Category: Leadership
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Lesson from Decade of Development of Dictator Gen Ayub Khan: Development without People Representation
Do we want to build yet another big dam without building consensus among all the affected provinces? Do we again want to forget the disastrous consequences in our history when development projects were steamrolled without people’s consent? We see in our media yet another drive to hammer the benefits of Kalabagh Dam (KBD) while relying…
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Kalabagh Dam Use for Inciting Smaller Provinces against Federation-Technical Feasibility vs Trust-Deficit Issue
The opposition for big dams like Kala Bagh Dam (KBD) originates in smaller provinces from the same concerns and mistrust that we have for India building big dams up stream on Indus because it hurts Pakistan’s lower riparian rights when the water is diverted away from us without our consent and approval. It is primarily…
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Metro Transport Infrastructure of Hong Kong and Detractors of Metro for Pakistan
I just returned from Hong Kong. I was astounded to see the metro bus-train infrastructure and roads infrastructure with elevated expressways and flyovers constructed not only in city areas but also on sea and between islands. There are over 15000 buses plying on over 500 routes. Crisscrossing the islands were 11 train lines with such…
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Can a Strong Clean Leader Solve All the Problems of Pakistan- Mythical Narratives
Is it possible to eradicate corruption by only changing the person at the top, the man at the helm of affairs? Unfortunately, this seems to be the predominant narrative in Pakistan. This narrative of “Pakistan Needs a Strong, Clean and Decisive Leader at the Top” has been selling in Pakistan since 1950s. This narrative states…
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Top Ten Reasons Why HEC Abandoned Quality Ranking of Universities
Recent decision of HEC to abandon its quality rankings [1] needs to be welcomed. It was an initiative motivated by hubris with scant regard to societal and industry requirements. It was conceived and designed by those who wanted all the universities to become research universities and clones of each other. It was a whip with…
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Power of Word in Value Based Education: Discriminating Truth from Falsehood
Honorable Prime Minister, Group Chairperson City School, dignitaries, educationists, teachers and my dear students. I thank the organizers for giving me the opportunity to speak about value based education, some thing that is near and dear to my heart. Power of Word emanates from the depth of our feelings. Words are only words unless they…
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Justice Delayed is Justice Denied: Covey's First Habit Advice to Chief Justice of Pakistan
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] What is the advice for Chief Justice of Pakistan(CJP) from Covey’s First Habit of Highly Effective People: CJP ought to work on his circle of influence, instead of his circle of concern, by focusing on…
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Metro/trains vs hospitals vs schools: Where to Allocate Meagre Resources
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] Metro/trains vs hospitals vs schools vs dams vs energy vs other infrastructure projects? Allocation of resources to infrastructure projects and measurement of their comparative benefits is a political decision and should be decided by people not…
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Parental Concern about Economic Future of our Child
I often see parents excessively worried about the economic future of their child. They are often projecting their own insecurities and their own inadequacies on their children despite a huge difference in their situation as a child and their child’s current situation. Their over-worrying about the economic future of child belies their faith and eeaman…
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How to become a Life-Long Learner: Mission of Developing Life-Long Learners
This is the first orientation of new students of IoBM over the last 23 years, where our founder president, Mr Shahjehan Karim is not present. He left us for the hereafter last month. Inna lillahe wa inna ilaihi rajioon. He worked tirelessly all his life to make a world a better place. This institution of…
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How to Develop Personal Brands from Your Leadership Identity
Developing personal leadership brands is a lifelong quest for self-discovery, self-realization and self-actualization. It starts from your personal discovery of what is leadership and from there carving out your leadership identity which is about your “value proposition”: The value that you are going to add to your work, to your relationships and to your life.…
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Shahjehan S Karim – Visionary Social and Ethical Leadership
Founder President of IoBM, Mr Shahjehan S Karim left this world for the hereafter today. Inna lillah e wa inna ilaihi rajioon. Several thoughts came rushing to my mind about this great man and his achievements that have been an inspiration to me and to countless others. [July 16, 2017] Each day as I walk…
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Ethical Standards of 1940s. Due Diligence for writing Recommendation Letters: A Deputy Commissioner’s refusal in 1943
I came across this 1943 letter from a Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Kumaon Division which shows the high ethical standards of that time. The DC refuses the request from a friend to provide recommendation for his son on the grounds that the DC has never met his son and does not know the son personally…
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How do I lift thee from the mundane: Musings of a Dean
How Do I Lift Thee From the Mundane What a fleeting time is youth! that beckons the future that walks in beauty that gallops with force that exudes energy in every motion that dances with the daffodils that climbs every mountain that explores every valley that aspires for the stars Ah, the Youth, whose purpose…
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5 Phone Behaviors of Employees who Need to be Fired
Based on my experience with dealing with people over the last so many years, I have identified the following phone behaviors that should raise a red flag about the ethical values and personal responsibility of an employee. A manager can use these phone behaviors to identify the employees who need to be fired or got…
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Dr Wahab and IBA of 1980s and 1990s
Dr Abdul Wahab went to meet his creator on Sep 6, 2016 morning, inna lillah we wa inna ilaihi rajioon. The news brought flashbacks of several memories from my association with IBA; first as an MBA student from 1985 to 1987, and then during my stint as a faculty member from 1995 to Dec 2000, the last…
