Every day we come across website addresses trailing with “.com.pk”, “.net.pk”, “.org.pk”, “.edu.pk”, “.gov.pk” or simply “.pk”. To land on this site, you also typed “entrepreneurs.pk”. However, majority people in my network don’t have an idea who operates this “PK” thing for us. It is sad to mention that even many IT Professionals and Computer Science students in Pakistan don’t know about PKNIC (Pakistan Network Information Center (Pvt) Ltd.), the registry responsible for the .pk country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) for Pakistan since most of the people acquire domain name via resellers with a hosting plan. Those who know about PKNIC are unaware of the fact that it is owned and run by Mr. Ashar Nisar, A Pakistani – American who graduated from UET Lahore in the 80s.

Ashar, the reclusive owner of PKNIC (the entity which registers all .pk domains) is termed as an unsung hero along with Imran Anwar, the pioneer and founder of internet and email in Pakistan. Those who have been associated with IT Industry since its inception term Ashar, Imran and Alvi brothers as the fathers of Pakistani IT Industry.

The .PK domain was envisaged as being a private sector provider of services to promote Internet in Pakistan. Formed in 1990,  Ashar Nisar and Imran Anwar both co-founded it as both of them were UET students and neighbors. Every effort was made to keep the government and the telephone monopoly out of it. This remains true to this day. However, some differences arose between the duo and ultimately Imran moved out leaving the complete management control to Ashar.  Mr. Ashar, the technical genius later went onto form PKNIC to manage the ccTLD.

The ccTLD is normally owned by government’s regulatory authority or the ministry of IT but the case of Pakistan is totally different. PKNIC operates from USA although important government, educational, and private organizations including PTA are currently using the DotPK domain server. Recently, The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) persuaded this US-based Pakistani company PKNIC to set up an office in Lahore and deploy a mirrored root server in Pakistan which is fully operational now.

Apart from the PKNIC story, some of you may already know that the very first PC computer virus was developed in our very own Lahore, back in 1986. The famous Brain Code used to change the volume label on a floppy disk since there were no hard disks at that time. This invention is generally attributed to the Alvi brothers, Basit and Amjad but the role of their friend Ashar Nisar is often overlooked. I have been told by various sources that Ashar was the original inventor and that this virus was originally displayed during the National Science Exhibition at UET. Alvi Brothers just modified and released it with their name.

I daily come across individuals who talk negatively about this champ and debate that PKNIC’s registration numbers and some management practices are not up to the mark. But considering how he started from nowhere, did right things at the right time, faced pressures from government & non-governmental organizations, and stands out as a role model for our technology students,  Mr. Ashar Nisar is our entrepreneur of the month.

The first question that came to our mind was “What is the immediate need of the victims that we have to address?”  The obvious answer was food and water. There is water everywhere but none safe to drink. Outbreaks of cholera are common in large floods and arranging safe drinking water to many millions of people is of extreme importance. Hence we decided to look out for water solutions as it is not possible to deliver mineral water everywhere.

Last year I saw the following  talk amongst the TEDGlobal 2009 videos where Engineer Michael Pritchard introduced his revolutionary product “Life Saver Bottle”.

I was still wondering that how can we use the same idea here that we received an email from Mr. Azhar Mateen who told us about a similar system that they have developed in Pakistan. Instead of bottle, it is more of a manual filtration plant. The plant is capable to treat the flood water directly and its capacity is more than 1000 liters per hour. Since electricity is not available in the affected areas, the system is capable to run without electricity. He further told us that they are donating 10 plants  for free and can provide us similar system on no profit no loss basis for only PKR 250,000 whereas such a system would cost much more if we’ll try to import it. The company behind the project is Tauseef Water owned by Mr.Tauseef Anjum of Tauseef Enterprises Ltd.

The following video is the live demo of the working system.

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Moreover, a friend emailed me the following poster which showed steps of making a good sand water filter. Additional details about this can be downloaded from here.

I somewhat felt really happy that people are coming up with amazing ideas to help out their fellow countrymen. Burt Rutan once said that “Innovation occurs in periods of adversity”. I would request all readers to step up and come out with such innovative solutions & initiatives that can be used to help our brothers and sisters. Since we have to rebuild these areas, smart relief efforts and superior infrastructural & residential planning is the need of the hour.

In the waters of the devastation hitting Pakistan lies a chance to reinvent our condition by washing away the regrets of the last 63 years and laying the foundations of a new temple. But only if we have the courage and vision to think on these lines.

P@SHA

Imran Sayeed, a serial entrepreneur, a consultant, an engineer, a mentor, a rainmaker, and a great supporter of many initiatives in Pakistan including the OPEN-MITEF initiative would be in Lahore on July 29.

