How to minimize risk : Kabir Ahmed from bdstock.com blogs

As you are new to investing and getting ready to invest in the stock market then keep in mind that there is a large element of risk involved unless you reduce risks and exposure with care. A significant part of the risk comes from not knowing—the necessary knowledge of stock market, and the experience in investing. A lack of knowledge and experience constitutes the greatest risk for new investors but that can be managed toward gradual diminishing with a power that comes from extensive knowledge, and understanding. The more familiar you are with stock market-how it works, factors that affect stock value, materials you need to read every day , understanding thoroughly the balance sheet, the better you can navigate and shoot close to investment goals- that will only be direction of profit maximizing. The same knowledge that enables you to grow your wealth also enables you to minimize your risk. Read more >>

Just think about for a second how a person in skydiving jumps out from an airplane over 3,000 feet high in the sky or a rock climber keeps his or her body hanging by fingers a hundred feet up a vertical cliff and pushing himself/herself to climb up much higher? How much risk is it for you? It must be close to risk of death. However, with enough experience, understanding of rock-climbing techniques and after a lot of training a person is able to build unconscious confidence, as a result skydiving or rock climbing is no longer risk rather fun games. Risk is related to knowledge, understanding, experience, and competence. Risk is contextual that is depending on the context.


Risk is an inherent part of investing in stocks. People always dream of making a fortune in the stock market, and many do it, but many other newbie investors have lost everything very quickly because of failing to minimize the risk involved with investing in the stock market.

Seeking Knowledge

Gaining knowledge is absolutely necessary before you do anything with your investment money, the foremost you can do is writing down lists of things on paper that such amount of time you are going to put aside for reading stock market articles, understanding the market system, browsing stock portfolio, reading market news. Then you create a few dummy portfolios just to watch and evaluate the shares you hold currently in the portfolios and also analyze them as a stock market analyst what has caused stocks gains or losses and these are results of what kind of investment strategy you have applied.


Pick a few stocks that you think will increase in value and then track them for a while probably 3 or 4 weeks and see how they perform; you can create multiple portfolios by using http://www.bdstock.com/portfolio.php page. Begin to understand how the price of stocks go up and down, and watch what happen to the stocks you chose when various events take place. As you find out more and more about stock investing, you get better and better at picking individual stocks. In this process- you haven’t risked or lost yet since you have not bought or sold stocks in real stock market rather holding them in your dummy portfolios. You can design a stock portfolio and track its performance with thousands of other investors to see how well you have been doing. If you can achieve overall 15% or higher percentage of profit gains in a three-four months of period which will be a remarkable achievement for a new investor due to current market trend which is up-beat and also DGEN/DSE indexes stand over 40% higher comparing to a 150 days moving average that is a sign of bullish market (in case, you want to verify it http://www.bdstock.com/marketcapitalization.php) that means market environment is on your favor and easier to make money than losing.


This entire topic here is to build a stock trading plan, strategies, trading objective, and involve in stock market education, and have enough experiences in order to reduce the risk and play as a master investor like George Soros/Warren Buffet. Have you seen an architect create a blue print who knows for sure a building will stand up for years, substance in the material and the infrastructure are so intact that will have strength to bear whole building? The quality of design and construction are measured perfectly while it is still on the paper as a blue print.
The bottom line is that you want to make sure that you are in control of your mind; you have learned enough, and gained experiences. Now, you are confident and able to analyze companies’ profiles, and follow the investment guidelines that you have created and experienced and detach your emotions from trading. If you are emotional with your losses or with your gains you are in for a roller coaster of a ride. You are either falling in love with stocks; hope shares will go up in the future without following investment guidelines.

Getting familiar with investing style

Investing usually falls into one of two strategies: defensive and offensive. A defensive investing strategy looks to avoid stock market risk as it uses long term investing to post steady, consistent gains. Over time, defensive investing is the most likely to achieve its long-term objectives because it strict with investment guidelines to seek to virtually eliminate the risk in the stock market.


The second strategy is quite different. It is offensive in nature, looking to capitalize on opportunities in bull market. Offensive investing ignores or minimizes stock market risk as it looks to make rapid gains, mostly follow day to day market trend without following guidelines.
Defensive investing doesn’t mean you won’t make money; defensive investing means you take calculated risk and typically lower gains to consistently make money. We all know who won the race in a “Turtle & Rabbit Story” and completed the race at the end although rabbit is a faster runner; it was obviously the result of turtle’s stunning faith, perseverance which kept her running same pace in the race. The consistent gaining even a little bit of accumulation in a long period of time can bring greater success and suppress the faster gaining in a short period of time.
There are many investing styles. Some people invest aggressively, preferring riskier stock that might give a larger and quicker reward which is very close to offensive investment, while others invest more conservatively. Conservative Investing focuses on preserving the investment and allowing it to grow naturally over time.


Conservative approach is the style for people who seek to minimize the risks using considerable fundamental analysis, usually investors prefer to invest in safe, well established companies’ stocks those companies have been around in the market for more than a few years with reputation, have shown increasing sales, increasing earnings per share over the years, have shown strong management skills by making new business deals, maintaining regular AGM and allocating constant dividend payments to investors. Conservative approach is a role that investors seed for long-term objective, are not playing the market for a quick buck rather traders focus on minimizing the risk by analyzing if these companies are seen as leader, playing a solid role as brand name and obviously these type of companies are not going anywhere because they are pillar of Bangladesh’s economy.


