Sense of Purpose
The people, the primary audience of this article, typically think about a sense of purpose when life starts to settle down for them in America. I have found that stage to arrive somewhere mid to late 30s. You are happily married with a loving wife and healthy kids, you make a decent living and you live in a nice suburb in a nice house with 4 bedrooms and a 2 car garage. Life sometimes seems to come to a stand still and you look around for what to do next. For people who have entered a stage in their life where they have started pondering these questions, is that it? Am I done achieving things? Is it going to be the same business as usual from this point on? There is a tremendous sense of purpose in Pakistan. From earning honest money to teaching your kids proper manners and from taking up a cause of healthcare or distribution of justice, you can come back to Pakistan and feel alive. There are problems all over the place and hardly anyone seems to mind. From the poor quality of service at restaurants and upscale stores to a blatant abuse of power and status by the rich and powerful, all areas can use some help. The system of life in Pakistan is not easy and a sole family or individual cannot fight it on his own either. A group mentality and of like minded approach to basic lifestyle coming from people who have moved from abroad need to join hands and get together in this fight. Rest assured, I am not recommending everyone to take up social work but do whatever you want to do for a living in Pakistan with a sense that you need to help these people by setting an example. Things as simple as saying thank you to a peon or guard in an office building is enough once a day to make a difference even for those who are not crusaders fighting for their beliefs. Honesty, integrity, courtesy and respect for a human being regardless of his social status are simple things which this society is losing very fast. The good things we have learnt from the North American continent have to be instilled in the local populace slowly and gradually. My daughter, in grade 3, writing an essay on “what would I do if I had a million rupees” ended up suggesting building better schools and museums in Karachi as she found these 2 things wanting compared with Chicago. We were called up by the teacher and the principal to understand how we have taught this to our daughter especially since we have just moved from USA. I firmly believe that simple examples of things done right will make the people around us realize and open their eyes to alternative approaches in life. The youth need this more than the adults as they are losing a sense of ambition. Their focus is on securing financial freedom so they can get nicer cars, look prettier and wear designer clothes. Youth from all classes of society are falling for this probably due to the onslaught of media and uncontrolled internet access. Hard work, patience and perseverance is losing its charm and it needs to be inculcated by demonstrating first hand how it is done. I believe the expatriate community in North America has a very important role to fill this widening gap between what is being done and what should be done.
My Story
I will close this with my personal story in a brief paragraph just so you can use the right grain of salt in reading my observations, thoughts, opinions and suggestions to get the right flavoring. I come from the lower middle class educated society of Pakistan and by a stroke of luck ended up in computer science at the right time. I graduated in December 1994 and immediately started in offshore software development work. That led to an eventual move to US in 1997. Over the next 10 years, I had a phenomenal run professionally and financially. All along, I was looking for the right opportunity to go back to Pakistan and after a couple of false starts found the right business group investing in the right business and willing to take me on. I have recently moved back to Pakistan after spending exactly 10 years in USA. I had no legal, professional or financial urgency to leave United States and my siblings are well settled in USA & Canada. My parents were all by themselves in Karachi and were in deteriorating health which was the primary driver for keep looking back. I am now running a startup as the number 2 guy and working 8-10 hours to get the start-up off the ground, implement some of my ideas that I could never convince my upper management in USA, build and train a team of committed professionals and working to help my wife convert a couple of ideas into prototypes for which I never got the time while in USA.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Returning to Pakistan - A Guide - Lifestyle
Life in Pakistan
This section will be more relevant to the home maker rather than the professional but I believe it is very important since it deals with the day-to-day satisfaction and acceptability of life in Pakistan for wife & kids.
Residence
If you have been living in the suburban United States, you are in for a surprise regardless of where the house is and how much it’s worth. The booming industry of housing in Pakistan is all speculative; there are no fundamental changes in this industry for the last 200 years. The way we build houses in early 19th century, same methods with minor adjustments are still around. There is no skills development in masonry, plumbing, wiring, carpeting, paint, etc. the entire team of contractors and their labor will build the entire house but they will only have a handful of specialized tools to accomplish all their tasks. The entire housing construction doesn’t use as many tools as you find in one aisle in Home Depot. What this does is that the house doesn’t have the level of finishing that we are used to and trying to fix the problems properly takes a lot of time, effort and education of the labor. In the absence of specialized tools the results are still short of satisfaction as there are limits to hand and eye based finishing besides if you are not closely monitoring the labor, the results tend to be disastrous. The neighborhoods is another problem particularly in Karachi with traffic jams, public transport, sewage overflows, power cut-offs within the locality causing unimaginable suffering and frustration. Basic utility aspects of suburban lifestyle in US are missing altogether compounded by the scarcity of water resource and lack of centrally heated/cooled houses. This causes too much dust to settle in and not enough water to keep things constantly cleaned
Servants
