View from US: Hello Twitter, adios email!

[Neo]

View from US: Hello Twitter, adios email!

By Anjum Niaz
Sunday, 06 Dec, 2009

Hina Rabbani Khar.

Maybe I’m jumping the gun? I’m trying to talk of two new concepts simultaneously. First, how to jump start the economy. Second, how to do social marketing through Twitter and Facebook because email is about to join its jaded sister the snailmail!

Women of Pakistan step in and lead our economy. Move over Ms Hina Rabbani Khar. All that the junior minister for economic affairs talks about are dollars her government pockets by begging abroad. 'We are not sitting idle,' she says while talking about inflation. 'We’re working on it and shall hopefully bring down inflation to single digit.' She parrots the same lines and flogs feel-good stories as she did when she was in Musharraf’s cabinet.

Look around America. You’ll find women in small businesses or in mega-corporations engaged in generating money and spreading it across the board by providing income to millions of other women. 'While the world economy is shrinking, we’re growing,' says a woman CEO whose company has won a place in the ‘Best 100 global brands’ and has placed her as number 5 on Fortune Magazine’s '50 most powerful women in business' in 2009.

'Today we have six million representatives turning to us at a time when recession has hit global markets. These women have job security. They will never get laid off nor get fired.'

I know, I know, I should not be comparing Pakistan to America which is the wealthiest country in the world, but darn, how long can we cower under the excuse that we are a Third World country? How long can we play the victim and blame our anemic money picture on corruption? Why can’t some business tycoon with a streak of ‘innovation’ in him/her think of providing employment to thousands of Pakistani housewives willing to work? O.K. how about starting a company that not only makes cosmetics but caters to women’s wardrobe, jewellery and of course house hold necessities at an affordable price? Instead of putting the goods in retail stores, market them via women representatives.

I’m not being elitist and before you begin to roll your eyes and say, ‘what is she talking about?’ let me explain. The target is to capture the middle class/upper class housewives/working women who want to look good and own pretty stuff but at an affordable price.

'This cream should hopefully wipe off years from my face…when I go to the bar they will want to see my ID thinking I’m under 18!' a woman in her fifties exclaims hyperbolically. We’ve just been treated to a sumptuous lecture on ‘Innovation’ by this woman CEO whose company sells anti-aging line of products, cosmetics and perfumes. They are now being marketed on Twitter and Facebook. 'Email is history, a thing of the past,' she says.

I ask her why she has bypassed Pakistan while capturing China and Indian markets. Our women are very beauty conscious and would give you good business if you come to my country, I tell her. Pakistan is definitely on her list, she says because 'For over 120 years, we have provided women with economic opportunity while serving as a change agent for critical issues that face women worldwide. Lack of financial resources and lack of personal safety are two reinforcing, co-dependent crises. We are so proud to help bring attention to eradicating violence against women and improving access to justice for women and girls, and to award new grants that will help launch initiatives to change lives around the globe.'

So what’s the secret of her success?

'Reinvent yourself first before you reinvent your company,' she hammers in. 'There are pros and cons of experience. A con is that you can't look at the business with a fresh pair of eyes and as objectively as if you were a new CEO. Fire yourself on a Friday night and come in on Monday morning as if a search firm put you there as a turn-around leader. Can you be objective and make the bold change? If you can't, then you haven't reinvented yourself. If you can, then you can have a decade of tenure that is like having different jobs. I'm not the same leader I was even last year, because those skills have rendered themselves not as useful. I've had to reinvent myself every year.'

OK, what she means is to embrace innovation to 'reinvent' yourself! 'Innovation is the solution, the key,' she emphasises. She immediately got to work and reorganised her company’s structure to make it come 'closer to the consumer.' She eliminated high level management; took away powers from some; split up to divide roles and responsibilities; flattened the organisation and freed up billions in costs to use in sectors that needed attention.

Her parents are highly professional people who are immigrants. Their motto: 'We don't quit in this family. We persevere.'

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