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Youth Leadership and Dave Ulrich-Orientation for University Students
[Presented at IoBM Orientation Session for Fall 2016 intake on Sep 3] Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending a workshop on leadership at Karachi Marriott by Dave Ulrich, who is considered as the father of modern Human Resource Management. Ulrich is a professor at the University of Michigan and a consultant to top companies…
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Why Engineering Students are Reluctant to become Entrepreneurs: Role of PEC and Universities
Presented at ICEE-2016, International Conference on Entrepreneurial Engineering: Commercialization of Engineering Projects and Research There are several reasons why Engineering students in Pakistan have been found to be reluctant to opt for entrepreneurship in their engineering fields as opposed to other disciplines such as Computer Science. These reasons can be classified in five major categories;…
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Change Management in Academics: Change Agents and Credit Hours
Over the last twenty years, I have been involved in various change management efforts involving faculty members. Change management is hard and difficult in any organization; bigger the organization, more complex the change, and greater the challenge. Each organization has its own culture which makes change management distinctively challenging. In universities, it becomes especially challenging…
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6 Trends that will Determine your Career Success in the 21st Century
There are six major trends that are going to determine the careers of graduates in the 21st century: Shortening of the life cycle of organizations and businesses. From life-long full-time employment to short term, contractual, project-based engagements From teaching to learning From knowledge acquisition to enterprising creativity and innovation From management to leadership. From managed…
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Nine (9) Dimensions of Ethical Leadership
[1] There are three competencies of a leader which are necessary to inspire the followers on the path towards the destination. These competencies serve as a beacon of hope and encouragement for the followers to overcome the hardships likely to be encountered on the way. These are (i) the loftiness of vision (nigah-buland), (ii) heart-touching…
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Time Management of Social/Marriage Events in Karachi: A Case Study of How to Create Social and Youth Impact
It was first week of May of 2014 and representatives of Youth Impact came to see me at CBM. I was impressed to meet the team. They talked about the impact that they wanted to create on the youth and through them. They told me about their experiential learning program in which they take the…
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Why Education and Why Higher Education: Leadership in Life and Society
Why Education and Why Higher Education: Leadership in Life and Society 1. What is the Purpose of Education We grew up in schools where the day started with an assembly where everyone used to pray that the mission of our lives should be to become a source of light. We prayed for the capacity to…
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Georgia – Lesson in Preserving Language, Religion and Culture
Skyline with Churches The first thing that strikes one in Tbilisi, Georgia is the love Georgians have for their language and their history and their resilience in maintaining their religious and cultural identity despite centuries of rule by foreign powers: Sign boards and billboards are all in Georgian, schooling is predominantly in Georgian, daily interaction…
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Secret of Happiness: One Simple Rule
I was taught a very important rule about the secret of happiness and its relationship with expectations, the hard way, by my mother when I had returned back in 1995 from USA after having been there for over seven years. The lesson threw me on the ground, flat, and got the steam out of me.…
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How to find “Buzurg” and “Wali” of Allah
How to find “Buzurg” and “Wali” of Allah During the late 1970s I started reading extensively and would read whatever came my way. This decade was probably the peak of monthly magazines or “digests” publications. Taking cue from the Reader’s Digest and success of Urdu magazines such as Urdu Digest and Sayyara Digest, several “digests”…
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Mocking Craftsmen and Business People
Mocking Craftsmen and Business People [This post was published in Daily Dawn in my letter to the editor Mocking Craftsmen 2013-08-13] I WOULD like to highlight the psychology and social history of the satirical comments doing the rounds in the media and on cellphones about President-elect Mamnoon Hussain’s links to the cloth and food business community of…
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What Inspires Me: Leadership Against All Odds
Jacqueline Novogratz CEO at Acumen Fund What Inspires Me: Leadership Against All Odds I may have to write several posts to answer this question. What inspires me? I think of beauty, generosity, a star-filled night to remind me of how connected we are in a vast universe – all of it inspires me. But let…
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Entrepreneurial Leadership for 21st Century
Entrepreneurial Leadership for 21st Century 21st century represents the information age and offers different challenges from the 20th century which represented the industrial age. The transition to the information age from the industrial age heralds specific challenges in the area of education and learning: Mass Production Assembly Lines are Out Need for assembly lines for the mass production of standardized supervisors, managers, engineers or…
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Why Job Security?
Why Job Security? Why we Search for Job Security. Why Not Risk Taking? Why are we so afraid of taking risks? Why our primary focus is on jobs that provide security? Why people go after a pensionable, secure, career job? Why people think that becoming a government “servant” is their ultimate goal? Why “sarkar ki…
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Four Legacies of a Leader: Which one would you leave behind?
Four Legacies of a Leader: Which one would you leave behind? There is a yearning in us to leave behind a legacy. Many focus on accumulating wealth and leaving behind property and bank balance. Others focus on their children and try to make them better than themselves. Leaders often think beyond themselves or their children.…
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Values Based Leadership
How do you become a great leader? Through successes and mistakes, and by staying true to your “four cornerstones” i.e. Values [Source: Received in an email. Not known] John Quincy Adams once said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” His quote, along with…