Death of a Wonder Youngster

Arfa Karim (born 1995 – January 14, 2012), was a student from an under-developed village of Pakistan, who in 2004 at the age of 9 years, became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCPs) in the world. She was invited by Bill Gates to visit the Microsoft Headquarters in USA. She also wrote a poem about Bill Gates.

On returning to Pakistan, Arfa had numerous interviews on almost all of the country’s known television channels and newspapers. In August 2005, Arfa Karim received the Fatimah Jinnah Gold Medal in the field of Science and Technology, presented by the Prime Minister of Pakistan at that time. She also received the Salaam Pakistan Youth Award again in August 2005 by the President of Pakistan. Arfa Karim is also the recipient of the President’s Award for Pride of Performance. This is a very high level civil award granted to people who have shown excellence in their respective fields over a long period of time. Arfa is till now the youngest recipient of that award ever.

Arfa Karim has also represented Pakistan on various international forums, she was invited by the IT Professionals of Dubai for a stay of two weeks in Dubai. A dinner reception was hosted for her there, which was attended by the diagnostics of Dubai including the Ambassador of Pakistan. During that trip, Arfa was presented with various medals and awards. She also flew a plane in a flying club in Dubai at the age of 10, and received the first flight certificate.

In November 2006, Arfa was invited by Microsoft to be a part of the keynote session in the Tech-Ed Developers conference held in Barcelona. The theme of the conference was “Get ahead of the game” and Arfa was presented as a true specimen of being ahead of the game. She was the only Pakistani among over 5000 developers in that conference.

As of 2011, at the age of 16, Arfa Karim was studying at Lahore Grammar School Paragon Campus in her second year of A Levels. She suffered from cardiac arrest after an epileptic seizure on December 22, 2011 and was admitted to Lahore’s Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in critical condition.

On January 2, 2012 Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani visited the hospital with his daughter Fiza Batol Gilani to inquire about the health of Arfa Karim.

On January 9, 2012, Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft, has made contact with Arfa’s parents, and directed his doctors to adopt “every kind of measure” for her treatment.

On January 13, 2012, The condition of world’s youngest MCP Arfa Karim was improving and some parts of her brain showed signs of improvement. Arfa fell desperately ill last month and doctors said she had suffered brain damage, leaving her in a coma at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Lahore. Her father, Amjad Karim, said Microsoft had raised the possibility of flying Arfa to the US for care.

On January 14, 2012 16 years old Arfa Karim died at 9:50 PM (Pakistan Standard Time) at Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Lahore. (Wikipedia)

Arfa wrote some poems. Specimens include:

I would like to be …..

Like a bird in the sky
Flying freely and so high
Like a fish in the water
And the kings beautiful daughter

Like a tiny little mouse
Eating cheese around the house
Like a bear in the mountain
And the water in the fountain

Like a lion in the jungle
Roaring loudly with hunger
Like a monkey in the zoo
All the time copying you
. . . . Arfa Karim

White Rose

In the storm
Stands the white rose
tumultuous waves
of destruction abound her

Yet tall is the white rose
strong in the face
Of the sensed doom around her
And she does not bow down

Pure is the white rose
In the compost earth
growing eternal strength
in the nights that so hurt

I see not the white rose
She is so far away
But I long to protect her
But only the words can I say

So I send her my words
And my poets heart
To help her when
there is hope to see her through

Be Strong little flower
Your heart will guide true
And as long as you want
I will always talk to you
. . . Arfa Karim

Stars

  I look to the sky at night and admire the beauty of the stars.
I stand in awe of their brilliance;
They are as shining and constant
and they have been since the beginning of time.

They light the heavens and fill our hearts with wonder.
When one burns out, another takes its place;
for they are eternal.
Wherever you are, they guide you from their home high above the earth.
At times, they seem close enough to touch,
as they transport your dreams far away.

Their magic compels us to offer up wishes for their consideration.
They make us realize that even when the sky is the darkest,
a tiny beacon of light still shines through.
They are God’s reminder to us that some things really do go on forever.
. . . Arfa Karim

I have no daughter, but Arfa Karim was a daughter figure.  Till 3:30 am and despite my perpetual efforts I was unable to have a snooze. The news about her death made me so upset that my eyes welled up tears and my heart filled up with gloom. Arfa, was the shine of the moon and the breeze of morning; she bestowed her colors to rainbow; she left behind her wings for her fellow daughters to scale the heights of knowledge. Arfa was a complete person: she was not just a book worm, she used to play games, watch cartoon programs, fly planes, play music, and sing folk songs. Above all she memorized some verses of Qur’an and practiced high moral character. She can be a role model—an inspiration—to our younger generation. With tears in its eyes, I pay rich tribute to Arfa. Nevertheless, I feel her saying:

Don’t cry for me,
I’m right here.
Although you can’t see me
I can see your tears

Forbearance

Forbearance is an international failure of a party to enforce a contract requirement, usually done for an act of immediate or future consideration from the other party. Sometimes forbearance is referred to as a non-waiver or as a one-time waiver, but not a relinquishment of rights.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Product Development Strategy

A product development strategy dictates that the organization create new offerings for existing markets. The approach taken maybe to develop totally new offerings (product innovation) to enhance the value to customers of existing offerings (product augmentation) or to broaden the existing line of offerings by adding different sizes, forms, flavors,  and so forth (product line extension).

