A Summerized form of article, with ideas generated by the speech of former State Bank governer (Ms. Shamshad Akhter) in 2006.
Pakistan’s financial sector has been transformed completely from the past during the recent years; which could more clearly be described as the “first generation of reforms”. Some noteworthy factors to discuss are firstly, the mobile cash flow in the economies of region after the East Asian crisis. Secondly, the change in the global financial flows of capital from the east to the west, against the previous west to east scenario. This situation is mainly because of the imbalances the US economy currently faces in the form of budget deficits. The situation however, is remarkable since the US $1.7 trillion reserves are sufficient enough for the East Asian economies to finance their economic needs, and also opens up new opportunities for developing economies like Pakistan to find for itself, new capital flows to financing its needs from what these countries have to offer. This could make a new beginning of financial flows which the speaker this is beneficial for Pakistan in the long run.
Thirdly, the incorporation of the financial world and the yet though, the imbalances that implicates as a result of the strong clan of the G8 countries and investments only in some parts of the world, that has lead to capital deficient countries, with exposure to currency risks. This as a a result has made some countries to tighten their monetary policies to make sure they are inline with the financial stability for the long term.
With careful macroeconomic policies along with measures to deepen the financial markets and institutions, along with framework of rules that nourishes the financial sector, Pakistan can achieve its target of future prospects. Pakistan, with 5% average economic growth and with private sector credit, although improved, but is not up to the mark with the Asian economies. This shows that Pakistan is far behind from the competition when compared from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Korea in terms of dept of equity markets, bank assets and bonds outstanding. Therefore, the market currently faces “lack of depth, breath, and maturity”.
However, with the new system and reforms such as the CDC and UIN in place, Pakistan is set to cover all its problems. Privatization and consolidation of banks with strict abidance to the Prudential Regulations, and the increased role of corporate governance, Pakistan has been marked as just close to India in terms of finance and efficiency.
Considering the equity market, the lack price discovery mechanism with much speculation taking place makes the market inefficient in terms of determining stock prices, which hurts small investors that enter the market. The solution to this problem is to increase market depth and breadth by IPOs much more frequent and vibrant with implementation of rules and regulations that wipe of chances of risks.
Another aspect that has leaded to improve the image of Pakistani markets is the integration of banking sector with capital markets. The approval of banks to open subsidiaries for brokerage has lead to improvements in governance and systems and the way capital markets work. Incorporation of the asset management companies and banks, in order to provide open-ended and close-ended mutual fund benefits to small investors has also been helpful in designing a level playing field for everyone and has also provided rights to small shareholders.
With integration of both in the developed markets, it is seen that the risk transferring and sharing is much easier. It has also leaded to the creation of instruments such as derivatives and securitization, which has been an important tool for financial leveraging.
Taking examples from the US, Europe and Chinese economies and banking practices, Pakistan need to decide which option to go for, since it would be a important decision and a prerequisite for economies of scale.
Lastly, the emergence of derivates market in Pakistani capital market is a step towards increasing the depth and breadth of the economy of the country. The State Bank has allowed foreign currency options, forward rate agreements and interest rate swaps which is slowly but surely gearing itself in the market.
With the current scenario in place, Pakistan has tremendous growth opportunities by private capital flow due to the savings trend and gathering that is in the region. Much also needs to be done though in the form of expanding the capital market and the banking sector. In line with Basel II accord, and much experience to understand from in terms of international market, Pakistan should be able to decide the path that needs to be followed to form a framework of rules that are important to liberalize the market effectively.
Moiz Damani is currently a student at Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, pursuing an MBA degree with specialization in Finance.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Project mode or Operations mode: which one suits best for today?
One of the Statements discussed in the modern world today is about more and more firms shifting to Project Management mode of operations in rather than operations mode. Is it really so?
In the world of today where business strive on the basis of global competition, knowledge explosion, and customer focus, not to mention the extensive role of IT in every manner; it is true that more firms now focus on project management rather than in operations mode.
The most important reason for project based mode of management by firms is because of the need to deal with specific and complex tasks that are to be accomplished on timely manner, with some set quality parameters and a specified amount of budget, in order to achieve excellence in terms of customization and innovation.
An example for discussion would be the launch of a food section by Marks & Spencer: understanding the quantum change, planning the launch, making a marketing plan and executing it properly is one of the most visible example of Project management mode of working by firms. Operations are rather a continuous mode of working strategy and are followed later when the initial steps have been accomplished. Therefore, Project Management mode is used to start new business objectives. Later, these are executed to provide inputs to operations for better implementation.
