انٹرپرینئورشپ : پرفیوم چوک، گلستان ِ جوہر

پرفیوم چوک - گلستان جوہر

یہ ہے پرفیوم چوک، جو کہ دنیا کا پہلا پرفیوم چوک ہے اور گلستان جوہر جیسے "پرامن" اور بارونق علاقے میں واقع ہے. جس طرح "جننے لاہور نئی ویکھیا وہ جمیائ نئی" اسی طرح اگر کراچی میں رہتے ہوئے آپ کو پرفیوم چوک کا حدودِ اربعہ نہ معلوم ہو تو آپکے کراچی والے ہونے پر مجھے شک نہیں، بلکہ یقین ہے. آخری اطلاعات تک اخبارات میں بے شمار آرٹیکل پرفیوم چوک کے بانی کا انٹرویو کر چکے ہیں اور ہم ٹی وی پر ایک عدد ڈرامہ پرفیوم چوک کے نام سے نشر ہوچکا ہے. بعض چھوڑُو حضرات چاند پر بھی پرفیوم چوک لکھنے کے لطیفے بیان کرچکے ہیں.

لیکن پھر بھی مزاح برطرف اس کوشش کی جتنی تعریف کی جائے وہ کم ہے شاید ہی کہیں اس لیول کی مارکیٹنگ کی اعلی مثال موجود ہو! آج کراچی کا کوئی حصہ پرفیوم چوک کی ایڈورٹائزنگ (جسے دوسرے الفاظ میں وال چاکنگ بھی کہتے ہیں) سے خالی نہیں. بقیہ کراچی سے باہر کا مجھے علم نہیں اس بارے میں باہر والے حضرات ہی صحیح بتا سکیں گے.

آئیں ذرا قریب سے اس چوک کا جائزہ لیتے ہیں تقریباً دو ضرب چار فٹ کی حدود کا کیبن اور اونچائی لگ بھگ دس فٹ، نچلا آدھا حصہ لوہے کی دیوار جبکہ بقیہ شیشے کا بنا ہوا جس میں چاروں اطراف میں مختلف اقسام کی خوشبوئیں شیشیوں میں مقید دکھائی دیتی ہیں. اوپر ایک چوڑا سا بورڈ جس پر لکھا ہوا ہے دنیا کا پہلا پرفیوم چوک پروپرائٹر مرسلین خان. ایک اور عجیب بات اس پر لکھا ہونا "اسٹال نمبر 13" تو کیا کراچی میں اور کہیں بھی اس طرح کے بارہ اسٹال موجود ہیں؟ نہیں تو! پھر یقیناً یہ تیرہ نمبر ایک الگ کہانی بیان کر رہا ہے شاید یہ وہ تعداد ہے جتنی دفعہ یہ اسٹال ٹوٹ کے بن چکا ہے (واللہاعلم) کئی دفعہ تو ہم خود اسے ٹوٹا پڑا دیکھ چکے ہیں. اور اس ٹوٹ پھوٹ والے دنوں میں پروپرائٹر مرسلین خان شیروانی ایک ٹیبل پر پرفیوم لگا کر بیٹھتا ہے لیکن کمال ضبط ہے کہ جگہ ہمیشہ وہی رہتی ہے کبھی چند گز آگے تو کبھی پیچھے لیکن وہیں آس پاس. اس ہی مستقل مزاجی کی وجہ سے جس جگہ کا پہلے کوئی نام نہ تھا اور بعض افراد نے اس جگہ کے مختلف نام رکھنے کی کوشش کی، لیکن عوام اس جگہ کو "پرفیوم چوک" کے نام سے ہی پکارنے لگے!

بزنس کی تعلیم میں اکثر ہمیں معروف انٹرپرینئورز کی مثالیں دی جاتی ہیں جیسے ایپل کمپنی کے اسٹیو جابز، رے کروک جس نے میکڈونلڈ شروع کی، کوکا کولا والے جان پِنبرٹن، ڈیزائنر امیر عدنان، وغیرہ ... میرے خیال سے مرسلین خان کا پرفیوم چوک بھی ایک انٹرپرینئورشپ جدوجہد کی اعلی مثال ہے اور بزنس کے طلباء کو دوسرے لوگوں کے بارے میں بتانے کے ساتھ ساتھ اس انٹرپرینئور کے بارے میں بھی بتانا چاہئے کم از کم یہ ایک ایسا بندہ ہے جس سے ایک بزنس کا طالبعلم ملاقات بھی کرسکتا ہے اور اس شخص سے اس کے کاروبار کے بارے میں معلومات بھی آسانی سے حاصل کرسکتا ہے!

ابنِ سیّد

Ejad Louge - Interesting!

Saturday night (Nov 18, 2012) I was checking my facebook when I saw the invitation of a conference it’s called Ejad Lounge going to be organized by the students of PAF KIET city campus, a unique named event, the topic was interesting one and was my favorite “Entrepreneurship”. I registered for the conference, also because for me it is convenient to attend as I will be taking classes whole Sunday at the IBT, EDC campus. 

