Having the PA factor

I am not sure if there exists any empirical human resource research on the skills and expertise of PAs (Personal Assistants) to the company chiefs in multinational organisations in Bangladesh or elsewhere. If there were any, I would have tried to find out if my assumptions regarding the skill-set of PAs are correct or not.

Due to popular beliefs or simple stereotypes of this being a clerical job, hardly any job seeker actively pursues the job of a personal assistant or prefers to keep this option lower in the priority list. Some also assume that this job is exclusively for female job seekers only and in a lot of instances, companies actively look out for all female applicants for such a position to aid the day to day work schedule of the head of the organisation. I believe very few PAs realise before they take up the job what kind of exposures they will get in the course of the assignment and the opportunities to develop their professional skills.

PAs seem to be the most privileged staff to be in the closest vicinity of the think tanks of the organisations. As s/he takes down minutes of important meetings and arranges schedules and activities of the chief executive, s/he notices the important dynamics that take place in board rooms. The way things are communicated, argued on, the rationales that lead to decisions being taken and the body languages of colleagues and counterparts – all are observed and recorded by none other than PAs. Moreover, they are the staff who get to observe the leadership brass from a close distance, often allowing them exposure to the thought processes and actions of an organisational leader – CEO. For a variety of these reasons PAs seem to be having a fast track route to developing core business acumen without actually having prestigious business degrees or actually having any real life business management experience.

Certainly the career growth for PAs might be limited – that is, its very unlikely that a PA, after developing business skills by merely being in the company of company heads, will be promoted as a CEO him/herself. But better still, there are examples that many of them have actually ended up being the owner of their own business ventures.

One of the TV programmes that I try to watch from time to time is the Apprentice, a show about which I have tried to convince a few friends in Bangladesh to emulate – without success. The winner of the last year's show was Stella English, who worked as a PA at a Japanese Investment Bank before being selected as one of the candidates of the popular British show. Similarly this year for series 7, one of the top four finalists in the process of becoming Lord Sugar’s business partner happens to be Helen Louise Milligan, who again works as an Executive Assistant to CEO.

Sure not all the fingers of the hand are of the same size, but surely having a PA factor can take you places and make you win big in business and in life.

State of TV Media in Bangladesh

These ad vessels have used their satellite network to promote their own networks as well as the minuscule accomplishments of the people involved in them (you know who you are). Where in the world does a "Farmer's News" section pop up in the middle of evening prime-time news? Readers, Farmer's News is not for us. But considering how farmers make up a staggering large demographic of election voters, unconventional TV programming is being used to reach out for votes (wait, what did I just say?!?!).


====FARMER NEWS BREAK by Ahmed Ali====
Ahmed Ali decided to visit farmers in some remote village (he can't recall the name, his staff set it up). During the visit he went with a camera crew of 30 people to document his every single step as if it was a miracle in the making. Ahmed Ali decided to spook farmers who in Bangladesh have always craved camera attention rather than any sort of financial assistance. Ahmed Ali reassured everyone that profits from the 45 minute ad segment accompanying this 5 minute news WILL NOT be used for farmer benefit. Instead Ahmed Ali will continue to accost the farmers how they feel about WiMax licenses issued and call "CUT" when the farmers ask him to spare Tk 500. This is Ahmed Ali reporting and be sure to remember ho to spell my name. You might need to tick it on an upcoming form.
====END====

(btw, its not me in that picture. It is an actual screenshot of the TV channel)

Secondly these Bangladeshi TV channels are more perverted than American ones. Fox, an American TV channel took out a (sadly) popular reality hit show called American Idol. Soon as TV channels and mobile phone companies realized the SMS voting revenues from this show, it had the most variants possible amongst Bangladeshi TV channels.

Let me start out by saying why American Idol shows are not right for Bangladesh. First because it is not Bangladeshi Idol. The Bangladeshi Idol is someone who has to be economically successful to cover their livelihood. This idol would also have to do something that is socially beneficial. Examples suggested, but not limited to, would be creating a miracle cure for a pandemic in an impoverished country, employing millions in an impoverished country, donating millions in an impoverished country ... but NOT singing like a rickshaw-walla in a shower.

In America, a singing oaf can be an "American" idol, because some noted individuals have done more than the suggested examples. This leaves the rest (a small and ditsy demographic) to wonder what will be the purpose of their lives. Also the American Idol came into existence earlier this decade when the music industry was more than booming. The Internet happened since then and most of the money disappeared from the music industry. Now the American Idols would be extremely grateful for a follow-up second album (yet none of them ever did see that light). To some degree mass and shameless popularization of music has led some fans to reject this event and to explore the Independent Label (indie) music scene. This was ironically facilitated by the Internet and have seen more from this sector than all the American Idols combined with the likes of Killers, Leslie Feist and Keane.

Given this scenario, what do we expect from Bangladeshi musicians? Or what does the aspiring musicians aspire to be from a Bangladeshi Idol. If there is very little business in the music industry in North America, the margins must be even tighter in Bangladesh. Are they fooling themselves of the 'idol' status despite the poverty and despair right outside the stage? Then again, they will always be written of as another act similar to how American Idol winners are pushed aside as they are the result of SMS voting and not the same musical talent of Keane or Feist.

But unlike Fox, the Bangladeshi TV channels always know how to take it further. The perversion is that they made a children's version of this show. This is where children sing their heart out in front of B List Bangladeshi musicians. The musicians themselves should be ashamed as they are judging kids in a music competition in front of national TV. This is the sad state of TV media. It is bad enough when children's academic performance is judged so early on, but now even their hobbies are judged. All for shameless promotion in a sector which is predetermined to have dead ends.

So when are we actually going to cultivate Bangladeshi Idols?