be synthetic or derived from natural sources, but they are all intended to enhance facial beauty and give a fresh look and sweet fragrance to the hair and the body as a whole. In Pakistan, social media and TV talk shows specifically meant for women have played a significant role in the rapid growth of beauty industry. Sheikh Abid Mehmood is the owner and Chairman of Golden Pearl Cosmetics which is a leading personal care products company of Pakistan with global outreach.
“EXPERIENCES OF LIFE HAVE TAUGHT ME THAT WHILE PURSUING HIGHER OBJECTIVES AND GOALS, ONE MUST IGNORE TRIVIAL THINGS. THERE WAS A TIME WHEN I USED TO GET ANGRY QUITE FREQUENTLY. BUT NOW THERE IS HARDLY ANYTHING THAT OUTRAGES OR IRRITATES ME.”
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CEO Club: Can you tell us a brief overview of golden pearl and its major products. Sheikh Abid Mahmood: The company was launched by me in 1997 with a small manufacturing unit in my home town Chichawatni. The business had a humble beginning, but over the years, by the Grace of Allah, it has made phenomenal progress, with the result that now it has become a trend setter in the whitening and beauty creams market of Pakistan. We have developed our own unique formulations to meet the particular requirements of Pakistani consumers. Recently, we have set up a large highly sophisticated manufacturing facility in Lahore to produce a wide range of personal care products. Golden Pearl Cosmetics has now firmly established itself as the brand leader with its exclusive range of beauty & skin care products. With “Beauty forever” as our theme, we are manufacturing skin care products with the hope of improving our customers’ personality and promoting beauty and personal care culture in the country. In addition to the Golden Pearl Beauty Cream which is our first and most famous product, we have more than 80 products which include several consumer items such as face washes, body sprays, whitening facial, soaps, anti-freckle-series and skin polishing lotions.
Your products are made in Pakistan while people in general prefer foreign brands and multi- national products. What strategies have you evolved for overcoming this challenge? There is no denying the fact that most people prefer foreign brands. But we are trying to change their mindset by introducing our locally made products which are of the highest quality and are by no means inferior to the ones produced by the multi-national companies. As a result, our products are now widely used in modern areas. For the further improvement of our products, we have recently set up a state-of-the-art factory spread over three acres of land in Lahore. It is equipped with the latest machinery and modern offices. Our main emphasis is on strengthening research and development along with quality control. We have special laboratories like Q.C lab, R&D lab and microbiological lab having scientific equipment and highly qualified experts. QC lab conducts analytical tests on raw materials as well as finished products using state of the art instruments like HPLC, UV (Spectrometry) and potentiometer. R&D lab is responsible for stability testing of products using pilot batch mixer and stability chamber.
How many jobs have been created by your organization? Currently, we have more than 900 people working with us. They include members of our sales teams present all over the country and those who are working in our factory in Lahore and our original plant in Chichawatni.
Would you like to share with us the vision and mission of Golden Pearl? At the time of Golden Pearl’s inception more than two decades ago, I had not anticipated that it would grow to its present level. Throughout these years, I have devoted all my time and energy to its development and most importantly, God has been very kind and merciful to me. Our vision is to provide and maintain the winning combination of quality, efficacy, affordability and continuous innovation in every aspect by implementing total quality management system at all levels.
What are your plans for your further growth in the coming five years? We have chalked out an ambitious plan for increasing the bulk of our exports. At present, we are sending our products to foreign countries through other distribution channels and there are no more
| 547 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | than ten countries in the world where our products have not yet reached. You can find them even in Israeli markets supplied by a distribution network in Jordan. We have planned to export our products directly to at least 40 countries in the next five years.
Which attributes can ensure the success of a person, especially in the business world? In the highly competitive business environment, success demands total commitment, proper time, honesty, hard work and fair play, with no compromise on the quality of the brand. It is commonly observed that every new product or brand is of good quality in the beginning. But as soon as it is firmly established in the market and becomes a source of earning a substantial amount of money for its manufacturers, they no longer remain quality conscious and try to cash in on the name and popularity of their brand, without realizing that it is the beginning of the end for them. We at Golden Pearl, despite the growing popularity of our products both in the national and international markets, have never shown any complacency in connection to quality.
Do you face any problem regarding the retention of your key employees? It’s indeed a herculean task to find talented, professional, committed and motivated employees in Pakistan. But once I find such persons, I don’t let them go so easily. In case, they wish to move to some other organization, I ask them why they want to do so. In most such situations, I try to fulfil the need which is compelling them to go somewhere else. The result of this policy is that I still have with me the first employee of our cosmetics factory, the first member of our sales team and the first distributor of our products.
What makes you happy? I feel happy when I am able to make others happy. He who tortures others can never get real happiness.
Who in your opinion is a good leader? A good leader takes everyone on board with him. He is genuinely sincere to his team members, understands their problems and makes earnest endeavours to solve them. He is well aware of their needs and tries to fulfil them.
Are you satisfied with the caliber of our young graduates? Unfortunately, our education is mainly degree oriented and theoretical. It does not tell the students how to lead a decent life, how to behave with others, how to speak to others, what to eat and how to eat. In other words, our educational system is deficient in practical skills, professional training, moral uplift and character building.
What’s your word of advice or message for our readers? If you are desirous of achieving your ambitions, you must work honestly and wholeheartedly, with utmost passion, devotion and dedication. If you possess these noble attributes, no impediment can block your way.
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“A GOOD LEADER TAKES EVERYONE ON BOARD WITH HIM. HE IS GENUINELY SINCERE TO HIS TEAM MEMBERS, UNDERSTANDS THEIR PROBLEMS AND MAKES EARNEST ENDEAVOURS TO SOLVE THEM. HE IS WELL AWARE OF THEIR NEEDS AND TRIES TO FULFIL THEM.”
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SHEIKH MAHMOOD IQBAL Chief Executive, Master Tiles & Ceramic Industries Limited
Profile: Sheikh Mahmood Iqbal did his gradudation B.Com from Hailery College of Commerce, Punjab University, Lahore. Later on he did M.B.A in International Businiess from Schiller International University Heidelberg - Germany. He set up Master Tiles & Ceramic Industries Ltd in 1982 and has now become Pakistan’s largest producer of world class high quality floor and wall tiles, sanitary fittings, bathroom and plastic accessories and other quality products. All these products, which are the result of continuous innovation, research and development, are unique for their reliability, durability, aesthetic beauty, cost effectiveness and matchless quality. With global ambitions, this family owned business is being vigorously guided by its highly energetic and religiously inspired CEO; who is fully convinced that future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
“COMMITMENT, HARD WORK AND DEDICATION ARE THE KEYS TO SUCCESS. IF YOU HAVE THEM, ALLAH IS SURE TO ASSIST YOU IN THE SUCCESSFUL ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR GOALS.”
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CEO Club: Briefly tell us the historical background of Master Tiles. S. Mahmood Iqbal: The business was launched in 1982 with the production of sanitary fittings and plastic accessories for bathrooms in technical collaboration with England and Germany. Later, in 1991, upon the completion of my studies in Germany, I returned to Pakistan and in the following year, we began manufacturing ceramic and porcelain tiles which were in high demand in the country. The production capacity of wall and floor tiles which in 1995, was 1,600 sqm per day was soon enhanced to 4,500 sqm to meet the growing demand. In 2002, with the financial backing of a big consortium, we launched a huge project worth 1.5 billion for the production of porcelain tiles for the first time in Pakistan. In 2012, Master Sanitary installs CNC Spindle Machines which led to the significant boosting of production and improvement in quality. In the following year that is, 2013, we replaced the Traditional Manual Mould casting process by state-of-the art Automatic Mould casting CNC machines which guaranteed 99 per cent production success. Since then, several notable advancements and innovations have taken place, resulting in the further enhancement of production and quality.
In your long and illustrious journey, you must have come across several challenges. Would you like to mention some of them? Immediately after the launch of the aforementioned project, we began facing cut throat competition from cheap Chinese imported tiles which began to be dumped into the Pakistani market in huge numbers, attracting all the local dealers and importers. We got in touch with the Commerce Ministry and National Tariff Commission and managed to get some duties imposed on imported tiles from China. But thousands of importers formed a cartel and somehow, managed to get stay orders from courts. Although a couple of years ago, we were able to convince the government to impose duty on imported Chinese tiles, yet, our fight with the cartel of importers still goes on. Then, there is another challenge in the form of smuggled Iranian tiles. If one container of Iranian tiles is documented, 20 containers are undocumented. Lack of co-operation and support from government is another major hindrance in the growth of tile manufacturing business in Pakistan. As a result, per day production capacity of tiles is much higher in countries like Vietnam, despite their smaller size and smaller population than ours. Thus, while Vietnam is producing 450,000square meters of tiles per day, Pakistan’s total per day tile production is only 50,000square meters. I often say that making quality tiles in Pakistan is much more difficult than making nuclear bomb.
How have you been able to cope with the challenges that you have just mentioned? While most other tile companies have been hard hit by the influx of Chinese and Iranian tiles, our business has remained largely unaffected and has been flourishing at a tremendous pace due to our heavy emphasis on quality, innovation, research and development and continuous adaptation to the latest technology. Being fully aware of the importance of quality HR, we make hefty investment in the continuous training of our employees. The wide range and variety of our products and our ever increasing production capacity have also contributed to our growth.
Where do you see your company in a few years time from now? Our current per day production capacity is 47,000 sqm, which will be doubled and redoubled as soon as our unit 3 and unit 4 become operational. We have a clearly defined futuristic vision by dint of which, in a few years time, we will be the world’s biggest tile producing company, with our per day production
| 551 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | enhanced to more than 600,000 sqm. It’s not a fantasy or a dream. We have the will, means and resources to achieve this grand ambition of ours, which will enable us to surpass the Italians, who are the current leaders in the ceramics industry. Beside this, having firmly established ourselves in the tile making business, we are now in the process of diversifying our activities by planning to venture out into cement, steel and fabric industries.
Is there any driving force or philosophy that guides you in your onward journey towards success? Being a Muslim, I have a firm conviction that Rizq or sustenance is provided by Allah, as promised by Him. We should work honestly and diligently not for the sake of earning money, but for making life worth living for our fellow human beings. The more we expand our business, the better we will be in a position to serve our countrymen. With this passion and zeal, we are marching forward towards our ultimate objective of becoming the largest company in the country as well as in the whole world.
To what extent does the government facilitate you in the growth of your business? Tile making is a highly complex and difficult process, requiring minerals like clay, whose ingredients may vary from area to area. For its success, this business needs technically skilled and professionally motivated people, who are ready to work around the clock with utmost devotion and dedication. There are thousands of tiles units in the country, but the number of tile manufacturing companies is less than ten, mainly due to the complexities and perplexities involved in this business. Human resource is a big challenge and we are constantly in touch with the country’s top universities for hiring the most skilled engineers, who are given six months training, after which they are sent to work in different units and departments in accordance with their expertise. Despite all these challenges and difficulties, we never get any real support or encouragement from the government side. We only wish that if government is unable or unwilling to lend us a helping hand, at least, it should not create disturbances or hindrances for us.
How would you like to define leadership? The best example of leadership in the whole human history is the one set by Prophet Muhammad (SAW). As we study his character from this particular angle, we observe that one of his most prominent leadership qualities was communication. In a very effective manner, he communicated Allah’s message to his pious companions known as Sahaba, who conveyed this message to the whole world. Commitment is another essential attribute of a good leader. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, people generally make commitments and then, do not honour their commitments. Furthermore, good leaders has a very strong sense of ownership, due to which, they undertake bold initiatives and feel themselves responsible for the consequences of their actions. Being the owner of business is one thing, while having a sense of ownership is something else.
How much importance do you attach to emotional maturity for the success of a CEO? There is no denying the fact that the CEO should be an excellent reader of human emotions and should know how to act and react in different situations with a calm and composed face. Driving everyone with the same stick often proves counterproductive. The task of decision making may seem difficult in the beginning. But with the widening of experience, it becomes easier.
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Whom do you regard as your role model? My role model is my father Sheikh Muhammad Tufail, who passed away in 2002. In spite of the fact that he was an uneducated person, he was a man of firm commitment, passion and hard work. Luckily, I inherited all these noble virtues from him and for the last 27 years, I have been following a tough routine, coming to office at 9 in the morning and going back at 8 at night. It takes me one hour to reach office and another hour to return home. During these 2 hours while I am travelling, I keep myself busy remembering Allah in the form of Tasbeeh, which keeps me motivated and inspired. I wish to die while working and my unwavering passion for work is the main source of my energy.
What strategies have you evolved for anger management? Several nears in practical professional life have taught me how to control and express anger. Experience has taught me that everyone is not capable of facing angry outbursts. Thus, when I feel that someone may not be in a position to swallow the barrage of my angry remarks, I communicate my feelings to him indirectly through someone else.
How would you like to define happiness and success? Commitment, hard work and dedication are the keys to success. If you have them, Allah is sure to assist you in the successful achievement of your goals. The company of my children is always a source of great joy for me.
Are you optimistic about Pakistan’s future? I firmly believe that with the coming into power of PTI, the country is back on track. PM Khan and his team are far more far sighted than the previous rulers. I am confident that they would be able to steer our country out of its current economic problems.
“BEING A MUSLIM, I HAVE A FIRM CONVICTION THAT RIZQ OR SUSTENANCE IS PROVIDED BY ALLAH, AS PROMISED BY HIM. WE SHOULD WORK HONESTLY AND DILIGENTLY NOT FOR THE SAKE OF EARNING MONEY, BUT FOR MAKING LIFE WORTH LIVING FOR OUR FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS.”
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SHOAIB MUKHTAR Director, Sadaqat Limited & Sadaqat Global limted UK
Profile: The Sadaqat Group of Companies is our global venture that encompasses five different companies. These are: 1. Sadaqat Limited (Pakistan) 2. Sadaqat Global Limited (based in UK) 3. Sleepworld Australia (based in Australia) 4. Sleepworld USA (based in USA) 5. KHAS – which is a domestic retail chain Sadaqat have more than 10,000 employees working throughout the group. Business is family-run and was started in 1951 in Chiniot by my father, Mr. Mukhtar Ahmed. We started off operations, back then, with a weaving unit. Later, in 1988, we moved the business to Faisalabad and put up a weaving unit there. In 2005, we established this current unit and, since then, we have been expanding into other sectors too. We have the honor of being the largest home textile exporters of Pakistan that sell to the UK market. We now do e-commerce and merchandizing too. Our team strength in the United Kingdom has now crossed 100 employees. Since this model has proven to be quite successful in UK, we have implemented the same in US and Australia as well.
“QUAID-E-AZAM IS AND SHOULD BE AN INSPIRATION TO EVERYONE. AND, OF COURSE, OUR BELOVED PROPHET MOHAMMAD (PBUH).”
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CEO Club: Please tell us what led your father to establish such a business in Chiniot back in the 1950s? Shoaib Mukhtar: Our family migrated to Pakistan from India. We were based in Calcutta. Back then, we were in the shoe-business and we were the first ones to bring, the now famous shoe brand, Bata into the subcontinent. The owner of Bata, at the time, even mentioned my grandfather’s name in his autobiography. Our eldest uncle’s family and heirs still reside in Calcutta and look after the business there. Before partition, we had offices in Rangoon, Karachi, Dhaka and Bombay. Although we migrated to Karachi but we put up our first unit, in Pakistan, in Chiniot. Personally, I’ve always viewed that as a mistake because we could have set up a unit in Karachi or even Faisalabad, initially, our pace of growth would have been much faster. But, since we expanded the business and set up these units in Faisalabad, we have been growing steadily, Alhamdulillah.
What is your annual rate of growth since 2005? It varies. With changing political and economic conditions there are always dips and peaks. But as a group we have been growing, Alhamdulillah, at an average rate of 15 – 20 percent per annum. In fact, last year was especially good for us as we saw a phenomenal 40 percent growth rate in sales of Sadaqat Limited.
What is the secret to that kind of growth, if you’d like to share? Obviously, the first and foremost reason is a special blessing from the All Mighty Allah. But we have also worked tremendously on team building and our team now works as a cohesive whole and achieves its targets with grace, dedication and honesty. We have also invested heavily into innovation and R&D so that our products surpass their competition in terms of quality and variety.
How many siblings are you all? We are four brothers. My eldest brother is Khurram Mukhtar who also serves as the Chairman of the Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) as well as the Chairman of the All Pakistan Exporters Association. Additionally, he is the CEO of Sadaqat Limited. My second brother is Hamid Mukhtar who looks after all the sourcing aspects of the group. Awais Mukhtar manages our retail brand – Khas – exclusively because since its inception, the brand has grown significantly and requires keen oversight. I’m the youngest brother and I look after all the sales and production alongside my eldest brother; we work very closely. I also look after our UK company, Sadaqat Global, as its CEO.
What is leadership, in your opinion? In my opinion, leadership is the art of taking the initiative and convincing people to achieve one shared goal.
How do you wish to improve as a leader? I wish I could invest even more dedication into my team and our employees. I think that’s the main thing. If my team is mentally prepared to strive for and achieve one goal, nothing like it.
