TiECon Sparks the Spirit of Entrepreneurship in Pakistan

The spirit of Entrepreneurship drives economies. Better opportunities to start a business means that the environment is business friendly in that country also that youth considers entrepreneurship as an option. Unfortunately, Pakistan does not fall in the category of business friendly countries. There are many aspects, but two key reasons are:

1.      Tough regulatory environment

2.      Youth’s focus on job market

In this situation, there has been a need to engage youth in debates on “why they should consider entrepreneurial careers”. Mentors need to be motivated to spare time and continue dialogue on various forums available in Pakistan.

The Indus Enterprise (TiE) Global celebrated its 20^th anniversary this year. The initiative currently operates in fourteen countries with over 13,000 members. TiE’s key focus is “helping start ups  start-up”. The global institution and its regional initiatives organize several events throughout the year to keep the Spirit of Entrepreneurship alive.

TiE Pakistan hosts TiECon to be part of this exciting entrepreneurship development initiatives. This year the conference is being held at Karachi on 30^th November. Check here for agenda and registration:

Throughout the day there will be exciting speakers to enlighten participants with their experience and knowledge about the subject.

Following is a list of speakers and discussions:

Umair Jaliawala, Executive Director, The Indus Entrepreneurs 

Muhammad Aliuddin Ansari , President & CEO, Engro Corporation

Rafiq Rangoonwala - CEO, Cupola  

Panel Discussion: 'The Hockey Stick: How to build scale & drive growth?'

Dr Shaukat Brah - Dean, Karachi School for Business & Leadership
Muhammad Aliuddin Ansari - President & CEO, Engro Corporation
Salman Burney - CEO, GlaxoSmithKline Pakistan
Masood Hashmi - CEO, Orient Communication

Session Chair: Zafar A Siddiqui - Director Center of Entrepreneurship Development, IBA

Triumphs & Tribulations - Stories of entrepreneurs who made it BIG!

Monis Rahman - Chairman and CEO,  Naseeb Networks
Sardar A Qayyum - Owner, BBQ Tonight
Dr Akhlaq Ahmed - Assistant Professor, Institute of Business Management

Transforming Lives

Dr. Ahson Rabbani - Executive Director, Program Development & Communication, Aman Foundation 

Thematic Talks

Young Blood 
Faizan A Laghari - CEO,  The Flagship Group
Umair Jaliawala - CEO, School of Leadership

Women Power 
Nilofer Saeed - Owner,  Hobnob Bakery
Shireen Naqvi - Director, School of Leadership

Money Matters 
A B Shahid - Former Chief Rep. for Pakistan, Hatton National Bank Ltd.
Amin Hashwani - Director,  Hashwani Group of Companies

Entre-toolkit 
Taher A Khan - Chairman,  Interflow Group
Hammad Siddiqui - Deputy Country Director, CIPE

Social Entrepreneurship 
Dr Asher Hasan - Founder & CEO,  Naya Jeevan
Zaheer Kidvai - CEO, BiTS

Battle of Business Ideas: The Business Plan Competition

Thematic Talks

Academic Leadership
Ch Faisal Mushtaq - Founder & CEO, Change in Education
Dr A Wahab - President, Muhammad Ali Jinnah University

Fashion & Media
Amir Adnan - Owner, Shapar
Freiha Altaf - Owner & CEO, Catwalk Productions

Manufacturing and Trade
Mohsin Dharsi - President, Mohsin Dharsi Group of Companies
Abdullah Feroz - MD, Efroze Chemical

Services
Shoaib Qureshy - Chief Strategy Officer, Bulls Eye Communications

e-Business
Amer Sarfraz - Partner & VP of Business, Bramerz
Amin ur Rehman - CEO, FoodPanda.pk at Rocket Internet Pakistan

 

Tech Panel: 'Essential Tools for Entrepreneurs' 

Jamal Khan, CEO, Arpatech
Farzal Dojki, CEO, Next Generation Innovations
Shahida Saleem, Chairperson, Sehat First 
Shahjahan Chaudhry, CEO, Teamants

Session Chair: Rabia Garib, Editor-in-Chief of CIO Magazine & Jehan Ara,  President Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA)

Umair Jaliwala, Executive Director, TiE Karachi in his message to this post said:

In the looming economic and political times, the job markets are becoming bleeding competitive and start-ups are becoming riskier and difficult to sustain! This calls for entrepreneurship and not the convention 'Mind Your Business' approach but rather a collaborative, creative and considerate one. TiEcon 2012 leverage on bringing entrepreneurs and to-be-entrepreneurs together for powerful networking and lifelong learning. For most career starters today, the orthodox job and 'work for life' is unappealing. The energy and talent is on an all-time high, the direction and consistency must come in. For individuals who have started out already must unleash the power of collaboration and work together to develop their respective industries. For those who have been there and done that, the time is now to give, to educator and to mentor.

