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ELLTA CONFERENCE PAPER
Event
International Conference: 2012
Theme
Asian perspectives on Transforming Societies Through
Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Topic
Show-Casing Innovation, Creativity &Entrepreneurship:
Case of HaileyCollege of Banking & Finance,
University of the Punjab, Lahore– Pakistan
Venue & Date
December 11 – 13, 2012,
Utara University of Malaysia, Malaysia.
Contributed By
Prof. Dr. Khawaja Amjad Saeed
FCA; FCMA
President - AMDISA (1993-96),
President – SAFA (1997),
President – ICMAP (1997-2000) &
Principal
HaileyCollege of Banking & Finance,
University of the Punjab, Allama Iqbal Campus,
LAHORE – PAKISTAN.
Email:
Website:
SHOW-CASING INNOVATION, CREATIVITY & ENTREPRENEURSHIP:
Case of HaileyCollege of Banking & Finance,
University of the Punjab, Lahore– Pakistan
Prof. Dr. Khawaja Amjad Saeed*
Email:
PRELUDE
The world is faced with many challenges. The old style of running the affairs of enterprises and countries with the driving slogan of “Business As Usual” has failed and is having negative contribution on the socio-economic development of the country. Unfortunately, several economic systems of the past have failed to deliver the goods. Capitalism as advocated by Adam Smith could not narrow the gap between “haves” and “have not” and has been instrumental for socio-economic tensions resulting into social instability. Several modifications were introduced into it but it has failed to meet the challenges. Many Presidents of United States of America have publicly acknowledged this and today USA, the greatest Champion of Capitalism is in financial crisis. Its total debtis more than her total GDP. Financial scandals have rocked the country and institutional framework namely; Credit Rating Agencies and Regulatory Bodies are in question mark. Poverty continues to be increasing. Rise in unemployment is unabated and the outcry from the President to the lowest echelon is jobs and jobs. Even the World Development Report 2013 carries the caption namely jobs. The shining star of UK is dimming. Her total debt is over 160% of her GDP. The ruling government is in a bewildering bamboozle as what to do to deliver the economy on its right path. Europe is debt ridden. Demand has slowed down. Social instability in Portugal, Tunis, Greece, Italy andSpain has been constantly rising. The slow down of demand has now significantly affected the economies of France and Germany. African continent needs a breakthrough to come out of the poverty trap. South Asia needs economicrejuvenation through SAARC institutionalized framework. Slow down of demand on global basis has started affecting Japan and China. In short, countries with capitalistic economic system are collapsing. Communism / Socialism could not even survive for a century and after around eight decades it collapsed. The vital question is how we can help develop our society in a peaceful, harmonious and stable manner. The answer lies in addressing the following three challenges:
1)Commencing Entrepreneurial Revolution.
2)Institutionalizing Innovation.
3)Saying good-bye to “Business As Usual”.
Based on above creation of jobs to engage people particularly youth needs be carefully worked out to usher in a era of Happiness Index as visualized by Joseph Stiglitz, a Noble Prize Winner in the year 2011 (Annex – “A”).
In this backdrop, ELLTA has been doing an excellent work and has rightly selected the Theme of “Transforming Society Through Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship”. This is a positive response to the challenges facing the world.
INNOVATION, CREATIVITY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: CASE OF HAILEY COLLEGE OF BANKING & FINANCE, UNIVERSITY OF THE PUNJAB, LAHORE – PAKISTAN
The University of the Punjab, Lahore was established in 1882 in Lahore. Although some Universities were established in the then Britain India before it, yet it is the most distinguished one to be the oldest University in the whole of sub-continent which started through a magnificent role of teaching and affiliation. HaileyCollege of Banking & Finance is the 5thConstituentCollege of the University of the Punjab which has thirteen (13) faculties and this College is an integral part of the Faculty of Commerce.
The original Hailey College of Commerce was established in 1927 in the premises located in downtown of Lahore and were donated by Sir Ganga Ram, a Civil Engineer who is widely known as Philanthropist. His donated residential accommodation is of 32 Kanals and the above College is located in it. Earlier, the original Hailey College of Commerce was moved to another location namely Quaid-e-Azam Campus, Lahore in 1978. The management of the University of the Punjab accepted the challenge of starting a new College where the writer was appointed as the founder Principal in the year 2003. The challenge was to commence new disciplines, attract youth and the serving executives in inspiring environment, introduce new disciplines and develop sound processing of the students so that they could deliver the goods at home and abroad in a befitting manner. The challenges were many but with the driving spirit of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, the founder Principal conceived a strategic plan to give this College a kick start and now by God’s grace, almost a decade has passed with a success story which this piece captures.