You may be thinking why I would spend so much time and effort understanding the process of analyzing shares and reducing risks when I can buy stocks with the help of other people suggestions, recommendations? No one would doubt about it, and neither do I, however, you will find different suggestions from different people and most of times they have no clue and are not expert on analyzing shares because they are new as much as you are in the stock market. Even you may make good money in a short period of time using those rumors, individual stock recommendation. But greater experiences come from failing a few times, but still striving to learn every aspect of investment methodology because a person knows I rather get experienced and expert on how to catch fish forever rest of my life rather given me big fish a few times.

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Kabir Ahmed is a stock investment specialist at www.bdstock.com

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Riding a CNG for better reasons: Part 1

I am convinced that my Chhoto Chachchu, may be unknowingly, was one of the leading pioneers in promoting and practicing the concepts of ‘Liton er flat’ in Bangladesh since late eighties. When I look back now some 22 years ago, I realise that the frequenting of the Dhaka hotties (omuk apu, tomuk aunty) and the warm welcome by Chachchu in his mysterious, dodgy private room in the house was nothing but the budding concept of ‘Liton er flat’, the fact and phenomenon later exposed in the hit Bangla film ‘Bachelor’. I am even surprised and happy to discover that even a fan page on Facebook exists for ‘Liton er flat’ where they ask ‘what kind of services you wish for in Lit’s flat?’ (lol). We can discuss however about the concept, emergence, need, use, risks etc. of this innovative, productive (!) ‘flat’ in a later post.

What makes me look back to this is also the fact that Chachchu used to ask (or rather command) me from the realm of his own 'Liton er flat' sometimes to get him a ‘baby’ with ‘curtains’. Now don’t be mistaken by this ‘baby’, this ‘baby’ was not any of Chachchu’s ‘babies’ i.e. hot/spicy Dhaka drop-deads. Before the arrival of environment friendly green colored CNG auto-rickshaws, we used to call the three-wheelers ‘baby taxis’ or simply ‘baby’. So Chachchu used to yell for a ‘baby’ when his ‘baby’ needed to be dropped off ‘Shayer jao taratari ekta baby nie asho…porda wala anba!!’.


So that was my first orientation to the innovative usage of baby taxis in Dhaka, that other than carrying passengers around, they can be ideal places for last minute intimacy on the move between lovers of Dhaka...Liton er CNG??, as long as there are curtains and covers ofcourse. Although I remained intrigued for long time wondering how come Chachchu’s ravishing hot-heeled guests are so ‘parda-nasheen’ that they preferred ‘parda’ in baby-taxis too. Eventually I realised that this ‘parda’ was meant for other purposes which Chachchu knew and practiced better. So he kept on doing what he enjoyed doing best and I grew up to test it on my own too. I realised however that those were risky ventures if the ‘baby-wala’ happened to be a moral police and/or the time and fate was just perfect for getting mugged too. So after knowing three-wheelers as the passenger carrier and ‘vehicle of love’, I also realised that these can be used to be mugged or to mug unsuspecting innocent passengers too. Time went by, baby-taxis got replaced with CNG auto-rickshaws and we replaced ‘baby’ darling with an acronym…‘CNG’. And as Dhaka city got busier, traffic jams increased and kept on proving how horrible the urban planning in the city is and how much time, productivity, mood we keep wasting stuck inside environment friendly CNG auto-rickshaws. Sometimes I used to doze off in such situations, sometimes throw glances left and right to spot any potential Dhaka Eves in the air conditioned car stuck side by side, sometimes used to curse my fate and the system that how severely its choking people’s productivity, mood, time, etc. However if every (black) cloud has silver lining, was wondering if there is anything worthwhile doing while travelling in CNGs in Dhaka? Anything we could think of in terms of urban advertising on the go? Anything revenue generating involving the CNG owners or the drivers? (to be continued)

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Status Renting, Status Bites and a range of status categories

Many status conscious Dhakaiyas think that if you manage to reside in the Bermuda triangle of Dhaka city i.e. Gulshan-Banani-Baridhara, you possess a 'higher' status than the rest who live outside, or even on the periphery. However Facebook, the most popular social networking site in Bangladesh too, is poised to make this status vanity blurred, as apparently, everybody and anybody has a ‘status’, as long they are registered with Facebook, or with Twitter as a matter of fact. This certainly implies that these status-savvy digital netizens of Bangladesh have acquired the power of being micro-publishers for free, to start influencing their smaller sphere of acquaintances, through their frequent updates about own situation, feelings, news, etc. From my observation, I could categorize the status-mongers in Facebook according to the following categories. See if you want to add some more and think how each of these could be mobilized to spread the word-of-mouth regarding you, your business, brand. (read more)


1. Stato-holics
This group of people are status addicts, they prefer to update their status as frequently as possible. Most interestingly, even if they are ‘busy’, they somehow manage to get the time out of their busy schedule to update their status as ‘Abdul is busy’ or ‘Abdul is buzzzeeeee’ etc. making others wonder whether that person is busy with work or busy Facebooking!

Tip:
This category of users may be good brand mouth-pieces for your product/service. Riding on their urge to frequent status updates, they need to be equipped with enough information and right incentives to help spread the word-of-mouse for your brand.

