Adnan Alli Agha. My stay in Kazakhstan is serious and long-term.

Interview to Rendezvous magazine No 5 (29), October, 2005.

 

 

Adnan Alli Agha is chairman of the Management Board of KIB. He was born and grew up in Pakistan. His father was working in one on the largest state banks in the country. Immediately after getting an MBA degree from Karachi university in June 1989, Adnan began his career in the banking sector at Citibank Pakistan as a manager. After five years, he was already a department head and in three more years he was invited to work as one of the managers of Citibank Kazakhstan. Then there was London, Nigeria, and now Adnan is back. Now he is heading the young and prospective KazInvestBank.

 

- Bikes are my hobby from when I was 13. Now I own 2 and take every opportunity to ride them. My dream is to gather a collection of 10-12 motorbikes of different kinds. By the way – I do all my own bike repairs.   

 

- You mean the country I want to live and work in? Kazakhstan.

 

- It’s not about diplomacy. I have been working here for four and a half years. Why else would I come back? I want to buy land here and build a solid house. I’m staying here. It is for real and for the long-term.

 

Well, too easy is also boring. Kazakhstan and Nigeria – these are countries it was really interesting for me to work in. When I first came here to work with Citibank, we started everything from scratch. We had to travel all around the country and tell everybody about our bank for the purposes of attracting clients. During the period from 1999 to 2001, I traveled throughout Kazakhstan. It was an unforgettable experience.

 

 

- It is very eclectic mixture of traditions and reforms, different nationalities and cultures. In no other country in the world can a businessmen proudly say that the countries of half the world are represented in his team! The society here is amazingly racy. And Kazakhstan’s geopolitical situation also adds to it. That means that here lies good potential for growth. And it’s a good starting point for every businessman. About 5 years ago in the 'Economist'' magazine I read an article that was posing the question, “what is Kazakhstan going to be like in the future?” Or, if we draw a parallel to other oil-rich countries, will Kazakhstan become the next Norway, or the next Nigeria? It is interesting to work here just to find the answer to this question. Business is close to a creative art. There is no definite code of rules to build your own business. It doesn’t matter whether it is a bank or a tailor’s shop. A businessman must think every step through before even starting anything. We are a local bank, but in our practical activity we use lots of western technologies and approaches. And, certainly, we are in the process of learning as well.

 

- When people ask me – is your goal to create the second Citibank? My answer is no, but I want to go a different way, take all the best from Citibank, Kazakommertsbank, TuranAlem, and Temirbank. It is like the creation of a brand new original picture from different pieces of a puzzle, a picture where everything blends harmonically. In other words, the goal is to make KIB as successful as possible.

       

- Two to three years. Currently the situation with local banks is the following: the bank is a king and the client is a servant. In a professional banking culture, the order is reversed; the client is king and the bank is a servant. The main thing in our concept is to please the client. I would like to think that in several years, clients will have this to say about our bank: that it is not as cheap as other banks, but the level of service is worth it.

 

- I am divorced and have two children from my previous marriage, a 14-year-old son and a 9-year-old daughter. And recently here in Kazakhstan I met a wonderful girl who I hope will soon become my wife.

 

- In countries with transitional economy women are more flexible and more able to survive then men. Strong and successful woman is always interesting, always attracts attention both from women and certainly from men. Woman working equally with men is not a problem for me.

  

- I don’t put any religious influence on them. A clever parent is like a constitution – they give children the freedom of speech and religion. I would like my children to have equal opportunities in getting education, choosing work, so my daughter could make a career as well as my son. And I also teach them that there are no dead-end situations.  

 

-I’m absolutely not religious. I believed in myself, invested in myself and it brought me dividends. I set a goal for myself and I try to reach it on my own. Everything I’ve aspired to is to be financially independent and have peace and harmony in my soul. There is this universal moral imperative: help your neighbor. And if my help was of good use and if people that are working with me come to me saying – “thank you for teaching me a lot”, then this is my greatest reward.