GIDS CEO Asad KAMAL: “We Place a Special Emphasis on Turkey Being Our Potential Market for Conventional Products”
Defence Turkey spoke with Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Global Industrial & Defense Solutions (GIDS) Mr. Asad KAMAL to get first-hand information on GIDS and hear his thoughts on the future of the company.
Defence Turkey: Could you take us for a brief walk through the history of GIDS; why was it established and what has been accomplished?
Asad KAMAL: Global Industrial & Defense Solutions (GIDS) is Pakistan’s leading state-owned defense conglomerate operating under the patronage of Joint Staff Headquarters and dealing in the export of defense & technological products / services. We take all the pride in delivering quality products & services to the Armed Force of Pakistan (during wartime & peacetime).
Our product portfolio comprises an extensive range of systems and services in the domains of Air, Land, Sea, NBC Defense & Security. They are also Pakistan's largest state-owned designers and manufacturers of UAVs.
We operate as an umbrella company for managing commercial operations & international exports on behalf of seven state owned manufacturing and R&D units. Today, GIDS is Pakistan’s leading defense supplier in multifaceted domains to a diverse customer base around the globe.
Defence Turkey: How would you best describe GIDS today? Could you please provide some key facts and the organizational structure of the company for our readers?
Asad KAMAL: GIDS was established in 2007 as a one window export company for a huge production base. Its prime mandate comprises marketing, sales, customer-relations, business negotiations, contract management, legal review and providing after sales support. It’s a lean marketing company, where the business interests of all its backend factories & stakeholders are looked after by the professionals. Hence to sum it up, GIDS grants its customer one touch point for all sales and business-related ventures from start till the end.
Defence Turkey: Could you elaborate on GIDS’ broad portfolio of businesses?
Asad KAMAL: The scope of GIDS business operations is concentrated on Defense and Security only. We have an ever- growing list of products that our stakeholders give us for marketing and exports. Based on where those defense products can fit with the global defense requirements, they are marketed by GIDS into those specific regions.
Defence Turkey: We believe that GIDS is a government organization, in Pakistan pure government organizations are usually stereotyped as being non-progressive. What’s the secret behind that exception? How has GIDS as a government company managed to churn profits and develop its international standing?
Asad KAMAL: Luckily, GIDS operates with a lot of operational / business autonomy given by its headquarters. GIDS is an organization manned by professionals at all management levels and that has allowed it to grow and make a difference.
We (at GIDS) set our targets and develop focused business strategies, which are designed and executed by the concerned regional managers in their dedicated territories. The ‘evolution’ however never stopped at GIDS, we have been constantly evolving ever since our inception in 2007 and this process of transformation through all these years have inculcated a great deal of business wisdom to deal with international clients in a much more professional manner. Having said that, I feel there is still a lot to be done and we are always constantly giving feedback to our stakeholders on process improvisation in line with the ever-changing requirements of the international defense arena.
Defence Turkey: Which category of the products are exported by GIDS and how does GIDS set a benchmark in the defense market?
Asad KAMAL: Over the last decade our Aerial Bombs, Fuzes, ATGMs, UAVs and Security / Riot control items have been the highest selling products worldwide exported to over 10 countries (from different continents). Our recent initiatives have created new opportunities for products like Smart Weapons & Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that have become one of our most sought after products in the African & South Asian regions. Meanwhile, GIDS has also been engaged with renowned industry partners from the Gulf region on different collaboration & joint venture projects.
Defence Turkey: Can you elaborate on the capabilities and experiences of GIDS in the UAV field?
Asad KAMAL: GIDS has more than 3 decades of experience in developing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Its one of our core products which we were mandated to indigenize decades ago. Our UAVs along with its critical subsystems including, Datalinks, Payloads, Structure, INS, Gyros, Auto Land Systems, Jammers etc. have all been developed locally in Pakistan. We offer a broad palette of UAV products for clients to choose from. Our product range includes the MALE (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) class UAV Shahpar-II that has a range of a 1,000kms to hand launched UAVs for close area surveillance. We have also developed a catapult-based UAV called UQAB NG which has a 200km range and that’s what our UAV tag line says: “UAVs for Every Mission”.
Defence Turkey: What major local defense programs is GIDS currently involved in?
Defence Turkey: Recently we have seen GIDS a lot in the news locally and internationally, what are the current endeavors of GIDS?
