Four 'how cow' business tips for this Eid

Eid Mubarak! Now that the major part of day’s Qurbani related activities are done- it is time to reflect on a few ‘how cow’ business tips which could have been really interesting to realise as a run up to Eid ul Azha –as it is celebrated in Bangladesh.

Victory for Red and Green!

I am not sure if you have come across the Shada Kalo boutique at Rifles Square and also in Banani No. 11 Road in Dhaka. I don't know if they have branches elsewhere but they were first of its kind to try produce fashion clothes, accessories, materials as long as they were either white (shada) or black (kalo). Pretty innovative nonetheless and we can discuss about their business strategy next time. But their idea has been the inspiration to me to see outlets around Bangladesh producing, promoting and selling merchandize only based on the two colors very close to our heart--red and green--The main two colors of the national flag of Bangladesh.

Pretty much like the month of Ramadan, when you see an uprise in the number of 'seasonal practitioners', the month of December also sees an inundation of nationalism. Ofcourse this is good but why limit this great sense of belonging and pride to one month only and why limit this expression of solidarity to the flag only and why limit the selling of national flags to the hands of floating traders only in busy traffic intersections in cities? The idea is to have more than one outlets across cities and district towns who would sell more than flags, it could be banners, stickers, mugs, pen drives, t-shirts, ear-rings, desk flags, key rings, coat pins, bag pins, simple pens, card holders, head bandanas, wrist bands, umbrellas, dining sets, cushion covers and perhaps many more....only and only as long as they are either red or green or both.


Please note that accessorising patriotism is a topic we have discussed before where this act of doing business works towards promoting sense of nationalism (atleast in December and in March perhaps) and can even be great source of basic education as well which could be provided right at the points of purchase. For example, how many of us or of the younger generation know who designed the flag of Bangladesh? So an element of nationalistic education could be embedded in any product which uses national events as a hook and can serve as learning tools not only for us but for foreigners too. For example, couple of months ago, I asked Shabana apa to get me some tiny Bangladeshi flag coatpins (yes, like Obamama and Bush) from Amecon Ltd. in Chairman Bari in Mohakhali, Dhaka, as she was travelling from Dhaka to London. I had been donning them since to work from time to time and to external events where my national identity could be 'worn' as an ornament. Many has since asked me which country's flag that was (!) and what does it signify, so the job of the Bangla brand ambassador is a full time one here.


No doubt bits and pieces of patriotic merchandizing already exist in the form of wrist bands, t-shirts, mugs etc. But have a look here what the opportunities are and how we can help spread it not only in December but all the year round! Ofcourse true progess as a nation will not be achieved by wearing red and green lungis or gamchhas or grameen check only, we need to unite, do, act and work harder for that. But there is certainly no harm in showing off our true blood colors, which is not red...its red and green, especially on the eve of the great victory day! Just to remember that 'victory' these days is achieved and need to be sustained not anymore at war fronts but in business boardrooms, TV and computer screens in urban and rural households and more importantly in the mindspace of consumers, citizens etc.

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.

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.

Do an identity check for your brand online

There was a time in mid 90s that me and some of my techno-guru friends got excited about starting a domain name business. Plain and simple... you keep on buying domain names of prospective big companies of Bangladesh with the hope of selling it to them in future in higher prices, provided if they would ever wake up from sleep to get a website for their brand name, business etc.

Certainly unethical and a bit risky venture it was, but we did realise that not only company domains but also city domains were still up for grabs. For example, in 1995, domains like dhaka.com, dhaka2000.com, sylhet2000.com, rajshahi.com etc. (major divisional headquarters) were available. We could sense money in the making and started all out efforts to start this 'business' at any cost. We started making lengthy lists of potential 'target' companies, establishments who had no clue then what even websites were and why would they need one. We were excited to experience the desktop based reach of this 'business' and the chance of getting rich overnight.

