Four Corners Group – Rifat’s Entrepreneurial Temptations

Dr. Najam A. Anjum (naanjum@iba.edu.pk), Centre for Entrepreneurial Development, IBA, Karachi

Dr. Shahid Qureshi (squreshi@iba.edu.pk), Centre for Entrepreneurial Development, IBA, Karachi

Abstract

This case study tells the story of a woman entrepreneur who despite deprivations and hardships pursued

her passion and became a leader in the market research industry of Pakistan. The case follows the life of

Rifat Sabzwari, CEO of Four Corners Group (4CG), and highlights incidents from her personal life, her

professional decisions and her entrepreneurial actions that led her to discover her talents and start a

successful enterprise in an already saturated business sector.

Four Corners Group has carried out projects for clients like Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, Shan Foods,

Continental Biscuit Manufacturer (CBM), Telenor, PepsiCo and Nestlé. Rifat Sabzwari has come a long

way: from a family of school teachers to an industry leader in the corporate sector. Rifat’s

entrepreneurial journey is full of lessons in hard work, resolve and self-exploration.

The accompanied video exposes the viewers to visual artifacts of Rifat’s life. The narration, in Rifat’s

own voice, highlights some important parts of the written case study and the visuals materialize the

written explanation of Rifat’s work environment and her personal life.

Keywords: Women entrepreneur, market research, self-discovery, self-development

This case has been written by Dr. Najam A. Anjum in consultation with Dr. Shahid Qureshi and is only intended for class
discussion rather than analyzing or criticizing the effectiveness of certain management decisions and administrative actions.

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Entrepreneur – The Nature Factor

One of four sisters, she was always sarcastically tipped by her mother to be the most useless child. She

spent her early school-years in Lagos, Nigeria where both her parents had teaching jobs. After fourteen

years, the family came back to Pakistan. Once back in Pakistan, her father tried his luck in real estate and

was successful. In his prime he owned a huge real estate empire in Karachi and Hyderabad. However,

after his sudden death the family lost all the property due to missing documentation and was left with a

120 square yard house in a lower middle class area of Karachi. Rifat was just seven at the time of her

father’s death. Rifat believes that the germs of entrepreneurship that she possesses may well have come

from her father.

Entrepreneur – The Nurture Factor

Rifat completed her Masters in International Relations at Karachi University in 1997 and, against her will,

became a teacher at a local school. Her mother would not let her take an office job, as the women in her

family were always supposed to take teaching jobs. However, Rifat found the teaching job boring and the

rapidly progressing careers of her friends in the corporate sector prompted her to look for something more

meaningful. In the summer of 1998, Rifat’s mother got an interview arranged for her in a market research

firm through a contact. During the interview, as she recalls in the video accompanied with this case,

‘[The guy] tried to explain to me what market research is – and I did not understand a thing’

Ironically, she was offered a job as a research associate and that proved to be the first step towards the

journey of self-discovery. She initially took leave for two months, after which she planned to go back to

her teaching job. Initially, she was placed in the quantitative department on a very small salary. Although

her working hours were twice as long and the salary was half of what she was getting as a teacher, the

nature of work made her stay. Although starting as a ‘research associate’ she had the chance of becoming

a ‘research executive’ after completing a six-month training.

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For two months she observed the client meetings and the way company worked. This training, however,

was not going very well because her boss was not able to give her enough time. Her lack of work soon

started to get noticed and colleagues started off-loading their extra work on her. Although most of this

work was of a very basic nature, like transcribing an audio interview, compiling a report, interviewing

someone, etc., she managed to win the favor of her boss, Saleha, while doing extra work for different

colleagues. Most of this work was of a qualitative nature, which was a great opportunity for her. She

learnt a lot from this qualitative research work, which later proved to be a vital experience.

Beginning of the Journey of Excellence

After some time, her boss noticed that despite limited resources, high quality work still got completed on

time. This realization led her to discover Rifat and the potential she had for doing qualitative research. As

a result, Rifat got transferred to the qualitative department and started working directly for Saleha. After

two months her mother asked her to return to her teaching job, but Rifat politely refused because she was

enjoying this job. Her mother did not understand what market research was, so she always wondered what

Rifat did until eleven pm in the office on such a low salary. Rifat now amusingly recalls that her mother

at one time thought that she was selling detergent door-to-door. But her fiancé supported her decision of

staying at the market research firm and her mother had to give in.

