ICE Business Times June 2017 by ICE Media Ltd.

Contents TIMES

06 From the Editor WORD OF MOUTH 08 State of Affairs 12 Banking Corner 88 Happening 20 Column by Lutfey Siddiqi 22 Column by Shamsul Huq Zahid 24 Column by Mohammad Amjad Hossain INTERVIEWS 28 Mohammed Nurul Amin

MD and CEO, Meghna Bank Limited

38 M Shahadat Hossain

DMD, Khan Bahadur Group

COVER FOCUS 43 Everything at Your Fingertips

Contents TIMES

a global business magazine from bangladesh

TIMES

Vol. 7 No. 10 | June 2017

Publisher & Editor Director, International Publications Executive Director Managing Editor Assistant Editor Staff Feature Writer Designer Business Development Finance & Accounts Sales & Distribution

: : : : : : : : : : : :

Abul Khair Zeenat Chowdhury Nawshin Khair Tawhidur Rashid Irad Mustafa Asaduzzaman Sk. Yeahhia Md. Nizam Uddin Forhad Mohammad Imran Md. Abdul Alim Md. Nazrul Islam Md. Rubel Khan

This issue’s Photographs by Din M Shibly Kazi Mukul

Editorial & Marketing Queries tawhidur.rashid@ibtbd.net or send us a note at www.facebook.com/icebusinesstimes www.twitter.com/BusinessTimesBD

Be sure to visit our website www.ibtbd.net

FEATURES 30 Special Feature: Battling the Silent Epidemic 34 The Path to Conscious Decision Making 46 Special Report: From Bottomless Basket to Basket of Wonders 56 IPDC Finance Limited: Committing to the Broader Spectrum 60 The Advent of Startups in Bangladesh 62 Dissecting Desire 66 Lightcastle Partners: Unnoty 68 Instagram in Bangladesh 72 Beyond the Business 74 Food for Thought 76 How to Make a Drone 79 Macron’s France 82 Microsoft’s Surface for the Masses 84 Blackberry KeyOne: Return of the King? 86 Do Smartwatches Make Us More Productive? 94 Capital Market Update

Published by Abul Khair on behalf of ICE Media Limited Kushal Centre, Plot 29, Sector 3, Uttara C/A, Dhaka- 1230 and printed at M.K. Printers,189/1, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208 Editorial and Commercial office: 3rd Floor, House: 4, Block: B, Road: 23 A, Banani, Dhaka 1213 Advertising, Sales, Subscription and Distribution: 01812656961, 01715732425, 01759391168, 01850824294, 01611227676 Tel: 02 55035336-8, 09666773313

* Not all the views expressed in the columns and interviews are the views of the magazine.

FROM THE EDITOR Through 2016, the world observed many traditional and established brands fade as they were outpaced by the changing role of e-commerce in today's digital economy. This led people to believe the demise of the physical store had begun perpetuating the age old debate of online versus in-store marketplaces. In this new age, consumers have an increased appetite for convenience. Shoppers have flocked from their desktops to their smartphones and tablets to browse and purchase from their favorite brands. Travelers now book transportation and accommodation by swiping through a few apps. Foodies order anything theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re craving for through 5 minutes of menu browsing. As a result, retailers, marketers, entrepreneurs have all been forced to look at tactics which pursue convenience to engage an ever-distracted audience through mobile apps, social networks, and video content. Furthermore, we also have to consider the importance of integrating artificial intelligence into everyday facets of our lives. This will eventually lead to a future where automation will become a top priority for producers with the likes of Tesla coming up with self-driven cars, robots being used in RMG factories, Google Home or Amazon Echo providing your own personal home assistant. Thanks to advancements in analytics, producers have the opportunity to understand consumer behavior on a deeper level - what they want, and how they want it. Having this understanding can give manufacturers the ability to incorporate necessary modification in their products or services to make it more consumer-centric. However, coming up with technical upgrades doesn't always have to burn a hole in your bank account. To avoid the extra expenditure in technological improvements, producers will also have to venture into the realm of innovation. This is when the skills and abilities of a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s human resource pool come into play. Adhering to the methods which brought success in the past is no longer an option. Given the increasing consumer demands and the ever evolving landscape of consumerism, there will challenges and opportunities that await brands in the future. As a challenge to this, 2017 has been seeing the creation of more niche marketplace platforms which offer a select range of products. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s high time the players in the market started familiarizing themselves with these concepts because the benefits are quite obvious. Those who would choose to stick to outdated platforms will risk obsolescence.

Word of mouth

S TAT E O F A F FA I R S

The Honorable Prime Minister attending the closing and award distribution ceremony of the Swimmer Talent Hunt programme at Bangladesh Navy HQ

Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attending the education scholarship awarding ceremony for the meritorious students from Minor Ethnic Communities of the plain land at PMO

During her visit to Saudi Arabia, Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid a courtesy call on His Excellency Najib Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia at BL Room King Abdulaziz Convention Center Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attending the inauguration of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Global Centre for Combating Extremist Thoughtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; at King Abdulaziz Convention Center during her visit to Saudi Arabia

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M O U T H

S T A T E O F A F F A I R S

Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the opening and inauguration of the Cox’s Bazar Teknaf Marine Drive at Inani Beach

The top leaders of South Asia have joined in a video conference following the program which successfully launched the South Asia Satellite into orbit. In a brief speech, Prime Minster Sheikh Hasina expressed her optimism for the newly launched satellite that will change the geo-political view of South Asia Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arriving at the “ARAB ISLAMIC AMERICAN SUMMIT” as she is welcomed by KSA King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud at King Abdulaziz Convention Center

A presentation on the development of communication systems of Dhaka city was held at the Prime Minister’s Office with the Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in attendance

Word of mouth

BANKING CORNER

NRB Commercial Bank Ltd. has donated to the Honorable Prime Minister’s Education Assistant Trust and Suchona Foundation. Engr. Farasath Ali, Chairman and Mohammad Shahid Islam, Director of the Bank handed over Payment Orders on behalf of the Bank to the Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Ganabhaban

Jamuna Bank Limited donated Tk 4 crore to three benevolent organizations dedicated for social welfare, education and autism. The three organizations are Jatir Janak Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Memorial Trust, PM's Education Assistance Trust Fund and Suchana Foundation

Managing Director of Dhaka Bank Limited Syed Mahbubur Rahman has recently launched “Dhaka Bank C Solution”, a secured and automated online payment gateway for its corporate clients, under Cash Management. Through this online gateway, clients will be able to get all kind of banking payment facilities with value added services at the quickest turnaround time

Saaduddin Ahmed, Deputy Managing Director & CRO of NRB Bank Limited and Saeed Ahmed, Hotel Manager of Le Meridien Dhaka have signed an agreement under which NRB Bank Credit Cardholders will be privileged with Buy 1 Get 1 Free iftar dinner buffet offer during Ramadan from Le Meridien

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B A N K I N G C O R N E R

National Bank Limited has donated Tk 1crore to Prime Minister’s Education Support Trust, Tk 1 crore to Suchana Foundation and Tk 4 crore to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Muzibur Rahman Memorial Trust under its CSR activities.

LafargeHolcim Bangladesh Limited signs up with Standard Chartered’s ‘Distributor Financing’ program for the distributors of LHB to enhance their business capacity. This global program is part of the Bank’s ‘Banking the ecosystem’ initiative, which aims at deepening relationships with corporate clients, and their buyers

BRAC Bank Limited recorded a strong 104% after tax profit growth in its 1st quarter of 2017 in comparison with the same period of last year. The bank reported a consolidated after tax profit of Tk 1,267 million during the January March 2017 quarter, which was Tk 622 million in the same period of 2016

Md. Mehmood Husain, Managing Director & CEO of NRB Bank Limited and Ashraful Alam, Chief Operating Officer of Aarong has signed an agreement under which Credit Cardholders of NRB Bank Limited will enjoy 15% discount at any Aarong outlet during Ramadan

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B A N K I N G C O R N E R

Southeast Bank holds General Meetings, Declares 20% Cash Dividend

The AGM witnessed a lively discussion on the Bank’s operational performance. The Bank earned an operating profit of Tk 8,503.22 million in 2016 (consolidated). As on 31st December, 2016 the bank’s total deposits amounted to Tk 229,973.43 million, its total assets reached Tk 291,798.01 million, Earning Per Share (EPS) was Tk 2.66 (consolidated), Net Asset Value per share was Tk 28.93 (consolidated) and Net Operating Cash Flow per share was Tk 12.57 (consolidated) as on 31 December, 2016. The Price Earning Ratio of the Bank was 7.05 times in 2016. The Capital and Reserves of the Bank soared to a record high of Tk 34,056.28 million as on 31st December 2016. The Bank maintained a capital adequacy ratio at 12.15 percent (consolidated) as on 31st

Southeast Bank Limited held its 8th Extra-Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) and 22nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) on May 22, 2017 in Dhaka. Bank’s Directors, Sponsors and a large number of Shareholders attended the meeting. Alamgir Kabir, FCA, Chairman of the Bank, presided over the meeting. M. Kamal Hossain, Managing Director (Current Charge) of the Bank in his address of welcome in the AGM highlighted the Bank’s operational performance in 2016 and outlined the future plans and programs undertaken by the Bank to enhance operational efficiency and profitability of the Bank.

December, 2016 against requirement of 10.625 percent set by Bangladesh Bank. Credit Rating Information and Services Limited (CRISL) rated the Bank AA (Double A) for the long term and ST-2 for the short term based on the financial statements of the Bank for the year 2015. Their rating for the long term remains valid up to 22nd June, 2017. It was disclosed in the meeting that the Credit Rating of the Bank for the year 2016 has been assigned to Credit Rating Information and services Limited (CRISL). Their rating will be disclosed to the regulators and in the print media as soon as it is received. In the 8th Extra-Ordinary General Meeting, the Shareholders unanimously approved (a) Rights Issue of Shares at the rate of 1(one) (R) : 2 (two), i.e. 1 (one) Right Share for every 2 (two) Shares of TK 10/- each held by a shareholder with a premium of TK2.50 only for each new share (one Right Share price will be TK12.50 only) subject to approval of the Regulatory Authorities, and (b) Floating of a fully owned subsidiary company to run Bank’s Mobile Financial Services brand-named “Telecash” subject to approval from the Regulatory Authorities. In the 22nd Annual General Meeting, the shareholders by their unanimous votes approved 20% Cash Dividend to the shareholders and the financial statements of the Bank for the year 2016. They also elected Directors and approved appointment of external auditors for the year 2017.

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Column

What Has Changed for Risk Managers? THE CONTEXT OF RISK MANAGEMENT AND RISK PREPAREDNESS HAS CHANGED IN RECENT YEARS: [ 01 ] STRUCTURAL DISRUPTION We are living through a period of multi-dimensional disruption that is often dubbed as the fourth industrial revolution. Developments in extreme connectivity and extreme automation have consequences beyond the world of technology: business models, industries, markets, regulatory, and governance regimes have been thrown into a flux. New dimensions such as cyber-risk have entered the fray. It is increasingly difficult to differentiate between structural change and cyclical change. What used to be considered as structural and institutional constants, the concept of a non-negative risk-free rate for example, have turned into variables. It is harder to differentiate risk from uncertainty. Are we wasting time trying to estimate ‘standard deviation’ when the underlying distribution may be far from normal and bear no resemblance to its own historical series?

[ 02 ] SELF-INFLATING RISK We are also living through a period of rapid feedback loops which can make risk factors combine and compound in intricate ways. In

By Lutfey Siddiqi

THE WRITER IS A GOVERNOR AT THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND AN ADJUNCT PROFESSOR AT THE RISK MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE. HE IS ALSO A MEMBER OF THE GLOBAL AGENDA COUNCIL (FINANCING) AT THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM AND A FORMER BOARD MEMBER OF CFA SINGAPORE. PREVIOUSLY, HE SERVED AS THE MANAGING DIRECTOR AND MEMBER OF THE GLOBAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF FX, RATES & CREDIT (FRC) AT UBS INVESTMENT BANK

several arenas, risk has become endogenous – i.e. dependent on seemingly risk-mitigating action – resulting in a potentially wide divergence between perceived risk and actual risk. We see this in the build-up of loss-absorbing bank capital on the one hand and a system-wide reduction in trading liquidity on the other. We see increased usage of unconventional prudential policy at a macro level and more granular micro-prudential regulation of investment banks at a ‘book level’ – not always in a mutually consistent manner. For example, the imposition and withdrawal of a cap on the Swiss Franc (which had the effect of dampening local risk and heightening tail risk) had a direct bearing on subsequent value-at-risk calculations and trading risk capital. The ‘taper tantrum’ of May 2013 or the Chinese stock market volatility of August 2015 were arguably policy-induced sources of macro risk with consequences for micro risk.

[ 03 ] COORDINATION FAILURE We are also witnessing a slowdown if not a reversal of the kind of global co-ordination that was a key risk-diminishing factor in the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis. Global financial standards are being rolled out in

C O L U M N L U T F E Y S I D D I Q I

fits and starts, the pace of implementation is uneven, national regulators rightly impose entity-level constraints and administrative macro-prudential measures (including capital controls if required) are now an acceptable part of the central bank’s repertoire. This, together with geo-political flashpoints and a weaker backdrop for international conflict resolution adds considerably to the base level of risk in the system.

[ 04 ] THE PEOPLE FACTOR There is now a clear realization that risk management is much more than tools and metrics: it is about people, conduct, processes, and culture. While modelling and continuous refinement of risk models will remain key to decision-making, it is important to underline that models will not replace the role of decision-takers. Judgment calls need to be made and trade-offs need to be assessed. To that extent, risk resilience is enhanced through the deliberate design of decision-making processes. How do risk committees function within banks? How much constructive challenge is entertained? How do they ensure that a diversity of perspectives is considered?

Pulling it all together, it is clear that the range of outcomes that a risk manager is confronted with is significantly wider today than it has been in several years. What should she do? The first-order response is to allow for agility and to be prepared to change course repeatedly if required. However, to be prepared for multiple possibilities, one needs to carry multiple capabilities many of which will prove redundant with hindsight. Optionality comes with its cost of carry and there is an inverse relationship between ex ante efficiency and risk resilience. So the second-order response is to acknowledge that trade-off, communicate it, and implement decision processes that allow for explicit, robust, and documented evaluation of costs versus benefit.

There is now a clear realization that risk management is much more than tools and metrics: it is about people, conduct, processes, and culture.”

