Surpasscolors's Blogs

2011-02-07T01:54:00.002+05:00

How to insert Blob in Oracle

2011-01-20T23:15:00.001+05:00

-- define the directory inside Oracle when logged on as SYS
CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY BLOB_DIR AS 'F:\LOB_IMAGES';

-- grant read on the directory to the hr schema
GRANT READ ON DIRECTORY BLOB_DIR TO hr; -- directory name

--- create lob_demo in hr schema

-- the storage table for the image file
CREATE TABLE lob_demo (
file_name VARCHAR2(30),
image BLOB ) -- image file
tablespace lobs;

-- create the procedure to load the file

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE load_file (fname IN VARCHAR2) IS

src_file BFILE;
dst_file BLOB;
lgh_file BINARY_INTEGER;

BEGIN
src_file := bfilename('BLOB_DIR', fname);

-- insert a NULL record to lock
INSERT INTO lob_demo -- table name is lob_demo
(file_name, image)
VALUES
(fname, EMPTY_BLOB())
RETURNING image INTO dst_file;

-- lock record
SELECT image
INTO dst_file
FROM lob_demo
WHERE file_name = fname
FOR UPDATE;

-- open the file
dbms_lob.fileopen(src_file, dbms_lob.file_readonly);

-- determine size
lgh_file := dbms_lob.getlength(src_file);

-- read the file
dbms_lob.loadfromfile(dst_file, src_file, lgh_file);

-- update the blob field
UPDATE lob_demo
SET image = dst_file
WHERE file_name = fname;

-- close file
dbms_lob.fileclose(src_file);

COMMIT;
END load_file;
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

sql > exec load_file('LOGO.GIF');

---- know the total length of image in bytes stored in oracle

sql > SELECT dbms_lob.getlength(IMAGE ) FROM LOB_DEMO;

Bill Gates Leadership

2011-01-12T15:14:00.000+05:00

BILL GATES PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS

On October 28, 1965, William Henry Gates III was born. He was born into a family with a rich history in business, politics and community service. Early in his life , it was apparent that Bill Gates inherited the ambition, intelligence and competitive spirit that had helped his progenitors rise to the top in their chosen professions.

In elementary school he quickly surpassed all of his peer’s abilities in nearly all subjects, especially mathematics and science. His parents recognized his intelligence and decided to enroll him in lakeside, a private school known for its intense academic environment. This decision had far reaching effects on Bill Gates’ life. For at lakeside, he was first introduced to computers.

He was very smart and bored in school. His maternal grandmother Adelle Maxwell taught him a variety of card games and she was also fiercely competitive.

Bill Gates has always been a highly confident person and is gifted with great convincing skills. He has made lots of successful deal in his career. The deal with IBM was one of them.

In hindsight, Gates’ early failures seem so minuscule that they are almost laughable, but as a struggling entrepreneur, he went through the same frustration, confusion and despair that others is his situation also face. What distinguishes Gates from the rest was his ability to rebound from his mistakes and take whatever lesions he could from them. He then became more resolute and determined to see his vision realize.

Gates, has come to be known for his aggressive business tactics and confrontational style of management. Due to extreme aggressiveness, he was arrested at least twice in New Mexico; once in 1975 for speeding and driving without a license and in 1977 when his photograph was taken. His main vice was driving very fast cars in a dangerous way and collecting multiple speeding tickets.

Whereas many business leaders become locked into an aggressive stance, allowing their personal grudges to dictate their decision, Gates is always rational. Critics claimed that he allows his emotions to get the better of him in some cases; in particular, that his dislike of certain rivals has sometimes clouded his judgment. On the contrary, like a spoilt child that throws a tantrum to get its way, Gates may personalize a battle for a time, but only to focus Microsoft’s fire. What matters to Gates is winning; in order to do so, he will beat the enemy, but that doesn’t mean he won’t work with him at a later date. This makes him a far more dangerous adversary than someone who is hotheaded or acts out of emotion.

Competing with Bill Gates is like playing a game of Chess. He is always thinking many moves ahead and will punish his opponents’ blunders with cold-blooded predatory indifference. That’s why so many people in the industry fear him.

Gates meets regularly with Microsoft’s senior managers and program managers. By all accounts he can be extremely confrontational during these meetings, particularly when he believes that managers have not thought out their business strategy or have place the company’s future at risk. He has been described shouting at length at employees before letting them continue, with such remarks as “that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard” and “why don’t you just give-up your options and join the peace corps?”. However, he often back down when the targets of his outburst respond frankly and directly. When he is not impressed with the technical hurdles managers claim to be facing, he sometimes quips, “Do you want me to do it over the weekend?”