What are the three key challenges for a CEO working in Pakistan? I think the biggest challenge is finding human resource with adequate and the right kind of education
| 555 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | and training needed to fulfil the required goals. The second biggest challenge is in terms of government policies and how to interface with the State correctly in order to achieve mutual benefit. And third is, very unfortunately and it pains me to admit this, Pakistan’s perception in the world. We had a meeting with the honorable Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs Mr. Asad Umer in which we informed him that Pakistan needs to improve its perception worldwide. People in other countries think that Pakistan is some kind of war-torn country. The only way such notions are dispelled is when the same people visit us and see for themselves; then they love it. We invited the CEO of the biggest retailers in the world – Primark – to Pakistan and he thoroughly enjoyed his stay in Lahore. They like the infrastructure, the human resource availability and the potential for conducting business in Pakistan. Another point that I would like to mention here is that we need to build sourcing offices in Pakistan. Currently, we are dependent on Bangladesh and India because they have a highly developed sourcing infrastructure. Pakistan has all the necessary ingredients to build a similar, if not superior sourcing eco-system – but government attention and good policies are required to make this dream a reality.
“LEADERSHIP IS THE ART OF TAKING THE INITIATIVE AND CONVINCING PEOPLE TO ACHIEVE ONE SHARED GOAL.”
How does a company develop a winning team? First and foremost, a company needs to take care of its employees – both in terms of facilities and finances. We are offering medical insurance to our employees which gives them some satisfaction that they will be able to cope with any emergency circumstances, should such a need arise. Education and training courses are also a big part of that equation. We send our managers around the world on trainings and conferences in order to increase their understanding and exposure. That also contributes to a lot of networking opportunities during such sessions.
What is your stance on the empowerment of women? I am a big supporter of women empowerment. Thankfully, since we are in the export sector, even sector-organizations that are resistant to such changes are compelled by international customers and clients to increase women representation in the workforce. Currently, we have over 500 women working at our organization and this number continues to grow by between 5 and 10 percent annually. Even our Lab In charge is a lady who has done wonders for our company; our lab is one of the first accredited by the Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC).
Having said that, I feel that the empowerment of women isn’t just a management function – we have no magic wand that we will wave in the air and women will be empowered. In a city like Faisalabad, women themselves feel great reluctance in coming out to work. I think both sides need to take strides in equal measure if true empowerment is to be achieved. We are doing the best that we can and we
| 556 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | hope that our efforts will bear fruit and result in a larger cultural change, both in our sector and in our society.
Any achievement that you are personally very proud of? If the benchmark of success is to get to a stage of business excellence where you become a market leader in your segment then I think we have Alhamdulillah achieved that. I am also very proud of the fact that I am President of an organization named YEO (Young Entrepreneurs Organization) in Faisalabad that mentors and fosters entrepreneurship amongst youngsters in the city. We already have 60 members in that organization, some even from Lahore, and it is growing nicely.
What is the toughest decision that you have made in your life? Although this is somewhat personal, but when I joined this business, we were passing through very tough times in 1997-98. In 1994, we had lost a significant amount of money in Bangladesh – our containers were auctioned and other than that we were putting up a plant and our machines were mis-purchased. At the time, my plan was to go abroad and study but I had to sacrifice those dreams and join the company. Upon reflection, now, I think I am more successful now than I would have been had I followed my original plan.
Who has been your inspiration in life? I think Quaid-e-Azam is and should be an inspiration to everyone. And, of course, our beloved Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). I even named my son Muhammad.
Where do you see Sadaqat Group five years down the road? Our vision is to see Sadaqat Group grow to become the largest exporter of Home Textiles from Pakistan and later to diversify our portfolio. We have already made a plan for 2020 which envisages us surpassing the 300 million dollars export barrier and bringing our brand Khas to more than 100 stores.
“I THINK THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IS FINDING HUMAN RESOURCE WITH ADEQUATE AND THE RIGHT KIND OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING NEEDED TO FULFIL THE REQUIRED GOALS.”
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SYED AMIR ALI President & CEO, BankIslami Pakistan Limited
Profile: Founded in 2006, BankIslami is Pakistan’s second largest Islamic Bank whereas holding twelfth position in the banking industry foot print wise. It offers full suite of shariah compliant banking products viz. corporate, commercial, SME, retail banking, investment banking, consumer banking and trade finance products. With the merger of Ex-KASB in 2015, all its 104 branches had become part of BankIslami’s branch network and now the Bank is operating with 330 branches in 93 cities across the country. The following is an exclusive interview with its President & CEO Syed Amir Ali, whose sole mission of life is to promote the concept of Islamic Banking. He is an experienced banker who has repeatedly exhibited his unique ability to develop and lead the team of professionals to new levels of success in a highly competitive financial market environment.
“OPTIMISM DOESN’T MEAN DOING NOTHING AND JUST DREAMING THAT EVERYTHING WOULD TURN OUT TO BE IN YOUR FAVOUR. INSTEAD, IT IS A PRACTICAL AND PRAGMATIC CONCEPT THAT ENABLES YOU TO LOOK AT THE POSITIVE SIDE OF EVERYTHING AND EVERY PERSON.”
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CEO Club: Briefly share with us the details of your academic and professional career. Syed Amir Ali: I am a Chartered Accountant by profession from Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) and Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales (ICAEW) and completed chartered accountancy with distinction and secured gold medal from ICAP. I am also a Chartered Certified Accountant from Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) from the CFA Institute of USA. Continuing my professional journey, I have also secured another gold medal in MBA (Management) from Hamdard University. Besides these professional qualifications, I am also a commerce and law graduate. In 2002, I ventured into the professional world by joining the finance department of Pakistan Refinery Ltd., where I stayed for the next four years. Then, all of a sudden in 2006, driven by a strong passion for using my faculties for the promotion of Islamic Banking, I joined the corporate banking department of Meezan Bank Ltd., which was at that time a very small bank with just 30 branches. For the next 12 years, I remained associated with it, first as Executive Vice President (EVP) and then, as Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) and witnessed its phenomenal growth till last year, when it was declared as the best bank of Pakistan. I could easily have stayed there for a much longer period with much better prospects for myself. But I decided to offer my services to BankIslami which at that time was passing through a challenging period, especially since its merger with KASB in 2015. As life is all about challenges, I took up that challenge thinking that Allah might have chosen me for this task and now I feel that by the Grace of Allah, things are moving in the right direction.
How do you make sure that the core values enshrined in your mission and vision statements are practically inculcated into your employees? To achieve this objective, we regularly hold town hall meetings attended by all staff members who are reminded of our core values and the importance of practically demonstrating them. Of course, at the top of our core values is Shariah compliance, for which the organization was founded and for which it exists. There can be no compromise on it under any circumstances. Then comes customer focus, because no organization can exist or survive without customers. Our employees are repeatedly instructed to provide accurate and exact information to the customers in clear and unambiguous terms to win their confidence and to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding. In addition to integrity, honesty, humility and team work, there is much emphasis on innovation, to make the organization more effective and more efficient. For this purpose, we have launched one touch banking as a product, enabling customers to do any transaction such as cash withdrawal, chequebook issuance or pay order issuance in any BankIslami branch, even if they are not carrying Debit Card, ATM Card or Chequebook.
As you have just pointed out that yours is a customer focus organization, what strategies have you evolved for the complete satisfaction of your potential customers? There are primarily two types of customers: those who are only interested in general banking transactions such as cash deposits and cash withdrawals; and those who want to deposit their savings in the bank for a longer period, hoping to get profit on regular basis. We have taken effective steps for catering to the needs of both types of customers. Unlike other banks, all our general banking services such as on-line transfer of money are absolutely free of cost. For the benefit of long term investors, we have launched monthly profit schemes for a period of one year and 3 years with highest rates. In the one year scheme, the expected return is around 9.5 per cent whereas it is around 10.25 per cent in the 3-year scheme. We are the pioneer in banking industry, both conventional and Islamic banks, to have launched such schemes
| 559 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | with the highest rates.
What mechanism have you evolved for making sure that your products are fully Shariah compliant? We have a Shariah Board headed by the renowned scholar Mufti Irshad Ahmad Aijaz, who is doing PhD in Islamic Finance, besides having vast religious knowledge. He also holds chairmanship of Shariah Advisory Committee of SBP. The Board also includes Mufti Muhammad Hussain and Mufti Javed Ahmad. Besides Shariah Board, we also have Shariah Compliance Department and Shariah Advisory Department.
Would you like to explain the concept of Islamic Banking and Shariah Compliance in simple words? Among all religions of the world, Islam is the simplest and easiest. Allah Himself says that Islam has been made easy for those who want to follow it. Everything in the world is Halal or permissible, with the exception of those things which have been specifically declared Haram or prohibited by the Shariah. The main thing that distinguishes Islamic Banking from conventional banking is the elimination of interest and unethical practices. Any transaction which is interest-free and does not involve fraud or deception, is Shariah compliant, whether it is banking, real estate or shares business. Islam tells us to be honest and upright while selling our products and the customer should be fully aware of the merits and demerits of whatever he is buying.
Which attributes do you think are necessary for a person to become a genuine leader? The first and foremost attribute of a genuine leader is that he has a well-defined vision, which enables him to foresee not just in near future but also in far future. Secondly, he frankly shares his vision with his team members and thus takes them into confidence about what he wants to achieve in the times to come as a leader of his organization. Besides being a visionary, he is an excellent planner and smart strategist and thus, prepares short term and long term plans for the implementation of his vision with the active support and co-operation of his team members. He motivates them at every step by always leading from the front and walking the talk.
Being the CEO of a leading commercial organization, you must be facing several challenges. Would you like to mention some of them? I believe that most of the challenges are the product of your own mind. If you think that something is difficult, it becomes difficult. In the same way, if something seems easy to you, it will become easy. For 20 years, China continued to grow at a double digit rate due to its developing economy. But as soon as its economy became developed, growth rate slowed down. Pakistan also has a developing economy, which surely has some challenges, but at the same time, it offers phenomenal opportunities. There is a huge scope for improvement and innovative initiatives in the agriculture, manufacturing, services and IT sectors. Despite a few challenges, Pakistan’s developing economy offers unlimited opportunities to the local as well as foreign investors and entrepreneurs. The incredibly large human and material resources of Pakistan which still lie unexplored, untapped and unutilized, make it an ideal land of opportunity.
What’s your over all assessment of our current economic condition? The only factor which is impeding our economic growth is the current account deficit. Other than that,
| 560 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | all other economic indicators are relatively positive. This deficit can be reduced by boosting our exports and increasing interest rate. This is exactly what our present government is trying to do. I believe that after a couple of difficult years, we are going to have a stable and booming economy.
Are you in favour of women empowerment? Women empowerment is the need of the hour, whether one likes it or not. If 50 per cent work force of a country is inactive, it cannot hope to have a flourishing economy, capable of competing with other economies of the world. In this connection, the basic responsibility lies on parents to train and groom their daughters in such a way that they are able to make positive contribution to the country’s economy upon the completion of their education.
Is there any achievement of yours that makes you feel proud? I am of the view that instead of making you proud, achievements should make you humble and thankful to Allah. There came several such moments in my life when I felt happy and thanked Allah. For instance, I won gold medal on completing CA and then again on doing MBA. Later, when I joined Pakistan Refinery, I got a job in the finance department which at that time was regarded as the worst department of that organization. But within a short time, it came to be known as the best department. Another major milestone in my life came when I joined Meezan Bank, which at that time a very small bank. But then came a moment when it became Pakistan’s largest Islamic bank and was declared Pakistan’s best bank in 2018.
Could you please mention some of the toughest decisions of your professional career? I took a number of decisions which were initially opposed by my near and dear ones. But afterwards, they proved to be extremely successful. First of all, contrary to the desires of my father who wanted me to become a doctor, I decided to become a Chartered Accountant and achieved the target with distinction within the stipulated time just at the age of 23. Leaving a well-paid job in Pakistan Refinery and joining Meezan Bank just for the sake of promoting Islamic banking was another tough decision, which at that time was described by most of my friends as a suicidal step. But I persisted and now, I am the CEO & President of BankIslami which is Pakistan’s second largest Islamic Bank. Bidding farewell to Meezan Bank at the height of my career and joining the relatively smaller BankIslami was another tough decision. But I took it and hopefully, it too would prove correct in the times to come.
How would you like to define happiness in your own words? You can never be happy if you alone are happy while those who are around you are sad and depressed. Real happiness comes when you share your happiness with others. In other words, true happiness can be savoured not by getting gifts from others but by giving gifts to them.
What in your opinion is real optimism? Optimism doesn’t mean doing nothing and just dreaming that everything would turn out to be in your favour. An optimistic person knows that no one is perfect and therefore, whenever he meets someone, he tries to explore what is good and positive in him and builds his relation on this information. This type of relationship is more sustainable than the one in which both parties are in search of each other’s weak points.
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SYED SALMAN ALI CEO, AAA Facility Management (Pvt.) Ltd
Profile: Syed Salman Ali is the Founder &CEO of AAA Facility Management Pvt Ltd., Director of AAA Partnership Pvt Ltd; Director of Costveyors Pvt Ltd. and Founder & CEO of Qualitas Systems. Syed Salman Ali is a multifaceted persona with numerous innate abilities coupled with strong acumen towards Corporate Governance and Leadership. His strong leadership skills, determination, target orientation, trust worthiness, problem solving and decision making, sincerity, honesty and humility earned him the reputation of a proven successful CEO. He has been and is a mentor, trainer, counselor, motivator and a visionary professional. In his foremost capacity as a CEO, he is well considered as a high-graded professional with a sheer sense of credibility towards his clients, colleagues, and employees. He believes on professional grooming of employees and delegation of power. He has far-sighted vision of company’s goal and invests his best to achieve the same with sustainable growth. He is highly focused on Customer Satisfaction with a vivid and concrete belief in the emblem that ‘Customer is always right’. He seems all open to positive criticism and accepts his shortcomings with problem solving approach; hard on problems and not on people. He is an avid reader and well informed about the contemporary needs of the industry and profession. Syed Salman Ali is a senior professional and a dynamic entrepreneur and as such enjoying in the business as CEO for last 26 years with overall corporate experience of 35 years. During this tenure, he acquired extensive experience in Facility Management, Engineering Designs, Technical Services, R&D, Operations & Maintenance, Contract Management, Feasibility Reports, Financial Management, HR Management, Project Management, Process Re-Engineering, Energy Conservation, Consultant for Quality, Environment, Occupational Health & Safety, Social Accountability and as Consulting Engineer. Salman holds a Masters’ in Business Administration and a Bachelors’ in Chemical Engineering.
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CEO Club: Where do you see Pakistan right now and what is your take on the suffering economy and how would you turn around the fate of the country? Syed Salman Ali: I agree with the fact that Pakistan is undergoing a difficult phase; but at the same time hopeful for the bright future of Pakistan and strongly believe that nations take time to develop. Our country is only 70 years old; we are transforming our country into a nation and entering into a gateway to success. I have been a professional for the last 35 years; seen various governments and economic systems, today I am comfortable knowing that we are on the right path.Pakistan is an immensely strong country in terms of resources. We are the 6th largest country in terms of population; we are atomic power and have technological development.I think we are taking the right steps for the development of economy and I foresee next 2-3 years as tough because right now we are in the correction phase. I am not associated with any political party but for the betterment of Pakistan, I support the present government and the steps that are being taken. It is my firm belief that they canbring results in a short span of time. We have to pay the cost of correction; right now we are converting black economy into white economy.We need to improve our justice system since the lack of justice has caused our previous failures. Corruption is a major problem and due to this investors’ confidence seems badly affected. Our foremost need is industrialization in this country; since growth of economy depends on it. To bring this into effect; we need local entrepreneurs to invest in utilities. Energy production at affordable cost is the first step toward economic growth. We also need to improve our education and health systems along with justice and law & order system for the progression of this nation. The present government is heading in the right direction; I hope they would succeed.
Are you happy with the graduates being produced, what is your take on our overly commercialized education system? These are misconceptions; I keep hearing that we do not have a good education system, I do not agree. We have a good system but it is not sufficient to ensure the sustainability towards the development of a nation. Our professional institutes are producing quality graduates, in the field of engineering, business, law and medicine; they are at par with international standards.Our professionals are very successful while serving in foreign countries like USA, Canada, UK and Australia. The major problem is deterioration in quality of education especially in government school for last three decades. This duality in our education system has generated large scale disparity in our society amidst rich and poor. The poor cluster of our society cannot afford Private schools and they are bound to acquire education through government owned institution that compromise on quality of education. We are in dire need of such an education system that ensures ‘EDUCATION FOR ALL AT ONE STANDARD’; without doing this, it seems difficult perhaps even improbable to exhibit ourselves as a nation.
In a nutshell please share AAA Facility Management (Pvt.) Ltd.’s journey with us since its inception to its current status today and the challenges you have had to face? The journey of AAA FM stared in 2007 from Karachi and now expended to 32 cities of Pakistan; we have worked very hard to introduce Facility Management Profession and secured leadingposition among FM Companies in Pakistan. People thoughts that our business only relates with their buildings but we prove that we serve for their comfort at workplace. We have also faced the industry
| 563 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | diversification challenges but with our dedication and sincerity we are providing services to varied corporate and industrial sectors as Financial Institution, Pharmaceuticals, Oil & Gas Industry, Multinational Companies, Commercial Buildings, Shopping Malls and Other Corporate Offices.
What are the key challenges that you have faced on your journey as an entrepreneur? I belong to a salaried class family with no business background, but at the same time I believed in my potential and it was my aim to lead an enterprise. Let me share the success story; I started my career as a professional engineer and continued it till 1990 till the position of Project Manager and then realized that I had the capability, capacity and wish to become an entrepreneur. I left the job and started struggling as business partner to practice as Management Consultant till 1993. My success story started after1993 when I established my own company as CEO and as such involved in preparation of feasibility reports, financial plans/modeling, company formation and the establishment of industrial projects in the field of textile, leather, engineering, food, and sugar, petrochemical and commercial buildings. I worked very hard and faced enormous challenges during that time but Allah blessed me with success in a short span of time and stabilized me as an entrepreneur. Breakthrough of my career started since 1997 with the establishment of Qualitas Systems; one of the pioneer companies in the field of management systems certification for quality management, environmental management, occupational health & safety management and social accountability. Qualitas imparted consultancy and training to a large clientele of around 600 reputed companiesincluding NRL, PARCO, PSO, PICT, a unit of Atomic Energy Commission, SNGPL, Unilever etc. Qualitas brought local organizations to implement their management systems at par to international standards. In year 2007, I joined Adnan Asdar & Associates, a leading project and construction Management Consultants and established AAA Facility Management Pvt. Ltd as founder & CEO. I also hold the position of director for AAA Partnership Pvt. Ltd and Costveyors Pvt. Ltd. All my professional struggle has been well supported by my winning team who are like my family; I have two families, one at work and one at home.