T H I S A R T I C L E WA S I N I T I A L LY P U B L I S H E D I N THE RMI NEWSLETTER AND IS BEING PUBLISHED IN ICE BUSINESS TIMES WITH THE AUTHOR’S PERMISSION.

www.ibtbd.net

Column o keep up with the trend witnessed in recent years, the size of the national budget for the next financial year (2017-18) will, in all likelihood, be quite big. The Finance Minister, in the meanwhile, has indicated that the next budget will be worth over Tk 4 trillion. Some news reports have been even more precise about the size, stating it might be around the Tk 4.2 trillion region. The size of the budget is important, no doubt. However, its implementation carries far more importance. The size of the budget has been growing larger unabatedly and coinciding this, the year-on-year gap in this regard has remarkably widened. Not many people, however, take note of the gap between the original size of the budgets and their actual execution in recent years. In fact, the gap has been continuously widening. Between 2012-13 and 2016-17, the shortfall in overall budget execution has ranged between 7% and 18%. The chronic deficiency in overall budget execution has always been noticed mainly in the areas pertaining to development agendas. The trimming of the development budget has been more of a ritual than anything else. A lack of capacity in development project implementation among relevant government agencies is largely responsible for this. Yet the government plans to put in place a national budget for the next fiscal period which will be, at least, 17% larger than the original and 32% larger than the revised budget for the current fiscal year. The government can well prepare an even larger budget but bankrolling it up to the maximum has always been a problem. In the upcoming financial year, the problem might turn out to be even more complex. A few developments both at home and abroad, at least, point to such a possibility. The government is likely to set a revenue target of Tk 2.7 trillion for

Bigger budgets, tougher hurdles WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE UPCOMING FISCAL BUDGET

By Shamsul Huq Zahid

THE WRITER IS A SENIOR J O U R N A L I S T. H E C A N B E R E A C H E D AT ZAHIDMAR10@GMAIL.COM

Between 2012-13 and 2016-17, the shortfall in overall budget execution has ranged between 7% and

18%

the next fiscal period, a target which represents a 28% increase over that of the revised target for the current fiscal year. The conventional revenue growth in the country has been 15% to 16%. So, how would the government hit such a big revenue growth target? The finance minister is optimistic as he is preparing to give a ‘big push’ to revenue collection efforts. Of course, his areas of concentration will be income tax and value added tax (VAT). The National Board of Revenue (NBR) eyes VAT in particular to help mop up substantial revenue in the future since a new VAT law is set to be enforced from July 1st. However, their hope has been partially dashed following strong opposition from businesses regarding uniform VAT rates on products and services and turnover taxes. Thus, all the arithmetic done by the tax men on the basis of the original version of the new VAT law might not work that much in the end. The revenue generation from this important source of taxation may remain well below the expectation in the upcoming fiscal. Whatever happens in the revenue front, the government, apparently, is left with no option other than floating a ‘mega’ budget. This is necessary because the government would have to appease the electorates ahead of the next general election. More importantly,

C O L U M N S H A M S U L H U Q Z A H I D

the authorities will be required to make substantial expenditures to maintain the pace of economic growth up to their desired level. Some unpalatable developments on the external front have made the situation a bit difficult for the government. The remittance inflow is one such development that is hurting the domestic consumption level, a problem which can be countered by higher expenditure from the government side. Nevertheless, the government would have to exercise caution since the price situation is already under pressure. The job of maintaining the growth momentum has become tougher for the government because of virtual stagnancy in private investment in the country. There is always some qualitative difference between public and private sector investment. Employment generation remains a casualty when private investment in real sectors of the economy falters. The public sector investment in development project does generate employment opportunities, but those are generally of temporary nature. Since the next budget would be an election-oriented one, the government would surely make it quite large but in the event of problems in mobilizing enough resources to finance the same, the government might feel tempted to take recourse to greater deficit

The size of the budget has been growing larger unabatedly and coinciding this, the year-on-year gap in this regard has remarkably widened.â&#x20AC;?

financing. It remains to be seen how it uses the available options to finance the budgetary deficit, which is likely to cross the 5% barrier for the first time in a decade during the current fiscal year. Until now, the savings instruments have provided enough resources to the government, notwithstanding the fact that such financing has been quite expensive. The government could well use banking sources to meet the budget deficit even at a much cheaper cost. But until now the use of that source has been well below the potential. It seems that the next financial year would not be that comfortable because of some domestic and external factors. The shortfall in rice production because of the natural calamity in the Haor areas has already created an unsettling effect on the food price situation. One cannot also be sure about the continuation of the ongoing lull in the political climate ahead of the next general election. On the external front, exports are experiencing lackluster growth with remittance inflows declining steadily. So, the incumbent finance minister is likely to face an uphill task of maintaining the pace of GDP growth and keeping the general population happy ahead of the next general election.

The remittance inflow is one such development that is hurting the domestic consumption level, a problem which can be countered by higher expenditure from the government side.

www.ibtbd.net

Column ndia has recently made an effort to further develop its friendly relations with Bangladesh amidst growing bilateral ties with China whom India considers a rival, both economically and militarily. That has been reflected during the four-day visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina to India in April at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, making it the first such visit after the BJP came to power in the central government in Delhi in 2014. During her visit to India, a series of 22 pacts plus 12 business deals were signed between the two countries which include nuclear and defense cooperation, apart from infrastructure development in railway, ports, airports and technical facilities. The pacts also covered a broad range of subjects like battling terror, security and cross-border infiltration. To cover all these projects, India accorded a credit line of $4.5 billion, apart from $500 million earmarked for buying defense equipment from India. The Indian Prime Minister, Bangladeshi Prime Minister and Chief Minister of West Bengal inaugurated a rail and bus service to Bangladesh from India. The visit of Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, takes place at a time when policy makers in India are increasingly worried about China's influence on Bangladesh. Both China and India are competitors in South Asia. Bangladesh has already achieved economic growth at 6% plus, but its high population density draws the attention of economic and military powers of China and India for the expanded market in Bangladesh. During her visit, the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina honored 46 years Indian soldiers who were killed by Pakistan's marauding army during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971. This is something that should have been done long ago during the initial ruling period of Awami League in 1972; however, it

Ties of Tension HOW TRANS-BOUNDARY RIVERS ARE AFFECTING OUR BILATERAL RELATIONS

By Mohammad Amjad Hossain

THE WRITER IS A RETIRED D I P L O M AT F R O M BANGLADESH. HE WRITES FROM VIRGINIA, USA

The visit of Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, takes place at a time when policy makers in India are increasingly worried about China's influence on Bangladesh.

is still a good gesture from Bangladesh. Regardless, the issue of sharing waters from the Teesta and Feni rivers remain on tenterhooks. Sharing of waters from trans-boundary rivers from an upper riparian country constitutes an international obligation to lower riparian countries. Bangladesh incidentally is a lower riparian country but India being the upper riparian state, controls waters of trans-boundary rivers. According to BBC, the Indian irrigation minister plans to transfer water from the Ganges and the Brahmaputra to drought prone areas in India. He commented, "The interlinking of the rivers is our prime agenda, and we have got the people's support, and I am determined to do it on the first track." If this project is carried out, it will be disastrous for Bangladesh. Meanwhile, India has already diverted waters from many international rivers upstream which has left an adverse impact on the ecology of Bangladesh. The change of water flows in the upper riparian areas in India affects the environment and the hydraulic character of rivers in Bangladesh. The water issue is one of the significant bilateral problems between Bangladesh and India which has been around since the inception of Bangladesh. The construction and implementation of a barge on the Ganges River in Murshidabad have caused serious problems to the lower riparian river, the Padma which has almost turned into a dead river. The Brahmaputra on Bangladesh's side known as the Jamuna is almost dead as well, whereas the

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Chinese President Xi Jinping and Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina unveiling the plaques of six projects at the Prime Ministerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office

Brahmaputra in Guwahati in India was brimming with waters as I had observed during my short visit to Guwahati in Assam from Kolkata in August of 2009. India which claims to be a friend of Bangladesh should respect and honor a lower riparian country sharing waters from trans-boundary rivers. There are plenty of international treaties and agreements to share streams from trans-boundary rivers. Historically, an international agreement, dating back to 2500 BC, saw two Sumerian city-states of Lagash and Umma reach a deal ending water sharing disputes along the Tigris River which is 1,740 miles long at the North West bottleneck of Baghdad of present Iraq. According to the FAO, more than 3600 treaties relating to international water resources had been concluded since 805 AD. Of them, the recent agreement between Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam regarding the formation of the Mekong River Commission in 1957 for cooperation with water resources is significant. The Indus River Commission between Pakistan and India sharing waters is another glaring example. A framework for the Nile River Basin was agreed in February of 1999 to fight poverty and develop the economy in the region by promoting equitable sharing of water resources from common rivers. The 1997 United Nations Convention on Non-Navigational Uses of International Water Resources is one international instrument that significantly focuses on shared water resources. The convention established two key elements to guide the conduct of nations sharing water from shared rivers: equitable and reasonable use and the obligation not to cause significant harm to neighbors.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi launching the bandwidth export and power import by Bangladesh through a video conference

If BJP government goes ahead with implementing its pet project as indicated by the Water Resources Minister of India, it would have a devastating effects on Bangladesh. Therefore, Bangladesh government would be left with a fait accompli situation. During his visit to Bangladesh in June of 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed by saying, "Our rivers should nurture our relationship, not become a source of discord." After two years of the BJP in power, the water sharing from the Teesta and Feni rivers is hanging in the balance because of the objection by Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee. This time, too, the Indian Prime Minister asserted by saying, "I firmly believe my government and Bangladesh's government will find a solution of water sharing from Teesta." However, only rhetoric does not solve water sharing problems between the two neighboring countries. Therefore, it is high time that the government of Bangladesh should consider internationalizing the issue as they did in connection to resolving the long dispute of demarcation of maritime boundaries at the arbitration court. It is understood the trade deficit with India is a huge problem. No mechanism is in hand to solve the trade deficit between the two countries, where India is reaping benefits from Bangladesh by setting up India-based companies in Dhaka as liaison offices to trade with RMG products to be sent to the United States and Europe. Indian companies are utilizing Bangladesh's most favored nation status getting lower tariffs. Shipments come from Bangladesh, but the money goes to India. According to statistics, import from

India stands at $5.45 billion, whereas exports to India from Bangladesh amounts to $689.62 million during 2015-2016. The imposition of anti-dumping duty by India on the products of Jute goods, yarn and hydrogen peroxide from Bangladesh has caused a further hindrance in reducing trade gap with India. Leaders and policy makers in India agreed that Sheikh Hasina has gone the extra distance to improve relations with India but now is the time for reciprocity from Indian policy makers to maintain friendly relations with its neighbors.

During her visit to India, a series of 22 pacts plus 12 business deals were signed between the two countries which include nuclear and defense cooperation, apart from infrastructure development in railway, ports, airports and technical facilities.â&#x20AC;?

Interview Mohammed Nurul Amin is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Meghna Bank Limited. Before joining the bank he worked as the MD and CEO of NCC Bank for nine years. He obtained his Honors in 1973 and Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in 1974 in Economics from the University of Dhaka. He started his banking career as a senior officer in 1977 in Janata Bank and then joined National Bank, the first private Bank in the country in 1983. Thereafter he joined NCC Bank (the then National Credit Ltd) in 1985 and was promoted to the rank of DMD in 2005. Presently, he is the Chairman of the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Association and previously, he held the position of Chairman of the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh.

MOHAMMED NURUL AMIN Managing Director and CEO Meghna Bank Limited

I N T E R V I E W M O H A M M E D N U R U L A M I N

CONSUMERS EXPECT MORE PERSONALIZED OFFERINGS AND BUSINESS MODELS THAT ADAPT TO THEIR LIFESTYLE.

What is your bank doing to ensure financial inclusion in areas where people do not have access to regular banking services?

Under its financial inclusion program, Meghna Bank has undertaken two major projects to cater banking services to the unbanked population. Meghna Bank Tap ^n Pay – a secured mobile financial service – has been launched to provide various financial services to the unbanked population. Outreach Customer Finance is another

What are some advancements in Consumer Banking that we can expect over the next year?

Rapid advancements will take place over the next few years in the banking industry. Innovation in Financial Technology is imperative and will change everything — becoming a potent enabler of increased services at reduced costs. Banks will adopt remote financial services through online and apps based banking in order to reduce operating costs drastically. Banks will be customer-centric rather than product or channel oriented. Cybersecurity will be prioritized for rebuilding trust.

What are some recent trends in Consumer Banking?

The unbroken speed of digitization and automation, the rise of fintech and regulatory initiatives are encouraging all financial institutions to become more transparent and implement efficient Management Information Systems. It will also force them to better foster internal and external collaborations. It will urge them to balance technology investments. Consumers expect more personalized offerings and business models that adapt to their lifestyle. They are taking more control of their financial relationships and looking for digital tools for availing banking services. Banks have come to realize that fintech is not a threat, but rather an opportunity to expand the business. To strengthen their position in the industry, banks need to adopt customer-centric business models, customize business and operating models, develop cost-effective distribution channels, invest in innovative technologies and manage internal-external risks and regulatory requirements.

initiative to cater to the financing needs of small business entrepreneurs located beyond command areas. What kind of role will Fintech play in this area? Fin Tech can play a vital role in interfacing various innovative technologies for customizing business and operating models and developing cost-effective distribution channels.

Could you elaborate upon Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Policy?

Meghna Bank has pursued customer-centric and customer friendly policies since its inception. All the branches are well equipped to provide financial services to each client on a personal priority basis. Any deviation is dealt with extreme care. We always treat our customers as partners in progress which are embedded in our motto – together we sail.

TO STRENGTHEN THEIR POSITION IN THE INDUSTRY, BANKS NEED TO ADOPT CUSTOMER-CENTRIC BUSINESS MODELS, CUSTOMIZE BUSINESS AND OPERATING MODELS, DEVELOP COST-EFFECTIVE DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS, INVEST IN INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND MANAGE INTERNAL-EXTERNAL RISKS AND REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS.

Tell us about your most successful products?

Meghna Bank has launched 32 (thirty-two) customized Retail & SME products to cater to the financial requirements of the customers. All the products have got great market demand. Some of our most successful products are Doctors’ Loan, Home Loan, Apon Aloy (Home Loan for Semi-Urban & Rural Areas) under Retail Banking Segment. Furthermore, MEGHNA NABARUPA (Women Entrepreneur Loan) and MEGHNA MOUSHUMI RIN (Unsecured Loan for Small Enterprises) have gained popularity among SME clients. www.ibtbd.net

Special Feature

Battling the Silent Epidemic

and more than 360,000 people globally. Most people, however, are unaware of the severity of this problem as most of these deaths are reported by the press. Figures compiled by child rights organization Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF) showed that 352 children were reported to have drowned in 2016, 423 in 2015, 165 in 2014, 132 in 2013 and 125 in 2012. Over the past two decades, efforts to eradicate infectious diseases in children have yielded commendable results with under-five and infant mortality declining by 65% and 56% respectively between 2004 and 20142. However, this drowning epidemic has

taken precedence with 43% of deaths for these children more than measles, cholera, diarrhea and pneumonia combined. In Bangladesh, especially along the rural plains of the nation, one deep pond, sometimes more, sit next to houses and are frequently used for fishing, bathing, swimming, cleaning household items and etc. With little or no protective barriers to prevent them, children often wander into these ponds or lakes unsupervised between 9am and 2pm as their parents are busy working and finishing chores. 43% of these incidents occur in ponds, and 80% occur within 20 meters of the

Centre for Injury Prevention, Health Development and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) The Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2014

angladesh is the most populous deltaic country in Asia. Most of the country is made up of floodplain with an infinite swarm of lagoons, mangrove swamps, ponds, rivers and lakes in and around it. Now imagine the dangers of living in houses in Bangladesh without having the appropriate fences or barriers around most of these water bodies. The reality that stems from this situation is that since 2005, up to 18,000 children drown every year in Bangladesh, which equates to around one death every 32 minutes1 . The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the drowning epidemic claims more than 60,000 children under the age of five

By Irad Mustafa

1 2

DROWNING HAS SLOWLY BECOME THE LEADING KILLER OF CHILDREN IN BANGLADESH OVER THE LAST DECADE. HOW ARE WE TACKLING THIS SITUATION?

children’s homes. Children aged between 1 and 5 spend most of their day playing around the house as they haven’t started school yet. “That’s why these children have high risk of exposure to water bodies because they’re playing right there,” says Dr. Adnan Hyder, Director of the International Injury Research Unit of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Now, despite being labeled as the leading killer of children from as far back as 2005, little had been done until 2015 to address this crisis. In 2015, the education ministry issued a circular which called for swimming to be taught in all educational institutions; however, this has yet to make a dent in the number of deaths due to a lack of training/swimming facilities available in most PHOTOGRAPHS FROM PULITZERCENTER.ORG

Over the past two decades, efforts to eradicate infectious diseases in children have yielded commendable results with under-five and infant mortality declining by 65% and 56% respectively between 2004 and 2014 . However, this drowning epidemic has taken precedence with 43% of deaths for these children - more than measles, cholera, diarrhea and pneumonia combined.

educational institutions. The Bangladeshi government and CIPRB set up an International Drowning Research Centre (IDRC), which has made mandatory swimming lessons part of its plan to stop this epidemic. One of their more successful projects has been the SwimSafe initiative which is backed by Unicef. SwimSafe employs community-based instructors to teach children how to swim and rescue others. Since its inception in 2006, the program has trained more than 200,000 children which has led to a drastic decline in drowning death rates for children. According to the Guardian, during harrowing interviews with the parents of children who had drowned, it was found that while people acknowledge the problem, many parents felt powerless to take action as some simply put it down to “God’s will”. www.ibtbd.net

S P E C I A L

F E A T U R E

B A T T L I N G T H E S I L E N T E P I D E M I C

A lot of these lives could be saved every year if these people can be encouraged to put aside superstitions that view the deaths as some spiritual intervention and to eradicate the culture that views this type of death as inevitable.

