CEO – ALNO GLC Pakistan & SAAS Synergic GmbH – Potsdam, Germany

Evolve: Please share something about yourself and brief overview of your company?

Sowaba Shehzad: I started my professional career back in 2004 at Siemens Pakistan as Business Head, Siemens Home appliances. In 2007, I shifted to Lahore from Karachi, after getting married. My husband was already into work wear clothing export to Germany and furniture production, Holztek in Pakistan. After joining the family business, I realized that there was a big gap in the high end branded kitchen market because locally produced kitchens were not meeting the international quality and brand standards thus we shifted our focus from locally manufactured to imported German Kitchens and appliance. Holztek launched ALNO German kitchens in 2009. Following the success of ALNO and Siemens appliances, Gaggenau brand was launched in 2015 which is a German manufacturer of high-end home appliances. Owing to the growth in construction Industry and revival of residential project market we got Optifit Kitchen to Pakistan, another German brand catering to the middle class and growing project market. Optifit is a market leader in Germany in the area of flatpack kitchen furniture exporting. Alongside kitchens, we also launched Marlin Bathroom furniture to diversify our product portfolio comprising of individual bathroom furnishings with high standards of design and quality from high-quality materials.

Evolve: How do you differentiate ALNO from other brands of same creed? 

Sowaba Shehzad: The differentiation and uniqueness of our company is that we deal only with German brands because the label ‘Made in Germany’ is synonymous with high quality, reliability and durability and secondly all products comes with a country of origin certificate and related documentation to authenticate our claim ‘Made in Germany’.

Evolve: What is the scope of such a luxurious kitchen solution in Pakistan? 

Sowaba Shehzad: We got the first ever German Kitchen and appliances brands to Pakistan back in 2007 when it was considered very Avante-Garde as the market was not familiar with branded and modular kitchens but Alhamdulillah at the moment we have 8 German brands under our umbrella. Initially we had only top of the line and upscale brands like ALNO Kitchens but subsequently affordable German kitchens brands like Wellmann and Optifit were added to the range in order to provide an alternative to low quality Chinese makes for middle-income earners. By stretching our product line and adding affordable German Kitchen solution we are penetrating the market and making quality affordable not only for the top end but also for the lower income groups. For me its momentous milestone that we have been able to inform the consumers about quality, that has altered consumer buying pattern, which is usually doing away with glossy packaging of substandard products to a well-informed quality purchase. As I believe, it is the consumers’ fundamental right irrespective of classes to be aware of the technology behind their product, as they do in European countries. 

Evolve: You must be facing number of business challenges. How do you address them? 

Sowaba Shehzad: One of the many challenges that we face in Retail business in Pakistan is that people are not aware of the quality and get carried away with fancy products and displays ignoring the important product details and functionality thus we work hard to build a strong and well trained sales team that can also better educate our customers to make the right choice. Since we are also in textile and furniture production, so there we face different challenges like inadequacy of skilled labor for quality production and insufficient and inconsistent supply of raw materials. However I feel challenges are opportunities that we overcome and that is something we do all the time in business. I always believe that, success is your reaction to the obstacles because if you look at these obstacles as a barrier, they become your excuse for failure and if you look at them as a hurdle, a challenge, each one strengthens you for the next challenge.

Evolve: What measures are you taking to create awareness among the people about branded kitchen solutions? 

Sowaba Shehzad: The idea of a kitchen as mere functional space has changed. Kitchens are now family rooms, the center stage of households. As a business, we would like to see a change in consumer buying pattern, to a well-informed quality purchase. To create that awareness and educate our market, we invest a lot on our information and marketing material. Our catalogues are revised annually, providing complete brand history, elaborating our production processes and quality policy and most importantly illustrating complete product, materials and service details. On regular basis we conduct events to interact with our clients and get their direct feedback on product quality that helps us innovate new features and materials. 

Evolve: What kind of culture you have in your organization? 

Sowaba Shehzad: There is nothing worse than working in an organization that has a bad culture. It does not matter how much you earn or how many weeks of vacation you are given; when you work in a toxic environment, you still come home tensed and stressed at the end of each day and that is not worth it. On the other hand, there is nothing better than working at an organization with a great culture. You wake up every day looking forward to getting back to work on the mission with people you enjoy being around. Our culture at ALNO is unique in a way that we strive to make everybody part of running the engine. We prefer giving performance based incentives. I believe that a great culture provides the context for people to deliver their best work; it works as the enabler of all initiatives. 

Evolve: How can you claim that your brand/s are superior to others? 

Sowaba Shehzad: Alno builds on the expertise from over 85 years –and is moving forward all the time and thus creating an overall quality that is truly distinctive. A permanent testing and inspection process guarantees the quality of the materials and components used. The result in products that far exceed the norm in kitchen furniture. In compliance with DIN ISO 9001, our products have 15 years of warranty. 

Evolve: How do you motivate your employees? 

Sowaba Shehzad: Winning team is a self-motivated team and I do have one. I always provide my team with solid career path and retain them on profit-sharing margins along with salary and other perks. I motivate my team by both intrinsic and extrinsic reward. I believe the most important motivational factor for an individual is the feeling of being worthwhile and contributive. He must be clear about of his professional growth and roadmap. 

Evolve: Please share any significant ingredient for achieving long term success? 

Sowaba Shehzad: For me the success recipe has always been Knowledge, Analysis and Long term thinking, as put by John. F. Kennedy “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” – So we need to constantly gain knowledge and practicing that knowledge means experience. One also needs to be analytical in observation as the world is moving so quickly, changing so rapidly, becoming more complex, that we need to make time for reflection and review our situation and most importantly cultivate long term thinking. If you have a vision of a future worth fighting for, you won’t feel like you’re sacrificing the present for the future as I always believe that with long term thinking, things will get easier down the road and with short term thinking, life will get harder down the road. 

Evolve: Any message for the EVOLVE readers? 

Sowaba Shehzad: My message to the readers is that there is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs so keep your focus ever be daunted and disheartened by the hurdles in your personal life. Be daring enough to dream big as you are the one that possesses the keys to your being and your true potential so make the most of yourself by fanning and turning inner fire and potential into achievement.