Bangladesh Brand Forum opens Knowledge Center

Bangladesh Brand Forum has recently launched a Knowledge Center with a view to 'advancing the knowledge with the assistance of vast resources of business wisdom'. Read here to know more.

In first impression, I am full of hope that this initiative will work towards showcasing, documenting, archiving valuable business knowledge generated everyday in the growing business sectors of Bangladesh. Its high time that we start celebrating our business heroes, our budding business leaders and start branding ourselves first. To that respect, Bangladesh Brand Forum's Knowledge Center seems to be a good step in the right direction. I am sure knowledge exists not only in the corporate dominated urban settings in Bangladeshi businesses, but it also exists in the rural areas of the country where majority of the Small and Medium Enterprises operate. So an effort to bring this knowledge in a central repository for use by other businesses is no wonder a commendable initiative.

However, like all other things in life, first thing I did when I learnt about this project, was to Google it. That led me to the third party newspapers website from where you get the news report on this. To know more, I thought to check out the Bangladesh Brand Forum's website and experienced 'mild disappointment' with the state of the site there. In my opinion, its equally important to brand this initiative (and the BBF) through strong web presence, which should include interactive and active social media presence too (so that foreign audience know about it too). I could not find any information on latest activities, even information on latest issue of the magazine on the website. A topic for the owners to look into with utmost urgency.

Coming back to the 'Knowledge Center', I think it would be better if we could find out who all are the target audience of this initiative is and how they can participate. Do they need to pay any membership fee to become a member? What facilities will they avail? Also, the vast majority of emails I receive in this blog's email account concern with queries from job seekers, who are frantically looking for employment opportunities in Bangladeshi companies (even in this blog). Not to mention a good number of students who are even looking for part time work opportunities are also there. Will this Knowledge Center somehow cater to unemployed youth, women, students who might be looking for jobs? Or this will be just another 'blue collar' initiative only to cater to the 'corporate elites' of Bangladeshi business domain? Knowledge should be made available to all, in some form or the other, to all who might use it to advance their situation. The ability to pay/subscribe better not be a deciding factor in the long run to make this venture acceptable and popular across all strata of the business audience (students, job-seekers, executives, managers etc.)

Then I am keen to know if this Center will somehow encourage, help entrepreneurs or not? I myself am a private sector employee and have nothing against salaried employment/employees. But I have a special 'Respect Center' in my heart for entrepreneurs, business innovators, leaders. Bangladesh Brand Forum itself being one of this type, might do a great service to those who might be thinking of setting up some sort of a business in Bangladesh, but just don't know how to. BBF's elite panel of business think-tanks might provide valuable guidance and directions to budding business buddies of Bangladesh to help them set up their tiny money making ventures. What do you think?

While its important that we educate our executives the importance of branding, we also should take into account informing those who are in rural settings. So will this Center, in near future, make its service accessible, available to people who live outside Dhaka? Will there be material available in Bangla too? These are perhaps some of the key aspects the drivers of this initiative might consider, incase they already haven't.

Finally, knowledge is multi-directional, where Bangladeshis working abroad might also feed into this process with their ideas, expertise, experience etc. So does the Knowledge Center take into account 'importing knowledge' from Bangladeshi workers abroad?

Well, even if the answer to a lot of these questions is 'no', it does not mean that the initiative is short-sighted in any ways. Rather I am very optimistic that if nurtured well, this might very well turn out to be a center of excellence for Bangladeshi best business practices, case studies, general knowledge etc. So good luck with this.

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Learning English the BBC Janala way

The need for being multi-lingual to gain an edge in the global business stage has been mentioned in this blog before. Its good to see some signs of innovative teaching mechanisms to spread the language learning drive. This time its BBC who has come up with a bi-lingual website to help learners of the English language in Bangladesh to take lessons over internet, mobile phones etc. Read here to know more.

Some initiative is better than no initiative at all, so hats off to BBC Trust for thinking how relevant digital technologies in the Bangladeshi context can be applied to provide language education. Some constructive observations and feedback though.

1. I think its important to segment and identify the learning audience. When you arrive at the website at http://www.bbcjanala.com, there is no clear navigation to identify myself with any learning group. For example, say I am a housewife, kid (minor), graduate, business executive, businessman (or woman) etc. Users online would like to identify themselves with any of the services being offered, as every user's needs are unique. So BBC Janala could look into the issue of segmenting the audience and tailor made their language courses accordingly. It is expected that the English learning needs of a housewife might be different from those of a business executive who encounters English speaking people almost everyday. So 'English for housewives' and 'English for businesspeople' can be packaged to cater to two different groups.