What is the attitude in Pakistan towards Facility Management and its benefits? Due to competitive business environment; every organization need specialists for carrying out work that needs expertise, specialization and cost optimization,thus now focusing on their core business and outsourcing their support functions of facility managements comprising of Operations & Maintenance Services, Admin Support Services, renovation and Outsourcing of their HR Staff to the professionals FM Companies.
What are your core values of AAA Facility Management Pvt. Ltd? First, we need to provide efficient, reliable and cost effective solutions to our clients with the support of the following principles; · Honesty · Dedication · Sincerity Our field requires a lot of maintenance and these principles are vital, we need our clients to have utmost confidence in our name and in our capabilities to take care of their facility and provide them an environment that promotes efficiency and productivity. Our first rule is “Proactive Maintenance
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Management rather than Reactive Maintenance”. Our main focus is energy conservation and enhancing efficiency and cost optimization through renewable energy.
Since you mentioned energy conservation how do you enlighten your clients and customers? Our main area of focus is energy conservation; if we maintain our equipment by carrying out preventive maintenance in a timely manner, we avoid breakdowns; 10-20 percent energy is lost when equipmentis not properly and timely serviced. If we create this awareness on a national level and save the non-productive wastage of energy, then the results will be enormously beneficial. Similarly, we need to focus on renewable energy (green energy). We are working on green buildings, energy conservation and sustainable buildings. For instance if you travel to Dubai, one thought that generally comes in mind continuously is “How did the desert become so green?” Dubai managed to do so by implementing the concept of renewable energy. They use their waste; recycle it and then use it to create greenery. As a result of this change in their environment, climatic changes also took place. So my question is why are we wasting our water? It can be saved and used to produce the same effect.
What competencies do you look for during HR recruitment? Our company policy is to generally hire fresh graduates. So we can train and develop them according to our specific needs. I would like our youngsters to identify their objectives, clear their concepts and have the right attitude when they come to an organization.
What is leadership to you and what are the characteristics of a good leader? One of the most important characteristic of a successful/good leader is that his decision making skills need to be strong; in any leader and he/she should try and make the right decisions and not feel regret if they go wrong he/she should be a good listener and he/she should possess a positive attitude, negating negativity. A good leader converts weaknesses into strengths; speaking as the leader and CEO of this organization I can tell you that every individual has different bright and grey areas in his/her personality. My job is to focus on the positive side and turn it into success; to reduce the grey area by providing motivation and a good work environment.Consultation is another very important aspect; there should always be freedom to communicate with people irrespective of their position within organization.
Where do you see AAA Facility Management five years down the road? The next 5 years will be the game changer at Pakistan and I foresee a bright future; we just need to capitalize the opportunities and resources. The existing development programs including CPEC will play a vital role to boost our economy, industrialization and thus FM Industry in Pakistan and we are fully geared up to capture and to serve the nation.
Any achievements that you are proud of? To me the biggest achievement for any individual is the opportunity to serve and take care for his/ her parents. On the personal side another big achievement is to be able to raise your children to be socially and morally responsible global citizens. I am very grateful to Almighty Allah for giving me the
| 565 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | opportunity to serve my parents in a very befitting manner. I am also highly grateful to Almighty to bless me with children who are highly educated and righteous in their character.My son has recently joined me after completing his Masters in Facility Management. As a CEO, my organization is well supported with a cohesive Team of people who all are AAA FM, great team.
Who is your inspiration/role model? The Holy Prophet (PBUH) is a great inspiration, after him the two people who inspired me the most are Hazrat Umar Farooq (RA) and Hazrat Ali (RA). I feel immense respect and love for these two individuals and I try to follow their teachings. In today’s world the one person who is my role model is Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the one person I admire the most is my late father; I don’t have words to describe and praise him. He has always been my role Model and he is who groomed me to what I am today. May Allah bless him Janat-ul-Firdous.
How do you define success? Happiness; happiness comes from patience and contentment. If you are contented, you are successful.
How do you manage your anger? If you start extending your trust to others life will become easier.
What are your reading habits any books that you would like to recommend? I read 3-4 hours on daily basis and I would recommend to people to read a variety of subjects that will enable them to identify their strengths and weaknesses and evolve into a better version of their self.
What are the three attributes you found common amongst developed countries during your travels around the world? · Honesty · Emphasis on education and HR development · Equal opportunities for women at workplace and in society
A message of optimism/hope that you would like to give to our upcoming CEO’s and leaders? For me there should be no compromise on Quality education; our youngsters need to focus on completing their education and should have ambition to become something. They need to have clear objectives and most importantly they should dream their life and prepare a plan and work hard to achieve their objectives and dreams. In the last; I will strongly recommend the upcoming CEOs & successful professionals to study & learn the success stories of achievers & their role models.
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“A GOOD LEADER CONVERTS WEAKNESSES INTO STRENGTHS; SPEAKING AS THE LEADER AND CEO OF THIS ORGANIZATION I CAN TELL YOU THAT EVERY INDIVIDUAL HAS DIFFERENT BRIGHT AND GREY AREAS IN HIS/HER PERSONALITY.”
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SYED WAQAS JAFRI CE, Dar-e-Arqam Schools
Profile: Being submissive and humble to the will of Almighty ALLAH, we relate this institution to the very first educational centre of Islam, “Dar-e-Arqam” established at Hazrat Arqam Bin Arqam’s house in the plains of Koh-e- Safa by Hazrat Muhammad (S.A.W). The Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) gets his believers gathered in a small house and laid the foundation of rich civilization that produced marvelous blessings and countless human role models. Contrary to the present Soulless system of education based on aimless, materialistic and secular approach, the edifice of Dar-e-Arqam System of education is constructed with the bricks, stones and cement of Faith, Sincerity and Sublime Aims and is beautified with active modern scientific ideas about education to equip the innocent saplings of the future tree, with the latest branches of learning so that they can converse with the teachings of the Holy Quran and Sunnah side by side with the modern education, and when grown up can raise the status of “Ummah” and take them out of the abyss of darkness. The first Dar-e-Arqam School was established in Sargodha in 1991. Then, like minded people gathered and spread the rays of knowledge in a very short time. These schools are progressing and increasing in number tremendously. Right now, The Dar-e-Arqam school is one of the largest growing school systems with more than 170,000 students and more than 660 branches all over Pakistan. This appreciation and recognition by the society is more because of its unique way of imparting modern education with Islamic perspective. Alhamdulillah, many achievements have been made so far in the different areas of curricular and co-curricular activity. The journey towards excellence is on very rapidly and every achievement is a beacon of light and source of inspiration. The practical problems are no doubt there but they don’t come in the way of our enthusiastic and strict and dedicated team of selfless and honest workers. These challenges are like opportunities for us and gives us guidance and tips for future planning.
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CEO Club: With the country sliding back into joblessness crisis and a high unemployment rate, how do you think to fix this problem and turnaround the economy? Syed Waqas Jafri: Policy makers have to analyze Pakistan potential to handle this issue, we cannot claim to go forward in industry which obviously is not a strong foot of us a as compare to our strength in the field of providing skill labor to local market and world at large. We need to make our youth bulge skillful through vocational training and education, but we could not perform well in this field in the past which resulted into such an alarming situation of unemployment, joblessness which eventually triggered national integrity and harmony. Singapore had faced more or less same crisis in the late 1960s and they could only enabled towards development through a successful shift to skill labor to them and world as well.
Do you believe that good governance can help us to wrestle with this dilemma? What is your take on good governance? Pakistan is going through number of crisis and one of them even the cause of these is lack of good governance. Our major issues of disharmony, economic instability, social inequality, illiteracy, brain drain and disbelief on state capacity to provide life necessity require basic virtues of good governance i.e. rule of law, transparency, accountability, efficiency, inclusiveness, participation and consensus oriented process of public policy, which could only be imagined when we have a very stable literacy and public awareness model with an active civil society primarily consisting of middle class and youth participation. Arab spring starting from Tunisia for socio-economic rights against public exploitation is one of the best examples in the recent world history.
Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays. How to create job providers/entrepreneurs rather than job seekers? Every business activity and opportunity including entrepreneurs requires an idea, a platform to exploit that idea and resources to make that idea materialized. Unfortunately more or less we in Pakistan are poor in these entire basic wheels towards entrepreneurs and even job seeking is not possible because running business also requires same things as to create jobs and nourishment. America started progressing when they provided quality education, a business friendly environment and platform to motivate entrepreneurship and economic support through state and public benefit oriented banking system. Our journey could only starts from the same core which is quality and knowledge generating education with state of the art infrastructure and platform with state owned loan and facilities for entrepreneurship creation and stability , otherwise we could only lost most of the brains or brain drain has been happened for decades of our history.
With commercialization of educational institutions, are you happy at the quality /standards of business graduate? Nobody is happy with present Pakistani academia and quality of degrees. Applied research and its association with industry have become a norm in today knowledge economic world to counter issues such as illiteracy, poverty, security and national integrity. Unfortunately We in Pakistan lack both quality and applied research to compete the world on the one hand and to meet our needs on the other. Higher Education Commission’s initiative regarding quality centers at universities is a good step in this regard but much is to be done at secondary and higher secondary level in terms of career
| 569 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | counseling and consultation to develop subject and field experts which could harmonize academia and industry chaos and need.
What are the key challenges and business/investment opportunities in your sector? I think education has become a commercialized business industry where what is being delivered and how and to whom is delivered like basic components has been put on the back seat. The government inability to provide constitution given basic free education rights to the citizens have been consistently ignored which generated a frustration and class division in education sector, multiple parallel education system primarily in private sector have replaced the state vision of nation building to class building which is considered very dangerous for any nation integrity and harmony. Government has to come forward to make a very stable policy in this regard which could balance the gap between public and private system with common vision towards social and human development.
What are the four leadership competencies of a CEO that you would like to see in our new generation of CEOs? I think today a successful CEO/ business leader of Afghanistan to Zimbabwe share some common features being living in global world of information technology. One of the basic one is extensive reading, with reading skills of scanning, skimming and text relevancy ability. The world is in motion and changing constantly so an individual entrepreneur must have touch with recent research knowledge and findings of his/her concerned field/industry. The latter quality is ambition and even I would say very dignified ambitions, I believe an educationist must have a dignified ambition to generate quality education holder generations. The last but not least the spirit of self-accountability and initiative taking ability of a leader is a key difference between a crisis and nourishing entrepreneurs.
How to develop a winning team? How do you motivate your team, assess their performance and make them accountable to the results? A winning captain make a team winning. If a captain of an eleven member; team does not make sure his/her effort is maximum for success, he /she can only expect a complete match but not a winning battle. I think some team CEOs make the same mistake of being hands up after signing the project to the team such project may be called complete project but I do not think and in fact cannot be called a winning project. He/she has to make sure that his efforts are more and unique than any other person working on the project which requires commitment and creative mental working till the final moment of the assignment.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenges? How do you retain top talent in the company? I think Retention of key people at industry/business level is just like retention of brain drain at national level. Human psyche by nature capable of and wish to be recognized by its wonders, but it makes wonders only when the command level top hierarchy shows and performs in such potential and generate such opportunity further. I believe we have a very good competitive environment and credit of our success to this margin goes to the key people as you mentioned and the people who actually become our asset which might have been a liability for an environment
| 570 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | contrary to human wonderful nature.
What steps would you recommend to empower women? Does your company have a harassment policy? I think women prefer and feel comfortable beside the same gender; such empowerment of women is the basic right of women and primary duty of a firm. We have a purpose built campuses and offices where female are quite independent in their social and official activities.
Being a CEO of your company, what is your strategy with regard to succession planning and developing the next generation of leaders? I believe Price of greatness is responsibility and even the beauty of greatness is dignified responsibility for dignified ambitions in life for a collective success and betterment of society. We do and have been trying coming generation more conscious of their role as a citizen to a social role model for the nation through effortless efforts.
Any achievement you are proud of? I believe human success is the biggest achievement a person could boost of. I am not a mistake free human being but I claim that I never repeated the same mistake and I learn from my mistakes to avoid such embarrassment in future and this is the biggest achievement a person could ever claim and proud of.
How do you manage your anger and stress? I believe anger and stress are the outcome of mismanagement or improper use of happiness and free time. Managing anger and stress requires managing happiness and free time. I try and succeed in managing my less busy hours with more work and output.
What is your idea of happiness? Happiness is when and where you feel comfortable. An inactive person feels comfortable within his inn and become a liability for parents, family and nation. Whereas an active person feels comfortable in making every moment of life more successful and fruitful and become an asset for himself/herself, family, nation and world. Great minds prefer the latter form of happiness and I also like and favor the same group.
Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? I advise coming leaders and generations that they can make all the dreams true if they perform according to their potential and competency. Allah the almighty has bestowed all the normal human being with the same competency. Success and failure are nothing in their capacity, it is we human beings whose efforts gain one of them. For example a cricket player holds the same competency of cricket playing skills like any other could have but only those go well who perform well in the field. I believe that our coming generation is very much eager and committed to their efforts to make wonders for them and for nation.
| 571 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan |
TANVEER HAYAT MIR CEO, T.M.Rubber Pvt. Ltd.
Profile: Since 1986, here at TM Rubber (Pvt.) Ltd., we strive to be solution provider for its customers. We try to cater all the needs of our customers in the rubber and rubber- to-metal bonded parts industry. We try to become a preferred partner in the supply chain of our customers by establishing close working relations with them. Having a very advanced in-house lab, we constantly monitor the quality of our products. Our focus on research and development supported with the best machinery is a key factor in our success. All this is done under the supervision of our technical experts. The management team constantly implement monitor, control, evaluate, strategic and operational strategies, so that the customer are well served and the goals of the organization are achieved. TM Rubber (Pvt.) Ltd., is dedicated to provide rubber products to its nation-wide customers. The product excellence is based on technology innovation, quality, reliability, timely deliveries, and personalized services. TM Rubber (Pvt.) Ltd., Is dedicated to provide its employees with rewarding compensation, safe-working-environment, and opportunity for personal development. We offer our suppliers continuing business by giving incentive to improve their products and services. We enhance our resources and core competencies to be competitive in global market.
“HAPPINESS TO ME IS A SMALL GATHERING OF FRIENDS, WHERE WE CRACK JOKES AND BE ALL FUNNY TO EACH OTHER. HAPPINESS IS BEING WITH ALL THE PEOPLE WE CHERISH AND LOVE. THAT MAKES A PERSON LESS WORRIED AND MORE JOYOUS.”
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CEO Club: What does TM stand for in the company’s name? Tanveer Hayat:TM stands for Tanveer and Meer and we basically manufacture rubber products.
Can you tell us about your product profile? We manufacture for almost all the OEMs of Pakistan who operate under Japanese standards. Just like Millat Tractors, Honda, etc. Also, we manufacture rubber products for Honda Motorcycles and two-wheelers, three wheelers and four wheelers who are working on Japanese standards.
Please elaborate on how this business was initiated? You can call it an inherited business because I was in 9th Grade when my elder brother and my father started this business. Then a time came when I realized that we lack a few things and said to my father and brother that we are working in typical ways. It’s time that we should bring some innovation and technology in our work.
When and how you introduced innovation into the company? In 1981-82, almost 35 years back. When I pointed out my father’s way of doing business, he scolded me and asked me to not interfere. But I kept on telling them about the change that was needed. In 1986 I got married and I told my parents that I want to do my own business. They said let us know if you need any monetary help from us, but I refused to take any and asked them for their prayers only. Much later I and my wife sold every valuable that we possessed. With that money, I started my business from scratch. I started with only 55,000 rupees in 1986. After starting the business, I realized that I was repeating the same mistake which my father did. I too lacked innovation. Then, one day the demand for spare part came to us from Millat tractors for development. I tried my very best, but couldn’t achieve what they needed. Then I got to know that a guy named Khuwaja Umer from Darson’s Rubber in Wazirabad is teaching those who wish to learn about rubber. I was eager to learn, so I went there and after a year of learning, they told me what I wish to achieve is not yet available in Pakistan. Later, I found out that I might get some help in the exhibition being held in Manchester. After that trip, I realized, that what I wish to have is not available in Pakistan and now this is my ultimate target for the future. And that became my driving force to bring innovation into my business.
Would you please tell us what was that innovation/technology you brought in your business? We brought in the big machines in Pakistan like PLC and CMC. We got our first machine in 2004 after 20 years of struggle and now we have around 60 of those machines. Three kinds of moldings are being done in the world regarding rubber. Compression molding, transfer molding, injection molding and we are doing all of them under a single roof which usually is not a normal practice. Now today we also have a lab facility which is very rare in the rubber industry of Pakistan. And this exactly what innovation/technology does to your business. The business can’t be any better than this after we brought the machines in.
They say there is no free lunch. So, what price you had to pay for all the struggles you did for the company? My health was suffered like a wise man once said that a man loses his health all his life in accumulation
| 573 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | of wealth and then loses that wealth to gain health in return. Normally one person plants a tree and the fruit is eaten by the next generation, I guess my case is much similar here.
