In 1965, at the age of 30, Bashir Choudhary opened a small grocery shop in his native town Lahore,
Pakistan. He was passionate about offering quality food at a good price. Because his parents and
grandparents owned a farm, he had been able to build good relationships with a network of farmers who
could provide fresh fruit and vegetables at competitive rates.
Moreover, Bashir paid particular attention to offering good service to his clients, making people always
feel welcome and cared for in the shop, and occasionally making the extra effort to deliver the goods
to his clients himself. Demand was high, he soon had the opportunity to open a second and then a third
shop in other parts of Lahore, a business was born.
Bashir traveled to Australia and USA to learn how supermarkets work there and decided to launch his
own supermarket: a large shop (he got inspiration from Australian supermarkets, Woolworths and
Coles) where customers could help themselves and pay at self-service cashier desks. After a few months
of trial and error, he found a successful formula based on his past success with offering good quality
and service at affordable prices, and the business took a new turn.
Supermarkets are known to be good businesses in terms of working capital requirements, with
customers paying by cash or debit card and suppliers being paid well after the delivery and sale of
goods. However, buying land and building the supermarkets required funds: Bashir turned to his family
and friends to seek capital and his local bank for loans. His parents gave him part of an inheritance in
the form of land and some cash, and a friend, Dawood, contributed capital in return for an eventual 10%
share of the business.
could use the brand in return for a fee. The franchises, in time, bought most of the merchandise through
a newly-created central buying structure. During the early years of his business, Bashir recruited
talented managers from other companies and set aside 10% of the capital to reward them.
Family business
Bashir's wife, Kausar, always supported him in his ventures. In the beginning, she helped with the
accounting, and when the business grew, she occasionally traveled with him to visit stores and attended
social events with key managers, franchisees, or suppliers. Their friend Dawood was often invited to
their home with his wife and only son Kashif. Through these occasions, Bashir and Kausar's daughter
Zoha and Kashif met and discovered that they enjoyed each other's company. They announced their
wedding in 1987.
Bashir could not think of a more exciting job for his children than working with him in the business.
As soon as they finished University, he invited his children Asif, Zoha, and Baber to join him. He also
gave each of them 5% of the shares in full ownership. The rest of the shares were split between the
managers (10%), Dawood (10%), Kausar (10%), and himself (55%). All three children started as
trainees in stores and worked their way up the ladder. Bashir did not show any favoritism towards them
and encouraged a competitive spirit between the three. Fortunately, Zoha and Baber got along very
well, but Asif, the eldest son, was unhappy with his situation. After a few years, Asif left the family
business with some bitterness and joined a consulting company specializing in consumer goods and

role in the Choudhary Group), invited their older children, Ali and Sofia, to join the business and board.
Sofia started working in the supermarket as a shelf manager, while Ali was asked to investigate
international expansion into neighboring countries. During that time, Zoha's younger son, Affan, started
a software house with his friends and approached Baber (who hopes soon to become the CEO of the
Choudhary Group when his father Bashir finally retires) to talk about possible synergies with the
Choudhary Group.
At this point, Baber felt that action was needed to head off some major issues potentially facing the
business and the family. Baber advocated some urgent reflection on strategy and felt the board of
directors was not fulfilling its role.


Explain the organizational structure of above case study