The housewives are typically used to taking care of the house themselves in USA. The biggest attraction for them is the availability of labor in Pakistan for cooking, cleaning, driving, grocery, laundry and ironing, etc. I hate to disappoint the hundreds of women I have come across in North America who are always in awe of the women in Pakistan who have hired help but it is true, it is not as rosy as it seems from the outside. First of all, in order to get the house to a level of order and cleanliness as we are used to in North America is very difficult to do just because the system of household was never designed to be run by the lady of the house. The performance of the servant is always going to be below par when compared with a dish washer for example. In order to push them to deliver at an acceptable level, you have to supervise extensively and show them how to do things. The level of personal hygiene is also very rarely acceptable but becomes very important if little kids are going to be in the house. Constant supervision and very close monitoring is absolutely essential when dealing with servants. This makes the perceived free time that looked so obvious from the outside almost impossible to achieve. Another issue mostly with the three main cities, is that of crimes committed by the servants or by their connivance
Handy-man
I purchased split ACs and the delivery and installation was included in the cost. When the labor arrived, they didn’t have the basic tools including a ladder. They said, you are supposed to provide that. This sums up the level of service you can expect. There is very little structure or method to what they do and how they accomplish their desired state. It is hit and trial all over the place with an incorrect fix to an incorrect diagnosis. The problem is that the one category of labor which is involved in this type of handy-man job is day labor and they have no formal training and of course they don’t have the resources or capacity to learn formally. It’s a matter of feeding their kids that night or not. I use them a lot for small tasks but I typically ending up doing things myself and count the payment into charity. The other category actually is a little better financially and typically works at a shop, store or with a contractor. They are better than the day labor but since the employer always squeezes them for time and money, they don’t have specialist tools or training either. No Seth big or small will ever invest in their employees to help them get better or make them more productive. It is really disappointing. Lack of finishing and fine tuning is the standard across the board. Running Around Since the society functions on the sweat of the labor class, anyone who can afford is usually hiring labor to take care of day to day tasks. Since the labor is going to do the running around, the retail market is not designed for the convenience of people like us. The destitute labor is supposed to put in any amount of effort in order to get things done and they do since they don’t have an alternative for their survival. What this does to people like us if we ever go out looking for something more than the bread and breakfast, it takes a laborious amount of effort to find the right shop with the right product. A Saturday off should be the number 1 requirement for anyone coming back to Pakistan. I wish there was a home depot here in Karachi. The products and sections found in home depot will typically take several days and an awful lot of effort to locate the equipment for a simple plumbing, electrical or wood work project across different parts of the city
Political Situation
The recent political situation because of assembly tenure getting completed and Musharraf Vs Bibi Vs Supreme Court complex web of deals and backroom negotiations, it seems that the country is on the cusp of crisis even leading to some kind of civil war. Rest assured it is not going to happen. There can be disturbance here or there but the turmoil that would impact the economy of a city or a region is now understood to be not in the interest of anyone. Besides, there cannot be any mass movement in Pakistan as there is no platform or ideology that can bring everyone on the streets. This will always create an environment of give and take between the major players in all regions, government and political parties. I continue to see a status quo resulting in stability as far as economy is concerned and that is what this article is primarily concerned with. The biggest contributor to this status quo is western interest in Pakistan’s stability and the empowered media and recently awakened Supreme Court. I have moved my family to Pakistan after careful examination of this situation so I am putting exactly as I see it.
Even though this paints a gloomy picture of an otherwise undetected problem area, people with good family structure and understanding of the people helping out in and around the house for decades, a lot of this goes away. You can revisit your scores in social and environmental factors after reading this section. Kids’ schooling is another very important topic for families looking to move back and my advice to them will be summed up in just one sentence. “Find the most expensive school and get your kids enrolled – that’s it”. The country clubs now mushrooming in almost all large cities of Pakistan are actually a good break-away from the daily hassles of life. This is even more important since avenues of family entertainment are extremely limited in Pakistan. These clubs, however, require a one-time life long membership fees that start at 10,000 USD and can go as high as 40,000 USD. If your father has such a membership, you may have easier time getting a membership for your family for a fraction of this cost.
This section will be more relevant to the home maker rather than the professional but I believe it is very important since it deals with the day-to-day satisfaction and acceptability of life in Pakistan for wife & kids.
Residence
If you have been living in the suburban United States, you are in for a surprise regardless of where the house is and how much it’s worth. The booming industry of housing in Pakistan is all speculative; there are no fundamental changes in this industry for the last 200 years. The way we build houses in early 19th century, same methods with minor adjustments are still around. There is no skills development in masonry, plumbing, wiring, carpeting, paint, etc. the entire team of contractors and their labor will build the entire house but they will only have a handful of specialized tools to accomplish all their tasks. The entire housing construction doesn’t use as many tools as you find in one aisle in Home Depot. What this does is that the house doesn’t have the level of finishing that we are used to and trying to fix the problems properly takes a lot of time, effort and education of the labor. In the absence of specialized tools the results are still short of satisfaction as there are limits to hand and eye based finishing besides if you are not closely monitoring the labor, the results tend to be disastrous. The neighborhoods is another problem particularly in Karachi with traffic jams, public transport, sewage overflows, power cut-offs within the locality causing unimaginable suffering and frustration. Basic utility aspects of suburban lifestyle in US are missing altogether compounded by the scarcity of water resource and lack of centrally heated/cooled houses. This causes too much dust to settle in and not enough water to keep things constantly cleaned
Servants
