Square Pharma sends its medicine to the UK

Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd has obtained the certification by the United Kingdom Medicine Registration Authority (UK MHRA).With this approval, SQUARE Pharma has become the first Bangladeshi company to start exporting its finished pharmaceutical products to the UK. Mentioning this achievement as a new milestone for the country's pharmaceutical industry. This approval would help SQUARE Pharma to enter into the highly regulated pharmaceutical markets like other European countries, Australia, South Africa and the GCC countries in the near future. It takes a lot of rigorous processes to comply with the registration requirements for getting the approval from the UK MHRA (United Kingdom Medicines And Healthcare products Regulatory Agency), starting from raw material sourcing to all production processes, quality control processes and quality assurance processes, finally leading to the total quality-checks of the finished products.This approval process also involved thorough inspection and auditing of the designing of the manufacturing plant, selection of the machinery and equipment, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) system and purified water system of the plant to ensure that the entire manufacturing plant was strictly maintaining the world-class pharmaceutical manufacturing environment as per the MHRA GMP requirements.This feat of SQUARE Pharma has again proved its commitment to the total quality compliance and has shown it to the whole world that Bangladesh can also produce world-class pharmaceutical products for serving -'the people of developed countries like the UK'.

Just a subtle concern from a regular user of square pharma's medicine, please don't feed us (the local market) with low quality medicines and export the best ones to the UK. We understand that exporting best quality medicine to the UK will fetch you more money and earn name for your company, but think about our lives too. I hope it will not become like garments market in Bangladesh, where best ones get exported to H&M, Marks & Spencers and we get to buy the ' invisibly defected' ones from Bongobazar or from opposite Dhaka College. Our 'Anti-bhejal superhero' RokonMan-3 has already discovered lots of 'bhejal oshud toirir karkhana' here and there. This is life we are concerned with Square, not mere fashion.

'SAP Overdrive' to drive tech innovation and agility into businesses in Bangladesh

FE reports

SAP India, a leading provider of business software solutions, along with its implementation partner in Bangladesh, Soltius Infotech Bangladesh Ltd. jointly organised a seminar Monday in the city.The seminar titled 'SAP Overdrive' at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre is SAP's premier business technology event in Bangladesh. The theme at 'SAP Overdrive' was "Business at the Speed of Thought" and the discussions deliberated on how SAP as an industry leader in business software solutions, can play a critical role in helping customers transform their business technology into a strategic lever for competitive differentiation and turn accelerated global change into opportunity for growth.MA Matin, director of IT, IFIC Bank Ltd, delivered the main speech and shared his observations on how the enterprises are leveraging on technology for their growth and advancement. He also expressed the opinion that with the help of right kind of technology, enterprises could accelerate innovation, become more agile and be able to effectively execute strategy and help their workforce embrace change. "Bangladesh's strategic location offers a high growth potential and has seen tremendous developments across segments like logistics, manufacturing, telecom, garments & textiles, pharmaceuticals, constructions, infrastructure, insurance, banking and so on" said Moushumee Basu Roy, regional director, East, SAP India."Today, to tap the global opportunities and to streamline operations, enterprises in Bangladesh are adopting enterprise software solutions. SAP, with its broad range of solutions for enterprises of all sizes and over 26 vertical specific solutions, is well poised to be the preferred enterprise software solutions vender for enterprises in Bangladesh". SAP has significant growth plans for the fast growing enterprise software solutions market in Bangladesh and showcased its select range of solutions to help businesses adapt to every new demand and the ability to stay prepared for every business challenge. Bruno Burbach, CEO, Soltius Infotech, and Madhukar Joshi, chairman, Soltius Infotech Bangladesh Ltd, elucidated on the capabilities, strength and experience of Soltius in the enterprise solution implementation arena in Bangladesh.Aktel, a leading telecom service provider in Bangladesh, has been successfully running on SAP's enterprise solution since 2006. Sufi Faruq Ibne Abubakar, head of IT of Aktel, shared his experience of implementing SAP ERP and provided insights on how SAP had helped in streamlining operations and promoting control over the entire business process of his organisation.Aktel has implemented SAP across the most critical business functions and Soltius Infotech Bangladesh Ltd. has helped Aktel in their successful implementation of SAP solutions.Some of SAP's leading customers in the related verticals include names like Aktel, British American Tobacco, Aventis Pharma, Novartis, BOC Bangladesh Limited, Young One and MGH. The length and breadth of its customer base is a reassurance of SAP's expertise and success in catering to the verticals that will derive growth in the region in years to come.

