Thread by @faizansiddiqi

Dollarized Talent Wars, Local Talent, HR & Culture, Saiths & Traditional Firms, Technology Horse Power & How to not go out of Business.

1)Industry Celebrates Funding Wins
2)Tech/Most other Talent sees $$s
3)Saiths asleep @ the wheel
4)People waiting
5)HR Folks have no clue

External funding is testament to two things if not more.
1) Validation of Local Markets
2) Validation of Local Talent

Talent comes in 4 Categories
1)Export Variety
2)Ppl who wish they were export variety
3)Top flight returned talent that has reverse culture shock
4)Boston Univ

The talent spread is multilayered:
Folks working in/for:
1) Mushrooming freelance/exporter crossover space
2) FMCGs/Local Large Cos
3) In house tech @ Saith Orgs
4) Large back offices
5) Startups(funded)
6) Startups (boot strapped)
7) Traditional companies
8) Banks
9) State orgs

The anatomy of talent recruitment, learning and development, growth and work culture couldn't be more different across all of these.
1) Free lancers love independence, they aren't new to $ based incomes. They live unstructured life styles and are mostly under 25.

This is college life personified for them. No care in the world, but over time, parents, phuppos all wonder whats going on, social pressures and other things catch up and then many are forced to enter the work force, which sucks after this much independence.

2)FMCG/Local Large Co crowd, likely based on how skinny the jeans can be(4guys) + the house address of the candidate typically is in the same phase as the HR folks. he screening bias is incredible.Lums/IBA/Gori degrees do well, most other are selected on social mobility ambition

FMCGS/CPGS for better or for worse are the "hipsters" one generation removed from Johar but now a chip on their shoulder. We all know who they are but most of us wont say in public.Our ancestry is neither Scottish nor Victorian neither will be our developers nor those hiring them

But you can be forgiven for thinking that it might be. These are hollow echo chambers of similar life goals, vacations in Turkey, Azerbijan & all those White washed locales that dont need a visa #lifegoals #bucketlists

3)Local Saiths, that have tech needs but not tech focused orgs, this is where raw talent is waiting to be discovered, with no pat on the back and always treated as folks who should just make shit work, this is by far where the most trainable and scalable folks will come.

Saiths have little to no idea, they had basic tech needs, that have evolved, their staff free lances on the side, they could care less, its like tips for waiters, pay so little that they are always marginalised and never unionise. This is about to change.

4)Large back offices were the panacea of talent,they have 2 varieties, the saithish & the Zia Chishti world view. The Saiths will loose the talent wars, benefiting the visionaries and the story tellers. Authenticity sells, when the CEO can code & have patents, the respect is real

5)Funded startups, who have white money, will enter this like the florida lottery, you buy enough tickets, you chances of winning go up. They will burn the cash, ruin the market dynamics, out bid and out price others. But with VC dollars comes, greed, deceit & self gloat

let me elaborate, they will foundationally have to rely on the same HR royalty of PK, the chosen few, who have never operated in this space, they will make the same mistakes wont be able to build a culture of growth as they will always hire folks less smarter than them selves

This will be the second coming of the entrepreneur being treated as the saith due to the lack of HR talent growth in the country and most of the existing pool. Just by being on the other side of the bridge(in-sofar as khi) is concerned the moral superiority manifested by HR folks

Is already creating a divide far worse than the digital divide. Sadly, the educated middle class is at war with it self, when some one rises to prominence they change their scales and try very hard for others to not break through. It exhibited all over.

If you let any one but the founder drive culture you will produce what people already know, their learning grounds are banks(vultures),saiths(demons), fmcgs(VSCO),BPOs(Mixed Bag).It will be less about money wars more about cultural fit.Most startups r already loosing that battle

6)Bootstrapped startups. If the founder is technical they do well, they are generally not at scale to have HR or Talent wars because good developers as founders have their own fan following, if they can build a profitable business they will always attract far better talent.

7)Traditional companies, wont know what hit them, they will loose talent for money, for a boring work culture, for 9-5 norms for on site commute and every thing else that mellenials and genz dont care for. Unlearning by such organizations is not happening fast enough.

8)Banks. What can I say, banks are so full of the owners wishes and desires. Go to one bank over an other, you can tell the makeup of the chairmans/owners/largest shareholders psyche in the way they treat talent. Some are run like closely knit mafias,where the wives share niharis

Some are run like mental asylums, where every ones out to prove who can do the dumbest thing in the shortest span of time, but know that the regulators safety net ensures no self half. In this context, the chotus/read talent only hate their bosses. Some banks though are evolving

Its evident the progressive ones have with their CXOs a toola of white spawned Insead/lse/mit/mckinsey/bain alum who call their boss by their first name. Progress to some, cultural confusion to most. Still new talent helps propagate change.

9)State orgs and babus, a nice breed, some startups need regulatory help, they are already snapping up legal and political/ex forces and others from these companies, the smart ones will go places personally, but from a cultural standpoint we will just be

building a digital fauji foundation esque tier of talent. We are victims of our own successes, great job by Pakistani software engineers and computer scientists all over the world resulted in recognition that led to funding that will lead to crazy growth, but if we leave that

In the hands of an under talented, under developed labour management tier(sadly masquerading as HR) who only cares about compliance and "notifications" and interview response sheets and filling out forms we are doomed.

This will play out rather simply, those who can value the tech talent, embrace them, help them develop, create an open culture and accelerate their training and personal outcomes, will build loyal cadres of respect and over indexed and happy delivery machines.

Those who rely on traditional Systems and only pay more and not fix their culture will sulk in corners we aren’t even aware of. Life goes on, saiths will have FOMO, their BU(Boston Univ) Babies will have more fomo, we will see a host of new Local VC plays.

Winners will be those who are mindful and respect of the needs of a new generation and not treat them like their parents were treated by the saiths and companies of yester years. The only way u dont go out of business is to make sure you earn the trust of the new generation

Heres to hoping that VC dollars and Saith Rupees both help accelerate the creation of a larger talent pool so every one stays in business longer and the net beneficiary is Pakistan.@raza_matin @rebootdude @Huk06 @babushka99 @jehan_ara @FaizaYousuf @Ash_Kalim @ZMoosaPK