The second reason for project management mode to be more adaptive is because of its general to specific nature: firms/organizations today have to deal with many aspects of technological and social innovations because of mass customization, which requires much lot of attention in work that has to be done in order to achieve goals set by the organization. In doing so, organizations tend to focus specific projects rather than a single collective task, so that work is done beyond the organizational normal capacities.
We can see from the example that was discussed in the prior session that previously, Ford use to produce a single model with a standard black color that happened to be successful for a long period of time. But as gradually time passed by, the increase in wants by customers made it essential for Ford to revisit its strategies and as we see in 2003, GM offered 89 models; selling an average of 50,000/model which clearly shows the need for specific project oriented mode of dealing with business activities.
Moreover that, project management is highly preferred because a proved and accurate planning for a specific task is possible and achievable. This would result in cost effective measures, and efficient use of resources and in return save time and money. It is also easy to track the progress of any project that has been started and rectify and loop holes that exist to make sure the project is implemented accordingly as planned.
In the world of today where business strive on the basis of global competition, knowledge explosion, and customer focus, not to mention the extensive role of IT in every manner; it is true that more firms now focus on project management rather than in operations mode.
The most important reason for project based mode of management by firms is because of the need to deal with specific and complex tasks that are to be accomplished on timely manner, with some set quality parameters and a specified amount of budget, in order to achieve excellence in terms of customization and innovation.
An example for discussion would be the launch of a food section by Marks & Spencer: understanding the quantum change, planning the launch, making a marketing plan and executing it properly is one of the most visible example of Project management mode of working by firms. Operations are rather a continuous mode of working strategy and are followed later when the initial steps have been accomplished. Therefore, Project Management mode is used to start new business objectives. Later, these are executed to provide inputs to operations for better implementation.
The second reason for project management mode to be more adaptive is because of its general to specific nature: firms/organizations today have to deal with many aspects of technological and social innovations because of mass customization, which requires much lot of attention in work that has to be done in order to achieve goals set by the organization. In doing so, organizations tend to focus specific projects rather than a single collective task, so that work is done beyond the organizational normal capacities.
We can see from the example that was discussed in the prior session that previously, Ford use to produce a single model with a standard black color that happened to be successful for a long period of time. But as gradually time passed by, the increase in wants by customers made it essential for Ford to revisit its strategies and as we see in 2003, GM offered 89 models; selling an average of 50,000/model which clearly shows the need for specific project oriented mode of dealing with business activities.
Moreover that, project management is highly preferred because a proved and accurate planning for a specific task is possible and achievable. This would result in cost effective measures, and efficient use of resources and in return save time and money. It is also easy to track the progress of any project that has been started and rectify and loop holes that exist to make sure the project is implemented accordingly as planned.
Equal Opportunity and Discrimination In Work Place
Anti-Discrimination policy for women at workplace was coined back forty years ago when U.S congress passed an Equal Pay Act of 1963 allowing women the freedom to receive the same pay as their male colleagues. Moreover, this act was mostly set as an example by almost all other the other countries that later began the process of anti-discrimination and equal opportunity for women in all fields of life.
Anti-discrimination policies that allow women with lesser to compete with males of skills more than women do is considered to be a positive discrimination for women. This practice is also called quota system in many countries. The procedure is basically followed in bureaucracy where much of the employments are made through hiring people from different race, religion and educational background. The quota system in effect allows peoples with unequal educational levels to compete on the same ground.
Many countries, such as the sub-continent (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) follow similar steps of quota system or positive discrimination as it is known in general to allow women to participate in politics, government institutions and state organizations. This allows women to have more opportunity then males to excel in career without having a specified educational criterion.
The anti-discrimination policy that tends to allow less skilled women labor to work as much of with highly skilled male labor is however banned in some countries. This kind of positive discrimination is banned in the United Kingdom. Much of the critics point out flaws in the positive discrimination being provided and mark them as leverage for being a woman. They point out that many take advantage of the affirmative discrimination by identifying themselves as deprived and take over employment of those who are deserving individuals.