What challenges did you face as a young entrepreneur? I did not face any big challenges apart from financials. Because if you combine all the energy, time and courage to struggle but have no money to fuel it, it all becomes very difficult for a business to run. The first step I took in this business was because of my wife, who worked side by side with me. I would give credit of my success to my wife, after the prayers of my parents and my mentor Khuwaja Umer Farooq.
Are there any challenges for you in the current business scenario? Now, I have a team and there is an R&D department as well. You know that in Pakistan no one develops an R&D department and very few people spend in this area. We almost spend around 25%- 30% on research and development. Previously I and my wife and my son were the shareholders and now from outside, we have hired Dr. Nadeem as a shareholder. He has an engineering team of around 8-9 engineers who developed a chemical under the name of TMC and 100% of these chemicals are imported throughout the world. The chemicals used are based on lead and chromium but we have developed lead and chromium-free chemicals.
In your opinion what three core competencies a CEO must have? According to my observation and knowledge two of them, I already stated that good/pure intentions, hard work and the third behind it is finance. If your intentions are good/pure and you are hardworking but you have less finance behind it, your speed may become slow due to low finance. So, it all makes an equation of success.
Where do you see TMC five years down the road? I can describe it with an example that today if it is 25, it will be 125 in the next five years Insha’Allah! It has very good potential in it because previously the material being used was imported and now we have started making those in our own company.
Do you maintain a work-life balance? Any tips to share? Well, my kids complain that I do not listen to them on phone calls, which I agree to a great extend. I attend phone calls in a hurry. But when I am home, I do not let the office work come in between my family and me. Previously, when I started the business, there was no life only work, I used to work 18- 20 hours a day for the past 8-9 year. Now I have reduced it to 10 hours a day. I have devised a system for the last 8 years I do not talk business after 6 pm.
What advice do you have for the youth, who wish to become entrepreneurs? As I stated previously, never leave good/pure intention and hard work. That’s the simplest formula to success but hardest to implement. If you keep on following these two principles you will always be successful. And for engineers, I will say that get your hands dirty today to prevent your face from getting dirty tomorrow. It means that do hard work with your own hands and you will not have to repent tomorrow.
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“A LEADER IS THE ONE WHO IS INFLUENTIAL TO OTHERS, WHO SHOWS HOW THE WORK IS DONE WITH HIS OWN HANDS. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT THE PERSON YOU SELECT FOR YOUR TEAM IS PROPERLY EDUCATED AND TRAINED CONSISTENTLY. BECAUSE CONSISTENCY IS VERY IMPORTANT, IF YOU DO NOT HAVE IT, YOU CAN NEVER BE SUCCESSFUL IN LIFE.”
| 575 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan |
TAREK HAMDY CEO, EIGHTEEN (Elite Estates Pvt. Ltd)
Profile: Tarek Hamdy has worked in various multinational corporations and was always taking initiatives and was never scared to speak up or share his opinions. He had wonderful mentors that believed in him and formed him well. He has always made quick decisions even when sometimes not recommended and was taught, that its’ better to ride any train than never ride at all. He got promotred few times, he worked in 9 different countries and learned a lot. He speaks four languages and have two post graduate certificate. He is an engineer and his journey was not simple. He got lucky along the way, never lost hope and was always very optimistic. Here, he’s a CEO in Pakistan and before that in KSA and Egypt.
“TO DEVELOP A WINNING TEAM, WE HAVE TO UNIFY THE SELECTION CRITERIA, AGE PATTERNS, ASPIRATIONS, BACKGROUNDS AND THE WILL TO THRIVE. WE TRAIN THEM, EMPOWER THEM, TRUST THEM AND GIVE THEM AN OVERALL SENSE OF BELONGING.”
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CEO Club: Please share your company’s brief history? Tarek Hamdy: EEPL started in 2007 by buying land in Islamabad, the concept of this master plan was developed in 2016 for 600 acres of real estate development around 18 holes golf course with a nice commercial district on the highway leading to the new airport. The shareholders had a wonderful vision that is today’s reality. The shareholders - Egyptians and Pakistanis - have been partners for life and brought Mobilink to Pakistan, a huge success story in the field of mobile telecommunication. Today, the same shareholders are offering a new destination different from all others in the country with a great promise.
Entrepreneurship is a buzzword nowadays. How can we create job providers/entrepreneurs rather than job-seekers? Well, I have always said that entrepreneurship can only start once you acquire knowledge. Knowledge, in its global term which is acquired through traveling, work and education. A young man can only have a brilliant idea to become entrepreneur himself once he acquires the necessary knowledge and then go for it. Without knowledge, he may stumble, lose his resources and have an unsuccessful adventure. It is, therefore, important to provide the practical kind of education, exposure and environment to speed up the young generation’s formation to become job providers/ entrepreneurs. It is crucial to abolish the old practices and adopt the new trends, technologies and practical education to provide the young with the required experience and exposure early in their careers.
What are the key challenges and business/investment opportunities in your industry/sector? The Real Estate business is based on brand positioning and sales. The key challenges are therefore how to position the project, what is the unique selling point and the overall proposition of the project. The formation of sales teams, customer service and operations is crucial and represent a real challenge overall. The good news is that it is possible in this field to be successful early on, even before the start of construction or delivery of the units, if we prepare well, design a good product and set the stage for a valuable and lucrative proposition. The investment opportunities here would present themselves as a considerable appreciation of the unknit price providing capital gain for the clients/buyers even before completing its full price assuming that the unknit was bought off plan and paid over few years as installments.
What is leadership to you? How do you want to improve as a leader? Leadership is all about vision and belief. You have to believe in the project and its success, lead it in the proper path that fulfils the vision and have the strength to keep going, making others believe, follow you and anticipate to see its success. I would like to improve as a leader by having the strength to support all of my team members through the ups and downs and difficult moments that all of us may face during any project’s execution, and be able to unite the whole team under one objective and goal of success.
What are the key challenges confronting CEOs/business leaders in Pakistan? The key challenges would be: managing through various cultures, retaining human assets, working through difficult business and political environment, managing funds and devaluation, achieve
| 577 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | credibility and success.
What are four leadership competencies of a CEO that you would like to see in our new generation of CEOs? Dynamic, honest, caring, positive and optimist, educated, capable, efficient and confident. She/he should be able to delegate, unite the team, and firmly believe in the project’s capability to deliver.
How do you define corporate culture at your company? How do you make sure that people live, act and breathe your organization’s vision, mission and core values? Our corporate culture is open and modern revolving around achieving gender equality, empowering youth, adopting modern practices to bond the teams, training them and motivating its members. To achieve this, we stay close to our human assets, assess their performance and behaviour, organize day outs, trips and training sessions. We often communicate with the team through sessions, emails, presentations, speeches and one-on-one conversations. We keep a good eye on their needs, problems and personal matters to help them through the journey.
How to develop a winning team? How do you motivate your team, assess their performance and make them accountable to the results? To develop a winning team, we have to unify the selection criteria, age patterns, aspirations, backgrounds and the will to thrive. We train them, empower them, trust them and give them an overall sense of belonging. We talk to them about the objectives and targets, we help them in setting their goals, and we regularly meet and discuss. Once they feel secured and have set their eyes on the target, they are accountable for their own results and they are keener on reaching there.
“TO MANAGE ANGER, ONE NEEDS TO STOP DOING ANYTHING FOR ONE HOUR UNTIL HE IS CALM. YOU NEED TO SIMPLY SIT FOR AN HOUR. AS FOR THE STRESS, THE BEST IS TO EXHAUST ONESELF IN AN OUTDOOR SPORTS ACTIVITY.”
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenges? How do you retain top talent in the company? The work environment and the remuneration are the two most important aspects of retaining the human assets and top talent. We make sure that the work environment is unmatchable and that the top talent feels at home and happy. Obviously, the remuneration is important and we try to keep our levels at the highest in addition to efforts and yearly recognition through bonuses and commissions.
Is training, coaching and mentoring a priority to you? How much time/budget do you allocate to this?
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It is actually an important activity at our company. We select various trainings and diverse formation environments to keep our teams up-to-date, well-informed and knowledgeable. During our first year of operations, we have spent a good amount of our budget and organized around 32 training sessions in total.
What steps would you recommend to empower women? Does your company have a harassment policy? We are very strict on harassment and protection of our female employees. The steps to empower women are various; however, I think that the most important ones include paying them the same salary as that of male employees while offering them top positions and equal opportunities as well.
Being the CEO of your company, what is your strategy with regard to succession planning and developing the next generation of leaders? We have hired and aligned a number of local professionals at the highest levels and we are continuously working with them hand in hand on every matter. We have a well-established strong communication channel with our senior executives and we are preparing them to lead the way in succession and various projects.
Where do you see your organization five years down the road? We intend to start new projects in Lahore, Karachi and Faisalabad. Five years from now and we will be the largest private real estate developer in Pakistan aspiring to have at least 500+ employees nationwide.
What are the top three benchmarks for high-performing CEOs who have created long-term value for their companies? I would reckon the following as the top three benchmarks: Credibility, Efficiency and Accountability.
Harvard Business Review’s research tells us that E.Q. (Emotional Quotient/Intelligence) rather I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) is a highly essential competency for business leaders? Why E.Q. is important for CEOs especially in challenging times? We are all human beings who go through difficult moments that may affect our life and our performance. EQ is a main catalyst in providing more oxytocin (happy hormones) that would eventually raise the IQ and increase efficiency of employees.
Any achievement you are proud of? The start-up in a new country was very successful, and above all, I am proud of the team that we built and the work atmosphere being created.
Who is your inspirational role-model? And why it is so? Naguib Sawiris is my role model for being a quick and efficient decision maker and calculated risk taker.
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How do you consider a good work-life balance? Please comment. When you are working hard, you need to have proper weekends, good sleep, balanced nutrition and regular sports. These are the essentials, I believe that contribute towards maintaining a good work- life balance.
How do you manage your anger and stress? To manage anger, one needs to stop doing anything for one hour until he is calm. You need to simply sit for an hour. As for the stress, the best is to exhaust oneself in an outdoor sports activity.
What is your favourite book on professional development that you would recommend? “Managing Through Cultures” – How to adapt in different environments and various cultures. It was a part of my syllabus during my MBA programme.
Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? Keep believing and never lose faith, and God shall respond. Do the right thing and believe it will work even if it takes time.
How many people/HR are on your payroll? We have 203 persons on the payroll as of today.
What is the company`s product/services profile? A development over 2.77 Million SQY, offering 1068 homes of ½, 1, 2, 4 and 8 kanals homes, 1200 apartments, all residences set around an 18 holes golf course and a club house. The development offers a mall, a five-star hotel, a business park, a school, a hospital and clinics. Secured, gated, smart and energy efficient communities designed by WATG and IDG, the project is unique in its product offering, facility management and long-term vision.
Any remarkable recognition or achievements by the company? In a short period of time, Eighteen the development by EEPL, has become recognised nationwide and abroad as a premium living destination, offering quality and unmatched products. The brand position, “I am Eighteen” is being spoken in all major cities and the proposition is well-recognised and appreciated.
“MY IDEA OF HAPPINESS IS TO MAKE OTHERS HAPPY AND CONTRIBUTING IN SUCCESS AS A TEAM MEMBER, BEING PART OF A GOOD CAUSE OR A GOOD ACT AND WITNESSING SUCCESSFUL YOUTH IS WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY.”
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“TO REVOLUTIONIZE THE REAL ESTATE SECTOR IN PAKISTAN, BUILD WITH CARE, PROVIDE CUSTOMERS WITH A NEW LIFESTYLE AND A PROPER PRODUCT, A HASSLE-FREE LIVING IN AN INTEGRATED COMMUNITY, A PLACE TO REFLECT AND A PLACE TO RELATE.”
| 581 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan |
TARIQ MALIK CEO, Sardar Group of Companies
Profile: Tariq Malik did his graduation Bachelor of Commerce in 1973 from the University of Karachi. Then he studied law from Government Law College Lahore, a celebrated English debater for various renowned educational institutions. Tariq Malik held various elected positions as a student leader, President Premier College Student Union, Secretary General, Karachi Students Council (a confederation of over 150 elected college student unions of Karachi including Karachi University, NED University, DOW Medical College and various other renowned education institutions). With the surge of students from East Pakistan into Karachi after December 1971, Tariq Malik promptly launched and organised an effective campaign to build a Book Bank for free distribution of books amongst internally displaced students. His timely action and successful campaign was appreciated and lauded in all the circles of Karachi. In consideration of his outstanding meritorious services for displaced students from former East Pakistan, he was awarded with the Gold Medal. After his successful stint as a student leader, Mr. Malik nurtured his entrepreneurial ambitions and founded Sardar Group of Companies. As a responsible corporate citizen and member of the community, Mr. Malik juggled time between his entrepreneurial ventures and social responsibilities towards the business community. He has held elected positions as a representative of the business community at various apex representative bodies including Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) as well as Chairman Standing Committee at Federation Pakistan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) & President Korangi Association of Trade & Industry (KATI). He was also the guest visitor of Member to the House of Lords, Parliament House London to witness the proceedings of the House of Lords.
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CEO Club: Please share with us some of the details of your group of companies? Tariq Malik: Sardar Group was founded in 1973 and is a cross sector conglomerate with businesses, including services, trading and manufacturing. The Group’s head office is situated in Karachi and has regional offices located at Hyderabad, Sukkur, Multan, Lahore, Gujranwala, Quetta and the United Kingdom. Sardar Group is engaged in the business of manufacturing, trading as well as in the service sector. Trading and Manufacturing segment: The Group’s entities include Sardar Associates, Sardar Pesticides and Empire Foods Ltd. These commercial and industrial entities have experienced unprecedented growth over the past decade owing to a team of professionals working under the guidance of the group CEO. The group continues to progress and develop as an international trading concern – particularly in iron and steel in line with its legacy ship breaking. It is also involved in manufacturing and formulation of pesticides at an industrial unit located in Korangi Industrial Area, Karachi. The Group also manufactures and distributes one of the most well recognized brands of processed and bottled mineral water in Karachi. Services segment: The services segment of the Group is operated and managed under the name of Sardar Enterprises, rendering its professional services to all the banks and financial institutions of the country as their approved/enlisted Muccadam (Pledge Management Services Provider) throughout Pakistan. With decades of unparalleled record of quality service delivery, Sardar Enterprises has been recognized as an outstanding professional entity by Pakistan Bank’s Association (that is controlled by State Bank of Pakistan). All the major banks, financial institutions continue to avail professional services from Sardar Enterprises for their valued borrowers/customers. Sardar Enterprises is enlisted for all three of PBA’s panels, i.e. Land and Building, Plant & Machinery and Current Assets & Commodities, with territorial coverage for all the four provinces. Highly qualified teams of professionals comprising civil, electrical, mechanical engineers and master’s degree holders conduct valuation of movable and immovable assets for customers.
Please share your company’s last three years turnover and average revenue growth? Our group remained outstanding to show an average growth of around 11% in last three years despite of heavy odds, business impediments and unfavorable economic indicators. We trust, it is special blessings of ALLAH Rabulizzat coupled with sheer hard work of our team with zeal and passion.
How many jobs your group has created after its inception? From an enterprise of limited resources and scope in 1973, Sardar Group had a workforce of only 25 employees. With the flux of time, Sardar Group diversified its operations vertically and horizontally in various sectors, achieving accelerated growth. Today, the Group’s professional workforce stands in excess of 3,000 practitioners.
You have served as President Korangi Association of Trade & Industry, share your views about this Industrial Area? Korangi Industrial Area is the largest industrial estate in Pakistan, having very efficient road links with two Seaports of Karachi. It is spread over 8000 acres of land with over 6500 medium & large size
| 583 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | industrial units, mostly export oriented industries. It provides job opportunities to over 1.5 million skilled and unskilled workforce. It contributes over Rs. 400 Million to the National Exchequer as an average on daily basis. Over 40 national and international pharmaceutical companies, large number of steel fabricating industries, textiles, leather tanning and leather garments industries are operating in this industrial estate. Two main country’s oil refineries are located in Korangi Industrial Area.
Pakistan is not poor in resources but governance. Please comment? The fact of the matter is that plenty of job opportunities are available in Pakistan and being rich with natural resources, the country has the potential to create ample opportunities for the next generation. The biggest failure of our country is the bad governance that has engulfed the nation for far too long and has slowed the growth of the country. The unemployment rate of the country is not because of lack of jobs but the irrelevance of education with the jobs, lack of Merit and the skill-gap between our curriculum and the industry / business needs & requirement.
What is your take on good governance? Do you believe that good governance can help with the dilemma at hand? No-doubt that if resources are managed efficiently and in manner that can be beneficial only then the desired output /result can be achieved. Hence, good governance becomes pivotal in all spheres, the key factors that derive the good governance include accountability, effectiveness and efficiency, responsiveness, transparency & rule of law.
What are the key challenges faced by CEO/ business leaders in Pakistan? The business community in the country is mostly affected with the in-ept & inconsistent policies of the government, as such CEOs feel much difficulty in making long term policies for their industries. Moreover, there exist non supportive attitude by the government institutions resulting the impediments being faced by the industry remains unaddressed. We believe that if the government is sincere and would like the industry to grow, should initiate policies that could help businesses to flourish in the country.
“CEOS LEAVE A REALLY STRONG FOOTPRINT ON THE COMPANY AND DO TWO THINGS EXCEPTIONALLY WELL. THEY DO SPEND MORE TIME THINKING ABOUT THE FUTURE, SO THE LENS IS KIND OF LONGER TERM LENS THAN THE BUSINESS AND ON THE WORLD.”