Gates’ approach worked primarily, he had no social life and often slept on the floor in the office when he was into a project. He was famous for losing credit cards.

His passion for winning was also apparent from an early age. His love of mathematics became an obsession with computers in his school. His extreme passionate nature comes out when he decided to stop studying in a top-notch Harvard University and pursue his dream of writing software, coding and technology. Gates and Microsoft are largely inseparable.

According to a press inquiry, Bill Gates scored 1590 on his SATS, which at the time corresponded to an IQ of 170 – a figure frequently reported in the popular media and was able to enroll at Harvard University in the Fall of 1973 to pursue a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science and pre-Law.

Much of Gates’ success rests on his ability to translate technical visions into market strategy, and to blend creativity with technical acumen.

Since the early days of Microsoft, Gates has pursued his vision of “a computer on every desk and in every home”. It was his vision that guided Microsoft’s immense success. An intense businessman who typically put in 16-hour days and took only two three-day vacations in the first five years after establishing the corporation. Gates was demanding, and strong-willed about implementing his vision. Co-workers, clients and industry analyst also remarked, however, that he did not surround himself with YES-Sayers but was more than willing to change his mind if someone convinced him of a better alternative. Analysts also observed that one of the keys to Gates’ success was his ability to focus on the fundamental of the business while keeping office politics or his own ego from getting in the way.

He is also widely criticized as having built Microsoft’s business through unfair, illegal, or anticompetitive business practices. Government authorities in several countries have found some of Microsoft’s practices illegal, as in United States Vs Microsoft. Worst of times, grilled by lawyers in 1998 when Microsoft grew so big that the government brought an anti-trust suit to peg back its Monopolistic power.

BILL GATES’ CHARISMATIC CHARACTERISTICS

Gates is often characterized as the quintessential example of a super-intelligent “nerd” with immense power and wealth. This has in turn led to pop culture stereotypes of Gates as a tyrant or evil genius, often restoring to ruthless business techniques. As such, he has been the subject if numerous parodies in fim, television and video games.

Gates has been at the top of his profession for more than two decades now, in that time he has become the richest man in the world in his early 40s. Yet despite his enormous wealth and achievement, Gates shows no signs of slowing down. His says he is driven by a “latent fear” that he might miss the next big thing. Over the years, he has repeatedly shown that he is the closest thing the competitor industry has to a seer. His in-depth understanding of technology and a unique way of synthesizing data gives him a special ability to spot future trends and steer Microsoft’s strategy. This also inspire awe among Microsoft fans and intimidates its competitors.

Although he was considered a charismatic leader within his own company, he was also extremely tough. He fired Microsoft’ first company President after only 11 months on the job.

The position of Power that Microsoft enjoys today is the culmination of a business strategy that Bill Gates and his Partner Paul Allen formulated many years ago when both were still in their 20s. The key to that success resides in a combination of factors. These include the dazzling technical brilliance of the early Microsoft programmers; the enormous energy and ferocious competitiveness of Gates himself; and his unique vision of how the PC revolution could be brought about and the role of Microsoft could play in it.

Bill Gates is a Schumpeterian entrepreneur as he changed “ the stream of allocation of resources overtime by introducing new departures into the flow of economic life” by creating a high –quality operating system monopoly in the personal computing business thereby propelling it to the most important sector of the modern economy.

Paul Allen, who had been serving as Microsoft’s head of Research and New Product development, left the company in 1982 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. The following year, Gates faced a major challenged to Microsoft’s domination of operating systems for home computers when a company called Visicorp developed a mouse-driven computer system with a user interface based on graphics rather than the keyboard and text-driven system of MS-DOS. Gates quickly recognized that Visicorp’s system would be the wave of the future because it was much easier for technologically unsophisticated people to use. Even though Microsoft did not have such a system in the works at that point, Gates started an advertising campaign with an announcement at the Plaza Hotel in New York that a new Microsoft operating system with graphical user interface would soon be available. This next-generation system was to be called “WINDOWS”.

Gates’ announcement was a bluff; the truth was that Microsoft was nowhere near developing such a system. But the marketing ploy worked because people preferred to wait for a system designed to be compatible with their existing Microsoft products rather than undergo the trouble and expense of installing an entirely new operating system.

Furthermore, windows allowed users to avoid buying new software applications to replace the DOS- compatible programs they currently owned. Windows 1.0 was finally released in 1985. That same year, Microsoft reported $140 million in revenue, just because Gates’ ability to accept risk and new challenges.

