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2013 2: 151South Asian Journal of Business and Management CasesAly Raza Syed, Ambreen Zainab, Shahid A. Zia and Khuram Shahzad

Pakistan Foods and Beverage Company  

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Pakistan Foods and Beverage Company

Aly Raza SyedAmbreen ZainabShahid A. Zia Khuram Shahzad

AbstractPakistan Foods and Beverage Company (PFBC), having a workforce of 4500 people and 25 per cent annual growth, has become a leading company in the Confectionary and Food industry of Pakistan. The perils of managing growth are catching up the organization with extremely high employees’ separation rate, lower productivity, endless complaints and grievances, lack of HR management systems and a ‘one man’ show approach adopted by its owners. The CEO now wants to strategically realign and incorpo-rate the organization-wide cultural change according to his Vision 2020 and revamp things to make it great without leaving good.

KeywordsCorporate culture, change management, turnover, HR management, training and development, confectionary and food industry, Pakistan

Introduction

Sitting at the 2nd floor of Unit 3 office in Lahore Pakistan, Farhan Ahmed was lost in deep thought, pondering on the dilemma that he faced as Senior HR manager, in coping with the paramount expecta-tions of the top management to strategically align and incorporate the organization-wide cultural change at Pakistan Foods & Beverage Company (PFBC), a medium sized, privately owned family business and balancing the daily erupting chaos left, right and centre at the functional and first line levels. Things have had been good at PFBC since its inception in 1987 and PFBC has become a success story of business growth in Pakistan. The company had shown an explosive annual growth of more than 25 per cent in its business expansion till date, with increasing revenues, market share and business growth, but Farhan wondered if the previous success formula would still work for this organization or would there be perils impeding its sustainability and growth, if not managed properly. The pile of files sitting at his table

Case

South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases

2(2) 151–162© 2013 Birla Institute of Management Technology

SAGE PublicationsLos Angeles, London,

New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC

DOI: 10.1177/2277977913509178 http://bmc.sagepub.com

This case has been prepared by the authors for class discussion in programmes of management education, management development and for practicing managers to enhance skills in decision making. It is not an illustration of effective or ineffective management. The case though based on real events, is fictionalized. All names and characters have been kept anonymous and any resemblance to an actual person or entities is coincidental.

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showing the results of the balanced scorecard that he had recently started to use, depicted a very high employee separation and turnover rate, lower employee productivity, complaints and grievances filed by customers and employees and micro-managing and fire fighting by the top management. All this indeed reflected that something was not right at PFBC and something had to be done and done fast or else PFBC would not be able to maintain and sustain its competitive advantage in an environment so fickle, immersed with immense competition and rivalry by competing brands.

Company Background and History

It was the brainchild and entrepreneurial acumen of Ali Akbar Khan, who after having had worked in the service sector in Pakistan for many years and this included the likes of the Holiday Inn Hotels and Shezan Food Company Ltd (where he served for 11 years), left his job and with his personal savings of Pk. Rs two million, took start with a small shop at Ich’chra, Lahore, the largest city of Punjab province and the second most populous city of Pakistan, laying the foundations of Pakistan Foods and Beverages Company. PFBC provided fresh, healthy and hygienic bakery and confectionary items of quality at affordable prices, a market gap which Ali Akbar had identified during his tenure at Shezan. The unique concept achieved quick popularity among bakery loving customers of Lahore, who had been known all across Pakistan for their appetite for good, fresh and tasty food. His passion and love for fine food was the key driving force that acted as a catalyst for the initial success. Ali Akbar being a devoted and practic-ing Muslim had the vision to provide quality food at affordable prices, with integrity, sincerity and ethical standards imbued in every aspect of his business, with no compromise on quality and hygiene.

From 1987 till 2002 PFBC focused and steadily kept on adding new product lines to its bakery and confectionary business starting off with breakfast items like high fiber bread, fresh farm fruit Jams, nimko (localized snack food) & ice creams. In 1999 it introduced Methai (local sweet) with fresh and pure ingredients and innovative tastes, Tomato ketchup, made of fresh tomatoes with no addition of chemicals and artificial color and Halwas (traditional sweet considered as a premium item a favourite of Punjab province). In its 25 years of operations so far, PFBC has diversified into a versatile food and beverage company and became a household name and leading brand in Punjab.