It has always been the case that foreigners spot our potential first and they move fast to tap that potential. Be it telecom, IT, energy, power, banking, pharma, they arrive first to milk our resources and money. Well, beggars can't be choosers, so I am not complaining, what I am wishing for is self-sustainability as early as possible. So that we can reverse the game in near future.

Organized Retail aka. MBA Mudi Dokandars

Sitting idle on a rather sunny Saturday with bloated eyes (due to bacteria) and a nail-biting cricket match on TV, I had the weirdest of all ideas blinking in my upper chamber; what about writing down my recent brainstorming regarding retail scenario of Bangladesh.

I know for sure, a moderate graduate with no significant trade or retail experience should be the last person to think in the lines of organized retail, but that same graduate does read up on what's keeping the businesses busy in both local and global scenario. Organized retail being vehemently marketed in our neighboring India Inc. goes on to prove where we will be heading into in just about a decade. In fact I remember one job interview where we discussed where Dhaka was in terms of innovations/advances in comparison to India. Although we (me and the interviewer) probably undermined Dhaka a little too much in contrast to Kolkata and Mumbai, its probably fair to say that they were once in the same sphere as we are today. May be ‘dhaliwood’ would never prosper as much as cousin sister ‘bolly’, but elsewhere we can definitely catch up one day.

And continuing with the catching up game, I need to bring back by wander-lusty mind to the topic of interest, organized retail. Agora and Nandan have long fought over getting the TOM share of the modern-urban consumers, successful or not they have hardly been able to make a dent into the fresh durables markets or even the local groceries. There are other worthy competitors, e.g. PQS or Meena Bazar (honestly they both have faired better than Nandan at least); but they all have had created a new space for them in the consumers ‘bajar fordo’ (shopping list) instead of taking someone else's place.

This brings me back to what was bothering me about all this, are we actually going the wrong direction by making leaps in the concept of general superstores instead of specialized ones. Of course in the western world there is ‘toys r us’, Radio Shack, Circuit City or even Home Depot; but that’s not the case here. Even in India, they started out with specialized retail i.e. Pantaloons for apparels, Crossword for books or even Subhiksha for mobile. Once they had tasted success with the specialized retail, they ventured into the more general format hypermarket scene with Big Bazaar or Hyper City. Although they not always got it right, Reliance Fresh being the example of choice here; they actually managed to nurture a weakling to a strong young boy (if not a complete man).

Question is? Why is Bangladesh going the other way???

Well just as always we are apparently the "smarter" kind; at least that’s what we take ourselves to be. The smart ones sitting in the boards of Rahimafrooz decided to copy the Wal Mart example, divide it by 10 (for size), 100 (for diversification of products) and launched it as Agora (a no brainer name for Bangladesh at least). The results were, well we all know it has roughly 6/7 (correct me if I am wrong) stores all across Bangladesh with nothing spectacular about the balance sheet either. Now for surely, the question arises, did they go all wrong since its been ages since the launch of their first flagship outlet in Rifles Square, Dhanmondi. Well no!

