MUL & CGU launch a Global Executive MBA in Entrepreneurship

Minhaj University Lahore (MUL) in collaboration with Cambridge Graduate University USA (CGU) has officially launched its Global Executive MBA programme in Entrepreneurship. This program is designed for ambitious professionals with the potential and desire to enhance their career and further develop their leadership and entrepreneurship skills.

The EMBA programme, scheduled to commence in April 2014, provides students the opportunity to immerse themselves into an intensive study environment that will enable them to broaden their management perspectives and build upon existing skills, all in an international study environment.  The program will be taught jointly by faculty at MUL and will bring aboard faculty from MIT, Cambridge, Harvard and many other prestigious universities around the world. It is an amalgamation of on-campus weekend classroom sessions and distance learning components, and will take 24 months to complete.

With a concentrated focus on Entrepreneurship, this EMBA programme is designed to provide comprehensive theoretical and practical knowledge in Strategy, Change and Leadership, which will enable students to effectively compete in the global business arena. Furthermore, this in-depth familiarity with the discipline of Entrepreneurship will also help those students who are interested in launching their own business ventures in both existing and innovated fields along an expansive front, such as technology, marketing, social development and the like.

At the end of the programme, its top three students will have the opportunity to join an international business set up by MUL as a shareholder.

Commenting on this programme Dr. Hussain Mohi ud Din Qadri, Deputy Chairman Board of Governors MUL said, “We, here at Minhaj University, are very proud of our new initiative. This EMBA programme is unprecedented in Pakistan not only due to its unique content, and its distinctive style of instruction, but also because of our affiliation with some of the world’s most prestigious universities. We are positive that all future graduates of this programme will significantly contribute to the social and economic development of our country just as we have envisioned.”

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Wateen: Spring Promotion 2014

Wateen offers amazing speeds of up to 2Mbps at a remarkable discounted rate of Rs. 1,899 for customers in Karachi, Lahore & Islamabad, an extravagant saving of Rs. 1,100 from the normal published rates. Also, they have offered 1.5Mbps for all customers in USF cities at a discounted rate of Rs. 1,499, saving  Rs. 100 from the published rates.

This limited time promotional package will be available for subscription in the month of March 2014 only and subscribers can continue enjoying these amazing speeds at the promotional rates after March for as long as they wish, provided they recharge on or before their bill date.

While they have accommodated customers currently on the 1Mbps Unlimited package with this offer, any customer, irrespective of package plan, can avail this amazing promotion in March 2014. However this would apply to all commercial and USF package plans only.

In order to avail this offer, simply call customer care center on 111-365-111 or visit the nearest franchise.

If a customer has already been migrated to this package all they need to do is recharge their account and leave the rest to Wateen. Alternatively, should you wish to unsubscribe to the package and revert back to your original subscription, simply contact customer care representatives and they shall facilitate the request at no extra cost.

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Mobile Penetration in Pakistan

By Aamir Abbas Khan

The writer is an IT &Technology analyst

A decade ago, high costs and irrelevance meant mobile phones were not that common in Pakistan. But as time passed and technological advancements were made on regular basis, mobile phone manufacturers began producing low cost mobile phones as part of a strategy to grab early market share in a suddenly booming sector. Combined with the growth of communications and transmission technology (fiber and satellite based) mobile phones have since become a necessity. Pakistan’s potential in the telecommunications market was underestimated in the beginning, but recent years have shown that this country can never be neglected. Judging by the increasing number of cellular subscribers, the smart companies got in early and stuck around.

There are several reasons behind the high mobile phone penetration in Pakistan; recently a number of Chinese phone sellers, following in the lead of global brands such as Nokia, Samsung, HTC, etc have entered the market and increased their sales and service networks. This in turn led to increased demand for post-paid and data packages, which boosted numbers tremendously. Now demand is increasing for 3G networks, something that should have happened several years ago, but was delayed several times. Secondly, but more importantly, millions of Parallel Import devices have penetrated the market and found success with their relatively lower prices by successfully evading the tax structure.

 Experts say that there is a 15 to 20% price difference between Parallel Import devices brought in this way and those devices legitimately imported. For customers this sounds like a dream, and who cares if the government doesn’t get its pound of flesh. But the effects for consumers can also be adverse. Devices like these don’t come with warranties, guarantees, and service agreements. Often, sellers will replace parts or scavenge the phone and take out its most expensive parts before putting it back together and selling it again. And there’s nothing that customers can do to avoid this. Replacement parts become more expensive and suddenly a legitimate market becomes tilted by untaxed substitutes, leading manufacturers to cut down their participation, effectively driving them from the market.

There are numerous examples; One of the leading brands recently conducted research that showed an increasing number of complaints arising from purchases of warranty-less or PI phone products. Recently high end devices were also released which received an excellent response from the Pakistani market, but because of the impact of PI products on their brand name, the company has taken a hit. While some leading brands are staying, other manufacturers may not feel the same, if they see their brand equity and image of reliability tainted in this way.

Parallel Import devices affect all mobile phone manufacturers and leads to a negative financial impact for official distributors. The government recently started taking this issue seriously, partly because of growing security threats and the use of cellular devices in terrorism-related activities. The Government should also take further action to protect customers interest and to make sure they buy official products, because the service agreements make up for the extra cost, guaranteeing security and performance.

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