As we say goodbye to the year, we will remember it mainly for the massive disruption it brought This is my last article for 2020 -- and what an extraordinary year has it been. It came, it destroyed so much of what we knew and how we lived. Now it is going away with vaccines on their way in and…
I am often amazed watching people at their workplace. Most common, you would agree, is to see people with their heads almost buried inside computer screens in front of them. Unless they are computer programmers (who we can ignore for this discussion), they are emailing or browsing the internet and sometimes (rarely in my view) reading a work related document…
Raising prices and privatising ownership is not enough to create a more efficient energy supply chain; the utilities have to rethink how they approach their way of doing business entirely If you live in Pakistan and have recently received your gas bill, I bet you are fuming (pun intended). Gas consumers have received their latest bill with increases of up…
....and how to fix it! In a recent conversation with a friend who used to work for a very large state-owned enterprise (SOE), I asked him an obvious question: how many redundant people does this company have and will the state let go of them to improve the organisation? Much to my surprise, his response was that the total employee…
Why boards matter, and what can investors, companies, and the government do to fix them? In my career in the corporate sector and now as a strategy consultant I have often seen corporate boards of listed companies fail to do the right thing for the company, its customers, employees, and its wider stakeholders. I am of the firm opinion that…
Having a strategy that relies on favours from the government is a recipe for disaster Has anyone ever taken the 7 am PIA flight from Karachi to Islamabad? If you have, you would see a line of businesspeople and corporate executives holding files (or laptop bags) boarding the plane. Rubbing their eyes and barely being able to stay awake they…
Tech disruption about to hit Pakistan's five major industries and more The human mind is trained to visualise linear developments and finds it difficult to estimate exponential possibilities which emanate from technology. Such disruptions are always resisted by humans at first, but once accepted and fully deployed, they are capable of changing the way we live. Think about fire, the…
Why the lustre of corporate life has waned and is it a good thing? Growing up in the 70s, whenever we were asked what we would like to do as an adult, the very obvious response would be to become an engineer or doctor or the more academically challenged ones like me would limit our aspirations to working for a…
The benefits of being physically active can be a boon to society and to individuals; so why do we not make more time for it? A friend of mine, who is several years younger, went for a regular medical check-up recently. He was told that he had blockages in two of his arteries and was immediately operated upon. He is…
More than anything else, our main disadvantage is incompatible and poor management skills Why are Pakistani businesses unable to compete in the global markets? What is it that inhibits them from breaking through overseas? As our exports continue to decline, the commonly heard responses to these questions from the private sector are lack of government support, expensive inputs, energy shortages…