However, it was no question of ethics or legality that constrained us from launching our venture in the long run. We experienced 'entrepreneurial hiccups' due to three major setbacks. Firstly, none of us had any foreign credit cards with which to buy the domain names online. Secondly, there were not many among our network of relatives or 'boro bhais' who used to possess a prized international credit card. Lastly, some uncles and contacts who happened to possess credit cards did not have any idea what this 'domain business' was all about, so they were extremely reluctant to leak their sensitive credit card information to a bunch of part time neighbourhood troublemakers (us) and they were petrified to learn that the transaction would take place over the internet. So end of our business venture. We got back to discussing higher education, Bangladeshi politics, band music and girls.

Recently with the advent of Twitter, many similar ID or name hijackers seem to have 'booked' Twitter user names for some Bangladesh brands. Check out the Twitter accounts for Grameenphone, Banglalink, Grameen (with Yunus' photo), Aktel, Citycell, bdjobs etc. 'Ke ba kahara' seem to have very cleverly reserved the unique user names perhaps hoping that they can reach to a deal with those companies to bargain for those Twitter accounts. The use of Twitter among businesses is increasing in leaps and bounds in the west and its a matter of time when Bangladeshi brands, and celebrities will catch the Twitter fever. Its also possible that some of these 'reserved' but dead Twitter accounts might be owned by genuine employees from the company, they just haven't figured out what to do with it yet.

However, to spoil the party of the 'name kidnappers', Twitter has recently made some changes in its policies. Read them here. This means that the party is over for those who might want to reserve the brand names or operate them with fake tweets. On the other hand, I am not aware of many companies actively pursuing any social media strategy to engage the Bangladeshi consumers, both at home and abroad. So perhaps they are either not aware or don't bother if their brand identities are being hijacked online. Every one out of five internet users of Bangladesh has an account in Facebook for example, and I am not sure if any traditional market research, media research company have taken up any survey on the use of social media among various age groups in Bangladesh and how the businesses can make use of new media to connect their brand with the netsumers. The opportunities are vast how social media blended with mobile phones can change business dynamics in Bangladesh. Please don't wait for foreign think-tanks to come to Radisson and tell you that.

Hope Win wins! Hope Agriculture wins!

I guess it was back in 1994 when Agricultural Science was introduced as an elective subject for SSC examinations in Bangladesh. I, along with my rebel and restless classmates, remember raising eyebrows and teasing the fact that we will have to learn now how to cultivate land and milk cows! 15 years is not a short time, but if I remember clearly, boys were supposed to study Agri Science while our 'homely' female classmates were seen heading for the Home Science subjects. They were supposed to grow up to be specialists in cooking tasty food, sewing baby clothes and manage overall households. Whereas we, were supposed to invest a significant portion of our knowledge, time and expertise in agriculture of Bangladesh when we grow up. We were I guess too young to realise then that Agricultural Science was more than just another subject to clear in SSC, rather it was the science about the very backbone of Bangladesh's economy, its existence. I hated to learn about the symptoms of ranikhet disease of poultry and we had a good laugh when a truant gangmate boasted off drawing an image of milking a cow in the exam paper. I don't remember any of us ever wanted to become educated farmers or even venture anywhere near the agricultural services, produces or any related area when we grow up. Such was our allergy, such was our notion, such was our prejudice.

Its certainly an eye opener that there are still innovative entrepreneurs who are showing the way not only to young generation but to other entrepreneurs as well...the value and merit of agriculture related businesses, startups and services in Bangladesh. Win Inc. is one of such companies who has invested their interest and expertise in collecting, collating, validating, digitising and distributing latest, timely and tested information on agriculture, fishery, poultry, livestock covering more than 80 items...all in Bangla. They have set up an impressive collection of this knowledge at www.ruralinfobd.com which can be termed as the digital gateway to agri-information in Bangla. The company also works as the content generator for agri-information to be collected and used by rural farmers, through the Community Information Centers of Grameen Phone, all around the country. They are also providing information to Banglalink's 7676 Jiggasha helpline, which is an agri-call center. Such noble has been the companies dedication towards this line of business that they have recently been nominated for an award in the e-agriculture category in the eIndia 2009 conference in India. Would be a good gesture to vote for Win, who are showing how agri information in Bangla can not only be a successful business model but also has the ability to serve numerous farmers of Bangladesh by providing them with timely and accurate information on their crops, livestocks, etc.

