1

Contemporary
Trends in Business &
Economics(CTBE)
INTRODUCTION, TEN CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS FACED BY BUSINESSES
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES FROM BUSINESS PAGES
COURSE
DESCRIPTION/OBJECTIVES

 The aim of this course is to explore the ongoing development within the discipline
- Business and Economics - and to identify and uncover current trends related to
the five sub-disciplines accounting, entrepreneurship, finance, management, and
marketing in the field of Business along with Economic Policy making.
 The ambition is also to focus on long-term international megatrends which alter
business, economics and society in a profound and lasting fashion. The
megatrends have strong long-term impact on society at large and thus also
forming the future premises and challenges for the business community.
INTENDED COURSE LEARNING
OUTCOMES:
 After studying this course the students would be able to:
 Identify and evaluate emerging trends in business and economics.
 Relate identified trends to research in business administration and economics.
 Evaluate business trends and economic policies in Pakistan.
 An article from the Weekend News Paper Business & Economics Section is
included in every period to achieve above objectives.
 Before mid term, Fiscal and Monetary policies, CPEC and Business climate in
Pakistan are the main topics for study.
The NEWS International- 14 March 2021-
MG JW Automobile
ISLAMABAD: MG JW Automobile Pakistan Pvt Ltd has been granted admission as zone enterprise
to JW SEZ, Raiwind with an estimated foreign direct investment (FDI) of Rs663 million and local
investment of Rs637 million during a Special Economic Zone committee meeting.
MG JW Automobile is a joint venture between JW SEZ (Pvt) Ltd, and SMIL which was a subsidiary
of SAIC Motor Corporation Limited. The entry of the company into the first private sector JW-SEZ
China-Pakistan SEZ was facilitated by the Board of Investment, a statement said.
The entry as Zone Enterprise would enable China’s largest automobile manufacturer to bring
electric vehicles in Pakistan.
SAIC is a Chinese state-owned automotive design and manufacturing company headquartered in
Shanghai, with multinational operations. It is the largest auto manufacturer in China and the seventh
largest in the world.
In 2006, SAIC purchased the prestigious British brand Morris Garages (MG) and it is now
marketing automobiles under that brand all over the world. The Federal Board of Investment,
Islamabad,received the zone entry application of MG JW Automobile Pakistan through its recently
launched SEZ MIS Module, which acts as a one-window for SEZs in Pakistan.
MG JW Automobile

 The module was designed to facilitate real investors, from all corners of the
world, in getting admission into SEZs while ensuring complete transparency.
 BOI Chairman Atif R Bokhari said initiation of the first private SEZ in
Pakistan was a testament to the fact that government was fully committed to
facilitate private investors for speedy industrialisation in the country.
 BOI Secretary Fareena Mazhar said, “Launching of SEZ MIS Module is a leap
into the digital future of SEZ-led industrialisation.”
 She further stated that BOI was undertaking all-out efforts to facilitate private
investors to invest in Pakistan.
 Both local and foreign investors interested in Pakistan’s SEZs can now simply
register online and submit their applications that will automatically be shared
with concerned authorities.
Govt vows to give jobs to youth
LAHORE: The government is committed to providing employment opportunities to the youth and
all resources are being utilised for this cause, including the National Employment Exchange, a
statement said on Tuesday.
These views were expressed by National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC)
Punjab Director General Rana M Saleem Afzal, while speaking at the orientation session under
Kamyab Jawan Programme, at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), it added.
Afzal said that the National Employment Exchange is a group of public, private sectors, government,
and overseas institutions for the provision of job opportunities to the young generation.
The programme has been designed on an artificial intelligence-based system. The National
Employment Exchange Programme is a technology-based platform for bringing the unemployed
youth in contact with the employers, which would enable integration and alignment of demand and
supply to join the employment sector into an interactive system for easy access to employment
opportunities, placement, facilitation, and monitoring, he added.
The industry is the main stakeholder, while chambers should also fully participate to make this
initiative successful.
LCCI President Mian Tariq Misbah said that the National Employment Exchange Programme is a
good initiative of the government and would be a great support to the youth.
Mind the economic gap: Europe and the
US are drifting further apart
 Mind the economic gap: Europe and the US are drifting further apart
 Frankfurt/Washington From the beginning, the coronavirus
pandemic inflicted deeper economic scars on Europe than the US.
Now their responses to the crisis mean the trans atlantic economies
are about to drift further apart.
 The EU’s “output gap” — the shortfall in what the bloc was
producing compared with its full potential at the start of this year —
was double the equivalent differential in the US, meaning the
European economy was creating fewer jobs, yielding weaker
demand and generating lower inflation.
Rupee rises to 1-year high

