Success story of danish Naseer (Media Logic)

Abstract

The first group assignment required Group 7 to interview a matured entrepreneur to learn about his story, achievements, and experiences. After constant discussion and disagreement over a plethora of individuals as to who would “rightly” qualify as an entrepreneur according to our own conflicting definitions of entrepreneurship, we finally decided to interview Mr. Salman Danish Naseer, CEO of Media Logic, as our entrepreneur for the first group assignment.

Mr. Salman Danish is a dynamic individual who completely revolutionized the media industry at a young age. After working for over nine consecutive years in the corporate sector, he realized how being a corporate “slave” restricted his capacity to showcase his true potential, whilst providing very little opportunity for him to outshine as an individual. This led him to channel his creativity and establish three companies namely Media Logic, Opti Media and Active Media, each of which deals with niches previously untapped in the country.

The Visit

After contacting and setting up an appointment with Mr. Salman Danish, Group 7 went over to his office in Sector XX DHA Lahore. Situated on the main road, the Head Office was inside a multiple-storey plaza. It had a white, tiled floor and a comfortable seating arrangement with grey leather sofas and a glass table with some daily newspapers making up the waiting area. Mr. Danish’s office itself was nestled between several glazed glass doors. The gentleman had already been awaiting us as five chairs were placed in front of his desk for us to occupy.

His office was a small, cozy room with laminate wood flooring and cream-colored textured wallpaper on all four walls. It was rectangular in shape with a wide window covered with blinds right behind his chair. Diametrically opposite his sitting space was a medium-size LCD television, which was at that time turned off. In one corner of the room was an indoor money plant, growing in a pot, beside which was a table with copies of Time Magazine, Forbes and Harvard Business Review magazines. On one of the longer walls were two shelves holding several books including Imran Khan’s “Pakistan: A Personal History” and two copies of Philip Kotler’s Principles of Marketing amongst others. Upon enquiry regarding this selection of books we learned, interestingly enough, that Mr. Salman Danish had received the Marketing textbooks from Professor Ehsan ul Haque (one of the co-authors) on account of Media Logic’s feature in one of the book’s case studies. Imran Khan’s autobiography, on the other hand, was allowed a spot because the Chief Executive Officer shared Khan’s ideology of a corruption-free state and so, as part of his endeavor to contribute positively to Pakistan. Danish worked actively with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s marketing department, especially for their election campaigns.

Mr. Salman Danish’s desk had on it his black Asus laptop, a small clock, a table calendar, a notepad, some files and a mug containing several pens. Beside his chair was a low bookshelf containing many more files and books but these were far and concealed well enough to be inconspicuous to a regular visitor. Mr. Danish himself sat comfortably in his rotating, black leather chair. He was dressed casually, in trousers and a blue shirt with a grey zipper jacket on top. His countenance was warm and it set all of us, who were meeting him for the first time, at ease. All the members of Group 7 were actually rather surprised to see him in person, as he looked like he was in his twenties i.e. at least half his real age. His voice was also rather gentle and for someone with such high profile, successful businesses under his belt he was not intimidating in the least. Mr. Danish pleasantly asked us a little bit about ourselves and that set the conversation rolling.

About Him

After completing his B.A. in Economics in 1995 from the Government College University Lahore, Mr. Salman Danish joined the Lahore University of Management Sciences for his MBA the following year. During his two years at this institute he made his place in the Dramatics Society, finishing finally as President of it, and also on the Dean’s List for Academic Excellence. With these achievements under his belt he finally graduated as part of the MBA Class of 1998 and joined Shell Pakistan Limited where he worked for 3 years as Network Planner. In 2001, he joined PepsiCo, where he stayed for nearly 7 years. By the end of this period he was at the position of Head of Marketing Snacks Division and during his time there, PepsiCo, under him, launched Lays, Kurkure and Mountain Dew amongst other products.

