Karen
Allawala began her training 30 years ago in the USA speaking
from different podiums advocating the importance of soft skills
training in the work place. Her innovative ways of communicating
with participants, engaging them to question and think about
the way they approach a product or a person, continue to have
superb results.
At 21, while living In the United States, Karen became an
entrepreneur and later helped many young people in starting
their own businesses. The University of Houston invited her
as an adjunct professor to teach their students to develop
promotional ideas for start up companies. As a result of her
coaching, out of a class of 18 students, 11 students successfully
started their own companies using a direct mail approaches
with innovative ideas. The Learning Annex, an adult educational
program, hired Karen to teach classes on starting up businesses
and on motivation. Throughout her early public speaking and
coaching career, Karen managed her own direct mail company
that Entrepreneur Magazine dubbed “The second fastest
growing direct mail company in Texas”, responsible for
mailing over one million pieces of promotional mail per month.
Karen spoke on radio talk shows answering questions about
start-up businesses and challenges young entrepreneurs face
with their businesses. Her corporate clients in USA included;
Continental Airlines, Allied Memorial Bank, Williamsburg Bank,
Houston Light and Power Co., and Texas Instruments.
While
living in Pakistan, Karen introduced a new formula to assure
clarity and focus in business communication. This method triggered
general acceptability in Pakistani corporate circles especially
in the rapidly growing telecommunication and financial services
industries. Karen developed a unique business writing program
that revolutionized the way people write in business environments.
Karen Specializes in areas of Business Writing, High-Powered
Sales, Leadership, Managerial Skills, Mediation, Psychometric
Testing, Work Life Balance, Execution, Customer Service, Team
Building, Motivation, Presentation and Interviewing Skills.
Karen counsels numerous senior
executives in interviewing techniques for effecting hiring.
She facilitates workshops on dealing with difficult customers,
closing sales, and making sales strategy. She helps clients
in psychometric testing.
Karen’s trainings get results. At one
of the largest cellular company and at a financial institution
in Pakistan, her participants received the most promotions after
taking a six-day course that imparted crucial middle management
skills. Her flair of turning managers into coaches helped build
high performance teams.
In Pakistan as
Chief Executive Officer, Gulfstone Training, Karen’s on-going
clients include some of the largest financial institutions and
cellular telecommunication companies in Pakistan such as CresBank,
Habib Bank ltd, National Bank of Pakistan, Union Bank, NIB Bank,
United Bank Limited, Eli Lilly, Arif Habib Investments, ATCO
Laboratories, PICIC Investment Bank, ABN – AMRO Bank,
National Commission for Human Development, ORIX Leasing, PIA
(Pakistan International), Ufone and Mobilink.
Ramiz Allawala
consults and trains widely on sales coaching, team - performance,
and leadership for hyper-growth organizations. After running
businesses in USA and Pakistan, he founded Gulfstone Training
which highly influenced new thoughts and approaches getting
introduced to business training and changing managerial performance.
Ramiz constantly
mentors junior and senior business leaders in developing sales
teams, sales and business strategy, and responsive decision
making to propel personal and organizational growth beyond
imaginable levels. He offers instant feedback and assessment
to his clients by using his unique ‘Management-By-Coaching’
Model that stress the 3-MCs – Managing Culture (creating
high Trust), Managing Change (challenging set-piece learning
loops), and Managing Commitment (inclusion, assertion and
cooperation).
As an entrepreneur Ramiz Allawala took risks and introduced
many products into new markets. When asked to teach his expertise,
Ramiz jumped at the opportunity. But he stresses that goods
and services provided in a compassionate and ethical manner
ultimately answer whether work and life are intrinsically
meaningful. Ramiz worked for 24 years in managing companies
and in providing advisory services. He successfully completed
projects for multinational companies and developmental agencies
in Pakistan, UAE, and Puerto Rico. Ramiz facilitates changes
in organizations by using inspirational-centered methods.
When he talks about quality, he also talks about the quality
of our relationships, the quality of our communications, and
the quality of our promises.
While
in USA, Ramiz successfully concluded assignments for Enron
International and dealt with major companies such as PPG Industries,
M.W. Kellogg, Flour Daniel and others.
As
Executive Director at Emmay Associates, a firm of Management
Consultants, Ramiz delivered programs on personal leadership,
interpersonal & communication skills, and personal &
organizational change. Many organizations continue using him
including large hospitals, banks, government organizations,
and public corporations and training institutes.
Ramiz became a team leader in organizing workshops,
as a sub-contractor, for Academy for Educational Development
(AED) under USAID sponsorship on Foundation Training of Trainers,
Diagnosing Organizational Performance and Consulting Skills.
Ramiz's specialization in OD and change management helped a
number of organizations build their teams and adapt to new technologies.
He pushes others in learning to make hard choices, including
choosing "to develop a fine sense of one's obligations",
in developing autonomy and in prizing interdependence.
In addition to his work in the
private sector he designed and delivered various workshops and
consultancy interventions for police, military, air force and
civil
service officials at National Institute of Public Administration
(NIPA), Karachi. These workshops dealt with issues of conflict,
personal responsibility, and collective decision-making and
group-centered leadership. Earlier Ramiz’s worked with
a limited number of organizations such as TCS, Pakistan State
Oil, and Oxford University Press where he provided training
for deepening and embedding culture change.
His
recent and leading workshops on high trust cultures, strategy
and scenario planning and service management leads participants
through a series of games and activities to help compete with
an edge over competition while complying with government regulations
and international trade agreements. Ramiz helps participants
deal with issues arising out of a deregulated, fast paced,
global economy. He takes clients to understand the guts of
business. Participants are encouraged to offer conflicting
views, as main focus is on ‘do-ability’. The discussions
in Ramiz’s workshops remain frank, candid, clear and
focused.
Participants
in Ramiz’s courses are struck by his intellectual insights,
articulation, and practical hands-on approaches that help
managers create their own destiny. He pushes participants
beyond their limits by exerting themselves, and blurs the
lines between performance, learning and enjoyment.
He
graduated with Distinction from Babson College, Wellesley,
Massachusetts, USA in 1980.