2. Status-stalkers
You might be having 500+ friends in your friend list but in reality you might be interacting actually with not more than 50 through personal messages, wall posts and seeing each other’s status updates. Then what happened to the rest of your colourful and long friend list? Have they suddenly turned their face off Facebook? I reckon not. This category of people prefer not to update their own status but prefer to have sneak peaks on what others are doing. Partially it could be because they don’t want their ‘friends’ to know what their own secrets plans are for job, holidays etc. lest their friends exploit this information and race ahead. So they prefer to keep a check on everybody else’s status regularly and remain themselves in a hidden mode. That’s what friends are for huh? In many case’s some stalk a handful of people genuinely to acquire more knowledge, contacts etc. They are Facebook introverts.

Tip:
Good type for market research may be, who keep a check on what other people are upto, or may be saying about your brand, business or even you…and then reports back to you.

3. Stat-vertizers
My favourite type. Those who can happily rent out their status space as a micro-bill board to advertise about your business, either for free or for fee for a certain duration of time may be. I have been investigating with this lately and am keen to get in touch with Facebook to figure out if the idea of ‘Status Renting’ could be made a reality. So if I could convince say 10 of my target Facebook friends to update their status about my custom-made-status ready information on my business/product, then it would be made visible to their own friends, with whom I might not be connected. The audience of your audience is my audience that I am trying to reach here through status messages. Its short, crispy, share-able and more importantly you would be more influenced about anything if you read it in your friends’ status updates rather than hearing it from any unsocilited ad campaign, or from me. In exchange, if its possible to track the clicks from each ‘rented status space’, it would be used to may be pay the interested stat-vertizers for their favour.

Tip:
--Friends and family might be bullied for a while to behave like stat-vertizers for a while but not for long, as there are no binding agreements. But if contextual status renting becomes a reality, it would be interesting to see how this works for businesses in a social media environment.

--Don’t let money ruin friendship.

4. Stat-wasters or Stat-blankers
This type of users are not always sure why they should use their status updates for. So sometimes they publish statuses such as ‘Abdul is …’. I really never understand the meaning of this ‘…’. To me, it’s a complete waste of space. Rather stay quiet and stalk other people than saying three dots. Also, some ignore the basic principle of brevity in status messages and opt for writing long epics in their status messages which certainly gets ignored for a skim-through status surfer.

Tip:
Wish them happiness and wish them well.

5. True socialite
They are bit of a mixed bag. They actually share nearly each of their conceivable feeling/emotion i.e. ‘Abdul is happy, sad, sick, tired, sleeping, eating, walking, thinking etc.’. They talk about food, movies, politics, life, love, pretty much everything being social requires and enjoys status messages just because they themselves are genuinely like that. They also send each other virtual gifts, play games etc.

Tip:
If a true socialite could be converted to a part time stat-vertizer, then it would be bthe est combination for your business/brand word spread. As people tend to rely more on the candid opinion of a True socialite than on the dry and monotonous updates from a stat-vertizer.

Other than ‘status-renting’ I am also researching with a concept I coined as ‘status-bites’. Inspired by what soundbites do, I think status-bites are the next best thing to educate your audience on your business/product on a slow and scheduled status release format. I am applying this specifically for reports that other teams produce for public consumption at my present workplace. It is argued that in times of information economy, attention is the currency, which no one wants to spend too much. So not many people have the time or interest or the access to go through a full report of 30-40 pages. But they would not mind to have a surface level idea, gist of the actual content in small chewable chunks, right through their status feeds so that they can be informed about the key aspects of the issue at hand through the screens of their smart phones or desktop screen. Think about it, is there anything about your business/brand, which can be released through status messages in a planned way over a period of time? May be a week or so?

Lastly, something I call ‘status-serials’. Can you tell a story about your brand/business in 10 status messages in a serial fashion? So that I have the urge to see what your next update is? Can it keep me interested in your sticky status for a week or so? However, none of these terms are in Google yet.

That it, time to update my status about this post now.

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Part time and voluntary jobs in Bangladesh: Can bdjobs.com help?

Why doesn't bdjobs.com have a special section only for part time jobs in Bangladesh? Or for voluntary jobs? Its obvious that bdjobs.com focuses mostly on the full time job market openings as that is from where they make their revenue from, from the employers that is but I am sure a huge number of people, mostly students are eagerly looking for part time jobs around Bangladesh.

When you read the experience and skills requirements for job openings in Bangladeshi companies, you sometimes wonder if even Superman or Spiderman would have dared to drop their CVs through bdjobs.com. It would have been better if those job adverts would have also included the minimum bidding (or the bribing) amount for buying that post, if knowing a high-rank insider would have helped or not and facts like that. If job seekers, students don't even get easy information and access to part time jobs first, if they don't get part time exposure to management and business establishments, then how on earth would they even come close to the fancy wishlist employers fabricate and advertise through bdjobs.com? Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a lucky 'boro bhai' in a telecom or a bank to bag eventually an internship or some sort of a part time work, with the hope of turning it to a full time bread-earning source eventually. Still a large number of students and first time entrants to the already saturated Bangladeshi job market rely on neutral platforms of available information, of which bdjobs.com is the pioneer. This unpriveleged segment also includes those who live outside urban cities and hope to get concrete, reliable employment information either in their district towns or in Dhaka city. But how many of them actually end up getting any part time job, let alone a full time one?

