2. INTRODUCTION
I have had the opportunity to intern at Arif Habib Commodities
From 5th September 2013 to 17th October 2013
My report is based on option 1 and I have prepared a case study
The due date of this report is 31st October 2013
And I am submitting it on the 25th of October 2013
Report by Agha Hamza
Pathan
ID: 2007-1-03-9957
Control No: F13-03
Major Field: Marketing
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4. Internship Details
Department: Research and Marketing
Supervisor’s Name: Zain Ahmed Siddiqui
Designation: Head of Department, Research & Marketing
Duration: 6 weeks
5. DEPARTMENTS AT ARIF HABIB COMMODITIES AND THEIR FUNCTIONS:
Arif Habib Commodities is an investment arm of Arif Habib Ltd., its parent
company and a part of Arif Habib group of companies. This company primarily
offers its services in Commodities Industry of Pakistan, focusing mainly on
trading of Gold, Crude Oil & Silver in the international markets of United
Kingdom (UK) and United Stated of America (USA). Arif Habib Commodities has
successfully managed to reach to number 4 in the Pakistan Mercantile Exchange
(PMEX) rating with its expertise in commodity trading, and in the commodity
sector of Pakistan, it has occupied a little over 20% market share.
RESEARCH DEPARTMENT:
This department is solely focused on the research of the Commodity markets.
Generating daily Market Research Reports, Formulating Market Commentaries,
Making 4 hourly trading recommendations and providing commodity price
fluctuation trends based on the market fundamentals and the technical provided
by PMEX.
MARKETING DEPARTMENT:
This department is mainly focused on the Marketing of the services offered by
the company, in order to generate more sales Leads. The major mediums of
marketing used are: Website, Facebook, E-mail marketing, Text Messages, Search
Engine Optimization and Print Material in Business Recorder Magazine and
PMEX weekly.
SALES DEPARTMENT:
Related to the sale of services offered. Major department objective is to make
sale to potential clients who are picked from contact subscriptions on the
company website, sales leads generated from the mediums of marketing and the
walk-in clients. Second objective is to cater to the existing clients and encourage
them to further invest and grow their respective portfolios.
FINANCE DEPARTMENT:
Provides salaries to all employees based on the total number of hours worked.
Also prepared a budget for the advertising efforts and makes sure the office
supplies are replenished. Makes sure funds are transferred to or from clients
depending on the transactions. They make sure the accounts are run properly so
that clients can make their trades.
6. TRADING DEPARTMENT:
This department manages the trading for the existing clients. Trading is done in
international markets of UK and the traders or the trading department facilitates
USA, online, where by the customer. The traders are assigned objectives of
providing services to clients such as conditions of market, best buy point, best
sell point, future predictions, etc.
8. WORK DONE(DEPARTMENT-WISE):
MARKET COMMENTARIES:
As an intern I started off the day making market commentaries, which are an
analysis of the market conditions (online graphs) and predictions of future
commodity price trends. I made several commentaries during the day. It includes
all the latest commodity news, prices and indicators to guide clients in making
decisions about investments. These commentaries are made on an hourly basis,
and then made available to the Clients of Arif Habib Commodities.
RESEARCH:
Keeping existing clients up to date by sending them daily market reports, market
commentaries, predictions, phone updates on trends of commodity prices. I also
sent future buying/selling recommendations.
MARKETING:
Used sources such as E-mail marketing, SMS marketing, website development &
search engine optimization. I also used social media such as Facebook and
Twitter to advertise through the paid reach option that places advertisements on
pages. The new twitter account was developed by me and used by me alone as
allowed by the C.E.O.
SALES:
I initiated potential clients and their investments into the commodity market
through various means. I used mediums of marketing such as leads generated
from Facebook advertisements and lists forwarded to us from Pakistan
Mercantile Exchange. I made calls to interested clients and assisted them in
doing business with Arif Habib Commodities.
9. CASEHISTORY (option1)
PROBLEM STATEMENT:
In the past 6 months I witnessed that Arif Habib Commodities faced a couple of
problems in the workplace that could easily be addressed.
PROBLEM 1:
One of the major problems that I have identified while working with Arif Habib
Commodities is the lack of a clear Job Description. This can be seen leading to
role conflicts and negatively affecting the employees’ performance. The same
employee handles sales, marketing, client services, finance, research and trading
instead of every employee specializing in a department. This stands as a
challenge that the management must face. The company needs to make a
committed effort to ensure that the work is rightly designated. This will result in
better Job Organization, a systematic monitoring and accountability procedure.
Also it will mean that people who are better at a certain task will perform more
of that task and less of what they are bad at, improving the overall quality of
work.
PROBLEM 2:
The second dilemma that I came across was that most of the potential client base
was scared of investing their money. They were not utilizing their portfolio out
of fear of losses, as the past has not been too kind to investors. The huge drop of
commodity prices earlier this year left many accounts emptied out. Another
reason why investors were reluctant was that there was little market knowledge
about the commodity market. The market has yet to reach maturity like in
America where many different commodities are traded in huge volumes. This
means trouble for Arif Habib Commodities as they earn profits on the basis of
commissions. So eventually the business activity was slowly decreasing and the
profits of the company were seen to be declining.
10.
11. WORK DONETO IMPROVETHE SITUATION
Solution 1:
I brought up the issue of overlapping responsibilities at the work place with the
CEO, Ahsan Mehanti and explained to him the disadvantages of everyone doing
everything but he felt like this was the requirement for everyone. Marketing in
the commodity market is all about client creation and retention as well as finding
new ways to reach them. Instructions were given to clear job descriptions for the
permanent employees but not so much for the interns. The benefit of this was
that I got experience of all the departments.
Solution 2:
I, along with the other interns, was given the task to reactivate existing in-active
customers and urge them to contribute more and begin trading again by giving
them every day and fortnightly reviews on the past trends of the market and
giving them guidance about making their investments safely and furthering their
profits. Many new accounts were opened and several current clients invested
more into their accounts to be able to trade, as the market condition gets better.
12. CONCLUSION:
The commodity market is a growing one and only came into existence in
Pakistan in 2007. Market is yet to reach market maturity where people have
complete knowledge and willingness to trade. Potential clients are unsure about
the safety of investing in this market because they do not have the knowledge
that it is an S.E.C.P. regulated market. Individuals favored the stock exchange
market more due to its history and size. In spite of the fact that it is an unstable
venture and the unpredictability of stocks has given either immense return or
misfortunes. The commodity market is more predictable and will never really
reach a nil value like in stocks but the customer is still wary of commodities.
The lack of knowledge of this market is a hurdle in its path to growth. In spite of
the fact that it is a huge market with additional standard venture potential. Such
a market needs viral advertisement campaigns and constant reminders of its
presence to attract clients. They have to be constantly reassured of its legitimacy
and a lot of work goes into actually turning a potential customer into an actual
one. From telephonic assistance to stop-loss limits all the services have to be
outlined for them to be content. Then providing clients with details and
convincing them one on one is the way sales are made. There is no mass-market
appeal to the entire market as there is a trust issue due to irresponsible
brokerages. Arif Habib Commodities does everything it can to ensure the safety
of its investors’ money. They have a reach that is nationwide but they have to
constantly pushing the product to the market. There is still a lot that they can do
to make their position better but they will need time to establish themselves in
the market.
It was a hard task to fulfill all these roles as an intern with little time to learn
everything but it has been a very educational experience for me.