Gates is the “ultimate expression” of “Nerd Power”. His own rise to fame and fortune personifies a change in the business constellation. Once unfashionable in corporate America, in the wake of the computer revolution the technical experts or techies have risen to prominence.

The blue-suited IBMers who had dominated the computer business for decades were wrong-footed by the switch from mainframes to Personal computers. Standing on the threshold of the change was Bill Gates, ready to usher in the new paradigm. Both Gates and Paul Allen, were very different to the IBMers.

The young Gates, with his bottle-glass spectacles, dandruff and acne, and Allen, with his long hairs and shaggy beard, provided Americans with a caricature of the nerds they knew at school. More significantly, for the first time, Corporate America’s discomfort with raw intellect and technical expertise was challenged.

BILL GATES TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS

Gates does regard himself to be an expert in is unraveling the technological past from the technological future. Gates’ own talent is for understanding what’s just around the corner. His great talent as a leader lies in his ability to inspire the people around him with the challenge of helping him to transform the computers industry.

Gates set about achieving his vision by transforming Microsoft into a major player in the computer industry and using its dominant position to create a platform for the huge growth in applications. What Gates realized very early on was that, in order for his vision to succeed, it was essential that an industry standard be created. He knew, too , that whoever got there first would have a major opportunity to stamp their own authority on the computing industry.

His belief in high intelligence and hard work has put him where he is today. He does not believe in mere luck or God’s grace, but just hard work and competitiveness. Bill’s Microsoft is good competition for other software companies and he will continue to stomp out the competition until he dies. He likes to play the game of risk and the game of world domination.

THINKING BIG: Along with focus, the ability to dream big and pursue that with single- minded determination sets Gates apart from other entrepreneurs.

GIVING BACK TO SOCIETY: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided a new dimension to philanthropy by addressing issues that are global in nature – malaria, cancer, AIDS. Gates has shown a remarkable degree of consistency both in his business goals and in his goals in philanthropy.

NEVER STOP LEARNING: In order to stay up to speed with new technologies, Gates will assemble a collection of the leading experts in a particular technical area and have them provide intensive briefing sessions. He calls then “think weeks” and they amount to total immersion in a subject. During this period, he will soak up information like soap.

The fact of the matter is that Gates has one of the most severe cases of intellectual curiosity ever known. Even on holidays he consumes book after book just to quench his thirst for new knowledge. It’s a characteristic that helps explain the enduring success of Microsoft in an industry where a great many once-successful firms have fallen by the wayside. It is one of the factors that makes him such a deadly adversary.

Despite Gates’ reputation as a visionary, criticism often made of Microsoft is that the company is not a great innovator, and simply raids the ideas of others- converting them into Microsoft products. The company has also been accused of a predatory attitude towards its partners. Microsoft has been described as “the fox that takes you across the river and then eats you”. But according to one industry insider, most of the criticism is sour grapes on the parts of its competitors.

“Like the Japanese computer companies Microsoft may not be an inventor, but it perfects products”, said by President of Technologic, an industry consulting group.

Gates’ pragmatism also extends to buying his way into key markets. He is quite prepared to go out and buy the development expertise of other companies and then plug it into the Microsoft machine. In fact, this is a strategy that Gates has used many times. In 1982, for example, he bought the basis of DOS from a small company called Seattle Computers, and went onto make it into the industry standard and it’s not just software that he’s prepared to plunder, on occasion, Gates has bought companies simply to acquire the expertise of exceptional programmers, who often have a stake in the smaller firm. In such cases, Gates is able to offer several million dollars for the company as an inducement for the key individual to join Microsoft. In this way, he can bring deep seams of technical expertise into Microsoft very rapidly.

CREATIVITY

In Microsoft, Bill Gates has created a voracious learning machine. Learning, he believes, is the sign of a “smart organization”, one that is continuously improving its internal processes. It is also the best way to avoid becoming complacent, and the best protection against making mistakes. His competitors aren’t so careful. By capitalizing on the errors of the others, Gates has prospered.

In many ways, what sets him apart from other leaders in the computer industry in his focus on the business. Despite his incredible success and the distractions of fame and fortune, Gates remained as committed to Microsoft as he was at the start. He combines an analytical mind with a real passion for the technology, which means that he is always scanning the horizon for the next big thing. This intellectual restlessness resonates throughout Microsoft. It keeps Gates and his people on their toes.

Gates has consistently sought out and hired the smartest individuals in the computer industry. This is a deliberate strategy and one that ensures the company attracts the highest caliber staff. Some people has accused Gates of being elitist but he is one of the first entrepreneurs to truly understand what intellectual capital is all about. Microsoft calls them “high IQ people” and has always gone out of its way to attract the very brightest recruits.