In a country where you have Abdul to do your grocery shopping, Quddus Mia to drive your car, Morjina Bua to do your cooking and Soniar Maa to do your landury, its very unlikely that you will need someone else to do part time jobs for you. I am sure Fahim Bhai would argue that in a country where even full time jobs are saturated, how can you seek a market for part time jobs? This is what bdjobs.com also replied to a query related to part time jobs. However entrepreneurs seek and find opportunities during crisis. bdjobs.com was never a game changing player in the job search market in Bangladesh, as they were the first mover in this case and they still hold the market leading position and they established the rules of the game. Those who followed suit in the forms of jobsA1.com, jobsbd.com etc. are mere look-alikes and don't offer any true value in comparison to bdjobs.com. If bdjobs.com does not think seriously about how to promote and publicise part time jobs more, then it will be just a matter of time that someone with the brand say partimebdjobs.com or voluntarybdjobs.com could catch them napping in their complacency. The pretext that 'the concept of part time jobs is not popular in Bangladesh' is not convincing enough any more and we want bdjobs.com to change the rules of the game now.

Four things to consider particularly.

1. Can bdjobs.com redesign their website to have special sections on part time jobs only? Interestingly they have an article on this topic but that is pretty much about it.

2. Can bdjobs.com come to any agreements with its clients (employers) that they would publish adverts for part time jobs with special discounts to encourage employers to think seriously about publicising part time jobs beyond company notice boards, emails/memos and word of mouth?

3. Can bdjobs.com focus on voluntary jobs in Bangladesh? As we are a land of NGOs, I am sure many students, job seekers with a stronger social sense would love to be part of any social development company, for experience's sake. Voluntary jobs hold great value when mentioned in CV, as experience counts, not the fact that one worked for free. Many non-resident Bangladeshis also are interested to work in a voluntary role when they spend their vacations, term-breaks in Bangladesh. They mostly rely on information from friends, family. bdjobs.com can play a good role here by being the reliable provider of information even before those Bangladeshis head back home to seek the voluntary role.

4. bdjobs.com needs to look beyond Bangladesh too. Can it play any role in the job hunting of non-resident Bangladeshis? Certainly ethnic origins play little role in the global platform while getting a job, but there is no harm in making sure that I, as a Bangladeshi living abroad, get and give information to fellow Bangladeshis around me first and foremost...about job openings around me which might fit their profile. Community building is essential for Bangladeshis living abroad and this needs to be beyond political and religious affinities. The new bond should be based on economic terms, on jobs and opportunities.

It is agreed that creating more part time jobs is something that bdjobs.com does not control as it depends solely on the employers and unless they have enough reasons, incentives to create part time jobs, bdjobs.com can hardly do anything. Its just that they are in an influencing position as they interact with nearly all leading employers in Bangladesh. So they have enough ground under their feet to make a case for the part time and voluntary job seekers of Bangladesh. Hope they will do it before someone else does.

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Are you Worried? Bharti-Airtel says not to worry!

Are you worried? Do you subscribe to Worried? As finally the Indian mobile behemoth has arrived in Bangladesh with a visa costing them a mere Rupees 45 lakh only and with the promise of juicy hanging mulas worth $300 million (Mula is Bangla term for radish, when we say ‘mula jholano’ it means hanging a radish to imply ‘alluring’, ‘promising big hollow things ahead’ etc.).


Its no wonder that Bangladesh is the ripest place on planet earth for mobile phone industry. Where else on earth would you get 150 million people crammed inside the largest delta of the world with naturally one of the highest population density per square mile? Where else on earth can you find such a monotonous landscape which is plain and where setting up one BTS (Base Tower Station) would suffice to serve to a greater number of mobile customers, as they literally are living next to, on top of, each other. Forget about voice quality at present and let alone Value Added Services, this market and the consumers are premature enough and would be happy enough to be subscribing to Airtel, so feed them according to their appetite isn’t it?


Warid always seemed Worried right from the word go in Bangladesh. Rumour has it that their entry into the market was questionable and BTRC blessings were bought through speed and cheap money. Other than slashing down air time charges, playing with their logo, encouraging love-birds to talk for cheap or free all night long and distributing branded blankets under the guise of CSR to the distressed, they seemed pretty worried all the way through.So I guess they were happy to have been relieved to be sold off to big brothers across the border where their media is also terming this as a 'distress sale'. Speculations are already underway about this due to the origin of the source country of take over and our bitter-sweet relations with them from time to time ranging from politics, water, sports, immigrants, religion, onions, eggs, sarees, criminals, militants, movies, cable television etc. Some of the speculations include:


--What does this hold for ordinary Bangladeshi mobile users? Reduced tariffs? Value added services? Better voice quality? (a CNG wala who uses mobile during traffic jams in Dhaka)
--Is it a threat to our sovereignty? What if Bharti-Airtel alliance tap sensitive phone conversations from our beloved politicians and export it across borders? (from an Indi-allergic person who loves Bollywood films and TV serials though, watches secretly and usually doesn’t admit it)
--If it were a ‘tata-byebye’ to Tata then why is it a ‘yaya’ to Bharti Airtel? And why now? (from a person who loves to bash the Gov no matter what)
--Will they create more jobs for Bangladeshi graduates? (from a student eager to get into telecom industry)
--Will they make sure that locals represent a significant important number of management positions? (a manager in Aktel thinking of a leap once the take over is complete)
--Will they help ease the Indian visa application processes? (from a frustrated frequent traveller to India)
--Will Airtel fly in Bollywood stars to promote their events in Dhaka? (from an event management executive)