SOURCES: THE GUARDIAN BLOOMBERG PHILANTHROPIES

o counter this issue, CIPRB, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the George Institute for Global Health, in Sydney, launched a £2.5m project in 2016 seeking to challenge these traditional ideas and spread their nationwide drowning-prevention strategy. This four-year Bhasa project, which means “rise up” in Bengali, is a household survey of 400,000 people, aimed at providing a detailed picture of drowning deaths, to identify where the worst problems are and where the most effort is needed. The survey is based in Barisal, an area which the CIPRB believes to be the worst place in the world for child drownings. Local interviews conducted for the Bhasa survey found that in 97% of the drownings in the Barisal region, no one in the area had cardiopulmonary resuscitation training. Another program to fight this ongoing situation was initiated by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Their Drowning Prevention Program began in 2012 and currently focuses in two countries – Bangladesh and the Philippines. In 2014, they announced a $10 million commitment to prevent drowning deaths. Recently, in May 2, 2017, Michael R. Bloomberg, WHO Global Ambassador for Non-communicable Diseases and founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies, announced a commitment of $25 million to expand their drowning prevention program. Details on this expanded program will be released soon. “We need an approach that uses reliable data to demonstrate how we can address these risks. Examining what strategies work will serve as a model to prevent drowning on a global scale,” said Dr. Adnan Hyder, Director of the International Injury Research Unit of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which is leading the study. The first phase of the drowning prevention program, piloted in 2012, tested the effectiveness of playpens and community daycare as prevention measures in Bangladesh. The second phase of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ program expanded on the use of daycare and support survival swimming in Viet Nam as well as continue to support community-based daycares in Bangladesh.

The initial funding for drowning prevention program also included support for the WHO report Preventing Drowning: An Implementation Guide. The report outlines the severity of drowning as a global predicament and presents effective drowning prevention strategies to be taken by national and local governments. Key prevention policies include: • Providing safe places for pre-school children • Installing barriers controlling access to water • Teaching school-age children swimming and water skills • Building resilience and managing flood risks • Training bystanders in safe rescue and resuscitation • Set and enforce safe boating, shipping and ferry regulations.

In May 2, 2017, Michael R. Bloomberg, WHO Global Ambassador for Non-communicable Diseases and founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies, announced a commitment of $25 million to expand their drowning prevention program. Bloomberg Philanthropies is partnering with the World Health Organization and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to identify scalable solutions to help prevent drowning deaths, and to build strong networks between public health officials and advocates who may participate in future efforts. Bloomberg Philanthropies is also supporting the World Health Organization to publish an evidence-based global report on drowning prevention later this year and to provide expert guidance on effective strategies to battle this global killer. Dr. Etienne Krug, Director of WHO’s Department for the Management of NCDs, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention had this to say, “It is unacceptable that hundreds of thousands of people drown each year. We have the means to prevent the enormous loss of life associated with drowning. It is time to implement the knowledge we have about what works.”

P H O T O G R A P H S F R O M M E D I C A L D A I LY. C O M

Intelligence

The Path to Conscious Decision Making By Rehnuma Karim, Ph.D

O ften in our professional and in our personal lives, we make decisions that either reflect our rigidity, and stubbornness towards change or we lack having faith on our own decision making ability allowing others to decide for us. Poor decision making happens due to lack of information to guide our thoughts, actions and feelings in the right direction and that can rob us from being in charge of our own life and destiny. It is said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Human beings are not creature of circumstances; circumstances are creatures of human beings.â&#x20AC;? This is why prominent leaders such as Bill Gates, Gandhi, Oprah and our very own Professor Yunus rose to different occasions, showing the power of informed and conscientious decision making through trial and error. This shaped not only their own lives but also the lives of the people around the world. Each one of them were able to take empowering decisions that led to real changes in businesses and societies One such leader in the business world is Howard Schultz. Scultz is the Chief Executive Officer of Starbucks who started his journey from growing up in the poor projects of Brooklyn, New York and paying his way through college. But his life started to take a different turn the day he

walked into a small espresso bar in Italy where he saw how a simple cup of coffee created connection and a sense of community. During that time, Schultz was working at a small coffee company in Seattle named Starbucks. He returned to USA with his burning passion to create such an experience to enrich the lives of the people through coffee. Unfortunately, his vision was not shared by the company as during that time when Starbuck’s operation was limited to selling only whole bean and ground coffee. In Howard Schultz’s book “Onward”, he wrote how his vision encouraged him to leave the company to start his own espresso bar and by 1987 was in the position to buy Starbucks which has now become a world renowned brand. He wrote, “As a business leader, my quest has never been just about winning or making money; it has also been about building a great, enduring company, which always aspired to strike a balance between profit and social conscience.” On February 26, 2008, he once again took a courageous decision to shut down 7,100 stores in USA for the day to retrain the baristas in the art of making the perfect espresso. Closing down the store that day meant risk of losing millions from the sales, media humiliation and sinking of stock prices. But, his intuition, his belief and his conviction guided him to make the conscious decision to detach himself from all the reasons to avoid investing in his employees. His confidence in doing the right thing paid off as

Starbuck won the fight and emerged as the market leader once again, winning back the loyalty of their customers. This story shows how an engaged and a conscious decision can lead towards achieving the desired goal. Life is a sum of all the choices we make. Starbuck’s CEO courageously made the decision to go against all reasons, and common sense towards a passionate conviction. Often we are afraid to make the wrong decision feeling afraid of failure. Our educational and social system, especially in Bangladesh, often weakens and domesticates our thought process, stopping us from taking a bold step outside our comfort zone. The option to practice decision making is also sometimes limited as we observe a system of dependency on others. However, recently there has been a seismic shift in the thought process among the younger generation where many are experimenting to break the mold of the conventional career path. Undoubtedly, it is a great change but at the same time, to be able to navigate through the challenges, one would need some tools that can help them to make better decisions along the way. Just like building muscles with physical training, we ought to strengthen our brain by making more decisions in every aspect of our lives. I have always been intrigued with the thought process of those who are deemed as the outliers; the leaders who braved all obstacles to go for their dreams, not hesitating to make mistakes on the way. More admirable are those

COMING TO THE OPTIMUM DECISION AT THE RIGHT TIME WITH CONSCIOUSNESS IS CERTAINLY A DYNAMIC PROCESS WHICH REQUIRES US TO MAKE CHOICES AT DIFFERENT POINTS OF TIME FROM THE START TO THE END AND ALSO AT DIFFERENT LEVELS TOWARDS THE DECISION.

The writer was an Assistant Professor at the State University of New York at the school of Health and Human Development. She is now the Founder and President of "Heroes for All" a Non-profit aimed to build the potential of youth force through research, programs, workshop, and community engagement.

individuals who not only achieved outward success but also attained a deeper inner growth that allowed them to build a balanced and happy life in all three realms—professional, social and personal. The decision making process gets better as you make more decisions through out your life. Therefore, we need to be open to understanding how each of us are navigating. Each one of us is unique with our unique life experiences, abilities and worldviews which influences the choices we make in our lives. It is our decisions through a process of self-cultivation from one point of time to another (T1,T2,…) on our self-knowledge or awareness,mindsets, character and moral standards, intution and levels of attachment on objects, ideas and people that leads us to ultimate decisions at TU that brings real changes. Coming to the optimum decision at the right time with consciousness is certainly a dynamic process which requires us to make choices at different points of time from the start to the end and also at different levels towards the decision. Each one of us needs to evaluate and re-evaluate the different elements of our lives while we enagage with the other factors that are beyond our control. Our experiences, therefore, help us to build a storage of information that can guide us towards effective decision making process having an overall positive change in the quality of our lives. The following diagram takes an attempt to integrate some of the areas I discussed above to show a

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hypothetical path of an effective and conscientious decision making process that can lead to a improved quality of life. This process can be described in a much more comprehensive manner but the simpler version helps build some level of awareness on where we should be focusing on for a deeper understanding of the forces that can turn us into better decision makers. The diagram indicates that as individuals, we all are complex and organic beings with different degrees of involvement with ourselves, our families, communities, and the world. The following are some elements at the individual level that can be re-evaluated and improved at different intensities of decision making in our lives to ultimately become skillful enough to achieve personal, social and organizational effectiveness.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE An understanding of one’s own strength and weakness at emotional, physical and social level can provide leverage to conduct an assessment of one’s own capacity and ability towards making effective decisions. Based on the Theory of Flow by Csikzentmihaly, it is our self-knowledge that allows us to become fully engaged in an activity that appropriately matches the challenge with one’s skill. This is the state of “flow” where one is immersed and fully focused on the task resulting in deep learning and high levels of personal and work satisfaction.

CHARACTER AND MORAL STANDARD Character is all about who we are and understanding what we stand for. When we hold ourselves to higher

standards—we cultivate humility, sympathy, honesty, integrity and other strong human values that can lead us to make ethical and conscious decisions. Without a strong sense of character and moral standard, we can often make decisions that not only can harm ourselves but our society and the world as well.

POWER OF INTUITION

This is all about what people feel. Leadership, according to John Maxwell, requires more than just the command of data but also demands to have the ability to read others, recognize the energy, the morale, the timing and the momentum. This is a power of a subconscious mind, which also could be enhanced through practice.

LEVELS OF ATTACHMENT

Sometimes we want to control everything around our lives showing higher level of attachment to our thoughts, our ideas, our beliefs, and to the people around us. Depending on personalities, we vary on our level of attachment to different aspects of life. However, we also need to develop the capacity to identify the areas where too much attachment can cloud our judgements and lead us to engage and experience life in a negative way. According to Migual Ruiz, “With the awareness of how we are to a particular belief or idea, we regain something very important: our ability to make a choice, to say yes or no all over again.” Therefore, it is crucial to recognize our attachments, and revisit them to realize our limitless potential towards the trajectory of our choosing.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY PULITZERCENTER.ORG

AN ORDINARY PERSON CAN BECOME EXTRAORDINARY BY THE POWER OF THEIR OWN DECISION MAKING TO MANEUVER THROUGH THE MAZE OF LIFE. MINDSET

Stanford psychologist, Carol Dweck explained how two types of mindsets influence our decision making. Those with “growth mindsets” thrive on challenges, converts life’s setbacks into successes, and see failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. On the other hand, people with “fixed mindsets” assume that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static which cannot be changed in any meaningful way, and success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence. However, as humans we can shift from one mindset to another with our inherent will power. Therefore, becoming attuned to decision making that builds positive change in our lives.

An ordinary person can become extraordinary by the power of their own decision making to maneuver through the maze of life. We all are works-in-progress and this is why we should keep searching for ways to become our best versions through learning and re-learning. It doesn’t matter where we start out but the decisions we make about where we are determined to end up will define who we were during our tenure in this world. There is a saying by Anthony Robbins, “It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” And that is why we should focus on which elements we need to tweak at different moments of our lives to enhance our ultimate decisions at TU which can guide us to a productive and improved quality of life.

Interview

WE ALWAYS FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMERS’ UNDERLYING NEEDS AND DESIGN OUR MARKETING MIX ACCORDINGLY.

M SHAHADAT HOSSAIN

Deputy Managing Director Khan Bahadur Group

What lead you to join Khan Bahadur Group?

I have worked in different industries in different work environments which helped me to enhance my adaptability and learn the pros and cons of different work cultures, leadership styles and business practices. My MBA from IBA also helped me in developing this attitude and gave me the required theoretical knowledge for running a business. I started my career in the country’s leading Telecom operator. After working there for few years, I moved to a leading bank considering my interest in finance. Later, I joined another leading non-banking financial institutions. All these organizations have had a huge impact on me. I always wanted to do something more significant which went beyond earning money. From a mid-level position, with a fair number of peers in the same position, it was difficult for me to distinguish

M Shahadat Hossain (Dipto) is currently the Deputy Managing Director of Khan Bahadur Group. At present, he is taking care of the Finance and Banking operation of the entire group. He also looks after the policy making and operational control function for the Dhaka based business concerns of Khan Bahadur Group. Shahadat played an instrumental role in the entire business planning of Kb Foods, Sbarro, and ZTE smart phone.

myself and go beyond my job description. I could have joined my father’s business, but that wouldn’t have been as challenging. I wanted to examine my capabilities in an unrestricted environment where I would have greater responsibilities. I am really grateful to our Managing Director, Mayeen Uddin Mahmud Chowdhury, for helping me fulfill this desire. He not only gave me the opportunity to take part in the operations of Khan Bahadur Group but also helped me in all aspects to overcome all the difficulties involved.

What style of leadership do you incorporate in your work throughout Khan Bahadur Group?

Khan Bahadur Group has a well-diversified business portfolio. To ensure good governance and smooth operations across these unrelated businesses, we have established a centralized decision making process where the opinions of all relevant key personnel are taken into active consideration. While discussing any issue, everyone has the right to give his/her opinion and after scrutinizing all the pros and cons, a final

I N T E R V I E W M

decision is taken in the meeting. Once a decision is taken in the management meeting, the decision must be executed. This participative style of leadership helps us to ensure that the needs are rightly addressed, resources are efficiently used and operation is effectively controlled. This democratic style is often difficult to practice across the organization since effectiveness of this style requires a fair amount of operational knowledge and rational thinking ability. In absence of these skills, democratic style hinders the work progress. A different approach we follow to avoid such impediments is that we make a detailed task plan, break down the components of the tasks and then schedule and assign those task components to the most suitable people. Next we monitor their performance continuously with constructive feedback and ensure that all the task components are accomplished as per the work schedule. This task oriented top-down approach is often very useful in getting the job done with minimum resources.

How have you contributed to the growth of your company?

When I joined Khan Bahadur Group, I found our group was severely suffering from a cash crisis due to improper cost controls and poor financial planning. To solve this, one of my first contributions was the reduction of the borrowing cost. When at first I raised the issue, I was told that this rate is normal in Bangladesh. However, having worked in syndication financing for years, I knew this wasn’t true. So, I started negotiating with the bank we borrowed from. At first the Bank was reluctant, saying their cost of fund was very high, but after several negotiations they decreased our rate of interest straight by 3%, which saved approximately Tk 45 lac per annum. I tried to reduce the interest rate of other credit facilities and was successful enough to please our board. Then they gave me the responsibilities of the company and bestowed the finance department in my hand, which probably made me the youngest person in the country to run a finance department of a group of companies. Our insurance expense was also twenty times higher, at the time, than it is now. This is because of unnecessary insurance coverage and misuse of insurance commission. During this time, the company owners were not aware that there is a handsome amount of agency commission which, if handled by an honest person, will be returned to the company. As you can understand, a tremendous expense of one time has become negligible now. Furthermore, I started considering the ROI of every decision. This helped to rationalize costs. I started controlling all money outflows. Huge expenditures were saved on various occasions. For example, simply by changing the POS machine used for card swaps in restaurants, I was able to save a significant amount of money. However, improving the performance of a company can’t be limited to cost saving only. I had to take

S H A H A D A T H O S S A I N

TO ENSURE GOOD GOVERNANCE AND SMOOTH OPERATIONS ACROSS THESE UNRELATED BUSINESSES, WE HAVE ESTABLISHED A CENTRALIZED DECISION MAKING PROCESS WHERE THE OPINIONS OF ALL RELEVANT KEY PERSONNEL ARE TAKEN INTO ACTIVE CONSIDERATION.

active part in business planning as well. Our turnover was highest in our rice businesses but the cash collection was negligible. Our intermediaries were increasing credit day by day, whereas our suppliers’ ability to extend credit was very limited. We had a huge dependency on bank credit facilities which was again too costly. Moreover our hotel business was under construction then and financing was required to maintain the construction. After analyzing the whole business it was clear to me that we must convert our model into a cash generating model. So, we made a plan to expand our business only in those areas where we can generate immediate cash. Hence, we planned to open new outlets of Sbarro, a world renowned American franchise. Raising finance for a restaurant business was very difficult as banks in Bangladesh are not very much comfortable about financing new unconventional businesses. Things got further difficult after the Holey Artisan attack but slowly we were eventually able to raise sufficient finances for our expansion project. Moreover, considering the growth of smartphone users, we tried to bring ZTE smartphones in Bangladesh. At first it was difficult, but after seeing our in-depth business plan, keen interest and group performance, ZTE entitled us the Exclusive Authorized National Distributorship for its entire Terminal business operation. I was in charge of handling this entire process and despite being a real struggle for me, the day when ZTE was finally launched was one of the happiest day of my life as I could finally see the fruits of my labor. One great aspect of Bangladesh is if the people have faith in your abilities, they will help you develop your business. We started to build a rapport with our suppliers and always kept our promises to them. This helped us to increase our credit facilities and thus improve our cash cycle. Another important part was establishing a procurement department. Earlier, the process was haphazard. This centralized procurement department helped assign clear responsibilities for everyone in the process ensuring smoother procurement, keeping purchase costs low as well as ensuring timely vendor payment. I am very lucky that my Managing Director involves me in all these key decisions. Due to this, I’ve been able to provide my input in various sectors, be it HR, marketing or admin. www.ibtbd.net

I N T E R V I E W M S H A H A D A T H O S S A I N

What is the competitive scenario you’re facing? How are you dealing with it?