Asad KAMAL: GIDS (in recent years) has successfully endeavored to lock a good number of defense deals and resultantly earned reasonable foreign exchange for the country. We have embarked on an outreach strategy where we have aggressively targeted our specific niche with a lot of focus and hard work in the last decade.
We’ve developed different regional strategies specific to the products we offer and have given our customers flexible and cost effective options that have compelled them to take us seriously in the market. We’re now seeing our approach paying us dividends as we are consistently increasing our revenue and customer base across the globe.
Just to give an idea in tangible terms, we have generated considerable revenue by securing multiple business deals in 2020 and focusing further market expansion to untapped territories from African & Central Asian regions alongside retaining our legacy markets from Gulf States.
Defence Turkey: How has the advent of COVID-19 affected your business operations?
Asad KAMAL: Defense companies are among the many Industries that have faced the brunt of the corona pandemic. The world underestimated COVID-19 in terms of both its propensity to spread and cause harm and its ability to bring businesses and whole economies to a halt.
GIDS classical target market includes countries from the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, so a combo of oil based and struggling economies. Although GIDS was lucky enough to sign a contract with a Middle Eastern client before the COVID pandemic, the majority of state departments in customer countries remained either close or operated at minimal strength. Yet, GIDS finalized & signed contracts during the COVID wave (including Turkey & Africa).
Market penetration with existing clients is being pushed aggressively through pitching various offers / proposals. Whereas market exploration in regions such as Oman, Qatar, Turkey and Egypt have also been undertaken in parallel, although meaningful business development will commence after the ease of COVID related restrictions. Although, the post COVID procurement trends of the GIDS legacy market are yet unknown, however things will be clearer as 2021 unfolds. GIDS business development drive has already commenced from IDEX-2021 (Abu Dhabi) followed by a regional marketing strategy in the events to follow (including IDEF-2021 Turkey).
Defence Turkey: What is your vision as CEO of the company? What are GIDS business plans for the year 2021 and beyond?
Asad KAMAL: Being CEO, I believe competition is an opportunity for growth. I’d research what others were doing to take the share and find a way to do it better. My job is to ensure that everyone understands the company’s vision for growth from top – down.
Improvement in internal processes, customer satisfaction and an aggressive approach to sales had to be inculcated into the system backed up by a robust strategy to achieve gains. Meanwhile, the business dynamics of our industry are entirely different from the rest, but the basic principles of sales remain the same. Reach out to your customers, understand what they really want, deliver solutions on time and back-up your team to get the job done.
Perseverance is the key to success. By the grace of the Almighty, we have been able to position GIDS as a quality & reliable defense supplier in the international market. Ever since our establishment in the year 2007, our business footprints have been endorsed from the Middle East to South America and from Central Asian states to the African region (through repeat sales). This hallmark of success is attributed to the dedicated efforts of my team and the patronage of the top notch.
Defence Turkey: What has been your experience with international cooperation programs and partnerships? Are they a boost or rather a pain in the back?
Asad KAMAL: Well, a bit of both, but as they say, all is well that ends well. Besides business, international partnerships give your HR an opportunity to learn from your counterpart tremendously. Between all those technical exchanges and collaborative work, there is a long-term Win / Win for both the parties. As the dynamics of business are continuously evolving in the defense world, GIDS has also evolved overtime to be more proactive towards forging international partnerships.
Defence Turkey: How would you position GIDS in the global defense market? Can you elaborate on your major markets and how do you plan your outreach to other continents and penetrate their markets?
Asad KAMAL: GIDS has always had its own niche as far as the defense market is concerned. There is enough fish for everyone in the big pond as long as you know how to fish and have the stamina to wait for the catch. Although GIDS has the diversity in clientele across four Continents, our prime markets are based the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia and now Turkey for some products. We have a regional marketing strategy where we pitch different types of products to different countries by understanding their requirements and affordability. Defense Salesmen would know that every defense sale presents its own unique challenges. From understanding the national culture, procurement patterns, influencers, people of authority, wish lists to meeting the aggressive competition from the west and the cut-throat pries of the Chinese, all these challenges need to be mitigated. I appreciate my regional managers in this regard who are always striving to meet this challenge and are up for the job 24/7.
Defence Turkey: What can you tell us about GIDS’ approach to Turkey as a market for the sale of its products?
Asad KAMAL: The strong diplomatic & friendly ties of Pakistan & Turkey don’t need any introduction. Both the states have a deep-rooted history of brotherhood and are knotted well with each other at the international front.