The housewives are typically used to taking care of the house themselves in USA. The biggest attraction for them is the availability of labor in Pakistan for cooking, cleaning, driving, grocery, laundry and ironing, etc. I hate to disappoint the hundreds of women I have come across in North America who are always in awe of the women in Pakistan who have hired help but it is true, it is not as rosy as it seems from the outside. First of all, in order to get the house to a level of order and cleanliness as we are used to in North America is very difficult to do just because the system of household was never designed to be run by the lady of the house. The performance of the servant is always going to be below par when compared with a dish washer for example. In order to push them to deliver at an acceptable level, you have to supervise extensively and show them how to do things. The level of personal hygiene is also very rarely acceptable but becomes very important if little kids are going to be in the house. Constant supervision and very close monitoring is absolutely essential when dealing with servants. This makes the perceived free time that looked so obvious from the outside almost impossible to achieve. Another issue mostly with the three main cities, is that of crimes committed by the servants or by their connivance
Handy-man
I purchased split ACs and the delivery and installation was included in the cost. When the labor arrived, they didn’t have the basic tools including a ladder. They said, you are supposed to provide that. This sums up the level of service you can expect. There is very little structure or method to what they do and how they accomplish their desired state. It is hit and trial all over the place with an incorrect fix to an incorrect diagnosis. The problem is that the one category of labor which is involved in this type of handy-man job is day labor and they have no formal training and of course they don’t have the resources or capacity to learn formally. It’s a matter of feeding their kids that night or not. I use them a lot for small tasks but I typically ending up doing things myself and count the payment into charity. The other category actually is a little better financially and typically works at a shop, store or with a contractor. They are better than the day labor but since the employer always squeezes them for time and money, they don’t have specialist tools or training either. No Seth big or small will ever invest in their employees to help them get better or make them more productive. It is really disappointing. Lack of finishing and fine tuning is the standard across the board. Running Around Since the society functions on the sweat of the labor class, anyone who can afford is usually hiring labor to take care of day to day tasks. Since the labor is going to do the running around, the retail market is not designed for the convenience of people like us. The destitute labor is supposed to put in any amount of effort in order to get things done and they do since they don’t have an alternative for their survival. What this does to people like us if we ever go out looking for something more than the bread and breakfast, it takes a laborious amount of effort to find the right shop with the right product. A Saturday off should be the number 1 requirement for anyone coming back to Pakistan. I wish there was a home depot here in Karachi. The products and sections found in home depot will typically take several days and an awful lot of effort to locate the equipment for a simple plumbing, electrical or wood work project across different parts of the city
Political Situation
The recent political situation because of assembly tenure getting completed and Musharraf Vs Bibi Vs Supreme Court complex web of deals and backroom negotiations, it seems that the country is on the cusp of crisis even leading to some kind of civil war. Rest assured it is not going to happen. There can be disturbance here or there but the turmoil that would impact the economy of a city or a region is now understood to be not in the interest of anyone. Besides, there cannot be any mass movement in Pakistan as there is no platform or ideology that can bring everyone on the streets. This will always create an environment of give and take between the major players in all regions, government and political parties. I continue to see a status quo resulting in stability as far as economy is concerned and that is what this article is primarily concerned with. The biggest contributor to this status quo is western interest in Pakistan’s stability and the empowered media and recently awakened Supreme Court. I have moved my family to Pakistan after careful examination of this situation so I am putting exactly as I see it.
Even though this paints a gloomy picture of an otherwise undetected problem area, people with good family structure and understanding of the people helping out in and around the house for decades, a lot of this goes away. You can revisit your scores in social and environmental factors after reading this section. Kids’ schooling is another very important topic for families looking to move back and my advice to them will be summed up in just one sentence. “Find the most expensive school and get your kids enrolled – that’s it”. The country clubs now mushrooming in almost all large cities of Pakistan are actually a good break-away from the daily hassles of life. This is even more important since avenues of family entertainment are extremely limited in Pakistan. These clubs, however, require a one-time life long membership fees that start at 10,000 USD and can go as high as 40,000 USD. If your father has such a membership, you may have easier time getting a membership for your family for a fraction of this cost.
Returning to Pakistan - A Guide - Opportunities
Opportunities
As far as the social and environmental factors are concerned based on the above guidelines, that is a personal matter of choice for each individual and I am not going to provide any further insight into those factors. Instead, I am going to focus on ironing out the financial and professional factors in subsequent sections
Professionals
Professionals are broadly divided into 2 categories, management and skilled (IT, engineering medicine, accounting, etc.) not that management is not skilled, this is an arbitrary division for simplicity’s sake. In order to secure a high profile job with good growth opportunity and good earning potential, the professionals need to have a graduate degree from a top school. If the assumption is to get a well paid job, you are almost certain to need a management position. If you don’t want a management career track, as a professional, you stand little chance of landing a job that you would like. The acceptance of foreign trained executives in the financial, telecommunications and IT sector has improved dramatically. There is also recognition of the value that foreign trained executives bring to the overall management culture. If you are a skilled professional, you still have a chance provided you are coming from a blue chip company in USA and are willing to enter the management ranks. In such cases, executive management position may be a little difficult to come by but senior management positions will be plentiful. Management professionals, the ones with MBAs from top schools are slotted for executive management ranks while the rest can easily land a senior management position.