As the business nature differs, the market dynamics is also different for each business. Although we face stiff competition from our competitors, one thing keeping us ahead of the competition is that we never sacrifice quality for profits. We know that we can’t make everyone happy. So, we first analyze the market and target a specific segment that is most suitable for our product. Say for example KB Foods is targeting the health conscious segment of our society. Same thing goes with our restaurant business - Sbarro. The majority of our ingredients are imported directly from renowned US brands and some, if purchased locally, are selected from the finest possible sources. Here the target is not only those who love New York Style pizza, but also those who want to enjoy quality food. In case of our hotel business, we mostly focus on maintaining strong relationships with different companies and ensure the finest guest services to ensure their stay is a comfortable and relaxing one. We try to keep the prices of our products as low as possible to ensure their affordability for our target groups, but we can’t promise that our price will be the lowest in the market. We neither focus on profit nor on market share, rather, we strongly focus on our promise which is to offer the best quality at affordable prices. Our goal is simple. We want to be the most respected local conglomerate with well managed diversified businesses. Our concern for our customers helps us retaining our existing customers and growing exponentially with the help of word of mouth.

What are the challenges regarding keeping the cycle of innovation rolling especially when you have so many different concerns under the Khan Bahadur umbrella?

Innovation is a continuous process, and it requires time and effort to make something innovative. In the real sense, it is hardly possible to have a similar pattern of innovation in all the concerns of Khan Bahadur Group. We prefer to be customer need driven. We always focus on the customers’ underlying needs and design our marketing mix accordingly. To do this, sometimes we have to go

WHEN I JOINED KHAN BAHADUR GROUP, I FOUND OUR GROUP WAS SEVERELY SUFFERING FROM A CASH CRISIS DUE TO IMPROPER COST CONTROLS AND POOR FINANCIAL PLANNING. TO SOLVE THIS, ONE OF MY FIRST CONTRIBUTIONS WAS THE REDUCTION OF THE BORROWING COST.

beyond what is asked for by the customers. For example, traditionally rice was sold in a 50 kg bag, and people were accustomed to this but how convenient is it to buy a 50 kg pack? Moreover, think about the people who live from hand to mouth. With the money they earn every day, it is not possible for them to buy a 50 kg pack. So how do they manage? They buy from the open market where products are often hazardous for health. So, we introduced 1 kg, 2kg, 5kg packs of rice and distributed those across the country. This makes things more convenient and more importantly, now even a rickshaw puller or day labor can think of buying a whole packet of rice. Similarly, in the case of Sbarro, we have introduced different types of pizza and set meal menus. We are always trying to come up with new food ideas, so people don’t get bored with our existing menu. This is sometimes difficult as we have to take approval for each new menu directly from Sbarro, USA, but we are never afraid of facing any difficulty to offer the best for our customers.

What are your future plans for Khan Bahadur Group?

Unlike other businesses in our country, we are not merely a profit-seeking business. Our plan is to expand our horizon as much as possible by positively impacting the lives of our customers and employees through quality offerings, value creation, employment generation, etc. As you know, we have introduced our rice in the retail market under the umbrella of KB Foods, and we are receiving tremendous responses from the masses. Still, we couldn’t reach our true potential. Our plan is to deliver chemical-free quality rice to every corner of the country and if possible export rice to different countries particularly where we have a good number of emigrants. We believe our Bangladeshi rice have all the elements to capture the hearts of international markets as well. This year we have introduced ZTE branded mobile handsets in the country. Initially, we were focusing on Dhaka and major cities only, but we believe the benefit of smartphone technology can enlighten the lives of millions who live far away from the city. We are currently strengthening our distribution channel to offer the benefits of ZTE smartphone to this untapped market. Although the restaurant business is booming in the country, the lack of quality food is still prevalent. We are already on the verge of opening eight new outlets of Sbarro. Our strategy of maintaining the international Sbarro standard while keeping the price affordable for the majority will give a new experience to the food lovers of Dhaka city. We are also involved in some government projects. We firmly believe we will be able to complete all these projects on time as per our commitment to the government. In a nutshell, I would say that our goal is to become one of most respected local conglomerates operating globally with the maximum amount of reach to the customers and we are not far away from that goal.

Cover FOcus

EVERYTHING AT YOUR FINGERTIPS WITH TECHNOLOGY CHANGING THE WAY W E E X P E R I E N C E L I F E , C O N S U M E R S A R E S H I F T I N G T O WA R D S P L AT F O R M S W H I C H P R O V I D E A G R E AT E R L E V E L O F CONVENIENCE B Y S H A I K H A S H FA Q U E Z A M A N

Upon a single touch of a finger, you can now receive car service, check any work or social related update, order products, communicate with the world, and spend hours engaging in content. With devices reaching a higher connectivity than humans, it is no wonder that consumer trends are changing at the speeds that we stream our YouTube videos.

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ICE BUSINESS TIMES TRACKS THE TRENDS THAT WILL SHAPE THE CONSUMERS OF 2017

NO. 4

NO. 1

SAVVY SWERVING Gone are the days of driving Ms. Daisy; with Tesla starting the instalment of cars that are completely driving themselves, the days of autonomous driving are becoming a much faster reality. Automated cars could profoundly reduce traffic in metropolitan areas (80%). With 25% of pedestrians feeling safer if cars are autonomous and 65% preferring an autonomous car than driving themselves.

NO. 2

VYING FOR THE VIRTUAL Most of us want to escape to reality other than our own after an arduous day and with the increasing innovation in merged reality, you might just be travelling the world from your comfort of your sofa. Although virtual reality (VR) provides a fantastical experience, a whopping 80% of users believe that the 3-yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s progress will allow it to advance to a stage where it is indistinguishable from reality. Provided the progress that the Internet has made in our everyday, it is only a matter of time before it creates its own.

NO. 3

BEYOND THE BODY The Euroduplex is the fastest train in the world, running at speeds of 198.8 mph. While soaring through the scenic country at such speeds sounds ideal, 20% of people still feel a sense of nausea. And with everything becoming automated, consumers believe that the drive culture will create conversation traffic within the car. Moreover VR is a source of motion sickness. So as we become busy bodies, 20% of people want implants that will adjust the physiological abilities to that of the higher demands.

R2 REAL Not only was Star Wars the most iconic movie series of all time, it further popularized the idea of artificial intelligence (AI). We all wanted that R2-D2 to follow us around and give us quirky advice. Well, the reality is they may not be the buddy type as they start to slowly take on many of our jobs. A study shows that 35% of people want an AI advisor and almost 25% open to having AI in leadership positions of a company. Furthermore, with disappointments such as Trump and Kim Jong Un, over 20% would agree to the idea of an AI country leader. NO. 5

SIGNALS AND SENSORS Why not have your air conditioner cooling your room, your boiler readying your bath water and unlocking your car at a touch of a one device. These conveniences have become a reality with the use of Internet of Things (IoT). 40% of advanced Internet users believe that our phones will eventually connect to a plethora of devices. 50% of smartphones users believe that the slow-cooker will start their dinner as smartphones will allow them to communicate with household devices.

NO. 6

NO. 8

RECONSTRUCTING REALITY

DEVICE TO THE RESCUE If you’re new to Dhaka, the winding roads of Old Town will certainly leave the best geographic minds in a rut. That tension has become a matter of the past with GPS in every smartphone. Furthermore, 50% of users have emergency alarms and tracking notifications in their phones, and 60% have emergency contacts. Our phones follow us everywhere and are becoming our handheld heroes. 60% of urban dwellers believe that their phones make them safer to take risk in the concrete jungles with an increasing number believing that they next step in security is panic button, identity authenticators, and smart locators. NO. 7

SO CALLED SOCIAL Gone are the days where sharing news was a weekend brunch activity, social network have integrated further into our lives and created what are known as social silos. Now, we differentiate social groups on the basis of our relationships, affecting us so much so that 25% of users believe their contact’s opinions over a politician’s viewpoints. Additionally, 33% of social network users receive their everyday news from these networks. These silos will just become more concrete as 25% of users dissociate themselves with others on the basis of differences in personal opinion.

The world would look so much better through rose colored glasses, nevertheless AR glasses are helping us create draw the reality as we see it fit. With Pokémon GO creating such a massive rift, the advancement in AR technology is at its height. A majority of AR glass users would use the technology to highlight danger around them in order to cancel out the element of surprise. And more than 33% would like to be able to edit out an undesired elements of their life such as garbage and graffiti. NO. 9

LOCK & KEY A diary that quite literally locks in our secret thoughts was once deemed to be the pinnacle of privacy. Encryption technology has done out with key and made our fingerprints and retinas the keepers of our secrets. Many major messaging services offer complete encryption of their service given that 40% of users only want to use encrypted services, and 46% find it to be a necessity for privacy. Although 50% of advanced internet users are satisfied with reasonably good privacy, these lines are not as clearly defined as our thumbprints. NO. 10

SIFTING THROUGH THE SERVICES Long gone are the days of wondering when the next bus will arrive to ease your commute. IT services such as Google are now able to locate you on the map and provide you with multiple modes to convenience your commute. 40% of these consumers are willing to have the biggest IT companies provide them with the most necessary products and 50% of users think that these companies have the most intimate knowledge about them. Consumers are keen on IT companies providing them with rented apartments or housing (34%), hospitals and geriatric care (39%), cars (40%), schools and universities (40%), home security services (42%) and of course half of them trust these companies to be able to provide Internet and mobile broadband access services. NO. 11

THE VIDEO VIRUS With only 13 milliseconds required to recognize an image, the Internet has transformed from a text-based format to 70% of the total traffic comprising of video content. Online videos are only going to increase with the rise of real time, video call and live stream broadcast such as Facebook Live. Furthermore, Cisco has predicted that Virtual Reality (VR) videos will increase 61 times over by 2020; essentially our eyes will replace our fingertips as the control center.

SOURCE: ERICSSON CONSUMER LAB “TEN HOT CONSUMER TRENDS 2017”

www.ibtbd.net

Special Report

THE ROLE OF THRUST SECTORS IN PROMOTING GROWTH

From Bottomless Basket to Basket of Wonders By Nasirra Ahsan

Thrust Sectors in Bangladesh Agriculture Apparel ICT Ceramics Light Engineering Handicrafts

Pharmaceuticals Tourism Healthcare Frozen Food Energy Infrastructure

The last few years have been exceptionally kind to the Bangladesh’s economy. According to the Bangladesh Bank’s data, the country has been enjoying growth rates above 6% in the last ten years and it is expected that it shall further grow by 7% in the fiscal year of 2017. Unsurprisingly the government has designed its policies to support the industries which are contributing to this growth. At a conference arranged by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce, 32 high growth industries, also known as Thrust Sectors, have been identified in Bangladesh and are expected to fetch billions of dollars in export revenue. Thrust sectors/industries are identified as those revenue generating industries which contribute heavily to a country’s industrialization process, helps generate employment and adds to the export income. Due to their contribution to the country’s GDP, these industries are nurtured by the government and enjoy benefits such as tax exemptions, reduced tax rates or accelerated depreciation rates. According to Maris Strategies, a UK based think tank, there are 32 thrust sectors in Bangladesh of which 12 are especially promising. They have been identified in the table below: www.ibtbd.net

Figure 1

Agriculture Sector as % of GDP Crops and Horticulture

Animal Farming

Forest and related services

Fishing

12 10

6 4 2 0

Percentage %

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

S O U R C E : B A N G L A D E S H B U R E A U O F S TAT I S T I C S , 2 0 1 4 - 1 5

2013-14

2014-15

Agriculture Industry Bangladesh’s rural economy, specifically the agriculture sector, has played a major role in poverty reduction. According to the World Bank, the sector aided in the reduction of poverty between 2005 and 2010. Bangladesh has tripled its food production between 1972 and 2014 from 9.8 to 34.4 million tons and has the fastest rates of productivity growth averaging around 2.7% per year. The Green Revolution (spread of 'seed-fertilize-water' technology) has greatly aided rice production in Bangladesh but there has been surprisingly little research on it. Raw jute and jute products, frozen shrimp and fish, and tea are the major agricultural export commodities. While the volume of agricultural exports (except raw jute and jute manufactures) has remained stable, frozen shrimp, frog legs and fish have emerged as significant export items. Fish export earned $612.5 million in 2016 alone while leather and rawhide racked up $208.5 million, according to World Economic Outlook Database. A complete breakdown of the different sectors, within the agriculture industry, with their contribution to our GDP is given in Figure 1.

Despite its impact on food and nutritional security, income generation and poverty reduction, the contribution of the agriculture sector towards GDP has steadily declined as the economy moves towards industrialization. “Though the direct contribution of the agriculture sector has decreased slightly, its indirect contribution to the overall growth of GDP is signiﬁcant. The growth of broad service sectors, particularly the growth of wholesale and retail trade, hotel and restaurants, transport and communication were strongly supported by the agriculture sector.” (Ministry of Finance, 2014).

Figure 2

Import and Export of Raw Materials

SOURCE: GARMENTSMERCHANDISING.COM

Apparel Industry Bangladesh has historically been the exporter of jute and jute made products. As the 80’s rolled along, the demand for jute fell. This is when the RMG sector stepped in. Following the implementation of the MFA quota, the industry flourished and was soon a major export item and “now the apparel industry is Bangladesh’s biggest export earner with value of over $25.49bn of exports in 2014-15 financial year.” (bgmea.com.bd, 2016). Global leaders in the apparel export industry are predictably China and India. However, China is fast losing its place in the international market as its production costs rise. Bangladesh being one of the post –China emerging economies has been competing for the global apparel market share. Despite these positive developments, Bangladesh needs to address the looming issue of the large import of raw materials for the textile industry “such as cotton, yarn, fabrics, staple fibers and accessories for its readymade garments (RMG) industry, which is nearly 35 %of total imports.” (thedailystar.net, 2016). This is shown in Figure 2.

In order to move forward Bangladesh requires both medium and long term strategies for the apparel sector. “European and American buyers have identiﬁed political stability as the key area of risk in Bangladesh. The country also needs to address the qualitative and quantitative expansion of the industry meaning it should be able to adjust its manufacturing capacity to changing consumer demand. Other areas such as reduction in production and distribution time, expansion of linkages and compliance with the code of conduct with the code of buyers will further their hold in the market.” (theﬁnancialexpress-bd.com, 2015).

Pharmaceuticals Products Export (USD Million)

Figure 3

80 70

70.45

72.64

FY 2013-14

FY 2014-15

60.94

60 50

41.68

49.12

45.14

40 30 20 10 0 FY 2009-10

FY 2010-11

FY 2011-12

FY 2012-13

Itemwise Export in FY 2014-15 1.20%

1.60% 19.20%

78.10%

Figure 4 Glands, Extracts, Secretions for Organotherapeutic uses Human & Animal Blood; antisera, vaccines, microorganism Medicament mixtures not in Dosages Medicament mixtures put in Dosages

Pharmaceuticals Industry The Pharmaceuticals sector has been a major thrust sector for Bangladesh. The industry is known for employing high skilled manpower and advanced machinery to help produce universal medicines and vaccines for both local and international markets at competitive prices. According to Bangladesh Brand Forum, the sector was valued at $1.2 billion in 2016 and the figure was expected to grow to $2 billion by 2018. The BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) accounts for almost 70% of all pharmaceutical market sales. Bangladesh has been listed as a Tier 3 country and is expected to contribute 6-7% to the industry by 2017. As a member of the WTO, Bangladesh enjoys the benefits of intellectual property rights that allows producing generic drugs and exports until 2032, providing an advantage to the local manufacturers and exporters. This has allowed pharma companies to exports to 107 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America with export standing at $72 million in 2015.