Irrespective of their seriousness or funny-ness, the fact remains that Bangladesh is a mobile cow which everyone had been milking and Bharti-Airtel can also milk for years to come, until the delta vanishes under the sea due to global warming, climate change etc. Foreign Direct Investment of this scale is always welcome, its just that we as consumers are still not sure about the strength of balls of BTRC. Also the lack of any proper implementation of consumer protection rights only keeps us as vulnerable as we had always been. Also, GrameenPhone and Banglalink have been pioneering patriotic marketing thoroughly in their marketing campaigns to gain the mind share of the Bangladeshi youth mobile-sumers who are becoming more and more conscious of their national identity. Wonder what marketing approach Bharti-Airtel would adopt in this case. Also, how would they name their new born? War-tel? Bharid? Its just such a nice example of Indo-Pak management working together to tap the odd man's market (its us :) ). Ab dono milke maarenge!

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Abed Sir becomes Sir Abed : Problem Solved, Poverty Alleviated

Its a matter of great pride and rejoice that our beloved Abed Bhai or Abed Sir is officially going to become Sir Abed. He is going to become officially knighted by Her Majesty the Queen of the Commonwealth Rani Mata Elizabeth Part II. Please note the difference it makes when Abed Sir becomes Sir Abed, how a mere reordering two words changes the landscape.

Of the many good things the British left for us as colonial hangovers other than English language, railway networks etc. is the term 'sir'--to use as a sign of respect to professionally superior, respected personalities, teachers, bosses etc. The three-letter word is expected to carry a lot weight when it comes to branding a person's capabilities, experience, expertise. The term 'sir' has great powers to please your boss, to oil him, to pretend as if you respect him and his (mostly shallow) knowledge (about which you care little). So here we are, the first Bangladeshi to become a 'Sir', or a 'Mohashoy', 'Jonab' in local lingo. Its interesting how we don't become 'bhodrolok' or 'gentleman' unless 'bideshis' label us for our whatever achievement. However I would carefully leave aside any critical discussion and analysis on Sir Abed or on his brainchild BRAC, as not only I am under qualified to talk about these but also there are many sage word and wisdom traders in the country who can do the honours. I would rather make merry of the fact that this has given us another opportunity to broadcast brand Bangladesh, brand BRAC and another brand ambassador in the form of Abed Sir..thukku..Sir Abed, proudly seconding champion boxer Muhammad Ali in the field of micro-credit...Dr. Muhammad Yunus.

There is no surprise we only recognize our own potential and brand icons mostly after foreign friends recognize and appreciate it. I am sure even though we have the option to look at the good side of Mr. Abed's receiving this recognition, there would be thousand voices ready within Bangladesh to belittle or question his contribution in the form of BRAC. As it happened after Boxer Yunus received his Nobel trophy. Inspite of home-grown allergy to global success by Bangladeshis, I think its a great opportunity to establish BRAC brand as the pioneer in the field of poverty alleviation, international development. BRAC is an export ready (already exported to 8 countries in Asia and Africa) Bangladeshi brand, the visibility of which is mostly limited to development practioners in the West. I wonder how many of us and non-Bangladeshis actually know that BRAC is the largest development organisation in the whole world? We can discuss later what 'large' means and how and why it effects on our lives but for now, eat the fact that this is the biggest mark in this field and you can stop guessing names such as ActionAid, CARE, Oxfam etc. Though I get a feeling that BRAC genuinely cares more about alleviating poverty and being recognized in the process through genuine contribution in terms of poverty research, action plans, success stories etc. They might not be that bothered about how their brand value could be extended on a global level so that other Bangladeshi brands (both belonging to the NGO and non-NGO sectors) can piggyback on the excellence of achievements that BRAC has bagged globally. BRAC and Mr. Abed's contribution in this field is another testimony of the fact other other than exporting Taslima Nasreen, hoard of illegal immigrants, Islamic fanatics, stories of floods and cyclones, Bangladesh also exports iconic brands such as BRAC and icons such as Mr. Abed, Yunus and hopefully there are many more in the making.

I also think however that we should come out of this notion and euphoria of us being awarded by friends and well-wishers in the West. Although many claim that I live on pots, I still hope for the day when BRAC will give an award to an NGO in Africa or to a development researcher in a UK/US university for their (his/her) notable achievement in the field of poverty alleviation. The award will be called BRAC Poverty Alleviation Excellence Award to be given by Great Sir Abed Part I. Award recepients need to travel to Bangladesh and receive it. We can also start giving away 'Bhai' awards or 'Kutub' awards to foreigners in this field. Say Ban-Ki Moon receives 'Kutubhood' or 'Bhaihood' from Sir Abed for the former's contributions to some field related to poverty...so he comes Kutub Ban-Ki Moon or Bhai Ban-Ki Moon.