What are the leadership competencies / qualities of a CEO that you would like to see in generation of CEO’s? The next generation of CEOs must be more ethical, they should think strategically and needs to be focused on how to optimize people rather then promoting their brands/product. This would not only make the community stronger but would be beneficial in the long run for the industrial sector.
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The future CEOs must have an understanding of the position in the organization, their vision & focus should not only be on where to take the organization but to possess the ability to put together a workable plan to get out from any dilemma the organization may face.
How do you motivate your team? What are your thoughts on a winning team? My main focus in my professional career has always been having good human relations, developing extremely congenial friendliness in the environment. Your positive gesture to the employees would lead them to trust your judgment. A winning team always needs a shared roadmap for success, developing a common vision means that all team members know what’s expected of them and how their role fits into the team’s larger purpose and priorities. There’s no secret formula for creating a winning team. They are built over time and assembled from the ground up with each member providing strength to the team and with the appropriate tools (a focus on strengths, safety and communication) we can design something that would built to last.
What are the benchmarks of high performing CEOs? CEOs leave a really strong footprint on the company and do two things exceptionally well. They do spend more time thinking about the future, so the lens is kind of longer term lens than the business and on the world. And he must have a wider lens, in that he must tend to be curious and engaged in a broader set of information flows, networks, people to talk to. One of the tests of any leader or CEO is how he or she adapts to a shifting environment. While many business leaders experience negative events, the successful & high performing CEOs are those that analyze their mistake and have a growth mindset. In contrast, leaders who used the term “failure” in talking about their past are always less likely to be successful.
Your thoughts on the current government Tax drive? I indeed appreciate Asset Declaration Amnesty Scheme 2019 which has provided incredible opportunities to declare their untaxed assets. I fully appreciate the untiring endeavors of the government to bring the non filers into the tax-net. However I believe abolishing of Zero Rate Regime for export items, imposing 17% tax (refundable) is considered to be a greater impediment that would be a source of discouragement to the exporters.
Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? The current state of the country might look very bleak and under turmoil due to economic and political mishap that are results of the past governmental failures but the economic conditions are stabilizing & getting much better than yester years. I see a lot of untapped potential and a talented pool of youth who can become a force to reckon with if they are provided with opportunities and are shown the right direction. When it comes to current state of industries, we are operating on a bare minimum level with much restrictions, impediments & obstacles. My message to the entrepreneurs and businessmen working abroad, they should consider Pakistan as an upcoming market and should help create opportunities for youngsters here. For those having business in Pakistan, I appreciate their efforts at making Pakistan a better place, one small step at a time and the country would InshaAllah get to the destination that we all seek.
| 585 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan |
TAUQEER UL HAQ Managing Director, Sante (Pvt.) Limited
Profile: The discovery, development, production and marketing of drugs is done all over the world under the banner of Pharmaceutical industry. These pharmaceutical drugs are used as medicines to be administered to the patients to cure them, vaccinate them or alleviate the symptoms of diseases. Pharmaceutical companies may deal in generic or brand medications and medical devices. Hundreds of pharmaceutical companies (local as well as multi-national) are operating in Pakistan. One of them is SANTE, which was founded in 1996, with the singular aim of providing dedicated services in the field of specialty pharmaceuticals. This highly scientific and technology-driven pharmaceutical company offers a wide range of solutions and products in the sensitive areas of Eyecare, ENT care, Skincare and Primary care.
“HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS CAN BE ACHIEVED BY EFFECTIVELY MAINTAINING WORK-LIFE BALANCE AND COMPLETING ALL THE GIVEN TASKS AT THE RIGHT TIME.”
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CEO Club: Briefly share with us the key highlights of your long professional career. Tauqeer ul Haq: In 1989, upon the completion of my MBA in Marketing. I joined a leading pharmaceutical company called Allergan as Product Manager and was later promoted as Business Manager , as I was looking after sales and marketing as well. In 1998, I bade farewell to Allergan and joined Pharmacia as Business Manager for Ophthalmology and successfully launched Pharmacia’s Ophthalmology division. In three years time, I was promoted as head of the speciality business and besides Ophthalmology, also looked after oncology and Cardiology. In 2003, following the merger of Pharmacia and Phizer, I was retained by Phizer as National Sales Manager for specialty business. In 2004, I joined SANTE as Strategic Marketing Manager. At that time, SANTE was mainly concerned with Ophthalmology, ENT and Dermatology. In 2006, I was promoted as Managing Director and since then, I have been serving in the same capacity and overseeing the company’s rapid growth and progress.
What initiatives have you undertaken for SANTE’s growth and development since taking over as its MD? When I joined SANTE way back in 2004, it was by all means a small company, being run through franchisers. I took the bold initiative of doing away with the franchise business and transforming SANTE into a proper pharmaceutical company, by inducting my own sales, marketing and HR team, consisting of highly professional and competent people from industry. Till that point of time, the company’s products were manufactured by a third party. We decided that we should have our own manufacturing plant, which was successfully completed in 2011. Since then, SANTE has been consolidating its business and is now recognized as a leading specialty pharmaceutical company. As part of our ambitious growth plan, we are now rapidly marching on the way to become a multi- national company, with our products being exported to a number of countries, including Afghanistan, Sri Lanka Vietnam and Uzbekistan. The list of countries is likely to widen in the coming few years and we hope to become a four to five billion worth company.
What’s the total number of your employees and what’s the percentage of female workers in them? The total number of our permanent and contractual employees is around 350, including around 50 females, who are displaying their wonderful skills and talents in almost all the major departments, including HR, Finance and Plant. We firmly believe in providing equal opportunities to men and women in all segments of business.
Would you like to mention some of the major issues or challenges confronting pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan? Introduction of new products and bringing in new molecules are extremely vital for the survival and growth of any pharmaceutical company. But in Pakistan, registration of new products has always been painstakingly slow. It was particularly the case from 2010 to 2015, with the result that it was hard to bring in new molecules. The dissolution of health ministry paved the way for the coming into existence of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) which took some time to become fully functional and operational. In the past couple of years, the process of registration of new products has been accelerated by DRAP to greater extent. The most disturbing issue for us is related to pricing
| 587 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | of products. While the prices of all other commodities have been sky rocketing over the years, prices of pharmaceutical products have been strictly controlled by the government. After getting around a four per cent increase for our products in 2001, it took us more than 15 years to convince DRAP that price increase is a must for the survival and growth of our industry. After lengthy negotiations and hectic efforts, in 2018, the government gave us a new pricing policy, enabling us to get an automatic annual increase of our products, in accordance with CPI. The new pricing policy is a welcome relief for us, but it still has many limitations. For instance, it does not provide any protective cover against sudden devaluation. In the past 6 months alone, there has been 30 per cent devaluation of the Rupee against the Dollar, resulting in massive price increase for everything. But DRAP has not given us any mechanism for adjusting the prices of our products in such extraordinary situation. This issue is seriously undermining the growth of our business.
What might happen if you are not allowed to increase the prices of your products? If we are given a substantial price increase, we will enhance our production, boost our exports, bring new molecules, install new equipment and induct more professional and more competent people into our team. It will inevitably make our people less dependent on expensive imported drugs. However, if the current scenario prevails, the cheap and commonly used medicines, including life saving medicines will start disappearing from the market, because, it would not be viable for us to continue their manufacture at the current cost.
To what extent does our pharmaceutical industry comply with ethical norms? Ours is a highly sensitive industry, dealing with doctors, patients, diseases and their control. In view of this sensitivity, we lay heavy emphasis on the constant professional and ethical grooming of our employees at all levels. I believe that the level of adherence to ethical values in the pharmaceutical industry is more than that of most other industries.
Who in your opinion is an ideal business leader? In my opinion, an ideal business leader is well aware of the changes taking place around him. He believes in participative style of leadership and is always available to his team members, by adopting open door policy and providing them excellent professional and friendly environment, in which even the junior most employee can have access to him at any time. It is commonly observed that in many companies the brilliant strategy devised by the top management is not properly executed only because members of the middle and lower managements who are assigned the task of execution, have no direct access to and communication with the top management.
What’s your strategy for retaining your talented HR? In most cases, if people are provided a conducive and friendly environment in which their services are duly appreciated and aptly rewarded in terms of monetary compensations and timely promotions, they would not like to switch over to some other company. The management should look after their professional as well as personal needs and tell them how they can make further progress in their career.
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Which competencies can ensure the success of a CEO? Besides being a man of strong integrity, a successful CEO constantly keeps himself abreast of the latest advancements and innovations in his field. He is fully cognizant of the simple fact that success is mainly the outcome of team work. He knows the art of building a winning team by recruiting right people for right jobs and giving them a friendly environment and development plans in order to inculcate in them a sense of participation and ownership.
During the three decades of your professional career, you must have made some very tough decisions. Would you like to mention some of them? Before joining SANTE I had spent several years working with well-reputed and well-established multi-national pharmaceutical companies. Leaving such companies and joining a much smaller national company SANTE was a tough decision. When I joined it, it was less than a medium size company being run through franchisers, without having any manufacturing plant of its own. Shortly after taking over as Managing Director, I took another momentous decision and abandoned the old franchise business and replaced it with my own highly professional and competent team and convinced the management to have own manufacturing plant, instead of depending on third party production. All these decisions proved extremely beneficial for the company’s progress and tremendously increased its profitability.
What strategies have you evolved for coping with stress and anger? Fortunately, instead of being a short tempered person, I have been blessed with exceptionally strong nerves and have a friendly, calm and cool personality. With patience, perseverance and persistence, I resolutely face all challenging situations, with a broad smile on my face, which keeps me young, fresh and energetic all the time. As a matter of fact, I still feel myself as young as I was when I was working as a product manager almost three decades ago.
How would you like to define happiness and success? Happiness and success can be achieved by effectively maintaining work-life balance and completing all the given tasks at the right time. Moreover, good decision making also guarantees success. One must be bold enough to take decisions. Taking few wrong decisions is much better than taking no decisions. The reason is that one can learn a lot from wrong decisions, and this knowledge and experience will ultimately teach how to take right decisions.
Whom do you regard as your role model? Of course, for every Pakistani, there can be no better role model than Quaid-e-Azam. Among the present leaders, my role model is Imran Khan for the simple reason that time and again, he has proved that when he determines to do something, he does it, despite all the difficulties and challenges. The World Cup victory and cancer hospital are glaring manifestations of the same phenomena. Now that he is at the helm of affairs, I foresee a very bright and prosperous future for Pakistan. All that we need to do is to focus on the education and training of our large young population, which is our greatest asset.
| 589 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan |
YASIR BUCHA MD, Captain Developers
Profile: “Buch Executive Villas” is a project of Captain Developers, a company manned by extremely competent and qualified individuals with tremendous experience to offer. Their financial credibility, business acumen and professional expertise together have earned them remarkable fame in the Housing industry even before the launch of the project. Captain Developers provides a reliable combination of well reputed and dependable companies carrying a remarkable track record in the real estate realm. Their innovative designing, exclusive planning and visionary approach have established a new trend in the housing industry. Buch Executive Villas is an immaculate specimen of their professional expertise and craftsmanship.
“LEADERSHIP AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP ARE THE FLASHY WORDS THESE DAYS BUT, IN MY VIEW, LEADERSHIP IS FIRST CORRECT ING YOUR OWN SELF. YOU HAVE TO MAKE A VISION AND FOCUS ON IT.”
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CEO Club: Could you tell us a bit about Captain Developers and why you chose Multan for your operations? Yasir Bucha: Captain Developers is a company formed by my father, Mr. Noor Asghar Bucha. He was actually a PIA Captain who served there for 38 years. When he came back to his home-town Multan he started developing a community living housing scheme. Unfortunately, at that time there were no proper organized gated communities available in the city. You have very excellently built homes but you have very narrow streets that don’t allow two cars to pass simultaneously. A proper sewerage system and all those basic services you need for a living are also absent or very low in quality. So, my father came to the conclusion that filling in this obvious market gap would be a good business. We started the business in December 2009, when we did our first launch, and since then we have been serving our clients for more than eight years now.
How did you join the business? I joined it, full-time, in 2011; before that I just used to visit. I was working at a different company and position earlier. My parents had a simple rule, that they have educated me well and now I had to go and prove myself. All of my siblings started their careers in other companies in different roles; after my education, I came back and worked with different companies – the last of which was Mobilink for whom I was heading the IT Operations. Then my father called me and I joined him.
What was the approximate size of your first project – the one that was launched in December of 2009? Oh, it was a fairly sized project. We started it with around 200 acres.
Do these 200 acres constitute one site? One housing society? The site was very special to us; it is our ancestral land and it was on this land that we chose to place the first brick of our futures. Thankfully, we were blessed in the execution and, later, the housing society was extended onto adjacent lands too. Right now, we are working on a very exciting hospital project.
Since your company is in real estate business; tell us about the hospital project. Yes, that is the popular perception, but we have never considered ourselves “Real Estate Developers”. The way real estate is being handled, both in our country and abroad, is not how we do things at our company. We do not invite investors in our projects. We do not have a balloting system. Whenever we sell a plot to someone, we go to great pains that the site is pre-designated and the same piece of land as defined in the agreement is handed over without fail. Although there is always a provision in the agreement that if due to any reason that is not possible, we reserve the right to change the location of the plot being sold, but we try our utmost that that does not happen. I believe everything - every sale and business transaction - is attached with an emotion. Whenever you sell land for housing purpose to someone, on that same day he starts thinking that someday he’ll have a home here; that he will come and live here and that the road will be like this and he will see that in front of his house etc. We don’t want that we give a certain land to someone and after sometime we tell them that your land is not here and it is two kilometers further away. So, we mold our business dealings around that central philosophy. Secondly, we go towards value addition. We have given a community living in this area. For example, the requirement of road by the development authority
| 591 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | is 30 feet, we have given a 40 feet road there. If there is 40 feet road required, we have given a 50 feet road. When we started the business, many people said that you are acting foolish, you just have to sell the land. But we believe differently. So for value addition we have done some projects including a state of the art shopping mall, community center, gymnasium, apartments/offices and now we are building a hospital.
Why such emphasis on value additions? Our idea was simple that if you upgrade the services and value of a certain area, the price of its component plots will automatically increase and appreciate. Secondly, another distinguishing feature is our land measurement, itself. Our 1 Marla land consists of 30 yards, it is not the smaller Marla as that in other places. So, our 17 Marla Plot is 10 square yards bigger than a 1 Kanal plot in, for example, Lahore. That is the added benefit we offer our customers open-heartedly.
Can I say that your Buch Villas has improved the standard of living in Multan? I would like to think that that is true. Our projects have started to have a definite impact on the market and how people gauge and perceive property here. Eventually, I hope that means more people get quality products instead of run-of-the-mill plots and services.
Tell us a bit more about your hospital project? I am primarily an engineer by education and I did my Business Administration Masters with a major in IT so I have no personal or professional affiliation with the medical sector. Whenever one gets a housing scheme approved, one has to dedicate different portions of land for schools and hospitals, so we had a piece of land vacant for a hospital. We had in mind that hospitals are made by doctors, so we thought that doctors will come and make a hospital. Whatever we have done so far, we did it keeping in mind that it should be unique and for common good. We have made a commercial mall there with cinemas in it, one of them having 350 and the other one with 400 seats as well as a marquee too.
The doctors we met who had the interest of making a hospital there, were trying to make a medical complex instead of a hospital. There is a trend of calling “four clinics and a reception” a hospital and we did not feel it was really representative of what we wanted to achieve. We came up with an idea and hired consultants, spent two years in planning its layout - everything that complied with the highest international standards. I visited many hospitals here and abroad, and even met with their operational teams, just to understand how we can learn from the mistakes of others and improve our own project. I guess we will still make mistakes, as we are humans, but at least not the ones already made by others. It is going to be a general hospital, not a super specialty or boutique hospital. There will, of course, be some tertiary level specialists present to deal with specific areas.
We also intend to make a medical college and a teaching hospital in the next phase. This whole endeavor also makes perfect business sense; patients are not the only customers you have in this business. The relatives of patients, doctors and your staff are also your customers, you have to think about everybody if you want to run a good institution.
Currently the hospital is under construction and we are building the third floor now. All the
| 592 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | information is on Facebook and our website. It has six floors including the basement.
When are you planning to inaugurate it? I think somewhere in January of 2021, Insha’Allah. But internally, we are planning a soft launch much earlier in order to provide at least some general services to the residents and customers.
How many employees do you have working at Captain Developers? Captain Developers is basically a partnership consortium of my father and three sons. This hospital is also “Private Limited” and includes my father and his three sons. These form two different companies – one is a partnership consortium and the other is a “Private Limited”. Number of employees vary according to our needs, but if I count the permanent employees, they are probably somewhere around 100.
What is your stance on leadership? Leadership and entrepreneurship are the flashy words these days but, in my view, leadership is first correcting your own self. You have to make a vision and focus on it. Then you hire a team and share your vision, make them understand your vision. Then when you achieve something good together, I think you are a good leader.
How do you wish you could improve as a leader? A human needs improvement in every area, for example, like you mentioned anger management - I have tried to learn that. You mentioned reading, as a hobby, too – I try to read as much as my schedule allows me. But, as a leader, having a vision of things to come is not enough. You have to execute, implement and reach to the final results. You should be clear in your plans from day one; you should achieve small goals, first.