Companies successful at developing and commercializing new offerings lead their industries in sales growth and profitability. The likelihood of success is increased if  the development effort results in offerings that satisfy a clearly understood buyer need.

Important considerations in planning a product deployment strategy concern the market size and volume necessary for the effort to be profitable, the magnitude and timing of competitive response, the impact of the new product on existing offerings, and the capacity (in terms of human and financial investment and technology) of the organization to deliver the offerings to the market(s). more importantly, successful new offerings must have a significant point of difference reflected in superior product or service characteristics that deliver unique and wanted benefits to consumers.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Executive Recruitment

The value of understanding individual personality strengths and developmental areas through the assistance of personality assessment inventories has been especially important in choosing business leaders and senior executives. Executives search firms have long valued the importance of choosing not only the most intelligent candidate with a strategic business sense and proven experience, but one who also possessed the necessary personality traits and leadership competences to operate effectively within an organization’s culture. It was, and is, accepted knowledge that personality plays a critical role in the cultural fit of an incoming senior executive into a new organization. Consideration of personality traits takes on even greater importance when an executive is being chosen to change the direction or culture of the organization.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Company Self-Concept

A major determinant of a firm’s success is the extent to which the firm can relate functionally to its external environment. To achieve its proper place in a competitive situation, the firm realistically must evaluate its competitive strengths and weaknesses. This idea—that the firm must know itself—is the essence of the company self-concept. The idea is not commonly integrated into theories of strategic management; its importance for individuals has been recognized since ancient times.

Both individuals and firms have a crucial need to know themselves. The ability of either to survive in a dynamic and highly competitive environment would be severely limited if they did not understand their impact on others on them.

In some senses, then, firms take on personalities of their own. Much behavior in firms is organizationally based; that is, a firm acts on its members in other ways than their individual interactions. Thus, firms are entities whose personality transcends the personalities of their members. As such, they can set decision making parameters based on aims different and distinct from the aims of their members. These organizational considerations have pervasive effects.

Ordinarily, descriptions of the company self-concept per se do not appear in mission statements. Yet such statements often provide strong impressions of the company self-concept. The following excerpts from the Intel Corporation mission statement describe the corporate persona that its top management seeks to foster:

The management is self-critical. The leaders must be capable of recognizing and accepting their mistakes and learning from them.

Open (constructive) confrontation is encouraged at all levels of the corporation and is viewed as a method of problem solving and conflict resolution.

Decision by consensus is the rule. Decisions once made are supported. Position in the organization is not the basis for quality of ideas.

A highly communicative, open management is part of the style.

Management must be ethical. Managing by telling the truth and treating all employees equitably has established credibility that is ethical.

We strive to provide an opportunity for rapid development.

Intel is a results-oriented company. The focus is on substance versus form, quality versus quantity.

We believe in the principle that hard work, high productivity is something to be proud of.

The concept of assumed responsibility is accepted. (if a task needs to be done, assume you have the responsibility to get it done).

Commitments are long term. If career problems occur at some point, reassignment is a better alternative than termination.

We desire to have all employees involved and participative in their relationship with Intel.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Producing a Quality Product

To attain excellence in producing a product of high quality, your organization must:

• Have a clear understanding of your products, its capabilities and applications.
• Ensure that all of your employees understand the product, its capabilities and applications.
• Understand your customers.
• Understand the requirements of your customers.
• Have a clear definition of the acceptable quality level of your product.
• Have a clear understanding of what your customers define as the acceptable quality level of your product.
• Have an effective means of measuring the quality of your product.
• Continually solicit your customer’s views and evaluations relative to the quality of your product.
• Continually communicate to employees the importance of producing a quality product.
• Continually emphasize to employees that they contribute to product quality in the successful performance of their jobs.
• Identify and then build upon the operating factors that sustain and contribute to product quality.
• Utilize techniques that solicit and stimulate employee innovation, ideas and recommendations that improve product quality.
• Utilize techniques that solicit customer ideas and recommendations to improve product quality.
• Give serious and timely considerations to employees and customer ideas and recommendations.
• Utilize effective techniques to test and evaluate  new ideas and recommendations.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Employee Communications

