Rising with the Millennials and Creating Sustainable Businesses

19^th Management Association of Pakistan (MAP) Convention sets high bar, as usual, with Octara as Lead Partner

Report filed by Adil Ahmad (Octara Correspondent)

Large and exciting cast of characters grace the occasion…. Generous doses of good news delivered….. Attentive & highly clued in audience in the hundreds laps it all up…. Jose Cordeiro in full form, as also Soraya Sarif…. Francisco Palao Reines on first trip to Pakistan…. Sharmeen steals the show, somewhat…. Local gurus thinking global add their two bits, and hefty bits at that…. 19^th MAP Convention landmark event for sure…. Salute!

Exponential change is in the air, ready or not!

Some potent food for thought got served up at the 19^th MAP Convention, with Octara as the Lead Partner, that focused on the Millennials phenomenon and the general ability, or inability, of the preceding generations to understand this youthful powerhouse that is fast becoming the majority cohort in the workplace, and better align with it to unleash its formidable potential.

MAP sets the pace

ASIF IKRAM, the MAP President, works as the Managing Director of SICPA Inks Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd., and spoke of the 1500 seminars and training courses organized by MAP over the last 50 years covering 52,000 participants.

Three generational cohorts are converging, said the MAP President. “Gen X born before the 1980s; Gen Y better known as the Millennials, and Gen Z born after 1997. Our purpose of getting together is to see how ready we are to embrace the phenomenal changes in the workplace, and our readiness to create exponential organizations.”

To answer questions on how to move forward your organization’s strategic thinking and how to harness the new power in a rapidly changing world to make local businesses more adaptive, agile and innovative MAP and Octara organized a full day workshop on Business Transformation facilitated by Dr. Jose Cordeiro and Dr. Francisco Palao Reines. Another workshop on Embracing the Millennials Mindset was facilitated by Soraya Sarif.

Dr. Jose Cordeiro delivered his Keynote Address on the 15 global challenges that form the key concerns for the future of business management and the Millennials.   .   .   

JOSE CORDEIRO, the Futurist

From the layman’s perspective Dr. José Cordeiro is not easy to define. He deals in issues of considerable complexity, something his ultra-higher education enables him to do. He is generally known as a futurist, a man obsessed, one might say, with the technology based exponential dimensions of human evolution. Dr. Cordeiro holds degrees in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts, economics from Georgetown University, Washington, DC, management from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France, and science from Universidad Simon Bolivar, Caracas, Venezuela.

He is chair of the Venezuela Node of The Millennium Project and founding faculty and energy advisor at Singularity University in NASA, Silicon Valley, California. Dr. Cordeiro is also invited faculty at the Institute of Developing Economies IDE – JETRO in Tokyo, Japan, and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in Russia. He has published more than 10 books in 5 languages, including the best-selling edition “The State of the Future” with The Millennium Project, and has appeared in programs with CNN, Discovery Channel and the History Channel, among many other international media interviews. 

So, what was such a distinguished global heavyweight doing in Pakistan, a country cynically considered by the circles he moves in as the backwaters of progressive thought, as also the most dangerous place on Earth? As it turns out he has been coming to Pakistan for the last 30 years, and seen the country change and evolve from one of the cradles of human civilization as manifest in the Indus Valley and Moenjodaro, to a burgeoning and vibrant nuclear powered powerhouse with thriving urban centers and a rapidly growing educated middle class.

Declining populations & doubling GDPs?

Dr. Jose Cordeiro hypothesizes that the problem of the planet in the future is under-population, and not over-population, and that the population of Pakistan will also stabilize and then go into decline. The Gross Domestic Product has been growing exponentially, says Dr. Cordeiro.

“It took the United Kingdom 58 years to double its per capita income during the Industrial Revolution between 1780 and 1838, the first time in human history. Countries are doing it faster now, with China doubling in 8 years which is a world record. I am looking forward to seeing Pakistan break that record. 

Today there are no excuses anymore for being poor because we know what works and what doesn’t work. We are living in incredible times. In the next two decades we will see more technology changes than in the last two millennia.” According to this futurist 2045 is when singularity is expected to happen, when artificial intelligence reaches human intelligence. It will be when man becomes ‘immortal’.

Get proactive about the future

He says there are four ways to think about the future. “The worst way is to be passive with no care about the future and one’s head firmly in the sand like an ostrich. Next is being reactive which is tantamount to firefighting. This is not good but not so bad. Next is pre-active when one prepares oneself for the changes by taking out insurance. The best is proactive because that way one creates the future, a better future. We need to meditate about the future.”

