Book on 'The Art and Craft of Management' launched

Eminent banker Sirajuddin Aziz's book, "The Art and Craft of Management", an anthology of his articles, was launched here at a local hotel on Friday.

This is the author's seventh publication, which Aziz said would help professionals in general and the students of management sciences in particular to learn and understand about management related arts and skills. He said the management of human resources is more complex then the management of materials. Unfortunately, there was not enough material on the very subject, he said.

He said our politicians more often in their public speeches said that Pakistan's 65 percent population consisted of youth, but no one came up with a practical solution, namely, how to take advantage of this potential. "We have to train them. We have to make them a productive part of our economy, and that is what this book emphasizes," he said.

"Encouraged by the overwhelming response and flattering comments received by my earlier books on management, I thought to put together a compendium of my weekly articles on varied management related subjects and issues. The consequence is this book," he said. This anthology contains articles written over a period of two years, from 2016 to 2017.

Aziz said he was grateful to his father for having imbibed in him the habit of reading. It was not confined to any one subject but across all subjects, ranging from literature to economy, poetry to politics and religion to society.

Former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Yaseen Anwar, former senator Javed Jabbar, assistant professor, department of social sciences and liberal arts, Nadya Chishti Mujahid, chairman of Pathfinder Group, Ikram Sehgal, and Mirajuddin Aziz, an elder brother of the author, were among the panelists of the launch ceremony.

Addressing as chief guest, Yaseen Anwar said the book would help professionals and students understand corporate practices. Anwar stressed the need for bringing new and unique ideas to excel in any field. "If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old," he said.

Javed Jabbar said the book was very interesting and relevant to the subject of management. The writing was characteristically elegant and straightforward. "It is written from his heart which is a true reflection of his (the writer's) actual personality. The 55 essays in this anthology are not time specific, but they are rather value specific," Javed Jabbar said.

"I do tend to think that the writer intends to use western quotes and sources far too much in this collection. I think he should look into the East also. He will find a variety of people who have succeeded in corporate life particularly in our unfriendly country, India, and far-friendly China, Singapore etc," he said.