Dr. Ahmad Junaid Speech Orientation Fall 2025

that you bring into your university life is a very exciting time. It's a very exciting, very uncertain, very unpredictable

yet very very promising time as well. So

you know in the last few years um a lot has changed and um how we interact with you from how we interact with each other

to how we learn to how we go and work in the organizations and how organizations are themselves structured. Everything is

changing and one of the driving forces behind this is obviously technology.

Uh at our time when we were entering university you know things were very different. um you know getting the skill

different. um you know getting the skill one competency will essentially set you apart from everyone else. So for example I'm in finance and you know just being a

master at Excel used to be you know something that would set you apart. you

could create a financial model that no one else could and it was sort of easy but now things are very different very difficult you know because at the end of

it right now if you look at any global statistic um the young workforce is finding it very challenging to find relevant jobs because technology is

taking over and you know a lot of work is being transformed and being done by machines so my question to you all of you would be

that why you know choose a university education why are you here you need to ask this question to yourself as well when you get out of this room and you start your academic journey why are you

here what difference would you make you know um something that a decision or a report that any student was supposed to write yeah I could do it better so what

are you here to learn what are you here to you know experience and what are you here to contribute as a as a as a stakeholder of this institution as well because trust me times are changing. At

one point in time when we were entering university we were just there to actually learn you know the professor would be standing here and he would be delivering something and we were just there to learn but now the difference

between what I know or what you know is sort of shrinking as well. It's a good thing and a bad thing as well you know because how much value can I or any professor add to you what AI can do you

could chat GBT anything and you could learn that for yourself so but is university education relevant this is the question we ask ourselves every day and this is the question that general uh

education sector is facing as well so we are also going through those uncertain times so this question you need to take it with you and you need to keep this

question with you throughout your journey here at KSPL and what are you here for? What value are you adding to

here for? What value are you adding to this institution and what value this institution is going to add to you? And

the answer is very simple.

If I ask any one of you why you are here in the university, generally you would have very different answers. Someone

would someone would want to become a CEO of a company somewhere down the line.

Someone would want to become a manager, an entrepreneur or someone would just want to create some sort of impact in not nonprofit sector as well, you know.

But the bottom line is every one of you aspires to be a leader, right? In one

way or the other, you want to be at the top of your game somewhere down the line and you want to be a leader.

And uh Anukusha at the start also said that you know we are here to cultivate leaders. Now what is this leadership

leaders. Now what is this leadership essentially mean?

Who is a leader?

A person with authority, a person with a position or a person that has a deeper meaning to his life, who people can

resonate with and who people can follow.

That essentially makes you a leader. And

you don't need to be at a person at a position of authority in your limited circle wherever circle of influence wherever that may be right

now people sitting around you. You go

out you meet a few people on the road.

You go to your homes and interact with your family. Every interaction gives you

your family. Every interaction gives you an opportunity to become a leader. right

now. How do we define leadership at KSP?

And that is something that no AI, no other um form of learning can give you.

Now, leadership is not just being at the top of your game in one particular competency or several competencies.

Leadership starts from within. So we

define leadership as a combination of your personal character then competencies and then the manifestation of these two

in your behaviors in every type of interaction you do in your life. This makes you a leader and

your life. This makes you a leader and this is what will set you apart when you go forward in your practical lives as well and your personal lives. Now how do

you define character?

Now character is something that we all say that when we were born essentially and when we were raised in our families that's the age where we essentially our character is defined

but character can be developed as well and character can be let go of as well.

So you have to introspect at every point in your life at every decision that you take that what type of

human being that particular decision makes you.

>> We take great inspiration from the life of our holy prophet as well. So when you enter into the building the first thing you see is a hadith by the prophet

himself um that the best amongst you are the people who are best in their character and good manners. Now

character for us is a combination of five core values and these five core val five five values will essentially define your leadership

potential. Your leadership journey will

potential. Your leadership journey will start the day you start to practice these values in your daily life. So how

does your leadership journey start? Does

it start with coming into the classroom and learning finance? No. The leadership

journey will start when you wake up in the morning. You see yourself in the

the morning. You see yourself in the mirror and you can tell yourself that I can speak the truth with you. You

know the biggest lies generally we speak are not with other people. The

biggest lies generally we tell our to ourselves. So once you start speaking

ourselves. So once you start speaking the truth with yourself that is when you take the first step towards your leadership together and

obviously once you start speaking the truth to yourself slowly and gradually it will seep in and you will start speaking the truth to with other people as well and that will make your whole

personality inside out as a singular entity a singular personality right and authentic personality and authenticity is the core of any leadership

philosophy. of faith and once you start

philosophy. of faith and once you start practicing it in each and every aspect of your life people will start to trust you and once people start to trust you

they believe in what you say. So you

know a chairman usually gives an example a very great example the difference between belief and trust.