Type of Employer
The type of employer is perhaps the most important aspect of defining good employment here in Pakistan. Following are some examples
1. Top of the list are MNCs (multi-national corporations) including foreign banks. It is not easy to land a senior position in these companies because of well defined local and regional management and HR practices. A lot of executives from Middle-East and Far-East are typically ready to slide into a top spot as they are at the regional head quarters
2. Next in line are joint venture and start-up initiatives lead by the enterprising business groups of Pakistan in partnership with a foreign corporation. These business groups, even though are family owned, have learnt to recede management control and handing it to trained professionals. Leading this charge are actually groups coming from the brokerage industry. Groups like AKD, Arif Habib, JS and KASB have covered tremendous mileage in becoming true capitalists. There is a lot of opportunity in this category as joint ventures are being launched in numerous areas including
a. Hotels & Resorts including recreational parks
b. Real-Estate development, both residential & commercial
c. Financial (banking, insurance, mutual funds, equity investment, brokerage)
d. Telecommunication
e. Retail
f. Consumer Packaged Goods
g. Dairy and Agriculture farming
3. NGOs, Privatization and Government Reform initiatives are well paid and high profile jobs but may not have the longevity of a career. They are typically short-lived initiatives funded by donor agencies or large institutions in some shape or form. Getting into these at a senior position typically requires either strong connections or strong profile. The government reform initiatives are right now under way in institutions like State bank, CBR, and some other low flying departments like bureau of statistics, census, etc. The privatization activity (in some cases the organizations are stepping up with corporate culture to fight getting sold off) has opened up the door to new-corporatism at KESC, Sui Southern & Northern, Pakistan Steel, PSO, etc. if you visit their websites, you will find a lot of information about the Boards, Management as well as open positions. These organizations are redefining themselves and provide excellent opportunities for professionals willing to build something instead of becoming a part of something already functioning efficiently
4. The last category is of the employers involved in some kind of outsourcing work, they typically only require IT staff in senior and junior positions. Professionals having the ability to travel bank n forth between USA and Pakistan can also play roles like sales, project management and business analyst but it is difficult to join these outfits in an executive capacity as their operations are fairly small and executive spots are taken up by founders or the initial start-up team
Outside of these 4 categories, you better have a very good reason to enter a company where all executive positions are held by Seth Sahib and his brother, son, nephew, etc. They tend to have very poor vision, extremely short-termed, no recognition for employees and an overall mistrust with the employees in their dealings. The name of the game is maintaining two sets of books to avoid paying taxes, conducting all business on rough paper or no paper at all leaving them with very poor visibility of product, customer, distribution, opportunities, expansion and overall survival against the onslaught of corporations entering some select industries. Very soon, no existing industry and no Seth sahib will be protected from some enterprising investor willing to bring a foreign corporation and taking the business away from Seth Sahib. They have no appreciation for quality human resource coming from abroad and they will never entertain sharing equity with an employee
Entrepreneurs
The real land of opportunity is now Pakistan ironically for people willing to return to Pakistan with an entrepreneurial spirit from US, which was supposed to be the land of opportunity. This is not only true for Pakistan but for the entire market segment now known as emerging markets or SAGE for the south Asian region specifically. The returns on investment are phenomenal and in quick turn-around as well. The mature markets of the developed world have a scarcity of untapped opportunities but in SAGE markets, proven ideas from the developed world need implementation. The opportunity in Pakistan, therefore, does not involve lengthy R&D cycles for product development, costly production and supply chain hiccups or surprises of a new customer segment. All an entrepreneur needs to do is look at the basic functioning of the society and areas of opportunity for simplicity, convenience, cost saving and better value within the existing market and then tailor an idea from the west
Type of Business
The opportunities are abound in every sector for entrepreneurs. It turns out that the product and customer are the least understood or cared for concepts in the business in Pakistan. This leaves tremendous untapped opportunities for profitable business by fine-tuning the product offering or improving the service. Banking and telecom are the only sectors that have started to directly interact with the customer. In the branch based deposit banking, the relationship was not with a bank but with a branch. Now with consumer credit launch (abundance of credit cards, auto loans, etc.), finally, banks are beginning to interact with the customer as a centralized entity. However, CPG (consumer packaged goods or FMCG in Pakistani terms), healthcare, insurance, transportation are all in their very primitive state. The service sector also has tremendous opportunity for product and service innovation. My summary assessment of the business culture in Pakistan is that it is not capitalist at all. Ownership of physical assets is the prime concern of the business like that of hotel, commercial plazas, shops, factories, etc. Once they own the actual infrastructure that houses the business, they focus on the day-day running operation and as long as that remains cash-flow positive and provides enough for a decent living, they will not look to further innovate, improve or enhance their business potential. Grand daddy had a medical or garments store, father ran it and now the son is running it. Online businesses, the successful ones in North America, can all be launched here with a local flavoring and if executed appropriately can be very rewarding. Those of us, who missed the dot com boat in USA, have another shot in the areas of media, advertising, marketing, sales, retail, automotive and other small business facilitation type services. The one thing needs to be clearly understood is that any business proposition that has “cutting HR cost” as one of its primary selling proposition, will not work in Pakistan. At least for another 10-15 years, people don’t realize the lack of skilled labor, they just see make-do labor and that is enough.
Operational Hazards
Investment in Pakistan and actually owning and operating a business has its challenges. The worst of these challenges relate to the corruption and bhatta mafia that charges money for legitimate tasks and blackmails on frivolous accounts to continue to extort money out of honest businessmen. In addition to this corruption, the lack of service from other interacting departments from power and water to suppliers and landlords on office space, all score high on cost and low on delivery. The best way to launch a business in Pakistan and yet avoid these hazards prevalent in our society is to join a major business group. This is the same group that I was referring to in the previous employment section under category 2. These enterprising business groups are always looking for good ideas and people with ideas and some experience to run a business coming from USA are always valued higher. These groups are also open to giving complete management control to experienced professionals who are willing to invest some of their own money in the venture as well. This approach helps utilize the brand name of these groups to stave off the unwanted elements in the society looking to extort money out of you. This also simplifies access to quality employees, middle managers, vendors and suppliers who are conscious of their image within the group and therefore act as professionally as possible. Government licenses, permits and other external agency NOCs, certificates, passes and clearances also become easier as someone within the group of companies knows somebody. These groups respect professionalism, KPI based management and efficient execution with extra emphasis on running a business with honesty and integrity. You may be able to work out an equity sharing deal with them.
Human Resource
For setting up the business, a good team is essential. Unfortunately, this will be the biggest challenge for entrepreneurs to find good reliable people for a decent market price. The cream of the crop is too expensive, has too much attitude and has a high turn over. The best bet is to find people who are ambitious, appreciate professional management and value what they will be learning in a start-up. It is advisable to get some ground work done in this area related to policies and procedures as I find the HR policies archaic however they are a requirement in this culture and society. Managers will have to truly demonstrate leadership and mentoring abilities in order to build and retain a good team. Employee retention through respect, learning opportunity and perks is a cheaper to do but require support and help from locally trained managers especially ones in HR and office administration. Using office staff as personal servants is very common even in large blue chip banks and therefore managers tend to do the same things when they work for you.
