Digital transformation is imperative for all businesses, from the small to the enterprise. That message comes through loud and clear from seemingly every keynote, panel discussion, article, or study related to how businesses can remain competitive and relevant as the world becomes increasingly digital. What’s not clear to many business leaders is what digital transformation means. Is it just a catchy way to say moving to the cloud? What are the specific steps we need to take? Do we need to design new jobs to help us create a framework for digital transformation, or hire a consulting service? What parts of our business strategy need to change? Is it really worth it?
Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers. It’s also a cultural change that requires organizations to continually challenge the status quo, experiment, and get comfortable with failure.
Digital transformation marks a radical rethinking of how an organization uses technology, people, and processes to fundamentally change business performance, says George Westerman, MIT principal research scientist and author of Leading Digital: Turning Technology into Business Transformation.
Digital transformation, which Westerman says should be led by the CEO, requires cross-departmental collaboration in pairing business-focused philosophies with rapid application development models.
Such sweeping changes are typically undertaken in pursuit of new business models and new revenue streams, driven by changes in customer expectations around products and services.
“Customer expectations are far exceeding what you can really do,” says Westerman. “That means a fundamental rethinking about what we do with technology in organizations.”
]]>The Governments of the world are working day and night to provide stimulus packages to the businesses to breathe but no one can survive unless there is a hope to start again. Many businesses would not be able to get any sort of package to come to life again as most of the incentives are to reschedule the loans, cut taxes and pay of salaries of staff but the real challenge would be to fund the operations once the epidemic is over.
There are a lot of strategies that could help the businesses to sail through this crisis because it is not the time to rest but to plan a commercial response to preserve top-line revenues and reinforce the ability to supply. The ideas given below are not an exclusive set of thoughts but a must-see list to make the business shine again. INVESTMENT The post-pandemic world will be greatly different than what we know before the end of 2019. A number of new opportunities will show a mushroom growth; therefore, it is the right time to work on your investment strategy, do your SWOT analysis and your planner must be final before the sun rises with the hope of smoke coming out of factories. A short list of businesses to look for boom and ban.
The current real estate package announced by the Government is a kind of amnesty scheme to put the undocumented money into the Business without any further cost. It is also immune to taxation and investigation by the department. The 90% tax reduction offered for investment in NAYA PAKISTAN HOUSING SCHEME and reduced-rate loans for housing makes it very lucrative.
FINANCE COST
If your businesses are financed by a Lender, it is right time to re-negotiate and save as much cost as you could in addition to delaying the fixed payment commitments. The State Bank of Pakistan has already issued a number of circulars to reduce the finance cost e.g.
1. Restructuring of existing loans to defer the principal amount for one year and will also not affect the credit history.
2. Finance cost has been reduced to green filed project to 7%.
3. Interest cost has been reduced by 4.75% i.e. from 9% to13.75%.
4. Low-cost financing for the payment of salaries and wages @ 3% for the active taxpayer and 5% for non-active taxpayers. The process has been simplified and banks have been instructed to process the applications on an urgent basis. This can cover up to three (03) months of the salary budget.
5. Loans that are rescheduled within 180 days would not be categorized as defaults.
6. There is a chance of further reduction in KIBOR, therefore, fixed-rate financing arrangements should be converted to variables, especially for short-term loans.
However, if you do not believe in an interest-based financing system and want to ward off your business from “RIBBA” you could opt for a private equity partner to share the business and you would also get a working hand for collective wisdom. You will be free from the fixed commitment of interest payment and could pay the dividend to the partner on the basis of results. Although it is difficult in Pakistan as most of the businesses are family-owned enterprises and a closed-knitted family feels uncomfortable sharing the ownership and business insights with others but you had to ensure liquidity.
OUT SOURCING THE NON- CORE BUSINESS
There are a number of success stories for outsourcing the non- core business activities to save/ optimize cost of doing businesses.
