Internship Report Abdul Latif Nizamani Construction Company

Submitted By:

Abdul Rab Nizamani Spring 2012

Supervised By:

Abdul Razzaq

Quaid-i-Azam School of Management Sciences Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 2012

Acknowledgment

Starting with name of Allah, Who is most Beneficent and most Merciful and without His nothing is possible. Furthermore, I would like to pay my deepest gratitude to department Quaid-i-Azam School of Management Sciences for giving us such an opportunity to learn and imply our knowledge and further I would like to pay word of thanks to my supervisor Sir Aqeel Ahmed for the help and supervision during my internship. I would also like to thank honorable Managing Director Mr. Shahid Latif and Adnan Latif for their cooperative behavior and always helping attitude. Their kind advises and guidance helped us throughout the internship

Executive Summary This report contains four chapters, starting from the background of Al-Wahid Hajj and Umrah Services (pvt) Ltd. Al-Wahid Hajj and Umrah services (Pvt) limited Company was incorporated in Pakistan on June 9, 2006 (Certificate of Incorporation) as a Private Company Limited by shares. The main activity of the company is to provide services as an agent in relation to organizing Groups for Hajjis and supervise them to perform Hajj in an organized manner. Second chapter of the report contains my personal learning and working experience during the six week internship at the company. The time when I joined the company as an internee was a time of accepting Hajj applications from the Hajjis so my job mostly was consisted of collecting documents, dealing with customer, keeping the records, taking payments and other necessary works to carry out in the beginning of accepting a Hajji and training him. Third chapter is about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company and at last I have given some suggestions to the company on basis of my 6 weeks experience in the company, which includes expanding the business from just Hajj to Umrah and IATA services because company meets lots of requirements of these two. And a large market is available to the company

Contents
Working Conditions .................................................................................................................. 12 Staff ....................................................................................................................................... 12 Office .................................................................................................................................... 13 Work Environment................................................................................................................ 14 Personal Working...................................................................................................................... 14 Public Dealing ....................................................................................................................... 14 Form Filling .......................................................................................................................... 15 Documents Collection ........................................................................................................... 15 Payment Receiving ............................................................................................................... 16 Bank ...................................................................................................................................... 16 Record Keeping .................................................................................................................... 16 Design Hajj Training Program .............................................................................................. 16 Chapter 3: SWOT Analysis .......................................................................................................... 19 SWOT Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 20 Strengths ................................................................................................................................... 21 Geographical Strength .......................................................................................................... 21 Experience............................................................................................................................. 21 Public Relations .................................................................................................................... 21 Goodwill ............................................................................................................................... 22 Quality Service...................................................................................................................... 22 Weaknesses ............................................................................................................................... 22 Shortage of staff .....................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Unqualified Staff ................................................................................................................... 23 Delegation of authority ..........................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Quota ......................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Opportunities............................................................................................................................. 23 Umrah ....................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. IATA ......................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Threats....................................................................................................................................... 24 New Entrants ..........................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. Inflation ................................................................................................................................. 25

Chapter 4: Recommendations and Conclusion ............................................................................. 26 Recommendations and Suggestions .......................................................................................... 27 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 28

Abdul Latif Nizamani Construction Company is a licensed civil contractor of United Energy of Pakistan which is a subsidiary of a Chinese based company, United Energy Group.

United Energy Group

United Energy Group Limited is a listed company on the main board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange

United Energy Group is an investment holding company and is mainly engaged in the development

of strategy energy reserves, focusing on the investment and operation of oil, natural gas and other energy

related businesses. This is accomplished by the merger and acquisition of oil and natural gas assets;

the exploitation, development and production of crude oil and natural gas; and the provision of

patented technologies supporting services to oilfields.

The approach of the Group is to implement the "reliable operation + rapid expansion" market strategy,

which is supported by the unique technology and core competitiveness. The Group's operating

strategy utilizes resources as the foundation, built on its human capital and guaranteed by its technology.

Corporate Vision

United Energy Group strives to become a world-class oil and gas enterprise with growth potential,

uniqueness and competitive advantage over its counterparts.