2. It might be a possibility that this service is promoted in the rural areas through various telecenters spread around Bangladesh. Since they are working with Grameen Phone (along with all other telecom operators) any ways in this project, might be possible to promote the service through the Grameen Phone Community Information Centers (GPCIC).

3. The fact that the lessons can be listened to through mobile phone sounds good but the cost associated with it (3 taka for a 3 minute audio lesson) still remains a bit high in my perspective. No doubt that the service shall never be free. But at the same time, we need to keep in mind that the vacuum the service is trying to fill is a failure of the overall education system of Bangladesh which somehow does not take into realistic consideration the need to be able to converse in fluent English (also not other languages). Also, if someone just decides to call up a friend or a person who happens to possess better knowledge of English then the whole point of having these lessons available through airtime becomes less useful. In my opinion, I really don't envisage many people to call up this service spending 3 taka for 3 minutes just to know English from perhaps an automated machine response, so better need to look at the alternatives available and how to make this service exclusive.

4. Finally its very important to demonstrate and make explicit references to real stories of real people on how knowing English aided someone in their personal, professional lives. Unless I know why or how or when exactly learning English will provide me visible benefits, chances are that I would still remain a bit doubtful in becoming a loyal and long term user of the BBC Janala service.

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Effective Bangladeshi Diaspora network for economic transformation of Bangladesh (The Diaspora Project)

The Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) in Partnership with the Asian Tiger Capital Partners (AT Capital) has initiated a year long project on establishing an effective Bangladeshi Diaspora network for economic transformation of Bangladesh (The Diaspora Project). The project purpose is ‘To identify the impact of Bangladeshi Diaspora in Economic transformation and leveraging its Diaspora in terms of knowledge and skills transfers and improving its global commercial interface. To establish an effective Diaspora Knowledge Network (DKN) of the British Citizen with Bangladeshi origins.’ The DKN aims to provide various online tools which will: (click read more)

• Help the non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) to source and identify the skills and expertise they need from the network;
• Facilitate online communications with other NRBs globally; Submit proposals / issues which other NRBs can contribute and assist, depending on their level of skills and interest;
• Promote successful NRBs on a monthly basis from the network and provide a short profile on the website; and
• Leverage on the NRB network by sharing consultancy projects and other issues in Bangladesh that requires professionals’ advice and guidance which can be received from the vast knowledge network.

Seems to be a good initiative to channel back the good experiences, expertise gathered on foreign soil back to the roots. You can download the form to join from here, download Mr. Ifty's presentation here and the strategy document here.


I attended one of these events in London last week arranged by the bobNetwork and I was priveleged enough to have taken a short phone interview of Mr. Ifty Islam earlier today. He was asked the following questions and you can hear more about his views in the embedded phonecast.

1. Why do you think NRBs have a role to play in investment opportunities in Bangladesh?
2. What are the exact ways (how exactly) can they do it?
3. Is the role same for all NRBs in all countries or NRBs in some countries have more role to play than those in others?
4. What are the key challenges in Bangladesh now hindering the contribution and involvement of NRBs?
5. Please tell something about your partnership on this project with BEI.
6. What is your opinion on country marketing, do you have any plans for that to promote this project sustainably over the next few years?



Also have a look at his views on the financial sector of Bangladesh here

We hail this effort at the Bangladesh Corporate Blog and express our intentions to spread the word of mouse and word of mouth to make this venture bear fruit for Bangladesh..

image: http://purpleonline.net/June09/CoverStory/1/1.jpg

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Beggars can be choosers, in Dhaka atleast

So you must be knowing about Sports Zone in Mohakhali, Export Processing Zones (EPZ) outside Dhaka and Chittagong, the diplomatic zone in Baridhara, you have also heard about O-zone (that is Ozone layer in the atmosphere) and some of you might be ardent fans of Boy Zone too....but now lets give it up for the new 'zone' in town...yet another product of some creative brains in the national administration...in the form of nothing other than our very own and only 'begging zone' for the Dhaka city! Yes, I am also wondering like you whether to laugh, cry, frown or sigh at this, can't make up my mind yet.