As far as the social and environmental factors are concerned based on the above guidelines, that is a personal matter of choice for each individual and I am not going to provide any further insight into those factors. Instead, I am going to focus on ironing out the financial and professional factors in subsequent sections
Professionals
Professionals are broadly divided into 2 categories, management and skilled (IT, engineering medicine, accounting, etc.) not that management is not skilled, this is an arbitrary division for simplicity’s sake. In order to secure a high profile job with good growth opportunity and good earning potential, the professionals need to have a graduate degree from a top school. If the assumption is to get a well paid job, you are almost certain to need a management position. If you don’t want a management career track, as a professional, you stand little chance of landing a job that you would like. The acceptance of foreign trained executives in the financial, telecommunications and IT sector has improved dramatically. There is also recognition of the value that foreign trained executives bring to the overall management culture. If you are a skilled professional, you still have a chance provided you are coming from a blue chip company in USA and are willing to enter the management ranks. In such cases, executive management position may be a little difficult to come by but senior management positions will be plentiful. Management professionals, the ones with MBAs from top schools are slotted for executive management ranks while the rest can easily land a senior management position.
Type of Employer
The type of employer is perhaps the most important aspect of defining good employment here in Pakistan. Following are some examples
1. Top of the list are MNCs (multi-national corporations) including foreign banks. It is not easy to land a senior position in these companies because of well defined local and regional management and HR practices. A lot of executives from Middle-East and Far-East are typically ready to slide into a top spot as they are at the regional head quarters
2. Next in line are joint venture and start-up initiatives lead by the enterprising business groups of Pakistan in partnership with a foreign corporation. These business groups, even though are family owned, have learnt to recede management control and handing it to trained professionals. Leading this charge are actually groups coming from the brokerage industry. Groups like AKD, Arif Habib, JS and KASB have covered tremendous mileage in becoming true capitalists. There is a lot of opportunity in this category as joint ventures are being launched in numerous areas including
a. Hotels & Resorts including recreational parks
b. Real-Estate development, both residential & commercial
c. Financial (banking, insurance, mutual funds, equity investment, brokerage)
d. Telecommunication
e. Retail
f. Consumer Packaged Goods
g. Dairy and Agriculture farming
3. NGOs, Privatization and Government Reform initiatives are well paid and high profile jobs but may not have the longevity of a career. They are typically short-lived initiatives funded by donor agencies or large institutions in some shape or form. Getting into these at a senior position typically requires either strong connections or strong profile. The government reform initiatives are right now under way in institutions like State bank, CBR, and some other low flying departments like bureau of statistics, census, etc. The privatization activity (in some cases the organizations are stepping up with corporate culture to fight getting sold off) has opened up the door to new-corporatism at KESC, Sui Southern & Northern, Pakistan Steel, PSO, etc. if you visit their websites, you will find a lot of information about the Boards, Management as well as open positions. These organizations are redefining themselves and provide excellent opportunities for professionals willing to build something instead of becoming a part of something already functioning efficiently
4. The last category is of the employers involved in some kind of outsourcing work, they typically only require IT staff in senior and junior positions. Professionals having the ability to travel bank n forth between USA and Pakistan can also play roles like sales, project management and business analyst but it is difficult to join these outfits in an executive capacity as their operations are fairly small and executive spots are taken up by founders or the initial start-up team
Outside of these 4 categories, you better have a very good reason to enter a company where all executive positions are held by Seth Sahib and his brother, son, nephew, etc. They tend to have very poor vision, extremely short-termed, no recognition for employees and an overall mistrust with the employees in their dealings. The name of the game is maintaining two sets of books to avoid paying taxes, conducting all business on rough paper or no paper at all leaving them with very poor visibility of product, customer, distribution, opportunities, expansion and overall survival against the onslaught of corporations entering some select industries. Very soon, no existing industry and no Seth sahib will be protected from some enterprising investor willing to bring a foreign corporation and taking the business away from Seth Sahib. They have no appreciation for quality human resource coming from abroad and they will never entertain sharing equity with an employee
Entrepreneurs
The real land of opportunity is now Pakistan ironically for people willing to return to Pakistan with an entrepreneurial spirit from US, which was supposed to be the land of opportunity. This is not only true for Pakistan but for the entire market segment now known as emerging markets or SAGE for the south Asian region specifically. The returns on investment are phenomenal and in quick turn-around as well. The mature markets of the developed world have a scarcity of untapped opportunities but in SAGE markets, proven ideas from the developed world need implementation. The opportunity in Pakistan, therefore, does not involve lengthy R&D cycles for product development, costly production and supply chain hiccups or surprises of a new customer segment. All an entrepreneur needs to do is look at the basic functioning of the society and areas of opportunity for simplicity, convenience, cost saving and better value within the existing market and then tailor an idea from the west
Type of Business
The opportunities are abound in every sector for entrepreneurs. It turns out that the product and customer are the least understood or cared for concepts in the business in Pakistan. This leaves tremendous untapped opportunities for profitable business by fine-tuning the product offering or improving the service. Banking and telecom are the only sectors that have started to directly interact with the customer. In the branch based deposit banking, the relationship was not with a bank but with a branch. Now with consumer credit launch (abundance of credit cards, auto loans, etc.), finally, banks are beginning to interact with the customer as a centralized entity. However, CPG (consumer packaged goods or FMCG in Pakistani terms), healthcare, insurance, transportation are all in their very primitive state. The service sector also has tremendous opportunity for product and service innovation. My summary assessment of the business culture in Pakistan is that it is not capitalist at all. Ownership of physical assets is the prime concern of the business like that of hotel, commercial plazas, shops, factories, etc. Once they own the actual infrastructure that houses the business, they focus on the day-day running operation and as long as that remains cash-flow positive and provides enough for a decent living, they will not look to further innovate, improve or enhance their business potential. Grand daddy had a medical or garments store, father ran it and now the son is running it. Online businesses, the successful ones in North America, can all be launched here with a local flavoring and if executed appropriately can be very rewarding. Those of us, who missed the dot com boat in USA, have another shot in the areas of media, advertising, marketing, sales, retail, automotive and other small business facilitation type services. The one thing needs to be clearly understood is that any business proposition that has “cutting HR cost” as one of its primary selling proposition, will not work in Pakistan. At least for another 10-15 years, people don’t realize the lack of skilled labor, they just see make-do labor and that is enough.