Dr. Cordeiro says the Chinese have two characters for ‘crisis’. The first one means ‘danger’, and the second means ‘opportunity’. His advice is to learn Chinese given the reality of the One Belt One Road (OBOR) and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). “These are truly magical times, and the best time to be alive.”

The one crucial global challenge, in his esteemed opinion, that the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals did not talk about was how can we become more ethical and moral, and improve the human condition.                    

“Teachers are unable to meet the expectations of the Millennials”                           – TALIB SYED KARIM

The president of the Institute of Business Management and also president of the Marketing Association of Pakistan, Talib Syed Karim spoke of the influence of Millennials on Education, and gave the glad tidings that Karachi was in the process of reviving its old glory. 

As stakeholders we have failed miserably in the education sector, he admitted. “A large number of youngsters belonging to the Millennial generation have never been to school or enjoyed the opportunity to study. This has created a big gap in society. Both the private and public sectors are responsible for this mess, more so the public sector which is responsible for primary and secondary education. Now private-public partnerships are putting more children into the school system.”

Industry Stalwarts opine

In between the Keynote Speakers industry stalwarts provided meaningful insights from their experiences in the field.

Omer Abedin, the author of “Building Brand You’, is CEO of Starcom Mediavest Group, and says that Millennial is a demographic, but also a mindset. “Within the Millennials there are urban and rural mindsets, and all urban Millennials don’t have the same mindset. It’s crucial to understand this. 

Millennials have a lot of value to add and are extremely tech savvy. They are very open minded and yet very opinionated. They are socially conscious and look for brands with purpose, and for companies that provide much more than just functional attributes.”

By 2025 Millennials will be 40 years old, and not the young and angry crowd of today, he says. “They’re becoming more affluent with a longer life expectancy, and will have different priorities than the rest of Pakistan.”            

Asad Haider Khan, the general manager for Karachi of Careem, spoke on the influence of Millennials in lifestyle, and disagreed with the unflattering stereotype of Millennials as being lazy and narcissist, and living with their parents. 

“They are tech savvy guys with a soft side, very conscientious and community minded who want to make an impact upon society. Corporate taglines don’t work with them, and they want instant gratification, and with good reason. Rockefeller made his first billion in 30 years, but it took Mark Zuckerberg barely over one year! So if the Millennials want it now it’s because they see it happening.”

Ghias Khan, the President & CEO of Engro Corp, spoke on loving or hating Millennials, saying that he was not comfortable because even though this cohort had been branded as entitled, self-interested, narcissistic, lazy, impatient, too sensitive, not loyal, and unable to take pressure, hating them was not an option. Ghias is a strong believer in social enterprise and environmental and human wellbeing, and at that level he connects very well with the Millennials to which generation belong his three kids. 

“They recognize genuineness, take you on face value and give you that chance. They have seen college dropouts become billionaires. Engro promotes based on experience and age, and that doesn’t sit well with Millennials which provides us with food for thought.”

 “Have a clear purpose to the business” – DR. FRANCISCO PALAO REINES

Creating awareness for exponential thinking and generating EXO mindsets for Millennials was Dr. Francisco’s topic, and he started by citing high school students who were learning to encode new living beings based on better DNAs. With a PhD and MBA, Dr. Francisco is from Spain and the co-founder and CEO of EXO Works, USA. He spoke of scarcity based business models and how they were going out of business, like Kodak, and the new move from scarcity to abundance thanks to technology yielding phenomena like AirBnB and Uber.

Most disruption comes from outside the industry, and even though it was a Kodak employee who invented the digital camera the Kodak leadership put it under wraps to protect its current business. But it happened nonetheless. “While it’s easy to predict linear progression, by definition we cannot predict exponential implications. So we cannot predict the future, and must create it, and that’s where exponential organizations come in that connect with abundance and manage it.”

Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP)

Making money is fine, but why do we exist? To make the world a better place. Google’s MTP is to organize the world’s information. Working with MTPs it is possible to make much more money than through the traditional approaches. Generating a balance between information, resources, and energy, and then connecting with the balance and managing that balance is the key that can unlock untold fortunes.

If we connect with abundance without managing it we will die, says Dr. Francisco, whose advice is to manage through experimentation and innovation. “A business plan is a set of hypothesis that need to be evaluated and validated, and iterated, until we find the right solution. Any new idea is a hypothesis and should not be executed without being tested. Experimentation is the key and traditional thinking and models are being disrupted.”

If it isn’t broke why fix it?