Read more here to find out how the government's Disabled Welfare Foundation had outlined an action plan to rehabilitate beggars so that "they can't create nuisances or tarnish the country's image". A survey is planned led by a 'top TV star' and charities are also pretty much vocal on the roots and reasons of why there is a huge influx of beggars in the capital. Honestly, I don't see how effective this 'special zone' would be to reduce the miseries of these beggars, some of them are 'happy-go-lucky beggars' any ways and have decided to join this 'business' voluntarily or due to family traditions. Now for the real victims of natural calamities, acute poverty...it needs a greater planning to re-establish them in the society, or to convert them long term into some sort of a workforce. Following the principles of cause and effect, we always come up with knee jerk reactions and 'measures' to prevent the 'effects' and the by-products, comfortably procrastinating to remedy the root causes that cause the eventual not-so-good effects i.e. floods of beggars in this case.


I wonder how this special begging zone would be. Some questions begging to be answered are...
1. Will there be any physical boundary to demarcate this zone?
2. Which areas are likely to be labelled as this unfortunate zone?
3. How the residents of that area would feel? Would they be termed as beggars too?
4. Will the property prices go down/up in that special zone?
5. What kind of nuisances would the beggars be allowed to create inside this zone? Please give examples.
6. Can someone apply to become a beggar and get some sort of a permit to start begging in that zone?
7. Will the government introduce similar schemes especially right after Eid holidays when non-Dhakaiyyas go to their native district towns/villages? From now on, those who were born out of the capital would require special 'zone permits' (visas?) to stay, work, live inside the 'zoned' Dhaka city? Who knows the administration might think such fantasy schemes would help reduce the traffic jam and over population of Dhaka city. So rather than addressing the problems at the root, they might do some stunt here too.


I have heard that there had been some 'begging businessmen' who had been begging professionally for decades around the religious hotspots in Dhaka and are proud owners of multi-story flats in the capital. I used to confront the seriously out of rhythm 'sufi begging tunes' of a band of five beggars beside the Australian High Commission in Gulshan-2. Then there was the young ones who used to follow a 'trick or treat' approach in the traffic intersections. They used to assume how long-lasting your relationship will be if you happen to be sitting with your wife/girlfriend in the CNG (auto-rickshaw) and give you blessings, provided you pay some quick cash. Failure to do so sometimes followed with abuse too from safer distances. Personally I always avoided the too young and mischievious ones, the young, single moms with new borns who refused offers of working at home as maids or in any garments company. Not to mention the yearly fracas that takes place on the day of Eid ul Azha with women, children fighting over the 'third portion' of the meat and eventually reselling it and reselling it and reselling it. So much so for religious purpose. I preferred to pay some extra to the old rickshaw puller or to the ferry-wallahs who turned sweat to money everyday to meet their minimum living needs.


Certainly the act of begging is not something to be ridiculed, rather the reactions to tackle this problem is worthy of serious scrutiny and sarcasm. Like many other important problems of governance, this issue was never thought of. I hope whatever we plan now lasts beyond 5 years. A troika partnership among NGOs, private sector and government agencies is a must. Also we need to keep in mind that we as a nation has a tendency to go 'palms up' especially to donors and foreign aid agencies. That certainly trickles down to bottom, so we need to weed out those who prefer to beg just because its easy, requires no or little 'hardwork' and because the government is providing 'free zones' for them to beg and continue their trade.

image: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/slideshow/ALeqM5iM-F0yAxo2d5pknoNKAw-t7O7Z8g?index=0

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Bangladeshi owned Indian Restaurants in the UK : a brand crying for renaming

I think its high time we stop hiring bigger country labels from the neighbourhood to promote our businesses, which has been built up over the last few decades by our very own sweat, tears and hardwork…all in the shape of the £4 billion curry industry in Britain. Read here to find out how Bangladeshi businessmen brought the British curry industry to where it is today. Also, please read the latest news article here to find out about potential ‘revenue avenues’ we could reap from this industry.
However amidst all this merrymaking, my thoughts lie elsewhere. I ask myself,

1. Would this industry be in its present place if it were without the bold and brazen ‘brand India’ label sitting proudly on the signboards outside those 12000+ restaurants?
2. Now that the contribution of British-Bangladeshis to the UK economy is getting noticed and acknowledged day by day, can we risk stripping off the hired country brand from those signboards? Will this have any negative impact on the brand loyalty, brand perception etc. for those resturants?