I still remember attending Agricultural Science classes in school and think it was a great opportunity wasted. Seeing companies like Win Inc. making sense out of this is a great learning and realisation too. I am sure we needed to hone our skills and knowledge with something that is more relevant in the context of Bangladesh. Agriculture that is. Hope Win wins in eIndia and in every other venture.

Digital Bangladesh: Are you and your business WEBFFYT ?

As the saying goes 'Charity starts from home', going digital should start with yourself and your business first. Ask yourself if you and your business have a digital presence in the internet or not, try the WEBFFYT scale and figure out how 'web fit' you and your company is and how each of these internet tools could increase your online presence.

Web:

Having a website has become pretty much ordinary. It can be safely assumed that if you have a business or are employed in a company, it surely has a website address and a web presence. However, if you are an individual you can always have a personal website with www.yourname.com but having a profile in http://www.linkedin.com/ seems to be doing just the same or even more ro create your professional brand in the internet.

Email:

Pretty much like web site, having one or more email addresses has become part of life now, no surprise there. There is no need to explain how and why emails are essential for communicating these days.

Blog:

Very few Bangladeshi companies have taken up the idea of setting up their corporate blogs, be it internal or external. Either they are yet to come to terms with it or they are reluctant to let go the control of the company actions and the consequent reactions to these as it takes place in the interactive environment of a blog. Mostly some newspapers have opened up their web spaces to have a blog to allow conversations with their readers but Bangladeshi businesses are still experimenting with the idea. Other than having a company blog, CEO blogs could also be set up and maintained so that ordinary consumers could interact directly with the head of departments and/or the top people of the company. Similarly individual blogs are also a great medium to express your own thoughts, interests, expertise and create a group of readers surrounding it. Its very strange that our Bangla blogging community is so vibrant, we have live blogs such as http://www.somewhereinblog.net/, http://www.sachalayatan.com/ etc. but neither we have bi-lingual (Bangla and English) websites of Bangladeshi companies nor we have even Bangla blogs to encourage interactions from those consumers who are more comfortable to express themselves in Bangla.

Facebook:

If you argue that the largest social networking site in the world is meant only to 'socialise', check out each other's photos and status messages, then think again. There is no harm that your company cannot be 'social' and interact to its customers through a group or a 'fan page' in http://www.facebook.com/. Many companies have started hosting house networks and social networks have become increasingly flixible so that you can 'commute with your communities' meaning you can merge your different friendlists from different social networking sites into one large mesh of followers and networks. Also keep in mind that this is free marketing in the internet.

Flickr:

Does your company have any image gallery in http://www.flickr.com/? Why not showcase your products, services, your expertise, interest in your own personalised flickr page? Pictures are worth thousand words and videos are worth million words, so nothing like a flickr profile and even better a channel in Youtube.

Youtube:

Does your business have a dedicated channel in http://www.youtube.com/? You could publish your TV adverts, other commercials, jingles, brand music videos, corporate event videos, etc. regularly into your Youtube channel. You could always host these in your own website but the kind of flexibility and analytics that is available with Youtube, its better you start using these free services to spread the 'word of mouse' for yourself and your business. Individually, if you are a teacher, a good public speaker, anchor, performer, you can always publish your own performances in your own Youtube channel and interact with your audience, friends, well-wishers etc.

