Interview with Mr Ahmad Suleman Zahid – CEO, Corporate General Solutions (Pvt) Limited
[box type=”shadow” align=”” class=”” width=””]Profile:
Mr Ahmad Suleman Zahid followed the footsteps of his father, Mr. Suleman Zahid Jamil, who is a Chartered Accountant by profession and fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Pakistan (ICAP) and Pakistan Institute of Public Finance Accountants (PIPFA). Mr. Suleman Zahid Jamil started practice, in the name of Zahid Jamil & Co, Chartered Accountants, in 1971 as first CA Firm in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Now the firm has six branches in Lahore, Faisalabad, Islamabad, Peshawar, Karachi and Multan and working as independent member firm of Prime Global in Pakistan.
Mr Ahmad Suleman Zahid did matriculation from Divisional Public School, Faisalabad, Pakistan, in 1994, F.Sc (Intermediate in Pre-Engineering) from Government College, (G.C University now) Faisalabad, Pakistan in 1996. In 1997, he started his professional career as student of ICAP. In 1999 after completing CA-Intermediate and Bachelors of Commerce (B.Com) from Punjab University, he started CA Articles Training, from Zahid Jamil & Co, Chartered Accountants, and completed in 2003. Till 2005 he served as Manager — Audit & Assurance there. Now he is working as Chief Executive Officer of Corporate General Solutions (Pvt) Ltd (CGS), and Director – Advisory of Zahid Jamil & Co, Chartered Accountants. His company CGS was originally started in 1995 in the name of Zahid Jamil Associates (Pvt) Ltd. Its whole business was transformed in the new name of Corporate General Solutions (Pvt) Ltd. in 2005.
CGS is a Management & Information Systems Consulting company having vision of providing various types of professional services, under one roof, which any business or non-business organization needs. CGS strength comprises of more than 75 professionals of different domains including 10 executives in six cities of Lahore, Faisalabad, Islamabad, Peshawar, Karachi and Multan and also in UAE, UK and Canada. In CGS they are providing Enterprise Risk & Performance Management Services, Enterprise Resource Planning & Enterprise Wide Systems Services, Financial Advisory, Corporate & Taxation Advisory, Human Resource Consulting, Business Process Outsourcing and Business Development Services etc. Many other professional services are in pipeline. They are in continuous process of introducing more service lines and domain experts in their team. Their vision is to make CGS one of the best and largest consulting firms of the world. In addition to his professional responsibilities, Mr Ahmad Suleman Zahid is voluntarily serving as member and Convener CPD Activities of PIPFA Faisalabad Branch Committee, Executive Member and VP Public Relations of ICAP Toastmasters Club, Faisalabad, Executive Member of Faisalabad IT Companies Origination (FITCO) and Member FCCI Standing Committee on Information Technology of Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industries. He is also serving as Member Management Council, Vice Chairman Education & Career Counselling Committee and Vice Chairman of Accounts & Finance Committee of Sheikh Foundation Faisalabad, a welfare organization of Faisalabad Sheikh Community.[/box]
PAKISTAN & GULF ECONOMISTÂ had discussion with Mr Ahmad Suleman Zahid regarding the transformation in human resource in the wake of digitization, online training and the concept of Working From Home.
Change is the only constant thing in this world and we are living an era where change is happening at extremely fast pace. Technology or digitization has brought drastic changes in workplace environment but with other new forces, including COVID-19, we are now entering a period of change that will put new pressure on our organizations. When employees had to work from their homes, during lockdown situation, many businesses scrambled to adopt technology solutions to enable their teams to work remotely. The situation was really challenging for leaders and employees of many private and public sectors organizations, in Pakistan, in which technology and digitization was not so much evolved and their leaders and employees were not trained and prepared to work from home.
Many business leaders, in Pakistan, have decided to launch digital transformation initiatives to keep businesses running and manage their people smoothly during any pandemic lockdown situation and to better prepare for recovery phase. Business continuity nowadays seems impossible without right technology in place. In such a rapidly evolving situation, it’s almost impossible to balance what’s best for your company, protect your employees, and still deliver a great experience to customers, or clients, without the right strategy and tools.
Additionally, employers need to understand that it’s unlikely that things will get back to normal after the pandemic. This situation where employees are physically separated has completely changed the way employees collaborate and work together. Employees are no longer expected to work cut off from one another. Indeed, remote teams are required to be more connected to improve their communications and to better align their strategies. Great collaboration results in improved efficiency and increased productivity, but only if leaders and employees have the right tools in the first place.
Online training is the art of knowledge transfer through the internet, from anywhere in the globe to targeted audiences who choose to learn a particular subject or topic. These trainings may be paid or free. Professional Accountancy Bodies, which are member of IFAC (International Federation of Accountants) and other Professional Institutions of Medical Sciences, Engineering, Law, Information Technology, Marketing or HR etc, require their members to keep their technical updated and must complete minimum Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours. Online Trainings help these Professionals a lot to complete their CPD Hours in minimum time and cost.
Some companies offer training options before employees are made permanent in their jobs. This training does not end before the job begins: It rather continues through online courses by brushing up concepts and new technologies. Online trainings help professionals and employees improve their professional life. They can attend online training courses in flexible time and from anywhere in the world. The only requirement is a good internet connection. These trainings also provide networking opportunities with people of same profession and interest.
Work from home experience is the perception, observation, and feeling that a WFH employee feels about the organization they work for. As WFH employees don’t physically interact with colleagues or feel office culture regularly, their experience will differ greatly to office-based employees.
Like majority of organizations in Pakistan, we were also not prepared and could not find time to plan and build strategy that how leaders and employees will collaborate and work together while working from home. Also, all team members were not equipped and trained for collaborating and working from home and make ensure business continuity. All this was made possible with the help of our IT Staff, who technically made it possible for every team member to connect with server machines placed at different locations and also gave them training for use of online meeting platforms like Zoom, Google Meet and MS Teams etc. Cloud Computing Technology also played vital role to make all this possible. Like majority people in Pakistan, working from home was different experience from me. I faced lot of challenges like staying organized, managing time, isolating from family, remembering to take regular breaks, collaborating and socially interacting. On the other side I personally felt some benefits of working from home like Better Work-Life Balance, Less Commute Stress and Location Independence etc. Improved Inclusivity and Money Savings etc. There are various pros and cons of digitization of various processes in organizations. If we talk about its pros, it has made businesses more competitive and employees more productive. It also allows business owners and professionals to provide better customer or client experience. So, for its cons are concerned, there is never-ending change in digitization of processes. Effective implementation of new technologies takes time and it can cause upheaval and uncertainty for employees. Future of digitization of processes is very much bright and it will bring revolution in all professions and businesses.