They wouldn’t have gone through the Scrappy = Incomplete, patchy,

scrappy hustle that set the business fragment

up in the first place. Hustle = push, hurry , shift

when the company is forced to sell its "importance"

good silver
While Tapal – and its challenger Vital Thrived = flourishes, succeeded
– have thrived (both are family run),
Unilever’s Lipton has lost market Immense = vast, huge, massive
share rapidly, despite its immense
brand equity and professional
management that is typical of
multinationals.
The owners choosing their progeny to Progeny = offspring, posterity
run their businesses is, demonstrably,
not necessarily a bad idea.
Are they up to the task intellectually?
And, given how they have had a plush Plush = luxurious, lavish, posh
existence, not knowing the struggle
that their fathers did, do they have
the requisite passion?
If the sole purpose of the business is Instinctive = natural, inborn, innate
to earn money for the owner and
nothing else, then perhaps treating it Impulse = desire, urge, whim
as an asset, a dukaan, so to speak, to
pass on to the next generation makes
sense. But if the idea is to treat a
corporation as a rich, pulsating
organism unto itself, then there is a
need to modify the instinctive impulse
to pass on the reins to one’s children
and see who would be actually a good
fit for the job, family member or not.
Sound out anyone, not just within the
country, but also abroad, you’ll hear
the same optimism about it.
Though there are many sub sectors
within retail, the apparel market in
particular seemed to have become
the poster child for this growth.
After seeing one brand after the other Glitzy = flashy, ostentatious, showy
being launched, with their respective Dotting = marking, spotting
string of glitzy stores dotting even the Surmise = guesswork, deduction
third-tier urban areas of the country, third-tier = primary to the regional
one could broadly surmise one simple economic base
truth: there’s a lot of money in selling
Pakistanis’ clothes.
swanky malls Swanky = posy, ritzy, classy
We are now finding out that the
sector is losing its edge, fast.
Well, for starters, consumer
sentiment, that unactionable entity, is
going down
This is not a treatise on behavioral Treatise = thesis, paper, essay,
economics. discourse
Are not showing a scramble over Scramble= ascent, climb, hike.
regular pricing, but over sales.
There are so many new brands and
new outlets of older brands but –
huge millennial population
notwithstanding – there is still a finite
number of customers to go around.
Nothing appears sexier to our
businessmen than the prospect of
owning a fourth tire shop next to
three existing ones. If there’s room
for three, then there’s room for
another one, right?
Well, this Fallacy of Composition Fallacy = misconception, myth, error,
seems to have ruined the apparel mistake, delusion
sector.
The newer entrants into the market, Nascent = embryonic, emerging,
whose brands are nascent and whose promising.
supply chains aren’t yet too efficient,
will take the biggest hit
The heavy hitters, the ones that have Weather = endure, withstand.
significant brand equity and whose
supply chain mechanisms are lean Gouging = over charging, squeezing,
machines without an ounce of fat on extorting.
them, are the ones that will weather
the storm by price gouging.
Once this market correction takes
place and the newer entrants are
weeded out.
The government should drop the
ancient practice of doling out plots as
end-of-career economic security to its
elite cadre of civil and military
bureaucracy and instead pay them
corporate level salaries.
silver bullet Solution to a difficult problem.
For even if the officers in question Mantras = chants, hymns, songs,
were to get corporate level salaries, words, tunes
since the pull of land and plots is so
well-entrenched in our national
psyche (not just the civil servants),
their development mantras might still
be spatially skewed, only towards the
urban spaces that the open market is
gravitating towards.
That does segue to a subject closer to
my heart
The national fixation with plots of land
as a store of value.
How does one incentivize other
avenues of investment?
Well, that is a tall order. Difficult to carry out.
but a holistic whole that requires a Holistic = all inclusive, complete,
rethink of the idea of our Republic general, universal, whole.
In the meantime, we have other
relatively lower hanging fruits to
divert investments.
Consider, for instance, the bourses
maiden meeting with the stock Maiden = first, original
brokers
Even if property dealers cry Hoarse = gravelly, rough, husky
themselves hoarse.
The fixation with land and plots, much Delusion = misbelief, aberration
like that other mass delusion, the
affinity for gold, needs to be done
away with. It is illogical and
completely unproductive.
Kip Kip down a bit, sleep
Caved to the pressure
Grab some shut eye
Fraught Causing of or having a lot of
emotional stress or worry
Umpteen Very, many
Skeptical Doubting, unconvinced
Sanctity Holiness, sacredness
Aghast horrified
Hoodwink deceive
Ostensible Seeming to be true but not true
Have been used to gloss over the
technical and criminal negligence
Consternation Strong feeling of surprise, sudden
disappointment
Sordid episode Very bad, dishonest
Perpetrators To do something illegal
Ontological certainty
Imperceptibly Gradually, slowly, faintly
Plummet Fall, plunge, drop, dive
Cash strapped country
SC of Pakistan has been taken for a
ride
Shirk responsibility Avoid
Deranged, simpleton
irked
Wrath
Stalwart
Appalling
Who have been on a collision course
Incriminating information
Previous stint
Culpable
As it graduates out of a fund program
Subdues
Moment of opportunity has been
squandered
Put economic imbalances of the
country on public radar.
Bolster
Laudable decision
Implementation has been patchy
Emphatic focus
Addicted to the scourge
Stoked within the society
Indecorous nature of the moves
Cynical motives
Coterie
Allegiance
startling claims