“AS A LEADER, HAVING A VISION OF THINGS TO COME IS NOT ENOUGH. YOU HAVE TO EXECUTE, IMPLEMENT AND REACH TO THE FINAL RESULTS.”
| 593 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan |
YOUSAF HUSSAIN President & CEO, Faysal Bank Limited
Profile: Yousaf Hussain, President & CEO Faysal Bank, has around 25 years of diverse local & international professional experience. His previous experience has primarily been with ABN AMRO Bank, where he held multiple senior managerial positions in Corporate & Transaction Banking and led a number of landmark international Investment Banking & Treasury transactions across major industries. Yousaf has also been at the forefront of two bank acquisition & integration transactions. His experience also includes senior position with Samba Bank and earlier roles with MashreqBank, UAE and Mobilink/Motorola. He has been with Faysal Bank Ltd. since Aug. 2008, where he has contributed significantly to the growth of the franchise through senior management positions within Corporate, Risk & Special Assets Management Group. He was elevated in early 2017 to become the President & CEO of Faysal Bank Ltd. Mr. Hussain’s vision & strategy has led the Bank to successfully embark upon a retail led growth strategy in terms of aggressive network expansion coupled with smooth ongoing transformation of the franchise from a conventional to a progressive Islamic Bank. Yousaf is an Electrical engineer with an MBA from Lahore University of Management Sciences. He is a member of the Executive Committee of Pakistan Banking Association, a Council Member of the Institute of Bankers-Pakistan, Director in Pakistan Business Council and Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance.
“CHALLENGES ARE A PART OF LIFE AND PROVIDE IMMENSE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES IF TACKLED CORRECTLY. THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT ONE REMAINS MOTIVATED AND DEVELOPS A STRATEGY TO NAVIGATE THROUGH THEM EFFECTIVELY.”
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CEO Club: What is your company’s business philosophy vision, mission & core values? Yousaf Hussain: Our mission statement envisages us to be the most progressive Islamic Bank in Pakistan, with technology & customer service at the heart of our strategy. Our Core Values are Teamwork, Respect, Professionalism & Integrity followed by differentiating values are Passion, Innovation, Responsiveness and Compassion. Our core vision is to make Islamic banking and Faysal Bank a preferred choice for our customers. We are in execution of this vision through a multipronged strategy which ensures smooth transition into a full Islamic Bank in the next 2-3 years Insha’Allah. This includes offering a full range of Islamic products, human resources training, system integration followed by branch expansion-additional 200 Islamic branches in the next two years, conversion of existing conventional branches & portfolio and brand transition. Our staff is really committed & motivated to contribute towards this cause. I and my team try our best to live these values and reflect them in our professional conduct and this is the culture we are trying to build where people are always exploring how to continuously support the growth of Islamic banking and provide a high quality experience to all our clients in all their interactions with us.
Please share your company’s brief history. Faysal Bank has been in Pakistan since the last 32 years. It has played a lead role within the Retail & Corporate/ Investment Banking sector in Pakistan. Since then there has been no looking back, from about 20 branches in 2002, Faysal Bank through both organic growth and acquisitions, has now become one of the significant players in the Pakistani banking sector with nearly 500 branches at present and with plans to open another 150 branches in the next year or so.
How many jobs your company created, means HR on your company’s payroll? As a mid-sized but ambitious bank, we are clear that the one differentiator is our quality of human resources. We have created a culture which attracts top talent and we reward them accordingly. This focus on high quality resources have allowed Faysal Bank to perform strongly as compared to other peer banks and as mentioned this has given us the confidence and ability to expand rapidly. Currently we have about 6,500 staff on our payroll, but this number is increasing constantly as we add new branches and increase our staffing levels to support our agenda of growth.
What are the key challenges & opportunities in your industry / sector? Pakistan is a country full of opportunities – especially in the banking sector. With a 220MN+ population which is overwhelmingly Muslim, the potential for Islamic banking is huge yet remains largely untapped. All the studies done to evaluate low level of financial inclusion show that a large proportion of the unbanked population has a clear preference for Islamic banking however find it hard to access it. Given this you can see that nearly all the large conventional banks have set-up Islamic banking operations as well and the Y-o-Y percentage growth in Islamic banking continues to outpace that of conventional banking counterparts. Faysal Bank I feel is strongly poised in this regard given its large Islamic operations and its ongoing conversion to a full-fledged customer-centric Islamic bank.
Any remarkable recognition or achievements by the company?
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Faysal Bank has been recognized as one of the pioneers of Islamic Banking in Pakistan, furthermore it is one of the few banks in the Pakistan market to expand aggressively by means of acquisition. Our conversion to Islamic is a one of its kind and the largest yet so far anywhere in the world and is recognized for its scale and complexity. Our branch network expansion is also one of the largest and fastest in the country with nearly 300 branches being added over a three to four year period.
What is leadership to you and what are the three key challenges confronting CEOs/business leaders in Pakistan? Challenges are a part of life and provide immense learning opportunities if tackled correctly. The important thing is that one remains motivated and develops a strategy to navigate through them effectively. In my view the complexity of the challenges as well as the risks associated with them increase exponentially the more senior one gets. As CEO, I think my greatest challenge has been culture building where we are trying to ensure that our staff of over 6,500 all reflect and exemplify the same strong values of service, excellence and result-orientation. The second greatest has probably been team building – it is a challenge to not only find high quality resources, but even more so the challenge is to build a culture where they collaborate and work together rather than as individuals. I think while industry challenges may vary, these challenges of culture and team building are ones which are common across industries and institutions.
Is training, coaching and mentoring a priority to you? How much time do you allocate for your staff? Training, coaching and mentoring are critical and as CEO I have a responsibility to develop the next set of leaders within the company. To that end, I interact very regularly with not only my direct reports but also two to three levels down to identify and assess our key talent. To ensure that identified high potential employees are nurtured and developed so that they can move into increasingly senior roles and contribute even more effectively, we have put in place formal mentoring programs which are led by myself as well as my management team members. Furthermore we have ongoing activities through which we regularly communicate with staff members on an informal basis about the direction, strategy and other relevant elements so that they understand the overall big picture and are able to prioritize plan and execute better.
Do you believe in women empowerment? If yes, then what steps would you recommend to empower women at workplace? At Faysal Bank, a significant proportion of our staff is female and I want to ensure that our culture is such that it empowers them to deliver without any discrimination of any sort. We understand that it is not easy balancing work and family and so we are taking several initiatives to ensure that we make things comfortable and easy for our women staff to retransition back to work or to continue working after an addition to the family. We are also very strict in terms of equal opportunity and ensure that regardless of gender, the best talent is selected for the right role. Insh’Allah as we go forward you will continue to see us taking more and more initiatives to position ourselves as an employer of choice for our female colleagues.
Where do you see your organization five years down the road? Growth strategy and new
| 596 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | initiatives? Faysal Bank is a very ambitious bank, we have grown significantly over the last few years and look to grow even further over the years to come. Our focus is on developing strengths and sources of value which cannot be easily replicated in the short-term, so while our greatest strength is Islamic Banking, we are also working very hard to improve our service levels to a best in class state, we are also re-evaluating the value proposition of our products to enhance the value for our customers. Technology & Digital Banking will remain our focus to offer exceptional service to our customers and increase our internal efficiency. We expect that all of these things will complement our expanding network and will be strengths which other banks will find hard to replicate in the short-term. Insh’Allah over the next five years we aim to be the one of the key players in the Islamic banking industry and a preferred choice for our customers due to all the above factors.
A business speaks the language of digits. To what extent a CEO should be finance-savvy? What are the three most important numbers in a firm’s financial statements? While it is essential for a CEO to have vision and think about value rather then just costs, it is essential to also focus on the numbers. The numbers tell the story in terms of what is happening, what the direction is, if a certain strategy is working or not and provide leading as well as lagging indicators on how to course correct. On an overall basis I think it is very important to understand the numbers and to be able to ask the right questions to ensure they are being interpreted properly. While the numbers for each company and industry may vary, I think Return on Equity, Efficiency, Profitability and Sales are generic numbers critical for every CEO.
Any achievement you are proud of? I don’t think that there was any one single accomplishment that I can credit with shaping my career, rather it is a series of events or accomplishments which all sort of snowball and allow one to build momentum over a 20-30 year career. I think the ability to consistently deliver results across multiple roles and organizations was the primary differentiating factor along with help from the Almighty. Some of the achievements that I feel proud of landmark structured finance transactions at ABN AMRO, which helped our country to be at the forefront of international financial markets. In addition to this, I feel that that it will be a historic achievement to convert Faysal Bank into a full Islamic entity.
Any message of optimism to the younger generation of CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders? I think one of the things is that while there is no other job like that of a CEO, the responsibility which comes with the role is enormous. So many people depend on the CEO setting the right direction and then executing on the agenda, be it the owners of the business, the customers, the employees as well as other stakeholders. It is not an easy role, but it is one where the incumbent has a huge opportunity to make a positive difference and improve things for all stakeholders. I also see incredible talent in all the younger managers I meet and am certain that a lot of them will go on to do bigger and better things – running their own companies or as CEO’s of existing ones and I would like to encourage them put in their best and believe in the help of the Almighty and Insh’Allah, they will accomplish all that they set out to do.
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YUSUF HUSSAIN CEO, Ignite - National Technology Fund
Profile: Yusuf Hussain is the CEO of IGNITE-National Technology Fund. Yusuf is a Tech Entrepreneur with international experience in startups, funding, offshore development, internet marketing and internet business models. As CEO of IGNITE (formerly known as National ICT R&D Fund), he has brought strategic shift in the direction of the fund, under the guidance of the Board and Ministry of IT, towards creating a knowledge economy by funding startups which can ignite innovation in the field of Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Big Data, Cloud, Robotics, Shared Economy, 3D/4D Printing etc. His specialties include Startup Acceleration and Funding, Incubation, Public Policy, Offshore Services, IT-enabled Organization Transformation, Program Management, Legal Negotiations, Technology Sales, Executive Management.
“MY IDEA OF HAPPINESS IS TO EXPAND MY KNOWLEDGE AND SELF- AWARENESS THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO ME. AS ALLAMA IQBAL SAID “INTELLIGENCE CAN BE GAINED THROUGH BOTH REASON AND INTUITION.”
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CEO Club: Please share with us who Yusuf Hussain is? Yusuf Hussain: I would describe Yusuf Hussain as an individual who seeks adventure and discovering new things while sticking to certain principles like openness, positivity, self improvement, and delivering on commitments.
From your perspective what are the 3 biggest key challenges that are faced by Pakistan and how do you think these challenges can be overcome? Overall one of the key issues in Pakistan is that there is too much rent seeking business behind tariff barriers and government subsidies. Therefore these corporations are not operating in a globally competitive fashion, due to which there are all sorts of problems: Less revenue, less scale, less salaries. Underlying these factors are cultural values, we need to propagate: 1. Positive attitude: It is good to be critical in a constructive way but if you are constantly criticizing yourself and your society, that saps energy and does not provide anything positive to build upon. 2. Strategic Execution: The reason China, Japan and Korea were able to progress so quickly was due to their strategic execution capacity. National challenges are long-term, complex and have deep impact. You must be able to execute over a period of time, and remain focused while moving closer and closer to your objective. This ability was strong in the 1960s but weakened after that, and scholars like Dr Ishrat Hussain have investigated why and how 3. Civic Responsibility: showing a sense of civic sense in everyday life in areas like queuing, driving within lanes, and not littering. If some of these things happen, they will have a domino effect that will lead to a big change.
In your opinion how can more jobs be created and how can we create an ecosystem of entrepreneurship? The key question is not really jobs; the key question is livelihood (source of earning) that can come from jobs. Globally, full time jobs as a percentage of total jobs is decreasing. If you project the data, by 2030 it is expected that gigs or shot term assignments are going to overtake full time jobs in the USA; and the USA is a bellwether for global trends in many ways. First and foremost is the question of how as an individual do you tap these future of work opportunities. Amongst the skills and attitudes you need, initiative is very important because you are no longer working for a bank or factory where there is structured training and career progression administered by your employer. Now you have to take the initiative to train yourself, target certain segments, and generate business. Another requirement is ‘Creativity’ because new skills and new requirements are arising regularly and you have to keep pace. What your learnt by rote may no longer required because a new technology or method has rendered it obsolete. Your ability to learn and be creative in new environments is very important. So overall if you look at long term strategically as a society; we need to instill more creativity and more initiative into the educational system. This will lead to freelancing opportunities, our Digiskills.pk program has delivered over 300,000 trainings to date. The next thing, as you rightly mentioned is entrepreneurship, meaning setting up new businesses that create jobs. There can be small to medium enterprises like restaurants, IT firms, web services shop, gym and so on or it could be what we call a startup. A startup is an innovative new business model and new technology; we focus on startups. Ignite has rolled out 5 incubators that at any given
| 599 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | time have more than 200 startups and they are using latest technology like artificial intelligence, IoT, and robotics to solve problems like access to clean drinking water, transmission line losses, access to credit for household consumptions and so on.
What is the vision of Ignite along with the core values and what is its contribution to the economic growth of Pakistan? Values are very important to us, values are the ground on which you make a strategy or build systems. No matter how good a strategy is or how good all sorts of ERP and other systems are; if your people are not motivated, if they are backbiting or if they have political struggles or if they are looking for new jobs, how are they going to perform well? So we are very careful about our culture; I personally focus on strategy, culture, core team and public image. Our values are: · No titles · Continual learning, including data driven · Diversity · Taking pains As far as our contribution to the economic growth of Pakistan is concerned, our estimate is that once completed, DigiSkills.pk should add several hundred milsion dollars annually to the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
What are the 3 challenges a CEO has to face both globally and locally particularly in Pakistan? This depends largely on the level at which the CEO is at, if we talk in terms of a corporate global CEO, the fundamental requirement is of an ability to grasp what is going on around the world that impacts the business. He or she should be able to distill environmental developments that have the greatest impact, and then be able to engineer and manufacture products that the market demands. 86 percent of the technology of the IPhone came from the government and the academia, not from Apple. It was Steve Jobs ability to assess R&D, take what was important, and engineer products, such as the iPhone, that the world would buy. He abstracted the features in such a way that an 80 year old Chinese woman, a 40 year old Nigerian man and a 10 year old Pakistani boy are able to use the same interface. Restaurants have a tough time maintaining quality and profitability when they tray to expand into new branches; at the same time McDonald’s has 12,000 restaurants around the world, of comparable quality, that can deliver an order within 4 minutes. How? By abstracting all the procedures that are needed to run a restaurant successfully anywhere in the world; these include procedures relating to location selection and layout, training, hiring, quality supply chain, procurement of a wide range of good items, financial management, and the franchise model. So, some of the key requirements from a CEO today are: 1. Assess environment and discern patterns. 2. Create the right culture that attracts the right kind of people. I like to behave more like a coach who supports and inspires department heads to behave like CEO and become leaders. 3. Execute strategically by managing complexity and putting the right person in the right place.
What is leadership to you are what are the 3 key characteristics of a good business leader? According to me in order to be a good business leader or in fact a high achiever in any profession:
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· One has to have self-knowledge. You have to understand yourself, your strengths, weaknesses and what you enjoy. · The leader should have a very clear vision; I am not talking about a manager or a CEO specifically; not every CEO is a leader. As a leader you need to know and understand your path, your destination, the risks and the unknowns. · You need to have the qualities that inspire people to follow you. This is important because today people want respect and you want every individual to contribute and perform.
What is your take on the importance of E.Q vs I.Q for a CEO? E.Q is most important. You need to show grit ie passion with determination over a period of time and you need to have good group dynamics.
What are some of the difficult decisions that you have had to make during your professional journey? We were given a very tough challenge by Madam Anusha Rahman who previously served as Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication. She asked us to train a million people and that too in quick time with a fraction of the budget of classroom based training programs. The team rose to the challenge, and after 6 months of rigorous research, delivered DigiSkills.pk, which is set to deliver 1 million trainings by 2020 at a small fraction of the cost of traditional programs.
Who is your source of inspiration or a role model to you? My role models are: · The Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) · Quaid-e-Azam, who was admired tremendously in the last century by world leaders. One of my favorite quotes is “I don’t believe in taking the right decision, I take a decision and make it right”- Quaid-e-Azam. · My Father who I admire greatly for his strong morals and ethics.
What is your definition of success? · Self-knowledge and personal evolution. Be the best version of yourself; be brilliant. · Strong family and friends. · Maintain a good character and a strong sense of civic responsibility. Help those in need.
What is your idea of happiness? My idea of happiness is to expand my knowledge and self-awareness this is extremely important to me. As Allama Iqbal said “Intelligence can be gained through both reason and intuition.” In The Holy Quran, Allah says “We are closer to him than his jugular vein” (Quran 50.16) so if you are searching for Allah and He is closer to you than your jugular vein, a certain amount of self-knowledge and reflection is required. I also find happiness in knowing that my loved ones are happy.
What is your pace of reading and what are some of the books that have made an impact on you that you would like to recommend? From the age of 17 I have been reading an average of three books a week. There came a point when I
| 601 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | started to think that I had read too much. Others thoughts can drown out your own. This prompted me to curtail my reading to 1 or 2 books a month. Some of my favorite books include: · “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman · “The Third Wave”’ by Alvin Toffler · Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution by Klaus Schwab · Sapiens by Yuval Hariri I think the preeminent philosopher of today is Nassim Nicholas Taleb his Antifragile and Black Swan challenges your notions. He says that certain catastrophic challenges take place and wipe out the happenings of decades. I am very interested in literature especially Russian, French, Japanese and German literature. Urdu poetry is another topic of interest to me.
What are your coping strategies when dealing with stress? I try to lead a balanced life. I give time to my family and sports; both are very important to me. I did suffer burnout once in the past, several years ago, so now I am careful about maintaining balance and health.
How do you practice anger management? I try and remain steadfast; I refrain from using bad language and do not resort to sarcasm. I withdraw myself and give the other person time to reflect on their mistake or wrongdoing.