Twitter:

The microblogging platform at http://www.twitter.com/ has crept up slowly but pretty successfully especially in developed world. Its a matter of time that the craze, like Facebook, hits Bangladesh. Personally I believe Twitter is ideal for breaking news, referring to other interesting websites etc. And Facebook is more on the social and personal front. Twitter is increasingly used by companies to release product information, event information, regular updates about the business etc. to the followers. As an individual, status feature of Facebook and Twitter should be used differently, as its perhaps OK to have complete strangers in your follower list, as long as they are resourceful. However its perhaps not the safest idea to have complete strangers as your 'friend' in Facebook, checking out your private photos and other messages.

The bottomline is, Digital Bangladesh starts from you and your business first, depending on how WEBFFYT you are.

What is your special power?

How fond were you (or are you still) of Superman, Batman, Spiderman and all those ultra-cool characters with special powers? What is so unique about them other than the fact that many of them wear loud-colored under-garments inside out, a fashion statement many of us would not dare don in public. Notwithstading the fact that they are all fictituous characters, they all have atleast one unique characteristic which makes them stand apart from other mere mortals. Say Superman could fly and move mountains with his own hands, Spiderman climbs up and down buildings with ease, Batman can hang upside down (!) etc. I wonder though if they have ever applied for jobs in Bangladesh, if they could mention all these extra-curricular and super-natural activities in their CVs or not. Nevertheless, the point to drive home is that all of us must be having atleast one super power which helps us stand apart from the rest and the question is what is that and how do you find that and how do you nurture that?

It is argued that if you cannot describe in one sentence what you do for a living, perhaps you should have a second look at what actually you are doing. When we meet someone in business meetings and events and when we say 'Ami Grameen Phone e achi', or 'Ami BRAC Bank e kaj kori' or 'Ami Square group e director'....the next question that comes to my mind is...'so what?'. What is the big deal if you are in GP, BRAC Bank or any other small or big so called branded companies? Your being there merely does not say much about YOU, what matters perhaps is what your value addition there is, in other words, your superpower. I am sure those 'big' companies must have hired you for that special super power of yours, not merely by your looks, family relations or any other things.

I have met a few 'enlightened' supermen who did actually replied during introductions that ' I am a managing director of a company called XYZ which helps build better houses', or ' I look after peoples happiness and salary at work, I am an HR Manager at ABC'. Other than associating your superpowers with mere designations and job roles, think about what your unique value add is in terms of a general business executive, manager and perhaps mention it in your 'Career Objectives' section in your CV.

After all, not wearing red undies and not being able to see through walls does not mean that you are not a super-hero, you certainly are...its just that nobody knows about it, you haven' t thought about it or you haven't made a super appearance through your CV or your conduct at work. The stage is yours. We are watching.

What's in a name?

There are many companies / brands / products whose names were derived from strange circumstances.

Mercedes
This was actually the financier's daughter's name.


Adobe
This came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of founder John Warnock.

Apple Computers
It was the favorite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. He was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 O'clock.

CISCO
It is not an acronym as popularly believed. It is short for San Francisco.

Compaq
This name was formed by using COMp, for computer, and PAQ to denote a small integral object.

Corel
The name was derived from the founder's name Dr.Michael Cowpland. It stands for COwpland REsearch Laboratory.


Google
The name started as a joke boasting about the amount of information the search engine would be able to search. It was originally named 'Googol', a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders- Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to 'Google'

Hotmail
Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in 'mail' and finally settled for hotmail as it included the letters "html" - the programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective uppercasing.


Hewlett Packard
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.


Intel
Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'Moore Noyce'but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.

Lotus (Notes)
Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from 'The Lotus Position' or 'Padmasana'. Kapoor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.


Microsoft
Coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was removed later on.


Motorola
Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started manufacturing radios for cars. The popular radio company at the time was called Victrola.


ORACLE
Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The code name for the project was called Oracle (the CIA saw this as the system to give answers to all questions or something such). The project was designed to help use the newly written SQL code by IBM. The project eventually was terminated but Larry and Bob decided to finish what they started and bring it to the world. They kept the name Oracle and created the RDBMS engine. Later they kept the same name for the company.

