'Creativity the ultimate economic resource'

In the present and highly dynamic business scenario, creativity has become the ultimate economic resource, said Zafar Mannan, senior professor at Bahria University. He was speaking at the HRM Symposium 2006, organised by the HRM society here on Saturday.
He said that it was only the human resource, which made the difference and could establish an organisation therefore all business concerns should involve innovation in all fields. The HRM structure of the present day business establishments must promote egalitarianism, job enrichment and continuous career development, he suggested.
Zafar Mannan, who has been in the top management of highly reputed multinational firms and a faculty member at IBA asked the students to develop emotional maturity, integrity and insistence, what he described as essential traits for a dynamic and growing career.
Earlier, Leon Menezes, Director Human Resource, Shell Pakistan spoke about 'creating the environment for human resource excellence'. He said that globalisation, internet, advanced technology and prevailing trend of rightsizing had changed the entire scenario.
He described the present era as the 'MTV age' elaborating that speedy changing frames at the television, advancing technology, fast flowing information had created a shift in the trends, now people were no more interested in reading like time taking activities, which has affected their over all behaviour. The mindset of people has changed and they were no more interested in long-term commitments.
It has become imperative for the organisations to modify their philosophy, culture, policies and organisational behaviour he said and emphasised upon the importance of learning development, employee value proposition, performance management and rewards at work places.
Haroon Waheed, Human Resource Business Leader at Unilever, Pakistan said that professional management had brought a positive change in the local entrepreneurship and human resource development was being given prime focus. "HR is the most important capital which makes the difference. Growth of people leads to business growth," he remarked and suggested the students to opt for a career that excited them most. Badaruddin Palanpurwala, General Manager HR, Tapal Energy also spoke on the occasion. Captain Fareeduz Zaman (Retd) presented the vote of thanks in the end and it was preceded by a question/answer session and followed by a souvenir and certificate presentation ceremony.