The banks and multinational have been doing it since years e.g. security, call centers, deliveries, accounting, tax advisory, internal audit, feasibility studies, market surveys, agreement vetting etc. You should re-assess the business operations and list the operations that could be outsourced without compromising the business operations, confidentiality and quality of services/goods. It needs a careful thinking and setting of responsibilities and communication channels with service provider.
]]>The outbreak of corona virus initiated as pneumonia of unknown cause in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, which then spread rapidly out of Wuhan to other countries. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus outbreak as the sixth public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), and on March 11, 2020, the WHO announced coronavirus as a pandemic. Coronavirus was thought to be increasing in Pakistan.
The first case of coronavirus was reported from Karachi on February 26, 2020, with estimated populace of Pakistan as 204.65 million. Successively, the virus spread into various regions nationwide and quickly became an epidemic. The WHO warned Pakistan that the country could encounter great challenge against the outbreak of coronavirus in the future.
The national vaccination drive was enforced and is still currently underway. With no local production, Pakistan had to rely on purchasing the vaccine, donations, or COVAX. As of May 5, 2021, Pakistan had vaccinated 2,967,870 citizens. This means 1.35 doses were administered per 100 citizens in the country. Aside from the fact that this supply had been constrained in developing countries, the rollout in Pakistan saw challenges of its own as Pakistani cities faced intermittent lockdowns.
Short, Middle, and Long-Term Projections Studies belied the claim of the Pakistani government that it had the pandemic under control through robust measures. The World Health Organization-led “National Seroprevalence Study,” conducted in July 2020, revealed that only 11 percent of Pakistanis had developed COVID-19 antibodies. It signified that 89 percent of Pakistanis were still susceptible to the coronavirus and that Pakistan was far from developing the kind of seroprevalence projected in other studies. However, the findings are still inconclusive as to the future of the pandemic in Pakistan in the short, middle, or long term.
Excerpt Projection from latest Report Pakistan – Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (June 9th, 2021) “We produce three scenarios when projecting COVID-19. The reference scenario is our forecast of what we think is most likely to happen: Vaccines are distributed at the expected pace. Governments adapt their response by re-imposing social distancing mandates for 6 weeks whenever daily deaths reach 8 per million unless a location has already spent at least 7 of the last 14 days with daily deaths above this rate and not yet re-imposed social distancing mandates. In this case, the scenario assumes that mandates are re-imposed when daily deaths reach 15 per million. Variants B.1.1.7 (first identified in the UK), B.1.351 (first identified in South Africa), and P1 (first identified in Brazil) continue to spread from locations with (a) more than 5 sequenced variants and (b) reports of community transmission, to adjacent locations following the speed of variant scale-up observed in the regions of the United Kingdom.
In one-quarter of those vaccinated, mobility increases toward pre-COVID-19 levels. The worse scenario modifies the reference scenario assumptions in three ways:
First, it assumes that variants B.1.351 or P.1 begin to spread within three weeks in adjacent locations that do not already have B.1.351 or P.1 community transmission.
Second, it assumes that all those vaccinated increases their mobility toward pre-COVID-19 levels.
Third, it assumes that among those vaccinated, mask use starts to decline exponentially one month after completed vaccination. The universal masks scenario makes all the same assumptions as of the reference scenario but also assumes 95% of the population wear masks in public in every location”.
Status as of the end of November 2021 COVID 19
Covid 19 infections are decreasing in Pakistan with 331 new infections reported on average each day. That is 6% of the peak – the highest daily reported average on June 17th 2021.
Dengue
Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection, found in tropical and sub-tropical climates worldwide, mostly in urban and semi-urban areas. The virus responsible for causing dengue, is called dengue virus (DENV).
Since 8 October 2021, Pakistan has been facing a continuous rise in dengue fever cases, leading to pressure on public and private hospitals, according to the district health officer. In Islamabad, dengue larvae were found at 53 different spots during the anti-dengue surveillance in the city.