SEVEN POINTS STRATEGIC PLAN
Through stakeholders moot, brain-storming and support from the University of the Punjab Seven Points Strategic Plan, backed up by creativity bejeweled by innovation and driven by the spirit of entrepreneurship, was conceived. Its components were as under:
1)Course Package
2)Financial Aspects
3)Administrative Aspects
4)Faculty
5)Students (Input)
6)Processing (Throughput)
7)Preparation of students for World of Work (Output)
This piece show-cases the above aspects in strategic term cushioned with the three above driven forces namely Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. These are briefly explained below:
1)Course Package
Unfortunately, many educational institutions were being operated on the supply driven philosophy. No wonder employability skills were lacking. The products of these institutions are half-baked and not prepared to face the challenges of the world of work. The crying need with innovative drive is to be guided by demand-driven approach. It is popularly known as gown-town relationship. One must ascertain as to what the markets needs are and accordingly develop course package (s) so that output is marketable and welcomed by the potential employers. This motivational aspect drove the management of the College to offer those disciplines which the market needed. In this respect, the package of eight courses for delivery till today is as under:
a)Insurance & Risk Management
Hardly any Postgraduate degree was offered in insurance by any university in Pakistan. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Father of the Nation, on April 18, 1948 had emphasized that specialized education should be started including Insurance which hardly any university in Pakistan bothered to address. Our College was the first one to positively respond to the clarion call of the Father of the Nation and offered courses at Undergraduate and Graduate levels in the area of Insurance and also extended it to cover Risk Management which is the biggest challenge in today’s world.Financial sector consisting of banks and financial services is very large. It requires specialists for financial analysis, risk analysis, proper evaluation of loan proposals and sound banking operations. In this respect, the crying need was to offer courses in Banking and Finance. This challenge was met by the College. Pakistan’s export is around US$ 25 billion which compared to its potential and its total population of 190 million is too small. Our country needs new breed of exporters. The challenges faced by globalization have been tremendous. The old breed of exporters is being replaced by new breed which needs to be given proper education so that the export led growth as a slogan upswing the exports and thereby narrows the Balance Of Trade (BOT) deficit and Balance of Payment (BOP) deficit.This can also result in improvements in Foreign Exchange Reserves with beneficial impact on foreign exchange parity of rupee across major foreign currencies of the world. Consequently, specialization in International Trade was offered. These courses are being reviewed, revised and updated for meeting the ever growing challenges in the world. Fortunately, with the flexibility which one enjoys by following semester system, the College has risen to the occasion and is meeting these challenges. Table: 1 captures the course offering:
Table No. 1
Innovative Course Package Offered
Undergraduate Level1) BBA (Hons) – Four Years Program: Regular Morning - After Intermediate /
A-Level in (Banking & Finance)
2) BBA (Hons) – Four Years Program: Regular Morning - After Intermediate /
A-Level in (Insurance & Risk Management)
Post Graduate Level
3) MBA Program – 3-1/2 Year: Regular Morning – After 14 years of education in
(Banking & Finance)
4) MBA Program – 3-1/2 Year: Regular Morning – After 14 years of education in
(Insurance & Risk Management)
5) MBA Program – 3-1/2 Year: Regular Morning – After 16 years of education
namely;12 years + four years BBA (Hons) Program in (Banking & Finance)
6) MBA Program – 3-1/2 Year: Regular Morning – After 16 years of education
namely;12 years+four years BBA(Hons) Program in (Insurance & Risk
Management)
7) MBA Program – 3-1/2 Year: Regular Evening – After 16 years of education in
in (Banking & Finance)
8) MBA Program – 3-1/2 Year: Regular Morning – After 16 years of education in
(Insurance & Risk Management)
2)Financial Matters
Sound financial support is a pre-requisite for the success of a new institution. In this respect, the Founder and his dedicated team strongly believed that the approach to build the College should be on self-finance / self-support concept. Unfortunately, financial support from Higher Education Commission, Islamabad was not forthcoming. The Government of the Punjab had no allocation for Higher Education and the University of the Punjab was also grappling with her financial problems. Therefore, innovative approaches were needed to mobilize financial resources to run the college. The University of the Punjab, through its budget, supported the operational expenditure but the challenge was to develop the College with sound logistical aspects so that enabling environments exist for delivery system to the students to motivate them to become scholars. Innovative approach with driving entrepreneurship included the following:
a)With the support of several stakeholders, gold medals were established which now number around twenty (20).
b)Self-Support funds were generated through starting evening programs. The University, in its established policy allowed the College to retain 70% funds for development and operational purpose to run the evening programs and retained for their use.
c)With the permission of the University of the Punjab, as a policy, a special class was started from where Rs. Ten (10) million were collected which were invested for renovation, construction and development of the College.
d)The Insurance industry supported as one Insurance Company donated Rupee fourmillion for establishing model Conference / Examination Hall for the College.
e)Sound practices of financial management in the areas of resource mobilization, resource utilization and resource protection were followed. The result is that the College is on a strong financial footing and has no financial crisis. In fact, it has accumulated around Rupees eighty (80) million for further expansion and development of the College. Excellent logistical facilities now exist for deliverysystem.
3)Administration
The University of the Punjab has given full autonomy to the College to operate it on sound and stable basis. Administrative structure suited to the needs of the College including running Computer Lab, Library Office, Co-curricula activities, Sports activities and Interface with the society exists and is being continuously improved and revamped. The College works with an innovative approach through functional decentralization where several committes exist to perform their duties and the Principal of the College looks after the strategic affairs. Thisapproach has been very fruitful and has been instrumental in developing leadership qualities amongst the faculty and the staff in harmonious relations with stakeholders.