Imran is the Senior Vice President, Global Architecture, Application Development and Management Practice and leads all commercial sector industry practices for Keane, a global BPO and IT Services company with ~14,000 professionals worldwide. Industry practices include Financial Services, Insurance, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing, Retail, Hospitality & Travel and Energy, and together comprise most of the key business lines and customers for Keane.

Imran Sayeed came to Keane through its acquisition of netNumina, a boutique technology strategy and consulting form that he founded and grew from a 15 person startup to one of Computerworld’s Top 100 emerging companies. netNumina won more than 30 of the leading financial services & pharmaceutical institutions in the world as clients, raised more than $25MM from venture capitalists and strategic investors and received more than 20 industry awards for its work.

Imran has over fifteen years of experience in software and services. Previously, as a founder of Open Environment, Sayeed helped pioneer multi-tier client server technology, and grew the company from a 10-person startup to an IPO and leadership in the middleware market.

He has written and spoken extensively in leading industry conferences and trade journals over the last 13 years on entrepreneurship, e-business, financial services, insurance and technology. Sayeed serves on the Advisory Board of several software and private equity companies.

Imran Sayeed also holds a patent on technology for providing secure financials transactions over the Internet that he jointly developed with Citigroup. He is currently a visiting faculty member at MIT’s Sloan School of Management where he teaches in the MBA program on technology business strategy.

He attended Brown University where he majored in Engineering, and Harvard University, where he did post-graduate work in business, marketing and product development.

The interactive talk is being held at the NIB Auditorium at LUMS from 5:30 – 7:30 pm on July 29, 2010. It is a FREE event but you must register so that the management can do arrangements accordingly.

Click here to Register.

Click Here to RSVP on the Facebook Event Page.

I think it was the start of the second quarter of 2007 when during a meeting at LUMS, somebody told me that there is a guy in town named Ahmad Murad Akhter who is the CEO of a company called SMCo. Technologies and has formed a website called MobileGames.PK. I didn’t pay much attention to it then. September 2007, one of my seniors at FAST-NU while strolling with me at the driveway of NUCES Lahore Campus told me that he has joined Murad’s company as a Software Engineer. The only expression at my face at that point of time was “A Proper Game Development Company in Pakistan?”. By that time, I didn’t know about Shehryar Hydri’s ventures as well. I felt that Murad is just having fun and his adventure would be over in next couple of months as they would not be able to compete with GameDev Giants. I couldn’t have been more wrong. They survived and currently are one of the biggest game development companies in Pakistan.

Murad, who also later turned out to be the cousin of one of my good childhood friends did set an example for those who wanted to pursue game development in Pakistan. He graduated from Stanford University with an MS in Computer Science and worked in Apple & Microsoft before moving to Pakistan.  A good co-founder is a must for a startup company who is at your back, understands your vision and supports you at every wild decision that the chief takes. Murad was complimented by the ever talented and optimist Mannan Amin, who has a Masters in Management Science with a specialization in Innovations, Viral Marketing, and Entrepreneurship from Stanford.  Earlier Mannan was at LUMS where he did his BSc CS and a year of MBA. Both these gentlemen teach as well. Their students are surely the lucky ones to have in their adjunct faculty such passionate leaders and technologists.

Currently working under the name of Tintash, these fellows have grown their company to 20+ employees within just 2 years of its proper operations. Tintash now operates on 2 floors of Shadman House while earlier it was using only one floor. Apart from that, the best part is their collaboration/relationships with established and emerging game development companies around as well as innovative work strategies.

Those of us who have played Fishing Frenzy by downloading it from iPhone App Store should feel proud that such work has been done in Pakistan and that our game development industry has taken first few steps to enter the global market.

It is certainly not easy to group a wonderful team of concept developers, graphics designers & software developers and then tone their skills as per your requirement especially when you are the first entrant. For standing out there in problems, believing in themselves while establishing a new industry, and growing an organization to such a level, Mannan and Murad are our entrepreneurs of the month.

Jamil Goheer and Khurram Mir at APICTA 2008

I clearly remember it was December 2006 when I got to know about a Pvt Ltd. Company working within the CS Department at LUMS. I was like WoW! Why don’t we have such a culture here at FAST-NU.  Later, I got to know that men behind this venture are ex-FASTians who graduated a year before I actually came to FAST Lahore.

After June 2007, we extensively started hearing about this company which called itself the First Quality Assurance Company in Pakistan mainly because by that time Khurram Javed Mir, the CMO of the company was out from LUMS with an MBA degree. He definitely had a plan how to take this company forward. I remember how people used to gossip about this company especially their batch mates. Some liked the idea considering that their companies can now outsource the QA work whereas some were of the view that what a stupid idea they have come up with as every software company has its own QA department. In the opinion of the second lot, they were definitely a failure.

It was May 2008 when one of my friends Arafat asked me to help setup an office and during the whole summer I heard him quoting Khurram Mir’s inspirational and motivational quotes though he never followed them himself .