Corporate Strategy

UEG engages in the upstream oil and gas sector focusing on the investment and operation of oil, natural gas and other energy related businesses

The approach of the Group is to implement a 'Reliable Operation + Rapid Expansion' strategy, leveraging:

Relationships in China and beyond

Access to capital to secure and fast track development of world class assets

Disciplined M&A execution based on strict hurdle criteria

An entrepreneurial culture that attracts and retains high quality talent

Business Strategy

United Energy Pakistan

As part of our commitment to developing and transferring skills to the local community we have actively chosen to develop local contractors in concession areas as opposed to awarding contracts through a tender process. Selection is based on local contractors' awareness of UEP's

HSE policy, standards and procedures; willingness to develop infrastructure according to the required standards as well as consideration of the rates and quality of services available in the regional market.

United Energy Pakistan (UEP) is a subsidiary of United Energy Group (UEG). UEG is primarily engaged in the upstream oil and gas business, including exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas and the provision of patented technologies in oilfield supporting services in China and Indonesia. The Company has a joint venture partnership with China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) in one of its energy projects in China. UEG is currently evaluating various investment options in South East Asia and the Americas.

The acquisition of these assets is its first venture in Pakistan. UEG is keen to grow its Pakistan business making this a promising move forward for all stakeholders associated with the assets purchased. The backdrop of Pak-China diplomatic ties is another positive, providing UEG a strong relationship advantage with Pakistan.

The Company focuses primarily on exploration and production taking care of the whole process, from the first assessment of the site to the first production of oil and gas. All our operations are based in province Sindh, with the concession boundary starting 100 km to the east of Karachi.

We work in an area that spans eight districts in Sindh province which are Badin, Tando Mohammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Thatta, Hyderabad (rural), Matiari, Sanghar and Mirpurkhas. These assets consist of nine producing and exploration blocks in Sindh province and four offshore exploration

blocks in the Arabian Sea. Recently the Company also won bids for two new exploration blocks, Digri and Sanghar South, which lie adjacent to UEP's Mirpurkhas Khipro concession areas.

This translates to an onshore footprint of more than 10,000 square kilometres and the largest offshore acreage given to any single exploration and production company in Pakistan so far, situated 250 km south of Karachi in ultra deep waters.

Our offices are located in Karachi and Islamabad. We also have field offices in Badin and Matiari districts.

Local contractors are engaged to undertake preparation of well locations, access roads and supply skilled and/or unskilled manpower. We have developed 14 contractors from Badin concession over the last three decades. Adopting a similar philosophy we are also developing contractors from our MKK concession since the beginning of our E&P activity in this area.

The idea behind developing and engaging local contractors is to create more employment opportunities within the concession areas and thereby contribute to the district economy. On average approximately 3,500 to 4,000 locals are engaged by these contractors.

Working Conditions

Staff

As the nature of the companys operations is more of the field work than in the office so the company had only three employees in the office and besides that company has three different teams to work on the fields of United Energy Pakistans well sights. Those teams include work supervisor whose job is just to supervise and provide the labors with the necessities and deal with the management of UEP. United Energy Pakistans management told the guidelines to the

required job to supervisor then the work supervisor used to ensure that all the guidelines are met, and work is going well. Then there is also a safety supervisor in the field to supervise that all the employees are wearing the proper safety dresses and he ensures all the health and safety related issues. They also have a civil engineer with them.

Besides that they also have some permanent labors that are on call and whenever the job needs to be done they just call them. And sometimes when they need more labor then they bring some temporary labor but according to the companys requirement those labor also need to be aware of the work done on the field.

Office

Companys office is in city of Matli; which is the biggest city in the area where companys most of the well sites are located. This is the best location of the office as this is almost in the center of all well sites of the company. So this becomes convenient to reach at all those places. Even in case of emergency the team can reach at the well site at the earliest. And office is well equipped with all the necessary equipments and stationary with the latest computers, printers and scanners. A separate dining room, a kitchen is available where food is served to the employees and to the guests. an

Work Environment

Work environment is very friendly and productive. Company believes in service quality. They try to finish the work with maximum quality and minimum time which means efficient working. Whenever company has to take a major decision all staff upper and lower sit together and everyone puts his suggestions in front of the meeting hall than a decision is taken with consensus of everyone which is best for the customers i.e. most of the meetings of the company were informal and friendly so that everyone is comfortable to share his point of view. I enjoyed the informal meetings of the company.