GIDS signed two defense deals with the Turkish Government in the year 2020, of which one contract is executed and another one is still in progress. We place a special emphasis on Turkey being our potential market for conventional products and for the long-term prospect technological collaboration as well. In the pursuit of same ideology, we have been engaged with some major public-sector partners / companies backed from Turkey on some important projects, and we definitely look forward to this bond growing & getting stronger in the times to come.
I hope that IDEF ‘21 will contribute towards strengthening ties between both countries in the defense realm.
Defence Turkey: GIDS has previously supplied a number of aircraft bombs in various configurations to Turkey to meet a Turkish Air Force (TurAF) requirement. How would you summarize your involvement in Turkey?
Asad KAMAL: The close brotherly connection to Turkey need no introduction. The defense collaboration over the years has been both ways. We have an active history of sales to Turkey with some recent contracts also maturing and being signed which I cannot name at this point in time. In the last 10 years with the swiftly changing regional dynamics, many new roads of joint collaboration have opened up between the two nations on many projects. In times to come, we will all see the results. “The Best is yet to come.”
Defence Turkey: When we talk about Defense, it’s very common to only hear names of Western, Russian and now some Chinese Suppliers. How do you deal with the competition that is so aggressive in this industry?
Asad KAMAL: To be honest it’s not easy, there is a lot of strategy and hard work that goes into these defense deal showdowns. They key is however choosing the right partners and offering value addition and better value to the customer that gives you a competitive edge against the big market names.
Defence Turkey: What is your take on technological collaboration? And what is GIDS doing on this front being a defense supplier?
Asad KAMAL: After the onset of this century, many second-world countries with big defense budgets have sought to localize their defense industry to reduce dependency on foreign sources. New companies were formed that sought joint ventures with major foreign OEMs to kick start the home grown defense industry through TOPs and TOTs. While Turkey had already followed this path 3 decades back, the Middle Eastern countries allocated big budgets for this endeavor. GIDS foresaw this opportunity back in 2015 and we created a product line based on similar offerings to the customer. We are currently engaged with international industry partners on some crucial projects, which we foresee getting materialized in the near future.
Defence Turkey: Leadership isn’t easy in this kind of dizzying environment. What has your approach been?
Asad KAMAL: A CEO must always be switching between what I call different altitudes & frequencies - tasks of different levels of abstraction and specificity. At the highest altitude, you’re asking the big questions, like what is the company’s mission and strategy? Do people understand and believe in these aims? Are decisions consistent with them? At the lowest altitude, you’re looking at on-the-ground operations and tactical maneuvering.
Mainly, though, I prefer to work at a middle-to-high altitude. I’m fascinated with long-term strategic alternatives. I’m not a daydreamer, but I like to reflect on and talk about realistic options and strategies (forcing myself out of my comfort zone).
In business, inspiration and experience often leads to wisdom and success, so every day is a new day for me to learn to do what is in the best interest of both my country and organization.
Defence Turkey: As CEO of the company where do you envision GIDS will be 5 years from now?
Asad KAMAL: In view of GIDS’ present pace of business expansion and financial viability attained, GIDS will surely touch new horizons of success in time to come. The client base will further escalate from regular exports to mega technological ventures with renowned global partners soaring new heights.
Defence Turkey: What can you tell us about GIDS’ participation at the IDEF ‘21 Exhibition? How many of GIDS’ companies will be represented at IDEF ‘21? What are you expecting from the exhibition?
Asad KAMAL: This will be our 5th IDEF participation, over all from the Pakistani side, our entire defense industry will be represented here like always. With respect to GIDS and its given role as a ONE WINDOW for its R&D organizations, GIDS represents all the products made by its backend industry under its own wings. So, in our peculiar business model, you will not find organizational bifurcations rather we have made it simpler by dividing our big product portfolio in Air, Land, Naval, NBC and Security domains so that its easier for the customers to understand.
Defence Turkey: Would you like to add anything in the way of a message to our readers?
Asad KAMAL: I believe that it’s a great opportunity for the foreigners and local industry because there is a lot of potential in Pakistan’s defense industry. My message to foreign customers is to get closer to countries like Pakistan. Since our defense industry is open to all possibilities & we never forget our friends, right from capacity building to knowledge sharing and the final product. In short, we are ready to work wherever the customer may find the scope.
Defence Turkey: Mr. KAMAL, thank you for sparing your time for our readers