NURTURE CREATIVITY: At Microsoft’s specially designed headquarters at Redmond, Washington, Gates deliberately set out to create an environment which suited the bright young people the company wanted to attract. With its simple aesthetics, open communal areas and green spaces it resembled the college atmosphere familiar to many of those joining the company straight from university.

Gates’ famous stamina for work translates into a Microsoft culture that can be described as “work hard, then work even harder”. For many years, Gates regarded taking holidays as a sign of weakness. The Microsoft campus at Redmond is geared up to allow employees to work very long hours, with a selection of cafeterias providing subsidized meals and even soft drinks.

Relative to its stock market valuation, Microsoft remains a relatively small company. Internally, too, the company is constantly splitting into smaller units to maintain an entrepreneurial environment. At times, change is so rapid, that Microsoft seems to be creating new divisions on an almost weekly basis. Gates also relies on maintaining a simple structure to enable him to keep his grip on the company.

CREATE A SMALL TEAM CULTURE: Early in Microsoft’s evolution, Gates came to the conclusion that the best software was created by only small groups of developers. Although Microsoft now employs many thousands of people around the world, Gates has tried to retain the feel of a small company.”Even if we are a big company”, Gates says, “we cannot think like a big company or we are dead”.

Through stock options, Gates has probably made more people rich than any other man in history. This is a great motivator.

CREATE A MERITOCRACY: There are virtually no status symbols at Microsoft. Respect has to be earned. A relaxed, collegiate style and dislike of status symbols is balanced by a demanding attitude towards performance and meeting deadlines. When people leave, Microsoft’s research suggests, they do so because the challenge has run out. But perhaps the most telling test of the Microsoft culture is that so many of the original employees are still there.

When Gates faced a dilemma, he didn’t stop and give-up. He asked questions about what could be done to solve the problem. For his business activities to his philanthropic efforts, Gates’ curiosity and desire to constantly be learning has been one of the key factors behind the success.

Gates speaks the language of computer programmers. It pervades his everyday speech. He talks frequently about “maximum bandwidth” and even nicknamed one girlfriend “32-bit”. This is both one of his great strengths as a leader and also one of his weaknesses. Talking to fellow techies, it gives him an open channel of communication which allows him to inspire Microsoft employees to greater heights. On the negative side, however, his nerdy vocabulary and directness can make him seem inarticulate when he tries to communicate to the wider public.

Gates’ own direct, slightly impatient manner and his unwillingness to suffer fool can also make him appear rude. On a good day, he can be charming, but on a bad day, he can be downright abrasive. At industry gatherings he can seems condescending, even patronizing about the idea of others. At internal meetings he is prone to outbursts. Some say tantrums, if doesn’t like the way the discussion is moving.

“That is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard”, is a typical Gates Lines. Direct it may be, but it is hardly likely to make the person he’s talking to inclined to volunteer more ideas. Steve Ballmer, a long term Gates aide and friend for more than 20 years is well aware of how the Gates can come across sometimes. “Part of Bill’s style of presenting, clarifying and challenging ideas is to be very blunt and a little bit dramatic and some would say a little rude”, he says.

Being able to pass on leadership skills to others requires three things, First, a “teachable point of view” ,”You must be able to talk clearly and convincingly about who you are, why you exist and how you operate”, second, “the leader requires a story.”

“Dramatic storytelling is the way people learn from one another. This explains why Bill Gates and like feel the need to write books”.

The third element in passing on the torch of leadership is teaching methodology. To be a great teacher, you have to be a great leader. The great corporate leaders are hungry to know more and do not regard their knowledge as static or comprehensive.

MOTIVATION:

Microsoft has always paid its employees salaries that are lower than its rivals. Until recently, Gates himself took an annual salary of just $175,000. (In 1993, Microsoft paid its top 5 executives a total of $1.9 Million combined, while head of rivals Oracle Corporation Larry Ellison was paid $5.7 Million alone). What makes his possible is the company’s long term commitment to stock options-offering almost all staff an “option” to buy Microsoft shares at a fixed price in the future. This has been a major factor in the company’s ability to recruit the best programmers.

Through stock options, Bill Gates has made more people millionaires than any other entrepreneur in history. Gates instituted systems that reinforce the effectiveness of the small team mentally. According to MIT, Gates has created a special culture that fosters creativity, both individually and in team, at the same time, as meeting commercial deadlines and demands.