SOURCE: EPB, 2016

A healthy growth trajectory has encouraged the pharmaceutical manufacturers towards R&D for newer drugs, and to further hearten the producers the government has extensively imposed lower or zero import duty and VAT for certain raw materials/items and certain capital machineries, and also allowed tax holidays of four to six years to investors in this sector.

Light Engineering Industry The Light Engineering (LE) sector has contributed greatly to technological advances, economic development along with wide opportunities in employment generation. This labor-intensive sector produces a diverse range of items, including machinery parts, plant machinery, small tools, toys, consumer items and paper products for the domestic market. The sector has been termed as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the mother of all sectorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; because of the support it provides to the other sectors. According to a study conducted by BUET the LES comprises of 40,000 companies and employs about 800,000 workers. Although exports from the sector have been rising, greater investment and additional government support could see other local industries reduce their reliance on certain products (which would otherwise be imported) by purchasing them from local producers in the Light Engineering sector.

Figure 5

Light Engineering Product Export Performance

SOURCE: LIGHT ENGINEERING PRODUCT BUSINESS PROMOTION COUNCIL (LEPBPC)

Figure 6

Energy Sector's Share as a % of GDP

0.33

0.27 0.07 2010-11

1.08

1.07

1.02

0.99

0.3

0.07 2011-12

SOURCE: BBS, 2014-15

1.04

0.29 0.07

2012-13

0.26 0.07

2013-14

Electricity

0.07 2014-15

Gas

Water

Energy Sector The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) reports that the Energy Sector (electricity, water and gas) added Tk 198,682 million to the country’s GDP in the year 2014-15. This was about 1.37% of the GDP, a marked fall compared to the fiscal years of 2012 and 2013. Regardless, the solar power sector has been identified as a thrust sector. “The government has planned to take 2000 acres of land in Mirersorai and Gaibandha to establish solar parks.” (bdreports24.com). Additionally, the government plans to make electricity available to 100% of the population by the year 2021 allowing this sector more room to grow. Nonetheless, there are several challenges hindering this growth, namely the import of low grade modules, the absence of appropriate government policies and the high interest rates being charged by banks which deters further investment.

Infrastructure Sector as % of GDP

Figure 7

12.00 10.00 8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00 0.00

SOURCE: BBS, 2014-15

Year 2010-11 Year 2011-12 Year 2012-13 Year 2013-14 Year 2014-15

Infrastructure Sector Being amongst the top 12 developing countries, Bangladesh’s infrastructure is in a desperate need for more investment in order to update its current inadequate facilities. “Access to basic economic infrastructure such as roads, communication, electricity, ICT, energy, power, water and sanitation still remains a strategic challenge on the way to industrialization and poverty alleviation.” (thefinancialexpress-bd.com, 2016). Our social infrastructure such as education and healthcare is also lacking. Thus its surprising that the governments allocation of infrastructure funds as part of the Annual Development Plan has consistently declined. It fell from 35.3% in the fiscal year 2012 to 32.1% in FY 2014. The infrastructure sectors contribution to the GDP in percentages is shown below.

www.ibtbd.net

ICT Sector ‘Vision 2021’ is a target set by the Bangladeshi government to make Bangladesh a middle income country with the help of ICT (information and Communication Technology). Their aims is to craft a favorable business environment for innovative companies. ICT being a thrust sector has prompted the government to take various initiatives to achieve the target. Considerable achievements in the IT sector have already been made over several years towards building a ‘Digital Bangladesh’ and more initiatives are coming. However, Bangladesh should concentrate towards further developing the IT sector to draw the attention of foreign investors while at the same time encouraging our entrepreneurs to launch IT companies here. “According to the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), around 800 software and IT-related companies have registered in Bangladesh as of December 2014. The size of the ICT market, excluding telecommunications, is estimated to be worth $300 million.” (export.gov, 2016).

The government has been playing a key role in advancing infrastructure development in ICT, However, it is crucial to remember that both existing and new schemes must be closely linked to the overall economic development and poverty reduction strategy to turn Bangladesh into a middle-income country by 2021.

Ceramics Industry The global ceramics industry is worth $10 billion and even though Bangladesh is a relatively small player, the ceramics industry has the potential to become a large export revenue earner. Thriving in this sector are tableware, sanitary ware and insulators. Individual growth chart has also been provided according to the BCWMA data The cheap availability of gas and abundant manpower being the key ingredient to the rise of this sector. The industry employs an estimated 0.5 million workers of which 40% are female according to the Bangladesh Ceramics Ware Manufacturers Association (BCWMA). “The volume of export of tableware ceramics was Tk 3.6 billion while local sales accounted for Tk 3.25 billion. Tiles export was Tk 120 million with local sales of Tk 18.5 billion. For Sanitary ware the shipment was Tk 80 million, while local sale was Tk 3.90 billion in the fiscal year 2014-15, according to BCWMA.” (thefinancialexpress-bd.com, 2015). There are threats to this business too, such as suspension of GSP, high import duty on import materials, high bank interest rate and the latest gas tariff hike.

The Frozen Food Market

S O U R C E : G O L D E N H A R V E S T P R I M A RY R E S E A R C H

Figure 8

Frozen Food Industry This industry has experienced tremendous amount of growth in recent years, raking in $355 million alone in export for the fiscal year 2014-15 according to the BFFEA (Bangladesh Frozen Food Export Association). However, this export is limited to Shrimps and both fresh and saltwater fish. â&#x20AC;&#x153;According to Export Promotion Bureau, the most significant rise in terms of value was seen in shrimps, which posted a 35% growth to over $331m compared to $246m of 2012. While frozen fish saw a 14% decline to $25m, compared to previous yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s $29m.â&#x20AC;? (dhakatribune.com, 2014). The Industry faces tough competition internationally and the BFFEA has called for more pointed government policies to promote this sector. Meanwhile the domestic demand for frozen foods has also seen a healthy growth. The local demand in frozen food mostly includes chicken and has a thriving market of Tk 2672 million. Local brands have sprouted up to support this booming demand, a snapshot of the major market players have been provided in Figure 8. These industries have greatly attributed to employment, revenue and growth for the country as a whole and are expected to grow even further in the future.

Tourism Sector Invigorating tourism trade in a country will yield many benefits for it, starting from and not limited to creating jobs, improving balance of payment, improving the infrastructure and entrepreneur skills and earning foreign exchange and export revenue. The direct contribution of tourism to GDP was Tk 296.6 billion (1.9% of total GDP) in 2014 and is forecasted to grow by 6.1% per annum to Tk 566.3 billion (1.9% of total GDP) by 2025 (thedailystar.net, 2015). On top of that the industry, in 2014, employed 1,984,000 people (a whopping 3.6% of GDP) and the number is expected to rise to 2,492,000 by the year 2025. Despite all this Bangladesh is lagging behind in the tourism sector compared to other Asian nations such as Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The reasons are many fold. Tourism supporting infrastructure is vastly missing. The country lacks quality hotels and resorts, there are very few recreational activities, there is a marked absence of well trained tourist guides and lastly, entertainment facilities such as theme parks, movie theaters, museums are missing. Furthermore, a large chunk of the population cannot speak or read English and are unable to help foreign tourists.

The UN has suggested using the help of the tourism industry to achieve Millennium Development Goals. Thus the Bangladeshi government needs to do a better job of propping up the ailing industry and turn it into the earning sector that it has the ability to become.

www.ibtbd.net

Handicrafts Sector The Handicraft sector is small and and dominated by a few major players namely Aarong, Kumudini, Karuponno Rangpur, Dhaka Trade and Nipun Crafts. The main products are handloom items, leather goods, wooden, jute and bamboo handicrafts, embroidered goods and so on. Many of these items are even exported to foreign countries. The reason why this sector is relevant is that it is labor intensive and the raw materials required are available in the home country. Moreover, it supports the rural artisans (mostly women) with fair terms of trade. Aarong is a prime example in this sector. It produces a wide range of products ranging from clay pots to diamond jewelry and cotton fabrics. The retail chain alone employs 65000 rural artisans, helping empower them and giving them a chance to alleviate themselves from poverty. With a growing presence abroad, handicrafts companies, like Aarong and Kumudini, have the possibility to become a major thrust sector for Bangladesh.

Healthcare Industry Bangladesh has made enormous progress in healthcare sector compared to its neighboring south Asian nations by raising life expectancy, reducing mortality of mothers and infant. And it has done all that on a surprisingly low national health budget. The main medical care providers are: government, private sector, NGOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and donor agencies. However, the sector is characterized by a massive shortage of skilled doctors and nurses and hospitals are disproportionately bunched in the urban areas while shorthanded and poorly equipped in the rural areas. The government has made an ambitious plan of providing universal health coverage by 2023. In order achieve this, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will need to adopt timely and appropriate strategies. Efforts should also be made on strengthening primary healthcare in both urban and rural regions so as to reduce dependency on donors.

T H E W R I T E R I S P U R S U I N G A N M S C I N E C O N O M I C S AT N O RT H S O U T H U N I V E R S I T Y A N D C A N B E R E A C H E D AT N A S I R R A 1 0 @ G M A I L . C O M .

GIVING BACK

IPDC Finance Limited: Committing

egardless of the depth in the consciousness, IPDC Finance Limited orchestrates itself with the idea of giving back to the society through Corporate Social Responsibility. Taking from its vision, IPDC strives to be the most passionate financial brand in the country by growing with the vibrant youth, women and underserved areas in the country. IPDC understands the imperativeness of a growing youthful population for the prosperity of a country. IPDC Finance Limited has recently become the first

and only Bangladeshi institution to receive the ADFIAP Award 2017 for their outstanding CSR activities in 360-degree childcare which help with birth, academic issues, healthcare and recreation at Macau (Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China). IPDC Finance Limited won the ADFIAP Award 2017 for its sustainable social contribution in “Corporate Social Responsibility” category under “outstanding development projects award”. IPDC Finance Limited becomes the only institution from Bangladesh to win this

IPDC FINANCE LIMITED HAS RECENTLY BECOME THE FIRST AND ONLY BANGLADESHI INSTITUTION TO RECEIVE THE ADFIAP AWARD 2017 FOR THEIR OUTSTANDING CSR ACTIVITIES

prestigious award and marks its proud footprint globally. The ADFIAP “Outstanding Development Project Awards” recognizes and honors ADFIAP members who have undertaken or assisted in projects that have created a developing impact in their respective countries. IPDC believes in taking a 360-angle care from the very birth of a child to its nutrition, education entertainment and convenience. To ensure a healthy beginning, IPDC has been distributing nebulizers and blankets to the people in need in the most winter affected regions of Bangladesh. Uplifting the

to the Broader Spectrum

promising generations to come is a major concern which every other organization mark to address. Very few strive in getting to the crux of the matter behind the increasing dropouts every year. IPDC realized that the pledge to spread the light of education does not end in aimlessly building educational institutions, but it lies in providing a medium to let them cater to it. Considering, the detached parents and kids in this regard, bicycles were distributed by IPDC eased the labor of several school goers who walked barefoot every day. This movement not only saved money for

transportation daily but reportedly also came to be an asset for the whole family. Besides, establishing libraries in the underserved areas and distributing books to the children, sponsoring the Right and Sight Bangladesh, IPDC has contributed to the welfare of many children, creating a ground for the potential leaders of tomorrow. Aside from all the academic concerns, IPDC did not miss out on valuing a child’s most innocent encounter with toys and hence, funded the campaign - ‘Toys are years". IPDC takes the custody of any initiative only with an

avowal of its sustainability as it reckons that every little footfall is a commitment towards prosperity in the coming years. As a part of this project, IPDC Finance Limited with the cooperation of Terre des Hommes’ (TDH) were able to finance the promotion and plantation of 100,000 Moringa trees in Kurigram and Barguna Upazilas. IPDC cautiously chose Moringa for its heavenly benefits. The leaves of Moringa Oleifera provide seven times the vitamin C of oranges, four times the calcium of milk, four times the vitamin A of carrots, three times the potassium of bananas, and

TO ENSURE A HEALTHY BEGINNING, IPDC HAS BEEN DISTRIBUTING NEBULIZERS AND BLANKETS TO THE PEOPLE IN NEED IN THE MOST WINTER AFFECTED REGIONS OF BANGLADESH.

two times the protein of yogurt. Cooking demonstrations on Moringa khichuri were held in 47 Community Clinics and 5 Family Welfare Centers. A total of 4,800 children and their mother/caregivers attended the sessions. Field staff conducted awareness sessions on benefits of Moringa leaves for improvement of nutritional status. Apart from the cooking demonstrations, Moringa cutting were planted in 47 community clinics from 31 unions (in Kurigram and Barguna districts). 446 families received three pieces Moringa cutting to plant in their home. www.ibtbd.net

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The Palace Luxury Resort The Palace Luxury Resort in Bahubal, Habiganj, Sylhet offers an unmatched luxurious experience found nowhere else in Bangladesh. At the Palace you have world class accommodation to pick from. You can reside in the Main Tower Building. With either a fountain view or a garden view to choose from the rooms combine supreme comfort with modern amenities and easy access to all parts of the resort. For those who want to be even closer to nature the Villas are perfect for you providing you with all modern amenities in the most idyllic of settings with nature at your doorstep. Options available are the 1 Bedroom Villas, Honeymoon Villas, 2 Bedroom Villas, 3 Bedroom Villas and last but not least the Presidential Villas. The Presidential Villas offer unparalleled opulence over a vast area nestled in the heart of nature with state of the art amenities like a personal helipad, theater, indoor Jacuzzi, indoor steam bath, Smart 3D TVs and gaming consoles.

The resort also provides state of the art facilities to host any event you want: • The Banquet Hall provides the perfect setting to host events of all types be it wedding receptions, conferences, seminars, workshops or all other corporate and personal gatherings. • The 4 Meeting Rooms are equipped with projectors, professional audio and microphone systems to make your next corporate meeting a highly productive one. • The Amphitheater is crested on top a hill with breathtaking views of the surrounding natural beauty provides the perfect location for all sorts of cultural events. For bookings call at +88 019 1000 1000 or visit the website for more information www.thepalacelife.com

P H O T O G R A P H S P R O V I D E D B Y T H E PA L A C E L U X U R Y R E S O R T

By Zayeema Sarwar

Inside Out

The Advent of Startups in Bangladesh Startups are no longer an unfamiliar idea but the successful kind are rare and have followed some crucial ideas to get there

Startups are always on the lookout to hire people who are not only good at what they do, but are also willing to wear multiple hats and have a genuine interest in the company’s success.

he recent demise of ekhanei.com, owned by Telenor Group alongside Schibsted and Naspers, brought into the light the fickle nature of startups. It has never been easier to take an idea from inception to execution, we live in an ever changing world where technology has engulfed every inch of our lives. And why shouldn’t it? Who doesn’t enjoy the comfort of taking an Uber to work, being able to see and talk to your loved ones, buy tickets online, organize meetings, collaborate with co-workers; all of it with a click of a few buttons? The mother of invention is no longer necessity – it is increasing efficiency, and these are the perfect conditions for startups. While the path to success can seem easy, the path to failure is much easier. But while some experiments have been rewarding for certain startups, they have proved disastrous for others. There are plenty of variables that come into play such as your product’s popularity, the nature of your competition, your company’s structure and your in-house culture. Startups that have seen success are aiming to disrupt the market they are trying to enter, this is where the concept of a sharing economy comes in. A sharing economy uses technology coupled with a peer-to-peer network to share access to goods and services to create online marketplaces. Who would have thought that a company that doesn’t own any real estate would be the provider for travelers to find their housing? A company that doesn’t own cars has more cars than any cab company? Even a company that doesn’t own any restaurants but can offer you food from a wide variety of them in your neighborhood, delivered to your doorstep? The concept of a sharing economy is not new, and the reason why these startups have found success is their ability to reward both parties. In each

case people are getting what they want – somewhere nice to stay when they are travelling that fits their budget and the person renting makes money from the extra space they didn’t have any use for, a quick and comfortable ride to their desired location and the driver makes money from owning their car and getting food from their favorite restaurant without leaving the house while the restaurant also makes money from these deliveries. Startups in Bangladesh have definitely boomed in the last few years. But what does that really mean for the masses? Startups are about more than the fancy offices or the sometimes exciting benefits that employees get. It’s about being scrappy, which means knowing how to do something in the most cost-effective and efficient way possible. While the benefits are competitive, the demands from employees are also very high. You need employees who are “all-in” when it comes to the company. The effect that your work has on the company, mainly because startups are generally small, is clear and as a result you feel more

accountable. The company relies on you to get your job done and do it right. The benefits are meant to be a reward for the occasionally erratic work hours to having to wear multiple hats at the same time. Culture is also important at startups – you need to hire leaders and not managers. The key difference between a manager and a leader for me is that people tend to follow leaders automatically. They don’t need to be told what to do, set an example as a leader – this means sitting with the people you manage and being approachable. Flat-line structures can be a reason for the success of startups who have leaders, people who not only work hard but work smart as well. The co-founders and the first round of hires always set the tone for what culture at the company will be like and the more people you hire the easier it is to lose that on the way. To have the company grow how you want it to – you need to be an advocate for the kind of culture you want in your company. Startups that quickly increase their workforce think that it means instant increases in

T H E W R I T E R W O R K S AT N E W S C R E D A S A C U S T O M E R S U C C E S S M A N A G E R A N D C A N B E R E A C H E D AT Z AY E E M A @ N E W S C R E D . C O M .