They definitely learn their lesson the hard way, cause with the launch of Quikfill...they definitely showed the industry what the "people with money" weren't being able to see...organized retail but in a specialized manner. Now everyday as I stand in the queue of Quikfill tejgaon (well not because its Quikfill but because its 5min away from my office) I wonder how could they have improved on their services. Although a CNG refueling station chain is a radically new concept in Bangladesh, Quikfill has hardly any USP to make a stand for itself. 24-hr power backup being the only suitable USP is actually applicable for many other large CNG stations on Dhk-Ctg highway and elsewhere. May be a loyalty card with redeemable discounts, baby Agora for spot purchases and of course a lubricants/vehicle necessities corner for the driving errands would have made it a better deal and more suited to the parent company, Rahimafrooz superstores :)

Aside for all the criticisms, in my modest view the next big thing in Bangladesh should be a pharmacy chain. Although ACI (a major pharma) is planning to go retail with a bang! I doubt if it’s anything to do with pharmacy retailing. With such a throbbing generic pharmaceuticals industry like ours and major players even exporting globally (i.e. Square, Beximco, Incepta); its just a matter of time someone blinks with the idea of retailing the nagging pharmacy industry of Bangladesh. The once mighty Lazz Pharma has long been dethroned by the likes of Prescription Aid and its time conglomerates make a move to occupy this growing industry.

My father, the ‘never interested in business’ guy, once told me...any business associated to the growing population will click in Bangladesh, be it transportation, food or even medicine. Well it’s been 3 years or so since he said that, and there is yet to organized player in the medicine-marketing segment.

So I call upon you all sleeping giants.... isn’t there anyone to step forward and make a merry of this untapped market? I am sure there are people, you just need the courage and vision to step in to the game :)...till that day comes, I will keep on wasting my neurons worrying over others money :)

---Sabih Ahmed

Retail Love: Personalized Receipts

How often do you actually scrutinize the receipt you receive after paying for your essential shoppings at Nandan, Agora, PQS, MeenaBazaar etc.? Chances are very high that not many of us want to read it line by line, as it bears nothing more than the testimony of the payer being poorer at that instance. Was wondering would it make any difference if the malls would consider pepping up the plain and boring act of handing over receipts with statutory texts, legal terms, promotional items etc. by also doing the following.

1. How about asking for name of say every 10th customer and typing it in before printing the receipt. So that the receipt would read, 'Thank you (Asif, Sonia, Rahat) for shopping at Agora with us today'. Will that add a bit of personalization?

2. How about random motivational quotes or 'On this day in history' information on the slips? One might argue that what is the relevance of putting these unrelated information in a receipt? Well that exactly is the point. The objective is to divert buyer's attention to the possibly not so good feeling of becoming poorer by some hundred taka, to something lighter, entertaining and short-living, something which is good as it happens only at the bill counter or at the queue.

3. How about having a webcam installed at every till and targeting customers especially with children to make a pose and smile as the checking clerk pushes the final button for the bills and prints the receipt with a photo icon in it? Its likely that children might find this idea of printing free photos on receipts very exciting and persuade parents to visit that shop everytime, for a reason...or without any...next time.

4. How about asking customers in the receipts to return a collection of say 10 past receipts within 2 months to be able to enter into some sort of lucky draw, free gift voucher or some sort of 'free love' from the retail shop?

5. I am convinced that I suffer from short term memory (ref. Hindi movie Ghajini :) ) as I still have the habit of writing 'things to buy from kacha bajar' in a small piece of paper mixing Bangla and English as my preparatory work. I must admit that I still don't know the names of many spices and vegetables in English and I end up writing it in Bangla in my shopping list such as 'hing, jabitri, jaifol, mushurir dal, tej pata etc'. I always mix up between cardamom, cinnamon, cummins etc. and still function better by writing and reading dhonia, jira, gorom moshla, elachi, darchini. How about asking customers if they want the receipt to be printed in Bangla or English? Is it too much of an overhead or are there too many software complications to achieve this? I reckon not.

6. What about Lazz Pharma and bigger medicine retailers printing out random health and care tips on their receipts?

This simple act of doing something new with something as old and as mundane as a shopping receipt might help those pieces of paper from not being trashed through the car window or to the nearest litter bin along the way. Also, since retail shopping has become more of an experience worthwhile, so there is no harm in giving customers new experiences through something as small as a receipt.

image: http://digitaldoorway.net/images/walmart-666-receipt.jpg

Bangladesh Cricket and Bangladesh Corporate

Today we would like to discuss about the Bangladesh Cricket Team and its similarities, differences with Bangladesh Corporate. My initial hypothesis is that the 'men eleven' from our Shonar Bangla are the samples of the universe of 150 million. We will talk about how the Bengal Tigers perform in the cricket field, how it has got implications in our boardroom performances, their fair chances of being a formidable cricket team in near future and how far/close is Bangladesh Corporate from being a powerhouse.