 KARACHI: The rupee rose to its highest level of 156.72 against the dollar in one year,
and 0.18 percent higher from Monday’s closing of 157 in the interbank market on the
back of better dollar inflows and the lack of import payments.
 In the interbank market, the rupee registered its strongest level since March 9, 2020.
 “The demand for hard currency for import payments was subdued. However, the
inflows stayed robust, which helped prop up the rupee,” a foreign exchange dealer said.
 The local unit appreciated 7 percent against the greenback since its low of 168.43 in
August.
 In the open market, it closed at 157.20 against the dollar, compared with the previous
closing of 157.50. Record inflows of remittances and Roshan Digital Account (RDA),
increase in the foreign exchange reserves and improvement in the hot money inflows,
and restoration of the IMF programme contribute to the rupee’s rise, dealers said.
SBP holds Monetary policy rate

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is likely to keep its policy rate on hold this week to continue to
support an economy struggling with surging coronavirus cases, and wary of increasing inflationary
pressures, analysts forecast on Tuesday.
The central bank left interest rates unchanged at 7 percent for a third consecutive meeting in January
after slashing them five times last year by a total of 625 basis points (bps).
The SBP’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet to review rates on March 19 (Friday).
A majority of analysts surveyed sees the policy rate to remain steady in the upcoming meeting in
light of forward guidance given by the MPC on the monetary policy. The policymakers, in the last
statement, clearly indicated to keep rates on hold in the near term until there are clear signs that the
economy is recovering.
“As the recovery becomes more durable and the economy returns to full capacity, the MPC expects
any adjustments in the policy rate to be measured and gradual to achieve mildly positive real interest
rates,” the SBP in January monetary policy statement said.