The Background Story

Throughout his time in the corporate sector, Mr. Danish, who had always been on the marketing side, observed how much multinational companies invested on above the line advertising, especially through television. He saw, however, two obstacles associated with this spending. Firstly, in Pakistan as a whole, there were not many channels to choose from, as back in the day cable television was not developed enough and had only one or two channels in each of the news, sports and entertainment categories. While this was not necessarily a bad thing on its own it was made into one because of the second obstacle; when multinational companies had to decide where to spend, it was done on the basis of a vague idea or a gut feeling. In Mr. Salman Danish’s own words, “at Pepsi we just instinctively ‘knew’ that people watched cricket. We had no data or statistics to back up our gut feelings or to tell us which demographic market segment watched it or how frequently they did.” Danish also pointed out the uncertainty involved with gauging how effective the company’s marketing campaigns were. It was difficult for people at his position and within his department to justify why money was spent where it was, considering especially that the return on investment could not be measured. Essentially what he concluded from his scrutiny was that the business macro-environment in Pakistan lacked a media rating company, which if it had existed would have aided corporations in such marketing related decisions.

In the private sphere of his life, Mr. Salman Danish foresaw another problem. He had spent as much time as he possibly could have climbing the corporate ladder in Pakistan. Now in order for his career to grow further, a transfer abroad was inevitable. This was problematic for two reasons. Firstly, all of Danish’s siblings were settled abroad and if he also left Pakistan there would be no one to care for or even to live with his aging mother. Secondly, he himself was not on board with the idea of leaving Pakistan permanently and becoming part of the cycle that involved repeatedly reestablishing his entire life in a foreign land every few years, as the multinational company issued a transfer with each promotion.

The Action

Thus with all these factors in mind, Mr. Salman Danish finally resigned from his job at PepsiCo in 2007 and collaborated with some investors and the international market research organization Growth From Knowledge (GFK) to found Media Logic – Pakistan’s first and only media rating company. The company successfully started operations in September from Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad and then gradually expanded, first to 9 cities, and now finally to 20 cities.

In 2009 Mr. Danish launched Opti Media - his second partnership - with investors from his MBA class. Opti Media plans and executes outdoor advertising for nearly all multinational corporations operating within Pakistan, including but not limited to Unilever, Nestle, Mobilink, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola et cetera. Then in 2011 Mr. Salman Danish launched Active Media, yet another business partnership with investors from his MBA class. Active Media specializes in events and activation. After setting up these three companies Mr. Danish handed operations for the newer two to his colleagues, and began to focus largely on Media Logic himself.

Defining Entrepreneurship

Most books define an “entrepreneur” as an individual who brings together the four factors of production, namely land, labor, capital, and enterprise. The quality “enterprise” and how people define it often subject to conflicting debate. According to Mr. Danish, an entrepreneur is someone who “does his own thing”. To explicate, this means someone who creates and manages an idea and turns it into a business model. An entrepreneur differs from a regular businessperson in that the former does not shy away from foraying into previously unexplored territories. Instead, he is willing to take the risk of grabbing an opportunity and trying to cash on it. The term “entrepreneur” includes in its implication a multitude of facets, which combine together to produce one fine entity. One facet, according to Mr. Danish that he self-admittedly lacked, is that an entrepreneur needs to be ruthless, but this does not omit the fact that he has to abide by a certain moral and ethical code of conduct. The gentleman also discussed how an entrepreneur inherits the traits of an effective leader often including self-awareness, social skills, internal-motivation, and emotional intelligence. Mr. Danish talked about how an entrepreneur strongly believes that every threat is in fact an opportunity in disguise, one that can help the person pursue their passion and achieve the ultimate goal of making a positive difference in the world.

Mr. Salman Danish further explicated the concept of entrepreneurship by differentiating it from running a business. He said, “When you are running a business everybody needs favors from you but when you are doing entrepreneurship, you need favors from everybody”. Mr. Danish also talked about how there is “never a dull moment”. Considering that an entrepreneur hatches his own idea and watches it grow, times are always tough because he alone is responsible for everything. Additionally, as the business venture is his brainchild there is great compromise on the work-life balance, as leaving the office does not necessarily mean switching off but instead one finds himself putting in working hours on Sundays and other holidays as well. To this end, Mr. Danish clarified how his own sentiments differed between the times of his employment and entrepreneurship. He said that while he was working for a corporation, he would find himself tired every day after work but once he set up his own ventures, that feeling disappeared only to be replaced by a sort of exhilaration at seeing his hard work pay off and his business and team grow.

