Report on Gul Ahmed

Interview given by: Imran Qureshi (Deputy General Manager)

Report by: Shahraiz Shaukat

Air University, Multan Campus

Submitted to:
Ma’am Sadia Shaukat
Introduction:
Gul Ahmed is a brand synonymous with quality, innovation & reliability not just in Pakistan but
all over the world. The mill is a composite unit, making everything from cotton yarn to finished
product. Manufacturing takes place in decentralized production unit, strictly focusing on
specialization all under one recognized & reputed name.
Gul Ahmed’s textile products represents a unique fusion of century old tradition of the east and
the latest textile technology of west, the purest of cotton fibers are spun, woven & processed into
the finest quality cotton & blended products, through a combination of cutting-edge technology &
highly skilled craftsmanship. Products include bed linen, curtains, fabric and yarn. The company’s
spinning line specializes in medium to fine count cotton yarns & is also capable of producing wide
variety of synthetic fibers.
VISION STATEMENT
“Setting Trends globally in the textile industry. Responsibly delivering products and services to
its partners”
EVALUATION OF VISION STATEMENT
Gul Ahmed’s vision statement is quite vague in terms of scope as it does not outline the quality
parameters that they should set up and also where they ultimately want to go in the long run, it
covers only the global trends which they inspire to set up on the contrary the consumers set up
the trends and companies follow it.
MISSION STATEMENT
“To deliver value to its partners through innovative technology and teamwork. Fulfilling its social
and
environmental responsibilities”
EVALUATION OF MISSION STATEMENT
The mission statement shows concern for Customers, technology, and public image but it doesn’t
show concern regarding products or services, growth, employees and profitability.
Hierarchy of Gul Ahmed:

Brief Explanation of Hierarchical design:

Gul Ahmed works with One Executive and 3 Directors works under him, who are responsible for
reporting of different departments to the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Company. First
Director handles three departments under him the main and most important departments of the
organization mean department of Processing, Logistics and IT Department of the company. The
processing department is the main area and most important department of the company which
handles the conversion of cotton into thread and then converts it into fabrics. The next Director
covers the department of HRM & Security the other main departments of the company it handles
the work resource and security department of the company. The last Director of the company
handles the core commands of the company, he handles Finance, Accounts and Sales & Marketing
department of the company. He is responsible to generate high revenue for the company with great
profit margin.
History of Gul Ahmed:
The story of textiles in the subcontinent is the story of Gul Ahmed. The group began trading in
textiles in the early 1900’s. With all its know-how and experience, the group decided to enter the
field of manufacturing and Gul Ahmed Textile Mills Ltd. was incorporated as a private limited
company, in the year 1953. In 1972 it was subsequently listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange.
Since then the company has been making rapid progress and is one of the best composite textile
houses in the world. The mill is presently a composite unit with an installed capacity of 130,296
spindles, 223 wide width air jet looms, and a state-of-the-art processing and finishing unit.
MANAGEMENT POLICIES OF THE COMPANY
As every company works under some rules and regulation and have some policies to maintain the
product level in the mind of customer so they able to face all the competitors in the market. Gul
Ahmed have also some policies inside the company;
Quality Policy
 Maintenance of Quality Systems on the guidelines of ISO 9000 series of standards.
 Customer satisfaction through employee participation & innovative technology
application.
 Training of employees on quality awareness, ISO 9000 concepts & system documentation
including: procedures, work instructions, specification etc. Training should be an on-going
process and refreshers and reviews are a part of training.
Social Policy
Gul Ahmed Textile Mills Limited has striven to become one of the leading companies to actively
participate in the social and economic growth of the country. The company will endeavor to
address following issues:
 Enforcement of minimum age of employee of eighteen (18) years without any
discrimination.
 Relaxed environment for employees.
 Practical measures related to health and safety.
 Equal opportunity.
Environmental Policy
Gul Ahmed Textile Mills Limited pursue long term corporate objectives towards conservation in
the use of electricity, gas and water for setting up an environmental management system. We plan
to meet global environmental challenges in all areas.
Health and Safety Policy
Gul Ahmed has a H&S manual and a permanent committee to ensure safety of staff and workers.
The members of the committee are:
 Technical Directors.
 General Manager Maintenance.
 Management Representative (Health & Safety).
 Stitching Managers.
 Admin, Security & Fire chief.
 Questionnaire
The following part represents the open-ended questions asked from the Deputy General Manager
of Gul Ahmed Mr. Imran Qureshi in order assess the different aspects of organization such as
structure, hiring, processes, values, beliefs etc. and identify problems regarding these aspects and
provide recommendations for concerning problems.

