Karachi School of Business & Leadership to Open Doors in 2012

[Riaz Haq]

Cambridge University's Judge Business School and Karachi Education Initiative are launching Karachi School for Business & Leadership (KSBL) in 2012.

Karachi Education Initiative, which is providing the initial core funding for KSBL, is a non-profit group of leading industrialists and businessmen of Karachi. The group has committed to raising a permanent endowment fund to support the education of deserving students at KSBL, as well as for the provision of resources, facilities and buildings required to create a world-class institution.

The school is headed by Dean Robert Wheeler III who has served at the Pennsylvania State University, University of Texas at Austin and Georgetown University in key positions like assistant dean and director of MBA program. Spread over three acres, the main campus of KSBL is now under construction on Stadium Road in Karachi. The construction phase will be over in July 2012 and the first group of students will be admitted in September. Initially, KSBL will offer a full-time, 21-month MBA program in general management only.

KSBL's MBA curriculum has been designed in collaboration with Judge Business School of Cambridge University in England. In addition to conventional teaching methods involving lectures and case studies, KSBL will use videoconferencing to let its students attend live lectures from American and British universities.

Wheeler told Express Tribune that the core faculty of KSBL would be of Pakistani origin with PhD degrees from foreign universities. “We’ll cut back on the administrative work that faculty is often required to do in Pakistan and encourage them to do applied research that could be used in the industry, government and business.” In many classes, especially those on entrepreneurship, Wheeler said more than one person would co-teach students via videoconferencing to provide them with a combination of academic and professional perspectives.

KSBL will join the ranks of other major business schools such as Karachi's Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) to deliver world class business education for meeting the growing demand for professional management in the industrial and service sectors of Pakistan's economy.

The history of advanced business management education began with the founding of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in 1955 in Karachi, Pakistan, in collaboration with the top-ranked Wharton School of Finance & Commerce at University of Pennsylvania. Additional help and support came from University of Southern California and USAID to set up facilities and train faculty.

As the contribution of agriculture dropped from 50% of GDP in 1950s to about 20% of Pakistan's economy in 2000s and Pakistan began to urbanize and industrialize, the demand for business professionals grew significantly, as did the number of schools offering business education. As of 2004, there were 87 business schools recognized by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, according to stats compiled by Dr. Jamshed Hasan Khan of LUMS. Of these, 28 were in the public sector and the rest in private sector.

The rapid expansion of business education has raised concerns about the quality of such education. The HEC is responding to such concerns by standardization of business curricula and accreditation requirements. A number of programs have been initiated by the HEC to improve business faculty, including scholarships for advanced training and education in Pakistan and universities in the West.

Business schools in Pakistan have produced highly competent men and women executives who have proved themselves by managing significant topline growth and increasing profitability in banking, telecom, FMCG, automobiles and other sectors in very difficult circumstances. I am optimistic that the addition of business schools like the KSBL will further enhance the capacity of future managers to deal with such challenges.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Pakistan's Demographic Dividend

FMCG Consumption Boom in Pakistan

Pakistan's Financial Services Sector

Pakistan's Growing Middle Class Consumption

IBA's Entrepreneurship Study Flawed

Pakistan's Media and Telecom Revolution

Pakistanis Study Abroad

Pakistan's Youth Bulge

Pakistani Diaspora World's 7th Largest

Pakistani Graduation Rate Higher Than India's

India and Pakistan Contrasted in 2011

Educational Attainment Dataset By Robert Barro and Jong-Wha Lee

Quality of Higher Education in India and Pakistan

Developing Pakistan's Intellectual Capital

Intellectual Wealth of Nations

Pakistan's Story After 64 Years of Independence

Pakistan Ahead of India on Key Human Development Indices

Working Women in Pakistan

Pakistan Youth Roundtable

Scholarships at Foreign Universities

Institute of International Education--Open Doors

UK's Higher Education Statistics Agency Report

Austrade on Education in Pakistan

[Riaz Haq]

The Indian School of Business and Inst of Bus Admin (IBA) will jointly offer executive MBA in Pakistan, according to The Hindu:

The Hyderabad-based premier school has signed a memorandum of understanding with Karachi-based Institute of Business Administration in this regard here on Friday.