PFBC From 2002 till 2010: The Years of Kamran Akbar Khan

Taking over the helm of affairs from his father as CEO in 2002, Kamran Akbar Khan one of the son’s of Ali Akbar Khan incorporated the expansion strategy for the business by increasing the number of outlets and variants in the product lines simultaneously. From having 6 outlets in 2002, Kamran embarked on the task of making PFBC outlets being present in every nook and corner of Punjab. From 2002 till 2010, PFBC became one of the fastest growing foods and confectionery stores in Pakistan and a leading manu-facturer and marketer of baked and unbaked desserts, breakfast items, pastries, beverages products (including Carbonated soft drinks (CSD), juices and mineral water), Dairy products, jams and jelly and ice creams.

From 2006 till 2009, PFBC enjoyed up to 65 per cent annual growth rate. By 2010 it was operating 97 outlets in Lahore, 2 in Shekhupura, 10 in Faisalabad, with a total of 5 operational processing units at various industrial zones of Lahore. Unit 1 was responsible of catering to the production requirement of

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bakery and snacks of 46 bakery outlets in Lahore, Unit 2 catered to the requirement of bakery and snacks of other 51 bakery outlets in Lahore, Unit 3 supplies sweets (methai) to the 97 bakery outlets of Lahore and ice-cream to all the outlets of Lahore and Faisalabad. Unit 4 is an engineering maintenance unit, providing maintenance for the entire transportation fleet, energy and power works for the retail outlets and other processing units. Unit 5 met all requirements of beverages, drinking water and milk for 97 bakery outlets of Lahore. This unit is also responsible to cater to the requirements of all wholesalers and distributors of beverages all over Pakistan. In addition to these PFBC also operated 2 processing plants in Faisalabad to fulfil the requirements of that city.

PFBC had more than 4500 employees working at its various processing units, retail outlets and administrative offices. This growth however was jolted due to a family rift amongst the sons of Ali Akbar Khan and by 2010 Kamran Akbar Khan was asked to leave the family run business and Umair Akbar Khan, the second son of Ali Akbar Khan took over the company affairs outsetting his brother from the main stream business of PFBC. Not to create a major family setback Ali Akbar Khan offered Kamran to start a separate catering business under the banner of PFBC group of companies to which Kamran agreed. According to recent updates PFBC Catering has become a ‘star’ in the overall business portfolio of PFBC, with increasing revenues and market share.

PFBC from 2010 till 2013: The Years of Umair Akbar Khan

Outsetting his brother in 2010, Umair Akbar Khan took over as the new CEO and continued the traditions of running and managing the company in its traditional family business approach. Expansion into current business was still the forte of PFBC, but during this period, Umair Akbar Khan took aggres-sive measures to undergo both concentric and conglomerate diversification of the business. In 2011, Umair Akbar shifted the business concept from bakery and confectionary business to a food company by launching other new product lines and product variants to the existing product lines sold through the existing supply and retail chain of the company. Such new additions included beverages, CSD, mineral water, pasteurized and powder milk, pastries, cakes, pizzas and other baked items and snacks.

PFBC also diversified into unrelated business during these years by opening up a family restaurant, a catering service, launched a lifestyle oriented print magazine while future plans included starting a chain of 24/7 pharmacy business and a television channel. New processing units and manufacturing facilities were also opened during this time. A beverage plant at Sundar industrial Estate in Lahore initi-ated production. Currently, two new manufacturing plants are under construction, one in suburban area of Lahore which is expected to be operational in the last quarter of 2013 and another plant in Multan which is expected to be operational by August 2013. As freshness, quality and hygiene have been the key success factors of this industry, PFBC operates under a ‘hub and Spoke’ model by opening its manu-facturing facilities in the centre of a city and then leasing or renting properties in its vicinities leading to an efficient and effective supply chain. PFBC is a vertically integrated organization having milk collec-tion centers at farm level, UHT processing plants and COCO (Company owned, company operated) retail outlets.

Umair Akbar Khan has had a cogent formal educational background and was selected as a civil services officer (one of the most top ranking public office jobs in Pakistan). Umair Akbar Khan has been working as a bureaucrat with the Government of Pakistan at various senior administrative posts as well.

