Companies with a future.

In the current global transformational phase, economic research shows that only the most nimble and adaptable companies and executives will thrive. Organisations that can rapidly sense and respond to opportunities will seize the advantage. The successful strategy for companies is to be willing to experiment and learn quickly.

We will have to stay mentally alert and engaged during our 50-year working life, which means knowing how and when to change the work we do, Peter F. Drucker, the great management guru, said several years ago.

Of course, there are challenges and risks. Still, opportunities and avenues for investment and the potential for economic development and growth opened up by the crises reward the performer for his pioneering effort - a new lease on a prosperous life. By harnessing local physical and (skilled) manpower in Pakistan and using evolving latest technologies, the vast potential for socio-economic development can be more rapidly realised.

The private sector can also play a vital role in developing the segment of the economy where state-run enterprises have failed to perform. The bleeding companies, devouring more and more taxpayer money despite a price hike in their products and services, have made it next to impossible to privatise them.

Corporate deaths should be preferred to running companies on losses perpetually

It is time for private sector companies with futurist outlooks to expand rapidly in areas these sick public companies operate and push them out of the market. Corporate deaths should be preferred to running companies on losses perpetually.

During the past few decades, legacy leaders in many industries that failed to embrace risk and innovation have faded away rather unceremoniously putting 'what-if' strategies in place, says Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan Chairman Amir Khan. 'To me, a risk-taking culture encouraged by organisational support lies at the heart of progress.'

Official quarters expect the private sector to play a transformational role in pulling the economy out of current distress. The Institute of Business Administration's Finance Lab should consider collaborating with related disciplines to conduct studies on business processes, market sizing and value-chain assessments, says State Bank of Pakistan Governor Jameel Ahmad.

Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan Amir Khan has identified three integral challenges to sustainable growth, which also become the...