Committee or a Team

Having experienced of working with a Multinational and a Government Organization, I am well placed to discuss the difference between a Committee and a Team. The mentality of a committee is to spread responsibility while making a decision, which makes the whole idea to that they are here to save themselves, the decision may carry a qualification of some members that they are not with the decision. While a team may be violent inside, but to the outside the decision that they take are unified, they own the decision whether they like it or not.

While in a committee you may work against the decision, as you want to make sure that your opposition to the decision gets glorified. In a team no matter how much you are against the decision, you would work you ass-off to make the decision a successful one, because if the decision turns bad, the whole team gets burned.

In a committee you are just there to make decisions, while in a team you are made responsible to act together in achieving the objective.
 

There could be hundreds of other point, the above are crux of it all. A committee is just there to divide the concentration of fire, so that a single participant doesn't get a third degree burns.

A successful but hateful Strategy to re-energize Large Pakistani Organizations

Let's be clear on one thing, great leaders don't have time to give a single organization their whole life. They tend to have varied objectives in life, a single organization whether it be PIA, Steel Mill, Banks or even the State Bank of Pakistan has only a small footprint in overall scheme of things. If you are a great leader, you tend to move from places to places making revolutionary changes where ever you go.

At least, this has been the story of Pakistani Organization. A Leader comes in, with great power given to them, tasked to change the whole organizational culture. And there have been more than a couple of successful instances, were the same strategy has worked.

The strategy is simple, it acknowledges that there is no time to improve the current organization so they create a parallel organization within the organization, it has more power, resources and flexibility and it cuts the ties with old organization. The newly hired people in the new organization are comparatively fresh so they can be molded to the modern needs. What we have now are two completely different sets of people, one (comparatively) old aged, slow, bureaucratic, somewhat loyal and the second sets of people are better educated, young, fast paced, without any red tape culture, would work there ass off to complete the project on time and would move to a different organization without a second thought. There is a hiring freeze in the old organization so they don't grow and are slowly washed out, 'golden handshakes' also comes in the picture if they want get rid of them early.

So far the strategy has worked at State Bank, HBL (and other banks), Lucky group, K Electric and some other organizations. The results are somewhat confused but a lot better than what it would have been if nothing was done. Though one thing is for sure, the organizational output increases drastically.

How can you identify whether this strategy has been implemented in an organization or not. You will see on occasion a really frustrated employee who always have bad words for management, who sees the management as someone who are hell-bent on destroying the organization and on other occasions an employee who are specific, young, with decision making ability and people who work late hours.

Whether the strategy is good or not, would have a different answers depending from which angle you see. But one thing is for sure, the performance and quality of output increases twofold.

How to Improve Pakistani Cricket

Finally, we are out of the World Cup race, a race we weren’t prepared for, a race we have been preparing for the last four years. What went wrong and what were the findings are discussed widely by cricket commentators and lovers alike. Muhammad Yousuf even suggested to fire all the batting line and never ever bring them again in the Pakistani Team. 

We are bursting on those people who have little control over the issue. The players did their best, that’s all they were capable of. The selection committee in the same way, did their best. The cycle won’t improve unless there is a grave effort in revamping the management process of the Pakistan Cricket Board. Pakistani cricketers are ‘thinking’ of playing with a strategy that is two decades old. Times have change and they need to change the way they play their cricket. But then again, a strategy is when someone actually has a plan, according to Amir Sohail, a veteran cricketer Pakistani Cricketers never played with a Strategy. They just focus on some players to perform outstandingly, if that clicks they think their strategy worked. These are all important issues but the main issue is not of operations rather a strategic change is needed. 

Things won’t improve unless politics is tied-up with the cricket. When Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Nationalized the industries in Pakistan, he was not expecting that the Ministries would be handed over the control of their operations. Like most of the civilized world there are proper systems to govern the nationalized industries. One of the system which is in practice is to have a Board comprising of a mixture of Public and Private representatives from different walks of life, be it Philanthropist, Industry Practitioners, Ministry representatives, Judges, Entrepreneurs and people even from the organization itself, they make all the major decision including who will lead the organization. This system is in practice by many successful government organizations of Pakistan, one of them is the leading educational institution of the country, IBA Karachi. 

People of IBA are not hired from outside the country, they represent ordinary Pakistanis. What is different is the Governance structure. This same kind of system should be made for other organization of Pakistan, PCB should be the first one to have such kind of transition. Hopefully, we won’t see Ijaz Bhatt and Najam Sethi type of people that are just aristocrat, who are hugely flawed in the way they lead their organization.

Waiting Lines - Fazaia Housing Scheme

Was quite interested when I heard about the PAF Housing complex, as a person who missed out on the Bahria and DHA bonanza, this was the time to cash-in on the project. The whole enthusiasm went in vain, when I saw some 200 people lineup at HBL bank for the Rs.1,000 forms. I don’t have that much time and energy, to stand all day in line for just the form. I initially thought of dropping the idea altogether, but just the next day someone called me for the forms, why me?

Oh Shit! I have a close relative at HBL head office, I am ‘THE’ person to contact for forms. I called up my relative to request for some forms. In return he told me that if I get hold of some, get him a couple, What!. The story was that PAF Fazaia Housing Scheme picked up the unsold forms from HBL as there was some news of mismanagement and even rioting, also that forms were sold in black, fetching 10k-15k per form. PAF intends to sell the forms at their own booths. Next day someone informed me that the booths were torn-off at PAF museum and the PAF staff fled the scene (with the forms L) not before a baton charge to the people queuing for the forms. 

Does the people know anything about the queue management, it’s a whole science. But as before, in Pakistan people feel proud when they see hundreds of people queuing up for something that they have. A very simple approach would have been to upload the form on a website and ask them to deposit the Rs.1,000 fees along with any other amount, when they were depositing the forms. Infact, it would have been further simplified if the amount was also deposited electronically, there are 10s of methods available these days.

For me, this time again I would be let to the helms of brokers who would either sell the file or eventually the plots on a premium. There is one important finding from the project, Karachiites are hungry for good investment and they are not comfortable with financial investments i.e. stocks or bonds. Trust has been shifted to Property Developers.