That night 4:30 am I was awake because I was completing my business plan. The purpose I am telling you all this just want to show how tiered I was due to the last night working and the whole day at university at the end of the day I thought about just going to home and rest, but my internal desire for attending the conference urged to attend the conference, I don’t want to miss this learning opportunity, so I went to the PAF KIET City campus, the arrangement was nice, the guest were famous entrepreneurs and trainers,

Panel discussion session, Ejad Lounge (PAF KIET City Campus)

1.      Dr. Zaky Khan (A medical doctor & Entrepreneur)

2.      Ms. Erum Abbasi (Entrepreneur – MARE Solutions)

3.      Mr. Abil Beli (Entrepreneur – Beliscity.com)

4.      Mr. Zahir Syed (CEO Cambridge Advisors Network)

5.      Ms. Mariam Shafi (Trainer & Entrepreneur – 3Sixty Management Solutions)

Unfortunately I was late and program had already started, Mr. Zahir was speaking on the topic, it was an interactive session and students are actively taking part in it, his major points were that being an entrepreneur is not as difficult as it looks like, but in our environment there is a fear of failure which stops most of the young minds to enter into entrepreneurship, jobs are a safe earning process this is the reason most of the students study business but enter into jobs, he said there are a lot of opportunities in Pakistan specially in a fast moving city like Karachi. He advised the attendees that they should research and make a business plan and execute it don’t afraid from failure, for every disappointment there is always an alternative option exist.

Dr. Zaky had an interactive, energetic and enthusiastic session, he talk about the qualities which are required for a person to be an entrepreneur, starting from the two basic things a person must require, number one a person must be crazy in order to be an entrepreneur, this can be explained as a person who always want to do something new and search opportunities in every way. The “fire” in him urges him to find new ways of working. The second thing he described that a person has the ability to overcome the fear in him. In short we can say that he must’ve a crazy mind and a strong heart! An entrepreneur must not be ashamed of failure, he said, “If I have to select one people out of two, one claiming that he never failed and one accept that he failed many times, I will select the one who failed! Never failing is not a qualification. It means you never tried any thing new.”
The program at its boom in the discussion forum session, all the invitees were called on the stage and panel discussion was conducted the panel consist of Mr. Zahir, Mr. Abid Beli, Ms. Mariam and Ms. Erum Abbasi, it was informative in the sense that the questions prepared for the discussion were the one which every future entrepreneur has in its mind, the discussion fulfils many of the question which were in my mind, last question was on the city situation and the opportunities, all the participants expressed their thoughts, Mr. Abid Beli responded this question in a jolly manner quoting a proverb from his Memoni language which translates as, “To invest when the market is down, and to excel when the market is running”, he says despite all the law and order situation and the kidnappings of the entrepreneur family members we can see that there are many people still wiling to invest in Karachi because they know that this is a short time law and order situation the city will run again like it was before, they are taking this law and order situation as a opportunity for business and this is what an entrepreneur always look for.

I was getting late for a family meet-up so I came out after the panel discussion however I communicated my comments and suggestion through email and message to Mr. Omer Javed under whose guidance the program was organize, hats off to the brilliant organizing team, wish them good luck.

A Business Concept, Dont Give Them Fish - 2

Searching about my university, NED University of Engineering & Technology, I came across an article which was about a candidate from NED who participated in the “Karo Mumkin” competition organized by a telecom company telenor. The concept of this program was to give creative ideas which can bring a change in the lives of the people. A large number of people participated in the competition and give creative ideas, which were later uploaded on the contest website, the top ten entries were displayed which were selected by the internet poll voting.

The winner was the contestant from NED Abdul Haq Mohiuddin, the concept defined in website as:

“Abdul Haq Mohiuddin, a graduate of NED university dreams to see an educated Pakistan. This prompted him to come up with idea of each graduating student of NED giving Rs. 100 to help an under privileged child in his education. Each graduating batch of NED and if replicated by other universities would be able to donate enough money to eradicate illiteracy from Pakistan.”

Every graduate from the university after getting job will donate Rs. 100 from his salary to a fund. At least 1600 engineers pass out from NED every year, the monthly donation of Rs. 100 from each will bring about Rs. 160,000 to the fund and this fund will be used in the education of children of underprivileged areas this will bring the literacy rate up. No wonder this was a great idea, that’s why it won the first prize, the winner was selected through internet polling.

Don’t give them fish butt tell them how to fish!

You might come across my article on this topic, about the government giving funds to the people, but not giving them opportunity to earn, which is enhancing their begging skills, but not develop then as a creator/entrepreneur. Blending the Abdul Haque’s idea and the-don’t-give-them-fish idea; I have created a new idea described as follows:

What if the graduates will combine Rs. 100 each and will open a joint stock engineering firm, the initial investment will be then Rs. 160,000, the objective of the company is that it will be able to generate each person about at least Rs. 500 per month revenue in the future, some proportion of the revenue generated from the business can be invested back and can be used to generate more business, also the 1600 people can provide facility in some parts of the organization for its betterment in the production, sales, marketing, research and development, administration. This will create more job opportunities as well. Similarly if the same initiative can be done by the students of other universities, thus hundreds of new businesses can be started, which will bring more revenue to the country, more job opportunities, more business and prosperity. This might be a long term planning but will be equally helpful to overcome the economic crisis of Pakistan and increasing the per capita income.

More elaboration, the initial revenue of Rs. 500 is expected to increase approximately to 500 rupees each month, thus it will reach Rs. 10,000 in about 20 months (1.6 year). In about 20 months an investor will be making an income of 10,000 still growing each month by Rs.500. this is because the initial investment of Rs. 100 per share holder will not stop in the first month but the investor will be investing Rs.100 each month which means a total investment of about Rs. 160,000 every month to the business.

The investment revenues hypothetical graph for the first 20 months

If you have any suggestion, comments, clarification, if you just hate or love this idea, feel free to communicate. Thanks

Syed Owais Mukhtar