Nadeem Elahi MD of TRG under the spotlight

Nadeem Elahi is the Managing Director and Country Head of TRG (The Resource Group). Armed with a BA from Brown University, he unwillingly joined the family business “Tanveer Textiles” because, as the eldest son, that is what he was expected to do. But textiles was not his calling. He was bored but didn’t quite know how to squirm out of the situation without upsetting his dad. There seemed to be only one solution – to join an MBA program. No parent would say no to education. So off went Nadeem to Harvard Business School.

His intention was never to come back. But little did he know that his destiny was to head the largest BPO operation in Pakistan. After having worked for Lycos and FTA Direct, he was drawn into TRG by Zia Chishti, the founder. The plans were actually drawn out on the Back of a Napkin at a coffee shop in Singapore and voila Nadeem joined TRG. Since then he has been in and out of Pakistan and, at present, he is MD and Country Head of the Pakistan operation.

Nadeem strongly believes that the BPO sector can grow tremendously in Pakistan, that we have so far only scratched the surface. We have the talent pool, we are heading towards better and better infrastructure, the professionalism has developed over the past few years. All that is needed is a bit of focus both from the government and the private sector and a large number of employment opportunities can be created and a lot more revenue generated for the country.

In his conversation with me on ITLoW, Nadeem talks about the early days of TRG, about how it came to be listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange, their acquisition strategy, bringing back work to Pakistan and now extending their expertise to the domestic market.

TRG is no longer just a BPO operation. They also have a large division called TRG Tech. Their capacity building programs are innovative and the career growth is clearly mapped out so that young people know what to look forward to when they join the organisation. They also have a very successful work-from-home program which helps to draw in young men and women who prefer to spend limited time in the office.

One of the newest TRG initiatives is their MBA Recruitment program which is meant to groom fresh graduates by providing opportunities for them in TRG offices around the world. Once they have that experience in hand, they are either brought back to Pakistan or slotted into positions in international offices.

In this episode of ITLoW, Nadeem also talks about what the government needs to do and how we can work together to increase the size of  the BPO pie. Let us go and hear what he has to say.