See you at TiEcon 2012, this Friday i.e. Nov 30 at Sheraton, Karachi. Dig ww.tiecon.pk or 

call 021 35296417-8 for details.

 

Job Opportunity in Islamabad - Pakistan

Manager Communication & Donor Relations at a Bank

Sector: Banking
Position Title: Manager Communication & Donor Relations
Position Location: Islamabad
Salary: 60K to160K -- may vary 
Benefits: Mobile allowance, Health, and Life Insurance

Essential Requirements:
-- Experience in foreign/international organization or donor-funded project
-- Experience of working in Donor Relations/Donor Coordination and Report Writing 
-- Minimum about 5 years work experience 

Min. Qualification: 
-- Masters degree, preferably in international relations, communications or an Arts/Social Science field,

Experience: 
-- Minimum 5 years experience with international development agency/ NGO with specific experience in communications, Project management, resource mobilization, and/or donor relations

Competencies:
-- Proven ability to successfully develop and manage funding proposals to institutional donors.
-- Demonstrated ability to articulate point of view in presentation and report writing.
-- Use a high degree of tact and diplomacy in working with others
-- Ability to deliver under tight timelines on multiple assignments.
-- Ability to develop & present key performance indicators to aid decision making and ability to participate effectively in senior management meeting.
-- Supports team decisions with a good ability to listen to learn and to demonstrate flexibility and good resilience to change.

JOB SUMMARY
-- The position is responsible to provide a coordinated, responsive and clear interface between donors and Bank
-- This has high-level responsibility within the organisation on external representation to ensure timely and clear information flows and communications to donors and other external stakeholders.

KEY DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

-- Contribute to the formulation and maintenance of the Bank’s Funding Strategy to support on sourcing and securing funding for the Bank’s initiatives/interventions.
-- Coordinate communications and relations with prospective multilateral/bilateral donors. Act as focal point within Bank with donors, including responding to information requests.
-- Support the Senior management to identify and develop opportunities with existing and new donors and funding mechanisms, maintain strong relationships with existing donors, building interactive relationships and present the Bank’s strategy to their particular interests and expectations.
-- Conduct ongoing donor mapping and research, intelligence gathering and analysis of external funding trends and feed this to business planning so as to inform and align funding strategy.
-- Support development and submission of donor proposals. This requires working closely with other functions in order to advise and support them to understand and meet donor requirements and take account of donor feedback during the development process.
-- Track donor requests and ensure full, accurate and timely response is returned to them and a professional, positive and responsive relationship is maintained.
-- As needed, provide support to monitor grant progress, and proactively flag issues to be raised with donors, such as the need for contract amendments, no-cost extensions and budget realignments, advising on any donor-specific requirements which might apply.
-- Act as a gatekeeper in Bank in terms of ensuring quality and timely submission of reports, and work with other functions to continuously improve the quality of donor reports.
-- Coordinate and accompany donor visits to field areas, ensuring follow up on issues and undertakings arising from these visits.
-- Provide regular management information on the status of donor relations, risk areas, learning points and solutions to SMT.
-- Prepare the monthly grant monitoring meetings, and have a general overview of the progress of grant spend and implementation.
-- Developing and implementing the Bank Communications strategy in coordination with the advertising and PR agency.
-- Developing collateral and publications such as corporate presentations, brochures, newsletters, annual reports, website, product leaflets, corporate media campaigns, documentaries, success stories, corporate giveaways and other publications for external and internal circulation to create and promote a positive image of the Bank and its services.
-- Ensuring compliance with the Graphics Identity Standards and set values and behaviours that reflect the corporate brand.
-- Developing and maintaining Stakeholders’ relations - Liaison with customers, Government, shareholders institutions, BOD and other stakeholders.

You can also read: How to find your dream job?

Do you need a cover letter?

Using Social Media as Job Search Tool

Contact:

Sohaib Taimoor
Recruitment Executive
Career Pakistan
www.careerpakistan.pk
sohaib@careerpakistan.org
0345-5000900

How Did JC Penny Pricing Strategy Fail?

US is a highly customer sensitive market. Radical experiments can work, but when backfire, retrieval is generally almost impossible.

Undoubtedly pricing strategy is the key to bring customers in stores. US customers are known to drive miles to avail small coupon offers. Price war is tough. In this situation why did JC Penny showed bravery in changing its pricing strategy and stopped issuing coupons to its customers who were used to of getting deals from the store via coupon based promotions. That resulted in a significant decline in customer visits, resulted in sharp decline in sales which had fallen 26.1 per cent against an estimated decrease of 17.9 per cent.

Before the start of Christmas session, JC Penny needs to bring its customers back. Stores are now focusing on putting manufacturer’s prices together with Penney’s deal prices. They are hoping that these two price tags are expected to attract customers. Stores are also starting seasonal vendor promotion technique which means partnering with vendors that are already putting their products on sales.

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