January - UMT Admin Panel - University of Management and ...

Director, Center for Management DevelopmentWaqar Ahmedshares the recipe of success of CMD, plansoperations at international levelOne of the founding members of CMD, Waqar Ahmedearned his BS and MBA degrees from the UnitedStates. He worked with the leading US companies inthe areas of sales, marketing, and management. As asenior trainer, Waqar has been giving trainings withinand outside Pakistan on various management andmarketing topics. His areas of interest include personalselling, team building, customer service, andleadership skills. He has conducted trainings foralmost all the leading national and multinationalcompanies in Pakistan. He has recently taken over asDirector CMD. UMT News spoke to him regarding hiscontribution to CMD over the years and his plans forfurther development.UMT News: The Center for ManagementDevelopment, CMD, as it is generally known, is one ofthe most well known ventures of UMT and hasimparted trainings to clients all over the country. Tellus about your association with CMD and how itevolved over the years as one of the best managementtraining centers in the country.I am one of the founding members of CMD. From dayone I was very passionately involved in all its affairs. Istill remember the long working hours where I wasdeeply involved not only in developing new workshopmaterial but also in establishing CMD's brand name inthe corporate sector. We started very humbly with noclients but soon developed a network with leadingtrainers and companies. As our training methodologywas different from other training organizations, werapidly gained market acceptance. Each passing dayincreased my involvement in CMD affairs and trainingbecame my passion.UMT News: The Outbound Action Learning trainingsare one of the most sought after and rigorous exercises,and to some extent, they are also an extreme form oftraining. How did the idea evolve?First of all, outbound is not an extreme form oftraining. It is an extension of our existing trainingmethodology that is experiential learning. The conceptevolved as we observed that when a person comesclose to nature his/her real identity is revealed.Moreover, natural places like mountains and junglesprovide us an environment that is similar to the highpressure environment in the corporate world.Add high level of participant's involvement and 100%recall rate and you have one of the best trainingexperiences. So the idea was very simple, nature is thebest teacher, hence use it to your advantage.UMT News: While CMD has greatly benefited thecorporate clientele, the resource persons and trainersare faculty members of UMT. To what extent, if any, doyou or your colleagues bring this expertise to theclassrooms?An excellent question indeed. I would like to highlighthere the raision d'eatre of CMD. CMD was founded byDr Hasan Sohaib Murad, Rector UMT, to act as abridge between academia and business. When weinteract with clients, first of all we try to understandtheir business environment and the related issues.When we go to a class we share our learning with thestudents in multiple forms. We use these companies asexamples of management practices; we give themassignments and projects on these companies andarrange visits/guest speakers for our students. Theselinkages also help us in creating job opportunities forour graduating students.UMT News: Can you explain how training impartedby CMD leads to transformation of the company forthe better?CMD is in the business of bringing change andimprovement in the client's organization. This is alsoour mission statement. Whenever we interact with anorganization we ensure that some changes take placein the organization. Some companies have shownmore than 100% increases in their sales while othershave shown drastic improvement in their productivityand employees’ motivation level.UMT News: You have given trainings both within andoutside Pakistan. Are there any differences in thetraining requirements of local companies as comparedto those of foreign ones?I have worked with different organizations andbusiness groups within and outside Pakistan. Thetraining issues are more or less the same as the basicobjective is to either improve the technical skills or thesoft skills of the human capital. MNC's requirediscussing multi-cultural aspects with emphasis onglobal competencies whereas local companies aremore focused on regional/local dynamics.UMT News: How do you identify employee trainingneeds in an organization?At CMD we have a five step process of conducting aTNA for customized workshops. This includes anexploratory meeting with the concerned Head of theDepartment, followed by analysis of the variousfactors that influence the environment that theworkforce operates in, and the gaps in their requiredThe Center for Management Development (CMD) has grown toprominence since its inception in 2002 as one of the leading trainingproviders in Pakistan. Its strength lies in good understanding of clients'needs and a high level of customization. The learning philosophy ofCMD reflects experiential learning, integrates workplace application,and blends modern management philosophies for local marketimprovisation. Good understanding of the client needs, high level ofcustomization, and innovative programs are the real strength of CMD.workforce operates in, and the gaps in their requiredlevel of competencies. This exercise is followed byidentification and specification of training needs,development of program content, trainingmethodology and schedule, and delivery of thecustomized training program to the participants.Finally, a follow-up session to assess training impact isorganized with the participants, though this last step inoptional and is taken only if required.UMT News: What are the key criteria for effectivetraining?There are various criteria that can be used to measurethe effectiveness of a training program. However, Ibelieve that a training workshop is successful if itmeets the objectives agreed upon with the clients' HRDepartment, engages the participants, and helps themto change their attitude and behavior by 5 – 10 percent.UMT News: What are your plans for furtherdevelopment of CMD – both in terms of the type oftrainings offered, human resources and infrastructurerequired to meet the demands of the corporate sector?CMD is different in many ways from any other trainingorganization that is operating in Pakistan. First, it isbased in an academic environment and offerscustomized training at the clients' place. Secondly, ourprograms are theoretically grounded and practicallyexecuted. In short, we are knowledge-based andperformance-oriented. Third, we have the largestresource pool of trainers, covering a wide variety ofprogram offerings. All of our trainers have richcorporate and training experience which gives CMDthe edge of catering for multiple customers' needsunder one roof. Fourth, being in academia, our strengthlies in measuring performance and relatedimprovement. We offer impact assessment to ourclient that no other organization is offering. Fifth, andthe most important, we are flexible, innovative andnot-for-profit oriented company. All the incomegenerated by CMD goes towards the development ofthe university. In fact, our training partners andparticipants are collaborating in the noble cause ofspreading knowledge.Using UMT's strength I am planning to take CMD tothe international level and develop internationallinkages with leading training institutions of the world.Soon, we are starting our operations in the Middle Eastand SAARC countries as well.UMT News: What in your view are the key trainingareas that companies should focus to effectively thrivein turbulent times?I believe that current times call for a focus on trainingin areas like leadership, technology, entrepreneurship,social media, financial engineering and management,strategy and branding, team building, performanceenhancement and personal effectiveness along withthe latest technical areas like business forecasting,supply chain, key account management, ERP, etc. Thekey success factor will lie in the ability of the companyto align these trainings with the corporate goals.