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He is currently on leave without pay from the civil services. Having attended several courses from Harvard Business School and travelling extensively around the word, Umair Akbar Khan no doubt takes matters not only very seriously for PFBC, but also wants to be abreast on all issues going around his business. He expects a lot and is considered as a CEO with a lot of authoritative stance. In many a meetings and informal encounters his senior management have heard him repeating the words ‘do more, do more’. Many top and middle level managers have shown their reservations in the managerial style adopted by Umair Akbar and the way he takes charge of things. In most instances, Umair would always tell his subordinates ‘the issue was identified by me, it was resolved by me, now you tell me what is next that you are going to do, or would I be the one taking care of all the problems at PFBC as always.’

Corporate Culture at PFBC

Given the ‘seth’ (boss with a one man show approach) oriented culture that enroots most family owned business in Pakistan, there has always been a ‘knowing-doing gap’, that is, the boss would know what the problem is but then will adopt totally a different approach in solving (doing) the problem. This has caused a serious discourse amongst the various managers at PFBC. Farhan still remembers the conversation that he had with Umair Akbar in regards with the issue of high employee separation at the retail level.

Umair: ‘Farhan, what is the update on the status of trainings and that were planned to be given to the sales people at the retail outlets.’

Farhan:

Mr Umair, we can discuss the training in a while, but my problem is that we are facing serious issue regarding employee engagement and hence due to lack of it are facing a high turnover. This turnover is not because our employees are not properly trained; rather it is due to the fact that there is a major lack of motivation and satis-faction amongst our employees. The salaries and work conditions that we provide to our employees are so frugal that I am really finding it tough to retain good people let alone engage them effecitively.

Umair:

Farhan I am pretty sure that what we are offering to the employees is definitely above the industry averages. Look at the competitors, what are they paying to their staff. We definitely not only provide them with better salaries but also give them other allowances which are higher than the general standards.

Farhan:

Yes, Umair, that might be the case, but don’t forget, our working shifts are of 10 hours, not the normal eight. Not only do we ask for extra work hours, we many a times require our staff to do double shift. Again as I said, if I could have more people retained by offering them a higher package and improved working conditions, this problem can be solved.

Umair: So according to your suggestion, you want me to increase the benefits, compensation and salaries of every employee? Do you have any considerations regarding the financial repercussions on costs that would be associated with such a move?

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Before Farhan could make a comment, Umair shunned him off by saying,

You have been in this company for just six months. You are coming from a background working with multi-national firms. Their way of working is not the way how things are done here in Pakistan. It is people like us who actually know how to run and mange a company. Why do you think PFBC has been so successful? You, Farhan, come up with your analysis and reports and try to convince me with facts which have got nothing to do with the real problem. The issue is not job security, or the wages and work conditions that we give to our employees, it is actually the lack of training, which should be provided to each and every employee so that they can serve our customers better. I think the unique reward and fine system that I have put in place is the only effective tool to control this lot. Make sure you have your training materials ready and I expect an update from you every month on the trainings that you have scheduled.

Farhan at this time understanding that he would not be able to convince Umair on what the real issue was said,

Sir, will you give me the answer that what should I do, when you ask me to train 500 employees and by the end of the first month, 70 per cent of those employees have actually left the organization? I think we need to focus both on training and employee engagement simultaneously so that we can engage and develop talent. I even believe that not only can we retain good people; we can even enhance the capabilities of the low performers, provided we show some patience, empathy and give them the time to adapt the change.

Umair:

Look Farhan I don’t want to turn PFBC into an MNC as you are trying to subliminally portray. Furthermore I don’t want to implement any soft side of HRM practices in it. I am a great admirer of Jim Collin’s philosophy of ‘Good to Great’ where he emphasizes on ‘First Who-then What’ that is, get the right people on the bus. Therefore I want you to get the right people on the bus BUT before doing that please make sure to get wrong people off the bus. I want to transform my company in a new direction. We are a good company, but I want it to be great. A lot of changes need to be incorporated in our organization and I expect each and every person to put in their 200 per cent or be ready to face the music.

Corridor discussion amongst employees have also been revolving around the idea, that Umair still thinks he is managing PFBC like it was his civil services office. All he needs to hear is a ‘yes sir’ from us. Even Umair is aware of the Grapevine happening but according to Umair unless a stern approach is not kept with the employees, they would not want to work, nor would they take any initiative. Unless there is no constant policing, people will always try to find shortcuts and try to beat the system.

