INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES
Introduction
The International Conference on business management (ICoBM) is a forum for business leaders, academics and practitioners to meet; the conference is annually hosted at different business schools across the nation in the partnership with other universities.
Initially organized in 2011 by University of Management Technology, Lahore, ICoBM has now spread to include under its umbrella universities from across Pakistan. The first three conferences in the series were hosted at UMT, the forth conference was held at IBA sukkar and the fifth was held at Institute of Business Management (ICoBM Karachi). The previous five conferences have focused on the broader themes of business, society, technology, competitiveness and sustainability.
ICoBM offers a great opportunity to bring together professors, researchers, scholars and corporate executives from around the nation and the globe. It is an excellent platform to deliver the latest innovative research and the most recent development and trends in the fields of business and management. Moreover, the conference offers a great opportunity to researchers and practitioners for the exchange of information and for the creation of efficient, contemporary and cost-effective frameworks for the industry.
ICoBM 2016 – NBS
This year the conference titled ‘Human Capital, Technology and Entrepreneurship: Competitive Advantage and Economic Opportunities’ was hosted by NUST Business School (NBS) at H-12 Campus, Islamabad. It was the first time that NBS was hosting an international event of this level. The conference was held in partnership with five business schools; School of Economics and Business, University of Management Technology (UMT, Lahore), Institute of Business Administration (IBA, Sukkar), Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, and Institute of Business Management, Karachi.
The conference inauguration was held on the 26th of October. Prof. Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms inaugurated the Conference and was the Chief Guest of the opening ceremony.
Principal & Dean NUST Business School, Dr. Naukhez Sarwar in his welcome note highlighted the need for collaboration between the academia, industry and government for reaping the synergetic benefits they present. He also stressed on the need for promoting multi-disciplinary education.
Following the welcome note of Dr. Naukhez, the conference Convener, Dr. Asfia Obaid, shared that the aim of the conference was to bring the academia, corporate and government functionaries together on a single platform for the exchange of ideas to create indigenous knowledge. She mentioned that a wide range of papers ranging from Foreign Direct Investment and Trade to Leadership styles and Innovative HR practices, from Entrepreneurship and Health care models are being presented at the conference.
Mr. Omar Moeen Malik shared the objectives of coming up with a product like easypaisa. He stated that the idea was based on UNDP Development goal of greater financial inclusion and considering the lower rate of financial inclusion in Pakistan as compared to the countries like Bangladesh, Nepal etc. Telenor decided to use mobile platform for reaching out the masses.
Delivering his keynote address, Rector NUST, Engr. Muhammad Asghar explained the role of entrepreneurial universities in uplifting the economy and the future of nations. He elaborated on NUST as a case in point and highlighted on the core components of the Quadruple Helix Model -Academia, Industry, Society and Government. The office of R&D, Technology Incubation Centre, Global Think Tank Network and a Community Service club are operating within the NUST Eco-system.
Addressing the audience the Chief Guest, Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms, Prof. Ahsan Iqbal emphasized that the nations benefit from the phenomenon of positive self- image, optimistic view of the future and belief/confidence in self. He acknowledged the role of the Academia and bigger universities like NUST in spear heading initiatives related to R&D and collaboration with the industry. He also encouraged the researchers, faculty and students to think creatively and proactively to lead nation towards sustained and indigenous growth. The Minister informed the audience that after the Economic Corridor initiative, the government would soon be launching the Knowledge Corridor by sending faculty and students for PHD to the top 200 universities in the United States of America.
After the departure of the chief guest the sessions began as scheduled. There were in total eight sessions, among which three were the discussion panels and the rest were the paper presentations. Each session had a session chair/moderator.
The discussion session titled ‘Innovation Management and Pakistan’, was chaired by Mr. Amer Hashmi. Among the speakers were Mr. Shekeel Pal (Executive director, Research and Development, HR Integrated), Mr. Syed Zibber Mohiuddin (Member, Board of Directors & CEO Panasian Group of Companies), Mr. Amer Zafar Durrani, (CEO Reenergia-Enhar Pakistan), Mr. Navid Qazi (Country Head, CISCO Pakistan), Mr. Nadeem A Malik, (Country Head, Microsoft, Pakistan).
The second discussion panel titled Emerging Issues in Entrepreneurship and Training moderated by Mr. Ahmed Masud (CEO Change Mechanics). The panel included Dr. Naukhez Sarwar (Principal and Dean NBS), Mr. Talib Karim (Rector IoBM Karachi), Dr. Muhammad Nouman (HOD, IMSciences Peshawar), and Mr. Majid Maqbool (Faculty, SEECS, NUST) and Ms. Rabia Shoaib (Director, Corporate Strategy Advisory Council, NUST).
The third discussion panel session, titled Emerging Issues in Innovation and Comercialization was moderated by Mr. Ather Rehman and the speakers were, Mr. Imtiaz Rastghar(chairman Innovation Steering Committee, HEC), Mr Shahid Mehmood ( CEO interactive group), Mr Salman Absar (Director, NUST, Innovation and Commercialization), Dr. F. Rober Wheeler III, (Dean, School Of Business and Economics, UMT), Mr. Khurram Zafar (Director, Center for Entrepreneurship, LUMS).
Sessions titled Emerging Issues in Finance were chaired by Dr. Muhammad Nishat (IBA) and Dr. Rukhsana Kalim (UMT). Emerging issues in Human Resource Management was chaired by Dr. Jawad Syed. Two sessions on Emerging issues in Innovation, Management and Technolgy were chaired by Dr. Graham Spickett-Jones (University of London) and Dr. James Whitte
(Director of Institute for Immigration Research, George Mason University, USA).
All the sessions had an active question answer session in the end and the session chairs presented souvenirs to the speakers and panelists.
On 27th October after the completion of all the sessions the closing ceremony took place. The chief guest of the closing ceremony was Ashar Aziz. With the closing remarks of the chief guest, rector NUST, Engineer Gen Muhammad Asghar, principal NBS, Naukhez Sarwar and the distribution of souvenirs to the organizing committee, the conference came to an end.
Two days of International Conference on business management provided a great platform for the leading tycoons of the business management to come together and share ideas, commendations and perspectives about different aspects of Business Management.