I N S I D E T H E

productivity and growth. However, that is rarely the case. You need to be picky about who you hire. Startups are always on the lookout to hire people who are not only good at what they do, but are also willing to wear multiple hats and have a genuine interest in the company’s success. Throwing lots of people at a complex problem doesn’t always mean it’ll get solved faster, so growing quickly should not be the only aim. If you have to fail – fail fast, and then move on. Change is necessary for continued growth but the death of any company is to hold on to the idea of something and not realizing that the masses want something entirely different. Companies have pivoted their whole mission to succeed. Amazon started out as an online bookstore and Jeff Bezos has turned his company into the giant it is today where they are not only the biggest online marketplace in the world but are also dabbling in technology with the Amazon Echo, Kindle e-readers and Fire TV. There are companies that have changed their names

I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y S K . Y E A H H I A

for greater success. However, change itself can have consequences. Ekhanei was more popularly known as CellBazaar; this name change had some impact on its ability to bring back its audience to its website. It worked out amazingly well for Google, previously known as Backrub but they did change their name before becoming popular. Companies need to iterate all the time, it should be a never-ending cycle. The way that companies used to work was to build out a yearly plan and work towards releasing that to their wider audience. Today, the customer is more powerful than ever, facilitated by their access to large networks using Facebook, Youtube and even LinkedIn. Software companies should release new features to customers as soon as possible and as fast as possible. At the very least get it out to your customers to beta test it and get feedback before deciding what to build next. Success does not mean that you stop innovating. Competition can play a key role, the aim is to not only

A D V E N T I N

beat the competition but also to outdo them. There are startups that are competing alongside international counterparts food delivery services like HungryNaki and Foodpanda, or transportation network companies like Pathao and Uber. On the other hand international startup Everjobs is trying to become an alternative to the already established local job portal, Bdjobs. A few other local startups have also experienced success such as some companies providing cleaning services like Sheba and Handymama, logistics companies like Go!Fetch and Oi Khali, and Cookups which lets you order home-cooked food from cooks in Dhaka. Initially companies want to acquire a loyal customer base and then retain those customers while ensuring that they don’t move to their competition. Whether it’s having a larger offering of restaurants or giving discounts to customers on usage, the competition can be tough. Ekhanei has recently come to light and I realized that I stopped visiting the site because Daraz and Kaymu were

O U T

O F S T A R T U P S B A N G L A D E S H

doing more interesting things like the Black Friday Sales. They made attempts to get my attention and won out against Ekhanei. Startups should look to diversify when possible. Companies like Amazon and Google have different interests in the tech world with their interests lying in AI and robotics, among others. Previously known as “Replicant” and now consolidated into X, a subsidiary of Alphabet (the holding company that contains Google and its newer businesses), the moonshot factory is a semi-secret research and development facility that works on incredible projects. Conversely, Amazon has subsidiaries that are closer to their everyday business needs like Goodreads, Audible.com and Amazon Maritime Inc. Lastly, those who believe in their idea and have found the right market-fit have a much higher possibility of success. Finding people who want what you are selling is key. Startups should, however, keep in mind a quote from Ben Horowitz, “The hard thing isn’t setting a big, hairy, audacious goal. The hard thing is laying people oﬀ when you miss the big goal. The hard thing isn’t hiring great people. The hard thing is when those “great people” develop a sense of entitlement and start demanding unreasonable things. The hard thing isn’t setting up an organizational chart. The hard thing is getting people to communicate within the organization that you just designed. The hard thing isn’t dreaming big. The hard thing is waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat when the dream turns into a nightmare.”

www.ibtbd.net

Product Placement

Dissecting Desire THE TOP CONSUMER PRODUCTS

By Syed Apanuba Puhama

IN TODAY’S WORLD, WHERE ‘CITIZENS’ ARE BETTER KNOWN AS ‘CONSUMERS’, ONE MIGHT FIND IT CHALLENGING TO IDENTIFY THE MOST INNOVATIVE AND EXCITING PRODUCTS IN ALL OF HISTORY. FORTUNATELY, IT IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE. THE FOLLOWING ARE THE 10 MOST POPULAR AND INGENIOUS CONSUMER PRODUCTS OF ALL TIME, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER.

[1]

P L AY S TAT I O N

With more than 344 million units sold, the PlayStation is one of the best-selling products of all time. Sorry Xbox. Sony first released this popular game console around 22 years ago, and it had one of the most powerful processors available at the time. The latest PlayStation 4, released in 2013, sold 1 million consoles in its first 24 hours on sale, quickly becoming the fastest selling console in history.

[2] [3]

T O Y O TA C O R O L L A [4]

T H E S TA R WA R S FRANCHISE

The original Star Wars trilogy reportedly grossed $2.4 billion. The two trilogies combined brought in over $4.6 billion in sales, making it one of the most successful film sagas of all time. Currently, production of the newest trilogy of the masterpiece created by George Lucas is underway, after ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ went on to gross over $2 billion at the box office.

Corollas were introduced to the world in 1966, and since then, Toyota has sold over 40.7 million units of this model. Even now, they continue to bring out new versions of this affordable and reliable vehicle, with low gas mileage and improved design. Chances are, at least one member of your family has driven one of these at some point in their lives.

LIPITOR

According to the World Health Organization, the global prevalence of raised cholesterol among adults was 39% in 2008. This explains why, since its introduction in 1997, Lipitor achieved a sales volume of $141 billion until 2011, when the firm’s patent expired. Pfizer’s Lipitor was prescribed to patients with high cholesterol in order to reduce the risk of heart disease.

[5]

i PA D

Since being introduced in 2010, over a whopping 300 million iPads have been sold. Apple’s iPad revolutionized the tech scene and remains, to this day, the most popular tablet on the market, despite the efforts of Apple’s competitors.

[7]

MARIO BROS. FRANCHISE

Ever since their first appearance in 1981, the easily recognizable plumber brothers have managed to make their way into 115 different titles, their own cartoon series and a live-action movie. According to Nintendo, its creator, the original Mario Bros game has sold over 262 million copies, making Mario the most popular video game character of all time.

[9] [6]

MICHAEL JACKSON’S ‘THRILLER’

THE HARRY POTTER FRANCHISE

The King of Pop’s album ‘Thriller’ was not only sold over 70 million times, but it also brought about significant changes in mainstream pop culture. Today, everyone knows the moonwalk and remembers the MTV generation, all thanks to the legendary Michael Jackson’s hit 1982 album ‘Thriller’.

Today, it is next to impossible to find even one person who does not have the faintest idea as to who Harry Potter is. With over an impressive 40 million copies sold in over 73 languages, the Harry Potter books have quickly become the best-selling book series of all time. The novels made J. K. Rowling, the creator of the wizarding world, one of the highest paid authors in the world and led to a movie franchise almost equally as successful.

[8]

iPHONE

Similar to the iPad, Apple’s iPhones have broken records in the smartphone industry for its innovative and advanced features over the years. The smartphone, currently in its 10th generation, has sold over 520 million units since the original 1st Generation release back in 2007. It has been estimated that the iPhone has generated about $150 billion in revenue for Apple since then.

SOURCES: 1. TIME 2 . 2 4 / 7 WA L L S T.

[ 10 ]

RUBIK’S CUBE

For most of us, these multicolored arrangements of tiles play significant roles through childhood and adulthood alike. Unlike the iPhone and a few other things in this list, which have reinvented themselves a fair number of times, the Rubik’s Cube continues to be sold in its original form, created in 1974 by Hungarian architecture professor Erno Rubik. Since then, it remains to be by far the best-selling product in history. With more than 350 million units sold, the Rubik’s Cube is so popular, that no other toy can compete with it, despite their best efforts.

LightCastle Partners

UNNOTY A BRIDGE TO CHANGE

n the history of development, bridges have always played an important role. Back in the early 19th century when the wind of change, widely known as the industrial revolution, reached the USA, among the many big things that were changing peoplesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lives were bridges. From 1820 to 1830, in only 10 years, America built around 65 bridges across the country. Not only America, the whole world has seen bridges changing lives of millions. So what makes a bridge so special? The answer is clearly very simple. Yes, it connects. It reduces distance. From a very hypothetical perspective, it connects two points between which there is a gap. Whenever there is a gap, a bridge is needed to be built- be it a bridge to solve a gap from our personal lives or a bridge to solve a gap which is a national issue. Now that we are talking about gaps, one of the biggest gaps at the business scenario in Bangladesh is the gap between the small and medium businesses in the agricultural sector and institutional buyers. These agricultural Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) make a huge contribution to the economy and hold enormous potential, but due to the lack of formal business training, access to finance and most importantly, platforms to connect to the forward

markets, these businesses are not performing up to their potential. There remains a gap which needs to be bridged. That is where Unnoty comes into the scene, a program aiming to become a bridge between the agricultural SMBs and the private sector. The objective of the program is to work as a platform for the entrepreneurs in agricultural SMBs and the institutional buyers looking for new sources of purchase. Unnoty, a program, currently working with selected group of agricultural traders/entrepreneurs from the southern belt of the country has worked with 57 of them in Gopalganj and Faridpur. In the first six months of the program, the participating entrepreneurs have successfully gained more than 120 new local customers. The key activities of Unnoty include attracting and uniting the high potential entrepreneurs, connecting them to the institutional buyers and exporters, capacity building of the entrepreneurs through formal training and getting them prepared for operating in the forward market, helping them to form partnership with financial institutions etc. To recapitulate, Unnoty, as a platform, aims to become a one stop solution for the entrepreneurs looking for a place in the forward market and institutional buyers looking for a strong and reliable source of purchase. As part of the program, Unnoty has given these entrepreneurs the opportunity to meet the large institutional

buyers like PRAN, ACI Foods, Partex Agro (Danish Consumer Foods), Saint Martin Group and many more. The buyers were glad to have new potential sources of purchasing and needless to say, the traders were enthusiastic about the golden opportunity to have new customers. Unnoty has a plan to spread operations across the country and contribute to Bangladeshâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s agricultural value chain from the bottom to the top. This program is now on its way to go bigger in Faridpur, Gopalganj, Shariatpur, Madaripur, Jessore, Bhola and Patuakhali. All of these activities and plans will not create value if they do not make an impact. Unnoty, as a platform has started to make impact in this short span of time and hence, has transformed lives through providing opportunities. Narayan Biswas, a veteran ground nut trader from Gopalganj, has found the opportunity to have large institutional buyers as his customer for the first time in his 35 years of business. In a meet up session between traders and agro processing conglomerates arranged by Unnoty, Narayan had the opportunity to show his product samples to the company representatives and they were satisfied with the quality. This has become a big opportunity for Narayan to take his business to the next level. On the other hand, the success story of Shamsul Haque is a little different. This seasoned jute trader from Faridpur came to know about product diversification from a training session organized by Unnoty. This triggered a willingness in him to expand his product portfolio. With a loan from the bank, he has set up a JDP (Jute Diversified Product) factory with a plan to make jute bags and sell it to the local market. Currently, he is in the final stage of negotiation with the bank so that he can buy machineries. Unnoty has helped him set sail to his new entrepreneurial journey. Just like this, Unnoty plans to create more success stories and make an impact. The impact it envisages is a robust agricultural sector with highly performing agro businesses and farmers getting benefitted along with the other actors in the overall value chain. Having access to more than 87,000 farmers through agro product traders around the country, Unnoty aims to become the bridge in every gap of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s agricultural value chain; because the bridges can bring changes, even if they are hypothetical.

T H E U N N O T Y P R O G R A M I S I M P L E M E N T E D B Y L I G H T C A S T L E PA R T N E R S W I T H T E C H N I C A L A S S I S TA N C E F R O M T H E U S A I D AV C P R O J E C T.

Social Media Marketing

OVER 800,000 INSTAGRAM USERS IN BANGLADESH FALL IN THE 18-24 OR ‘MILLENNIAL’ AGE CATEGORY

BANGLADESH

A Comprehensive Deep Dive By Shadab Mahbub

WHAT IS CLEAR IS THAT THE OLDER GENERATIONS PREFERS PLATFORMS LIKE FACEBOOK, WHILE THE YOUNGER ONES ARE MORE ON SNAPCHAT AND INSTAGRAM, THIS POINTS TOWARDS A CLEAR DIVIDE.

acebook’s photo-sharing app Instagram is fast emerging as a clear number two in Bangladesh’s social media marketing dynamics. Over 800,000 Instagram users in Bangladesh fall in the 18-24 or ‘millennial’ age category of the 1,500,000 registered users of the application. For advertisers and brands, the focus now is on bundling, or in agency-speak, ‘FB+Insta’. And Instagram, advertisers say, is set on becoming the number two social media platform in Bangladesh. Facebook’s end goal is that no matter where the user is—on an app or a website, logged in through Facebook or otherwise—he or she should see an ad served by its network. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, spoke about Instagram’s potential as an advertising powerhouse. It wasn’t surprising one bit. He mentioned, “Instagram is growing quicker on a percentage basis but it’s much smaller. The ad load

opportunities are higher on Instagram because Instagram is at a lower ad load than Facebook so there is an opportunity for us to continue to grow ad load on Instagram probably beyond—in a longer time frame than there is on Facebook because of that disparity in terms of where they are today.” Consider some numbers, Bangladesh has around 1.5 million users (aged over 13) on Instagram which is nearly 5.5% of the top social network’s overall user base (27 million as of April 2017). Dig deeper, and you will see a sweet spot emerging, with over half its Bangladeshi users (800 thousand) falling into the 18-24 or ‘millennial’ age category. Over the last 18 months, it has managed to achieve immense growth, and almost all of it organically. Statistics show the total time spent on Instagram in Bangladesh on mobile devices in hours is 337.5 million in 2017 (Q1 2017).

AD BUNDLING

Over the last two years, Facebook has changed the way it pitches Instagram to advertisers. The focus now is on bundling, or in agency-speak, ‘FB+Insta’. With the option available on Facebook’s advert manager dashboard, advertisers can buy additional reach by paying a little extra. What also works for Instagram is that if the creative on Facebook is of the same size, the ads automatically appear on its platform.

WORKING WITH LIMITATIONS

There’s a growing perception about Instagram being a premium network, presumably owing to its user profile. However, what could really stop Instagram’s charge is if users abandon the platform and go elsewhere. Which is why, upon realizing the potential threat from Snapchat, Instagram managed to clone and integrate some of its best features. As long as it still keeps attracting newer users to the platform, keeps engaging them, it will continue to grow and advertisers will keep taking notice. The digital pie is still open for everyone to win, according to digital marketing professionals.