The Microsoft product development philosophy is labeled “synch-and-stabilize”. This involves focusing creativity by evolving features and “fixing” resources; and doing everything in parallel with “frequent synchronizations”. The most striking about the Microsoft approach is that the company is not be freewheeling ideas factory it is often portrayed as. In particular, the seemingly relaxed atmosphere is only one part of the picture.

Pizzas maybe delivered directly to desks, but there is also a great deal of control, or discipline at work. It may appear jolly and collegiate, but it is deadly serious. e.g. the scope and ambition of each and every project is carefully delineated.

The number of people involved and the times they spend on a particular project are also carefully controlled. Some rules are unbending- bugs have to be immediately repaired to ensure that work is coordinated.

People are given responsibility and allowed to determine their own working patterns and schedules-up to a point. The boundaries are very clear and simple. People know where they stand, how the system works, and what is expected from them. The system works because the people are smart enough to make it work and are highly motivated at the individual level. Their knowledge and creativity is appreciated and rewarded.

“Brain based companies have an ethereal character compared to yesterday’s outfits and that’s putting it mildly. Time clocks certainly have no place. Barking orders is out. Curiosity, initiative and the exercise of the imagination are IN.

No one epitomizes the switch to intellectual capital more than Bill Gates and Microsoft. Gates was one of the first to recognize that attracting and retaining the best computer programmers was the only way that Microsoft could remain on top. He has been mining the ether ore of his “high IQ” knowledge workers ever since.

BAHAVIOR / ATTITUDE OF BILL GATES

On a personal level, Bill Gates has been described in less than glowing terms. As a child he had a tendency to tamper tantrums- a habit some of those who’ve worked with him say he hasn’t lost. Certainly Gates does not suffer fools gladly.

“Time is very short, so if people are repeating things that I already know or if they aren’t smart or didn’t listen to something that I said with some precision, then that’s not a good person for me to work with-they don’t belong to this team”, he once said. His own intellect makes him impatient of those who aren’t as smart as him.

Gates has spent his whole life among very smart people, and has a low tendency for those whose intellect he does not respect. At company briefings he has been known to go ballistic throwing things and shouting “this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of ...” a familiar phrase to people who worked with him.

You could argue that if he behaves like a spoilt child than he really doesn’t deserve to be liked. But there is another side to Gates. He can be charming – if not quite charismatic. He has also shown on numerous occasions that he can be extremely patient when an important deal is at stake. The poker-playing days at Harvard have stood him in good stead. His cool, analytical mind makes him a better strategist than most of his rivals. He can be also extremely generous.

Though Gates was highly appreciated for his visionary leadership, he was also criticized as something Gates took things so much to heart that his emotional feeling overshadowed his rational thinking. They said that Gates intense rivalry with some of his competitors made him personalize every battle and obscured his judgment.

Critics claimed that winning was so important to Gates that he would go to any extent to beat his opponent. A critic says, “Bill Gates not only wants to win, but he wants to kill the competition. He wants to bury the wounded…”

LEADERSHIP STYLE

1) Autocratic Style

Control is basic to Gates’ nature and his management practice. He has an obsession with detail and with checking up. He is trying to monopolize the World Wide Web software market and has legal problems with the department of Justice. Microsoft restricted the ability of its internet partners to deal with its rivals. And also he dislikes complaints.

2) Delegate style

Gates paid special attention to recruit and retain the best talent in the software industry. He believed that the recruitment of talented software engineers was one of the most critical elements in the software industry. Gates looked for a bundle of attributes in recruits. These include the capacity to grasp new knowledge quickly, the ability to ask probing questions, and deep familiarity with programming structures.

Though a great number of potential recruits applied for jobs at Microsoft, Gates assumed that the best talent would never apply directly. Consequently, Microsoft’s HR managers had to hunt for the best talent and offer them a job.

Gates gives autonomy to his managers; he delegates authority to managers to run their independent departments.

Syed Mazhar Ali (Late) Biography

2011-01-12T14:55:00.000+05:00

Name: Syed Mazhar Ali (Late)

Period: 1935 - 2004

Biographical detail:

Former Pakistani Senator Mazhar Ali packed many careers and interests into a single life-time: civil engineer, entrepreneur, politician, educationalist and above all philanthropist. He died on 2nd May 2004 as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident near his home in Karachi.

