Introduction
The technology industry in Pakistan is a massive mess. It's been like this for years, and it has become more and more obvious that tackling these problems is a long-term commitment. With each passing year, the situation gets worse. We need to be honest with ourselves: our technology industry sucks right now — but there's hope! We can't wait until 2020 or 2021 when things get better because by then we'll be too far behind in terms of knowledge and experience. So let's take a look at some of the issues facing our local start-up ecosystem today:
There is no viable exit strategy
The lack
of a viable exit strategy is one of the biggest challenges facing Pakistan’s
technology industry. A viable exit strategy is one that will allow you to get
out at your own terms, without having to give up all your equity or
intellectual property rights, and without having to pay too much in taxes or
penalties.
The
problem is that there are many things that can go wrong when creating a new
business. You might run into problems with staffing, finding investors who
understand what you're trying to do, getting customers interested in what you
do...the list goes on! And if any one of these things happens at an early stage
in development, then it could cause serious damage down the road—and
potentially force someone out of business completely!
The industry has zero value drivers
The
technology industry in Pakistan is ailing because it has no value drivers. This
means that there are no tangible benefits people can see when they invest in your
business, and therefore, no reason for someone to stay with you for the long
term.
While
this may seem obvious, many businesses fail because they don't have any
meaningful exit strategy—they're just hoping their success will make them into
millionaires one day. But if you want to build something lasting and
sustainable, then you need more than short-term thinking; instead of focusing
on how much money we could make today or tomorrow (and losing sight of what
matters most), we should be looking at where our company will be 5 years from
now; 20 years from now; 50 years from now...
The industry's culture is unhealthy
- The industry's culture is
unhealthy.
Pakistan's
technology industry has a problem with its culture, which can be summed up in
one word: short-termism. This means that companies focus on making money now
instead of building for the long term. They don't take risks or try new things
because they're afraid of losing money if it doesn't work out—and this
mentality is contagious throughout the entire industry.
·
Companies
don't learn from other industries and don't innovate enough either; for
example, there are no free Wi-Fi hotspots in Pakistan! Why? Because we're so
focused on making as much money as possible within our current system that we
wouldn't even consider doing something new like this (or anything else).
Instead of thinking about how we can improve our services by bringing them into
line with global trends and customer expectations, most people simply repeat
what works best right now without considering whether those methods will still
be effective in five years' time when everyone else has moved onto something
better already!
Culture of short-termism
You've
probably heard the term "short-termism." It means that people look at
a company's financials and decide whether or not they want to invest in it
based on how quickly they can make money. But what happens when your company
isn't making any money? Do you still stay? If so, why?
Short-termism
is a major problem in Pakistan's technology industry because it encourages
companies to focus on short-term gains rather than long-term growth. In other
words, if you're looking at just one year of revenue and profit numbers rather
than years of profitability over time (so much for market research), then this
could lead someone who isn't an expert on business models too quickly dismiss
any potential investment opportunity without doing their homework first—and
there are plenty of them out there!
There is little to no business domain expertise
The
technology industry is full of people who do not have any business domain
expertise. For example, there are engineers and programmers who can code but
have no idea how to run a business. Or there are people who have left their
jobs at Google, Facebook and Microsoft to start up startups with no knowledge
about running a company or even how to build one from scratch (which would
require an MBA).
The
solution? Hire someone who does know what they're doing—and soon!
Industry does not promote innovation
The
technology industry in Pakistan is not innovative. There are no incentives to
innovate, and there are few avenues for creativity. This means that if you want
to be innovative, your best bet is to leave the country (or at least work on
something that doesn’t require innovation). For example, if you want to start a
new business or build an app for your customers, then all of the software
engineers who can help you do this will be located outside of Pakistan.
This lack
of innovation has caused many problems for us as a society:
Conclusion
In
conclusion, Pakistan's technology industry sucks because it has a very low
tolerance for failure. The country's leaders are unwilling to invest in
research and development, which means that they can't compete with other
countries who have more resources. As a result, the Pakistani economy will
continue to stagnate unless something changes soon.
So, what
should you do? If you're interested in making your own business succeed in
Pakistan:
·
Don't
rely on your friends or family members when searching for customers; instead
look outside of your network because this will give you more options for
finding potential clients.
·
As you
can see, there are many problems plaguing our technology industry in Pakistan.
It's a problem that needs to be fixed as soon as possible because if we don't,
we might end up with a brain drain and even worse - lose our national identity
altogether.
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