WHAT WORKS ON INSTAGRAM

Needless to say, Facebook, particularly in Bangladesh, has been careful about Instagram’s positioning. This reflects in its pitch to advertisers and brands, where it says that if you want to reach a young, urban, aspirational, high-on-lifestyle audience, Instagram is THE platform to tap. What is clear is that the older generations prefers platforms like

Facebook, while the younger ones are more on Snapchat and Instagram, this points towards a clear divide. The older lot don’t want to be on those networks. Add to that the product itself. The content on Instagram is visual, much in-sync with how millennials, not only in Bangladesh but also globally, communicate: pictures, very little text, emojis, snaps (or stories, if you like). And that has drawn advertisers to the platform—the ability to tell compelling stories about brands, through people (read, influencers). And as a platform, it offers users the best of both worlds (Twitter and Facebook): content discovery, the ability to follow, or for that matter, the social graph. All these platforms (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) have their feed-ranking algorithms in place. On Twitter and Facebook, content comes to its users, unlike Instagram, where users look for the content. That’s worked for Instagram. Importantly, it also fits in with Facebook’s end goal: that no matter where the user is—on an app or a website, logged in through Facebook or otherwise—he or she should see an ad served by its network. Advertisers and brands are following suit, slowly but surely. By going where the growing, younger audience is. Instagram appeals to certain types of brands. The mandate essentially is something ‘cool’, ‘fun’, which naturally ends up drawing a lot of engagement from users, in terms of likes, comments or shares. They see Instagram as an important player in the social media marketing mix, which complements

Facebook, especially for lifestyle brands around fashion, travel, make-up, etc. Instagram is a place where people turn their passions into a purchase. With companies from varying industries on the platform, it’s no surprise that 50% of the Instagrammers follow a business. What’s more, 60% of the people say that they learn about a product or service on Instagram and 75% of the Instagrammers

take action after being inspired by a post. What advertisers want from Facebook, today, for Instagram is a smoother interface for better execution. Facebook needs to roll out a smooth enough platform for advertisers and brands, specifically for Instagram. The potential is there. Once they sort that out, it is only a matter of time before it takes off in a big way.

Instagram is like a glossy magazine equivalent of social media. Brands still think of Instagram creatives as print ads: really interesting and attractive.

Beyond the Business

How to Read One Book PER Week By Taposh Ghosh Fact: leaders are readers. Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Howard Schultz, Barack Obama. The list goes on. Successful people are voracious readers because they understand to earn more you need to learn more. For most of us reading is a pastime, one we only pursue when weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re bored, but for leaders, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an investment in their education and often when we look into their success stories, one thing is similar across most of them; they read at least one book a week. To an average man engaged in a 9-5 job, this idea may seem preposterous. The most common mistake we do is read non-fictions, similar to how we read fictions. Fictional fantasy stories demand the reader to indulge into its literary universe, something which is in contrast to the types of books corporates or business leaders prefer reading. The average time to read a book may vary depending on its length, but a 240-page book becomes a lot shorter when you eliminate its Bonus, Appendix, Notes, Index, Acknowledgments, Sources, etc. But reading one non-fiction book a week does not have to be hard, in fact, it is easier than you think, once you know how.

1. LEARN ABOUT THE AUTHOR. Read the writer’s bio. If you can find a brief interview or article online about the author, read that quickly. It will give you a sense of the person’s bias and perspective. 2. READ THE TITLE, THE SUBTITLE, THE BACK COVER, AND THE TABLE OF CONTENTS. Try to get a hold of the gist the book is attempting to deliver. Go through the elements and by now you can give a brief idea about the book, even without having gone through it fully.

3. READ THE INTRODUCTION AND THE CONCLUSION. The author often makes their case in the opening and closing arguments of the book. Read these two sections word for word but quickly. You already have a general sense of where the author is going, and these sections will tell you how they plan to get there (introduction) and what they hope you got out of it (conclusion). 4. READ EACH CHAPTER. Read the title of the chapter and anywhere from the first few paragraphs to the first

few pages of the chapter to figure out how the author is using this chapter and where it fits into the argument of the book. This can help you gain an understanding of the chapter’s significance. If you have grip of the content being discussed, you can skim through the pages without having to go through repetition of topics.

5. END WITH THE TABLE OF CONTENTS AGAIN. Once you have finished the book, return to the table of contents and try to summarize it in your head. Take a few moments to

relive the flow of the book, the arguments you considered, the stories you remember, the journey you went on with the author.

Apart from these, whether you succeed in reading one book a week depends solely on your ability to turn reading into a habit. Instead of only reading when you are “in the mood”, habitualize when you do it. Identify a constant trigger for when to read and commit to it. Only then will you be able to attain this habit of the elites. www.ibtbd.net

Beyond the Business All these items are brought to you by Chef Banefus Gomes. He has 18 years of culinary experience in various international five-star hotels. He is currently the Sous Chef at Four Point by Sheraton Dhaka and looks after the main kitchen at the hotel.

Fine Dining at Four Points by Sheraton Dhaka [ Beef Tenderloin Steak ] METHOD

• Season the tenderloin with salt and pepper. • Sear on the char-grill (you can use a barbecue) and brush with clarified butter. • Finish grilling in the oven with pre-set temperatures based on desired softness. Set aside. • On a plate, season the beef tomatoes with salt, pepper and a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle with sugar and grill on both sides. Set aside and keep warm. • In a pan, sauté the blanched asparagus in 14g of butter then season with salt and pepper. • Heat the natural beef jus, seasoning it with salt and six grams of butter cubes. Pour on the serving plate. • Arrange the char-grilled tenderloin on the warmed plate with the gaufrette potato chips, grilled beef tomatoes and sautéed asparagus spears as pictured above. • Garnish with rosemary sprigs and serve immediately.

INGREDIENTS • • • • • • •

Four pieces of 200g beef tenderloin – 30ml clarified butter 25ml extra virgin olive oil 10g sugar 220g blanched asparagus 20g of butter cubes 150g crispy-fried gaufrette potatoes (you can use a mandolin to make these latticed chips) • 4 fresh rosemary sprigs • Salt and pepper to taste • 200ml natural beef jus

B E Y O N D

T H E

B U S I N E S S

F O U R P O I N T S B Y S H E R A T O N D H A K A

[ Rosemary Garlic Lamb Chops with Potatoes ] METHOD

• Whisk together vinegar, oil, rosemary, garlic, mustard and a pinch each of salt and pepper in shallow dish. Add lamb chops and turn to coat. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes. • Cook potatoes in small pot of boiling salted water for about 8 minutes or until tender. Drain and cut in half. • Melt butter in saucepan and add potatoes, parsley and pinch of salt and pepper and toss to coat. Cover and keep warm. • Heat nonstick skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat. Remove lamb chops from marinade and sear, turning once for about 10 minutes or until medium-rare. • Serve chops with potatoes.

[ Shish Tawook Skewered Chicken ]

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil • 5 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary • 1 clove garlic, minced • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard • salt and pepper • 2 lamb loin chops, or shoulder lamb chops • 3 new potatoes • 1 tablespoon butter • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

INGREDIENTS • • • • • • • • • • • •

4 chicken breasts 3 tablespoons of olive oil 1 red pepper; cubed 3/4 medium-sized onion; cubed 1 teaspoon of rosemary 1.5 teaspoon of thyme 1/2 teaspoon of dried parsley 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper 1.5 teaspoon of salt 1 Cup Yoghurt 1.5 tablespoon of lemon juice Mini wooden skewers

METHOD • • • • • • • • •

Put your thyme, rosemary, parsley, salt and pepper in a bowl and combine. Add the oil and lemon juice to your mixture and whisk lightly with a fork. Pour it all over your chicken, which should be cubed into small cubes. Toss the chicken in the marinade until it's all coated. Get your skewers and start threading, alternating the pepper, onion and chicken. Pour some olive oil into a large pan. Place it over medium heat. Cook on each side for 5-7 minutes. Take it off the stove and eat. www.ibtbd.net

AERODYNAMICS

HOW TO MAKE A DRONE By Nazran Farook

an may not be able to take flight on his own; nevertheless, it does not stop him from reaching the skies in every way possible. The Wright brothers winged our imagination for flight and since then we have continually perfected the art of defying gravity. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve taken it to greater heights by manning machines that take flight from a touch of a remote control. Highly sophisticated, state of the art technology goes into manufacturing a commercial drone. Drones such as the DJI Phantom, Mavic and Go Pro drones are made to withstand extreme situations with outstanding agility while simultaneously recording the sharpest and most stabilized 4K footage. As appealing as all these features may sound, they come with a massive price, setting you back no short of at least $800. So how can you manage to enjoy the experience of owning your personal drone without breaking the bank? Make one yourself.

00 76

C O N S I D E R I N G T H E FA C T T H AT HOMEMADE DRONES CAN BE MADE FOR LESS THAN A QUARTER OF THE COST OF AN INDUSTRY GRADE DRONE, Y O U R I M A G I N AT I O N C A N TA K E F L I G H T W I T H O U T TA K I N G Y O U R S AV I N G S I N THE PROCESS.

Tools for Take Off

You may think that sophisticated machinery would take ages to make but there is actually less than meets the eye. The procedure, as expected, begins with gathering inventory. The construction primarily requires a frame, 4 motors, propellers, the flight controller, and the electronic speed controller (ESC), a signal transmitter, an RC copter controller and a battery. All these components are fairly easy to find in most hardware stores, except the flight controller and the ESC, which can be easily found online at cheap prices. Once all of the components are accumulated,

the building can begin!

Let the Building Begin

The framework to building a drone quite literally starts with a frame; you can either construct one using wood, plastic, spare chunks of metal or go for a prebuilt cheap frame. The most popular form is the quadcopter structure, housing all the electronics on the drone. The next step is to install four motors, on each of the four corners of the drone, using a driller and screws to position it tightly into place. The wiring from the motors should be carefully kept out of reach of the propeller, as it will be subsequently attached. The wires will later be connected to the control unit. Once the motors are ready, the propellers simply need to be tightened onto it. These few simple steps conclude the building portion of

be removed and charged frequently.

Finishing Formations

All elements of the drone will need proper connectivity to operate. Connecting wires will have to be linked from the battery to the motors as well as the flight controller, signal transmitter, and ESC. Input wiring from the motors, ESC and the signal transmitter will have to be accordingly inserted into the flight controller. Once that is done, the signal transmitter will have to be tuned to the same frequency as the RC copter controller, for it to receive commands. Upon completion, the build will be ready to take off unless you want to capture every moment of your “flight”; a dedicated gimbal and an action camera will provide a decent stabilized video output.

AS APPEALING AS ALL THESE F E AT U R E S M AY S O U N D , T H E Y COME WITH A MASSIVE PRICE, SETTING YOU BACK NO SHORT O F AT L E A S T $ 8 0 0 . S O H O W CAN YOU MANAGE TO ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE OF OWNING YOUR PERSONAL DRONE WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK?

the process.

Creating “Command”

Every flying drone must have a control system, which processes the shifts and changes in the direction of air to keep it stable. Ready-to-use controllers can be purchased online and can be fitted onto the center of the drone using tight screws to fix it into its position. Then the Electronic Speed Controller has to be drilled into the bottom side of the drone, leaving space on the top for other essential elements and balancing out both sides. The remaining top space has to be utilized for assembling the battery and the mini signal transmitter. The transmitter may be screwed onto the frame while the battery is taped onto it, as it will have to

Making a DIY drone at home is quite elementary and fairly intuitive. A homemade drone may not be able to compete with the qualities of a commercial drone but it does, however, give one a great bang for the buck. Considering the fact that homemade drones can be made for less than a quarter of the cost of an industry grade drone, your imagination can take flight without taking your savings in the process.

International

Macron’s France

Emmanuel Macron became the French President in 2017, beating rival Marine Le Pen of the Front National Party by a considerable margin. He now faces challenges home and abroad on a vast number of issues, the first of which involves getting support from the National Assembly.

By Sheahan Nasir Bhuiyan

Mr. Macron’s win in the French Presidential elections was greeted with relief, both at home and abroad. Despite the rise of populist, far right sentiments across the world, Macron secured a significant victory, beating Marine Le Pen and her Front National Party by a margin of 31%. It’s the second highest victory margin in France since Ms. Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen was defeated by Jacques Chirac in 2002.

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM EN-MARCHE.FR

What was interesting this election was that for the first time since the Fifth Republic was established in 1958, France has a President who is not from the two established political parties; The Socialists on the left wing, and their right leaning counterparts, The Republicans. In order to pass through his policies, he needs their support in the National Assembly elections set to be held in June 2017. And that’s

where things get interesting. Despite such a large margin of victory, many voters in France have actually reluctantly voted for him. According to polling company Ipsos, 43% of the voters voted for him to oppose the Front National Party. Only a remarkable 24% of the voters voted for him because they agree with his policies or like his personality. Street interviews of young French voters conducted by www.ibtbd.net

Al-Jazeera revealed they oppose his economic policies, describing them as neo-liberal. This shows how difficult the path that lies ahead is for Emmanuel Macron. He has to appease voters on both sides of the political aisle through his policies. Macron is socially liberal and fiscally conservative. As the minister of economy under previous President Francois Hollande (Socialist Party), Macron played a crucial role in formulating many of the austerity policies which proved unpopular with the French public and ultimately cost the President his job. The new President wants to bring similar economic policies as those utilized in the United States and the United Kingdom. He wants to attack left-wing policies which has been a hallmark of French economic culture such as its 35 hour work week and cutting down corporation tax from 35% to 25%. He wants to negate the influence of trade unions and cut down bureaucracy involved in operating businesses. The President has pledged to cut down government spending by $65 billion during his term. According to Al-Jazeera, this amount is equivalent to job losses of around 120,000 in the public sector. At the same time, he has also pledged to introduce a $54 billion stimulus package aimed at tackling youth unemployment by providing training schemes. At least $16 billion of that

amount will be directed towards green initiatives. Such policies are very likely to alienate left leaning voters, while winning over their counterparts on the right. On the other hand, his other, non-economic policies are likely to have the opposite effect. President Macron is a strong advocate of remaining within the European Union, albeit with changes to how it is run. He wants to implement reforms which would make the Union more accountable to members of the European Parliament. He also wants to appoint a special Eurozone minister who would oversee the Euro currency and will be answerable to the elected officials. A key issue where the President can win over the left is through his immigration and asylum policies. In this regard, he is in line with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He believes refugees should be granted asylum and France should take its fair share. He wants to introduce new measures to integrate migrants into France, including state funded language classes for newcomers. Another important issue for the French voters was the threat of terrorism. France has been targeted by groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and was subject to a number of attacks recently. Macron plans to recruit more than 10,000 police officers to

THE WRITER IS A DEPUTY MANAGER FOR C O M M U N I C AT I O N S AT B R A C I N T E R N AT I O N A L . H E C A N B E R E A C H E D A T S H E A H A N . B H U I YA N @ B R A C . N E T.

IN ORDER TO PASS THROUGH HIS POLICIES, HE NEEDS THEIR SUPPORT IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS SET TO BE HELD IN JUNE 2017. AND THAT’S WHERE THINGS GET INTERESTING. counter this threat on an immediate basis. He has also drawn up long term solutions to wipe the threat out completely, including the creation of de-radicalization centers for former ISIS fighters to help them integrate back into society. He wants to shut down places of worship that promote “extremist” ideologies. The President wants to train and educate more imams in France rather than bring them in from abroad. Although he personally supports the display of religious attire in public, he also believes corporations can make their own rules in regard to religious clothing. The challenge for Emmanuel Macron will be to pass any of these policies. His first hurdle lies in the National Assembly elections, due to

take place in June 2017. The National Assembly is like the House of Congress in the United States. In order to pass his policies, it is critical that he get the support from the Assembly. It will be a really interesting election as Macron’s policies have elements that appease and inflame both sides of the political spectrum. It seems this could be a lasting theme throughout his term. Mr. Macron has chosen ministers from the Socialists, the Republicans and newcomers. He appointed conservative Edouard Philippe as his Prime Minister. Although it looks very balanced on paper, if no majority is determined, there may be the danger of a political deadlock, and ultimately an inability to go forward with his policies.