His Traits

Contrary to our preconceived belief about what a successful entrepreneur would be like, Mr. Danish was not a typical, ruthless, business-minded individual. In spite of all his achievements due to which Media Logic stands as a business worth many millions, Mr. Danish was an extremely humble and polite individual who resembled a fresh MBA graduate more than a 40 plus Chief Executive Officer. As a realist in his approach towards life in general, he very clearly stated how entrepreneurship is not “everyone’s game”. He pointed out three distinct factors, which he believes helped him become who he is today, namely humility, perseverance and relationship management.

To start off, Mr. Salman Danish said that although entrepreneurs need to be committed in their efforts to establish themselves, they should not, however, forget that establishing oneself as a successful entrepreneur requires modesty and honesty towards one’s own work. He elaborated on this by disclosing how multinational corporations generally invest heavily on providing their employees high standards of living, and then talked about how if one enjoys the lifestyle of flying First Class and driving high profile cars like BMW or Mercedes, entrepreneurship is not for him. He also spoke warningly about the pitfalls of following the mainstream hardcore competitive culture, which does no less than inherently wipe out creativity from even the most successful organizations. His primary advice to aspiring entrepreneurs had to do with always being humble, as he revealed that without it surviving the difficult times is impossible. According to Mr. Salman Danish, perseverance is the one key factor that forms the premise of entrepreneurship, as successful businesses do not form overnight. In his words, the best businesses often take years of persistent and concentrated hard work to gain recognition. Doing well early on is extremely rare, and the beginning few years are the rockiest period as the venture experiences operational hiccups at the time.

Another key success factor that Danish pointed out was that, “90% of all successful ventures rely on effective public relationship management”. In saying this, he did not restrict relationship management to the external world only but also included a firm’s internal work setting, including its own employees and workers. Effective PR management in turn naturally relies on effective communication, which Mr. Danish again said could make or break any business.

The founder of Media Logic spoke about other important traits as well, each of which is important in finding success as an entrepreneur. He discussed the importance of being a risk taker by saying that the bigger the risk the greater the returns that go with it, in the scenario that the risk pays off. Another important attribute for an entrepreneur to be successful is that of flexibility. Mr. Danish talked about how although there is a tremendous amount of planning involved in setting up a venture, an entrepreneur cannot possibly plan beyond a certain point. There will always be unforeseen circumstances and glitches and it is the initiator’s job to take them in his stride and deal with them as he sees fit at the time. Mr. Danish was quick to point out that this does not render contingency planning unnecessary, rather that is an element that cannot be done without.

Two rather surprising factors to be brought under discussion by Mr. Danish were luck and timing. He talked about how these macro-factors play an imperative role, as at the end of the day one’s skills, exposure, habits, thinking pattern and networking ability are the elements that equip him with the abilities necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. He also talked about how one’s reasons for wanting to be an entrepreneur have to right. If the objective is solely to make money perhaps a line involving so much creativity is not best suited to such a person.

Additionally, in order to be successful one must be quick to adapt to and learn the tricks of the trade. Mr. Danish discussed how Media Logic’s work is affected because of the politics that make up the fabric of the media industry. All media outlets are politically well connected and so the company needs to delicately balance its operations in a way that its ratings remain unbiased but also do not earn it the wrath of Pakistan’s wealthy and influential figures.

Future Plans

Mr. Salman Danish is one to “go with the flow” whilst also simultaneously always being on the lookout for new opportunities. With the media environment changing rapidly from analog to digital, there is the inevitable shift that Media Logic will have to undergo as it too transitions into an era of new techniques, devices and technology. As far as geographical expansion is concerned, Media Logic is currently evaluating other areas in terms of the cable distribution and hopes to extend its services to more cities than the 20 it is currently serving.

Key Learnings

Group 7’s interview of Mr. Salman Danish Naseer gave us first-hand insight into the world of entrepreneurship and revealed to us several interesting things about a successful entrepreneur. Firstly, we realized the importance of being passionate and dedicated to the work one does. Secondly, we observed how the founder of Media Logic had not let his success get to him. Rather, he was patient and genuine with us, answering all our questions and allowing us the freedom to ask him whatever we felt necessary. Lastly, we saw a sort of fearlessness and willingness to take risks, in the demeanor of the person we interviewed. This was a refreshing change from the typical static workplace environments we have previously seen. Conclusively, our visit with an entrepreneur was an enlightening and unexpectedly interesting experience, and definitely one that we enjoyed investing our time in.