Sony
It originated from the Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny' a slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.

SUN
Founded by 4 Stanford University buddies, SUN is the acronym for Stanford University Network. Andreas Bechtolsheim built a microcomputer; Vinod Khosla recruited him and Scott McNealy to manufacture computers based on it, and Bill Joy to develop a UNIX-based OS for the computer.


Yahoo!
The word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book 'Gulliver's Travels'. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and is barely human. Yahoo! Founders Jerry Yang and David Filo selected the name because they considered themselves yahoos.­­

Contributed by Tanusree Ghosh

After-thoughts:

1. Do we have an official list of most prominent, popular Bangladeshi brands? If you know, please share the link with us here.

2. We had planned to arrange a 'Bangladesh Corporate Quiz', the idea did not come to light till date. If you see any merit in it, do give it a thought. The plan is to arrange a series of quiz sessions say for a week on leading brands of Bangladesh. Tie it up through SMS answer sending options, promote through popular radio channels etc. The main idea was to ask interested business students, executives trivia questions related to Bangladeshi companies/brands. For example, Who designed the logo of Grameen Phone? Why is PRAN called so? Why our private universities are so fond of direction related namings (North South, South East, East West etc.)? Why our online businesses love to add a 'bd' suffix or prefix in the domain name? Any facts and figures and interesting 'good to know' items about Bangladeshi corporates and the list can go on.

3. One might argue that are our brands strong enough to be deserving such research and limelight, more so on a global ground? The answer is simple, if we don't start 'branding our brands' ourselves, please don't expect foreign gurus and think tanks to do that job for us. They can take us to the water, but what we do then, is solely on us.

I hope you find the origin of the globally renowned brands interesting and funny, I hope we will get to know more interesting facts and trivia about Bangladeshi brands soon.

Bust the Gap in Customer Services

During a romantic date in an August summer in 2008, while relishing a chicken tandoori in a restaurant in Old Airport Dhaka, I discovered a plastic cap of a mineral water bottle inside the chicken. It tasted like….plastic, with a touch of spice and chicken around it. The date was nearly spoilt amidst fear of health concerns and wrong choice of restaurant. I had no clue how to react, I summoned the manager, the waiter responsible, described the case to them, they said ‘sorry’, I said I would complain….I know ‘that person’, I am friends with ‘this person’, a bit of ‘hombi tombi’ you know…that’s pretty much it. The only good thing was, we left without paying, and ofcourse finishing the food, which had a bit of raw plastic in it. Like all other things in the life of a Bangladeshi consumer, I took this incident sportingly. I thought there is no point complaining, as who should I complain to? In a country where I don’t even trust the law enforcers in many occasions, who on earth would protect my consumer rights and why? That was new and news to me.

I have seen many feedback forms in restaurants and service centers of telecom companies, but I have never received any feedback on my feedback, to know if they have at all taken any action to implement my suggestions. I am more of the view that they put up all these feedback forms as a mere formality only, they do not intend to take it seriously, which Bangladeshi company would ever admit that it has taken ‘one’ customer’s feedback seriously and have consequently brought about a change in the way they do business? Never, rather they would claim it to be their own success and innovation.

However, if you think times have changed and its high time that we, as consumers, speak up and make sure our rights are protected and respected, then this article is for you. Check out the website of e-consumer, wonder if something could be initiated in the Bangladeshi context. Also, its worth checking out the website of GapBusters. Among other related service, this company offers ‘Mystery Shopper’ services. I am not sure if companies in Bangladesh, those especially in the services sector, apply Mystery Shopping techniques to evaluate and improve their customer services standards. I believe interested entrepreneurs could very much come up with an idea to set up a company such as this, either you take a franchisee of GapBusters or set up something in the context of Bangladesh purely. Get your business model right and become the ‘voice of Bangladeshi consumers’. Remember Mr. Rokon-Ud-Dowla? Now the time has arrived to give it a more formal shape, from a private sector initiative. So that next time you go for a good time at Pizza Hut and KFC or at a Grameen Phone Service Center, the staff should be on their toes to serve you well, after all….we, the customers, are the king. And I am sure there are scores of people ready to become ‘mystery shoppers’ to give their formal opinion about products/services and earn some quick money in form of a part time job.

