GIDS CEO Asad Kamal gave an interview to “Poligon” magazine

Asad Kamal, CEO of Pakistan’s leading defense conglomerate Global Industrial & Defense Solutions (GIDS), gave an interview to Azerbaijan’s “Poliqon” magazine on the eve of the ADEX-2024 exhibition.

Please give a brief introduction of your company?

Global Industrial & Defence Solutions (GIDS) is Pakistan’s leading state-owned defence conglomerate dealing in the export of defence products / services and high-end technologies & solutions. We take all the pride in delivering quality products & services to the Armed Force of Pakistan (during war & peace-times).

Our product portfolio comprises of an extensive range of systems and services in the domains of Air, Land, Sea, NBC Defence & Security. We’re 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 defence supplier in the multifaceted domains to a diverse customer base across the globe.

Which category of the products are exported by GIDS and how does GIDS sets a benchmark in the defence market?

Over the last decade our Aerial Bombs, Fuzes, ATGMs, UAVs and Security / Riot control items have been the highest selling products worldwide. Whereas, our recent initiatives have created new opportunities to products like Smart Weapons & UAVs 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. Moreover, our product portfolio is continuously evolving at the technological front in-terms of advance technologies in the categories of UAVs, Stand-Off Weapons, and Cruise Missiles etc. We believe that innovation and customer satisfaction is the key to success.

What are the current endeavors of GIDS?

GIDS (over the recent years) has successfully endeavored to lock a good number of defence 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 opt our offerings over the competition. We’re now seeing our approach paying us dividends as we are consistently increasing our revenue and customer base worldwide.

What is your vision as CEO of the company? What are GIDS business plans for the year 2025 and beyond?

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 the 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 Almighty, we have been able to position GIDS as a quality & reliable defence 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 African region (through repeat sales). This hallmark of success is attributed to the dedicated efforts of my team and patronage of the top notch.

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 manages to churn profits and develop its international standing?

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 the international clients in a much more professional manner. Having said that, I feel 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 international defence arena.

What are you main export markets and how do you plan your outreach to other continents and penetrate their markets? Also elaborate GIDS business ties with Azerbaijan?

GIDS primary markets comprises Middle-East and African territories. Multiple states from Gulf & Africa have been our regular clients over the past years

The strong diplomatic & friendly ties of Pakistan & Azerbaijan 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 has successfully completed multiple contracts of security products in the past years. We place a special emphasis on Azerbaijan being our potential market for conventional as well as high-tech systems and for the long-term prospective technological collaboration as well.  In the pursuit of same ideology, we have brought our key product-line for display in ADEX-2024 and we definitely look forward to this bond growing & getting stronger in the times to come.

I hope that ADEX-2024 will contribute towards strengthening ties between both countries in the defence realm.

When we talk about Defence, 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?

To be honest it’s not easy, there is a lot of strategy and hard work that goes into these defence 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.

What is your take on technological collaboration? And what is GIDS doing on this front being a defence supplier?

After the onset of this century, many second-world countries with big defence budgets have sought to localize their defence 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 defence 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.

Leadership isn’t easy in this kind of dizzying environment. What has your approach been?

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 my country and organization both.

What message will you convey to the audience?

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 the country like Pakistan. Since, our defence industry is open to all possibilities & we never forget our friends, right from the capacity building to knowledge sharing and the final product. In short, we are ready to work wherever the customer may find the scope.

Where do you see GIDS in next five years as CEO of the company?

In view of GIDS present pace of business expansion and financial viability attained, GIDS will surely touch the 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.