Our batting....is unreliable, inconsistent and shaky. Our services, products are to some extent, more or less, unreliable, inconsistent and shaky. Starting from GrameenPhone's frequent call drops to 'bhejal' in Beximco Pharma's medicines to grumpy, gloomy faced counter staffs at airports, hospitals, banks etc. reinforce the similarity that what we are offering to our consumers is not pure, not sincere, kothao na kothao golod thekei jay.


Our bowling....does not have pace and it hardly spins....so does our corporate strategy and marketing....for our kind but sad information, we are yet to market 'Brand Bangladesh' overseas due to numerous reasons. As our bowlers cannot offer variety in their bowling and wait eagerly for the opponent batsmen to make mistakes and get out, similarly we wait for 'that deal' to happen, rather than going out in the sun ourselves and grabbing it.


Our fielding....is full of energy and we have shown that we can dive sometimes to save a few boundaries. We also have seen that we are very bad at direct hits. Our young managers are full of energy and are willing to take risks too, if given enough support from the crowd, captain and team mates. However for some unknown reason, they are not very good at hitting at the stumps from a distance when it is needed the most.....to run out a batsman, to outsmart a competitor in the market.


Our Captains....are mere gentlemen and very nice human beings in nature (not sure about their cricketing skills). They are modest, timid, humble and it shows in the field from their body language. They prefer to pray, not play, so that either rain saves our face or the opponents gift us their wickets, but we hardly push them to the point where they are bound to give up. Our managers are, in general, more risk-averse than they are risk-takers. They prefer to be coached by 'foreign' mentors and follow by the book, they don't come up with something innovative and improvised when the match is on and we are already in the field.


Our team....is full of down to earth young lads, who are friendly and polite. Remember in Pakistan, when Rafique decided not to run out Umar Gul even when he was out of his crease. Our veteran bowler showed a gesture of good sportsmanship....and we finally lost that match too. I would love to be arrogant with foreign opponents when it is justified to be, rather than hanging around them with the 'ji hujur ji hujur' attitude! But unfortunately what we do is, show our arrogance to our own teammates, our own colleagues, which does not help us in the long run does it?


Our language...is improving....thanks to English lessons in British Council, Bashar does it pretty well, Ashraful is struggling but I am sure he would manage a 6 in IELTS in any case...but who cares...as long as he bats well...and does not continue his inconsistent talent. Bangladeshi executives better hone their English armours to face the media during the prize distribution ceremonies. We are not rich enough like the Japs or the Chinese so that our money would speak for us, so English...more English..and perhaps Chinese is the way out. Also I really admire Mashrafe and Shahadat's fiery glares to opponent batsmen, I hope someone would teach them some Bangla gaalis too to apply on the batsmen. Lets be aggressive and rude when and where it is fine to be, and lets not repeat a 'Rafique temper tantrum drama' during practice.


Our Test status....is under serious doubts....we did win a few challenging games against the big boys and we got carried away in jubilations and complacent hiccups. Our fairlytales are always short lived when we test our patience and temperament in test cricket. Some fireworks in one dayers might do the job for that day, but test cricket....infact cricket as a whole, is more a mind game rather than a body game. So fireworks don't even take us to the 4th days in test matches and we lose by an innings and 123 runs. Our management tactics better not be like our one day cricket. Management, is after all, an attitude...its a state of mind. We are playing test cricket when we want to manage. And when we are fighting for market share in our home ground, we have the home advantage, but do we realize that we are merely playing national division cricket there, we better gear up with our helmets (and groin guards) to play on foreign soils.


So the summary is that our Bengal Tigers are mere Tiger cubs now. But we can do it. We need to sharpen more our claws and jaws to grab a bigger piece of meat and market share, of our competitors, not of our team mates please. We want to be proud of you...Bangladesh Cricket...and Bangladesh Corporate.