What's so special about your district?

Have you come across fellow Bangladeshis who are strong and sensitive about their district roots? Bangladesh is a tiny piece of land in the first place, nevertheless many of us are very keen to boast about our being ‘from Barisal’ or ‘from Syhet’ etc. and how we tend to criticize ‘those people from Comilla’ who have taken up the government jobs and ‘those people from Feni’ who are basically very commercial etc. etc. etc. I wonder how the anthropological, social science data would support all these urban myths and mysteries, but they are very much there especially among those who have come outside from Dhaka to settle there, they find the capital to be an interesting melting pot in their small scope of world, and they love to keep up their ‘ethnicity’ in the busy and bustling megacity.

All this love and loyalty for our own districts would have really been worth it if we had tried to set up some sort of an open air, theme based ‘haat’ highlighting each and every district and its specialities, handicrafts, produce etc. there. We could have called it ‘jela haat’, traders from respective districts could have been leased out spaces to take up stalls, sell their products, food etc. for say a week or so. Each month, a particular district could have been highlighted so that the visitors could have known in detail about that district, its history, the bright and brave sons who belong to that district, the main ‘key’ selling point of that district, economic/cultural activity…whatever that makes that district stand apart from others. I think the Dhaka city corporation surely have a role to play here to set up something permanent in government land in collaboration with Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation, who have a game in hand to develop domestic tourism in Bangladesh.

Social entrepreneurs could give it a thought, if we honestly feel so loyal about our own districts and roots, lets brand it well. Lets translate the words to a ‘jela haat’ somewhere in or around Dhaka city. Lets find out what makes Satkhira so special, lets find out what are the hidden tourist locations unforeseen in Netrakona, lets try out the five layer tea of Sylhet right in the heart of Dhaka and many more. Rural traders, manufacturers, designers could have got a much needed but guaranteed exposure in front of the 'capital city' crowd whereby they could have displayed their handicrafts, produce, decoration pieces, clothes whatever takes time to get noticed in our eyes. Also, the cat and mouse game of evicting floating hawkers from this place to that could have been shown a better way to deal with.

Make a list of 10 things that make your district special in your eyes. Let us all know that and celebrate that, after all... what is yours, is mine too, in the spirit of Bangladesh. See you in ‘jela haat’.

The Royal Bengal Entrepreneurs Theme

Do you see what we see? We see a young man in black suit and a laptop hanging from the shoulder, waiting patiently behind the bushes. He has war fatigues drawn across his face. He is in mid 20s, medium height and structure. He carries a red and green flag over his shoulder. He is desperate to prey on the grazing executives who are roaming around in a distance, in their own territories, and who are still unaware of the presence of the new threat in town (or jungle?), who are ignorant to spot the potential and the prowess of the formidable challenger behind the bush, who are still unconscious to the emergence of….the Royal Bengal Entrepreneur!



On the proud occasion of the 37th Victory Day of Bangladesh, today on 16th December, this blog proudly and furiously announces a concept that it hopes to enlarge and enrich over the coming years. The Royal Bengal Entrepreneurs are that special breed of innovators, entrepreneurs, executives and managers who are ‘Made in Bangladesh’. They might be trained in the land or in foreign lands, but their talent and deed converge into the betterment of the economy of Bangladesh. We want to establish that the Royal Bengal Entrepreneurs are truly the majestic predators of business innovation and management in the global arena, as the synonymous Bengal Tigers rule the tough mangrove terrains of Sundarbans.