As part of the agreement, ISB and IBA would jointly conduct executive education programmes in IBA campus in Karachi.

ISB would be responsible for design and delivery of the courses, Mr Deepak Chandra, Deputy Dean, ISB told newspersons here on Friday.

“Pakistan is one of the countries that have growth potential and we are always looking towards working in those markets,” he said.

The environment and challenges in offering executive education programmes were also similar in both the countries, he added.

Beginning from June this year, ISB is planning to run about 10 programmes for senior management executives in Pakistan industry.

Family business, entrepreneurship, business leadership and strategy, Mr Deepak Chandra said.

“Going forward, we will also extend this to exchange of students and faculty and also public/government sector in Pakistan,” Dr Isharat Husain, Dean and Director, IBA said.

The history, culture and environment were similar in India and Pakistan. Referring to difficulties in Visa, communication and logistics between the countries, he said:

“Our Government has assured us help. We will try making this collaboration more fruitful.”

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/article3310728.ece?re...

[Riaz Haq]

Here's a PakTribune story on US scholarships for Pakistanis to study economy & markets:

Twenty-two Pakistani scholars have been awarded a total of $490,000 worth of grants by the United States government for research on various fields related to economic development and markets.

The 22 winning proposals were selected from more than 180 research applications from all over the country and abroad. The selection was made by a 15-member committee consisting of internationally acclaimed scholars with extensive research experience in Pakistan and abroad, says a press release.

"This is yet another example of the US support for Pakistan's development priorities. We believe that this research will help lay foundations to the growth of Pakistan's economy, thus contributing to a more prosperous future for the people of this country," US embassy coordinator Richard Albright said.

http://paktribune.com/news/US-provides-490000-for-research-on-econo...

[Riaz Haq]

Here's an excerpt from The News on India-Pakistan management pros summit:

The first-ever Pakistan-India management conference will be held in Lahore next month to establish relations between management practitioners and professional institutions of the two countries and to share best regional practices and case studies from the corporate sector.

The two-day event, titled Dividends: Pakistan-India Management Summit, will be held on September 20-21 in Lahore, in which nearly 600 corporate and business leaders from the two countries are expected to participate.

Aman ki Asha – the Jang Group-Times of India peace initiative – is partnering the event with Nutshell Forum, in which participants will not just share their management experiences and challenges but also establish relations on individual and institutional levels.
-----------
“The two business conferences helped set the broader agenda and underlined the importance of peace and friendship between Pakistan and India for economic development and prosperity in the region,” said Shahrukh Hasan, the group managing director of the Jang Group. “This management summit will take this process a step forward as it will help professionals and their associations to directly build ties and links necessary to give shape to and practically implement the recommendations made at the Lahore conference,” he said.
----------
Providing details regarding the forthcoming summit, Muhammad Azfar Ahsan, chief executive officer of Nutshell Forum, said that around 100 corporate leaders from India and 500 from Pakistan are expected to participate at the Lahore summit. He hoped that the summit would be a landmark event that will enable professional institutions such as AIMA, MAP, ICAP and the stock exchanges to establish direct links. Ahsan said he was delighted to partner the summit with AKA. “The response received from professional bodies in both countries has been beyond our expectations; the quality of speakers and delegates already confirmed will ensure that deliberations are of a very high level,” said Ahsan.

Other partners and supporters of the management summit are include the All India Management Association; Management Association of Pakistan; SHRM India; Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES; Pakistan Society for Human Resource Management; Marketing Association of Pakistan; India Society for Training & Development; Pakistan Society for Training & Development; Institute of Cost Accountants of India; Institute of Cost & Management Accountants of Pakistan; International Advertising Association Pakistan Chapter and International Advertising Association India Chapter.