After three years, two important events happened in Rifat’s life. Firstly, she got married and secondly, her

company merged with Horizons International* an MNC and a big name in the market research industry.

This was a turning point in her life because as a Horizon employee she came into contact and dealt with

clients like P&G, Meezan Bank, National Foods, Shan Foods. After a while people in the industry started

noticing the quality of her work. She now recalls that when she entered the field she did not even know

the difference between a product and a brand. But she loved her work so much that she studied hard and

proved to be a quick learner. Rifat worked like a workaholic for six years. Together with her boss, Saleha,

*For the sake of confidentiality, some of the company and people names have been changed

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they put in long hours and often left the office just before dawn. During this time Rifat learned a lot,

including marketing, psychology, brand equity, qualitative analysis models and presentation skills, and

also improved her English language skills. Since, she didn’t have a professional education or a degree in

this field, she had to learn to do her projects through trial and error. This lack of professional education

proved to be a boon, as it enabled her to use her creativity.

Testing Times

Her career got its first setback when Rifat gave birth to a baby boy after which she suffered from severe

depression. Her work engagements required her to travel a lot and she would not come home for up to

three weeks. As a result she was not able to give enough time to her family. Her limitations started getting

evident to the company because she would refuse to travel for long periods if that meant leaving her

infant son at home with no one to take care. This caused a rift between Rifat and her employer, and she

was eventually forced to leave the company.

The next company she joined was Aurora International*, another big name in the market research

industry. Aurora had a culture that did not mesh with her lifestyle. At first, however, Rifat did not pay too

much attention to this and started with the same enthusiasm and resolve. She set up a department for

qualitative research, where she worked for four years. At Aurora, the workload was so high that at times

she would work on eighteen to nineteen projects at the same time, for the likes of Mobilink, Telenor,

Engro, National Foods, and some companies in the finance sector.

During this time she was under constant pressure from her mother and other relatives who thought she

was doing some odd door-to-door sales or receptionist job, but this did not deter her from pursuing her

passion. Then she gave birth to another baby, after which she stayed at home for a month and did not

resume the job. Once again she suffered from severe depression. It seemed that all the skills and expertise

she had built up in the last six years would go to waste. Things looked very bleak as she recalls:

*For the sake of confidentiality, some of the company and people names have been changed
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‘When I had my first son, I felt guilty because my daughter started developing emotional problems and I

said that no, I will now stay at home and will just take care of my children…..[however]…the recognition

and appreciation I used to get from my work, from my clients – it all ended. And that disturbed me a lot.’

This aura of pain and disappointment suddenly evaporated when Reckit Benkiser knocked on her door.

Soon Unilever followed and asked her to do their ‘turnkey projects’ from home and she started working

from her drawing room. The fact that these companies tracked her down to her home was proof that her

work was highly valued. She worked for only two companies and did work for them worth PKR 10

million in just eight months.

Foundation of an Enterprise

So she started doing these turnkey projects. The network she had developed during her time at different

jobs now proved very useful. This network included recruiters, marketeers, report writers, etc. At a time

when many companies in the market research industry tended to pay their staff late, she always paid her

team on time and that resulted in high quality and timely work. The team stayed dedicated to her and she

never faced any human resource issues. In this way the projects kept coming and her clientele kept

growing. Her clients told her that after her resignation, they had tried other companies and other people,

but were not able to get the quality of work she used to produce for them.

The Unique Selling Points

Her personality is part of the secret to her success. She considers her forte to be leading focus group

discussions (FGDs) and writing professional marketing reports. Her clients say that her report writing is

unparalleled in the industry and she has a very precise understanding of what consumers think and want.

The reason for that, as she understands, is her style of cordial engagement with consumers and her

capability of winning them over and relating herself to them.

*For the sake of confidentiality, some of the company and people names have been changed

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Moreover, her support system back home, especially her mother in law and sister in law, have been very

important. Her mother in law is her role model. She was only able to invest time in her work because

things at home were taken care of.