To become an exponential organization it is important to transform the leadership by making it aware that the world is changing, and to succeed one must change also. “The immune system of the organization always attacks innovation. Why do you want to change something that is already working? The answer is to adapt a little without changing the business model. Create an EXO on the edge of the current organization, and through incremental innovation preempt disruption. Start another brand.”  

Dr. Francisco’s advice to Millennials is to be awake, and be aware of the new technologies and opportunities around them. “Have a clear purpose to the business. Create new ecosystems, and facilitate people by aligning them to the purpose, and take them to the next level.”

Moving from scarcity based to abundance based approach is disrupting everything, and EXO is the way to navigate disruption. “Keep the organizational DNA and don’t let external consultants tell you what to do. Use coaches, and let your own people implement the change. That way the immune system will not attack.”

This was Dr. Francisco Palao Reines’ first trip to Pakistan, and he said he liked the experience very much, and hoped that the next time he came he would find some EXO success stories here.

“What is it that will allow us to sleep better at night?” – SHARMEEN OBAID-CHINOY

Speaking on the influence of social films on Millennials, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is the CEO of SOC Films and the winner of two Oscar Awards for her productions ‘Saving Face’ and ‘Girl in the River’, very powerful statements on acid attacks and honour killings in Pakistan that jolted the government out of its past criminal inaction. Humayun Bashir, the former country general manager of IBM, hosted Sharmeen on stage.

Born in the late 1970s, Sharmeen belongs to Gen X but is considered a borderline Millennial, and employs only Millennials, being the oldest person in her company. She describes herself as a workaholic, and passionately believes in telling stories using animation as her medium, and venturing into virtual reality. “It can take you places you’ve never been to,” she says, and is introducing it to schools and colleges as a means of communicating with younger people.”

She is not one person, but wears many hats, always evolving, and very passionate about taking Pakistan to the next stage. “I never studied film, because like a good Pakistani daughter I studied economics and political science, and became a filmmaker by accident!”  

The question for young people, she says, is what are we getting out of it beyond a pay cheque? “What is it that will allow us to sleep better at night? What is it that we can do for the community and society around us?” Sharmeen feels that these are the questions the Millennials are asking, and acknowledges that many companies have excellent CSR programs that engage with the youth across health and education.

 “Build multi-generational engagement tools by looking for the common denominator “ –  SORAYA SARIF

SORAYA SARIF is no stranger to Pakistan, and at the Convention she functioned in a dual capacity, both as keynote speaker and emcee, With an MBA from the UK, Soraya styles herself as a human capital optimization and organizational efficiency strategist, and is the co-founder of Synerjunction based in Canada. Her keynote presentation was on attracting Millennial talent, and her advice is to trust your people and build cross-functional teams from a cross-section of the organization.

“You get disruption from diversity. Make sure you have a plethora of talent on your team with varied backgrounds, a number of different fields all at one table to be able to innovate on one particular product. You’re not going to get industry convergence by sticking to the same teams. Different outcomes depend upon doing things differently.”

She emphasized the need for change champions, saying that your people know best and should be facilitated. “Constant feedback culture is replacing traditional performance management, and leadership communication is at the core of it, with better questions to get better answers.”

Where is the sweet spot where we can engage the different generations all at once, she asks? “Build multi-generational engagement tools by looking for the common denominator, and encourage cross functional collaboration. Get so well integrated that the different generations are pulling each other ahead with them rather than being pulled back.”

Executive discussion

On that very thought provoking note Soraya Sarif invited six stalwarts of trade, commerce and industry for a conversation on how to attract develop, engage, retain and empower Millennials.

Ali Raza Mehdi (SVP & CHRO, Engro Corporation), Amir Jamil Abbasi (Partner, KPMG),

M. Hussain Adenwala (Director & HR Consultant, HRFirst), Fahd Kamal Chinoy (Executive Director, Pakistan Cables), Khalid Zaman Khan (Executive VP, Head of HR, Meezan Bank) and Sarfaraz A Rehman (Executive Coach & Consultant) gave valuable insights from their corporate experiences.

Insights galore!

From answering the core question of what the organization’s DNA Is and what does it stand for, to coaching, mentoring and counseling students all over Pakistan, to having Millennials pitching to Millennials on campus visits, to making human capital management the number one priority across the enterprise ahead of financial capital, to determining value by outcome rather than activity, to reverse mentorship by having a mentor younger than you, the thoughts generated by the executive discussion were many and provided for all present a deeper understanding of the Millennial phenomenon.

The 19th MAP Convention, all in all, made for an exhilarating day of discovery and introspection, and the sheer depth and breadth of the corporate sponsorship of the Convention showed the seriousness with which the Millennials are being taken in Pakistan, at least by the private sector’s leadership. 

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