Some scattered incidents, trying to relate them somehow.

You will get to see only a few restaurants in the UK which proudly claims in its exterior that it serves ‘Bangladeshi cuisine’, notably Kolapata in Whitechapel is one of the very few and some others in Bricklane. Ofcourse they don’t serve any Indian (North Indian to be more precise) food there and what they serve is much closer to what we actually eat in Bangladesh. Now its also true that we eat a lot of North Indian food too in our day to day occasions, but when it comes to doing food business overseas, are we letting go an opportunity to uphold the country’s brand (Bangladesh that is) or we are rightly giving the due credit to the actual originator of the food (India), even though the lion’s share of the business are held by Bangladeshis? I don’t know. Please also note that the report in bdnews24.com successfully and tactfully avoids the term ‘India’ or ‘Indian restaurants’.


My colleague once shared a ‘bitter’ experience he once had during his trip to Delhi a few years ago. In a bustling South Delhi restaurant, he once asked the waiter to bring in a ‘balti cuisine’, much to the confusion and uncertainty of the young Indian waiter who had no freaking clue what the white (nearly pink), fat, grey-haired British man was willing to eat. He explained meticulously that it’s that special type of pot in which he used to get served Chicken Tikka Masala in the Indian restaurant in Finchley Road in North London! He was also rather embarrassed thinking of any potential cultural gaffe he could have committed. The waiter remained indifferent to ‘balti’, thinking of how the shower tool ended up on the bewakoof gorey’s table in London. He could however receive well the Chicken Tikka Masala bit and moved on to serve him that, ofcourse not in any ‘balti’ or ‘bodna’ (no Wikipedia entry for ‘bodna’ yet) but on a simple brass made plate.


Moral of the story is, what they eat in North India is not actually what is served generally in the Bangladeshi owned Indian restaurants. Its somehow a mix of whatever that is, a best effort perhaps. It could be because of the fact that none of the chefs or their ancestors were born in or hail from North India, rather they are from the Golden Bengal, from the coast of the mighty Meghna, Surma, Kushiara..United Kingdom of Sylhet that is. Now whether they claim themselves to be Silotis first and foremost and are different from Bangalees/Bangladeshis would require a different blog post from this end. Its very likely they, like you and me, have been fed and bred on a lot of rice, fish, bhorta, dal, shatkora etc. and not on chapati, roti, and the curry-vaganza every day. Nevertheless, these businessmen have certainly brought about a revolution to the curry industry in the UK with their hardwork. Its good that the British government appreciates this fact, but I am sure that the British-Bangladeshi chefs don’t recceive any formal ‘thank you’ from the Indian High Commission in the UK or the diaspora, as other than ensuring a livelihood for themselves, they have ended up pumping up a different country’s brand muscle in the end of the day. I have come across a few Indian restaurants trying to woo European customers claiming that they ‘are not fake Indian restaurants (restaurants owned by Bangladeshis claiming to be serving Indian food) and they serve true Indian food…the taste of India!’. Now what do you say to that?


Amidst all this mud-throwing…balti-throwing etc. between country brand names, I think we should not spoil the food, or let it go cold and stale. In my opinion, the time is here to call a spade a spade. What would possibly go wrong if 12000+ Bangladeshi owned ‘Indian’ restaurants in the UK would decide to put the name of the red and green on the face of their businesses? Food fanatics can go fasting unto death that that food is not actually ‘Bangladeshi then’, but aren’t we in a good position to override those facts and establish the brand Bangladesh on 12000+ physical establishments in the UK? You call it a brand hijack or whatever, I am still all up for it. If the Bangladeshi businessmen were the first ones to have taught the British how to taste curry (Indian curry that is), then I am sure they can be frontiers to treat the British tastebuds to something more authentic, genuine, unique and truly ours….a dose not of dosa…but that of bhorta, dal, bhaat and the likes. Gelam. Khida lege gese.

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New TV Channels for Bangladeshi media...what about businesses?

Congratulations! We have 10 more new TV channels vying for some space in our television sets and living rooms. Check out the list here to find out what these new channels are called and who the 'visionaries' are behind setting up these.
Personally I have got over those days when we used to follow McGyver or Ayomoy or any other Humayun Ahmed drama serials in the Bangladesh Tele Vision (BTV), as we as viewers did not have any other choice. Until the day when satellite TV made its entry and till now when we have a plethora of TV channels springing up, imagine how fragmented our attention has become and how shorter our attention span is becoming day by day. How many programs you actually follow in one or more Bangladeshi channels these days which is sticky enough to make you come back and follow it week after week? Ofcourse I am not against allowing newer TV channels to come up, its just that the trend shows the genre of people who are setting these up, what their agenda might be in future and the audience they are going to target soon with their broadcasting prowess.

