Counsuldents: Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

Mr. Ali: I graduated as Computer Systems Engineer from GIKI (Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology), all the way back in 1999, and since then I have worked in about seven different industries- switching my job has, pretty much, always been accompanied by a change in the industry for me. I also did two Master’s degree programs- one from the University of Warwick, and another from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). My Master’s from Warwick was an MBA (Master’s in Business Administration), whereas the one I did from MIT was a Master’s of Science in Management Studies; I was a Sloan fellow at MIT.
Counsuldents: Why did you switch from being a systems engineer, to business management?

Mr. Ali: From a very young age, when I was around 15, or 16 years old, I wanted to work on the side of social and economic development – something that makes lives better for the underprivileged. Once I graduated from GIKI, I started working for various jobs, and it was during my time at SchlumbergerSema that I decided that I should actively working towards my goal of being in the development sector. I enjoyed software engineering, it was challenging, but I decided it was about time I pursued my lifelong goal.

I was working in the R&D (research and development) wing of SchlumbergerSema, in Paris, when I left my job, and went to Warwick Business School (WBS) for an MBA; I was already an engineer, I knew how things were structured, but I needed the skills which would be required if I was ever to climb the ladder, and start managing things- and WBS provided me with exactly the skillset I was looking for. I had planned on working with UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), or The World Bank, once I was done with my MBA. However, when I came back to Pakistan, there were very few options available – it felt like I was knocking at the doors, but nothing seemed to be working out.

I briefly joined Total Parco, before switching over to Telenor, which was still very new to the market, since it had only been in Pakistan for about two years. I joined Telenor in the technical department, but then an opportunity to join the ACT (agriculture commodity trade) project of Telenor came up; I was the global project manager for it; during this time Telenor also launched Easypaisa and I was appointed as its regional sales head. So call it fate, or destiny, or whatever it is that you believe in, but it brought me to exactly the place that I wanted to be, doing exactly the kind of thing that I wanted to do.
Counsuldents: What is currently keeping you busy?

Mr. Ali: Currently, I am working on digital banking. I have launched SIMSIM– it’s a digital wallet, that provides free digital banking, right on your smartphone- with FINCA, and we are currently trying to go for the mass market activation, with SIMSIM.

We believe that smartphones are the way to the future. We want to take advantage of that, and bring easily accessible, free of cost banking right to our user’s smartphones. We believe that by empowering them with this technology, we will be able to transform their lives for the better.

We currently have more than 300,000 active users on SIMSIM, and the number just keeps on going up.
Counsuldents: Are there any problems that your are facing with SIMSIM?

Mr. Ali: People in Pakistan have used traditional wallets, and banking all their lives, and that makes the introduction of a revolutionary payment system, difficult to accept. However, with our current growth curve, I am certain that within the next five years, the digital Pakistan will be nothing like the Pakistan you see today, and we are working very hard to make that happen.
Counsuldents: Is there any way that us students can help your industry with the problems that it faces?

Mr. Ali: I would like the students to start becoming a part of the digital ecosystem that is evolving. Students at the high school, and university levels have the highest adoption curve for any piece of tech that comes out. I believe that if we want to revolutionize banking, we would need every bit of help we can get from the students, in expanding the reach of cutting-edge technology. With their help, we will be able to transform Pakistan much faster.

Other than that, we conduct case studies in collaboration with different universities, where we give the students certain problems, and see what how they would propose a solution for it. These studies are also very helpful for us, and we are very grateful to the institutions, and the individuals that take part in them.
Do you have any advice for the students?

Mr. Ali: What students often come up to me with is that they don’t know what to do with their lives, and they don’t know how they should go about trying to be successful. There’s always this one thing that I tell them: stick to what you hold passion for. We all pass through that stage in life where we are searching for a purpose and trying to find our place in the world. Like everyone else, I had to go through it too. It is at that point in our lives that our passions, those dreams that are bigger than us, that act as a beacon of light. It keeps on driving us in the right course. Don’t worry about where you should or shouldn’t be – your passion should always be your sole source of guidance. It will get you where you need to be.
Often times, people forget that they should be following their passions instead of trying to achieve baseless goals set by the society for them. You will see a lot of people doing jobs that they hate and living lives that they despise more than anything. It is because they tied themselves down and now they are too afraid to let go. Before they know it, they will be a decade into a profession they don’t like, and then they would be terrified of leaving. Thus, giving oneself space to experiment and fail is very important. It’s alright to fail, we don’t teach that, but we should. Failures teach us important lessons. No great thing in life has ever been done without taking on risks. People who play it safe will not move the needle by much – to do something great in life, make yourself vulnerable.

At the end, I would just like to say that people- especially students- should give themselves room for failure, and follow their dreams. That would not only ensure that they live the life they wanted to live, themselves, but it would also greatly enhance their productivity, thus allowing them to make many other lives better in the process. After all, once you have that big shinning beacon of light (your passion), nothing can stand in the way of your success.