Strategic and Financial Objectives of PFBC

Although PFBC is a Seth oriented organization, positive signs of managing it strategically are present, for example, the management has laid down some clear strategic and financial objectives for the firm

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which are considered as a primary source of direction to the management and are followed with strict compliance. Some of these objectives include:

1. Achieving optimum level of efficiencies in terms of production, product quality, customer services and human resource management.

2. Minimizing costs associated with supply chain management and materials management.3. Harnessing the return on investment made on staff trainings, rewards and recruiting.4. Achieving excellence in implementation accounting procedures and financial reporting.5. Reducing goods returns from outlets by ensuring proper PPC (production, planning and control)

systems in the organization.6. Reducing turnover and work stress due to ongoing POS implementation and strict disciplinary

regulations.

The HR Department

To achieve the above strategic and financial objectives Umair Akbar considered it important to have a properly structured Human Resource department at PFBC. Till 2009, the HR function was a sub function of Business Operations Department. In 2010 the HR function was reborn under the leadership of the new CEO, with its independent agendas and strategies. The HR department comprised of 25 people, headed by Group Head HR. Reporting to the group head was Manager HR. All other managers and assistant managers performing the various HR functions reported to Manager HR. All recruiting and selection of sales personnel, supervisors and managers was done through HR that followed a simple procedure that consisted of initial screening, tests, interviews, document verification and final selection. Organogram is shown in Exhibit 1.

Senior Manager HR-Farhan Ahmed

Farhan Joined PFBC in December 2012 as senior Manager HR, reporting to Group Head HR Mr. Kashif Munir. Farhan has had a vast experience and educational background in the field of HR with a degree of Masters in Human Resource Management. With several years of corporate exposure working with various multinational and national firms Farhan had earned a reputation of being a meticulous, result oriented manager and was considered as someone who worked with an analytical mind and logical approach to problem solving. His last job was as a Talent Manager at Bank Al-Falah an Islamic Bank owned by the Abu Dhabi Group.

Farhan had also conducted many trainings and corporate workshops on various HR topics and had also indulged in part time teaching as a visiting faculty at various private universities. Since his joining PFBC, he had taken several initiatives, for example, developing Major HR KPI’s for the overall com-pany, building HR Balance Scorecards on performance and efficiency, conducting trainings for the middle tier and first line employees, etc. Currently Farhan has been facilitating the implementation of the new Information Processing System at PFBC, which would eventually convert all manual systems, practices, records and procedures on to the computerized information system software that PFBC had

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purchased. While commenting on his job and role as senior manager HR, Farhan candidly responded to the problems circling PFBC:

Anyone could walk in PFBC and see that there were obvious signs of chaos and misconduct. It would not take someone to be a genius to figure out that employee retention, engagement, facilitation, training and the overall capacity building of workers was seriously lacking at PFBC. Added to all this there is a serious trust deficit between the top level management and the operational staff. I will give you an example; we are currently imple-menting the new Information Processing system, which will computerize literally everything at PFBC. This system is being considered by many as a serious threat to their jobs as people think of it as something that would replace the major chunk of the workforce thus causing serious demotivation amongst our first line employees and middle tier managers.

Employees at PFBC

Most of the managerial employees at PFBC were by far considered rankers. They had joined PFBC at a very lower cadre and over the years, those who stuck with the firm were gradually promoted to a higher position at various processing units or functional departments. The criteria of promotion at PFBC were not clearly laid down. At times it was just the serving loyalty that resulted in an upwards movement. At other

Exhibit 1. Organogram of HR Department & JD Summaries Pakistan Food & Beverage Company (PFBC)

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instances it was that some position would become vacant and the person immediately below that position was promoted because of inability to fill that position from outside. Education, qualification or experience would be a distinct second while considering the position to be filled. To some, such practice was due to the fact that the initial success of PFBC was so big, that management never had the time to strategically plan or forecast future workforce requirements or succession. Most of the front line staff who actually came in direct contact with the customers at the retail level was either high school graduates or a very few pos-sessed a baccalaureate degree. These employees did however possess some experience in retail working as salespersons, but were not given any formal training or coaching on customer services or CRM.

Theft, wastages, pilferages and non-balancing of the cash tills with daily inventories was common and customer complaints regarding the rude attitude of OTC staff were frequent. When a verbal com-plaint or misconduct was reported by a customer to the branch manager (one at every branch), it was a general practice that he reprimanded the involved employee straightaway even at times using a very harsh language. One branch manager when asked why such a practice existed at PFBC, replied ‘this is the way our superiors treat us, we are ridiculed and insulted in public, so therefore I guess this is the way we should also be treating the staff under us.’