Moreover, apart from work related arguments, Gary K. Clabaugh writes in one of his articles about the negative effect of positive discrimination on college students. He gives a comparative example of a Hispanic wealthy girl in U.S and an American white boy who has hardly managed money to support his tuition. Despite all what he had done to enter college, the Hispanic might be selected because of her race and gender. The mere purpose was to show the demerits of positive discrimination in society. Therefore, such laws have raised question about the threats it poses to rise of injustice.
On the contrary, Affirmative actions for women also have some benefits. The past we had seen was in desperate need for affirmative action like policies. Women in the past were allowed only to work as teachers, nurses, or mates. This caused them to become demotivated and remain economically poor not allowing them to social progress. Affirmative action policies later allowed women to excel as a strong and efficient work force. Women were hired as doctors, lawyers, construction workers, top executives, corporate CEO’s, police officers, combat pilots in the military, and even U.S. Secretary of State, and other occupations that were usually destined for men. Positive discrimination further also allowed women. Moreover, on a racial basis, African Americans were not allowed better jobs just because of their color. This trend later diluted due to the implementation of positive discrimination which caused equal opportunity for everyone.
Therefore, it is true that positive discrimination for women and other race related issues have been misused and have been discredited by many critics; but it is also imperative that one should know what really caused the concept to come to existence. It is this anti-discrimination for a woman (positive discrimination in reality) that has caused the society to progress in ideology of freedom that we see and experience today.
References:
1. Masselot, A. , 2007-07-25 "Deep Impact: Mapping the Impact of Anti-Discrimination Law" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the The Law and Society Association, TBA, Berlin, Germany . 2009-05-24 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p175402_index.html
2. Hirsh, E. and Kornrich, S. , 2004-08-14 "The Context of Discrimination: The Impact of Firm Conditions on Workplace Race and Gender Discrimination" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Hilton San Francisco & Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel, San Francisco, CA, Online PDF. 2009-05-26 from
3. Gary K. Clabaugh (2000). Positive Discrimination. Retrieved July 28, 2009
2. Hirsh, E. and Kornrich, S. , 2004-08-14 "The Context of Discrimination: The Impact of Firm Conditions on Workplace Race and Gender Discrimination" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Hilton San Francisco & Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel, San Francisco, CA, Online PDF. 2009-05-26 from
3. Gary K. Clabaugh (2000). Positive Discrimination. Retrieved July 28, 2009
4. Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. (2003). Discrimination. MSN. Retrieved July 28, 2009 from: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761573635/Discrimination.html Discrimination.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
My views about the movie 2012
Today I really thought about discussing with my followers something I was thinking of after I watched the Movie 2012. Since ive been free these days from the mental torture of reports and presentations I face from SZABIST, I felt why not relax out for a while and enjoy vacations while others still run for the race....
Oh well, regarding the movie, the execution and direction seemed good, though i feel it was running way too fast..i mean, it started off in a rushing manner and it took me time to figure out what was happening.
Apart from that, there was something I really find interesting about american movie directors after watching these type of movies: the americans have gone way too far to make money! I mean, these people are some capitalists: they make up a movie showing america breaking into pieces with its president so hopeless, and dieing himself for that matter, just to make sure the world watches it with excitement.....and to make more MONEY out of it. I mean, how can you do that? Consider Pakistan for that matter: the Pakistanis would I guess, would never ever show their land breaking into pieces...not even the hardest critic would do that. Everybody here prays for a better future and try to make movies (well, they usually fail to make good ones) to show Pakistan prospering! Look at the movie Jinnah; it seems so aspiring! This shows the different mindset Pakistani people have from western countries.
Another thing in the movie was trying to portray that the world is not fair, and that only the rich would survive. This is something negative I find in this movie. Although its totally correct and practical, but still atleast a ray of hope should also be shown, as many other movies do.
One of my good friends also pointed out that its always the black presidents who tend to be undecisive and force america into brink of disaster. Why? why is it always so? I think its a clear indication of racial discrimination (I might be a bit too extreme, but this is what I feel)..
Well, this is what I thought about the movie and your views about it might be totally different so its completely fine to disagree with me! =D
Oh well, regarding the movie, the execution and direction seemed good, though i feel it was running way too fast..i mean, it started off in a rushing manner and it took me time to figure out what was happening.
