Asad Rezzvi believes that Wateen is the technological backbone of Pakistan under prevailing conditions wherein the country is going through adverse circumstances politically, socially and by all other means Wateen is technologically enabling and empowering the country providing them with a connectivity platform. He said that Pakistan’s real strength is its youth and Wateen’s strength is also its young and dynamic team.
Daily Times: Tell us about your academic qualifications?
Asad Rezzvi: After getting my A-level education from Karachi Grammar School in 1987, I went to America on scholarship and did graduation in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.
DT: How did you start your professional career?
AR: After completing my graduation I worked with the Anthony Robbin’s organisation, which is considered among the top business-engineering consultants. His company is consulting with White House, top professional companies, Hollywood stars, sportsmen etc. According to Harvard Business Review, he is among the top 50 business intellectuals of the world. His area of interest includes understanding how human factor is engaged in work. He does organisational reengineering. He has seven companies and I was associated with the Anthony Robin’s Centre for Strategic Interventions. I worked with him for around 10 years during 1991 to 2001. Now Robins personally knows me.
DT: How were you focused in a documentary filmed about 9/11?
AR: Yes, in 2001 I was focused in a documentary filmed about 9/11. Actually, I was at Anthony Robbin’s leadership conference, being held in Hawaii Island when 9/11 happened. Around 2,000 people including Muslims, Jews, Christians and others from 80 different countries were attending this 10-day conference. The incident of 9/11 happened on the third day of the conference. This one-hour documentary was recorded there in the conference taking feedback from the people on this mishap.
DT: How did you start your own organisation?
AR: I started a financial and organisational consultancy firm called E-Cube Global, in San Francisco. In 2005 I came back to Pakistan and opened another office in Karachi, Zamzama and I was doing consulting and interventions with companies in Pakistan. Since then I have worked in Pakistan with companies like Mobilink, DHL, Engro, Toyota, Suzuki, Sui Gas, etc.
DT: How did you join Wateen?
AR: I joined Wateen in June 2011, but am consulting with Wateen CEO Naeem Zamindar since January 2011. He wanted somebody to come onboard from HR who would help in reengineering and restructuring Wateen, so I actually sent certain people to him but he was not satisfied. His vision was to take somebody very dynamic and lead the transformation process. Ultimately he was convinced that such a person was difficult to be searched for in Pakistan and he ultimately said I needed to take up this task. Even though I had a very busy practice I took this challenge because it was a worthy challenge, so I put my practice aside and came over here.
DT: What is organisational reengineering?
AR: Understanding where an organisation stands, after that understanding the vision and then preparing and managing an operation roadmap to achieve that vision. It includes multidimensional tasks – how to bring human resource back to life, and not just bringing back to life but specifically for the purpose of reengineering and transforming the company. For that you have to change the people’s mindset, work habits, align processes and then start actual working in the business like in finance, engineering and marketing where people are working and engaging their expertise to see that their entire organisation is going in a single direction. This entire science is called organisational reengineering. One thing, which I want to make clear here is that its not motivationally speaking, this is not positive thinking and not giving a lecture, this is basically understanding how people do work and how they can do 100 to 1,000 percent better.
DT: How did you actually restructure and reengineer Wateen team?
AR: After taking charge I divided the human resource into two wings – transformation and administration. The administration continued dealing with its routine administrative work while for transformation, it comprises a team dedicated to creating an initiative company-wide specially for the purpose of transforming. One of the first things I did here, I restructured the whole company to eliminate redundant roles and to create basically a lean organisation. Resultantly approximately over 200 people left the organisation at that point. What we did, we made sure we let the people go with good packages and good service packages, which was very generous in Pakistan. Secondly, we compared our team’s remuneration packages with the rest of the market and we created a philosophy about what type of organisation we actually want to create – very highly focused on growth, development and investing in the people – so we created a structure and raised everybody’s salary and then created a very decent-sized budget for professional development trainings, soft skills training and even personal training. So we invested in total non-work related personal development of our people. We created a lot of momentum in the company. In December the management of Wateen was changed and the previous management had left behind a lot of issues, as employees didn’t trust them. First step was to actually regain their trust and credibility. There were various issues like injustice and unfairness with some people. All such issues were resolved and now every employee believes that this administration and this human resource mean business. We are here to see them achieve their goals.