So there was a guy who was you know um cycling on a rope that was really really high and he would go from one side to the other and he did this three four

times and one more time he was about to do he stopped and he asked his audience do you believe that I will do it this one last time as well and there was a

roing yes from the audience everyone said yes we believe then he said okay so why don't if you believe that I can do this Can somebody

lend me his child so I can put him on my shoulders and then I you know crossed the line and there was a pin drop silence in the audience.

So they believed that he could do it but they didn't trust them with their child.

Right? So once someone trusts you with something that is when you are a leader and you know when people start to trust you when people start to follow you and

we've got plenty of examples u available in our leadership in Pakistan unfortunately as well you know when people start to trust you when people

start to follow you you start to think something of yourself that me starts to kick in and that me is your ego. Once

your ego starts to kick in, that's where your learning journey stops.

That's when you stop growing as a person. And that is of utmost

person. And that is of utmost importance. You need to constantly grow

importance. You need to constantly grow as a person. You need to constantly learn. And specifically in these

learn. And specifically in these uncertain times, if at any given point in time, you think you are it, you know what you're talking about, that's your that's the end of your leadership

journey. So in this stride when people

journey. So in this stride when people start to follow you and people start to trust you you need to be very humble in your stride you need to have humility as at as at the core of your personality so

that your learning doesn't stop so that people can keep on trusting you and so that you grow keep growing as a person and um so this is our third value

humility trustworthiness truthfulness trustworthiness humility now whenever we talk about these values or any type of value. You know,

generally it's very when when these values are very convenient for us, we do practice them. But whenever we are faced

practice them. But whenever we are faced with circumstances and it's not it's inconvenient to you know follow those values, people start to you know

go astray.

So if you practice these these three values even at inconvenient times that is when you become a person of integrity you

know follow the values not only when they are convenient to you follow these values in every stride of your life only then you'll become a person of integrity and integrity again is the core

definition of leadership. The fourth

value is integrity and the last value you would have to use it a lot of times during your stay at KSPL as well because

the faculty is smiling right now because they are going to give you very tough time here right so you are going to face

very tough times in your life not just at KPL but beyond as well uh when we think everything is settled.

Sometimes life throws problems at you.

They'll be very tough. You question

yourself. You question, you know, why is this happening to me? But these are the times that are the test of your true character. That in these tough times,

character. That in these tough times, you don't lose hope. You keep on believing in yourself and you keep on believing in the larger purpose you are

here to serve and take this problem as a temporary period in your life and keep striving. Not just be patient because

striving. Not just be patient because you know generally in Pakistan we say we face so many problems we are very resilient nation but arguably resilient or you know we have just given into the

circumstances because resilient is when you face problems yes you be patient but you keep on working you keep on striving to solve those problems and try to move ahead in life.

So striving in the times of hardship that is our fifth core value and once you practice these values not just in your classroom but in every

aspect of your life you will see what type of leader you become. You know

because we ask this question to ourselves that you know every business school is in the is in the business of producing leaders one type of leader or the other type of leader but everyone says we want produce

efficient leaders. Right now the

efficient leaders. Right now the question is if you produce an efficient leader with a dangerous purpose that's the most lethal combination that

could ever be and essentially that is the problem we are facing in Pakistan very efficient leaders to their own purposes but at a larger it could be a very dangerous purpose and

it could completely ruin the society of the country. So my friends, leadership

the country. So my friends, leadership starts with your own reflection, your your own self-reflection and then you keep uh taking steps towards it. So

these five values formed the core of our leadership philosophy at KSBL and then obviously you have to layer it with competency. Now again you know in at one

competency. Now again you know in at one point in time every university used to have the sage on the stage where the faculty is there and he's giving a monologue to all the

students and that's about it. But now we feel that you know times are changing.

