ISLAMABAD, Nov 17: A British management expert has asked Pakistani industrialists to improve quality of their products to compete in the world market and avoid imitation of other countries’ products. Prof Mohammed Zairi gave this advice to Pakistani manufacturers during a talk on ‘benchmarking for best practices’ at the Institute of Space Technology (IST).

“The Pakistani industry should meet certification standards of the WTO by producing world-class products, and get to the top by dint of high content and performances which meet the demands of their consumers,” he said.

He posed a question as to why multinationals chose to produce their products in his country. “They are cheaper to manufacture here. Even then we are likely not to purchase them as some-how instinctively we think that the content would be inferior to those manufactured in the parent country.

“If the customer is not satisfied you have already failed.”

At this point, he recommended Pakistani managements to adopt the process of benchmarking and adopt competitiveness not only to give satisfaction to consumers but also to improve their organization.

Benchmarking practices would ensure success in business strategies, cut waste and enable an institution to get along under a leadership of average human beings with a vision — the top management does not have to be a genius.

Every department stands in need to adopt benchmarking methods. Even students would need it to improve, find more facts, and have an integrated approach to knowledge in the knowledge-driven 21st century environment where every activity is interlinked and one cannot afford to be lax.

Benchmarking practices encourage them to strive to be the best in the world by stimulating their potential and make knowledge-based contribution.

In his talk, Dr Zairi said those with the government also need to adapt benchmark practices because the in-practice was to concentrate on improving infrastructure and concentrate on investment on making people more talented.

Some times it would need training and other times by shifting to a similar establishment where they could compare their own work, learn some thing new and then improve their principal place when they get back there.

Dr Zairi said benchmarking was a Quranic concept exhorting people to excel in their calling, but many of us did not realize this.

Earlier, IST Director-General Brig Imran Rahman introduced Prof Zairi and said “we undertake benchmark practice in our daily lives by improving our performance in the light of the conduct and output of a better peer or companion”.

Prof Zairi, a British citizen of Algerian descent, is a leading authority in the field of benchmarking and performance measurement, and has written over 200 papers and 17 books covering different aspects of management practices.