Personal Working

Week 1, 2 and 3

When I started my internship this was the time when government accepts forms for Hajj and gives a deadline to the private Hajj group organizers to submit forms of their Hajjis. So, it was the time when people were coming to the office, taking the information about the package contents and the price of the package and all such information. So it was time when Hajjis were being finalized. So I was assigned some of the responsibilities given below

Public Dealing

So when customers were coming to the office I had to deal with them at early. If information they required was possible for me to provide then I used to try to satisfy them otherwise I was telling them to wait for the operational manger or any concerned authority.

Form Filling

The time when I joined the internship forms of Hajjis were being filled, documents were being collected, and Hajjis were being finalized. So as per the procedures of the company, company first fills all forms in photocopied form than again fills them in original form to minimize the chances of mistake in the original form. So as an internee I filled forms with them taking data from CNIC, passport and other related documents.

Documents Collection

As when I joined internship the list of Hajjis was being finalized. CEO with collaboration of directors decided that seat will be given on first pay first basis. So the finalized Hajjis were coming everyday to submit the required documents i.e. passport, CNIC, photos etc. So I assisted operational manager Jawad Ahmed in collecting the documents than scanning the documents in computer and then returning again to the Hajjis.

Week 4, 5 and 6

Payment Receiving

The Hajjis with permission of CEO used to pay in installments so very often Hajjis came to office to pay for the package. Payment was received both in cash and bank check. So I helped Jawad in taking money, counting than sign a receipt from Hajjis.

Bank

As it was not safe to keep large amount in office so sometimes I was sent to back to deposit and sometimes they needed money for day to day operations so they used send me to bank to withdraw some amount.

Record Keeping

When Hajjis submitted their data than I with help of operational manager and director made a list of Hajjis keeping whole record of every Hajji in an excel sheet which included serial numbers, Name, Father/Husband/Guardians Name, CNIC Number, Passport #, Blood Group, Address, total payment, payment received, payment remaining etc. I took all this data from the original source of this which we were provided by Hajji main source of data was Passport, CNIC and receipts.

Design Hajj Training Program

Company every year calls all Hajjis once for vaccination which is requirement of government and Ministry of Religious Affair provide every private Hajj organizer those vaccines. Then most of the private hajj group organizers call Hajjis at once and then they do vaccination and then provide training at once. For that Abdul Latif Nizamani Construction Company plans and trains through various means. They show videos regarding Hajj, make and present information through Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations, lectures, question and answer session regarding both travel and Hajj information. This year I assisted operational manager of the company in improving selection of videos, making some changes in existing PowerPoint presentations, adding some new data to it. This year company also planned to call a group of 10 to 15 Hajjis separately in office. And explain and train them there because when there are large number of people in Hall than it is bit harder to understand things and some people are not comfortable asking questions on microphone. So to resolve this issue on the recommendations of one of Director Company this year company started to call Hajjis in small groups also. So for them I made PowerPoint presentations for this program so that it could be easier for them to make the Hajjis understand the whole thing.

Chapter 3: SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis (alternately SWOT Matrix) is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses/Limitations, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a business. It involves the external and internal analysis of the business in comparison with the objectives of business.

Strengths: internal characteristics of the business that give it an advantage over others

Weaknesses (or Limitations): internal characteristics that place the team at a disadvantage relative to others

Opportunities: external chances to improve performance in the environment Threats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business or project

Performing SWOT analysis and identification of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is very necessary because it helps in planning, budgeting and decision making in the organization; because this is the organized form of information in which you come to know about the internal and external strengths of an organization.

In this section I will describe some of the strengths, weaknesses that Abdul Latif Nizamani Construction Company has and opportunities and threats is facing or could face in future according to my observation during internship weeks.

Strengths

Here are some of the strengths of Abdul Latif Nizamani Construction Company that I have observed in these weeks is under

Geographical Strength

Abdul Latif Nizamani Construction Companys office is located in the center of the operations of UEP. That gives them strength by reducing the travel time. They can reach to any working site at latest in 30-45mins. And this also saves the charges of the transportation.