Operational Hazards
Investment in Pakistan and actually owning and operating a business has its challenges. The worst of these challenges relate to the corruption and bhatta mafia that charges money for legitimate tasks and blackmails on frivolous accounts to continue to extort money out of honest businessmen. In addition to this corruption, the lack of service from other interacting departments from power and water to suppliers and landlords on office space, all score high on cost and low on delivery. The best way to launch a business in Pakistan and yet avoid these hazards prevalent in our society is to join a major business group. This is the same group that I was referring to in the previous employment section under category 2. These enterprising business groups are always looking for good ideas and people with ideas and some experience to run a business coming from USA are always valued higher. These groups are also open to giving complete management control to experienced professionals who are willing to invest some of their own money in the venture as well. This approach helps utilize the brand name of these groups to stave off the unwanted elements in the society looking to extort money out of you. This also simplifies access to quality employees, middle managers, vendors and suppliers who are conscious of their image within the group and therefore act as professionally as possible. Government licenses, permits and other external agency NOCs, certificates, passes and clearances also become easier as someone within the group of companies knows somebody. These groups respect professionalism, KPI based management and efficient execution with extra emphasis on running a business with honesty and integrity. You may be able to work out an equity sharing deal with them.
Human Resource
For setting up the business, a good team is essential. Unfortunately, this will be the biggest challenge for entrepreneurs to find good reliable people for a decent market price. The cream of the crop is too expensive, has too much attitude and has a high turn over. The best bet is to find people who are ambitious, appreciate professional management and value what they will be learning in a start-up. It is advisable to get some ground work done in this area related to policies and procedures as I find the HR policies archaic however they are a requirement in this culture and society. Managers will have to truly demonstrate leadership and mentoring abilities in order to build and retain a good team. Employee retention through respect, learning opportunity and perks is a cheaper to do but require support and help from locally trained managers especially ones in HR and office administration. Using office staff as personal servants is very common even in large blue chip banks and therefore managers tend to do the same things when they work for you.
Returning to Pakistan - A Guide - Scorecard
Moving Back Scorecard
In order for these people to move back, there are always grave concerns about life in Pakistan for themselves and their immediate family. Things related to healthcare and security are usually on top of their lists while source of income is next. Factoring in these issues in the overall logistics of the move, along with the daily exhaustive routine of life in USA prohibits most people from reaching a conclusion and time just passes by with their feet ingrained in American soil deeper and deeper at the passing of each day. I have spent my years in USA dealing with these issues on a day in day out basis and perhaps know most flavors of all issues that overwhelm the mind when it comes to “Returning to Pakistan”.
I have been able to devise a simple 4 step test to see if you should return or not. This 4 step test is described below:
Step 1: Social
Step 2: Financial
Step 3: Professional
Step 4: Environmental
Let’s take a look at these one by one. I will define them and then explain what makes a go/no go decision on each of these steps.
Social
This relates to the people that you will be socializing with once you go back to Pakistan. This can include family, friends and extended families. Integrating with this group socially is essential and therefore careful analysis of this circle is very important. You will score positively on this if your social circle is compatible with your family values. On top of that, if you belong to influential social circles, this factor is even more positive for you. The negative would be if there are family feuds, inheritance or Saas-Bahoo or in-laws problems now that you will be living closer or with them. The social setup back home has to be at a point where you find comfort and joy in that circle and not getting pulled into family politics or have to explain to your children why they shouldn’t be doing something that their cousins are doing
Score:
1 – If you look forward to living in your social setup in Pakistan
0 – If you don’t look forward to hanging out in your social circle in Pakistan
Financial
The convenience of life and affordability for the middle class in USA is not easily replicated in Pakistan. Real-Estate prices alone are mind boggling and renting a place to stay has its own set of problems where you have to come up with 13 months worth of rent upfront. The overall affordability status that one is accustomed to in USA will not easily be accessible in Pakistan. All the luxuries of life are available in Pakistan but at a very high price, I will provide more detail on this in a subsequent section on life in Pakistan. Your overall financial status is very critical in making this determination if you want to go back as you may end up depriving your family of amenities of life they have gotten used to in USA if you do not have the financial capacity to acquire them in Pakistan. The positive here would be if your family runs a successful business, or you come from an affluent background in the upper class or if you are bringing significant savings with you (savings? From USA? Yeah Right) The negative would be if you were part of the middle or lower class in Pakistan and have been hand-to-mouth in USA (that’s more like America)
Score:
1 – If you belong to a wealthy family or if you are bringing significant savings with you
0 – If you cannot rely on your family for financial support and are unable to bring savings
Professional
This is a key component of your decision making process, as to what will you be doing in Pakistan. I will expound on this in detail in the opportunities section below. The bottom line is that a move to Pakistan is not a 2-3 month affair. You have to look at the long term prospects of growth in a profession or business. Learning, earning, work excitement and bright outlook for future years has to be there in order to score high on this factor. People belonging to industries that are non-existent in Pakistan like R&D in a corporate setting, electronics manufacturing, bio-tech, marine sciences, space exploration, etc. should score low in addition to people who cannot handle incompetence, dirty politics, work ethnicity issues, and Seth sahib led management. If you are not a “flexible” individual, you cannot work in Pakistan
Score:
1 – If you are an executive in a reputed firm, have ivy-league education or established business 0 – If your industry doesn’t exist in Pakistan, if you are not a manager in your present job
Environmental
