Another fabulous session of Leaders at LUMS was organised by the LUMS Office of Development team on February 22, 2018. The guest speaker at the session was Mr. Asif Jooma, Chief Executive of ICI Pakistan Limited and member Board of Governors of the LUMS National Management Foundation, who inspired the audience with his wonderful talk.
Opening the discussion, Mr. Adeel Hashmi, the well-known media personality and moderator of the session, asked about the adverse impact of chemicals on environment, to which Mr. Jooma replied, “All chemicals are not harmful. There is effluent and by products. What you have to do is to ensure managing and treating effluent flow effectively and you don’t damage and harm the environment.”
Talking about ICI Pakistan’s automated recruitment process, Mr. Jooma told that the hiring process is all digitalised and ICI Pakistan has got a fantastic IT enabled system for full recruitment. Interaction with the Human Resource team is required on the interview stage only.
Discussing opportunities for youth in our country, Mr. Jooma said “This is the golden decade of Pakistan. I would encourage my children to come back. We need people to come back. We need talent in this country. Today our biggest challenge in business is getting and retaining the right kind of people.”
Addressing the students in the audience, Mr. Jooma said that nowadays, the war is on the talent front and corporate organisations reach out to the institutes like LUMS to attract talent and invite fresh graduates to come and work with them.
When asked what it takes to be a leader, Mr. Jooma said, “As a leader you have to be secure in your skin. You have to be able to internalise lots of pain and you have to be able to open the window of success.”
Answering an interesting question asked by one of the guests about managing emotional intelligence of employees, Mr. Jooma stressed on the importance of being a team player in corporate sector. He said that one has to realise and understand that an individual alone cannot achieve desired outcomes. Favourable results are the outcome of collective team effort. Working in teams can help reduce stress in the daily work routine.
Vice Chancellor LUMS, Prof. Dr. S. Sohail H. Naqvi, in his brief address shared that two things made his day today: first, the news that 10 out 14 new recruits at ICI last year, were from LUMS and second is Mr. Jooma’s statement about this being a golden decade of Pakistan.
The session concluded with Syed Babar Ali, Pro-Chancellor LUMS, presenting a commemorative shield to Mr. Jooma and thanking him for coming to LUMS and delivering an inspiring talk.