Success Story of Jahanzaid Shafique

This is a success story of an individual who is driven with passion, an unswerving passion, to fulfill his long-dreamt aspirations. Jahanzaib Shafique, is the co-founder of JB and JAWS Productions, one of Pakistan's premium events, marketing, activation, entertainment and talent management agency. The forte of the company is event management, which was the only service it provided at its birth. To do justice to Jahanzaib’s story, we’ll take a look back at how he started out. So sit back, and enjoy re-living the ordinary story of an extraordinary businessman.

Like any other success story, Jahanzaib started out small. He became interested in the area of event management in 2004, when he organized a concert for his school. He never thought of it as his life’s profession at that time, but his initial experience led him and his friend to make an agency that would offer management services for various types of events. He used his schools platform to make contacts in the corporate world. However, at that time, it was a no profit- no loss type of a game, where they were themselves investing more in the business than the amount they were getting in return. In 2006-7, this process of greater investment than returns continued, until they began doing brand activation for brands such as Pepsi, Nokia, Advanced Telecom and Nikon. During this time they faced intense competition from their competitors in the market, but continued to excel.

The fact that Jahazaib initially had no monetary support to bank on, and instead, put all his energy in to a project that extracted revenue from him instead of giving him profits, led us to see the extent of self belief as well as the long term vision an entrepreneur needs to succeed. We learned that struggles are always temporary, but hard work always leads to permanent results.
The idea that Jahanzaib, at an age of 15, had achieved more than most people with professional degrees do in their twenties, led us to believe that there is no predetermined timeline for success.  You’re never too old or young to begin being an entrepreneur, as passion and creativity are universal at any age.

JB and Jaws were initially two separate entities but in 2007, both the entrepreneurs met and decided to merge. They did two events to see if their merged team would work out, and work out it did. Hence,precisely on 30^th November 2007 they started their business officially and obtained an office space. Although, at that particular time their business was not their only commitment, since Jahanzaib was studying at LUMS, while other people of the team were working elsewhere.At that time JB and JAWS was less structured; their cash flow was really tight in the beginning and they even had to close down their office for a year until 2009, when Jahanzaib graduated from LUMS and invested in a bigger space. Now that JB and JAWS had an unfaltering commitment from Jahanzaib, they started working together formally.

In 2009, JB and JAWS also won themselves a corporate event, on a bigger scale than ever before.They had to work hard to convince the company management to give them this chance. Although, this project served as their first big learning experience in the corporate world, and had limited success, Jahazaib’s determination remained undeterred. This project was the first of many to come. From 2010-13, activation process hiring of JB and JAWS increased rapidly along with event management.

The fact that Jahazaib was ill equipped to handle his first project fully did not deter him from pushing on and fighting for his first big chance, as he believed that the learning potential at stake was huge for his future growth. This showed to us the amount of courage it is required to take a leap and look at the long-term gains, and to use small set backs in a productive manner.

Jahanzaib was not fond of having a boss and believed in being “his own boss” and therefore preferred “profits over salaries”. He decided to become an entrepreneur because he had a passion to be independent,take risks and exceed beyond limitations.He wanted to explore a field that others had not discovered fullyand do something different with his life. When questioned why he chose entrepreneurship, he answered, “You know how there is a lecture in university that you just don’t want to attend, or a course that you just don’t want to take, working with a regular job was like that for me”. Moreover, when asked about a particular incident that made him realize how he did not want to depend on anyone, he said it was when he first paid his entire senior year LUMS fees from his own earnings. This pure satisfaction is what drove him.

            Jahanzaib had pretty interesting things to say about the imperative qualities an entrepreneur must have. According to him, the most pivotal thing in this regard is whether a person is risk averse or a risk taker. “Risk takers are the ones who thrive as an entrepreneur as they are not afraid of converting their passion into reality” he said. He missed his classes and quizzes to attend meetings and plan his projects. He really lived his words, since he started to work on his business during his studies, he withstood losses both in terms of academics and financials, just to serve his passion. This was the most important characteristic according to him for an entrepreneur to be successful. Moreover, self-confidence and resolute were the driving forces which pushed him to pursue his passion as a professional career. “Don’t let failures weaken your passion” was one of the many inspirational things he said in this regard. His relentless efforts and persistent determination brought his company into the top three companies of Pakistan in the event management industry. This helped us realize that one has to sacrifice something to achieve another and failures are inevitable, it’s what you make of them that matters.

