Speaking at Pakistan Business Leaders’ Summit here on Wednesday, they emphasised the role of business leaders in present challenging times and urged the private sector to find local solutions to local problems.
The speakers said those who do not change with time would face more challenges because the world has changed dramatically after the global financial crisis of 2007-08.
“Our company brings major changes in its business strategy after every 18 months to adapt to the changes,” IBM Pakistan Country General Manager Humayun Bashir said. “If we give space, others will come and fill the gap and we will lose what we could get with innovative solutions.”
Bashir, who is also the president of American Business Council (ABC) and vice-president of Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI), urged business leaders to create new avenues along with their ongoing businesses.
Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy Chairman Dr Shamsh Kassim Lakha, while speaking on the topic of “leaving a leadership legacy”, said the most important legacy of business leaders is ethical and moral value.
Lakha, who has led Aga Khan University Hospital for 27 years, argued that leaving behind big buildings is not the best legacy of leaders. “The values that a leader left behind are actually bigger than big buildings because values always guide organisations, especially in challenging times and organisational dilemma,” he said.
Comptel Corporation Finland Senior Vice President and Head of Middle East-Africa Region Syed Veqarul Islam said employees notice minute details of leaders that give leaders a strong power to change their subordinates.
“Top civil and military offices in Islamabad have separate toilets for officers and junior staff,” Islam said, adding “how can you expect to bring change when a leader even does not consider others equal to him.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th, 2011.
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Mr. lakha's statements are contradictory to what he built over the years: an institution with big red buildings sucking poor men's blood.
This is not a new discovery.
The econometric evidence shows that in advanced and growing developing countries, including those in Asia, 80% of the growth is due to productivity improvements, and only 20% due to more inputs of labor and capital.
In Pakistan, the results are the opposite: only 20% is due to prodictivity improvements and 80% due to more inputs of labor and capital.
The policy implications are self-evident.