Do you have any regrets? It is all about your perspective. Generally when I look back at my life I feel like I should have been more fearless and more carefree.
Please share a message of hope and optimism for the young startups and CEO’s of the future. Currently there exists a lot of negativity, self-criticism and self-flagellation in our society. My message to the youth and young entrepreneurs would be to stay focused and be positive; believe in yourself. Do not let the negativity affect you and do not get depressed. This does not mean that one should start taking unnecessary risks. I firmly believe that if we are positive and determined, we can achieve great heights and turn Pakistan into a middle income country in the next 15 years.
NO MATTER HOW GOOD A STRATEGY IS OR HOW GOOD ALL SORTS OF ERP AND OTHER SYSTEMS ARE; IF YOUR PEOPLE ARE NOT MOTIVATED, IF THEY ARE BACKBITING OR IF THEY HAVE POLITICAL STRUGGLES OR IF THEY ARE LOOKING FOR NEW JOBS, HOW ARE THEY GOING TO PERFORM WELL?
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“THE LEADER SHOULD HAVE A VERY CLEAR VISION; AS A LEADER YOU NEED TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND YOUR PATH, YOUR DESTINATION, THE RISKS AND THE UNKNOWNS. YOU NEED TO HAVE THE QUALITIES THAT INSPIRE PEOPLE TO FOLLOW YOU. THIS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE TODAY PEOPLE WANT RESPECT AND YOU WANT EVERY INDIVIDUAL TO CONTRIBUTE AND PERFORM.”
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ZEESHAN ALTAF LOHYA Founder & President, Z International School
Profile: He is a Founder and President of Z International School and Z International Applied Education and Research Center. He has set up a Research Centre according to the requirements of Pakistani culture and to meet international educational standards. His vision is to provide quality education to all children free from bias along with grooming of their personalities as confident learners, positive thinkers and creative leaders. His mission is to pour the nectar of education in every child’s heart, to sow the seed of love, respect and care without any discrimination of class. He is the founder of Own Pakistan, a NGO that offers free educational programs for underprivilege children and welfare services for the community. He has mainly started two ventures under the thread of Own Pakistan. 1. Informal Education System for Slums Inspirit 2. Plantation Campaign
“SOMETIMES IT TAKES ONE GOOD TEACHER TO CHANGE A DELINQUENT INTO A SOLID CITIZEN.”
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CEO Club: Please share the idea behind building a dynamic and distinct schooling system for the people of Pakistan. Zeeshan Altaf: I accomplished my Masters in Education and earned my graduate degree from Newport University, Karachi. The thought behind establishing a high-quality education system was interpreted 18 years ago in the form of Z International School. The idea of initiating this O-level and A-level school is the collaboration of the hard work of my family, my team members in school and of mine. All I wanted to provide a platform to elevate the education standard and literacy rate of my motherland.
What kind of root challenges you encountered while developing a different schooling system? Like everyone, I suffered from several challenges and hurdles while developing the school. Instead of reacting, I embraced the upheavals. Prior to my Masters, I made up my mind to form a school. My educational background assisted me in executing my idea. During the construction of the school, I started faculty recruitment. Playgroup and primary stages were the firstly registered in my institution which promptly elevated to A-levels system.
How can you distinguish Z International Schooling system with other schools? Education is the most powerful tool which can be used to evolve the world. We opted for the Cambridge system which has the most enrolled students almost from 150 countries around the globe because of its diverse and high-quality education system. We follow the curriculum and educational standards set by Cambridge. We have integrated education in form of morals and theories. We have separate and specialized personality grooming classes by our experts to enhance the quality of honesty, ethics, and optimistic attitude in our students. Emphasizes are laid on serving our students with the teachings of Islam and Prophet PBUH to sparkle their faith in this world and hereafter. Our focus is to create unconditional love for Pakistan in the heart of all of our students and to make them wise so they love the people of Pakistan.
What are your strategies of combating hurdles in developing the educational system of Pakistan? We stressed on improving the mindset of parents about educational philosophies. We initiated the concept of parents’ counseling and training through our prior established research center ZIAERC. This research center serves as a mutual discussion and counseling center where teachers collaborate for boosting the counseling sessions and workshops for students. The government of Pakistan must pay strict emphasis for constituting quality education standards in the country. We need to focus on producing streams of generations which are eligible for admissions in notable universities like Oxford. Authorities must allocate special education budgets for institutes and training of the teachers.
How do you focus on your institution towards the training and development of faculty? Our research center assists in the training and mentoring of the teachers. Annually, few of our teachers are sent abroad for the master training programme. They are selected on merit. After their return, they impart knowledge among all the teachers of our schooling system, who are perspective visitors for upcoming Cambridge conferences.
What three competencies you assess when hiring a teacher for your institution? Firstly, our major benchmark is to pass the qualification eligibility criterion which is minimum Master
| 605 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | degree. Secondly, we analyze the presentation skills of the person. Thirdly, we check the experience and background of teaching. Apart from this, teachers living in the vicinity of our locations add a preference in hiring them. We believe in hiring the right teachers who can help us in producing quality and competitive children.
How do you ensure the long term retention of your faculty? We consider the concept of 3 ‘Rs’ “ Recruit, Reward and Retain” .We serve them with all the required facilities like decorum, ambiance, infrastructure, and secure environment. We have an annual assessment of the faculty where we update the salaries which are market competitive according to their hard work and performances. Our teachers are the worthy asset of our school.
Would you like to share your upcoming five years plan of development and evolvement for the betterment of education in Pakistan? We are determined to enhance and maintain the standard of education offered by our institute. Team Zeeshan is consists of those premium individuals who challenge to life, every day. We are also planning to build more campuses in Karachi. I have dedicated myself to educational and volunteering purposes of my country. For me, education is not a commercial business as I already have several ventures running.
What is your perspective of success and happiness? The prayers of my mother have always acted as a weapon for safeguarding me from all evil and difficulties. The constant support of my wife has been always an eternal source of motivation. I am lucky to have a wonderful team with me, who understands meaning of education for economic development of Pakistan. I define happiness as the internal satisfaction and contentment.
How do you manage the equilibrium between work and family? Quality time spent with family, always results in priceless moments. To preserve the treasure of memories, I go on vacations, yearly. These vacations give an extra dose of energy when I get back to work. I travel extensively with my family to all over the world, including United States, Europe, South Africa and Middle East. Indeed happy faces give you strength to grow and glow.
Can you share the name of your all-time favorite book? My most read book is the Holy Quran. This book is a comprehensive and elaborated written form of all theories, secrets, inventions, and developments of the worldly life. It is a complete code of conduct of life. Sunnah and Ahadis of Prophet PBUH act as a practical embodiment of Islam. All the content of all the universal books is eloquently summarized in the Quran.
How do you counter stress and tension in your life? I believe there is peace in the obedience and submission to parents. One can has everything in life when has the powerful prayers of parents. Likewise, praying five times a day and seeking forgiveness from Allah Almighty help in vanishing the negative and evil from life. Sports activate positive spirit in me which also helps me in maintaining my metabolism and stress levels.
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“KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. INFORMATION IS LIBERATING. EDUCATION IS THE PREMISE OF PROGRESS, IN EVERY SOCIETY, IN EVERY FAMILY.”
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ZEESHAN RAZA CEO, UBL Insurers Limited
Profile: Zeeshan Raza is a Cert CII from Chartered Insurance Institute (UK) and also holds an MBA. He is an experienced Senior Insurance Professional with 25 years of extensive experience in insurance industry. He is currently associated with UBL Insurers Limited as their CEO and was previously the CEO at Habib Insurance Company Limited. Mr. Zeeshan has diversified experience in managing and leading different domains of business including Marketing, Operations, Administration/HR and IT. He has held faculty positions at various educational institutes. He is presently a member of Central Executive Committee (CEC) of Insurance Association of Pakistan (IAP) and also serves as a member of the Accident Sectional Committee.
EVERY MEMBER OF THE UBL INSURERS LIMITED TEAM IS DRIVEN BY THE CORE PRINCIPLES OF INTEGRITY, TEAMWORK AND MUTUAL TRUST AND EACH OF THEM IS COMMITTED TO CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT THAT EMBODIES THE FOLLOWING VALUES: SERVICE, INTEGRITY, COLLABORATION, RESPECT AND PROTECTION !
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CEO Club: What is your company`s business philosophy (Vision & Mission)and can you also share your company’s brief profile. Zeeshan Raza: UBL Insurers Limited is an associated company of UNITED BANK Ltd. It is jointly owned by United Bank Limited (UBL) and the Bestway Group. It was established on 5th January 2007 as general insurers company and has been serving major industrial groups of our country since then. UBL Insurers seeks to bring banking and Insurance together in offering comprehensive financial solutions, to better serve the existing customers of UBL as well as to bring in new business. The company has emphasized the hiring of top of the line experienced underwriters to provide a solid operational framework to the company. The company is aiming to become a reputable general insurer of the country by providing dedicated service to customers with focus on innovation. This will be accomplished by recognizing the customer needs and providing unique products and servicing claims within the optimum time frame. “Our mission is to become a reputable general insurer of the country by providing dedicated service to our customer. This will be accomplished by recognizing the customer needs and providing suitable products at affordable prices and servicing the claims within optimum time frame.”
Please enlighten us with your company`s product/services profile? We are offering products related to general insurance covering all the classes. We have divided our products into Business and personal product line, which caters to the needs of the customers and consumer at the best market competitive rates. We offer products related to motors, fire, marine, travel and health.
What are the key challenges in your industry/sector? UBL Insurers ranks as the 5th largest company in the country out of a total of 29 companies; this is a big achievement for a company that is just 12 years old. We are targeting a 10 percent market share by the end of 2021 it’s an aggressive goal that we plan to achieve primarily through innovation. Unfortunately we have a penetration of only 0.86 percent in the market out of the 220 million population of Pakistan thus reinforcing how tough the field of insurance is in this country. Mostly because our rural area supersedes our urban areas where there is no concept of insurance, we penetrate 40% of the urban population mainly through banks. Another reason for this poor demographic is the religious mind set, we are trying to change people’s thinking attitudes through innovation, social media platforms and catering to less informed by extending our vision of insurance to areas such as livestock, crops etc. We are also associating with major mobile network companies; these companies have vast outreach to almost every rural area. We are trying to tap into the untapped market.
What are the business/investment opportunities in your industry/sector? There are many opportunities, as I stated earlier being the 5th largest company and holding only 05 % of the total market share is an opportunity and on the flip side it is also a challenge. Capitalization on that opportunity can be done in a number of ways: Innovation since insurance is a very dry field, to make it appealing to the millennial or Gen Z we need to adapt the modern communication mediums to reach out to them and offering customized
| 609 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | products. We need to create new products to attract the corporates/public which specifically caters their need and grow out of mind set of ‘one product fits all’ mind set. Service Standards Anyone in industry who provides better service in terms of time and claim settlement can make their mark and win the customer. By improving the service standards and providing the enhanced overall customer experience we can compete to be top insurance company in industry. Trust is another important component that needs to be gained, by following the transparent process for underwriting and claim. Competent and skilled workforce: Sales and marketing we hire people who have expertise in the respective fields and through rigorous training and knowledge sharing help them to up their game! Evolving Regulations by the Government and industry regulators are also lending a helping hand, the government of Pakistan is currently changing its rules pertaining to financial service institutions by bringing in more transparency and accountability, and they would certainly work in favor of insurance companies. Awareness: Spreading awareness about the insurance in general, educating the masses regarding the pros and cons and then letting them decide to opt for the best available solution that fits their need. In general we see, even a literate people who has access to banking or other financial products has very little or no knowledge about the insurance products other than motor or mobile. We have taken this initiative to educate masses and consumers about the need of insurance and provide them awareness about the products in general through about social media awareness campaign named as “We care for you”.
What are the three key challenges confronting CEOs/business leaders in Pakistan? Uncertain political environment, inconsistent financial policies, corruption and unethical practices. However, I am hopeful that the measures taken by the government in general for combating these challenges are appreciable and soon we will see their positive impact on economy.
What are four leadership competencies of a CEO that you would like to see in our new generation of CEOs? • Emotional Intelligence • Solving problems and making decisions • Combine action and reflection • Taking risks and innovating
How do you define corporate culture at your company? How do you make sure that people live, act and breathe your organization’s vision, mission and core values? Every member of the UBL Insurers Limited team is driven by the core principles of integrity, teamwork and mutual trust and each of them is committed to create an environment that embodies the following values: Service, Integrity, Collaboration, Respect and Protection !
What steps would you recommend to empower women? Does your company have a harassment policy? High merit standards should be adopted across the organization, and provide equal opportunities for
| 610 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | career and professional development to all the staff members. Empower them through knowledge sharing and active participation across the company. Yes, we have anti - harassment policy and have zero tolerance on such matters.
What is your opinion regarding the current economic situation of Pakistan? Consumer sector is growing which means that the corporate sector is also seeing some kind of growth. People have buying power; we have support from the government and the dollar rate is also increasing adding value to our premium. The law and order situation also seems to have improved; as a result the number of losses is being curtailed.
Please share with us your professional background or corporate profile in a nutshell as to how it all started? I started my career in 1992, with an American airline company where I was associated with Gerry’s International as a Computer Software Engineer. In 1995, I joined Habib Insurance Company Limited (HICL) as an IT officer. During this period, I pursued a degree in insurance and along with that served as a faculty member at various insurance institutions such as Pakistan Insurance Institute, Institute of Engineers Pakistan etc. I hold a position within the ranks of 100 Oracle certified pioneers of Pakistan. In addition to that, I am also Microsoft certified (MCSD). I shifted my job role from IT to operational management, during the later years of my career. My last assignment at Habib Insurance Company Limited was as CEO; I was the first professional CEO appointed in Habib Insurance Company Limited’s history. Then, I joined UBL Insurers Ltd as COO and went on to becoming CEO. So far, we are the 5th largest company in the general insurance industry. We have established our presence in the insurance industry as a market player giving an option to the clients to be better served by our experienced professional team. Our presence in all major cities of the country gives us penetration in all segments of market, and we are insuring all sectors including manufacturing units, commercial organizations, service industry and financial institutions. The company is backed by the finest Re-Insurers of the world. The financial strength of the company is reflected in the credit rating of ‘AA-’ with stable outlook assigned by JCR-VIS credit rating agency. By the Grace of Almighty, the company has underwritten Gross Premium of PKR 3.8 billion in 2018 standing at 5th position on underwritten premium basis in the industry. The company has full fledge branches in Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Islamabad, Hyderabad and sub-offices in Sukkur, Sialkot and Peshawar providing matchless services to its clients across the country.
Profit flow or talent retention; what according to you is the bigger challenge? From an owners perspective both are equally important; one is incomplete without the other.
Is training and mentoring a priority to you? Yes, it is very much an area of focus; training is a part of our ongoing process in the insurance business. We need to continuously train our employees on how to sell a promise in the form of a piece of paper.
Retention of key people is one of the biggest challenges? How do you retain top talent in the company? Create an environment that makes your employees feel like an asset to your company. Allow them
| 611 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | to feel secure in their job. Greet them by name, letting them know that you know who they are and what their contributions are to the company. Create an open and honest work environment. Provide opportunities to grow and learn, and let your employees know there is room for advancement in your company. Monetary bonuses are always nice, but recognition of a job well done goes a long way to creating good will and loyalty.
What is your strategy regarding succession planning and development? Our company and the UBL group have a process in place; succession training is an integral part of our ongoing process from day one. We train our peers and always have a successive nominated for the post in question. For instance if I leave there will be a person in line to take over; keeping the business safe from any paralyzing effects; the show must go on.
Any achievements that make you feel proud? There are many; I was the first one to design the software for the member of Karachi Stock Exchange.
Who is your inspiration/role model? Mr. Ali Raza Habib (Chairman, Bank Al Habib) is an individual who is a source of great inspiration to me. He was the reason I entered this field and he has played an integral part in where I am today. He was my mentor, my guide and teacher.
How do you maintain work life balance? It proves to be difficult for me since I am a workaholic and travel a lot; I only get to spend time with my family over the weekends.
How do you manage your anger and stress? I exercise a lot.
Define success in 3 key words? Play hard, Pray hard & Work hard
What is your idea of happiness? Start living in the moment.
Do you like to read? What are your favourite books? My favourite book is The Power of the Subconscious Mind; I have read a lot about Osama Bin Laden and another one of my favourites is a book written by his sister in law Carmen Bin Laden titledInside the Kingdom.
Please share a message of hope and optimism that you would like to give our youth? The new generation needs to develop patience and perseverance; good things take time. I was a gold medallist in various sports at school the one thing I learnt in spite of excelling at sports was how to lose.
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“CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT THAT MAKES YOUR EMPLOYEES FEEL LIKE AN ASSET TO YOUR COMPANY. ALLOW THEM TO FEEL SECURE IN THEIR JOB. GREET THEM BY NAME, LETTING THEM KNOW THAT YOU KNOW WHO THEY ARE AND WHAT THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS ARE TO THE COMPANY.”
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ZEESHAN ZIA RAJA Managing Director, American Lycetuff School
Profile: Zeeshan Zia Raja is the Managing Director of American Lycetuff School. Her first job unleashed her true potential and discovered her true strengths. Her father was the first life support who encouraged her to apply for a job which in return gave a platform where she got exposed to teaching and then to all those grass root levels in this field. She ended up becoming the coordinator expansion, the highest climb on the ladder. All of this enlightened the entrepreneur in her and started a setup of her own to promote her own educational values.