The Expansion

The work grew so much that she started hiring space for FGDs. This was costly and her friends advised

her to buy her own space. Setting up her own office and making arrangements was a big decision for her,

as it meant embarking on a journey of further business expansion leaving her even less time for her

family. At that time she was in a position to say no to some of the clients, because of the existing work

load. Combining her project work with taking care of her young kids was a big challenge. A pamper-

changing call in the middle of some engrossing data analysis task meant a loss of two hours. Furthermore,

she was paying huge sums of money for space hiring and that was limiting the profitability of her work.

Old and new friends also encouraged her to set up her own place, and she gathered all her savings to do

so.

Finally… the Enterprise

She started with a house in Tariq Road, Karachi. The rent was Rs. 40,000 per month but the place was in

a very bad shape. So she rolled up her sleeves and got the refurbishment work done, set up a sound

facility, and did other necessary work. She asked a friend to join her in the newly formed company which

was called Listeners. A couple of other friends also joined later. She hired an assistant for day-to-day

clerical work and thus she started her own company with Rs. 400,000 (about USD 4,000).

It was a very unpretentious beginning. On the first day her bathroom cleaner did not show up and

therefore she had to wash the bathroom herself and after that she had to quickly make herself presentable

as CEO of the company for a meeting with a client.

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Working Model – The success factors

Rifat claims that her working model is so flexible and relaxing that staff from MNCs leave their job to

work for her. Currently she has four to five people working for her who have come from a top MNC.

Moreover, once people start to work with her they never leave, despite being encouraged by her to at least

give interviews. Ironic but true. MNCs, she claims, pay almost double the amount for the same work. Still

her staff does not leave her. She associates this low level of attrition to the flexible environment and the

team spirit. People get to do multiple things, which gives them intrinsic motivation and also contributes to

their training. She has a management team of people who share the same values, who are devoted, honest,

credible and transparent. This culture of sharing and transparency makes 4CG unique in the industry. As

Rifat puts it:

‘We believe in creativity and give our people all the freedom to perform their duties. The workforce know

that they are encouraged to try new things, so they enjoy their work.’

This is not always the case in an MNC, which tend to develop more specialized teams doing the same

work all day. Most importantly, however, it’s her expertise and iconic image in the industry that make

people stay in her company. She has become a great source of learning for her employees and they find a

hugely knowledgeable teacher in her. The field workers always take her work, because she never delays

their payments. In short, Rifat has created an enterprise that provides inspiration for many SMEs.

Further Expansion and Diversification

Listener later became ‘Four Corners Group (4CG)’ when her old friend Shoaib joined her as a marketing

consultant. She knew Shoaib as a client and was impressed by his professional experience. He had

worked at National Foods and at Reckitt Benckiser. Rifat thought he had all the experience,

communication and interpersonal skills which she lacked, because she did not have a degree from a

professional institute. Shoaib brought a friend with him, Shadab, and the three decided to form Four

*For the sake of confidentiality, some of the company and people names have been changed

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Corners Group. Shoaib was strong in the corporate sector. He gave the company a new look, as a result of

which it started expanding aggressively. When Shoaib left the country to pursue his personal goals, the

company philosophy had taken shape and it continued on the same growth path, investing in human

resources. Currently, the 4CG employs forty five full-time and sixty part-time employees and her long list

of clients includes the likes of Orient McCan, Coca Cola, Cadbury, EMAAR and ARY.

Finally some business education

During this time Rifat was introduced by her husband to a World Bank funded Women Entrepreneurship

program that was being conducted at the Aman Centre for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), Institute

of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi. Rifat applied for this program and finally received some

formal business education. This business education proved to be an endorsement of her already acquired

practiced-based business skills as she herself says:

‘This program helped me a lot. Previously I used to do things on my intuitive feel where I would be a little

shaky in taking decisions. With this program the biggest message I gave to myself was ‘Okay you are

going in the right direction however on multiple fronts you need to formalize things’ which I did after

graduating from this program. [….. This program] gave me a path or the route on how to develop things

and take it to the next level. For example, my Dubai initiative would have never happened [without this

program ……]. I thought that this is the future market & a knot that can tie me with a much bigger

market & I did it. [……]It [was] helpful not only at the functional platform but yes it helped me on the

emotional level also. I have become very confident, more determined and aggressive in deciding on

things. It also gave me the strength to think about other options available other than whatever I am

doing. I have started thinking of entering into other business.’

