Pakistan’s leading biscuit manufacturing company, English Biscuit Manufacturers (Pvt.) Limited (EBM), is the lead sponsor of Pakistan’s first-ever feature length animated film, ‘3-Bahadur’. It has been produced by Waadi Animations and endorsed by Peek Freans Gluco, awaiting Summer 2015, it's ready to make us all proud.

EBM believes in empowering and motivating children at an early stage so that they grow up to become contributing members of the society. And when it comes to having their dreams come true, the sky should be the limit. This concept being in close association with the pioneering movie is what makes the sponsorship strong and worthwhile. 

'3-Bahadur' promotes the concept of 'edutainment', the combination of education and entertainment which are the foundations of healthy growth in children. The story itself revolves around three young superheroes who are active and ready to shun the evil in the society in order to bring about a positive change.

EBM will be introducing theme based and exhilarating activities in line with the movie, for example, a '3-Bahadur' web based interactive activity by RIO and movie branded packaging for Gluco. 

“We are proud to be associated with this project. The movie brings out a powerful message for children, that, each one of them has unique abilities and strengths through which they can make a positive contribution to the society and that EBM’s brands communicate as well,” said Zulfiqar Ali Ansari, Head of Marketing at EBM.


Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, CEO of Waadi Animations, said: “Almost 3 years ago, I had an intense desire to create an animated feature in Pakistan which would appeal to both children and adults alike. I have to admit, venturing into the realm of animation was unchartered territory for my team and I, but everyone quickly warmed up to the idea and we began learning the ropes and assembling a team of some of the best animators in the country to work with us. We are proud to announce and share the fruit of our hard work and efforts; Pakistan's first animated feature film!”


 

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English Biscuit Manufacturers (Private) Limited, the maker of Peek Freans biscuits, was established in 1967 as the first manufacturer of wholesome, hygienic packaged biscuits in Pakistan. For over 45 years, EBM has been a symbol of trust and confidence for consumers, making it the leading biscuit manufacturer of Pakistan. EBM is the first biscuit company in Pakistan to have achieved ISO 14001, ISO 9001 and HACCP certifications. The Peek Freans brand also enjoys the internationally acclaimed Superbrands status.

When you ask people the definition of the word, ‘beautiful’, almost everyone would have different responses, however, if they are asked to define a beautiful woman, there is no doubt that their responses would be quite universal. From fairness creams to beauty soaps and various other beauty products, the image of a beautiful woman is quite over stated, with fanatics defining what she should actually look like.

Thanks to local opinion leaders on television launching their own products who also indirectly claim that fairness is the acceptable norm or is portrayed as the declaration of a woman’s beauty. Such a mindset hinders societies from progressing and drags them towards decadence each step at a time. No matter how dark skinned the endorser or the brand owner is himself/herself, Photoshop is always the best friend in such circumstances considering an appeal to emotion. Why would anyone who is dark herself want to project the sign of beauty as being fair skinned? Instead that person should shun such thoughts and endorse the darker tone of skin as the reflection of a beautiful woman. Being brainy is what constitutes being attractive but invain.

India, for instance, witnessed one such brave transformation where the organization, ‘Women of Worth’ launched a campaign titling it, ‘Stay Unfair, Stay Beautiful’ with actress Nandita Das being the face of it. “In a country where 90% of people are dark, it is sad that we grow up with such an inferiority complex about it,” says Das.



Therefore, beauty is a woman’s confidence, it’s her mind and soul, and something radiated when she is happy from within, rather than being an appearance or gadget defined through the lens of societal pressure. In a study carried out by Dove in 2010, it was revealed that only 4% of women globally would define themselves as beautiful, the brand thus embarked on a worldwide journey to uncover their beauty potential and make them realize their own true worth, thus empowering them altogether.

In what became the Viral Campaign of the Year, Dove invited a group of women and an FBI sketch artist to participate in a study of the image of women’s actual self versus the perceived self. When the same women were asked to describe themselves so that the sketch artist could draw their portraits, their own verbal descriptions revealed their insecurities and an understatement of their own images which were projected as being less attractive. However, based on the observation of a stranger, when the same portraits were drawn, the difference was quite notable with the stranger descriptions being comparatively better and vibrant.

This concluded that women are usually overly critical of their appearance and do not realize how good looking they actually are. The video was translated in 25 different languages and uploaded on 33 of Dove’s Youtube channels with almost 135 million views from 110 countries.

With the world progressing with such creative ideas to explore the real meaning of being beautiful why are we still living in a shell that still has outdated meanings and synonyms to define women? One of the first few steps towards empowering women is by making the same gender realize the concept of beauty and how women should be perceived as attractive than being judged according to what they should look like.

For all the aapa’s and baji’s out there who are promoting their products based on obsolete marketing tactics for the ideal Kaali mai to become gori, gori to make their dreams come true, please do realize that you are selling self-loathing nightmares to undermine their image.

Beauty is what lies within; in the form of confidence, education, determination and strength and not something that can be judged based on the first impression regarding looks and appearance.

The 16th MAP Convention hosted a thought provoking session for managers and thought leaders representing various sectors. It was organised by MAP Convention while the founding partner was EBM, the theme of the convention was ‘Re-think Management’. It aimed at reinforcing management practices and leader styles for the success of businesses in the long run.