Salaries and Allowances

PFBC like many companies in their growth stage faced many challenges that side street its growth. Most of the employees were hired at the minimum wage rate which at the given time was Pk. Rs. 7200 (1 US$ = Pk. Rs. 98.42). A retail sales person would receive a salary of Rs. 7000, while a POS Supervisor would be paid Rs. 10000 per month. Branch Manager would be paid somewhere between Rs. 15000 to Rs. 18000 per month. Other incentives and benefits included food allowance, hygiene allowance and attendance allowance but PFBC was never quite well reputed to be a company giving high incentives or perks. This was evident by the fact that the workers at PFBC were given a meager Rs. 28 per day for their daily meals.

Challenges Faced by the HR Department

Working conditions were not that conducive at PFBC and employees often complained about the long working hours. Though 10 hours shifts concept was in place, but it was common to see employees working overtime and double shifts. Although there was a ‘reward and fine’ system in place, an equitable performance management system was something seriously lacking at PFBC which could provide a transparent performance appraisal and promotion system. Although Umair Akbar Khan would openly propagate that he wanted his HR department to be his right arm and play a more strategic role in the overall business operations; but when it boiled down to reality, things at the playing turf were not what as they seemed. HR was mostly involved in executing directions and orders from the top, firefighting, handling day to day operations or taking care of daily administrative issues.

The reward and fine policy in place was another pressing issue for the HR to deal with. The policy stated that those employees who showed up on time every day in a given month would be awarded an additional Rs. 600 as attendance allowance. That was not the problem. The policy further stated that

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if there was an unbalance between the cash sales figure vs. total inventory received, that shortfall will be divided by the total number of employees of that outlet and the resulting amount would be deducted from the monthly salary of each employee as a fine.

Group Head HR Kashif Munir tried to discuss this with Umair Akbar, Kashif:

Sir, I think that every business has a certain percentage of wastages and pilferages, especially a business like ours, where we cannot put RFID tags on every pizza or bread item that we sell. Yes pilferage, theft or wrong bill-ing is something not to be ignored, but deducting the salaries of each employee as fine is also not justified. Our theft and pilferages only account for less than 3 per cent of total sales per outlet. We should revisit this policy and come up with something that is both coherent yet just.

What Umair replied was something that Kashif had certainly not expected.Umair:

Kashif, do you think that this 3 per cent of wastage or theft is something that I am worried about. No, certainly not. Its peanuts for me, but I want to send a clear message to each employee working under me that such an act will not be tolerated at all. They steal my money; they are the ones who are going to pay for it. It’s as simple as that.

Farhan recalled how Umair had directed him to develop a companywide training programme for all employees that would facilitate the cultural change initiative drive at PFBC. Umair had talked about it at the AGM last December. Farhan had even come up with a training programme titled ‘Talent Engagement’.

Exhibit 2. PFBC-First Line New Hires vs. Separation Figures Jan 2012–April 2013

Source: Company Records.

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The problem was not that such an extensive training programme was not possible rather it was the daunting figures the scorecard was showing. In the first four months of 2013, 456 employees had left by end January, 538 had left in February, 556 had left till March and 691 employees had left PFBC in April 2013. High turnover and separation was the key pressing issue for the performance of the HR department. Latest figures showed an average 6 per cent separation rate at the top management, 12 per cent turnover at the middle level and a hefty 45 per cent employee’s turnover at the first line level staff. Exhibits 2 and 3 present data of first line employee’s turnover and attrition rates.

The Corporate Culture Change at PFBC. The Road to 2020

Considering an organization growing with a 25 per cent annual growth rate, Umair embarked on under-going an organization wide strategic redirection and change in its management practices that would help PFBC become a front runner in the food industry. Building on the time tested formula and recipe of success of the hub and spoke method of operations, Umair envisioned PFBC to now switch into a faster gear. Taking the company forward Umair believed that bigger challenges lay ahead.

In his Annual General Meeting address in December 2012, Umair talked about the vision that he had for PFBC for 2020.

I want to congratulate all of you for the efforts you have put in so forth on the road to progress and growth for PFBC. We have been a ‘good’ company so far. We provide our customers with the best quality products and we

Exhibit 3. PFBC-Attrition Rate of First Line Employees Jan 2012–April 2013

Source: Company Records.