This covers aspects of life that are not in your control but have a serious impact on your family’s life style. Power breakdown, roads, traffic, schools, clubs, security, healthcare, etc. all make up this last decision making factor. You will have to prioritize which of these are important to you and then decide whether you will have access to these or not. You will score high if your residence will be in a secure compound that of a university, hospital, cantonment or diplomatic enclave where traffic, security and power related issues are almost non-existent. You will score low if you cannot handle these environmental problems very common to life in Pakistan
Score:
1 – If your residence will be in a well managed/designed neighborhood & closer to work
0 – If you cannot handle poor road, traffic, sewage, power, security situation in metropolitans
Rules
I have designed the scores to be simple 1 or 0, you are welcome to fine tune these into more finite weightage. The conclusion has to be based on the following rules
1. If you score less around 25%, forget about going back
2. If you score around 50% you want to plan for the missing 50% and minimize its impact to your family’s well being over the next 1 year or so and try to move beyond 75%
3. If you score around 75%, you should move with an aggressive and ambitious plan
4. If you score more than 75% then you are undermining your potential by staying in USA
5. At a minimum, you should score high on either the financial or the professional in order to make a decision on moving to Pakistan If you see positives coming out of either the financial or the professional factors, it will give you the courage and the strength to fight off the challenges thrown by the environment and social factors.
In order for these people to move back, there are always grave concerns about life in Pakistan for themselves and their immediate family. Things related to healthcare and security are usually on top of their lists while source of income is next. Factoring in these issues in the overall logistics of the move, along with the daily exhaustive routine of life in USA prohibits most people from reaching a conclusion and time just passes by with their feet ingrained in American soil deeper and deeper at the passing of each day. I have spent my years in USA dealing with these issues on a day in day out basis and perhaps know most flavors of all issues that overwhelm the mind when it comes to “Returning to Pakistan”.
I have been able to devise a simple 4 step test to see if you should return or not. This 4 step test is described below:
Step 1: Social
Step 2: Financial
Step 3: Professional
Step 4: Environmental
Let’s take a look at these one by one. I will define them and then explain what makes a go/no go decision on each of these steps.
Social
This relates to the people that you will be socializing with once you go back to Pakistan. This can include family, friends and extended families. Integrating with this group socially is essential and therefore careful analysis of this circle is very important. You will score positively on this if your social circle is compatible with your family values. On top of that, if you belong to influential social circles, this factor is even more positive for you. The negative would be if there are family feuds, inheritance or Saas-Bahoo or in-laws problems now that you will be living closer or with them. The social setup back home has to be at a point where you find comfort and joy in that circle and not getting pulled into family politics or have to explain to your children why they shouldn’t be doing something that their cousins are doing
Score:
1 – If you look forward to living in your social setup in Pakistan
0 – If you don’t look forward to hanging out in your social circle in Pakistan
Financial
The convenience of life and affordability for the middle class in USA is not easily replicated in Pakistan. Real-Estate prices alone are mind boggling and renting a place to stay has its own set of problems where you have to come up with 13 months worth of rent upfront. The overall affordability status that one is accustomed to in USA will not easily be accessible in Pakistan. All the luxuries of life are available in Pakistan but at a very high price, I will provide more detail on this in a subsequent section on life in Pakistan. Your overall financial status is very critical in making this determination if you want to go back as you may end up depriving your family of amenities of life they have gotten used to in USA if you do not have the financial capacity to acquire them in Pakistan. The positive here would be if your family runs a successful business, or you come from an affluent background in the upper class or if you are bringing significant savings with you (savings? From USA? Yeah Right) The negative would be if you were part of the middle or lower class in Pakistan and have been hand-to-mouth in USA (that’s more like America)
Score:
1 – If you belong to a wealthy family or if you are bringing significant savings with you
0 – If you cannot rely on your family for financial support and are unable to bring savings
Professional
This is a key component of your decision making process, as to what will you be doing in Pakistan. I will expound on this in detail in the opportunities section below. The bottom line is that a move to Pakistan is not a 2-3 month affair. You have to look at the long term prospects of growth in a profession or business. Learning, earning, work excitement and bright outlook for future years has to be there in order to score high on this factor. People belonging to industries that are non-existent in Pakistan like R&D in a corporate setting, electronics manufacturing, bio-tech, marine sciences, space exploration, etc. should score low in addition to people who cannot handle incompetence, dirty politics, work ethnicity issues, and Seth sahib led management. If you are not a “flexible” individual, you cannot work in Pakistan
Score:
1 – If you are an executive in a reputed firm, have ivy-league education or established business 0 – If your industry doesn’t exist in Pakistan, if you are not a manager in your present job
Environmental
This covers aspects of life that are not in your control but have a serious impact on your family’s life style. Power breakdown, roads, traffic, schools, clubs, security, healthcare, etc. all make up this last decision making factor. You will have to prioritize which of these are important to you and then decide whether you will have access to these or not. You will score high if your residence will be in a secure compound that of a university, hospital, cantonment or diplomatic enclave where traffic, security and power related issues are almost non-existent. You will score low if you cannot handle these environmental problems very common to life in Pakistan
Score:
1 – If your residence will be in a well managed/designed neighborhood & closer to work
0 – If you cannot handle poor road, traffic, sewage, power, security situation in metropolitans
Rules
I have designed the scores to be simple 1 or 0, you are welcome to fine tune these into more finite weightage. The conclusion has to be based on the following rules
1. If you score less around 25%, forget about going back
2. If you score around 50% you want to plan for the missing 50% and minimize its impact to your family’s well being over the next 1 year or so and try to move beyond 75%