I admit though that if Bangladesh becomes the center of excellence for poverty reduction strategies and initiatives then it should become a rich country before any other. Why this is still not happening is a fact well known and not much worked on (please refer to our 'khaslots'). Its very paradoxical that the places that produce top-notch brains to tackle poverty are themselves one of the most impoverished. Keep getting awards and remain poor and wait for foreign instructions and aid. A bit of a dog and pony show for this sector that is.

Key take aways for this post:

--BRAC is world's largest development organisation

--Dr. Muhammad Yunus is Made in Bangladesh, as his side-kick, the Bangladesh production also features Sir Fazle Abed, the founder of BRAC.

--Please share this with your non-Bangladeshi friends.

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Where is Siddika Kabir's Restaurant?

One of the must carry essentials during my student years outside Bangladesh was a book. A book not related to any fiction, fantasy or facts of real world, a book not related to any academic requirement whatsoever. No time for Masud Rana, Sunil or Shirshendu..Humayun Ahmed or Humayun Azad. But that was a book directly related to my existence, my day to day living and well being. A cook book by famous Bangladeshi chef Siddika Kabir that I didn't forget to buy at the 11th hour prior to catching a flight. Amazon describes one of her books as 'The best book for cooking written in Bengali for decades. In very easy and informative way the author has unveiled the secrets of traditional, contemporary, modern and fast-food preparing as well. Since late 70's a copy of this book is available in each household in Bangladesh as well as a part of standard packing for those who left for abroad.'

Among many other things in life, what I don't understand much are paintings, poetry, printers, photocopiers and cooking. The last in the list appears to me as easy at times, but when I get to do it myself, it appears to be as complicated as flying a fighter jet perhaps. Hence this reliance on the Bengali food Bible composed by the respected Siddika Kabir. While I am still flipping through the recipe pages of her book trying to successfully cook and eat (and let eat) some edible items, I was wondering why doesn't Siddika Kabir have any restaurants anywhere in Bangladesh? Its common knowledge that she is a familiar and popular face in cooking shows in many private television channels in the country, but wouldn't it be nice if she did have a flagship restaurant by her own name, owned by her, run by her somewhere in the city? It would be so nice to visit her signature restaurant from time to time to be served with delicious food items prepared by her very own unique recipes. Would be even nicer if she decides to show up occasionally to ask the food-lovers how the food was. She could even arrange some sort of impromptu cooking lessons in the same premises as the diners would be enjoying their food, cooked or directed by the chef herself. In a country where we love to eat, have eateries like mushrooms, its still too crowded with 'me too' restaurants or the frankly fake ones. This sector still has room for authentic food icons such as her.

In my opinion, what Siddika Kabir had been doing since 1965 deserves her to be branded, her knowledge in terms of the recipes are certainly exportable abroad where there is a large Bangladeshi diaspora presence. Same principle applies for Fakruddin's Biriyani too, if we crave over the Biriyani, wonder why this item and the brand have not been exported massively outside Bangladesh so far? Are we waiting for the Fakruddin family to initiate partnerships abroad? Or they are just not interested? Or is it just us who don't want to take the initiative to forge a partnership with them to spread this great Bangladeshi brand beyond Bangladesh, Singapore, Australia and to the US, Europe, Middle East etc.? Try Googling 'Bangladeshi celebrity chef'....we are certainly proud of Tommy Miah but somewhere down the line, I feel we would have been prouder to see the likes of the Siddika Kabir in that search too. Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Sanjeev Kapoor etc. might be self-taught, gifted cooking geniuses, but they did not brand themselves beyong their territories by themselves. It is argued that the media, the diaspora had an instrumental role to play in transforming these culinary brands into global level which proudly carry their national entities with them wherever they go. Why can't we do something better with our culinary trailblazers such as Siddika Kabir, Fakruddin's Biriyani, Mamar Halim or Kader (or Mostakim) er Chaap? Lets not wait for foreign consultants to come and show us what great items and achievers we have which should have been rightly promoted/branded long time ago.

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Marketing Lessons from Momtaz Madam

Sorry to disappoint you but today's marketing lessons are not by any head-turner, heart-throb, drop-dead-gorgeous, new female faculty in any of the private universities of Bangladesh. As far as I know, this madam does not teach business or branding anywhere, neither any business-branding gurus of our country ever considered her to be of any worth to exemplify marketing lessons. She is the queen of her own queendom and some call her 'folk queen' of modern times of Bangladesh---our very own 'bukta faitta zay' singer---Momtaz.

Up Down Left Right University of Business Assministration

Assmission Test, June 2025

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Question: Compare and contrast the difference and/or similarities between singer Momtaz and Bangladesh Corporate Blog and discuss the marketing lessons from Momtaz. (Marks 10)

Answer:

1. Choice of language:

Singer Momtaz's choice of words in her song lyrics are rather informal and to some extent flirts with weird and/or emphatic expressions. For example some of her song titles, lyric include 'bukta faitta jay' (my heart bursts), 'amar ghum vangaiya dilo re morar kokiley' (my sleep was broken by the bloody cuckoo), 'Bhalobashar dengue jor' (the Dengue Fever of Love), 'Piritir ketha dia...' (the blanket of love), 'Joubon ekta Gold Leaf Cigarette' (Youth is a Gold Leaf cigarette) etc. Corporate Blog also uses informal language of business blogging and very frequently calls politicians and theory-heavy business gurus as 'airheads', 'shitheads', 'idiots' etc. However, Momtaz Apa sings in Bengali while the blog blogs in English. However all of them studied in Bengali medium schools.

