Salim Ghauri is a name that doesn’t need an introduction. Mr. Salim Ghauri is one of the best-known figures from the Pakistani IT industry. Salim Ghauri is the Founder & CEO of NetSol Technologies.
And a Game Changer in Pakistani IT Industry. He is the name behind the boost of the IT industry in Pakistan. Salim Ghauri is an inspiration and motivation of many entrepreneurs and IT related personals. Despite being on the top-notch people in Pakistan, he has always expressed a down to earth nature. Salim Ghauri has always played a supportive role to inspire the youth and has always helped the potential start-ups.
“Never store dreams in your eyes they may roll down. Store them in your heart, each beat will inspire and motivate you towards fulfillment.” – Salim Ghauri
Since his childhood, he had a mindset of becoming a businessman which he inherited from his father who was himself an entrepreneur. His father was his true inspiration of what he is today. Salim Ghauri was born in Bahawalpur and got his earlier education there.
He was a very poor student that sometimes is teachers used to promote him to the next class without taking exams. His teachers were so annoyed that no one among his teachers could afford to retain him in his class for more than a year. Salim himself has mentioned in on many occasions and even in his book “Ghauri” that he was not a bookworm but a street-smart child.
Salim Ghauri was born in Bawalpur(A City Of Pakistan) but was brought up in Lahore. After graduating from Forman Christian College Lahore, he was sent to Romania with his father for higher education. Form There he completed his maPetroleumPetrolium Engineering Degree. But he had a craze for computers.
He wanted to pursue his passion as his career and got a job in Citibank Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, he was employed there as data operator. After this, he went to Australia, where he got a job of Computer Network Engineer at BHP steel. He worked in Australia for eight years. He also had a very successful consultancy in Sydney.
After gaining experience of more than seventeen years in IT industry he decided to leave the good life and moved to Pakistan to start his own company in Pakistan. Salim Ghauri has seldom thought twice before taking a strategic decision in his life. He made a perfect use of his decision-making skills which inherited from his father. He has mentioned it that The major reason for his success was his decision-making skills.
And eventually, he started his company NetSol Technologies (Network Solutions Technologies) in 1996. He says that even his start has so many challenges hidden in it.
Once he shared his experience that at the very start he had a client from Germany. The client wanted to visit Pakistan and his company before starting any legal contract with his company. Salim Ghauri didn’t have that many employees back then. He opened his office in DHA Lahore and requested his friends to show up with there computers and just to pretend in front for clients that he has a very big team to work.
Back then Pakistan was also suffering from electricity shortage. He also arranges a generator to provide electricity backup for his company while his clients were with him. Onto a surprise that Salim Ghuari had manpower along with all day long electricity backup, his clients decided to proceed with the contract.
The key feature that Salim Ghuari and his company had, that he never compromise on the quality of the work. He makes sure the all the service that we were providing should be quality service, they should be according to the standards provided by ISO. Due to his quality services, he still has that German Client with him.
There were many times in his professional life where he had to make tough decisions, but the time he made any decision he stuck to it no matter what happened. There were many challenges that he faced during his professional life. He says that in 2001, the IT market got down. He lost most of his clients. There was a time when we weren’t able to pay his employees. Despite all the hurdle he didn’t give up. And continued running the business by selling our personal assets to pay the bills.
And now all his efforts have paid off. NetSol Technologies managed to the Level 5 company (the only of such kind in Pakistan) despite economic instability and political unrest in the country. NetSol has developed a Lease & Finance application.
They sell the license of their application and provide service to our customers on our product. Netsol is one of the largest company in the world in this domain. NetSol biggest achievement is to have developed a globally recognized product from Pakistan. Salim Ghauri has captured 90 % of Chinese market in Lease & Finance business.
Salim Ghauri has served as a Former Chairman of Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and ITES. He has acclaimed awards like Best IT/ITES Employer award, Best E-Government & Services Award Pakistan, Best Revenue and Gender Diversity Award under Pasha.
Salim Ghauri has also written his biography in his book “GHAURI- Nothing to Everything” which he has shared his life experience. Soon this book will be part of the syllabus of leading universities as a case study of a successful Pakistani entrepreneur. The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) has already incorporated the case study of NetSol for its students.
Here is how he himself explained his success story.
Anything can be achieved in life you just need to have a vision, a goal and motivation to work hard to achieve the goals. Even if you fail, you get an experience for life. This is the soul lesson we learn from the life stories of such people. If you liked the blog and want to know more about us, here is the link to our previous blog: Stephan Hawking.