Apart from that, there was something I really find interesting about american movie directors after watching these type of movies: the americans have gone way too far to make money! I mean, these people are some capitalists: they make up a movie showing america breaking into pieces with its president so hopeless, and dieing himself for that matter, just to make sure the world watches it with excitement.....and to make more MONEY out of it. I mean, how can you do that? Consider Pakistan for that matter: the Pakistanis would I guess, would never ever show their land breaking into pieces...not even the hardest critic would do that. Everybody here prays for a better future and try to make movies (well, they usually fail to make good ones) to show Pakistan prospering! Look at the movie Jinnah; it seems so aspiring! This shows the different mindset Pakistani people have from western countries.
Another thing in the movie was trying to portray that the world is not fair, and that only the rich would survive. This is something negative I find in this movie. Although its totally correct and practical, but still atleast a ray of hope should also be shown, as many other movies do.
One of my good friends also pointed out that its always the black presidents who tend to be undecisive and force america into brink of disaster. Why? why is it always so? I think its a clear indication of racial discrimination (I might be a bit too extreme, but this is what I feel)..
Well, this is what I thought about the movie and your views about it might be totally different so its completely fine to disagree with me! =D
Monday, August 24, 2009
Empowerment
This post of mine highlights the need of empowerment in the world of today. Empowerment in a broad extent today means providing individuals with potency in terms of authority and involvement in various aspects to help them become brave, and attain freedom to self determine the good practice. It is generally focused on providing opportunity to build self confidence in oneself to progress in life.
Employee empowerment is practiced back from the old times of the industrial revolution in the United States when the concept of employee was gradually changing as in effect to how the Chinese workers at that time use to perform and follow the “worker responsibility” policy effectively i.e. the authority to work decisively and correctly.
In this highly corporate world of today, employee empowerment is considered the key to organizational success. It is a relation essential for both managers and employees in order to work effectively and efficiently side by side, along with maximizing long term goals for the organization. In addition to that, employee empowerment in the long run helps retain the most excellent employees, internally motivated to work for the organization.
Organizations today strive to maintain a balance between empowerment of employees and management control. Rules are followed to allow employees to remain strong, along with helping the management to establish its control in terms of supervision of tasks. This is essential because every individual should be allowed to work in an environment that is less stressful and more adaptive. For example, workers at Intel Corporation are delegated work in order to achieve better results. The employees are allowed to set in their own objectives and achieve them so that they get an opportunity to experience leadership.
In order to strike a balance, it is essential that the managers and employees have good faith in each other and maintain a working relationship that is beneficial to them and the organization. A model specific set of strategies should be followed to maintain the working relationship properly.
The first ideal rule to follow is that management should make a consistent and result oriented objective to be followed. It should be specific and time oriented. Next, managers should organize groups or teams to carry out the assigned objectives. It is now the motivation factor that plays its role in energizing and helping achieve the desired goal. Being a positive helpful manager would be an added advantage for the employee personal development. Communication in this case plays a very important role; managers should be very cooperative and should deal with every matter with value. Trust is also a very important factor; it is this relationship that eventually leads to cooperation and balance.
Subsequently follows the evaluation where employee work is evaluated. It is suggested that managers try to evaluate their employees on factors that are measurable and in the vicinity of the employees’ control. Factors that are uncontrollable should be avoided because it would make the judgment bias. Lastly, the whole process leads to personal experience to how one knows himself better. A SWOT analysis measuring key strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for personal development is important. This in return helps an individual both managers and employees to judge themselves in order to find room for improvements. Managers also at times reward employees with benefits which is also tool to appreciate better performance. This would in the end result in empowerment both personally and professionally.
References:
Moiz Damani is currently a student at Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, pursuing an MBA degree with specialization in Finance
Employee empowerment is practiced back from the old times of the industrial revolution in the United States when the concept of employee was gradually changing as in effect to how the Chinese workers at that time use to perform and follow the “worker responsibility” policy effectively i.e. the authority to work decisively and correctly.
In this highly corporate world of today, employee empowerment is considered the key to organizational success. It is a relation essential for both managers and employees in order to work effectively and efficiently side by side, along with maximizing long term goals for the organization. In addition to that, employee empowerment in the long run helps retain the most excellent employees, internally motivated to work for the organization.
Organizations today strive to maintain a balance between empowerment of employees and management control. Rules are followed to allow employees to remain strong, along with helping the management to establish its control in terms of supervision of tasks. This is essential because every individual should be allowed to work in an environment that is less stressful and more adaptive. For example, workers at Intel Corporation are delegated work in order to achieve better results. The employees are allowed to set in their own objectives and achieve them so that they get an opportunity to experience leadership.