So let us know what you think the Royal Bengal Entrepreneur should be. What should be the ideal profile, keeping in view our socio-economic context? True, we are attempting to brand our breed of managers and entrepreneurs. So join hands and claws, lets leave marks in some territories. Let us know where and how....Aaarrrgghhhhh!

Make way for the Royal Bengal Entrepreneurs

Remember McGyver? Or Oshin? Or Bionic Woman, Six Million Dollar Man, Fall Guy, Manimal, Raven, A-Team, Knight Rider and all those English thrillers, serials that many of us used to religiously follow in the then only state-run television BTV? Since we didn’t have much option in terms of TV channels, so we had to be satisfied with whatever was shown there. But still, we had grown a habit of following certain shows in the TV isn’t it? Also, don’t forget the extremely popular Bangla drama serials such as Oyomoy, Ei Shob Din Ratri, Bohubrihi and the like. Well gone are the days of the monopoly of BTV, scores of other satellite channels have made me a serial remote switcher, nearly suffering from chronic button pressing and channel switching syndromes. I also realized that I have grown out of following any particular TV program in the TV these days, firstly I don’t have much time, secondly internet has taken over my life and thirdly and most importantly, there are just too many TV channels, making it difficult or confusing for me to settle with any particular show, with which I could associate myself.


In the flurry of all the painfully similar drama serials, talk shows and music programs, I was wondering if its ever possible to have a show pretty much like Dragons’ Den, where interested venture capitalists used to hire or fire potential entrepreneurs or executives who they thought could do the talk and walk the mile. It’s a known fact that there are many potential entrepreneurs across Bangladesh who are bubbling with their nascent business ideas, but they just can’t get the headstart due to lack of exposure and/or patronizing. Not everyone needs to be a BBA graduate from IBA or NSU to be a skilled manager, I believe management is more a mental frame of mind, an aptitude and attitude, rather than paper certificates from top-ranked B-schools. Those who have it, can do it, with some initial hand-holding. And they don’t necessary need to be enrolled in a private university or the best business schools. Pretty much like the singing talent shows where wanna-be song birds display their singing talents, similarly, a budding entrepreneur might come up to face a judge panel and/or audience vote to evaluate his/her business idea.

I am not very clear about how the Battle of the Minds operates, something executed by the tobacco producer in Bangladesh…how the participants are selected and why. Similarly, HSBC Young Entrepreneur Award also seems to have a regional appeal and popularity. Bangladeshi students have already shown evidence of merit and potential. But what is not clear is what happens to them afterwards? How many of them have truly been successful in realizing their initial business ideas? If they have succeeded, are we tracking it? If their ventures have failed, do we know why? How many of them genuinely chase their dreams and turn the dreams into reality? Or is it just that they are good in academics which produced a great business plan and landed them with the award? But in reality, they had no intentions to start such businesses?



So the point is, these entrepreneurship awards and close door competitions sponsored by any particular company should graduate itself to the public domain. General people can sometimes be a better judge and powered with technology such as SMS, they can vote out or vote in their preferred entrepreneurs. Finally, the one who wins, shall actually start the business with the seed capital provided by one or many of the venture capitalists sitting in the judges panel.

So I think its time to say au revoir to airy talks in classrooms and seminars on entrepreneurship, and limiting the activities to giving away micro and macro awards to budding Royal Bengal Entrepreneurs with nominal monetary aid. Rather its high time that the movers, shakers and thinkers of entrepreneurship start taking shares in the business ideas or projects which they think can reap great benefits. Actions are louder than words and than this blog post too. So how about a TV program like this to bring me back in front of the TV sets once again, without switching channels this time?