DT: What is the driving force or vision of Wateen?
AR: Pakistan is facing bad economic conditions as well as a decline politically, economically, socially and in every manner. Wateen Telecom is more of an opportunity for this country than being just a company. Wateen can actually technologically enable all in Pakistan by providing them a platform of growth and development. Wateen is the technological backbone of the country and we are actually enabling every single company in Pakistan to advancement so we are targeting the advancement of every individual of the country. When technological advancement happens youth will be the first to take benefit from that. We will harness their energy, talent, passion and creativity and use them for bringing Pakistan back to life. This is a very powerful and big vision and this is very real to us as we are working to make it happen every single day. Since the first day I am working here and this vision is what guides us. Youth is the biggest asset that Pakistan has and the biggest asset of Wateen as well because our team is based on young and dynamic people.
DT: What is your major achievement?
AR: The major achievement is the third initiative that we took in December by operationalising the key performance indicators. In Enterprise Land Grab, we are now working with around 200 corporate groups out of a total of 400 in Pakistan, which is a very big achievement. Winning Balochistan fibre optic project is also a big score. We have a motivated team to implement any challenging task. Momentum came to the organisation as it is rejuvenating. In Wateen now business is not mere a business but a mission. We have started meetings and eliminated communication gaps by applying participatory approach at all levels.
Targets have been given to employees to be achieved well in time. We call senior management team, including CEO’s, meeting once a month and work on business plans. Everybody is in collaboration with one another. People are developing and coming together as a team. Work is making a real deal as we take inputs from the whole team, which helps us make a really implementable plan leading to success. Achievements are happening much more rapidly and hurdles are getting removed so cultural transformation is happening very rapidly. We now have happy customers. We are fulfilling the goals to meet business plans.
DT: How do you compare your strength with Mobilink?
AR: We don’t compare with them. Our business line is very unique as we have got the largest fibre optic network of more than 12,000 kilometres in Pakistan from Karachi to Torkham having potential of further connectivity to Afghanistan and from Balochistan to Iran and China. In rural areas there is no connectivity, they are also future potential areas. Telecom networks and media companies who need connectivity come to us.
In product of fibre optics including LDI, we are the third largest seller in long distance national calls in Pakistan. We are Pakistan’s largest V-set re-seller. Our contract is with Roshan and Afghan Net.
We have three main products comprising broadband, telephony, media and enterprise solutions. Further broadband comprises fibre optics, V-set, Y-mat and HRC fibre. Telephony service offers Y-mat phone connection and recharge cards can be used as minutes are resold to Zong, Warid, Ufone and Mobilink.
We are the largest cable network in Lahore as we cover around 25 percent of the city and are further planning to expand to Karachi and Islamabad as well. We have our own in-house channel having satellite quality. In enterprise solutions we are working with many multinational companies and we are providing equipment to data centres, contact centres as well as video conferencing solutions. We are providing end-to-end solution. We are larger to any other in Pakistan.
DT: What type of boss are you?
AR: I believe in being very democratic but at the same time also very dynamic. I make decisions on my own and then make sure that the team is also a part of that. I take their inputs on how they feel. I want my people to enjoy working. Fun is very important to me, which is why we joke and laugh at work. If you are not enjoying your work then you are never going to be extraordinary. Four people directly report to me, and a total of 35 people report to me directly or indirectly.
DT: What is the total human resource strength of Wateen?
AR: We have around 2,000 plus employees countrywide including our contractual staffers on special tasks. We have built their capacity to handle tasks efficiently completing them well in time. We provide them technical training, business training, customer care training, sales training and general soft skills training, which comprises communication skills for team building with the help of external and internal trainers.
