The dominance of family firms across the world is now well established: Among the largest publicly traded companies, family firms account for 44% of large firms in Western Europe, over 66% in East Asia, with their dominance in around the world being stronger in countries with relatively weaker capital markets and institutions. Family firms’ dominate…

Difficulties are present for all family businesses regardless if they are run by first, second or third generation. Once established the difficulties will get easier for family business in later generations. What really leads to the failures of family business in the second or third generation is the difficulty in succession planning and handing over…

As in most other countries, family business plays an important role in the national economy of Pakistan. About 80% of our economy are created by family business. But family business seems to be in a kind of crisis today. A huge chunk of Pakistan’s 22 richest family-owned businesses, tracing back to the 1960s and 70s…

Two thirds of Pakistan’s population live in rural areas, rural poverty is a major destabilizing factor. Authoritative studies have documented rising poverty levels with a decreased capacity of acquire and hold land which is the main source of subsistence in the agricultural areas. Pakistan’s economy has also been growing slowly over the past two decades. The annual…

According to CGAP, it is estimated that around 1.2 billion adults worldwide were able to gain access to formal financial accounts for the first time between 2011 and 2017, which represents a 35% growth over a six-year period. This tremendous feat was achieved due to the efforts of players other than banks such as mobile…

Introduction Without addressing “financial inclusion” on a war footing it will be impossible to close the gap between the haves and have-nots with respect to benefitting from the banking system. Their lives must be brought into the financial comfort zone by access to services, products and commodities presently available only to limited number of citizens…

Despite entering the era of digital age the approach of our government institutions, with control of our resources in the hands of the few, is to act in accordance with their normal modus operandi and delay the process. This is done to the detriment of the masses and is a true reflection of the colonial era…

In its broadest definition “Culture” is “the way we do things”, corporate culture is the way an organization is organized. Defined by the people who manage and work in the organization it partly comes about naturally. On the other hand, Corporate identity is a western term to describe ways for making a company distinctive and…

Put simply, financial inclusion is access to formal financial services by individuals and firms to use a range of quality payments, savings, credit and insurance services which meet their needs with dignity and fairness. These services include credit, savings, deposits, payments, transfers and insurance etc. In recent years an important driver towards financial inclusion has…

While Pakistan desperately needs to progress, religious and ethnic nationalism divides the country and hampers development. The country broke up in 1971 because of ill-conceived nationalism where ethnicity-related prejudices pitched both parts of the country against each other and broke up the unity of Pakistan in the end. One needs to reflect more on the…