Ahsan said that the conference will provide an opportunity to Pakistani and Indian corporate leaders to share experiences and explore avenues of “knowledge cooperation for sustainable development”. “This will help promote bilateral relations and bridge the gap between the Pakistani and the Indian intelligentsia,” he said.

Among the broader topics of discussion at the summit will be leadership and strategy; technology; innovation and growth; sustainable economic growth; human resource and the workplace. The event is to feature in-depth debates, presentations, keynote addresses, breakfast talks, panel and roundtable discussions along with a cultural evening, an art exhibition, sightseeing trips to historical and modern places of interest in Lahore and a Pakistan-India golf match.

Amin Hashwani, the chairman of the organising committee of the summit, said that Aman Ki Asha and Nutshell Forum will achieve another landmark by gathering “the best of management thought leaders of the region and providing a forum for sharing the regional best practices and studies.”

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-3-128536-First-Pakistan-India...

[Riaz Haq]

Here's an ET story on top jobs for IBA grads:

KARACHI: If a high number of students receiving multiple job offers even before they graduate is the chief yardstick to measure a business school’s performance, the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) is certainly in a league of its own.

“Some of our students receive as many as six job offers before they had graduated,” IBA Dean and Director Dr Ishrat Husain said while speaking to The Express Tribune on Friday.

Out of the 196 IBA BBAs, who actively looked for jobs in 2012, as many as 170 – or 86.7% – managed to find employment of their liking, according to the IBA’s employment survey released earlier this month. The average monthly starting salary for BBA graduates in 2012 was Rs43,200, compared to last year’s Rs36,700, reflecting an increase of 18%.

The banking sector has been the chief employer of IBA graduates in recent years. But the percentage of BBAs joining the banking sector was 18.8% this year, compared to 39% two years ago. Although the banking sector offered a salary of salary of Rs36,900 a month on average in 2012 – which is Rs6,300 less than the overall average salary this year – it still remains the single largest employer of IBA BBAs.

Husain says the fact that the number of IBA graduates entering the banking field has come down by almost 50% in just a couple of years should be attributed to slower expansion in the banks’ branch network.Dr Ishrat Husain

The education sector remained the second-largest employer of IBA BBAs this year with 13.5% graduates entering the field at an average salary of Rs36,000 per month. About 78.3% graduates joining the education field were female, according to the employment survey.

Many of the BBAs entering the education field return to IBA after getting the mandatory work experience required for the MBA programme, according to Husain.

Financial institutions were also a less preferred employer for IBA BBAs in 2012, as only 5.9% of graduates joined them at an average salary of Rs39,700 a month. Unlike the education sector, which attracted more than twice the number of BBAs this year compared to 2011, the number of IBA graduates joining the financial sector actually decreased from 14% to 5.9% over the same period.

IBA BBAs received the highest average monthly salaries in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), telecommunications and manufacturing sectors with Rs70,000, Rs67,000 and Rs35,000, respectively, according to the employment survey.

Commenting about the low level of interest among IBA graduates in joining the textile sector, Husain says it was due to the “seth mentality” prevailing in the industry. “We have taught our students professional management, so they do not want to become part of the textile industry for obvious reasons,” he said.

The employment survey says 90.5% of the fresh MBAs who actively sought jobs this year found employment of their liking. The average monthly salary for IBA MBAs in 2012 was Rs66,400, which is almost 24% higher than the last year’s average.

Sales and distribution, FMCG and IT sectors attracted 26.3%, 18.4% and 15.8%, respectively, of IBA MBAs in 2012, the survey said.

“While the general impression is that there are few jobs because of the sluggish economic growth in recent years, the truth is that there are ample employment opportunities for graduates of quality educational institutions,” Husain said.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/482633/grad-employment-offtake-puts-iba...

[Riaz Haq]

Here's an Express Tribune story on McKinsey's planned practice in Pakistan:

KARACHI: McKinsey and Company – the firm that invented management consulting is still considered the most prestigious outfit in the business – is thinking about setting up a permanent presence in Pakistan, though the precise date of when they will do so is uncertain.

