‘Leaders-Drive to Thrive’ brings together businessmen, politicians on one platform

Islamabad
The second edition of ‘The Leaders Summit’ was held here on Thursday bringing together leaders, CEOs, ministers and diplomats. The theme of the summit this year was ‘Leaders -- Drive to Thrive’. Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms and Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Professor Ahsan Iqbal was the chairman on the occasion.
The event was a joint collaboration of leading conference management organisation Nutshell Forum and Pakistan’s leading media organisation Jang Group. Many leaders, academicians, parliamentarians, movers and shakers of civil society, entrepreneurs, CEOs, COOs, presidents, managing directors, chairmen, directors, country managers from corporate sector, NGOs and public sector attended the conference. Leading business leaders became part of the conference as speakers and panelists. The research partners of 'The Leaders Summit' were SNL, knowledge partners were ICMA and Pakistan US Alumni Network, Technology partners were P@SHA. The event was supported by Planning Commission and Board of Investment. Founding sponsors of the event was Telenor whereas Platinum sponsors were PTCL.
Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms and Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Professor Ahsan Iqbal, while speaking on the occasion, said that a true leader always works for the mission and then work for the results. He always sensitises the future leaders. "We should understand the true meaning of leadership and generally we confuse it with its managerial role," he said.
Ahsan Iqbal said that there are two fundamental challenges for leaders that he should know that his context is right. There are many roles he has to take up as per requirement. “His role cannot be a static job but continuously changing. Secondly, he should align the challenging response, if your response is not right you are not on the right path. It is an age of paradigm shift from one era to another. It is an industrial and developmental age everyone aspires to become successful in his life,” he added.
He said that the passion of vision clearly sets you apart to become a true leader. How strongly you feel in the vague of adversity that you will not fall back and how committed you are to take your people along with you. Leadership is a journey of people going on with a passion. “We can see that human knowledge is doubling at much faster rate. Leaders will have to understand the disruptive innovation and have to keep pace with the ever changing development. Pakistan started its journey with minus zero, with its very limited resources. From that point Pakistan has come a long way. We should take the example of Turkey who despite its challenges overcame them with democratic stability. It has a strategic economic vision and now Pakistan is also working on ‘Vision 2025’ that can place Pakistan in the leading top economies of the world,” he added.
He said that Turkey managed to develop self confidence in their people considering positive thinking as their best asset and to have patience. “We should shut down all our forces of resistances and then give full throttle along with all our resources keeping them aligned together Pakistan will be able to lead South Asia with its better developing economy,” he said.
President and Member Group Executive Board Mahindra and Mahindra Limited Rajeev Dubey, while speaking on the occasion, said that Mahindra is nothing but ‘Rise.’ The leaders have to use their whole mind, do more with fewer assets, move away from command and control and should clearly know how to manage failure. He should strongly emphasise on mindfulness in the world of distraction. /unfortunately we are not able to go deeply into anything. “We should learn how to focus and how to prioritize. Thinking, saying and doing should be aligned together again and again,” he added.
Jang Group Marketing Head Islamabad Syed Amjad Ali emphasised on how the Jang Group is providing platform for organising events where the knowledge seekers and knowledge providers get connected. “This is not the first time the Jang Group is being part of this event but this is the second ‘The Leaders Summit’. In fact, we are doing a number of seminars and conference related to education and corporate sector,” he said.
PTCL Chief Human Resource Officer Syed Mazhar Hussain explained how PTCL despite the fact that it faced a major crisis after the inception of uncontrolled mobile networks, overcame it with a vision that was strategically implemented. The result came after three to four years of implementing. “The PTCL will no longer be reactive but now it is proactive. Earlier, it was a bureaucratic organisation but after its privatisation, the change of perception has taken place. Now people expect that their new connection and their problems will be solved within three days. Through our service we have made this possible. There is not a single lay off in fact we have developed excellent schemes for our employees. Ufone is the only telecom organisation which since its inception never went into losses in any financial year,” he said.
Earlier, Nutshell Forum CEO Muhammad Azfar Ahsan welcomed the guests and hoped that the summit would impart new ideas and food for thought for professionals.
President and CEO Tameer Microfinance Bank Limited Nadeem Hussain spoke on 'Financial Inclusion for Reviving Growth'.
The second session speakers included Chief Strategy Officer Ufone Moqeem Ul Haque who spoke on Disruptive Innovation for Growth, CEO SNL Pakistan Mujeeb Zahur discussed ‘The Talent Economics’, CEO Standard Chartered Bank Pakistan Shahzad Dada who addressed on topic ‘Business, Sustainability and Innovation. Address on Changing Times Reinventing Pakistan Story was given by session chairman Minister of State Special Assistant to Prime Minister Dr. Miftah Ismail.
The third session included presentations by University of Massachusetts Prof. Dr. Micheal Hannahan, CEO Lafarge Cement Pakistan Limited Amr Reda, Chief Financial Service Officer and Head of Easy paisa Telenor Pakistan Yahya Khan and President Group Communication , CSR and Sustainability , Sterlite Roma Balwani.
Fourth session included a dialogue on Leadership, Brand and culture in which the panelists CEO and Chairman Asad S. Jafar, Managing Director Sanofi Pakistan Ayub Siddiqui, MD Teradata Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka Khurram Rahat, Chief Humn Resource Officer PTCL Syed Manzar Hussain, Chief Marketing Officer Telenor Pakistan Irfan Wahab Khab and President ICMAP and CEO Sachal Energy Development Pvt Limited Kashif Mateen Ansari participated. The moderator of this session was CEO Emirates Investment Group Syed Tariq Hussain.
The closing session included an inspirational talk by Muniba Mazari and Chief Learning Officer Ideas Consulting and Lifetime Master Trainer Dr. Sunil Gupta.