‘Pakistan has its own Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Laxmi Mittal’

The speakers at the 4th International CEO Summit Thursday emphasized that there is immense potential and resources in Pakistan and if the resilient people are properly guided they can push the country into a developed nation as they overcame devastated floods and earthquakes within the shortest possible time.
However, they said, the people could not harness the national resources because of various reasons including lack of professional approach and the ever-worsening law and order situation across the country that is inter-related with structural problems. This mess has created fear of uncertainty in all spheres of life, the speakers added.
Themed as “Growth in Testing Times: Challenges & Opportunities”, the summit also witnessed the launching of a book titled “100 Business Leaders of Pakistan”.
The event took place under the aegis of Manager Today magazine and CEO CLUB.
Those who spoke on the occasion included chief guest Yaseen Anwar Governor State Bank of Pakistan; Ijaz Nisar Founder and President The Manager Today’s & CEO CLUB; Hussain Dawood Chairman Engro Corp; Asad Umar Ex-President Engro Corp; Kamran Rizvi – Executive Director, Navitus; Atif Bajwa – President & CEO, Bank Alfalah; Sohail Wajahat Siddiqui Chairman, Pakistan State Oil; Sirajuddin Aziz – President, Habib Metropolitan Bank; Kashmala Tariq, MNA; Muhammad Zubair Motiwala, Chairman SBI; M Rafiq Uddin Mehkari – President, Askari Bank; Irfan Siddiqui – President & CEO, Meezan Bank Limited; Shireen Naqvi – Lead Trainer, Navitus; Adnan Siddiqui – Country General Manager, IBM Pakistan; Sikandar Sultan – CEO, Shan Foods (Pvt.) Ltd; Hasan A Bilgrami – CEO, Bank Islami Pakistan Ltd; Duraid Qureshi, CEO HUM Network; Shehryar Ali Taseer – CEO, Media Times Ltd; Jamshid Iqbal Cheema – Chairman, Auriga Group of Companies; Asad Said Jaffar – Chairman & CEO, Philips Electrical Industries of Pakistan Ltd; Syed Saquib Mohyuddin – CEO, SME BSF; Usman A. Ghani – International Consultant CONFLUENTC; Tariq M. Rangoon Wala Chairman, ICC Pakistan Chapter & Dr. Kamran Shams Executive Director Akhuwat and others.
Speaking on the subject of role played by the visionary leadership in overall economic growth, Governor SBP Yaseen Anwar said the business leaders were facing challenges both internally and externally. But, he said, they cannot take good decisions internally without considering the external issues and problems.
Asad Umar, former President of Engro Corporation, said a clear vision and sense of ownership not only brings up good leaders but helps build great institutions as well.
He said that institutions were beyond individuals leading the institutions and true leadership was vital to the entire socioeconomic growth of the country.
Ijaz Nisar said: “We always quote success stories of western CEOs but do not highlight achievements of local entrepreneurs like Sohail Wajahat Siddiqui, Kamran Rizvi, Asad Umar, Muhammad Zubair Motiwala and Yaseen Anwar.”
He said Pakistan had its own local Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Laxmi Mittal who could turn the fate and face of the country if they were provided conducive and friendly environment for doing business.
Topic of the summit were: The path to prosperity: Opportunities of Business Growth in Pakistan (CEO’s Panel Discussion); Entrepreneurship: Future of Pakistan; Role of visionary Leadership in Economic Growth; Developing Human Capital as Strategic Investment; Corporate Governance for Growth – New Economic Agenda & Business Success; Developing Public–Private Partnership to Boost Economic Development; What does ‘Growth’ mean for: A new enterprise, A family business & A multinational; The tough questions: Growing where? Growing how?; Growing through people: Engagement First! And Growing with money; Getting the best bang from your buck!.
The summit was termed as an ideal opportunity for building relationships with peers and colleagues who can share information, insights and inspiration that can be of vital help for the local organizations.
The event also provided multiple opportunities to gather with other summit attendees in order to extend once reach and influence into the community of his/her fellow senior CEO leaders.
The conference was well attended and more then 500 professionals from different cities of the country showed up in it.