To attain excellence in employee communications, the organization must utilize communication techniques that:

• Communicate the organization’s objectives, goals, priorities and values to all employees.
• Ensure that supervisors clearly define the tasks and responsibilities of each of their employees.
• Ensure that supervisors give employees timely evaluation of their job performance.
• Communicate the organization’s expectation of quality to all employees.
• Ensure that policies and practices are clearly communicated and understood by all employees.
• Stimulate frequent face-to-face discussions between managers and their employees.
• Inform all employees of the organization’s accomplishments, achievements and other important issues related to the work environment.
• Involve employees in the department of organization policy and procedures.
• Encourage employees to express their ideas and recommendations to improve the operation of the organization.
• Provide timely feedback to employees regarding the organization’s consideration of their ideas and recommendations.
• Solicit information from employees relative to their career goals and aspirations.
• Provide employees with information they can use to make personal career decisions.
• Inform employees of job openings within the organization.
• Encourage employees to voice their problems and concerns.
• Give timely consideration and response to employee problems and concerns.
• Continually monitor what information employees want to receive.
• Regularly measure the effectiveness of communication techniques.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

21st Century Corporate Strategy

Business, government and society are independent and their relationship is complex in every nation. General systems theory tells us that all organisms or systems are affected by their host environments; thus, an organization must be appropriately responsive to changes and conditions in its environment to survive and succeed.

The web of interactions between business, government, and society creates a system of stakeholders—groups affected by and influential in corporate decisions and actions. The analysis of these stakeholders—who they are, what power they hold, and the ways in which they interact with one another—helps managers understand the nature of their concerns and needs and how these relationships are changing. If the creation of stakeholder networks is a natural process for organizations, managers must learn how to understand and utilize these relationships. The business of the 21^st century must have managers who understand the importance of creating business strategies that include these considerations.

The relationship between business and society is also continuously changing. People, organizations, and social change; inevitably, new issues will arise and challenge managers to develop new solutions. To be effective, corporate strategy must respond to the biggest and most central questions in the public’s mind. People expect businesses to be competitive, to be profitable, and to act responsibly by meeting the reasonable expectations of stakeholders. The corporation of the 21^st century is certain to be affected by global economic and political trends, powerful new technologies, and a global population of stakeholders who will expect their interests to be integrated into the thinking of the companies from which they buy goods and services, to which they contribute labor and ideas, and to which they extend the hospitality and support of their communities.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Pure Competition

The term competition is used ambiguously not only in ordinary conversation but in economic literature as well. Its common meaning is rivalry, but in economics when used along with the word pure, it carries a different meaning. Following are necessary conditions for pure competition:

1. Homogeneity of the product: For competition to exist in a market all sellers of the product being exchanged sell homogeneous units of the product, or at least the buyers of that product believe that this is so.
2. Smallness of each buyer or seller relative to the market: Each buyer and each seller of the product under consideration is too small in relation to the entire market for the product to influence significantly the price of the product that is being bought or sold.
3. Absence of artificial restraints: There are no artificial restrictions on the demands for, the supplies of, and the prices of whatever is being exchanged. No government price fixing nor any institutional fixing or administering of price by producers’ associations, labor unions, or other private agencies. There is no supply restriction enforced by the government or by organized producer groups. Control of demand through governmental rationing is nonexistent.
4. Mobility: There is mobility of goods and services of resources in the economy. New firms are free to enter any desired industry, and resources are free to move among alternative uses to those where they desire employment. Sellers are able to dispose of their goods and services where the price is highest. Resources are able to secure employment in their highest paid uses.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Productivity Measurement System

One of the important steps in productivity improvement is establishing a productivity measurement system with the enterprise. This in itself brings some improvement in performance by making people more aware of the meaning of productivity. The following advice could be useful in setting up the measurement system:

• Determine the elements of the enterprise that most need to be monitored.
• Determine the types of measure to be used.
• Select perfect concepts and units of measurement for the output and input of the company as a whole, and for the critical sub-activities.
• Ascertain the availability of data and make necessary compromises.
• Select a post activity, section or group within the organization, and test the measurement system to obtain periodic feedback on the results.
• Assess the system’s value, make any modifications and conduct a new pilot activity if the modifications completely change the original system design.

A measurement system must consider cost effectiveness, the limitations of productivity measurement and whether total factor measurement is necessary; in other words, it must determine the range and terms of the measurement system tasks. It must be easy to use and serve to identify the reasons for the organizational changes.

The general consideration on productivity management helps in identifying the so-called organizational meta-structure of productivity improvement process. Every given method of productivity improvement covers:

1. Organizational forms of productivity improvement
2. Productivity improvement areas
3. Productivity improvement techniques

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.