2. Target Audience:

Songs of Momtaz Begum target the lower income mass music lovers of Bangladesh. Its unlikely that she will be invited to perform at Le Saigon, Spaghetti Jazz or Kozmo Lounge. Bangladesh Corporate Blog also blogs for mostly students, young entrepreneurs, executives in Bangladesh and abroad. Its unlikely that they will be invited to blue collar corporate events, close door brand prayer sessions followed by dinner and fashion shows.

3. Formal training/education:

Momtaz Apa does not possess any formal degree in music from Shantiniketan or any school remotely linked with music. She got the talent in her genes from her singer father and carried on. She even does not know how to play a harmonium. This blog also does not have any formal structure, its not a company, formal entity whatsoever. The bloggers here did not study business from leading business schools in Bangladesh or in the US. They also have never managed big branded companies in Bangladesh or abroad.

4. Looks:

The choice is pretty much clear if asked to decide between singer Mila and Momtaz. Similarly between the bloggers here (please click) and perhaps Shah Rukh Khan or Brad Pitt.

5. Existence:

Even though established, well-educated and well-trained singers of Bangladesh might frown at the popularity and singing prowess of Momtaz Madam, they can't deny that 'she exists' and she is out there big time. They like it or not, there is a sizeable number of people who like her music and treat her as their entertainment queen. Similary, some like it or not, this blog exists big time in the internet, thanks to high organic search results in Google (70%) and total dominance for keywords like 'bangladeshi business blog', 'bangladesh corporate', 'bangladesh blog'.

Marketing lessons from Momtaz Madam can be elaborated as following:

1. Be a People's Brand:

Singer Momtaz sings as if she represents the mass music lovers of Bangladesh. Most of this group either belongs to the rural areas or the lower income urban population. However, recently students, youth are showing keen enthusiasm to her music mostly because of her candid lyrics, flamboyant voice and 'care-no-one' attitude. So think about how your businss/brand represents, connects to the mass. Many fans of Momtaz consider her to be their relative and a household name, source of entertainment and inspiration. Can you say the same for your brand? Do your consumers consider your brand a naturally inseperable member of their family?

2. Practice Brand Conviction:

Although Momtaz Madam is renowned for her bold choice of words in her songs, it rarely appears to be vulgar. This is because she reflects conviction through her voice, its pitch. As if she firmly believes in what she is singing which enforces the conviction through her performances. Does your brand radiate your passion to serve? Does it appear naturally or seems fake?

3. Preach Comfortable Coexistence:

Momtaz as a brand comfortably exists with other singers not only in the folk music segment but in the overall music industry. She does not seem to show off that 'air of celebrityness' or degrade other so called 'established and trained' singers. She is warm and welcome to any other form of music. This openness has contributed to her brand being perceived as generous, down to earth and accessible, thus adding to her viral popularity. Does your brand exist comfortably with your competition and still the consumers choose you among other options?

4. Have a Brand personality:

Momtaz's voice, composition and lyrics are unique, authentic and people seem to talk about it, either to appreciate or tease, but they still talk about it. These elements signify the 'human-ness' of her brand as a person. Does your business/brand have a face or is it faceless? Can you define, feel its personality?

5. Tickle a taboo:

A key element for a brand to become famous or infamous in Bangladesh is if it tickles any social taboo. It works. If we consider a woman singing not only about mushy love and romantic Bangla songs but actually inferring sexual hints, swear words or using street language and metaphors not many musicians would dare to experiment with, Momtaz did it all and it still works for her. Many of her fans like her because she is daring, she is a music maverick and through her antics she seems to tickle many social taboos that exist in Bangladesh. That is why she is popular, for the right reason or wrong...but she is. So if your brand manages to tickle any social taboo, rest assured your brand will gain the essential word of mouth spread that is required during launch or growth. Sex, polygamy, adultery, contraceptions, nudity, even affirmative women are in some cases considered to be sensitive issues not to be discussed in public. If you do, you will throw stones at the bee-hive.

6. Show your Brand Robinhood-ness:

Personal Social Responsibility (shall we call it PSR, as opposed to CSR?) is at the core of the brand Momtaz from the word 'go'. By setting up eye hospitals, by allying with social agencies, NGOs to spread social messages on health, education etc. Momtaz shows the socially responsible side of her business/brand. She seems to be the Robinhood among her followers, fans...robbing the rich of their fakeness, vanity, prejudice and distributing truth, sincerity, love among the masses...that is what she does. What is that 'Robinhood-ness' of your brand? You literally don't need to steal or snatch things away from the rich and wealthy and distribute it to your constituents but it works if your brand shows generousity, acts of free give-aways and free love...consumer love it. Please don't attempt to steal tins, food grains etc. reserved and meant for relief purposes though, that might have a boomerang effect.

End of exam.

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Renaming for a Digital Bangladesh

Do you have a new born? Do you know someone who has a new born? Do you dream of a Digital Bangladesh? Do you believe that names have an impact on how the baby would behave when it grows up? Then waste no more time, go nowhere else...some of our creative brains have proposed some innovative Digital Bengali names for our new borns, the future Digital Generation Bangladesh...shall we call them Gen-D?