Acceptance of Change?
Frankly speaking change is not frequently possible. We don’t create frequent change in our policies
and procedures. Whatever the policies are, whether it is our display policies or promotion policies,
they are only designed for once and it is very rare to implement change in them. We offer two
mega promotions and 2-3 short promotions, and any kind of change is not possible in these
promotions/procedures.
Do you take Customer feedback?
We do incorporate the customers’ feedback regarding the product. Sometimes it is possible to
incorporate the feedback of the customer to create change in the product, but not mostly. Most of
the times our product experts prepare the product and they usually take feedback before developing
the product. They learn about customers’ demands, they survey the market, and they look into the
competitors’ product offerings and then they develop a product.
Does your company focus on Infrastructural development?
Whenever a new store is established of our brand, we try to use latest technologies and
infrastructural developments. The retail software we are using right now is the latest one as well.
Our software is same as the other large companies.
What kind of services do you provide?
Mostly we are into the sale of products but somehow service is also involved such as our sales
staff informs the customers about the product and its characteristics, they also look into the queries
of the customers. So, it is a mixture of product and service but mainly we are into the product
category.
Is Employees welfare given importance in your organization?
We have extensive programs available in our organization regarding employee’s welfare. All of
our employees are enrolled on the forum of EOBI (Employees’ Old-Age benefits Institution) and
they are also enrolled in the Social Security’s organization. Our employees are given 1.8 leaves
per month. Medical facilities are also given to our permanent employees and Managerial level
managers receives insurance as well.
Employee motivation?
We do have certain employee motivation programs and they are based on monetary incentives.
We receive yearly targets and then they are divided into monthly targets and then we receive
specific targets that are related to the promotions and when these targets are achieved, they are
given a solid amount of incentive.
Talent Retention?
We do try that we promote someone from our team and build them up. There are few rare examples
in which company hired someone as a lower level employee and then promoted them to higher
level. This is very rare and doesn’t happen frequently.
How do you treat your customers?
Retailing is all about giving customer satisfaction. So, if our customer has any problem, such as a
customer purchased a product from our store and it was faulty, or the product didn’t fulfil
customer’s expectations or there’s some obvious gap in the quality (color fade, lower quality than
expected), we obviously look after the complaints of such types. There is a complete cycle through
which customers can generate complains. We have a complete system of CRM that we follow.
How much importance is given to Human Resource Development?
Our managerial staff (Store managers and upper) are given training sessions on continuous basis.
Mostly 2-3 sessions are given to staff in a year.
How well structured are your standards?
Our standards are very strict regarding the quality of products, our vision and our merchandising.
We follow all the standards strictly. There are few things that you will find same in all our stores
such as lighting, racks etc.
Company’s approach to failure?
We obviously consider failure as another learning opportunity. Why do we have faced a certain
situation, gives us the learning for next time. Such as we didn’t meet the targets or there is some
kind of operational flaw, then we learn from it and try to implement techniques to avoid the same
mistake in future. For example: if at any point in time, influx of customers happened, and we didn’t
have enough space to manage them or there were no ques on the billing counters, so for the next
time we will take the measures such as we will form proper ques, the entry and exit points will be
strategically designed so we could manage the customers properly.
How focused are you regarding competitors?
In retailing, competitors are given extreme importance. We do closely monitor all of the activities
of our competitors. If there is any improvement in the competitors’ products, we try our best to
improve our products as well and set a new standard. We also look into the salaries that our
competitors give to their employees as well as their compensation packages, the qualifications of
competitors’ employees are also monitored
Competitive advantage?
Gul Ahmed has the first mover advantage. We are the pioneers in retailing. Gul Ahmed is present
in the manufacturing of the apparels from a long time and it is one of the most pioneer brands that
came into retailing. We started to sell the products directly to the customers, that is a kind of
forward vertical integration. We are the one of the initial companies that launched stores across
the Pakistan. We fall into the A category, our direct competitors include Khaadi, Sapphire,
Bareeze, Chinyere and our HR policies, marketing policies are completely aligned with these mega
brands.

Problem Diagnosis:
 The first problem is employee motivation is only given through monetary incentive. No
personal recognition, leadership opportunities, or promotion is given to lower level or
middle level employees. All employee has to do is meet the target and receive monetary
incentive, there is nothing else he is getting out of his hard work.
 Another problem is in company’s talent retention. As it was mentioned earlier, there are
very rare cases in which a lower level employee is given a leadership opportunity which
leads to employee leaving the organization because he doesn’t find any recognition in the
organization.
 Another issue is in training programs. There are 365 days in a year and only 2-3 trainings
are given to the employees and that too to only managerial level staff.
 One more problem is that they don’t bring frequent changes. If we look into today’s
marketplace, it is always changing. The companies are always striving to bring new
products, technology, opportunities etc. and if one organization is not evolving with time,
then it might loss the recognition it has.
 Another huge problem is that feedback is taken before developing a product. How could
someone be able to give a feedback regarding a product or service even before trying it.
Meaning that the feedback is not taken from the customers because customers can only
give feedback after trying the product, rather the feedback might be taken from the
management of the organization or designers etc. and not the customers who are actually
going to buy the product.
 Another issue assessed is that Gul Ahmed still consider itself in A category whereas if we
compare the trends such as stores, products sold, sales, social media marketing etc. then
other brands such as Khaadi, Maria B, Chinyere have obviously surpassed Gul Ahmed in
terms of sales, brand image, brand management etc.

Recommendations:
 Other methods of employee motivation should be used such as leadership opportunity,
promotions, recognition.
 Lower level employees should be encouraged through different motivation techniques to
perform well and company should give more frequent opportunities to lower level
employees to propel.
 Frequent training programs should be given as this helps a lot in building the overall brand
image. If your employees are performing good, so will your organization. More than 10
programs should be arranged each year.
 More changes should be implemented. Not in policies or vision as these changes are tough,
but overall change should be implemented such as in marketing techniques, more stores
should be established especially in Multan.
 Company should develop an online portal where customers can leave a review after trying
a product and company should take the review into consideration.
 Other brands have surpassed Gul Ahmed in terms of sales, so more aggressive marketing
is needed. Frequent sales should be offered to increase short-term sales. More well-
furnished stores should be established, especially in Multan.