Organizations carving their journey through evolutionary business patterns have always been at the forefront of business success stories as a result of which they eventually make it to the Fortune 500 companies, be it adapting to the rapidly changing business environment or fostering employees through empowerment, inculcating the sense of ownership in every individual is what results to accomplishments in the long run. Shedding light on such matters, the MAP convention contributed towards a positive day.

Management Association of Pakistan is a 50 year old body created to assist the business community as their think tank of ideas so that the best management practices could be implemented for generating productivity and future growth. Each year this convention gathers businesspersons and from across the country and executes a thought provoking session thus inviting local as well as international speakers.

Following a welcome address by Mr. Masood Hashmi, Vice President MAP and a speech by Wajahat Hussain, President and CEO of UBL, the day commenced with an engaging session by Tony Buzan, the inventor of Mind Maps. Not only did he make the audience realize the dull norms of performing our daily tasks but also the need to innovate our thinking style. He emphasized upon the use of colour in our daily lives despite us being adults and the need of daydreaming, the lack of which limits new business ideas and blurs creativity.

As people age, their creativity depletes which Buzan explained by giving an example of children who are 95% creative all the way to adults whose creativity reduces to just 10%, what’s in between is the gradual decline in one’s creative thinking. “This is why the world is getting depressed, the average creativity is growing down and average life expectancy is growing up”, he said while explaining the concept of this decline being considered ‘normal’ because if this is normal then it’s not natural and hence a depressing concept. In a nutshell, not day dreaming is not natural and oddly enough our brain’s utility is less than 1%.

The relationship of creativity with age is therefore something as follows:

KG Children: 95% +, Primary: 75%, Senior School 50%, University: 25%, Adults: 10%, and it has been going down …

Discussing further, Buzan explained the evolution of mind, the journey of which started with the Agrarian era almost 10,000 years back and is now leading to the Age of Intelligence, a time period swamped with information. Stressing upon the need of organizing through mind mapping he said: “Mind mappers are taking democracy to the next stage, the former president of Mexico mind mapped everything and facilitated a positive change in the first time in 70 years.”

Later the CMO of PTCL, Furqan Qureshi presented the gradual technological advance and it’s impact of society talking of which the need to be equipped in terms of the right technology for communication was talked about.

The panel discussion based on ‘Leadership through Leading Minds’ comprised of Nadeem Naqvi (MD, KSE), Dr. Zeelaf Munir (EBM), Sirajuddin Aziz (President and CEO, HMBL), Kimilhide Ando (CEO, Pakistan Mitsubishi Corp), Ali Hasnain (Head – Retail Banking UBL), and Asif Juma (CEO, ICI Pakistan Ltd). Each individual shared their opinions based on their experience and expertise the conclusion of which rested on the notion that a leader is s person who is able to observe the best capabilities in his/her employees and creates avenues of growth of them.

“Transformational leadership is about making the employees think and believe they can do the inconceivable,” voiced Ali Hasnain while Dr. Zeelaf supported the discussion by adding, “One should be mindful of the rapid development and should be able to recognize the emerging patterns of change. We, therefore, need to identify as to who it is that we will be leading. The rising generation, must focus on creating change that is sustainable, devising new ways to live and work that fit with the needs of this world.” “Research shows that companies having high representation of women perform better. One such recent study reports that fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women board directors attained significantly higher financial performance, on average, than those with the lowest representation of women board directors,” said she highlighting the prominence and importance of women’s significance in corporations.



 “There are no textbook solutions; a leader should be good at combining the employees’ strong competencies and should lead those who are professionally better than him,” elaborated Kimilhide Ando while detailing the role of a leader.

The day was further made interesting amidst the host, Dr. S. A. Rub’s enthralling poetic outbursts, not only did he entertain everyone by reading out some verses but also made the audience repeat after him.

One of the best presentations was given by Lucy Cornell (http://youtu.be/55NwZv2hmbo), 1the Chief Inspirational Officer of Voice Coach. Capturing the audience with her excellent training capabilities she made two way communication very evident. Discussing the historic speech by Martin Luther King of Stone Mountain Georgia, she guided the audience about the inflection and charisma in order to create a visceral connection, “You need to have commitment, courage and energy. Your voice follows your intention; you can still be inspiring without yelling and simply connect to the feeling of it,” she elaborated, “If it’s all emotional then it’s noise.”

The next panel discussion focused on HR management and concluded that those in the organization are not mere employees but people who need to be valued and publicly given credit for contributing towards the organisation’s goals. Sharing their expertise for this discussion were

Etsko Schuitema (founder and leading partner, Schuitema Associates), Naila Kassim (Engro Corp.)

Pouru Sidhwa (Director HR, GSK) and Lucy Cornell.



The productive day was later concluded with a session worth exercises by

Dr. Zsuzsanna Fajcsak, (Founder and Director, Alive International) and  Naeem Zamindar (Chairperson

and Founding Volunteer Teacher, Art of Living Foundation).



Following were the sponsors of the MAP Convention:

Platinum Partner: UBL

Founding Partner: EBM

Gold Partner: Jubilee Insurance

Silver Partner: EFU Life

Associate Partners: Ptcl, Central Depository Company, ORIX, TCS, NAFA (NBP Fullerton Asset Management Ltd, SICPA, Habib Metropolitan Bank Ltd

Academic Partner: IOBM

Media Partner: Jang Media Group