November 27, 2006	Monday	Ziqa'ad 5, 1427

SOME private companies in Pakistan are performing exceptionally well. Their understanding of society has contributed to make them star performers of the Pakistan’s corporate world.

For private entities in modern times, it is a business compulsion to assess the needs, demands, and trends of the society. Better informed business enjoys better prospects as it is well positioned to take a lead in adapting to the societal changes faster, and plans in advance to tap the market.

Sadly, the public sector managers in Pakistan are engaged in macro management of the economy from a narrow knowledge base regarding the people of the country, their needs and aspirations. It, therefore, should not come as a surprise that even with the kind of power vested in the government, its performance in most cases is far below the mark.

Be it social services such as health and education; public utilities like water and sewage; entities as the Pakistan Railways or the PIA or other key areas of governance such as crime, justice system, or traffic control. To put it mildly, the situation is bleak.

Luck is not always dependable. After the will to deliver, results of an endeavour primarily depend on the quality of strategic planning. And the quality of strategic planning essentially depends on the quality of information and analysis. Both, the quality and quantity of data gathered and processed by the government in Pakistan leave much to be desired. It raises more questions than provides answers.

Two star members of the Pakistan’s economic team Ashfaque Hasan Khan and Dr Salman Shah have expressed doubts publicly regarding certain numbers that did not add up to support their claims of trickling down of development benefits to the masses, earlier this year.

In modern era with tools and techniques available there is absolutely no justification in delaying the programme to reform and update data collection, processing and analysis functions.

In contrast to the approach of the government, a recently held marketing for youth conference in Karachi provided a window to peep through into the working of private marketing outfits in the country.

These companies, to whom people are consumers first, looked keen to understand their target population. Speakers said that it was absolutely essential to base the strategies on market research. They said that better insight gave them handle to reach out and influence potential consumers through advertisement campaigns on behalf of their clients - corporate entities.

These marketing outfits shared the findings of focused segment researches. These results were revealing and reflected on the structural changes that the society was experiencing in the post-information explosion era.

Some interesting facts on consumption patterns of the estimated 35 million youth of the country were highlighted by the participants of the conference.

The motive of marketing companies is commercial but the market research that they carry out can well serve all those who see informed intervention as a tool to make development process sustainable. These marketing outfits need to be encouraged to share results of their studies with the public as a gesture of social responsibility.

Another key issue that does not get the attention it deserves is the system of internalisation of cost and benefit in a private outfit vis-à-vis public venture.

In corporate sector, management is judged and rated on the basis of performance of the company. Performance is quantifiable and reward for good performance such as bonuses and promotions provide incentive to compete. In case of tardy performance people get superseded, demoted and in extreme cases, fired. This keeps them on their toes to stretch their abilities to the capacity.

In public sector, there is no visible link between the performance and reward. A civil servant career in Pakistan is so structured that it promotes patronisation and rent seeking.

A career civil servant cannot afford to fall on the back foot of his immediate boss whose remark on the ACR (annual confidential report) can make or break his/her career.

The promotion is on the basis of seniority primarily. A young man no matter how bright has to serve certain years before qualifying to reach decision-making level. Besides, salary structure is mismatched to power and clout resulting in widespread graft in the bureaucracy.

In most cases, no benchmarks are identified to evaluate the performance. Timeframes are vague and goals are as generalised as they can possibly be. Postings and transfers are used as tools of rewards and punishment. The country lost many qualified people with passion to this bottomless black hole.

A senior economic journalist of Singapore explaining the reasons of stunning public sector performance in his country told Dawn on the sidelines of the World Bank/IMF annual meetings a few months back how Singapore has created stakes for civil servants in the performance of public sector entities.

He said that in Singapore even ministers’ salaries are hitched to performance of their ministries that are judged against their benchmarks. The competitiveness of Singapore economy with high performing public sector shows that efficiency in management is not linked to the ownership of an entity. A mismanaged private company has equal chances of failing like a public entity or public/private joint venture.