Uncommon success

Salim Ghauri is Founder and CEO of NetSol Technologies, a Pakistani IT company founded in 2006 which is listed on NASDAQ, New York Stock Exchange since 1999. He is referred to as “Bill Gates of Pakistan” in recognition of his contributions to the IT industry and the outstanding achievements made over the years due to sheer hard work, and determination.

NetSol has the distinction of being the largest software exporter from Pakistan and the only company in the country to have obtained CMMI Level 5 certification, an international rating that declares it to be at the highest level of maturity in software development.

Earlier this month, his autobiography titled Ghauri, with “From Nothing to Everything” as catchline, was launched in a well-attended ceremony in Lahore. The audience was keen to know the secrets behind his success. Money Matters got a chance to talk to him in detail.

Excerpts from the conversion:

Q. What made you feel the need to write your autobiography? And what is your concept of success in life?

A. One of the main purposes of my writing this autobiography is to give hope to people and tell them with examples that they can succeed in life despite odds turns against them. But in order to sail through they will have to be sincere to their goals and ready to work hard. I have talked about the ups and downs in my life and the timely decisions that put me on the right path. I have conveyed it to readers that life gives more than one chances to them to carve out their future, so they must not get discouraged by failures. Resilience and the capability to bounce back are key to one’s success.

Coming to your second question, wealth is not the only criterion for determining one’s success. In my opinion, it’s your achievements, your struggle   to overcome hurdles without compromising on your principles and the way you turn your dreams into reality that make you successful. There are many examples where people have attained success without accumulating wealth.

Q. What are the main products and services that NetSol sells to the world?

A. We are not working on multiple products or services, we are focusing only on our product called NetSol Financial Suite, or NFS. This software is used by banks, leasing companies and other financial institutions. I say with some pride that about 90 percent of multinational companies in China related to the lending business are using NFS. We are among the three or four top companies of the world which provide software to the lending industry. There are other markets to capture and in the coming years we plan to find more business in North America and Europe.

People ask me why I do not go for more products. I simply tell them that there is no need to do that after we have developed a globally popular product and refined it over the last two decades. It is time to reap the fruits of that effort rather than going for an adventure. Around 1,500 people are working at the NetSol office all the time to upgrade this software and add value to it. We do receive requests to work on different IT projects, but we politely decline to offer our services because we don’t want to divert our attention.

Q. What are your hopes about the revival of IT industry in Pakistan?

A. I am quite optimistic that the Pakistani IT industry will flourish and play a dominant role in the growth of the country’s economy. It’s a positive sign that our IT industry has earned $2.5 billion in terms of exports in one year. NetSol has earned the highest export revenues of all the IT companies in the country.

Pakistani IT workers are known for their innovative approach, creativity, ideas and product development, Indians are good at mathematics and are more focused on providing outsourcing services. But the Indians are ready to work at low hourly or daily rates at call centres, etc.

I am glad that our IT institutes are rolling out highly-skilled graduates who can contribute a lot to the promotion of the country’s IT sector. NetSol also grooms recruits and gives them hands-on training to improve their skills. We are equal opportunity providers and our recruitment teams go to different parts of the country to recruit people there. We have people from such under-developed areas as FATA, Balochistan, South Punjab. The selection criteria are revised according to local conditions and educational standards and any weaknesses are covered during the learning sessions held for the recruits at NetSol. Women are encouraged to apply and the young mothers among them are offered the facility of day care centres set up by the company.

Q. In your biography you have stressed a lot on the importance of correct decisions taken at the right time. Can you elaborate on that a bit?

A. This is something I have learnt in my life. Certain decisions in my life turned out to be right and helped me succeed. I would start with my father’s decision for the family to move from Bahawalpur, my birthplace, to Lahore when I was young. Had we stayed there we would not have received so many opportunities to avail.

I was working in Saudi Arabia and drawing a good salary but I switched over to a low-level job in CitiBank at a much lower salary. The reason was that despite having done petroleum engineering, I loved computers and this new job gave me an opportunity to work with computers. I was sure that my success lay in this, so I took the decision and gained enough experience working there.

Again, I quit my job in Australia where I found a lot of Indian companies winning IT business in that country. I decided to come back to Pakistan, start my own company and hunt for business globally. I quickly reached a conclusion that if India could win business from the world, Pakistan could also do that. Luckily, all these decisions turned out to be right for me.

By right decisions, I do not mean impulsive ones taken without proper thinking. I took these decisions carefully and after determining my own potential and preparing myself for what lay ahead. I was always clear that I was opting to travel on a bumpy road.

Let me share an interesting incident with you. I went to sell my product to an international buyer and demanded $300,000. The buyer said he would pay me $50,000, or one-sixth of my quoted price. We kept on bargaining and ultimately I had to agree on a price much lower than what I was expecting. But before finalising the deal I told the buyer that I won’t sell him the software rights because he was paying me too low an amount. He agreed to this and bought the software without exclusive rights to it. I could have got a price close to 200,000 dollars but I did not. This decision, taken on the spur of the moment, turned out to be worth a fortune to me and the company.

Q. NetSol has launched entrepreneurship development programmes. In the coming days, do you foresee a larger number of entrepreneurs in the arena?

A. Entrepreneurs are the true engines of growth. They take bold decisions and they build on their ideas. They are providing jobs, rather than seeking jobs. They develop products that have appeal and customer base in the market. I would say entrepreneurship is the cornerstone of success in life and in the IT sector. We at NetSol give space to people coming to us with innovative ideas and help them overcome inhibitions if there are any. They have our support, which helps them take their projects from the idea stage to the stage of product development, marketing and revenue generation stages. My autobiography stresses again and again on the value of entrepreneurship, telling readers about the challenges an entrepreneur continues to face in his life. I wrote the Urdu version of the book first, because I want the message to reach our people first. I hope for the English version to be ready by the year’s end.

The writer is a staff member