You've got every resource available to you outside of these classrooms as well.

So if you have the the discipline you could learn anything just by sitting at your home. So why come to a class?

your home. So why come to a class?

So the the the answer is right now in this all even if I exclude our faculty.

So all of your you students the average age would be what uh 20 to 19 to say 23 uh

and there are almost what 200 people. So

if you multiply this 20 let's take average is 20 so it will be an easier calculation. So 4,000 years

calculation. So 4,000 years of experience is sitting in this room and very different experiences. None of

no two of you have had similar experiences in life. And combine it with the the experience of our faculty. So

this would be roughly about about 10,000 or something. I'm just kidding. They're

or something. I'm just kidding. They're

not too old. Uh but still it would be tremendous, right? So with their

tremendous, right? So with their competency, their experiences, their academic knowledge and your life experiences, we come in here in the classrooms

to discuss. Not just to read a book, to

to discuss. Not just to read a book, to follow a textbook. We come here to discuss. You are going to come here to

discuss. You are going to come here to discuss. We will bring in problems from

discuss. We will bring in problems from the industry into your classrooms so that you can find the solutions or we could find the solutions together. And

we as faculty members here learn from your experiences as well because trust me the generational divide is so big that um it sometimes it feels like when I'm talking to my son I don't even

understand English anymore because the terms that he uses and the terms that we are used to they're very different. So

just imagine that the context so so the vocabulary generally when the vocabulary is the same it's easier to you know connect with another person but when the vocabulary is completely different it's very difficult to connect. So this

connection has to build. You have to learn from us and we have to learn from you and we have to collectively grow in order to solve the problems of this society and economy. So competency and

trust me the curriculum that we have cured over here is uh stateofthe-art. We

have tried to infiltrate every layer development and we review it so periodic so continuously in fact now you know used to be periodic reviews. Now we have to constantly review the curriculum

every semester. So it's we are going to

every semester. So it's we are going to bring in the topics, bring in the ideas, bring in the problems into the classroom. But you guys, the onus is on

classroom. But you guys, the onus is on you in university education to learn.

The onus is not on the professor, not on the university. The onus is on you. So

the university. The onus is on you. So

this will be a big change that you'll be exposed to in your university life. So

competency is there. Number second, the last point is mannerism.

Right?

So again an example of one of the top CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. He came

to Pakistan and we were with him. Um so

he went down and there was a guard who was standing over there and he shook his hand.

So 3 years back 3 years down the line he came back to Pakistan and that guard was standing over there again and he remembered that God. He

remembered his name. He talked to him.

He shook his hand again and the guard till this day whenever you talk to him he narrates the story. Now it might be

very small gesture that he did but that moment is etched in that person's brain and heart for the rest of his life. Now

if you'll ask him that who is a good example of a leader you'll always talk about him.

But again coming back to who's a good example for us in leadership that's again if you look at it from a theological lens as well. So that's

prophet Muhammad and that's where manism comes in you know how you interact with each other not just interact how you dress up how you sit how you go and

greet someone outside you know this all defines you as a person and this is going to define you as a person going forward. So take it very seriously

forward. So take it very seriously how you dress up, how you communicate, how you interact with your peers, how you interact with your faculty and when

you go out of this institution you are going to represent KSPL as well. We want

to see people when someone interacts with them they can say that you know these kids are and you obviously before

KSPL you do represent your families you represent your parents generally amazing right so who does it reflect on

generally it should reflect on you but at the end of it all of these connections that we make you are a reflection on them as well on us as

So be very mindful of it because if you are developing your character, it should be manifested in your behaviors and in your interactions with everyone.

So at last, I'd like to welcome you all again. It is going to be a very exciting

again. It is going to be a very exciting journey. It's going to be a very bumpy

journey. It's going to be a very bumpy journey. It's going to be a very tough

journey. It's going to be a very tough journey, but it is going to be a very good journey that is going to transform you as persons, as individuals, as human beings, and as future business leaders

of Pakistan. uh we'll be here to

of Pakistan. uh we'll be here to interact with you over the period of 4 years. Feel free drop by, be respectful,

years. Feel free drop by, be respectful, bring in ideas, try to develop this institution that we are trying to develop as well. We and you are one now.

Welcome you all and good luck for your four years. Thank you so much.

four years. Thank you so much.