In order to strike a balance, it is essential that the managers and employees have good faith in each other and maintain a working relationship that is beneficial to them and the organization. A model specific set of strategies should be followed to maintain the working relationship properly.
The first ideal rule to follow is that management should make a consistent and result oriented objective to be followed. It should be specific and time oriented. Next, managers should organize groups or teams to carry out the assigned objectives. It is now the motivation factor that plays its role in energizing and helping achieve the desired goal. Being a positive helpful manager would be an added advantage for the employee personal development. Communication in this case plays a very important role; managers should be very cooperative and should deal with every matter with value. Trust is also a very important factor; it is this relationship that eventually leads to cooperation and balance.
Subsequently follows the evaluation where employee work is evaluated. It is suggested that managers try to evaluate their employees on factors that are measurable and in the vicinity of the employees’ control. Factors that are uncontrollable should be avoided because it would make the judgment bias. Lastly, the whole process leads to personal experience to how one knows himself better. A SWOT analysis measuring key strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for personal development is important. This in return helps an individual both managers and employees to judge themselves in order to find room for improvements. Managers also at times reward employees with benefits which is also tool to appreciate better performance. This would in the end result in empowerment both personally and professionally.
References:
- Abraham Wandersman, David M. Fetterman, & Shakeh J. Kaftarian. (1995). Empowerment evaluation (5th ed.).
- Cynthia D. Scott, Dennis T. Jaffe, Mary Kay Beeby, & Tony Hicks. (1991). Empowerment
- Management by Objectives. From: 1000ventures (Website)
Moiz Damani is currently a student at Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, pursuing an MBA degree with specialization in Finance
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Great Ideas: How to track employee performance
This post is basically a gist of the points mentioned in the article published in an online website that discusses some facts managers should look into: a summary of some of the essential points for managers who ought to judge their employee performances.
First and foremost, the author suggests that targets should not be set got long term goals; it should be set for a rather smaller period such as on a quarterly basis rather than yearly. This makes it easier for managers to judge employee performance in a better and sound manner.
Secondly, the author asks managers not to use too much mathematics for performance check. A simple and rather straightforward method might be more beneficial and rather easy both for the manager and for the employee to cope up with.
Thirdly, help in any form from other should be fully appreciated and counted in for judging performance. The author in this case points out that not every manager is perfect and help is indeed an option. This would in the end be helpful as new ideas would pour in which would make the measurement more credible and help resolve a difficult task.
Fourthly, for performance to be judged effectively, managers should not take into account factors that are not in control by the employees.
Lastly, providing freedom to analyze an employee’s performance by oneself would be more helpful in correcting the failures/problems of the past. This is indeed a very helpful step for every employee in judging his own performance rationally and dealing it in the long run.
The article mainly informs managers and those who read about some of the most intelligent steps that managers should take in this corporate world to overcome performance management problems that are being faced. It acts as a checklist for both managers and employees about how to judge and how one should work in effectively in a corporate world to ensure progress.
Source: Canadianbusiness Entrepreneur (Human Resource) Section (Website)
Moiz Damani is currently a student at Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, pursuing an MBA degree with specialization in Finance.
First and foremost, the author suggests that targets should not be set got long term goals; it should be set for a rather smaller period such as on a quarterly basis rather than yearly. This makes it easier for managers to judge employee performance in a better and sound manner.
Secondly, the author asks managers not to use too much mathematics for performance check. A simple and rather straightforward method might be more beneficial and rather easy both for the manager and for the employee to cope up with.
Thirdly, help in any form from other should be fully appreciated and counted in for judging performance. The author in this case points out that not every manager is perfect and help is indeed an option. This would in the end be helpful as new ideas would pour in which would make the measurement more credible and help resolve a difficult task.
Fourthly, for performance to be judged effectively, managers should not take into account factors that are not in control by the employees.
Lastly, providing freedom to analyze an employee’s performance by oneself would be more helpful in correcting the failures/problems of the past. This is indeed a very helpful step for every employee in judging his own performance rationally and dealing it in the long run.
The article mainly informs managers and those who read about some of the most intelligent steps that managers should take in this corporate world to overcome performance management problems that are being faced. It acts as a checklist for both managers and employees about how to judge and how one should work in effectively in a corporate world to ensure progress.
Source: Canadianbusiness Entrepreneur (Human Resource) Section (Website)
Moiz Damani is currently a student at Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, pursuing an MBA degree with specialization in Finance.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)