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have been generating a healthy financial return from it. Now we all should work together to become a ‘great’ company. In the past we have been using a very centralized, highly bureaucratic approach to business. Now I want this to change. I want my managers to take a much active role in running operations at PFBC. I want my TMT’s (Top Management Teams) to shun away from the practice of micro managing and want them to focus more on the strategic aspects of business. I want everyone to come up with the objectives for their respective departments that they should achieve in 1 year, in 3 years, in 5 years and in 10 years. Furthermore, I want a coherent and cognizant plan on how should we solidify our existing business SOP and add further dimensions of expansion to it. We will not leave our previous path of success which has worked well to make this company a good one, rather we shall build on it and apply strategies that would help us further develop and sustain competi-tive advantage over our rivals.

At this point in his address Umair turned to the overhead projector and came up with a single slide that summed up all what he had said and all what he wanted as seen in Table 1.

Everyone at PFBC knew that major difficulties will be faced while undergoing such a cultural transformation due to the fact that the senior management would first resist to this change. Living under the comforts of the status quo had always been risk free. As many senior managers working at PFBC were actually rankers, promoted through the corporate ladder from a very low position they lacked a true strategic approach towards running and managing a business. Such managers were more likely to be more operations centric rather than strategic centric. Planning, forecasting or strategizing was definitely not one of their fortes.

Another impediment in the cultural transformation challenge was its bureaucratic structure in place at PFBC; hence, its proponents would surely not welcome such a concept of change and would as well place impediments covertly in its course.

Table 1. PFBC’s Strategic Vision 2020

Domain Present Future

Company Status: • ‘Good’ • Desired Status: ‘Great’Management Approach: • Theory X • Theory YCurrent Management Style: • Micro Management • Strategic ManagementAuthority: • Centralized • DecentralizedSystems and Processes • Manual • IT based Information Processing SystemsBusiness Portfolio Focus • Concentric Diversification • Conglomerate DiversificationGoals and Objective Setting • Unilateral

• Short Term• Participatory Supervisor-Employee (MBO)• Long Term

Role of HR • Traditional • SHRMTMT’s Role • Transactional • Transformational

Source: Authors.

Future Direction

Although Umair had talked a lot about the cultural change, Farhan was still very skeptical about the cultural change actually taking place at PFBC. Talking about it was one thing; actually doing it was an

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entirely a different story. Not only this, he was pressured by the expectation that Umair had from the HR department to play a leading role in incorporating such a change. Farhan was worried that although his CEO must have meant well, but was he truly abreast with the veracity of ground realities, he questioned. Would such a change be possible given the enormity of challenges engulfing PFBC? Farhan knew that most unit managers and functional heads were still unsure what Umair actually wanted, for example, they were still not clear what future course of direction was intended?

• Would decentralization in decision making really mean every one could take decisions at their own levels or would it still be a ‘one man show’?

• If top management team would be involved in the longer term strategic management and planning role, who would be taking care of the daily fire fighting?

• Would switching gears from manual to a technology based solution actually work at PFBC or would it backfire in shape of a highly de-motivated staff?

• Last but not the least, the Knowing–doing gap haunted Farhan. Was whatever said, really practiced at PFBC? Or, was the dogma of ‘change’ yet another gimmick?

• As Farhan started to pack his laptop, he could not but stop thinking of a quotation he had once read by Jim Collins:

Every organization no matter how good or great is vulnerable to decline. Anyone can fall and most of them do; but decline, it turns out, is largely self-inflicted.

Aly Raza Syed is Assistant Professor and Director of Executive MBA at University of Management and Technology, Pakistan. His key areas of interest are Business Strategy and Change Management. [E-mail: aly.raza@umt.edu.pk]

Ambreen Zainab is Lecturer in Govt. College University, Faisablad. She is doing Doctorate in Management. Her areas of expertise include Business Management, and Employees’ Motivation. [E-mail: amberawan@hotmail.com]

Dr. Shahid A. Zia is Professor of Business Administration at Grace College of Business Studies, Pakistan. He has thirty years of diversified experience especially in training and development. [Email: lahorelse@yahoo.com]

Khuram Shahzad is Assistant Professor at University of Management and Technology, Pakistan. His key areas of interest are Knowledge Management, Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management. [E-mail: khuram.shahzad@umt.edu.pk]