The recent economic developments worldwide have created a new world. The improved purchasing power of individuals has helped businesses to reach new heights of glory. Despite the recent development, every society has a large underprivileged group of people. It is the responsibility of successful businesses to look after the needy people looking for some help. Reducing poverty is not a challenge if we all start working collectively for society’s betterment.
The post-COVID-19 era will further increase the competition, and unskilled labor will find it difficult to achieve their professional objectives. Anyways, let’s not get into too many complexities. We individuals or SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) cannot completely change the current economic situation. However, our initiatives can make a small difference. What’s the best solution available for SMEs to help underprivileged people in Pakistan? Simple, companies need to become more socially responsible, and by this, we mean that a small portion of profits should be invested for the betterment of society.
Khalil-Ahmed considers its primary responsibility to invest in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives. Our founders, Jibran and Umer, strongly believe that our contributions should not only be limited to the leather industry. As our co-founder Jibran says: ‘A true business success is the one that benefits every stakeholder of the society.’ Our brand adopts the principle of contributing 10% of the profits generated by selling leather products to the deserving and low-income families in Pakistan. In the initial stage, our contributions will be through personal connections in local communities. Our company also plans to take more steps for the overall betterment of society.
CSR initiatives are among the different approaches that we can use to improve general economic conditions of people. The leather industry of Pakistan is an integral part of our exports and imports, and if SMEs decide to provide a significant portion of profits for the betterment of industry or the overall economy, then things will change.
Khalil-Ahmed is already involved in educating customers about leather products. Currently, the leather industry’s conditions are not good enough to meet the expected quality standards, and thus, our leather exports are also getting affected. Leather manufacturing companies are adopting different ways to provide ‘Artificial Leather’ to meet customers’ requirements, even though Pakistan’s leather industry is fully capable of providing premium-quality leather products to customers at affordable prices. Our leather industry potential is underutilized. This situation creates a market for ‘Artificial Leather’ and fabric material products. Things can quickly change if we stakeholders like SMEs, leather suppliers and manufacturers, and customers collectively develop initiatives to improve our industry.
Technological advancements and new leather manufacturing processes are the two main important factors that enable the leather companies to achieve sustainability and projected profits and market shares within the defined parameters. International companies are investing large financial resources to maintain global quality standards. We all can compete with international companies; however, we need to ensure that specific initiatives are implemented for properly utilizing the leather potential.
Our greatest strengths are pure quality leather and skilled craftsmen. Pakistan’s urban cities have a strong tradition of leather manufacturing. We need to educate our skilled labor about the involvement of technology in manufacturing processes and how international-quality standards are possible to achieve within the available resources. There is a universal fact: ‘There is no such thing as a free lunch.’ We expect collective efforts to improve the quality standards, and it eventually leads to an increase in leather exports. CSR initiative of SMEs is the first step in the current situation, and then government efforts and customers inclination towards locally manufactured leather products are additional efforts to achieve objectives. By taking this opportunity, we also present our collection of leather products.
We have invested plenty of resources to ensure premium quality handcrafted products for customers. Our internal teams are evolving with time to learn new ways that can help us to meet the customers’ expectations. You can also help us in our journey to success by providing suggestions and feedback about our product quality. Our customers’ services team and leather manufacturing consultant work collectively to ensure that important suggestions become an integral part of our product development processes. Let’s work together to achieve the dream of success.