According to sources familiar with the matter, the company has conducted considerable due diligence about creating an office in the country. Talal Malik, a McKinsey spokesperson for the Middle East region, declined to comment.

But several sources, including current and former employees of the consulting giant, say that McKinsey has believed for at least five years that the Pakistani market is big enough for its strategy consulting services, which are among the priciest in the world. Dominic Barton, the global managing partner of the company, specifically mentioned Pakistan as an area of interest for the firm in a post on the company’s internal blog in 2010.

And the company is no stranger to the Pakistani market. McKinsey has previously worked on several assignments in Pakistan for a variety of clients, including projects for Engro Corporation, the Punjab government, and the Karachi Electric Supply Company. Those clients were served mainly out of the Dubai office, though some personnel from its offices in Europe and North America were also deployed to locations in Pakistan.

McKinsey has also hired personnel from Pakistani business schools, including the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), though usually no more than one or two a year for its Dubai offices. Should the firm set up its offices in Pakistan, McKinsey is likely to recruit far more heavily on the LUMS campus.

According to several sources familiar with the company’s plans, there had been two main concerns for the company in setting up a Pakistan office: ensuring the safety of its personnel and getting “core clients”....

http://tribune.com.pk/story/539008/is-mckinsey-company-about-to-set...

[Riaz Haq]

Here's an FT story on Pakistanis business school grads:

...“This (power cut) is the sort of challenge they don’t necessarily prepare you for in a business school,” says the HR manager, adding: “We want our managers to have their feet on the ground.” This message appears to chime with the thinking across many of the country’s corporate board rooms.
More than a decade has passed since the September 11 2001 attacks on the US forced Pakistan into an American-led global “war on terror”. The period of political and economic uncertainty that this war unleashed has visibly changed the business environment in the country.
While there used to be a large number of expatriates running a network of multinational companies, there are now far fewer and these have hung on only because of Pakistan’s large market size. Concerns have mounted over the safety of western nationals in the country, who are likely to be in greater danger of physical attacks or kidnappings than their local counterparts.
The security risk has forced an increasing number of companies to hold meetings in safer countries such as Dubai.
Perhaps in response to the scarcity of experienced managers from abroad, local banks and companies are seeking well-rounded Pakistani executives armed with MBA degrees. But they also want them to be able to cope with challenges such as the heightened security risks. Although there are a number of successful US-trained Pakistani managers, some with MBAs from top-ranked US business schools, domestically trained MBAs are in demand because overseas-educated MBAs of Pakistani origin often do not want to leave the west to take up a position.
First, many of them prefer to build their careers outside the country in North America, Europe or Asia, because they are attracted by more generous financial packages. Second, by staying abroad, many such graduates can evade the risks that accompany daily operations in Pakistan, such as the running of elaborate supply chains involving road transportation to potentially high-risk areas.
Pakistan’s business schools are seeking to fill the gap created by this trend and an increasing number of graduates from the country’s top two MBA programmes – offered by the Lahore University of Management Science (Lums) and the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) at Karachi university – are looking for opportunities within the country.
“Our MBAs are hands-down a better choice for any employer in Pakistan,” says Arif Butt, dean of the Suleman Dawood School of Business at Lums. Its MBA programme is based on a case-study approach adopted by the world’s leading business schools. Prof Butt says Lums graduates “can very easily and very quickly assume positions of responsibility and become corporate leaders. They know the [Pakistani] environment very well.”
Lums also offers specialist programmes such as a certificate in agribusiness to train individuals in modern management techniques for establishing businesses linked to Pakistan’s large agricultural sector.
Ishrat Hussain, dean of IBA and a former governor of Pakistan’s central bank, says the post 9/11 environment has allowed local business graduates to rise faster.
“Across businesses based in Pakistan, whether foreign-owned or local, the position of CEO is increasingly occupied by our own graduates,” he says. “For many employers, there is no difference [between hiring a Pakistani graduate from the top two schools or a graduate from a foreign MBA programme]”.
As Pakistan’s business schools are increasingly preparing their graduates for the local environment, attention needs to paid to the particular problems the country faces.
Aside from security risks, challenges include operating in an environment tainted by corruption and widespread tax evasion....

