Here are my hard earned qualifications that allow me to speak on strategy. I have never been rich or famous (infamy is separate classification) or successful. Of the last four of my ventures, three were dismal failures. I have been teaching since a crazy afternoon in 1995, when I was asked to substitute for a…
Author: Jawwad
My loverly (not a typo) team or the secret behind the spike in my posting frequency
We shipped the first release of our ultra secret, classified, eyes only, touch this and die, product yesterday. The parallel run has been on for the last 10 days. Yesterday we finished configuring our client’s server, packed the box, delivered it to the client site and turned it on. Monday morning, July 2nd, we will…
Cadbury Pakistan does fruit and nuts
And hazel nuts and roasted almonds. The only thing missing now are the 500g and 1Kg super bars and there won’t be a reason for me to stop at Dubai duty free anymore. Good show guys. It took you ten years to figure out the chocolate market in Pakistan but you finally did it.
The Alchemy Story or How I became rude, mean and abusive
Osama Hashmi at Green and White did a post on support for entrepreneurs and I thought it would be worthwhile to share our story with the community to add to the points I made on his blog. Here is my story. Year One. On 1st January 2003, I came back home to Karachi. I had…
Marc Andreessen does a blog
Marc, the Netscape founder does a series on the only thing you ever needed to learn to run your startup. Great validation for the Blue screen of Death.
Strategy for Technology companies – Part I or THE RANT
This is my second post on the technology scene in Pakistan. The series got triggered by a request on a report card for the industry in Pakistan. Strategy for technology companies is something that has never really been discussed threadbare in Pakistan. Most technology discussions start with a quick comparison with India (look how big…
The Technology scene in Pakistan or The List
I wanted to do this for a very long time but never got round to it. This morning got up, made a few phone calls and put this post together. Here is what I have done. Using very raw numbers wrt to number of employees, average salary per employee, target profit potential, I have gone…
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I don’t know… The late Eqbal Hassan once said that “Whatever you do, don’t complain?”. This is your country, if you have any issue work and resolve it. But don’t complain. So I am not going to complain. Not that I have anything to complain about. Yes there was no electricity for the last 30…
Karachi United, redux
Heard on the sidelines of Karachi United Football Club, Coach to his class of little ones… “Its not about the goal, its about the ball. When its not about the ball, its about the mindset” I have now been a KUFC summer camp father on the side lines for three weeks. It has been a…
Alchemy on Hiring – the PASHA Career Expo Post 1
I am not exactly the role model for giving hiring advice since in my career to date I have only actively looked five times for a job. a) Immediately after school at FAST ICS (four offers) b) Four and a half years later when I was pissed at my boss for taking sides (one offer)…