4)Faculty
At present the College is operating with 17 full-time teachers and over 30 visiting teachers who are well-equipped with field experience. Through the institutionalized framework of the University of the Punjab merit based appointments have been made in the College. However, there is a crying need to employ more and more Ph. Ds who are not, at present, available in our field. The combination of running the faculty affairs with full-time and developing them through sound skills supported with facilities for doing M. Phil and Ph. D and the combination of part-time teachers has been a story of success. Lahore Insurance Institute has extended full support by supplying experienced visiting faculty.
5)Students (Input)
Every effort is made through innovative approach to attract the right kind of talent as an input into our processingsystem. Last year, eight thousand five hundred (8,500) students applied for only 240 Seats for the morning regurlar programs. Business Education is rapidly spreading in Pakistan and one hopes that quality preparation should stay as the main driving force. Our selection process is governed by the uniform policy of the University of the Punjab which gives 70% weightage to the previous marks earned and 30% weightage for entry test with a cut off 40% as passing rate for admission purpose. Innovative efforts have been made to test aptitude to attract the right kind of students. The response rate is high and the pressure. is also high too. Efforts were made in the past to resist these pressures.
6)Processing (Throughput)
The biggest challenge in education is our role to deliver goods in a befitting manner during the processing of students. The innovative style consists of conducting orientation program where students informed taught about the expectations of the employers so that from day one they start their preparation. The guidelines in this respect include effective communication, grip on the numerical aspects, orientation to IT, developing Inter-personal skills, and indoctrinate the spirit of decision-making. An optimal combination, through an innovative style, is followed consisting of interactive lectures, use of case study, group work, syndicates, presentations, assignments, project work etc. This enables them to study on College Campus and also for associate themselves with potential employers for doing the above work and also developing reports. An internationally accepted grading system of evaluation of the students is in force. Faculty evaluation by the students is also undertaken. All told, focus on high quality development of students through a high delivery of throughput continues to be a high priority with creativity and innovation. These efforts are supplemented with series of leadership lectures arranged periodically.
7)Preparation for World of Work
Guidance is provided through placement office. Availability of jobs is displayed on the College Website. Data Bank of Jobs is available in the College Library. On- Campus employment is also continuing. Expectations of employers (Annex-“B”) are well communicated to the student in the spirit of feed forward so that they get prepared and are fully bejeweled to face the job selection interview with confidence.
CONCLUSION
By God’s grace, establishing the College, its operations, its expansion, its renovation, acceptability of the products by the potential employers, delivery by the Faculty of the College, logistical and moral support given by the top management of the University and Administrative and Technical Staff of the College and several other stakeholders have enabled College to achieve which many people describe: A Rising Star in the comity of educational institutions producing graduates acceptable for home and abroad. The challenge is on going and our system continues to meet these challenges with the Kaizon spirit of continuous self-improvement.
* Professor Emeritus, Founder Principal, (2003------) Hailey College of Banking & Finance, University of the Punjab, Lahore Pakistan, Member Governing Council, International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) (1997-2000), President, South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) (1997), President, Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (1997-2000), President, Association of Management Development Institutions of South Asia (AMDISA) (1993-96), Pro Vice-Chancellor University of the Punjab, Lahore (1994-1996), Founder Director, Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of the Punjab, Lahore (1973-1996) and Senior Faculty Member, Hailey College of Commerce, University of the Punjab, Lahore (1965-73). Earlier he had eight years corporate life experience in Pakistan (1958-65).
Annex “A”
EXPECTATIONS OF EMPLOYERS
A: FOR FRESH ENTRANTS
1. Communication:
- Verbal Excellent
- Non-Verbal Transparent
- Written Neat and Clear
- Listening Attentively
2. Numerical:
- Statistics-Descriptive
- Graphs
Inferential
- Ratios
- Analysis Techniques
3. IT
- Hardware
- Software
- Application Software
- System Software
- Language Translator
4. Reports
- Verbal Presentation
- Written Reports
- Appraisal Reports
- For Loans
- For Decision Making
5. Inter-Personal
- Social Adjustment
- Social Inter-action
- Harmony
6. Decision Making
- DSS
- Herbert Simon-Noble Prize Winner
- Administrative Man Model other Economic Man Model
- Allah’s System-Al-Quran
B: FOR HIGHER MIDDLE MANAGEMENT
- Global Vision
- Leadership
- Entrepreneurship
- Team Working
- Personal Awareness
Annex “B”
HAPPINESS INDEX: 2011
Areas (II)1. Housing
2. Incomes
3. Employment
4. Social Relationships
5. Education
6. Environment
7.Administration of Institutions
8. Health
9. General Satisfaction
10. Security
11. Balance between work and Family
Developed by: Joseph Stigliz as advised by Sarkozy French & OECD President
OECD: 34 Countries.