Image courtesy:
http://entrepreneurship.rit.edu/images/entrepreneurship.jpg
http://www.genuinememorabilia.co.uk/images/uploads/Dragons_Den_book.jpg

Lets not bite the dust

Of the many things we have been trying to promote through this blog's platform, business journalism and contemporary business literature on Bangladeshi companies are one of them. We have blogged about the nascent business journalism industry in Bangladesh, hoping to see more vibrant activities and popularity of those initiatives. Bangladesh Brand Forum is perhaps one of them about which we have been very positive and hopeful. The magazine seemed to have taken off with much fanfare, media coverage and gaudy display of think-tanks and movers and shakers during various summits and conferences. The content of the magazine, the approach, the objectives, all seem to have been heading for the right direction until this September perhaps, when my repeated visits to the neighborhood newsstand started turning out to be unworthy, as the magazine has disappeared from those newsstands and according to my hawker, from the market too. He claimed that the magazine did not hit the stands since September. Now this is not good news and I sincerely hope this is temporary. I wonder what is holding back the magazine which seemed so full of potential, it had great names and perhaps great minds in its board, great contacts, great adverts and above all, great content. We are convinced that entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs are bound to be hit by dust and rust, that is a natural phenomenon, but biting the dust in an entrepreneurial venture never tastes sweet. We hope Bangladesh Brand Forum does not have to bite the bitter dust and continues emboldening the brand Bangladesh.

NewsCred offering credible news to the world

Do you belong to one of those people who jumped in joy hearing the news that Sushmita Sen was crowned the Miss Universe award in 1994? Do you remember the time when our newspapers were flooded with her images and our sentiments of Bengali heritage and the pride... that after all...Sushmita is a Bengali (even before she is an Indian...however a topic open to debate...and not in this blog). Similarly when Amartya Sen won the Nobel, we were also elated thinking that finally a Bengali has done it again...after ofcourse King Tagore. You know what, the starting question of this post actually applies to me, I was a school-goer when Sushmita reached the pinnacle of success and I spent days of awe and pride assuming that what an unbelievable combination a Bengali girl can have...brain, body, personality, appearance..all in one package...and she is after all...a Bengali...like me...wow. So I personally always looked for occasions in the global platform where I could be a part of the merry-making and shine of glory of fellow Bengalis and Bangladeshis or both. Even though Sushmita is first of all an Indian and then a Bengali, I tried to utilize that faint link of 'our being Bengali' and be happy.

Similar joy and pride hit me when the news about NewsCred reached my ears. A Bangladeshi newspaper claimed that its one of the happening and popular internet-startup set up by...guess...? two Bangladeshis! I was elated and and felt proud that Bangladeshi entrepreneurs have started emerging as the new 'Larry' and 'Eric' and 'Mark Zuck' in today's business world. I was not late in checking out their website here to find out how our Desi Bhais have done something so extraordinary and how we can learn from it. Well, I will certainly shy away from giving a review on their business and website, you can do it yourself if you Google them up. What I understand is that, they are doing well and they have a good business model. What I didn't however find in their 'Our Story' section, was the name 'Bangladesh'. And that is what made me wonder why I jumped in joy hearing Sushmita's winning the Miss Universe Crown...what was in it for me? Did that help me uplift my brand image as a Bengali? Did that help me avoid being singled out in global platform as being a Bangladeshi? May be...may be not. Similary, NewsCred founders say that one of them is from Sweden and the other one studied in the US. Wonder why they stopped short of saying that they are Bangladeshis and/or from Bangladesh. However, all this hoopla might go down the drain if the young entrepreneurs are NOT actually Bangladeshis. They might be born and brought up in the countries which are thousand miles away from Bangladesh any ways. Also, I am not sure if carrying a Bangladeshi brand behind your back will decrease your chances of getting a deep-pocket venture capitalist or not. Brand Bangladesh for business is yet to perhaps take up a soild shape.

Nevertheless, I would always be proud if NewsCred would like to share some of their glory with the name 'Bangladesh', that is if they at all are from Bangladesh in the first place, otherwise, sorry for this nagging to get a share of the success story....as you and we and I...all share the same country label....which needs a well-deserved rebranding in all means...and global business is the best way to do that.