Syed Mazhar Ali was born in Delhi in 1935. His grandfather, Moulvi Saeed Ahmed belonged to a distinguished line of Islamic scholars that include Shah Waliullah (1703-1761) amongst their forebears. His grandmother Maseethi Begum was a grand matriarch of a bygone age, who presided over an impressive household in Old Delhi. His father, Major Syed Asghar Ali, served in the education department of the British Army who migrated to Pakistan. His paternal uncle, Syed Safdar Ali, belonged to the early corps of Pakistan's fledgling counter-espionage service. Syed Mazhar Ali's early years were spent in army camps, including Malir, where he distinguished himself in hockey, subsequently representing his province and university in the sport. He obtained a First Class in Civil Engineering from the University of Karachi (1958). He was awarded a Scholarship to Lehigh University, USA, where he completed an MSc in Civil and Structural engineering (1959-61).

Syed Mazhar was the Chairman of Computer Training & Testing Centre Karachi since 1997. He was the founder of the "Pakistan Zindabad Tehreek" and the former Chairman of Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD). He remained associated with the formation of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance, 1979. Construction of 3000 low cost housing units in Surjani Town also goes to his professional credit.

After a few years of employment in architectural practices, he established his own civil engineering company, Maymar. Amongst its projects was the construction of the InterContinental Hotel in Dacca. His astute business sense also led to the acquisition of real estate in the outskirts of Karachi that subsequently became a show-piece town planning venture, 'Gulshan-e-Maymar'. Maymar won awards for the construction of low-cost housing in different parts of Karachi. His professional competence was recognized in his appointment as Chair of the Association of Builders and Developers, and Vice-Chair of the National Housing Authority, Government of Pakistan.

Mazhar Ali found his political sympathies more closely aligned with the Muslim League, and in 1985 he successfully contested a Senate seat in Karachi on the Party's ticket. He was one of the competent technocrats advising the first Nawaz Sharif government (1990 - 1993). His most notable contribution was as dynamic chairman of the Senate 'Resource Mobilisation & Tax Reforms Commission' (1991-1994), championing the introduction of IT to improve tax collection. Mazhar Ali served in the Senate till 1994, and was disappointed for not being given responsibilities commensurate with his experience in the second Nawaz Sharif government (1997-99). He would remark that the Prime Minister was most comfortable with 'yes men' but he was not of that mould.

His reduced political commitments prompted Syed Mazhar Ali to devote more time to another abiding passion: in 1998 he embarked on an ambitious vision to create an IT university in Karachi that could compete with the best in the world. He believed passionately in providing educational opportunities to young Pakistanis and improving the quality of education. Over the next few years, he was to channel a considerable proportion of his own savings to establish the Karachi Institute of Information Technology (KIIT) located in Gulshan-e-Maymar and now offering IT degrees under franchise from the University of Huddersfield. To ensure that the KIIT curriculum was in step with the latest advancements in the field of IT and also that it was in accordance with the requirements of the industry at global level, KIIT entered into an agreement with the School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom, to offer B. Sc. (Hon.) Program.

KIIT entered into another agreement with the University of Huddersfield to offer a one year M.Sc/ Postgraduate Diploma in Software Development. As a part of the agreement, the courseware developed by the University of Huddersfield for these programs were made available to the KIIT. Also the University of Huddersfield provided consulting services to the KIIT in the selection of hardware and software, setting up local area network and the selection of faculty members.

To make sure that the level of education being provided at KIIT is at the same level as that of the University of Huddersfield, it helps the KIIT in developing Quality Assurance Procedures.

He sincerely hoped that its staff would rise to his vision and work for the development of the nation's human resources. Syed Mazhar Ali's inspiration was the work of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, who through the establishment of the Aligarh Muslim University offered new opportunities to the Muslims of the subcontinent. Established in 1998, Mazhar Ali wanted KIIT to assume the role of a world class IT University to be named as "Jama Al-Asr". Syed Mazhar Ali's mantle at KIIT was taken up by his younger brother, Dr Syed Zahir Ali, who served as its Director.

Syed Mazhar Ali maintained contacts with the political world and was respected by the MQM leadership and the Minister of Interior, Gen. (retd.) Moin Haider (1999-2003), thus occasionally serving as a trusted broker.

He was also the Member, Privatization Committee for PTCL and the Vice-chairman, National Housing Authority, GOP. He hold many responsibilities for e-governance project of the Federal Government, member Board of Directors PTCL, Chairman Think Tank of PTCL, member Sindh IT Board, Member governing Body, Karachi Development Authority (KDA) and holding senior position in various government and private sector organizations and forum.

Syed Mazhar Ali was a charismatic personality and will be long-remembered by all those who had the privilege of working with him for his warmth, honesty and sincerity.

It was only after his death, when closing his financial affairs that his family came to realize the extent of his quiet acts of charity and support to the needy. His wife Azra brought him life-long comfort and companionship. He also leaves a son, Syed Amir Ali and two daughters, Mona and Seher.

"Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un. From Allah we come and unto Him we shall return."

PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTCS

SELF- CONFIDENCE Dr. Abdul Wahab, former Director of IBA and Vice Chancellor of University of Karachi, Paid tributes to the efforts of Syed Mazhar Ali as the Chairman KIIT for the promotion of IT education in Pakistan, Dr. Abdul Wahab said that Syed Mazhar Ali enjoys the reputation of getting things done and he has the confidence that the Jama Al-Asr which is in its formative stage would be one of the leading university not only in Pakistan but on the map of the world education.

HUMILITY

He was very fond of eating good foods and at each Wednesday in KIIT all employees of KIIT get-together for a lunch with him. Lunches were always of different variety of many delicious dishes. He weekly met all his employees personally in lunches in a humble way and having a down-to-earth attitude to each one.

HONESTY & TRUSTWORTHINESS

Referring to the expertise Pakistan has gained in the field of Information Technology; he said that this facility is not being implemented to bring e-government and automation in the public sector organizations. He said that automation could reduce the nuisance of manual handling in public dealing organizations like KDA, LDA or CDA. However the application of automation would hit the vested interests and that is the reason the corrupt are not willing to facilitate the people. Citing the example, he said, that approval of different requirement from development authorities or building control authorities take more than two years which on one hand hampers the economic growth of urban areas and on the other hand forces people to go for illegal options. He said that there is tremendous scope for employment of existing and forthcoming IT graduates if the government allows speedy automation of the public sector organizations.

PASSIONATE Syed Mazhar Ali while talking to media said to see Pakistan as a leader on the world IT map and to serve to soil of this country has always been his obsession. We don't compromise on the quality of education irrespective to the cost we have to pay for that. He said that he has spent his life time earnings and sacrificed his living style just for the love of this land. He further said that KIIT aims to produce IT trained professionals who will contribute towards the national image building and the nation's prosperity. His vision for KIIT that it will act as a beacon for professional education for others to follow.

TOLERANCE FOR FRUSTRATION He regretted that vitally needed automation in the public sector organizations was moving at snail's pace which indicates the lack of interest in the lethargic crop of the bureaucrats in Pakistan.

FARSIGHTEDNESS The need for setting up a centre for quality education was felt in the backdrop of the demand and supply of IT graduates in Pakistan. The past studies in Pakistan showed that against the need of some 3000 IT graduates per year only 900 graduates were being produced from the existing institutions during 1998. In addition to 900 IT graduates, from the State and Private institutions, through one year Diploma programs and Vendor Certification institutes e.g., Microsoft, Novell, Oracle etc. about 2000 IT professionals were also being produced in Pakistan. Despite the fact that supply position of IT graduates from IT institutes has improved considerably during last three years yet the demand has increased at a much faster pace. The current local demand of IT graduates is estimated to be around 8000 annually while annul output is about 5000 only. Due to this gap in demand and supply of the IT professionals, country was in need of more education centers to meet the deficit. The arrival of KIIT is certainly a significant move to fill in the gap.

LEADERSHIP SKILLS

CHARISMATIC

Syed Mazhar Ali was a charismatic personality and will be long-remembered by all those who had the privilege of working with him for his warmth, honesty and sincerity. His humbleness always touched the hearts of many people of all walks of life whoever met him once. Each employee was very much attached to his generosity and worked passionately as a family member.

TRANSFORMATIONAL

At the time of inception of KIIT in 1998 there were only 8 universities/institutes providing IT undergraduate programs in Karachi. Whereas due to growing popularity of IT education the number of IT institutes providing undergraduates and graduate IT programs has exploded to about 33 such institutes. Many of these have links with some dubious, so called foreign universities, whereas despite having links with British universities many other such institutes are deceiving the students by admitting them with O levels into the three year degree programs instead of the prescribed A levels which is in contravention of the normal UK university admission requirements.

In the face of these conditions, due to the quality of its faculty, the IT infrastructure, internet and library resources and above all state-of-the-art curriculum and the strict quality assurance procedures, in a short span of three years KIIT has gained the reputation of a quality IT institute in the country.

Syed Mazhar Ali said that currently, KIIT has the strongest faculty with 8 Ph.Ds. in computer science and 8 more doctors are due to join shortly to give a unique status to this forthcoming university in Pakistan.

CREATING PEOPLE’s AWARENESS Through holding regular seminars on current IT topics and inviting industry leaders and government functionaries the elite of the country whose opinion counts, have come to know about the quality education being provided at KIIT. In addition, KIIT is also providing IT awareness courses to the high government officials of the province of Sindh.