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Entrepreneurial Temptations

Shoaib and Shadab had some trading experience. While working with Rifat they would often advise her

to set up a separate trading company. One of her clients, Penify*, also came up with the idea exporting

stationery items to Africa. Since, she had spent a few years in Africa and had some understanding of that

market, this business prospect was tempting for her.

While in Botswana, a few years back, on a project for National Foods, the 4CG team took part in an

exhibition. In the 4CG stall, she also displayed some Pakistani embroidered clothing and discovered that

there was a huge demand for these items in the African market. The funny thing was that the female

clothing was bought by men at huge prices. An item that sells for Rs. 500 in Pakistan went for an

equivalent of Rs. 8000 in Botswana. This lured her to enter in this market. She saw that with her talent for

producing good designs and her cultural knowledge of Africa, she could exploit this untapped market and

make huge profits.

Around the same time, a UK company contacted 4CG to help them market their product in Pakistan.

Inspired by the quality of service they received, they asked Rifat to set up their business in Pakistan. The

hiring of staff, marketing, distribution and all the other matters of a new company were to be handled by

4CG. This appeared to be another sector in which Rifat could invest and reap the benefits.

Rifat also has a firm grip on ‘Snacking’. A large multinational beverage firm is her biggest client in this

area and she spends a huge amount of time with them in developing snacking products. This is another

area where she finds interest. Dehydrated fruits is the sector that she intends to invest in and the export

potential is huge.

Rifat also wants to take the existing company forward and create a Multinational Company (MNC) in

Pakistan. Currently, her business requires her presence at all times because experience has told her that as

*For the sake of confidentiality, some of the company and people names have been changed

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soon as she diverts her attention to other expansion and diversification tasks, the performance of her team

starts getting affected. On the other hand, however, her entrepreneurial instincts constantly urge her to

exploit the opportunities she is coming across.

Whether she should expand 4CG in the same sector or diversify to open new companies is a question that

now needs to be answered.

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 Exhibits

Exhibit 1: Four Corners Group growth over the last five years (according to Revenue earned)

Average Annual Growth Rate (AAGR)

30%
27%
25%
23%
20%

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR): 25 percent

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Exhibit 2: Four Corners Group website

Exhibit 3: Testimonials for Rifat Sabzwari from her LinkedIn page

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Exhibit 4: Testimonials from 4CG website

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Exhibit 5: List of Clients of 4CG

Client Industry

Manhattan International Advertising

JWT Advertising

Orient McCann Advertising

Sharp Image Animation

Coca-Cola Beverage

Cadbury Confectionaries

Candyland Confectionaries

EMAAR (UAE) Construction

ARY Entertainment

Asian Development Bank (ADB) Financial Services

Faysal Bank Financial Services

Commercial Bank of Dubai Financial Services

Nestle FMCG

Britannia Foods Foods

Pakistan Navy Govt. Arm Forces

Bhp Billiton Oil & Gas

Bayer Crop Sciences Pharma/Pesticide

KESC Power & Electricity

Millward Brown Research

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Quantum International Research

Research International (RI) Research

TNS Global Research

Zulfiqar Industries Ltd. (ZIL) Skin Care

Skin Care Skin Care

Aga Khan Foundation Social Welfare

Care International Social Welfare

Marie Stopes Society Social Welfare

Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) Social Welfare

Augere Telecommunication

Ufone Telecommunication

Roshan Afghanistan Telecommunication

Nokia Telecommunication

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Exhibit 6: Clients – category wise

TELECOM
SECTOR
CLIENTS

RESEARCH
SECTOR
CLIENTS

MEDIA
SECTOR
CLIENTS

OTHER
SECTORS
CLIENTS

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Exhibit 7: Organizational Structure

• People from top tier of the company or

product specialists
Insights
• Based in/out of Karachi and Islamabad or
Team
Pakistan

• Highly Overall & Category Experience

• Some Key Persons of Insights Team

• Rifat Sabzwari
• Ali Raza Chaudhary
• Akhtar Ayub
• Qasim Mumtaz Account
(Supported by high Caliber Consultants Servicing
Shadab Fariduddin and Shoaib Siddiqi) Head
Team • Exclusive and
dedicated team

• Headed by manager or
sr. manager level
person

• Based in Karachi and

• Category specialist and specialy from Islamabad
top/middle tier of the agency.
• Specialized and
• Based at Karachi and Islamabad experienced in
execution