Since the primary audience of this blog targets English speaking (and reading) Bangladeshi and non-Bangladeshi business readers, I have transliterated the Digital Bengali names. Here is all we have for your naming pleasure.

1. Mouse Choudhury

2. Monitor Alam

3. Mozilla Akhter

4. Opera Khatun

5. Cable Dewan

5. Modem Khandker

6. DVD Khan

7. Google Mia

8. Profile Choudhury

9. Schedule Alam

10. Folder Sheikh

11. Refresh Mahmud

12. Email Patowary

13. Laptop Haider

14. IBM Chattopaddhay

15. Ipod Kibria

16. PC Sarkar

17. Kamruzzaman Excel

18. Intel Chakraborty

19. Asus Majumder

20. RAM Mohan Roy

21. Apple Khan

22. Casing Akhter

23. Duel Rana

24. Audio Hawladar

25. XP Singh

26. Device Adhikary

27. Undo Mia

28. Zafrullah Sharafont

Amazing piece of naming convention and innovation isn't it? Let me know which one(s) you liked the most. I still believe that we as a nation naturally possess great sense of humour, however if we also had put our brains and time in the right places in right time, we should have become more developed than Malaysia by now (sigh). Nevertheless, I hope the policy makers and spoilticians (spoilt politicians) of Bangladesh would greet these digital Bengali names and the act of renaming babies with arms wide open, as they love renaming almost everything in Bangladesh, depending on whoever is in power. So if they are dreaming of a Digital Bangladesh, what best a way than to start renaming the future generation in the true digital way.

I wish we could rename a donkey as a horse and it would soon start running faster and win important races for us. Only and only if it were so simple and easy. Hardly anything would be achieved other than a good laugh and some time wasted, by naming or renaming babies, bridges, hospitals or airports. There is a reason why every programmer is not called 'Bill Gates' or 'Steve Jobs' in the US and why they still lead the global software powerhouses. Rather than renaming, we better relook at the way we go about doing our business, revise our perceptions towards branding, entrepreneurship, innovation, refresh our knowledge about Bangladeshi brands and businesses and rethink the way we want to portray ourselves to the business world.

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Eat Chinese, by Chinese, at Chinese restaurant, in Bangladesh

Have you ever thought why many people prefer to look for ‘authentic’ Chinese food from restaurants such as Bamboo Shoot or Golden Rice or for ‘authentic’ Korean food from food joints like Arirang, Koreana etc. in Dhaka city? There had been so many Chinese restaurants in the city successfully catering to the Chinese food lovers for decades. However, many businessmen and families alike have lately grown a liking for the restaurants mentioned earlier not only to entertain foreign guests but also to arrange family gatherings, occasions etc. Other than perhaps the food being of superior quality and alcohol being served on the premises, it is argued that there is the element of true Chinese or Korean staff/owner/waiters being involved in the service process, which adds a great deal to the experience inside those restaurants.

I attended a Christmas party the other day at a French restaurant in London. Other than having names of food written in French in menu with explanations in smaller font in English, French music being played in the background, photographic pieces on French culture, history, the restaurant also had French speaking waiters and waitresses who conversed with guests and took orders in heavily French accentuated English. The accent was so ‘French’ that confusions occurred frequently whether they were speaking in English or making it sound like more ‘Frenchlish’. Nevertheless, the human touch of a frenchman/woman added a great deal to the experience of having French food at a French restaurant in London. In the same note, I realised that most Indian/Bangladeshi restaurants here are run and served by either Indians and/or Bangladeshis, West Indian restaurants served by Jamaicans, Dominicans etc., sushi restaurants run by Japanese and ofcourse the Kebab and Doner shops being run by mostly Turkish people. Certainly this is a no-brainer that Italians are the best cooks for pasta and pizza, Japanese for sushi and so on. Culinary country branding this is.

But interestingly in a country like Bangladesh which is full of food lovers where eating is an important part of day to day life and where there are perhaps equal if not more number of restaurants than shopping malls and mosques, there are only a handful of restaurants which showcase the ethnic human link to the food being served at the same time. Seeing ‘Chinese looking’ staff in a Chinese restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital certainly increases the credibility and authenticity and the ‘Chineseness’ of that restaurant in the middle of the Bangladeshi capital, atleast in the case of Bamboo Shoot and Golden Rice. It cannot however be argued that Chinese or Indian restaurants in Bangladesh which are being managed by Bangladeshis are not making any profit or are not popular or don’t serve good food. The argument is that when the food belongs to a certain foreign country, it makes the experience more complete if its also being cooked and served by someone who belongs to that country and who establishes interaction directly with the consumers when they are in the process of consuming that service—that’s the intangible value addition to the experience marketing. Its true that not all foreign food restaurants should have, or can afford to have foreign staff when there are so many unemployed Bangladeshis eagerly looking for employment. However it seems those which do (showcase foreign staff, chef, owner) seem to draw a certain class of consumers may be still from a niche segment of food lovers.

If you have Turkish friends in Bangladesh, ask two of them to set up and start running a Turkish Doner Kebab shop, where they themselves should be slicing and serving the kebabs. Its highly likely that it will break even in 6 months if it’s the ‘only’ Turkish restaurant in town as of date.

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