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/c3cfa7da-8809-11e3-a926-00144feab7de...

[Riaz Haq]

In addition to Prof Asim Khwaja at Harvard Business School, there are other notable Pakistani-American professors of business and economics at top universities in America. Prominent among them are two names: Prof Atif Mian at Princeton and Prof Amir Sufi at University of Chicago Booth School.

Mian and Sufi have recently written a book "House of Debt" published by University of Chicago Press.

Here are excepts of their thoughts as published in a Bloomberg piece:

The point is general: Housing is a service we must all consume, whether we rent or own. A decline in the price of housing services is a good thing for those of us who plan on increasing our consumption. If my home value declines, I should only feel poorer if I was planning to decrease my consumption of housing services or moving to a less expensive area.

So from a macroeconomic perspective, in a world without mortgages, falling house prices would have negligible aggregate effects. Some households would be richer and some would be poorer. But there is no reason to believe that there would be a large aggregate “housing-wealth effect.”

So why is housing holding back the economy? It is because most homeowners use substantial amounts of debt to purchase houses. Once we acknowledge that housing is a highly leveraged sector, the conclusions of the theory are totally different. In this case, there are a number of reasons why house-price declines will affect household spending.

First, the collateral value of housing is extremely important. Households can only borrow at a 3.9 percent, 30-year fixed rate if they have home value to back the loan. A severe decline in house prices takes away this channel.

Second, the debt associated with homes means a higher rate of defaulting households. This leads to lower credit scores and more foreclosures, both of which have negative effects on household spending.

And third, even for households that choose to continue paying their mortgages, the decline in home values will lead to deleveraging as homeowners struggle to improve their financial position.

The evidence overwhelmingly supports the view that high debt levels are the central reason that house-price declines negatively affect household spending. For example, our research shows that for a given drop in home value, a household cuts back on auto purchases much more if it is highly leveraged. We also find that the reductions in household spending in counties experiencing large house-price declines are far too large to be explained by a housing-wealth effect alone.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-01/how-debt-ridden-housing-ho...

[Riaz Haq]

Reformer-in-chief: In conversation with Dr Ishrat Husain

http://herald.dawn.com/news/1153435

Fahd Ali. What were the challenges you faced after taking over IBA in 2008?

Ishrat Husain. When IBA was set up in 1955, it was the first business school outside North America. Why the heck is it still so unknown outside Pakistan? To me, the challenge was that this institution should be one of the top institutions like the Indian Institutes of Management, which are household names abroad. Why isn’t IBA in the same league?

Also read: Jawwad S Khawaja—Poetic justice

Being a public sector institution, my first condition for taking on the job was that I would not allow interference from any political quarters. The second condition was that the government must give me the freedom to approach the private sector and charities to raise money because the government did not have the money [required to restructure IBA].

Ali. What necessitated IBA’s restructuring?

Husain. I wanted to put IBA among the top 100 global business schools and among the top 10 in the region. In order to do that, I had to realign its programmes with the best international practices that are also rooted in local circumstances. IBA also had to apply for accreditation with the international agencies. The changes were necessary in order to obtain those accreditations.

Ali. What was your restructuring strategy?

Husain. I enhanced the quality of the existing academic programmes and brought in new ones. I transformed IBA’s flagship MBA programme and aligned it with the best international practice: that everybody has to have a two-year post-graduation work experience before they can enrol.

When, however, we started the new MBA programme in 2010, the enrolment went down drastically — from 150 to 25. This was a big shock. Tuition fee collection declined substantially and many members of the faculty had no courses to teach, but I persisted. The market has now recognised there is a qualitative difference in graduates who join an MBA programme straight after a BBA and those who are now coming out of [the restructured] MBA programme. The new graduates are more mature. They are not chasing grades; they apply their knowledge to real world problems.

