Entrepreneur Profile:

Muhammad Adnan Butt COO – Mvergence Media

Director – Walnut Media

Very few people these days dare to dream; even fewer are brave enough to follow their dreams. This is

the story about a young man who decided to take on the world by following his passion, even when his

decisions defied logic and reasoning; he knew what he wanted and was determined and brave enough

to fight for it. This is the story of Muhammad Adnan Butt.

A Mechanical Engineer by qualification from the esteemed Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute, Adnan was

always able to harness his creativity in a manner where he could actually transform the ideas in his head

to life; and this very thought was very exciting to him. At this time Adnan interned at one of the most

prestigious multinational companies in the world today – Unilever Pakistan Ltd. During his stint here, he

realized his love for marketing – the very idea of being able to touch so many lives and transform his

ideas in such a manner that he could connect with millions of people every day - was what pushed him

towards Marketing. And so his melting pot of creativity and cognitive thought took its final form, and he

knew it, he knew that is what he wanted to do – Marketing; to connect with people. At the end of his

internship at Unilever, the company offered him a job for all the hard work he put in. Regardless to say,

if you’ve been around in the past century or so, you will know how prestigious an offer that is – to be

part of a company that touches millions of lives every day, the world’s second largest FMCG producer.

Adnan was of course very grateful for this offer; however at this point he knew. He knew what he

wanted to do – his true calling.

Being a mechanical engineer by profession, and a very good one at that, the company had offered him a

position as part of their engineering department. Adnan however requested they hire him for a position

in Brands. The country manager at the time was interviewing Adnan, and asked him if he had any prior

experience in Brands or Marketing for that matter, why would they want to keep him there? And he

answered that Marketing was what he wanted to do, and that he was very passionate about it. The

company however refused to budge; ironically so did Adnan. He politely declined the job offer, and took

up a position in Warid Telecom, with a substantial cut in his income level from what it would have been

“Here’s the thing that makes life so interesting. The theory of evolution claims

that “Only the strong shall survive!” Maybe so, maybe so, but the theory of

competition says “just because they’re the strong doesn’t mean they can’t get

their asses kicked” That’s right, see, what every long shot, come from the

behind underdog will tell you is this: The other guy may in fact be the

favourite; the odds may be stacked against you, fair enough; but what the

odds don’t know is, this isn’t a math test. This is a completely different kind of

test; one where passion has a funny way of trumping logic. So before you step

up to the starting line, before the whistle blows and the clocks start ticking just

remember – Out here the results don’t always add up. No matter what the

stats may say and the experts may think and the commentators may have

predicted; when the race is on, all bets are off. Don’t be surprised if somebody

decided to flip the script and take a pass on yelling “Uncle” And then suddenly

as the old saying goes – “We’ve got ourselves a game!” - Nike

had he taken up the Unilever offer. To a layman his behavior seemed irrational, to himself, he had never

been clearer in his head.

He spent two years at Warid, working on very diverse projects pertaining to the product development.

Closely working on Mobile Games – Research, Launching, Development and Execution; B2C

Content/Campaign management, learning how to manage a host of content providers along with a

monthly revenue stream worth $ 0.4 million as well as WAP Portal branding and vendor management; in

a nutshell – learning the tricks of the trade when it comes to mobile media. He moved on from Warid

Telecom to its sister- Wateen, where he learnt content aggregation and syndication – working closely

with local and international television channels and media houses, acquiring content for local operators

in the TV, Internet and Mobile sectors. Spending another couple of years at Wateen helped Adnan

augment his skill set pertaining to the digital media world and gave him the necessary experience and

know-how of the media world. He harnessed this knowledge and set out to start his own

entrepreneurial venture – Mvergence.

In July 2009 Adnan changed gears, and from the corporate world, switched all of his attention towards

his entrepreneurial venture - Mvergence Media. It is one of the most creative agencies operating in

Pakistan today. He took on the responsibility of looking after all the business processes and

technological integration of the company. It gave him the opportunity to “conceive, create and launch

multiple products” while still staying true to the original goal. The company is one of the driving forces

behind taking the local digital content market front to the next level. Adnan very intelligently harnessed

all of his years of experience with the digital media sector and channeled them into Mvergence

“One of the major parts of business at Mvergence is driven by buying and syndicating the content for

mobile platforms as I've been able to successfully aggregate more than 85% of local content (music,

entertainment and devotional) and thus making it the strongest content partner for any CP/telco in the

region”

Along with Mvergence, Adnan also started off a sister concern by the name of Walnut Media. Working

as Director Walnut Media and overseeing Media Buying (Digital and Mobile), Mobile Content

Aggregation (80% of Pakistan's Mobile Content Portfolio), Music Production (Walnut Records), Video

Production, Applications and Portal Development as well as Social Media Marketing.

Adnan’s personal goals include introducing regional level socializing tools on online and mobile

platforms as well as providing brands the opportunity to connect with their target audience through

these mediums. Furthermore integrated a database of content and applications for local users and

eventually being able to give back to the local user by providing him/her a more personalized digital

experience, relevant to their lives. Lastly to take the local market in the direction of local publishing and

ensuring that the industry is self sustainable and can stand at par with international media giants. Adnan had to face a lot of social pressure for the decisions he took and the direction he chose for his

life, by taking a complete U turn from an already very well established career path; however he knew

what he wanted and was very passionate about it – and this very passion, led to the successful life he

has today. It took a lot of hard work, perseverance and a bit of luck to get to where he is today.

Ironically Unilever is one of Adnan’s entrepreneurial venture’s biggest clients today.