Rifat Sabzwari Naveed Khan

CEO Sr. Consultant

Ali Raza
COO

Uzma Taha Qasim Mumtaz Akhtar Ayub

Senior Qual Consultant Head of Qualitative Head of Quantitative

Unit 1: Operations Unit 2: Research

Unit 1: Unit 2: Unit 3: Zeeshan Seeed
Moin Fatmi
Sadia Rehmat Hira Jafferi Arsalan Hasan Manager Operations Manager Research
Manager Research Dpty Mngr Research Dpty Mngr Research

Project Mgt Umar

Zaman Ansari Field Operations
Sadia Fayyaz Manager DP Assist Manager
Ahsan Nida RA (Tanveer Ahmed)
Assit M RA SRE

Anam Hira Akif Nawaid Rizwan

Sidra Asghar (FE South)
SRE RE SRE DCE RE
AM. DP

DE Jahangsher
Sumiya (FE Central)
RE
Zahid Supervisor
AM. DP Mohsin
RE
Khalid
(FE North)
Salman Faisal
DPE Jr. DPE

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Exhibit 8: FCG Operations (overall)

FCG
Head Operations

Field Data Control Data Processing

Departments Operations Unit Unit

South North
In-charge Zone
Central
Zone Zone
DE
Supervisor
DC
Supervisor
Sr. DP
Executive

4 Entry 3 Data 2 Data

Karachi Lahore Islamabad
Operators Coders Analyst

Hyderabad Multan Peshawar

Sukkar RY Khan Faisalabad

Baluchistan AJK

Exhibit 9: Field Operations

National Field Manager

Tanveer Ahmed

FE South zone FE Central zone FE North zone

Nawaid Akhtar Sayyam Ghurri Khalid Abbasi

R.I Interior R.I R.I Southern R.I Southren R.I Central

R.I Karachi R.I KPK
Sindh Baluchistan Punjab 1 Punjab 2 Punjab
Sheraz Omair Ashraf M. Saleem
Syed Faqeer
Tariq Rasool Farooq

F.S Male F.S Male F.S Male

F.S Male F.S Male F.S Male F.S Male
Naik Aslam Idrees Junaid
Adnan Shujhat Fayyaz Nasarullah
Muhamad

F.S Female F.S Female F.S Female F.S Female F.S Female F.S Female F.S Female
Saba Tanzila Farzana Najma Bushra Asma Shabeer Mehreen

Page 18 of 26
 Four Corners Group – Rifat’s Entrepreneurial Temptations

Teaching Note

Case Synopsis

The case helps the reader visualize the challenges which Pakistani women entrepreneurs face when trying

to juggle their professional and personal lives. It tells the story of a talented working women who faced

several setbacks in her life, but her talent and proven work quality helped her to succeed. The case ends at

a point where Rifat is seeing a lot of potential in different business sectors and now has to decide whether

to embark on a new venture to quench her entrepreneurial thirst or focus on her existing business.

Rifat Sabzwari belongs to a middle class family. Her father passed away when she was six. She took a

Masters in International Relations in 1997 and joined a local school as a teacher. Despite opposition from

her mother, she then joined a marketing research company. During her training at the market research

firm she discovered her talent for qualitative research. This discovery was instigated by her boss who

offered her all kinds of support to further develop her qualitative research skills.

The merger of the company with Horizons International started a new phase in her life and in the next

twelve years, she embarked on the path of accelerated learning and skills development. That was the time

of her life that defined who she is today professionally. That was also the time when her entrepreneurial

awareness was awakened and she started thinking of having her own business one day.

Her personal life, however, had several impediments which, at times, totally exhausted her. Her marriage,

the birth of a baby, and a demanding motherhood embittered her relationship with her employer, who

required her to travel frequently and stay away from her family for long periods of time. This caused her

to switch her job and start working for Aurora International. Despite the different work culture at Aurora,

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she stayed determined and executed huge developmental and production tasks for the company. At this

point she could clearly see her popularity among local and international clients and could confidently

claim to be one of the leading qualitative market research professionals in Pakistan.