-------------------

Ali. There is a focus on the social sciences in higher education these days. What do you think is the reason for that?

Husain. I presented a paper, Public Policy and Social Sciences, at a conference at the Government College University in Lahore about seven years ago. In that paper, I discussed the status of social sciences teaching and research in Pakistan. [My diagnosis was that] people who did not pass the civil service exam became teachers of history and social sciences.

But that trend has changed. Some of it owes to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) that has started investing in PhD programmes. Some very bright young men and women have gone to good schools abroad and come back with PhDs recently. We should have people who are conducting research on our political system, our social and economic problems and our history. We should have more Ayesha Jalals.

Also read: Raheel Sharif—The chief who could be king

[Social sciences] is also virgin territory: if you write about Pakistan’s historical, political and religious problems in a scientific manner, you will get published in the best journals. The critical mass has been created by the HEC and an incentive structure exists that induces young teachers to specialise in these fields.

The HEC also offers competitive research grants in the social sciences every year. You do not have to be part of a public sector university in order to compete for these grants. You can compete if you have developed a good proposal. The state is, thus, modifying its postures as far as research in the social sciences is concerned.

[Riaz Haq]

Consortium of #Pakistan #business schools formed to engage in #CPEC ops research. #China #FDI #LUMS #IBA #KSBL

http://www.radio.gov.pk/06-Feb-2017/consortium-of-top-pakistani-bus...

A consortium of top Pakistani business schools was formed to engage academic sector for applied research on various industrial and business opportunities related to China Pakistan Economic Corridor and make this project, a real game changer.

The decision was taken in a meeting held in Islamabad today with Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal in the chair.

It was decided that the consortium will analyze the impact of Chinese investment in CPEC projects in the field of energy, infrastructure and industrial cooperation to ensure transformation of Pakistan into a new hub of trade for the whole world.

Addressing the meeting, Ahsan urged business schools to work for capacity building of provincial governments and chambers of commerce to ensure maximum benefits of CPEC.

He further instructed to develop linkages with top Chinese business schools and ensure exchanges of students and teachers.

The Minister said advised to upgrade universities libraries not only by acquiring Chinese publications but by translating them to make it available for local consumption to understand Chinese business practices, ethics and laws.

He said West, Middle East and Central Asian countries have already expressed to join CPEC so the consortium should propose a model to engage these nations for a true transformation of Pakistan into a geo economic hub.

It was also proposed that Chinese language should be included as a compulsory subject in all undergraduate programs in Pakistan. Deans of top Pakistani business schools also attended the meeting.

[Riaz Haq]

Consortium of #Pakistan #business schools formed to engage in #CPEC ops research. #China #FDI #LUMS #IBA #KSBL

http://www.radio.gov.pk/06-Feb-2017/consortium-of-top-pakistani-bus...

A consortium of top Pakistani business schools was formed to engage academic sector for applied research on various industrial and business opportunities related to China Pakistan Economic Corridor and make this project, a real game changer.

The decision was taken in a meeting held in Islamabad today with Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal in the chair.

It was decided that the consortium will analyze the impact of Chinese investment in CPEC projects in the field of energy, infrastructure and industrial cooperation to ensure transformation of Pakistan into a new hub of trade for the whole world.

Addressing the meeting, Ahsan urged business schools to work for capacity building of provincial governments and chambers of commerce to ensure maximum benefits of CPEC.

He further instructed to develop linkages with top Chinese business schools and ensure exchanges of students and teachers.

The Minister said advised to upgrade universities libraries not only by acquiring Chinese publications but by translating them to make it available for local consumption to understand Chinese business practices, ethics and laws.

He said West, Middle East and Central Asian countries have already expressed to join CPEC so the consortium should propose a model to engage these nations for a true transformation of Pakistan into a geo economic hub.

It was also proposed that Chinese language should be included as a compulsory subject in all undergraduate programs in Pakistan. Deans of top Pakistani business schools also attended the meeting.