CREATIVITY

Syed Mazhar Ali having a country-wide reputation for giving quality projects in the field of construction industry has maintained the legacy in the field of education also.

He believed that nature is kind to Pakistan and has gifted plenty of resources in different forms but we failed to make best use of these resources.

Having a picturesque surrounding, Jama Al-Asr, presently KIIT, is located at "Gulshan-e-Maymar", an island of peace within the city of Karachi which is now known for its polluted environment, due to traffic noise, smoke emitting vehicles and law and order hazards. When grown to its full bloom, days are not far away when Pakistanis could mention the name of this world class university to compete with any foreign university.

Giving the background of the selection of title of Jama Al-Asr for the University, Dr. Abdul Wahab said that a meeting of the senior educationists, citizens and other opinion leaders was invited to suggest the name of the forthcoming university. The meeting was proceeded with the recitation of Soorah "Al-Asr" from the Holy Quran. On pointation of Mr. Hamid Ahmed, Executive Director of KIIT, the participants unanimously agreed to take

Al-Asr as the name of the University. He made it clear that it was not inspired from Jama Al-Azhar of Cairo.

Syed Mazhar Ali said that KIIT believes in continuous grooming of faculty. In this regard KIIT offers excellent opportunity of research and development to its faculty. Due to an active and interactive environment at KIIT the faculty at KIIT has been very actively involved in national and international seminars, workshops and conferences. There is a long list of consulting and development projects that are being carried out by the faculty successfully. Also the students under the supervision of faculty are carrying out a number of industrial software development projects.

When asked about the difference between KIIT and other IT institutes, he said one of the glaring example is our emphasis on research to keep our faculty abreast with the latest global changes taking place in the IT sector. We at KIIT spending heavily on research work and on acquiring quality IT experts from foreign universities, so that the graduates we produce could meet the market requirements. He said that some of our graduates have become head of the organizations and playing leading role in the IT sector. That is the difference between KIIT and other IT institutions.

From 1997 to 2000, despite the formation of IT Commission, because lack of commitment of the government not much development took place in the promotion of IT in the country. However, with the appointment of Professor Dr. Attaur Rehman in October 1999, as the Minister of Information Technology/ Telecommunication and Science, required steps for promotion of IT were taken expeditiously and also a large sum of money was allocated for the development of IT in Pakistan.

In April 2000, the IT Commission of Pakistan was assigned the prestigious job of preparation of an IT Policy of Pakistan. The blueprint of IT policy of Pakistan was completed in June 2000 and from July 2000 the government started taking the required steps for promotion of IT in the country. The most important decision of the government was that the government should be a facilitator and concentrate on the provision of infrastructure. The main vehicle of growth shall be the private sector. And in this regard, a number of incentives were provided to the IT sector including the IT institutes in the private sector.

Due to these measures, in the coming years, the software industry in Pakistan is going to be extremely busy in undertaking massive e-government projects. Due to this policy along with the creation of additional jobs for the IT industry the government itself will require large number of IT graduates for the maintenance and running of the e-governance systems. Despite the large number of IT institutes, which have sprouted in the last three years that demand for quality IT education that continues to grow, says Mazhar.

He regretted that vitally needed automation in the public sector organizations was moving at snail's pace which indicates the lack of interest in the lethargic crop of the bureaucrats in Pakistan.

The main problem of the institutions owned by the State is their very low level of funding and the rigid fee structures. For instance, in some universities the tuition fee is only about 5 pounds per year. Due to the inadequate resources at the disposal of the State institutions, the quality of their faculty has rapidly gone down, the availability of technical books and journals is minimal and their hardware and software is antiquated. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that most of their curricula have remained unchanged for the last 8 to 10 years.

In addition as a result of the increase in the requirement of trained computer science graduates, a growing number of dubious private institutions have sprung up which claim to have links with foreign universities. These institutions, some of which are even called Universities, are located in residential houses, which are unsuitable for education environment. Because of the desire of the students to acquire foreign degrees, these institutions, with false promises and deceit, were able to attract a large number of students. However, the facilities provided by them including the caliber of the faculty, availability of suitable computer Labs and library facilities etc are not up to the required standards. The caliber of graduates from these institutions is therefore so poor that it does not come up to the requirement of the industry. Consequently, a large number of these institutions are no longer considered suitable for providing quality IT education. Hence the students are getting wiser and trying to avoid these institutions and instead select the IT institutions which providing quality IT education. In view of the problems of the state institutions and the low caliber of IT institutions being set up in the private sector, there is therefore an urgent demand of quality IT institutes in the private sector with links to establish foreign IT institutes.