“MY FOREMOST REALIZING WAS THAT THERE EXISTED NO BRIDGE BETWEEN A UNIVERSITY EDUCATION AND A PRACTICAL JOB THE PARADOX EXISTS TILL DATE. OUR DEGREES JUST DO NOT CORRESPOND TO THE EXPERIENCE WE HAVE AND ARE OFTEN FORCED TO TAKE JOBS WE DON’T HAVE TO.”
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CEO Club: How did your journey start off? Can you please tell us about your work as an educational entrepreneur? Zeeshan Raja: My start actually gifted me with a vision I always wanted to give words to my thoughts. I am one of the very lucky few who got a chance to explore every expect and fulfill every expectation. My first job unleashed my true potential and discovered my true strengths. My father was my first life support who encouraged me to apply for a job which in return gave a platform where I got exposed to teaching and then to all those grass root levels in this field. I ended up becoming the coordinator expansion, the highest climb on the ladder. All of this enlightened the entrepreneur in me and I started a setup of my own to promote my own educational values. With all the expertise beside me there was nothing to stop me from taking a vertical take off.
What keeps my world go around is nothing but sheer hard work. I have my own world to take care of my own domain and I never rest trying to preserve, protect and nurture it through hard work. And to fortify it I am surrounded by sincere and dedicated team members carefully selected whose loyalty has been tested time and again. When I want to do something creative and worthwhile. It is my ambition that keeps me restless and now that it all has been exalted;it’s the responsibility which comes along with it, never keeps me at rest. There is always just so much to do, and so much to think about. Now preserving what I have achieved keeps me going.
Do you have any branches outside Lahore? Yes, when inspiration takes flight, the world transforms into our village. My aspiration, gained strength from my endless hours of hard work. I went international, starting with my “Nursery Plan” in countries like Oman, Qatar, Romania, Turkey, Malta, and the U.K successfully. I am still moving on to unfold new frontiers.
In your opinion do you think the government can give the quality of education like any private Institute? Having examined the government schools the expense incurred per student was not to be more than 4000 - 4500 or 5000 for student which seemed quite fit for the middle class to afford so I focused and targeted at the middle class and tried to provide them the maximum within their affordable minimum. I always believed in the system of teach and train, Enhancing the student prudence and making a better human being out of them. What’s lacking often on the part of the government is a will if developed one there will be a way based on my experience. If I can do it so can the government.
A teachers quality training are his assessment, motivation levels, promotion following the cycle of progress and stressing upon student performance and result should be a main tool of his job security. A system of checks and balances is a must. Gournment sector teachers lack in performance being engaged at jobs. They could have given their best if they wanted to. This is the reason why students give bad results. Where the teachers are engaged in their jobs, the students of the same school give optimum results to stay within the jobs. Therefore teaching performance is the first and for most requirement.
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Best school is about the best teachers. Would you please explain how do you train your teachers? We just don’t know what to do even with degrees talking to the skies. The major problem with a society is that the parents make it mandatory for their daughters no matter what expertise or degree they have required to only join the teaching profession and not take up a job in there specialized field. This forced carrier barriers that make fresh graduate to become disinterested, disengaged and loose commitment for teaching.
We are yet to find ideal teachers. One shall never suffice. We are in dire need of so many of them. At times I feel sorry to compromise quality over quantity but what to do here we are stuck in the middle of nowhere and this is where training comes in. I have an institution to do just the same train themalthough I sincerely believe that a teacher is born and never made. This way we have better chances to handle something sensitive like education.
Education calls for caring to educate others in return. This process of educare must be exalted in the society and the educated must help and a care to educate the uneducated.
I sincerely recon that every employee has a right to be trained. They are the ones who perform at the theatre they are the deliverers of every child. I develop a child’s personality by grooming him and gifting him with confidence and a skill through them.
Today’s student are real sharp with a lot of valid questions in their young inquisitive mind. Their thirst for knowledge has to be satiated to the maximum for that we need communicators and teachers who can best come to their level and address their young intelligence. Unfortunately, the teachers’ workforce. The cards we have to play with are not familiar with what may happen to them at the practical theatre. I train them to face such a music. I equip them not only with training but specialized training. It’s only then that they come in a position to keep their smoking guns silent. Genius with an intelligent question deserves an even ulterior intelligent answer equally. With special attention, my trainings no longer keeps them a conventional teacher.
What are the core values that every lycetuff student is taught? What’s wrong with our generation today is highly abstract and metaphysical in nature. Their moral values need to be tailored and fixed all over again. Same holds true for the parents too at times i.e. a generation before them,verily every child is born on the nature of truth and acceptance. It’s we who make them what they are. I have this strong desire to fix their most simple of morals so that they can derive their values from them later. In this immoral society these days, it has become very difficult for some to preserve their morals.
First and foremost, comes humanity. If one has no respect for humanity then the entire purpose of education gets refuted. Honesty respect and empathy should come next. Through these human values I have won laurels with my students over 20 years now they must not carry ahead the torch of lies and corruption. I am proud to have these values Incorporated in my syllabus.
Character building, moral values, family values, discipline, life skills make people financially
| 616 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | and socially independent. This help to handle the specific needs of supporting the idea in their neighbourhood, for providing financial self-sufficiency. Parents have become practically disengaged by placing a mobile phone into the child hands, unaware of the dangers of this smaller version of a large atomic bomb. Today children can read from the facebook yet they cannot read the faces around them. I intend to direct the energies of the youth enriched Pakistan towards a positive dimension, to make them busy in an activity that keeps them away from the drug abuse. When it comes to my organizational values, I strictly make sure that I adhere to mutual respect and equal opportunity. What my institute gifts them must be awarded back to the next cult, coming in as blank as they once previously were. In short what goes around my origination must come around as well. I have adopted a reward and promotional policy through training, the policy of appreciation just like a young member of the family needs it. Moreover, my employees are just not employees – in the long run they evolve as the owners. These values are my organizational bigger picture the broad canvass of ALS. In a healthy competition with my peers in the field, what separates me from the rest, is the fact that I have so far so successfully targeted the ever-increasing middle class of Pakistan, “this is where the main potential lies”.
How would you describe the best core competency a CEO must have? A CEO must be potent enough to have a vision at least if not a plan. A vision which spans over a long term. Even the crudest of Ideas would do, lack of Ideas in CEO is just not an excuse. The Inception of a stair case was given first, later came the understanding and then the plan how to actually make one. An enquiring mind first pointed out what is that thing on the skies at night called the moon Can I be there? was a question, later did man progress to actually go there and if a CEO can conceive an idea and also develop a plan for the same then he qualifies as the most fit CEO of our times. Taking risks developing a team with targets, idea clarity a good HR with freedom to work on, to observe discipline, respect and motivation and appreciation are the best competency values of a CEO before me.
My academically strategic strength lies chiefly in talent hunting and training it to a skill. It’s only recently that I have stepped up again sports wise now to yet again identify the best and train them. I will finance them too, should there be a need to do so. Poverty shall not stand in their way now... I also plan to promote artists under my banner THE C.O.C - Clash of the champs; an international talent hunt body. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
What difficult decisions did you take during this journey did they changed your life? My commitment to take difficult decisions was the most difficult decisions I have ever taken. It asked for sacrifices I had never imagined would come, when I took them swimming against the flow of the river wasn’t easy. My family revolted against me for they wanted an easy life for me. I had to divorce the person I trusted the most after 18 years of marriage. I learnt to say no and always took the road less traveled by to ensure I was doing the right thing. Hardships always prove you are right. They kept coming and I didn’t mind at all standing tall and strong to difficult decisions isn’t easy you see.
Do you think emotional intelligence is important for CEO? Emotion has got nothing to do with reason. I still believe that it is very important and should never be
| 617 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | ignored understanding and empathizing with an employee is extremely important. The more senior they become the greater asset they become to anorganization. Who started as an employee gradually becomes its owner.
Who do you think has influenced your life? Coming from an army family background, all I knew was discipline and values at its very best the values I learnt from my parents did go a long way in fulfilling all my obsessions and become all what I am today. Like every daughter I always idealized my father. He has been a pivotal force all my life. even till date. I have learnt a lot from his experience and life. I remember how I used to draw those legal rules from the stories of his experience. When everyone was asleep I would have uninterrupted sessions of wisdom with him. It was him who wanted me to do something challenging and creative in a job right after my graduation by showing me many newspaper advertisements. I still remember he inspired me to type my first CV and face the otherwise Dreaded first interview. He strengthened my weak spots.
Would you please share how a girl should groom herself to gain confidence as a professional? I wish the women of my country accept this challenge of self-discovery and realizing. I have started a project under Queen Mary which caters the needs of a more domestic approach. The one who enrolls, discovers all domains of domestic life and at times commands an financial success later. Queen Mary was launched to help newly married girls to equip them with the demands of a workable relationship at home.
The other objective was to seek uneducated girls, with a talent and aptitude to become self-sufficient and skillful in life. So they become from dependent to independent to intra dependent.
To do something against one’s wish is not only against ethics but also against superior common sense. Why should one be forced to do what he doesn’t want? Or has no intention to do. Even Allah does not support this idea. For a girl only the sky is the limit girls over 18 have been stigmatized in this still premature, primitive society. A girl should never surrender to a forced marriage due to undue influences. If found ambitious, she should focus on her goal with a vision beyond sight. She must never be dependent upon those threatening and exploiting her financially. To go against all odds and never giving up is the key for doing all this. Reasonable mothers need to raise their daughters. like her son on equal footings, so that she can face the eye of the storm of troubles later when she is no more and all alone. The mother should be the care teacher and groomer of the children. It should be the mother to teach values and ethics to the children on equal footing so that would turn out to benefit the children in their life ahead.
She must be a problem solver. She should squeeze her wardrobe, get block coloured clothes. Instead of wasting her time am in looking for fancy clothes. She should spend time deciding her future in a professional career. Being a CEO to be a one-minute manager is a must.
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“EMOTION HAS GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH REASON. I STILL BELIEVE THAT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT AND SHOULD NEVER BE IGNORED UNDERSTANDING AND EMPATHIZING WITH AN EMPLOYEE IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. THE MORE SENIOR THEY BECOME THE GREATER ASSET THEY BECOME TO AN ORGANIZATION. WHO STARTED AS AN EMPLOYEE GRADUALLY BECOMES ITS OWNER.”
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ZORAIZ LASHARI Chairman & CEO, Luxus Group & Sozo Water Park
Profile: Zoraiz Lashari is the Chairman & CEO of different companies; the initial project he did was SOZO Water Park, way back in 1988. Initially that was conceived by him as he was working for Ammar Textiles as their marketing manager. He was with Khawaja Bilal and left that company and started drafting the feasibility for this Water Park. At that time, nobody knew that he have started writing the feasibility and had left his job to take a chance to see whether he will succeed or not. He thought that he can get the job again as he was an MBA, so it took hi7 months to get the loan approved from NBFC Bank. He had 4 lacs in his pocket and 1.5 Crore project was sanctioned. Later on, he asked his brothers, Kamran and Sohail if they liked to join in. They agreed to invest in that and Sohail became a partner of 35% and Kamran of 15%, so he became the major shareholder and CEO for that.
“I LIKE TO THINK THAT I AM SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE MY PARENTS WERE HAPPY WITH ME UNTIL THEY WERE ALIVE. I HAVE ALWAYS SAID THANK YOU TO GOD FOR WHATEVER HE HAS GIVEN TO ME.”
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CEO Club: Please tell us about yourself. Zoraiz Lashari: Zoraiz was the name created by my father, but my mother liked the name Pervaiz, she liked the sound of it. My father said that let me think first, as he was a poet, then he came up with this Zo which means light and Zoraiz means the one who spreads light. That is how it was self-created name. I do see this name in the younger generation but not anybody above mine.
Can you tell me what your group is called? I am CEO of different companies; the initial project I did was SOZO Water Park in 1988. Initially that was conceived by me during my visit to Singapore in 1980 while I was a student of MBA. I was working for Ammar Textiles as their marketing manager in 1985. I left that company and started drafting the feasibility of Sozo Water Park without informing anyone except my wife. I did not wanted to live with a “REGRET” that I did not try. The worst that could happen was that I would not succeed in getting my loan and would have to go back and find a new job. I thought I can get the job again as I am an MBA It took me 7 months to get the loan approved from NDFC Bank. I had 4 lacs in my pocket and 1.5 Crore project was sanctioned. Then I asked my brothers, Kamran and Sohail if they would like to join in. They agreed to invest in that and Sohail became a partner of 35% and Kamran of 15%, so I am the major shareholder and CEO of Sozo Water Park.
With so many successes, have you ever tasted any failures? There was another project which I put up: a Musical Fountain Show brought from America, which was a very expensive project of about 7 Crores but that failed miserably. I lost a lot of money in that and then I tried to salvage this fountain show and decided to shift the show at Fortress Stadium, Lahore with a cinema Sozo World.
Why do you think it failed? Was the crowd not interested? I think by failure God wanted to bring me closer to HIMSELF. And he wanted to teach me that it is He who gives success and failure otherwise in feasibility it was supposed to be super hit project. Sozo Water Park opening saw 20,000 people on first day. I was sure I would witness the same response and success as earlier for this new project of this Musical Fountain Show, but only 3 people turned up on the first show. I think this failure was a “gift” from God, HE wanted to teach my ego (takabar) a lesson and that I should not depend upon my hard work and intelligence.
So whatever Luxus Grand is today is all built with your hard earned money? Yes, but towards the very end I took a very small loan from the bank, because it was not getting completed and taking lot of time. God was kind and this became an instant success from day one. We had good bookings and people started liking it as soon as we opened our doors for business. Initially, it housed 3 cinemas and they were doing alright but then there was a huge demand for rooms as well. So we finally decided that let us finish off the cinemas and convert them into rooms, and 22 more rooms were added. Now we have almost 100 rooms.
If you we talk about average sales revenue growth, how much growth you are watching in this hotel in the last 2-3 years? The growth, like the occupancy, is improving but due to conditions these days such as the rising war
| 621 | | 100 Performing CEOs & Companies of Pakistan | hysteria, people are travelling less frequently and flights get cancelled often. So, it is a little slow, these days. Otherwise it is a decent occupancy if you are in the 75%-80% range of occupancy and you can also not be fully occupied. Overall, it is an expensive project in the sense there are 250 employees and you have to pay their salaries. Electricity is very expensive and other many taxes and expenses, but still we are making decent money. It does not mean that we are ungrateful. I wish we could save more and reinvest more in this country rather than it all goes into different bills.
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday there is rush in Sozo Water Park? Yes but Saturday and Sunday are the best. Sozo Water Park is for the common public and ordinary people come here to enjoy. Some people even complain that a lot of riffraff visits the park. We tell them that this park is for the general public and not for the upper class, as the upper class cannot mix up with the ordinary public so we tell them please you may not visit such places where you cannot tolerate the ordinary people. Thousands of people come and they get their fill of the day for like good 8 hours. We took the drawings for the slide of SOZO WATER PARK from Thailand and people from Lahore went there to learn from them how to make it. We did not do any kind of substandard work there and some of the things are from India. It is doing well and it remained the main source of income for this family upgrading the family financially status.
What is your idea of leadership, what do you think about leadership? Passionate for your responsibility and being honest to yourself and the people around you. That should be the message you should be giving. Unfortunately, in this country, the level of honesty has fallen so down to a disappointing level. Speaking the truth seems to be too much to expect. But still, I have seen things being done without bribe and lying. So, let us believe in that and that is why I keep things simple and tell the truth and rid myself of all the fuss.
Where do you see Luxus Grand Hotel five years down the road? I think we should be opening more branches, one is already opened in Hunza by the name Luxus Hunza Attabad Lake Resort. Luxus Hunza is bank on the Attabad Lake with beautiful luxurious chalets with comfort with a beautiful setting with world class amenities. Skardu is another area which we are planning because the Tourism in this country is going to develop pretty well.
Where do you see Sozo Water Park five years down the road? Five years down the road, given how expensive land has become, it may become a housing society. There is a great difference in the amount of money we are making now as compared to if we converted it into a housing society. We bought the land for Rs. 80,000/- per acre and now it is 1 million rupees per marla there. So the difference is too much now.
What about Sozo World Cinema? It will keep it going like this, because we have a lease with the Fortress Stadium Cinema and it is on rent. That should keep doing alright but if the Indian movies will top screening, it will be very damaging. Local production is very little and then the expenses will be higher than the income. I hope the better sense prevails on India and Pakistan.
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What is your secret of success? I like to think that I am successful because my parents were happy with me until they were alive. I have always said thank you to God for whatever he has given to me. Even today, I do not leave home without saying two nafals of gratitude.
What is your message of hope and optimism to the youth? The hope is that keep your parents happy and be grateful to Allah, everything will fall in in its place automatically. If you are not getting this right, then there is a serious problem. If you think that your intellect and hard work can take you along way you are mistaken , you are bound to have a fall sooner or later and you will finally have to revert to GOD for HIS help and support for a way out. Success is hidden in two things, 1. Your parents should be happy (Razee) with you. 2. Being thankful to God for the blessings he has and is bestowing upon you. 3. Do not depend and boost about your; intelligence (akkal), 4. Hard work. The outcome and result is in the hand of the most gracious GOD.
“THE HOPE IS THAT KEEP YOUR PARENTS HAPPY AND BE GRATEFUL TO ALLAH, EVERYTHING WILL GET FINE. IF YOU ARE NOT GETTING THIS RIGHT, THEN THERE WILL BE A PROBLEM. IF YOU THINK THAT YOU WILL DO HARD WORK OR DO IT WITH YOUR WISDOM, NO YOU ARE MISTAKEN. WISDOM AND DEVIL DO NOT HAVE ANY DIFFERENCE IN THEM.”
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