“You know Rafaeel. Khurram Bhai said you have to work 20 hours a day if you have to get somewhere.”

By that time, Madam Jehan Ara and Sir Zia Imran had already administered an injection of entrepreneurship to me. So the next thing in my mind was if the CMO is so inspirational what their gang leader would be. Thus like an FBI agent, I ran a background check on Jamil A. Goheer who founded this company in 2006 and has played a key role in taking it from a startup to an award winning software QA services enterprise.  One glance at his profile confirmed that he’s definitely “The Boss”.

Year 2008 was a hard work payoff year for Jamil and Khurram. Their company won various awards including P@SHA ICT Award for Best Startup Applications. Also they were declared the “Best Startup in Asia Pacific” at Asia Pacific ICT Awards 2008.

Then suddenly one day, one of their employees told me about the breakup between the three founders of the company. Jamil and Khurram went one way by handing over the company name whereas the third partner on the other side. Everybody was of the opinion that their affair with entrepreneurship is over but my analysis said, “It’s Not”.

My guess was right. Jamil and Khurram jumped back in the arena with a new name Kualitatem and proved that its the people who matter, not brands. With the vision and the will, they have surely come a long way since then and never got a chance to look back. They have top international and local clients like Microsoft, BBDO, NetSol etc. on their list. What more one could ask for?

Jamil and Khurram seem to be in a constant pursuit of innovation and are cooking up interesting ideas soon to be revealed. Most of us are anxious and looking forward to hear more success stories from Kualitatem.

For the last few months, we were thinking to start a section called Entrepreneurs of the Month and today when we finally decided to give it a shot, Jamil and Khurram were definitely on the top of our list considering their hard work and perseverance. We have all our best wishes for them.

Do you have a company that you’re tired of running or do you just want to watch your company slowly and painfully die? Follow these steps to ensure you will lose your employees, piss off your clients and end up as WalMart’s only greeter under 65!

• Hire people because they are your friends, not because they know what they are doing. Your friends will be loyal and it will be really fun working together!
• Be afraid to fire people who aren’t pulling their weight. Firing people makes them mad and making people mad is so uncool. Not cutting the low performers makes you a cooler boss and everyone will like you more even while they are doing twice as much work as the slacker sitting next to them.
• Don’t document anything.  It’s better to talk about the same thing over and over again because you can’t remember what you decided last time you talked about it. This will give you the opportunity to talk to your employees more frequently and they love talking about their projects over and over again.
• Use email as your project management system.  Sending an email to someone ensures they will complete it.  You don’t need any system in place with deadlines, project planning or resource management.
• Regularly forget to attend meetings that you set up. Your employees like getting together in the conference room and waiting for you for 20 minutes until they decide you aren’t going to show up.  It gives them a chance to chat with each other.  And they probably aren’t that busy anyway so it’s not a big deal.
• Every few months, freak out and call a bunch of meetings to find out what’s going on. After those meetings, promptly forget everything that you were told.
• Drastically change priorities regularly. You don’t want your employees getting too comfortable. If they never know what the goal is they will always be on their toes.
• Don’t measure anything. Trust your gut.  It’s always right and will tell you how those tests would have turned out anyway.
• Trash talk your employees to other employees.  Rely on that information getting back to them so they improve performance so you don’t have to waste time on performance evaluations.
• Don’t offer benefits to employees.  Your company is so unique and awesome that people should want to work there for free.
• Argue with employees in front of their peers. This lets them know you care about their projects.
• Go around managers and task their employees. Rely on the employees telling their supervisor what they are working on. The managers will be grateful for you giving their underworked staff something to do.
• Be “too busy” to properly communicate or use tools that everyone else uses to manage projects.
• Never hire people that are smarter than you. You don’t want them showing you up.
• Consistently tell your employees how busy you are. They aren’t busy so hearing how busy you are will make them realize how important and smart you are.
• Have your employees send you lots of reports but don’t bother reading any of them.  Then regularly stop by and ask employees for updates on projects even though the full update is in the reports you ignore.
• Give vague directives like “follow up on the email I sent last week” and assume your employees know which email you are talking about.  When they ask which email, pretend they are stupid for not knowing what you’re talking about.
• Be impatient.  Employees are really motivated by you standing over their shoulders while they work. Also, calling them every 30 minutes to find out if something is done makes them more efficient.

Sadly these are all things I have witnessed far too regularly.  I actually did witness them all in one company, which coincidentally isn’t doing so hot.  I’ve done some of these things myself.  But through years of being the low level employee, then being in middle and executive management, and now running a business of my own, I’d like to think I’ve grown and learned a few things.

So take a hard look at yourself and your management style and make sure you’re not a major offender. If you are, you can change. You’ll find that not only will your employees be happier but you’ll be happier with their performance and output. Having good communication with your employees will always result in a better product or service for your clients and a stronger company overall.