Software Maven from Pakistan Inspires Chicago Entrepreneurs

Chicago IL: The Chicago chapter of the Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs of North America (OPEN) held its inaugural event around dinner on Wednesday, April 10, 2013, at Reza’s Restaurant, 432 West Ontario St., Chicago. There were 55-60 community leaders, business executives, potential investors, and governmental officials present, including Consul General of Pakistan Zaheer Pervaiz Khan and Alexander “Sandy” Weissent, Head of the CEO Roundtable. Highlights were a talk on “Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Pakistan” by Jehan Ara, President of the Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA), and the OPEN Chicago presentations.

CEO of Razor Hedge Navaid Abidi welcomed the guests and invited Rafiq Mohemmadi, Chair of the board of charter members, to introduce OPEN. The latter focused on mentoring students, fostering activity that translates into philanthropic activities, and this re-launch of the organization. OPEN VP Rehan Zaid then added his own observations and comments.

Jehan Ara’s wide-ranging talk on “Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Pakistan” was backed by both long hands-on involvement and solid statistics. With 29 years of experience in marketing, communications, and interactive new media in Hong Kong, Far East, UAE, and Pakistan, Ara has been largely responsible for developing the P@SHA brand and for creating linkages to local and international partners. Motivator, entrepreneur, and social activist, she is a strong proponent of extending the power and use of IT and communication technologies beyond traditional business to empower communities through policy advocacy. The Take Back the Tech initiative, in which she is currently involved, spreads awareness on how technology can be harnessed to end violence against women. Her Women’s Virtual Network initiative will connect educated women with potential employers, mentors, and peers remotely, thus bringing more women into the economic fold and creating a community that will evolve into a support network for professional women. Ara is very involved in OPEN chapters across the US and worldwide.

Set up 20 years ago by 9 leading software companies, P@SHA now includes 400 companies and has expanded to include consulting, mobile, banking, animation, defense, etc. IT can no longer be seen as a separated industry isolated from the rest, and needs to be taken into account in all policy making. Ara also stressed the need to reinstitute a dedicated IT minister. Among the highlights of her presentation were the startup scene in Pakistan, collaboration between business, government, and academia, contrasts and symbioses with Indian and US IT sectors, recent establishment of entrepreneurial incubators at major educational institutions, youth developing products while still in university, unexpected successes of small Pakistani companies in software innovation competitions across the Asia-Pacific region winning 15–16 awards each year, cornering 85% of the switching solutions used by banks in Pakistan and across the Middle East, their acquisition my major Western and US enterprises, etc.

Responding to a concern that ingenuity and innovation in countries, like India, where there is an institutionalized IT sector are falling prey to outsourcing, Ara pointed out that Pakistan is not tempted to go that route because it lacks comparable scalability and, moreover, India has already captured the market. Indian companies may start setting up in Pakistan, more likely in joint-ventures, and outsource from there. Pakistan is simply not as good as India in branding.

As research is not a forte in Pakistan, there are at most 50K people involved in IT. Instead of opting for computer science when they come out of high school, the smartest kids are shepherded towards law, engineering, medicine, and accounting. More counseling and mentoring programs are needed to show the excitement of IT. Perhaps parents need to be educated first, but media needs to get fully involved, as one-on-one has too limited an impact.

Ara observed that the recently passed anti-harassment legislation was great but lack of awareness within companies is hindering implantation. Given the 8.5M people from Pakistan on Facebook, social media should be leveraged to get the message across that the workplace is now safe. However, the mainstream media is behind the curve, here as elsewhere, and needs to get into the act. Women constitute only 14% of the IT population, and many who study IT subsequently drop out. Flexi-time, free laptops for home use, and better HR policies would help. We can learn from a Muslim country like Malaysia that has 60% women in its IT industry.
Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance was badly thought out and poorly defined. P@SHA worked with a lawyer to produce YouTube videos on how this ordinance would affect doctors, etc., and enlisted bloggers. The mainstream media eventually picked up on the commotion and the government has blocked the bill. The new amended ordinance has yet to be passed.

Abidi’s OPEN presentation distinguished three types of programs. Mentorship builds bridges between current and aspiring leaders. Professional development trains young professionals to become leaders in their corporations. Finally, budding entrepreneurs can meet their peers, and receive mentorship. OPEN stakeholders are thus entrepreneurs, professionals, and students.

The meeting concluded with a stakeholder engagement over dinner as those seated around each table introduced themselves in turn and offered comment, raised further questions, and/or simply expressed some form of commitment. The recurring topics included ongoing mentorship for young professionals, women in the corporate sector, contribution of physicians, role of government, cross-sector collaboration, leadership training, incubating and accelerating projects, vetting promising business ideas and sharing best practices, handholding startup and developing companies, acquiring seed capital, synergizing with Chicago organizations (Muppies, CAMP, YDC, etc.), networking and event facilitation, arts and cultural exchange, establishing ties with universities/colleges and student populations, youth engagement, privileging Pakistan (outsourcing, importing talent, giving back, etc.), aiding graduate job-search, promoting entrepreneurial culture, public-private partnership, real estate, media relations and tracking public impact, and, last but not least, community-orientation.

OPEN is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of entrepreneurship in the Pakistani-American business community. Established in Boston in 1998, OPEN has chapters in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Silicon Valley, and Washington DC.