Its all either ruling party or opposition politicians, controversial businessmen who have cases of corruption and political affiliations against them or religious opinion leaders who have the required money and the contacts to come up with new TV channels. It reflects the general interest of viewership of our audience perhaps, or the intention of those who are in power and who hold the money to influence that viewership. So we get to watch a lot of political talk shows, religious shows and a whole range of drama serials pretty much based on same plots and banalities.

What is still missing from this rising trend of TV channels is undoubtedly any dedicated source of information, edutainment and infotainment based on business topics of Bangladesh. Wonder if its too early to dream of a TV channel promoting Bangladeshi business issues, entrepreneurship, innovation, achievements, skills development shows, company profiles, business debates, corporate culture shows, interviews of business champions, entrepreneurs etc. Is it too early to ask for a special focus on Bangladeshi corporates and brands in the form of a full fledged TV channel? With half of the population full of young and would be business leaders and entrepreneurs, do you think there is no market for such a channel?

Its common knowledge that the media of a country plays a pivotal role in shaping up the national psyche of a nation. First and foremost emphasis on politics, religion and entertainment only are required ofcourse to fill up the whole gamut of services, however, I wonder why Bangladesh corporate would be deemed so negligible so as not to deserve any attention in terms of a specialised media channel? Its imperative that we make use of the media (traditional and new) to raise awareness of our business topics, brands, culture, challenges and opportunities and make it cross the border please.

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Would David Rowe get a job in Bangladesh?

Some claimed that economic recession was the best time for innovation, to have a fresh look at things, new ways of doing old stuff. Now that included the way you used to hunt for jobs too. With so many people losing jobs everyday across the western world, many still thought to be innovative in the way they go about looking for a suitable career in these times of uncertainty. David Rowe, a graduate of University of Kent, pulled out a publicity stunt for himself by posing as a mobile billboard seeking a job in the busy streets of London. He was even offering would be employers free employment for the first month so that they could ‘try’ him before paying or firing him. Times are hard and so are getting jobs.

However, his stunt seemed to have paid off finally as he has recently been landed a job at JCDecaux, one of the largest outdoor ad companies of the world, after the Managing Director of the company spotted him in the street ‘self-advertising’ for a job. The angelic MD thought that the way David had promoted and branded himself against all odds, taking advantage of the right context and right times (recession) was unique and innovative. He believes that David could be a good asset for his company as he has innovative advertising skills. So far so good for David.

Remember warning signs in some stunt related TV serials which says ‘Don’t try this at home!!’? I wonder if any desperate souls ever try this at Mohakhali flyover or in the busy streets of Motijheel, what the reaction would be? We are a curious nation by birth…we gather around any gathering even if all might be gazing at vaccum, or a Sony TV showroom or anything unusual in the streets of Dhaka. So if someone ever attempts similar stunts in the quest to look for a job, rest assured there would be a good number of curious onlookers, passersby, sympathisers around him (or her?). Who knows such an act might incite the likes of Munni Saha and gang to show up for a spot interview or some media frenzy. So if a suit wearing job hunter ever does this in Dhaka, what are the chances that he actually might end up getting a dream job (forget about dreams, any job would do under those circumstances)? I don’t know really, it can go either way, given the Hujug Nation as we are, he might become the next best thing in Bangladeshi media for a while. However, for a female jobhunter, I don’t think this stunt might be useful in the context of Bangladesh. Since we are also a nation of Google Memory when it comes to tracing back the ins and outs of every women in limelight, such a stunt by a jobhuntress would have detrimental effects for her in society (for future marriage proposals etc.). Pun intended.

In the end of the day, I hope we don’t even have to think about going to such extremes. So much of time, money from parents have been dedicated to get ourselves education, all for the sake of earning a decent bread and butter and for living with dignity. However, the take away from David Rowe’s stunt remains…that even during crisis, don’t let go your sense of creativity, innovation, uniqueness, determination and self-branding. Good luck always with your job hunts. Hope we don't have to do a David Rowe in the streets of Dhaka.

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