Telecom is one sector that is booming like hell in Pakistan. Though it started few years back with Mobilink being the pioneer and the first to step in but within years we have approximately 4-5 telecom companies feeding the ever hungry need of Pakistani Consumers.

Though i am a big fan of Mobilink but recently Telenor have been working really hard in the sector and one thing that needs to be praised for telenor is that they are investing into ideas and bringing new stuff to town. First it was Telenor Tv which was copied by Mobilink as MobiTv and now Telenor have signed up with Opera Mini to bring a fast and exciting web experience to its consumers.

Riding on the tremendous growth of telecom sector in Pakistan, Telenor Pakistan and Opera Software have partnered to provide users with a uniquely powerful and efficient Internet experience. Starting immediately, Telenor Pakistan customers can surf the Web with the revolutionary Opera Mini browser.

Opera Mini utilizes Opera’s compression technology to pre-process and compress Web pages by up to 90% before sending them to mobile phones, keeping download costs under control. Opera Mini has a loyal fan base of more than 44 million cumulative users. Its ability to download pages at lightning speeds, coupled with fun features such as Opera Zoom, positions it as the world’s most popular mobile Web browser.

The telecom sector in Pakistan has grown exponentially and mobile operators are among the major architects of this phenomenon. Based on Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) stats for March 2008, the total number of mobile subscribers stands at 82.5 million with a countrywide tele-density of 52.16%. The average growth rate in Q1, 2008 was an attractive 1.88 million new subscribers each month.

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NoteRecently i read a very interesting article on 37signals blog on workplace experiment. 37signals an Innovative company focusing on building products for the web invests into it employees and works on finding ways to improve work productivity. Its not 37signals that invests into it but as we all know Google is famous for its Google Plex, free food policy and 10% of time for creative ideas. Investing on employees is on rule that every CEO & co founder of the company knows about it. Its a basic theory that the success of a company is depending on its workforce and its the investment in People thats build big companies.

Though this rule has been around since ages but unfortunately very few make any effort to follow it. Some might say big companies with big cash flow can afford such luxuries but is it all money that matters. Generally if I compare to our local market in Pakistan there is hardly any company that invests in such regards. Most believe in giving health insurance, annual bonus and paid leaves as an innovative way of investing into there employees. Even with that people do switch jobs , such things do support employees financially but it does not add up into any way of adding efficient & creative working environments. 90% people still hate there Job and Monday is a nightmare to them & of course all companies want overtime from there employees.

Keeping weekend as there core motivation for all of us as every Monday in our mind we calculate till Friday 37signals decided to make 4 days of work week rather then 5 days i.e. Monday – Thursday and of course increased working hours to probably 11 hours a day which means that being a programmer the longer you code the more work gets done rather then breaking it into less hours on code and then next day first reading through what you had done previously and then start again.

The feedback from 37signal ” Three-day weekends mean people come back extra refreshed on Monday. Three-day weekends mean people come back happier on Monday. Three-day weekends mean people actually work harder and more efficiently during the four-day work week”.

On the other Hand Yahoo introduced resting room during the day if you are working long hours you can take a nap at the rest room which in some people thought is abusive as humans are treated as machines but a 30 minute nap in the after noon scientifically freshens you up. These are a few things that wont add huge cash costs to the company but will definitely improve productivity and employees motivation to work.

On our end companies in Pakistan focus on finding ways to increase work hours, trying best to make employees work late hours (5 of my close friends state that if they try to get out of office on time there boss’s face swells and there are bad looks)… and if i talk in terms of work hours and analyze the productivity time between an 8 hours shift i would say people only work 4 productive hours during an 8 hours shift and rest is gone in drain on lunch / facebook/ orkut / newspapers and many such activities.

This is a huge topic which need research and continuous innovation the way the people work, how to make work environment enjoyable rather then cubical torture rooms …. make them color full & casual like Google and of course such stuff do reflect what the company comes out with ..

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