Experience

They are in this business for more than 25 years so this is their strength. Because they have proactive approach in decision making and problem solving and they can easily do that because of their wide experience.

Public Relations

Once you are in a business for 25 years long than you have made enough public relations to face any kind of issue. Besides that the running family is also well respected and people where field is located, the localities know the owners well and in good words.

Goodwill

The Managing Director of the company maintains a goodwill with the all the related stakeholders of the company which include banks, labor, land owners, competitors and the Management of the company. All of the stakeholders are satisfied with the behavior of the company.

Quality Service

They do work with their heart and soul and whatever work they are assigned to do they maintain quality standard because that helps them to maintain good relations with the management of the UEP and with time more and more contracts are given to them.

Weaknesses

Scarcity of Employees

Abdul Latif Nizamani Construction Company has limited number of staff which is enough for the work but the operational manager has to handle alone all the day to day operations of the company. So according to my observation they need at least two more people one for public dealing, one for record keeping so that operational manager has time to handle and focus on other things.

Incompetent Staff

The lower staff of the company is not qualified enough. So they need guidelines on performing every work. This also hinders in directors other workings because for business they have to go out of city and even out of country so in office operational manager and lower staff have to handle it all so this sometimes create problems for both lower staff and company.

Centralized Decision Making

There is no delegation of authority. Managing director is making on their hands besides some of the exceptions which they allow directors to take but with his consensus of any of director or CEO

Opportunities

Construction Yards

Company has the opportunity to expand its working by construction of more yards which will depict there interest to invest and expanding the business. Then UEP will consider giving more contracts to the company.

Purchasing Machinery

I think this is a good opportunity for the company to buy frequently used machinery. This will help them reducing their cost of transportation and rent. Rather the machinery like tractors, bulldozers and other such machinery will also earn for the company because company can give them in rent.

Team

Company can hire more employees and more engineers, painters, workers, labors and others and organize different teams for different works.

External Contracts

Even if the United Energy Pakistan does not give contracts to the company, they can also go for the external building and other contracts. There is also a good demand of this business in the market.

Threats

Rivalry

There are only few number of registered companies of UEP so everybody wishes to get more work so if others successfully get more contracts then number of contracts of Abdul Latif Nizamani Construction Company might reduce.

Inflation

Inflation has become the matter of the country; everyone is suffering by that. Particularly talking about this company; rates of the construction is stuff rising quickly so this increases the cost of the company and ultimately it decreases the profit.

Chapter 4: Recommendations and Conclusion

Recommendations and Suggestions

According to my limited knowledge and observation in the six weeks of internship in Abdul Latif Nizamani Construction Company; I have the following suggestions for the company;

1. Their lower staff is not qualified enough to tackle the problems critically, run day to day operations in a way which is good for the company without getting suggestions from the director so I think if they hire a good qualified engineer pay them good then he can help them running companys operations efficiently. 2. Companys management does not keep back up of its records. All record of all the contracts is in their office computer. So I even suggested them there that they should keep at least one copy of all the record as a back up because they cannot rely all upon technology. 3. The upper level management has centralized decision making power to itself so I suggest they should delegate authority to lower staff also because if lower staff will have the authority then they will realize their worth in the organization and loyalty to company will increase and ultimately they will work in the benefit of the organization. 4. Company and management have potential to take the company beyond its current limits. They have different options they can do to further expand the business which include get license of IATA which will help them to further expand their business and even do ticketing sitting in their office in far flung area and company even meets a lot of conditions of IATA.

5. They should start work of Umrah also because they have market. During year number of customers come to their office just to ask whether they also provide Umrah services but unfortunately they have to send customers back with a negative answer.

Conclusion

The overall experience with Abdul Latif Nizamani Construction Company was a great source of learning with a great source of memorable experience with all the upper and lower staff; everyone was so much cooperative, helping and friendly that all six weeks passed really good. Overall the performance of the company is very good. After listening to the comments of their customers which already have been to Hajj with them and seeing the profits their generating it is very clear that they believe in customer satisfaction and for that they are very determined, passionate and steady that they put all their energies to satisfy their customers. They want that when customer comes back from Hajj then he should not only give satisfactory comments but also recommend others to join Abdul Latif Nizamani Construction Company.