“One of the most important things, which a new start-up should consider in a business, is to take good use of the age they are at”. He believed that “every age has its own benefits” and from that, we learned that every era has its own level of resources, their availability, applications, limitations, and before starting a new business, entrepreneurs should be aware of these opportunities and limitations to make the best out of what is available.On defining success, he told us that everyone has their own set goals to achieve in their lives, these metrics, or performance indicators could be in terms of monetary value, or others like how much exposure one has received in his life. According to him, to be on “the right track”, one must define their own success, how they will achieve it, and how will they measure it. “I consider myself successful for my age but still I have a lot more to achieve. May be I have achieved the benchmarks of Pakistan but we are a local story. We have to go global and compete with companies there.” One can therefore judge by his firmness of purpose and determination about how optimistic one has to be to endure the difficulties of life in order to succeed.

            Jahanzaib mentioned how being an entrepreneur in Pakistan comes with its own sets of obstacles. “In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to find a gap in the market that hasn’t been tapped, thus be innovative and creative”. Trying something different though, comes at a price in Pakistan, and he was willing to pay that price. He never gave a recruitment interview for any large corporation during his college days, since he already had a plan laid out for the kind of life he wanted to lead. He talked to us about how people seem confused when he tells them he is the manager for celebrities like Ali Zafar, and they continue to ask him, “but what do you really do?” as if his work has been simply sidelined to a past time or a hobby.  Thus, we apprehended that the desire to break the traditional mindset and to follow a different path has to come from within as the society would never pressure you to become an entrepreneur in Pakistan. They would always view it as a risky, unstable option.  For a young entrepreneur, the desire for success has to come from within, along with the self-belief required to sustain that criticism. 

“Apart from societal perceptions, the unstable socio-political environment and the law and order situations also comes at a heavy price for an entrepreneur in Pakistan”, he shed some light on the common obstacles new start-ups face in Pakistan. Without a big multi-national company’s name to seek shelter in, Jahanzaib’s business had to face the storm of political certainty head on. During times like these, extreme resolve is needed to be able to survive, and that is exactly what Jahanzaib successfully did.  He diversified his business and thus began to rely on advertisement shoots and celebrity management in order to have the money to continue working. There were also times when he had to close down his office due to lack of funding, but he continued to persist and not conceive failure. 

Jahanzaib, continuing with his tantalizing tale of success also shared his thoughts on startup businesses in Pakistan and how they’re following a growing trend. With rising globalization, E-commerce and internet usage, opportunities of exposure to innovation capabilities are increasing.

            Before conducting this interview we had a very simplistic perception of an entrepreneur. We thought that Jahanzaib, just like every other successful businessman, had everything conveniently handed over to him in a silver spoon, along with proper monetary backing from his family. It did not occur to us that external socio-political factors, which are not in our control, tend to affect entrepreneurial initiatives to a point where they have to fight for survival. Our perception just like everyone else’s was oblivious to the impact entrepreneurs create on the world today.

Towards the end of our interview with him, we proposed an interesting scenario to him. We asked him, “If you go back in time to day one of your start-up and have 10-minutes with your former self to communicate any valuable lessons that you have learned with the intention of saving yourself from any mistakes, what would you tell yourself?” After a few laughs and thoughtful moments, he told us this is an evolutionary process. You need to keep improving and pushing yourself to the limit. He felt like the path he chose for himself was the right path for him then, and it’s the right path even now. “Once you find something you love, regrets are rare”. If you’re a student and want to do something productive, make sure you follow the right leader and the right values and most importantly, be persistent, and don’t give up. That is the point where we started to realize that our perceptions of an entrepreneur who we thought of as a person who had money to start off with, a set path to follow, everything laid out in rules and have all the necessary links to the corporate world, is insufficient in explaining the essence of what a real entrepreneur is. Indeed, the stroke of serendipity is always fortunate.

This is the alluring story of how a 15-year old boy, who had no idea what he was going to do with his life, became one of the biggest faces in Pakistan in the event management industry. The purpose of sharing this story was to give an insight on how even ordinary people among us can reach new heights. The story of self-belief and determination isn’t a new one, but Jahanzaib stands a living proof to us that even if everything stands against you in life, with the right determination, persistence, and a staunch belief in yourself, you can do wonders that are unheard of.