3. If you score around 75%, you should move with an aggressive and ambitious plan
4. If you score more than 75% then you are undermining your potential by staying in USA
5. At a minimum, you should score high on either the financial or the professional in order to make a decision on moving to Pakistan If you see positives coming out of either the financial or the professional factors, it will give you the courage and the strength to fight off the challenges thrown by the environment and social factors.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Returning to Pakistan - A Guide - Overview
Returning to Pakistan
A Guide
By Nauman Sheikh
Moving to North America from Pakistan has always held a degree of prestige for Pakistani professionals. The educational, training and research institutions in public and private sectors always presented a great opportunity for ambitious men and women from Pakistan to get US qualification and further their careers and intellect. This always drove people to migrate from Pakistan to USA. These professionals impressed with the entrepreneurial mindset of the American society, also venture into businesses. The mid nineties, with improved communication, awareness, e-mail and some access to internet brought America and Pakistani professionals even closer. The late nineties saw a huge outflow of qualified professionals from Pakistan in engineering, computer science and medicine to better futures in America. This generation of professionals was much different from the previous ones who had typically arrived as students and worked hard to pay for their tuition and living. Most came from the Pakistani middle class, they were in USA legally, had secured jobs, and they were respected and appreciated by the US companies as employees or as contractors. Over the last 10 years, a lot of these professionals have done well professionally, financially and intellectually.
Returning to Pakistan is one of the favorite topics of discussion for this generation of well settled people in America in their social circles. Desi gatherings always had discussions around visas, layoffs, green cards and job opportunities in the early 2000s. That has been replaced with raising kids, social and political dynamics of two worlds and an overall search for a sense of purpose. This is exactly according to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs where I believe this generation of professionals is now heading into the self actualization phase. Another very interesting trait common to this group is family structure. Most of the siblings are already in North America through their support and they have parents who are now getting old and in need of being looked after. I belong to this group and have come across a lot of people on different online forums run by expatriates or in social circles of Chicago, who fall in this category. It includes IT professionals, engineers, scientists and doctors with some very successful and accomplished ones. The two major reasons I hear most often are:
Parents back home are growing old
Kids are growing up in USA not exactly to parents’ vision
There are other reasons like taking over a family business, getting married, not enjoying life in USA, want to help the homeland, etc. All of these are reasons of people who have otherwise no legal or financial compulsion to leave USA; they are the ones who want to make a conscious decision by themselves to move back.
This group is an asset to their country and the reverse brain drain can help Pakistan by leaps and bound in developing the required and critically missing middle management and specialization in all industries. This article presents a simple scorecard to help decide if you want to move to Pakistan and then carries into opportunities and challenges. The article concludes with my personal story, the move and settling down in Pakistan, just so you can relate your own overall situation to a case study.
A Guide
By Nauman Sheikh
Moving to North America from Pakistan has always held a degree of prestige for Pakistani professionals. The educational, training and research institutions in public and private sectors always presented a great opportunity for ambitious men and women from Pakistan to get US qualification and further their careers and intellect. This always drove people to migrate from Pakistan to USA. These professionals impressed with the entrepreneurial mindset of the American society, also venture into businesses. The mid nineties, with improved communication, awareness, e-mail and some access to internet brought America and Pakistani professionals even closer. The late nineties saw a huge outflow of qualified professionals from Pakistan in engineering, computer science and medicine to better futures in America. This generation of professionals was much different from the previous ones who had typically arrived as students and worked hard to pay for their tuition and living. Most came from the Pakistani middle class, they were in USA legally, had secured jobs, and they were respected and appreciated by the US companies as employees or as contractors. Over the last 10 years, a lot of these professionals have done well professionally, financially and intellectually.
Returning to Pakistan is one of the favorite topics of discussion for this generation of well settled people in America in their social circles. Desi gatherings always had discussions around visas, layoffs, green cards and job opportunities in the early 2000s. That has been replaced with raising kids, social and political dynamics of two worlds and an overall search for a sense of purpose. This is exactly according to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs where I believe this generation of professionals is now heading into the self actualization phase. Another very interesting trait common to this group is family structure. Most of the siblings are already in North America through their support and they have parents who are now getting old and in need of being looked after. I belong to this group and have come across a lot of people on different online forums run by expatriates or in social circles of Chicago, who fall in this category. It includes IT professionals, engineers, scientists and doctors with some very successful and accomplished ones. The two major reasons I hear most often are:
Parents back home are growing old
Kids are growing up in USA not exactly to parents’ vision
There are other reasons like taking over a family business, getting married, not enjoying life in USA, want to help the homeland, etc. All of these are reasons of people who have otherwise no legal or financial compulsion to leave USA; they are the ones who want to make a conscious decision by themselves to move back.
This group is an asset to their country and the reverse brain drain can help Pakistan by leaps and bound in developing the required and critically missing middle management and specialization in all industries. This article presents a simple scorecard to help decide if you want to move to Pakistan and then carries into opportunities and challenges. The article concludes with my personal story, the move and settling down in Pakistan, just so you can relate your own overall situation to a case study.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)