After five years at Aurora, she again gave birth to a baby and the resulting depression made her quit her

job for good. This setback, however, became the start of her entrepreneurial journey when, after some

time, she was asked by MNCs to do ‘turnkey projects’ for them from home. These projects laid the

foundation of her future enterprise, which came into being with the name of ‘Listeners’ and later got

merged with a friend’s company to become 4CG.

The case ends at a point where Rifat is now thinking of diversifying into other areas. Options include

exporting Clothing and Stationery items from Pakistan to African countries, starting a business of helping

foreign companies establish their distribution and marketing base in Pakistan, developing her own

product in the ‘snacking sector’, or just sticking with the marketing research sector and expanding her

existing business internationally.

Keywords: Women entrepreneur, marketing research, self-discovery, self-development

What happened next?

What happened after the point at which the case ends is to be disclosed to the students only after a

thorough discussion on the choices Rifat has for future business growth and diversification.

Rifat did invest her time and money in the trading business. She continued that work for three years, with

reasonable gains, but soon realized that her core work started suffering as she had to spend a lot of time in

keeping pace with the trading business. She started this trading work again after a gap of few years but

suffered a huge loss when her business partner disappeared taking away all the money she had invested.

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She also agreed with the UK Company to help them establish their distribution network in Pakistan. For

that purpose she hired people and opened a separate section in her company. However, things did not go

as planned and she had to shut it down. This failure may be due to the wrong selection of people and her

lenient nature which withheld her from taking stern action against the people who were to blame, the very

attitude that maintains a progressive and creative culture in 4CG.

After closing this trading activity, she focused totally on 4CG and in the last ten years, in terms of market

size being served in some specific sectors, brought it from number four in 2004 to number one in 2015 in

Pakistan (as claimed by 4CG).

Learning Objectives

The following could be some learning objectives case before and after revealing what happened next.

Before disclosing what happened next:

1. Entrepreneurs do not have to stick to their field of study and should try to explore and learn things

that interest them. In the end passion in your work can lead to a successful business.

2. Despite family engagements and responsibilities at home, women entrepreneurs can excel if they

persevere.

3. The most important resource to start a business is not money. It’s what one knows and the

contacts one has (‘what and who we know’).

4. Most entrepreneurs do not take huge risks. Instead, they tend to take it one step at a time, in other

words they follow ‘the affordable loss principle’ (or take a calculated risk).

5. Entrepreneurs are action-oriented and learn by doing things (‘trial and error’) rather than

spending a lot of time and effort on planning and forecasting activities.

6. Entrepreneurs are just like us. All we need is self-exploration and commitment to succeed.

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7. Quality of service is the foundation of growth both at an individual and business level.

After disclosing what happened next:

8. An entrepreneur has to understand the difference in the nature of jobs and the control mechanism

is to be designed accordingly. There is always a trade-off between discipline and creativity. It is

to be clearly determined, therefore, if a job requires a delicate control to allow innovation to

prosper or a tight control to establish strong discipline for precisely completing the tasks.

Discussion Questions

Before disclosing what happened next:

1. What does Rifat have in common with an average educated woman of Pakistan? What are the

differences?

2. What were the key resources that Rifat utilized to create and run her enterprise?

3. What risks did Rifat take when starting her own business?

4. Should Rifat diversify or focus on the market research area?

After disclosing what happened next:

5. What should Rifat have done differently when launching the UK product opportunity?

6. Is Rifat too lenient in her management style?

Analysis

This case calls into question many myths surrounding the education, personality and characteristics of an

entrepreneur. The myths discussed in the book ‘Effectual Entrepreneurship’ (Read, S., Sarasvathy, S. D.,

Dew, N., Wiltbank, R. and Ohlsson, A.V., Routledge, Oxford, 2011) can be highlighted when discussing

this case. Some of the relevant myths mentioned in this book are:

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Myth # 1: Entrepreneurs are visionaries

According to the effectual approach to entrepreneurship entrepreneurs do not need to be visionaries. The

stereotypical approach to business creation process includes the following steps:

1. ‘Entrepreneur’ searches for ‘new’ and ‘high-potential’ opportunity.