Moreover, 13 October turned out to be the third consecutive day when the capital reported over 100 dengue fever patients, 115, thus taking the overall number of cases in the capital to 1,458. This trend is alarming for the capital and immediate actions are required to be taken. According to the district health officer, 948 cases were reported from rural areas while 470 cases were confirmed in urban areas of Islamabad. The district health teams are actively engaged in containing the spread by destroying the mosquito breeding sites through spray and fumigation. The Islamabad administration has launched an anti-dengue campaign in response to the alarmingly high levels of dengue fever cases.
SMOG in the start of Winters (Nov-Dec-Jan) Current Report as of 23/11/2021
Authorities in Lahore have decided to shut all schools and offices three days a week in view of the smog conditions in the provincial capital. According to a notification issued by the Punjab government, the public schools and offices will remain closed in Lahore from November 27 to January 15 – on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
The Air Quality Index has reached dangerous levels in the provincial capital. The city has reportedly been amongst the most polluted cities in the world for the past several days. On Sunday too, the air quality in Lahore was recorded at 370.
Now with above statistics lets look at education and its state currently. During excessive lock downs , quarantines, 50% attendance and alternate day teaching and learning, the student performances deteriorated and so did the ability and skills of the teachers. Schools went on zoom and Google classrooms not realizing that maybe only 30% of the entire student population of each school had access to these classrooms. Reasons were numerous, ranging from 5 -6 kids in one household along with their parents trying to use limited access to the internet, Wi-Fi and even android phones and laptops, to having none of these facilities at home. Teachers faced the same problems in addition to not being fully trained to handle zoom / Google classes!
There was a state of total bedlam and chaos not to mention the frustration and irritation among all stakeholders. Small and medium businesses suffered losses and since they comprise of the bulk of the fee paying population the schools received limited payments. Parents decided to home tutor their kids or not at all, as they could not afford to pay fee out of their limited budget. The choice they had to make was to either provide food, clothing and shelter to their kids, that was a basic need, or pay their fee to get them an education. The choice was obvious so education anyways being the least priority of the large percentage of the people of Pakistan, no fee was paid to schools. On the other hand teachers and non-essential staff were laid off to reduce financial pressure on schools. This caused more joblessness, further inflation, hunger and frustration.
Amidst all this frenzy we as a school decided to ease the pressures on the community by giving a 50% relief in fee to the parents so kids don’t stay at home. Teachers were retained on full salaries so they were incentivized to stay on in hard times, they were trained to use zoom classes, what’s-app, face time and any and every social media contact to keep the students engaged. Having small class sizes with a student/teacher ratio of 4::1, my school was able to conduct regular classes with full SOP’s, preventions and safety measures to ensure the health and life of our students.
The result was that it worked! Students were able to complete their course of studies, take their exams and be promoted to the next classes without pressure on parents or students. But the post COVID era is now affecting them when schools opened in September. They had to get back into formal routines, schedules, text books, homework, classwork, tests and quizzes and the final semester exams. It was very taxing for teachers as well to harness the extra energy that these students had accumulated over the past 2 years. But they worked hard and diligently and were able to accomplish their targets.
However, the dilemma does not end there! Next Dengue attacked and precautions, fear and restlessness was back, but we are a resilient nation and that was not a hard task to face and overcome. We had fumigations every 2nd day inside and outside the school, kept the kids wearing full sleeves and using repellants and simple doses of quinine as a preventive worked. While still trying to cope with the dengue fever, they had to start facing the onslaught of SMOG! Another life threatening environment for children and that also just as they were taking their masks off and feeling out of danger. Lahore reached dangerous UV levels and became the 2 most polluted city of the world. Once again lock downs to avoid congestion of cars on roads and exposing the kids to the danger of air pollution.
As a strong, determined and resilient people of the south East Asia belt, from Nomads to the Harappa and Mesopotamian civilizations and the to partition and creation of Pakistan, we have faced all kinds of hardships and challenges and overcome them. The same happened from 2019 to 2021. We are survivors of great men and women and will survive to leave behind stories and legends to be told and retold to future generations.
American Business Forum
2019-2022
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