However, the recent rise in T-bills and bonds yields suggests investors are starting to anticipate a
tightening of monetary policy sooner than anticipated to accommodate a potential jump in inflation.
Ten Contemporary Problems Faced by
Businesses
 1. Uncertainty
 All human beings, but it seems business leaders in particular, find great
discomfort in uncertainty. Uncertainty in the global economy, uncertainty in the
credit markets, uncertainty in how new regulations will affect business,
uncertainty about what competitors are doing, and uncertainty about how new
technology will affect the business—these are just the start of a never-ending list.
The bottom line is that uncertainty leads to a short-term focus.
Ten Contemporary Problems Faced by
Businesses
 2. Globalization
 In interviews conducted by the Lean Methods Group, seven of 10 Fortune 500
CEOs cite the challenges of globalization as their top concern. Understanding
foreign cultures is essential to everything from the ability to penetrate new
markets with existing products and services, to designing new products and
services for new customers, to recognizing emergent, disruptive competitors that
only months earlier weren’t even known. The problem to be solved is to better
understand international markets and cultures through better information
gathering and analysis of what it all means. Similarly, the incredible degree of
government intervention in nearly all major economies of the world is leading to
much greater uncertainty in the global marketplace, making international
operations ever harder to manage.
Ten Contemporary Problems Faced by
Businesses
 3. Innovation
 Many companies are not looking to create more innovative cultures. At least not
the big companies , though that changes some as companies get smaller. This
finding was a big surprise when we did our first studies in 2009 and little has
changed since. It seems big companies are struggling with innovation and a
better innovation process is at the top of the agenda for most CEOs, but the idea
of a more innovative culture appears too frightening to many. The problem to be
solved is how to become more innovative while still maintaining a sense of
control over the organization.
Ten Contemporary Problems Faced by
Businesses
 4. Government Policy & Regulation
 A changing regulatory environment is always of concern in certain industries, but
uncertain energy, environmental and financial policy is complicating the decision
making for nearly all companies today. It’s simply that dealing with an unknown
regulatory environment is fast becoming the new normal and companies are
deciding to get on with it—whatever “it” may be.
 Whether a demand from customers or shareholders to become more “green,” the
threat of increased costs due to new carbon taxes, constant talk of changes to
corporate tax rates, or the impending healthcare mandate for businesses in the US,
much is unsettled. The problems to be solved are to understand the meaning of
regulation and government policy in your industry, its implications for your
business, and to develop the skills necessary to deal with it.
Ten Contemporary Problems Faced by
Businesses
 5. Technology
 The pace of technological improvement is running at an exponentially increasing rate.
While this has been true for several decades, the pace today makes capital investment in
technology as much an asset as a handicap because a competitor may wait for the next-
generation technology, which may only be a year away, and then use it to achieve an
advantage. Waiting to be that competitor can be equally risky.
 What’s a CEO to do? Similarly, the ability for even the best of technologists to stay
informed about emerging technology is in conflict with the need to master a company’s
current technology. The problem to be solved is to develop a long-term technology
strategy while remaining flexible enough to take advantage of unforeseen technology
developments.
 There’s no doubt that life and business have gotten more complex, even as certain tasks
and activities have become easier due to information technology.
Ten Contemporary Problems Faced by
Businesses
 6. Diversity
 A particular subset of human capital planning is found so often in our research that
it is worth its own mention. Diversity brings many challenges, as it makes it far
more likely that people do not agree, and the lack of agreement makes running a
business very difficult.
 At the same time, the lack of diversity within many large company leadership
teams leads to a narrow of anview ever-changing and diverse world—contributing
to groupthink, stale culture and a tendency to live with the status quo for too long.
The problem to be solved is to first define what diversity really means in your
company, then foster the expansion of differing ideas and viewpoints while
ensuring a sufficiently cohesive environment that efficiently gets things done.
Ten Contemporary Problems Faced by
Businesses
 7. Complexity
 There’s no doubt that life and business have gotten more complex, even as certain tasks
and activities have become easier due to information technology. The pace of change is
quickening. The global economy is becoming still more connected, creating a much
larger and more diverse population of customers and suppliers.
 Manufacturing and services are increasingly targeted at smaller, specialized markets
due to the flexibility that IT provides in these areas. The 3D printing revolution is a
perfect example. We know from our knowledge of the patterns of evolution that, in
reality, systems tend to become more complex as they evolve, then become simplified
again.
 The problem is how to develop better systems-thinking capability so you can design
your business models, processes, products and services in a way that minimizes
unnecessary complexity.
Ten Contemporary Problems Faced by
Businesses
 8. Information Overload
 It is said that the only true constant is change, and in today’s world nothing is
changing more, or growing faster, than information. A March 2010 estimate put
global Internet traffic at 21 exabytes—21 million terabytes. In 2016, global traffic
reached 1.1 zettabytes. Every day, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created.
 The ability of companies, much less individuals, to consume and make sense of
the information that is available (and necessary) to make good decisions is
becoming a nearly insurmountable challenge. The problem to be solved is to deal
with this mountain of information with both technology and human know-
how, then to convert this information into valuable knowledge.
Ten Contemporary Problems Faced by
Businesses
 9. Supply Chains
 Because of uncertainty in demand and the need to stay lean, companies are
carrying smaller inventories than ever. At the same time, uncertainty in supply,
driven by wildly changing commodity prices, an apparent increase in weather-
related disruptions, and increasing competition for raw materials makes supply
chain planning more challenging than ever.
 Smaller suppliers that, five years after the global financial crisis, still struggle to
get the credit they need to keep up with their larger customers’ demand
exacerbates an already unwieldy situation. The problem to be solved is to develop
a supply-chain strategy that not only ensures the lowest costs, but
also minimizes the risk of crippling supply-chain disruptions.
Ten Contemporary Problems Faced by
Businesses
10. Strategic Thinking & Problem Solving
The lack of sophisticated approaches to information acquisition, analysis and the
development of unique insight leaves many companies at a disadvantage; they lack a
long-term strategic imperative and instead jump from one strategy to the next on a year-
to-year basis.
Everyday problem-solving competency among today’s business leaders is also limiting
their ability to adequately deal with the first nine problems. This is why corporate
managers tend to jump from one fire to another, depending on which one their executives
are trying to put out, and in many cases the fast-changing business environment is what
ignites these fires in the first place. So what is the problem to be solved? We believe, to
navigate the future, companies must resolve that strategic thinking and problem
solving are the keys to successful business, then develop a robust capability at all
levels.
THANK YOU