IBA Hosts its First CEO Forum

The IBA CEO Forum

Most people usually associate ‘business’ when they think of IBA. And though the institution’s Business program is very competitive and industry-friendly, the disciplines of MIS and CS are probably less known. And that’s why, when the MIS and CS program heads contacted CIO and P@SHA to help organize an industry-academia alignment session in the shape of a CEO Forum, we all rolled up our sleeves and got to work.

The objective of getting some of the top CEOs and senior management professionals into a room for a brainstorming discussion couldn’t have been more complex: to redesign the main product – the BS graduate. And not just learn how to make their curriculum more wholesome, the CS Faculty wanted to sit down and learn to ensure that they were imparting relevant knowledge, inculcating the right skills, and helping graduates develop the right attitudes. The CEO Forum comprised of the following participants:
1. Adnan Lawai, CEO Folio3
2. Rahim Lalani, Head of TRG Tech
3. Kamran Meer, CISO Habib Bank Ltd
4. Jawwad Farid, CEO Alchemy Technologies,
5. Humayun Bashir, Country General Manager, IBM Pakistan
6. Adnan Siddiqui, Country Manager Sales, IBM Pakistan 7. Zia Babar, CIO Tameer Bank
8. Ikhlas Ahmed, Head of IS at Muller & Phipps Pakistan
9. Barrister Zahid Jamil, IT Law Expert
10. Nauman Sheikh, Director Credit Chex
11. Owais Zaidi, Executive Director Access Group
12. Jehan Ara, President P@SHA
13. Rabia Garib, Editor-in Chief, CIO Pakistan

In addition to the other faculty members, the session was head by Dr. Ishrat Husain, Dean and Director IBA, Dr. Sayeed Ghani, Associate Dean, FCS and Dr. Zaheeruddin Asif, Program Director, BS/MS/MIS.

Industry alignment requires the academia to take the first step in realizing that a problem exists. As in any business, if the product isn’t being bought off the shelf, the manufacturer needs to go back to and figure out what the problem is. Considering that many in the room were unaware of the fact that IBA even had an MIS or CS program was just one of the indications that the problem was more than just skindeep.

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According to the industry, they need to hire problem solvers and students that have the ability to think out of the box. The curriculum, as comprehensive as it is, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to allow for a lot of ‘that kind of thinking’… and hence the fundamental problem.

While it’s in school that we expect students to formulate what areas of interest and expertise they wish to enter, the 4 years of an Undergraduate study is the time during which they establish what they want to do with themselves.

Through the course of the 4-hour session, participants in the CEO Forum brainstormed a number of ideas and we’ll share these in a series of articles a bit later in order to do a bit more justice to the time investment input by the industry, however, its sufficient to say that there is a lot of what that needs to be done… and a lot of tough questions that still need to be asked, the most important of which seems to be ‘how do you profile the IBA CS or MIS Undergraduate?’

So? How do you see the CS or MIS graduate? More to follow later.

Video Recording of the IBA CEO Forum (Part 1 of 5)

Video Recording of the IBA CEO Forum (Part 2 of 5)

Video Recording of the IBA CEO Forum (Part 3 of 5)

Video Recording of the IBA CEO Forum (Part 4 of 5)

Video Recording of the IBA CEO Forum (Part 5 of 5)