2. Light bulb goes on (‘Eureka!’)

3. Writes business plan.

4. Goes out fund-raising especially from venture capitalists (VCs).

5. Hires great team.

6. Builds product.

7. Orchestrates big launch.

8. Achieves steady or hockey stick growth.

9. Sells or launches initial public offering.

10. Retires to Bahamas.

This stereotypical approach to business creation is presented in many text books on Entrepreneurship, but

the stories of most successful business ventures is quite different. The same goes for Rifat’s story. There

was no Eureka moment in Rifat’s tale. Instead her career developed gradually and steadily, as she made

smart use of her skills, expertise and connections, until she finally found herself ready to start her own

business. She did not write an extensive business plan, she did not get funding from a venture capitalist,

she did not make a great effort to find the best people in the industry and, nevertheless, she is running a

successful business competing with MNCs in the same field.

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Myth # 2: Entrepreneurs are risk takers

Another myth that this case calls into question is that entrepreneurs are risk takers. Belying this myth,

‘the affordable loss principle’, as coined in ‘Effectual Entrepreneurship’, suggests that entrepreneurs

instead of simply taking an unforeseeable risk tend to take a calculated risk, only putting at stake what

they can afford to lose. This clearly applies to Rifat as well. Even though she knew the industry well, she

did not opt to start big and instead of looking for external funding she only used the available means to

launch her enterprise, as suggested by the ‘bird in hand principle’, which is also mentioned in the book

‘Effectual Entrepreneurship’. In other words, Rifat capitalized on ‘who she was’, ‘what she knew’ and

‘who she knew’ when she set up her own business.

1. When she started ‘Listeners’, Rifat was one of the leading qualitative research analyst in the field

of marketing research. This enabled her to get off to a flying start making use of her reputation in

the sector. This is ‘who she was’.

2. ‘What she knew’ refers to her insider’s knowledge of the industry, which she used to her

advantage. For example, she was aware that field workers in the market research industry are not

paid on time. So she made sure that this would not happen in her case and thus built a reputation

for herself as a reliable employer.

3. ‘Who she knew’ refers to the way she used her network to build a team for her company. The

case mentions how during her different jobs she had made connections with freelancers and these

people later became so loyal to her that she could always fall back on them. In part, this happened

because she used her knowledge of the industry as mentioned above, so that these different

aspects tend to reinforce each other.

Likewise when she tried to set up the Pakistan branch of the UK company and decided to shut it down

when things did not go according to plan, she was once again applying the ‘affordable loss principle’.

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She was prepared for the fact that it would take some investment of time and money, but not to the extent

that it would affect the rest of the business at 4CG.

Myth # 3: Entrepreneurs are extraordinary forecasters

Rifat’s story clearly busts this myth as well. After the birth of her second baby, she had no idea that the

companies would come looking for her. Rifat did not orchestrate a big launch of her company either, but

took it one step at a time, again following the ‘bird in hand principle’. She could have done an in-depth

market research and projected her future sales based on an extrapolation of current market trends. This

would have been relatively easy for her taking into account her market research skills. Instead, she started

with the means at her disposal and built up her business by trial and error.

Myth # 4: Entrepreneurs are not like the rest of us

Rifat came from a lower middle class family. Her father passed away when she was six years old. She

graduated from Karachi University, a very affordable institution open to everyone. She started with a

teaching job, switched to a local market research firm, gradually became a successful market researcher

and eventually set up her own business. Rifat is not that different from other women. There was no silver

spoon, no red carpet, no Einsteinian intelligence, no foreign help and no extraordinary twist of events. Her

success is based on hard work, perseverance and passion.

Other conclusions

The story of Rifat shows that the main reason she climbed the ladder of her career towards her own

enterprise was her interest in this field, which made her work hard and deliver services of the best quality.

It was this quality that made her popular in the market research industry and it was this popularity that

made different MNCs knock on her door to hire her for turnkey projects. Quality of service or product is,

therefore, crucial if a company wants to prosper.

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The failure of the section of 4CG aimed at launching the product of a UK company is another case in

point. A brief analysis of her style of management suggests that this may have been incompatible with

what was called for in this case. Clearly the culture of her organization very easygoing and open. What

could be more open than a company where the boss encourages her employees to give interviews in other

companies? This friendliness, independence, and liberty of trying new things is typical of top innovative

companies in the world and this is precisely what makes 4CG so creative and innovative. But apparently

this was not the style of management that was called for the successful launch of the UK Company. Other

reasons may also have played a role, however.

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