Surface for The Masses

THE PROMISING EMERGENCE OF THE NEW SURFACE LAPTOP When Steve Jobs released the MacBook Air back in 2008, famously pulling the sleek machine out of a brown manila envelope. It was far from being the most powerful computer in the market — it was more of a lightweight fashion accessory that did a reasonably okay job as a STUDENT LAPTOP or a generic home computer — but there was no denying that it was super-sleek, beautiful, and everybody naturally wanted one. It didn’t take long for the MacBook Air to gain ubiquity across any demographic that could afford it, and even ones who couldn’t often found themselves going for one. Rival companies were slow to mobilize a counterattack against the Air, and by the time the first ultrabooks (the Windows and Intel-powered ultra-slim laptops) started to hit the market, they found themselves facing stiff competition.

owever, the Air hasn’t received an update in a long time, and its specs have not aged well over the years since its last rehash. It’s supposed successor, the MacBook (one can’t help but marvel at the originality of Apple’s product naming conventions), while a beautiful and almost absurdly slim device in its own right, was shockingly lacking in terms of specs and power, while being grossly overpriced and being saddled with only a single USB-C port for power and peripheral connectivity alike, thus necessitating the use of converter dongles. It is the perfect time for the emergence of the perfect alternative to the MacBook

Air, and Microsoft has been working on precisely that. The result? The Surface Laptop.

With an advertised battery life of over 14 hours, the Surface Laptop isn’t Microsoft’s first foray into portable computers, but it is the first true clamshell laptop offering from the company since the Surface Book convertible computer.

Sporting latest-generation i5/i7 CPUs from Intel, a 13.5” high-resolution screen and a competitive price tag starting from $999, the Surface Laptop a worthy competitor of the MacBook Air. While it comes with the somewhat limited (for now) Windows 10 S operating system, it can be upgraded to a more standard form of Windows 10 for an additional $50. While it is more expensive than similar offerings from other brands, the

BY ABHIJIT ASAD

Tech

premium pricing is justified by the premium quality of the device — its aluminum chassis (available in four different tints), glass-coated touchpad and Italian Alcantara wrist rest all speak volumes about the device’s build quality and finish. The Surface Laptop, however, will not be incorporating USB-C ports into its design, because Microsoft believes that the USB-C protocol is yet to reach maturity before it can be integrated into a device targeted at the mainstream. Unlike designer-focused offerings like most previous Surface devices, the Laptop is truly a workhorse for the masses. People who specifically need machines for tasks that require more horsepower would be better off with the Surface Book, the next Surface Pro or even the Surface Studio, but for most people the Surface Laptop should suffice just fine.

UNLIKE DESIGNER-FOCUSED OFFERINGS LIKE MOST PREVIOUS SURFACE DEVICES, THE LAPTOP IS TRULY A WORKHORSE FOR THE MASSES.

T E C H

BY ABHIJIT ASAD

Return of the King?

he once-hallowed name of BlackBerry in the smartphone world, which it actually helped pioneer, has been dragged through the dirt for years, as it feebly struggled to survive while Android and Apple took over the world with devices that simply outclassed whatever BlackBerry had to offer. BlackBerry had been slow to accept the changes in the needs and wants of consumers and to respond to the challenges faced by it, and their sluggish response has taken its toll. One bad decision after another brought the company down to its knees, upon which it finally opted for the adoption of Android for its next device, the BlackBerry Priv. Although the Priv sported BlackBerry’s trademark beloved hardware keyboard, it was an overpriced and somewhat cumbersome device with specs that didn’t quite qualify as flagship material, and it therefore failed to make a proper dent in the market despite its immense potential. However, in a surprising turn of events, BlackBerry has quietly rolled out a new phone called the , with very little fanfare, and it is this new phone that seems to have finally hit the sweet spot. Rather than aiming for a lofty flagship position, the KeyOne positions itself comfortably as a mid-range device, with an octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor, 3 GB or RAM, 32 GB of storage (expandable up to 2 TB, thanks to the microSD slot) and a healthy 3,505 mAh battery that should keep even a hardcore power user going happily for more than a day on a single charge. The latest version of Android (Nougat) running on the KeyOne ensures

KeyOne

BLACKBERRY HAD BEEN SLOW TO ACCEPT THE CHANGES IN THE NEEDS AND WANTS OF CONSUMERS AND TO RESPOND TO THE CHALLENGES FACED BY IT, AND THEIR SLUGGISH RESPONSE HAS TAKEN ITS TOLL.

IT’S TAKEN AGES, BUT BLACKBERRY HAS FINALLY PRODUCED A GOOD PHONE AGAIN

greater battery efficiency than ever before. The KeyOne is no slouch in the camera department either, with a 12-megapixel rear camera which can capture videos at 4K and also features digital image stabilization. The 8-megapixel front camera is also quite decent. These specs are quite admirable on paper, and perform adequately in real life. The display is a tad small, at only 4.5” (with a non-widescreen resolution of 1620x1080), but that particular concession had to be made to accommodate for the KeyOne’s physical keyboard, which renders it worthy of an old-style BlackBerry pedigree, existing in stark contrast with the touchscreen keyboards which virtually every smartphone utilizes nowadays. Not only is the keyboard a joy to use, but it features a number of additional handy features, such as a fingerprint scanner inconspicuously merged into the spacebar. One can even map shortcuts to apps, contacts etc. to long-presses of hardware keys. The KeyOne also boasts excellent sound output, with loud, clear speakers and great call quality. However, where it shines truly is in the productivity department. The unusual screen resolution and the hardware keyboard make it quite clear from the beginning that this is not exactly an entertainment device. However, one would be hard pressed to find a device that can make thumping out emails at ridiculous speeds while on the move nearly as enjoyable. The device is a tad overpriced at $550, but its uniqueness in the market more than makes up for that. If you are looking for a professional phone, look no further.

T E C H

BY IRFAN AZIZ

Do smart watches make us more productive?

martphones have changed our lives forever, and the latest generation is comprised of technology that is wearable in the form of watches. These smart watches have gained a lot of popularity in the last two years or so and in many ways have made life more convenient. Watches that allowed us to make telephone calls and look at videos were things we only saw in James Bond films, but technological innovation has worked its magic yet again. Smart watches have an array of features ranging from receiving calls, getting notifications for emails, listening to music, keeping track of your health and not to mention access apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. So, as you can tell, smart watches make life easier for us but to what extent does it increase one’s efficiency in the corporate world. Does it enhance your productivity? Let us analyze some of the benefits of owning a smart watch before we can come to a conclusion.

NEVER MISS AN IMPORTANT EMAIL OR NOTIFICATION

Smart watches help you to stay on top of any incoming emails or notifications. You don’t have to worry about missing out on anything because you kept your phone in silent mode. You are basically wearing your notifications with you wherever you go. This removes the need for you to take out your mobile phone to check them constantly, giving you access to the world in the palm of your hands, well at least your wrists.

KEEP IN TOUCH WITH COLLEAGUES AND SUPERVISORS EASILY

Various apps allow you to text people from your smartphone. You have the option of sending text messages and even use good old Whatsapp. Furthermore, apps like Slack has made it more convenient for us to share documents and send text messages from your watch without getting your phone out of your pocket or backpacks. Imagine traveling in public transport or going to a place where it is inconvenient to bring out your phone, you can easily use these apps to beat the situation. Nifty, right?

MANAGE TIME AND TASKS MORE EASILY

We can easily set alarms and reminders, make to-do-lists to get our tasks done more conveniently and efficiently. Smart watches allow you to carry out these things without the hassle of writing it on a piece of paper or even taking out your phone every 5 minutes to check a task off your list.

To be honest, all of the points aforementioned points sound pretty neat and all but these can all easily be completed with a smartphone. However, granted that smart watches do help us save a few seconds here and there as opposed to other gadgets, so the benefits are just short-term. Its long-term effects, however, are pretty insignificant at the moment. Another key point here is, the high-end smart watches are the ones that have a plethora of features, but their cheaper alternatives have limited features thereby making smart watches a not so cost efficient accessory to own. The gadget does indeed increase our productivity in the corporate world. Even though it is not much of an increase but given the rate at which technology is progressing, we won’t be surprised if a newer generation of smart watches that further increase productivity are released in the coming months. crease productivity are released in the coming months.

Word of mouth

HAPPENING

Four Points by Sheraton Dhaka is ready to treat its guests’ taste buds with extravagant offer in this month of Ramadan where guests can choose their desired option. Their signature restaurant “The Eatery” is offering the Ifter & Dinner Buffet for the guests with two different kinds of iftar arrangements. The Eatery at tower building will serve a wide array of iftar items at Tk 3999 net. People who want to have more selected items with bit calm environment then the “The Eatery Suites” is the perfect place for them to enjoy the Iftar & Dinner Buffet at Tk 2999 net. Every Thursday night people can enjoy the Lavish Buffet Suhoor at Tk 2200 net. Dilruba Chowdhury, Director, Corporate Planning of East Coast Group and Omar Bushlaibi, Commercial Support Manager of Emirates signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations under which Emirates will provide special corporate rates for tickets purchased by EC Aviation Ltd., a sister concern of East Coast Group

Highlighting the importance of developing business relationships and promoting best working practices, the sixth edition Bangladesh Denim Expo started on 17 May. The theme of the 2-day expo was set as ‘Denim Networks’.

IDLC Asset Management Limited has announced the launch of its first open end mutual fund - IDLC Balanced Fund - on 22nd May, 2017 through a grand event. IDLC Balanced Fund offers fund management through skilled Fund Managers mitigating investment risk. Investors can invest anytime, any amount starting from Tk 5,000 (for individuals) and Tk 50,000 (for institutions) with the facility of anytime fund withdrawal at Net Asset Value with the lowest exit load

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Radisson Blu Chittagong Bay View presents a vast array of unique experiences during the upcoming Holy month. The hotel is hosting the first In-Hotel “Ramadan Bazaar” in the history, right in the lobby, where visitors can find a wide range of products to ensure their Ramadan is spent in a more enjoyable way. Its Iftar buffet followed by dinner is priced at Tk 2950 all-inclusive per person

Advertising agency Mattra has recently won the Golden Globe Tigers Awards 2017 held in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The agency won the award for its “Equality through Dignity” campaign of Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF). The foundation is a non-governmental organization that works on gender equality, the agency said in a statement.

Reception of the third batch of freshman at the Universal Medical College took place at a convention center in Dhaka Startup Weekend Dhaka just came to completion after 3-frenzy days. The event was organized by SD ASIA. From 18th- 20th May, startup enthusiasts from Dhaka and outside Dhaka came together at GP House to work on their ideas, brainstorm solutions, identify open and untapped markets and discuss key innovation points that will shape the future of startup innovation and entrepreneurship in Bangladesh

Rangs Motors

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THE DHAKA-BANK TRANS-SIBERIA PHOTO EXHIBITION

KORE FACILITATIONS: COFFEE WITH CORPORATES To guide people towards the right career path Kore Facilitation hosted a career boot-camp session on 6th May, 2017 with the association of Krispy Kreme, Dhaka Tribune, Bangla Tribune, ICE Business Times, The Daily Samakal, Secret Diary and Pin Point Photography. Sultana Shikder Ahona (Vice President- Mutual Trust Bank Ltd), Tauhidun Nabi (Assistant Vice President- United Commercial Bank Ltd) and Kazi Naim (CEO & Lead ConsultantKore Facilitation) have delivered their valuable speeches for the participants. As part of the career counseling mock interviews has been conducted by renowned corporate leaders. After the interview qualified candidates received recommendation letters from top notch corporate leaders. CV drop box was another attraction of this event which assists the job seekers to find out suitable jobs.

The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East. The idea for traveling through Trans-Siberian Railway got seeded during Discovery Travel’s tour of Egypt in the year 2010. Discovery Tours & Logistics started operating a 16 day long Trans Siberia Tour from September 2012. The tour covered 13 cities starting from Beijing to St. Petersburg. After 2012, Discovery Tours arranged this tour every year. On the 5th of May, the two day long ‘Dhaka-Bank Trans-Siberia Photo Exhibition’ was opened by Abdul Matlub Ahmed, Chairman FBCCI. The exhibition pictures were taken by the Members of the Discovery Travel Club. Md. Zahirul Alam Bhuiyan, CEO, Discovery Tours & Logistic placed his speech and thanks to everyone who attended the opening ceremony.

Capital Market BOURSE UPDATE

Fortnightly Report of DSE, 16th April To 30th April 2017 Top 10 securities by turnover value in Tk. Sl. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Name of securities

Category

LankaBangla Finance Ltd. Shahjibazar Power Co. Ltd. Ratanpur Steel Re-Rolling Mills Limited United Power Generation & Distribution Company Limited Regent Textile Mills Limited BDCOM Online Ltd. Bangladesh Export Import Company Ltd. IDLC Finance Limited SAIF Powertec Limited Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

A A A A A A A A A A

Total Turnover in shares 85,133,916 13,509,174 17,646,937 9,834,948 44,086,428 46,661,085 43,268,359 19,011,409 32,243,840 11,637,237

Total Turnover Tk. in mn 4,603.85 1,999.63 1,558.00 1,527.00 1,485.19 1,463.79 1,461.14 1,383.76 1,366.86 1,306.70

% of Total Turnover Tk. 6.64 2.89 2.25 2.20 2.14 2.11 2.11 2.00 1.97 1.89

Total Turnover in shares 85,133,916 75,168,501 60,230,417 58,581,983 55,044,960 46,661,085 44,086,428 43,268,359 42,550,394 36,462,306

% of Total Turnover shares 3.98 3.51 2.81 2.74 2.57 2.18 2.06 2.02 1.99 1.70

Top 10 securities by turnover in shares Sl. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Name of securities

Category

LankaBangla Finance Ltd. PHP First Mutual Fund Tung Hai Knitting and Dyeing Limited Prime Bank Ltd. National Bank Ltd. BDCOM Online Ltd. Regent Textile Mills Limited Bangladesh Export Import Company Ltd. Evince Textiles Limited Export Import (Exim) Bank of Bangladesh Ltd.

A A A A A A A A A A

Total Turnover Tk. in mn 4,603.85 617.22 1,056.14 1,271.90 768.56 1,463.79 1,485.19 1,461.14 995.69 505.53

Top 10 gainer securities (based on closing price) Sl. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Name of securities BDCOM Online Ltd. Northern Jute Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Bangladesh Finance and Investment Co. Ltd. Prime Insurance Company Limited aamra technologies limited Mercantile Bank Ltd. Premier Leasing & Finance Limited. Islamic Finance & Investment Ltd. Paramount Insurance Co. Ltd. Prime Bank Ltd.

Category A B A A A A B A A A

Current Fortnight Closing Price 35.70 370.10 19.10 21.10 36.60 18.10 19.20 26.90 20.40 22.60

last Fortnight Closing Price 26.50 303.50 16.00 18.50 32.40 16.10 17.30 24.60 18.90 21.20

Current Fortnight Closing Price 18.60 15.10 23.50 16.90 8.20 32.10 25.70 18.60 24.70 53.00

last Fortnight Closing Price 27.80 19.40 28.90 20.70 9.90 38.60 30.70 22.20 29.40 62.40

change %

Turnover Tk. in mn

Daily Avg. Turnover Tk.in mn

34.72 21.94 19.38 14.05 12.96 12.42 10.98 9.35 7.94 6.60

1,463.79 84.79 514.08 36.01 396.61 479.30 445.25 962.30 36.66 1,271.90

133.07 7.71 46.73 3.27 36.06 43.57 40.48 87.48 3.33 115.63

change %

Turnover Tk. in mn

Daily Avg. Turnover Tk.in mn

442.92 1,056.14 148.63 402.84 13.02 1,274.33 146.50 1.66 210.77 4,603.85

40.27 96.01 13.51 36.62 1.18 115.85 13.32 0.15 19.16 418.53

Top 10 loser securities (based on closing price) Sl. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Name of securities IFIC Bank Ltd. Tung Hai Knitting and Dyeing Limited Tosrifa Industries Limited Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd. Shurwid Industries Limited City Bank Ltd. Far East Knitting & Dyeing Industries Limited Asia Insurance Co. Ltd. The Peninsula Chittagong Ltd. LankaBangla Finance Ltd.

Category A A A A Z A A A A A

(33.09) (22.16) (18.69) (18.36) (17.17) (16.84) (16.29) (16.22) (15.99) (15.06)

Disclaimer: Dhaka Stock Exchange does not hold any responsibility for these date.

Fortnightly Report of DSE, 2nd May To 15th May 2017 Top 10 securities by turnover value in Tk. Sl. Name of securities No. Doreen Power Generations and Systems Limited 1 United Power Generation & Distribution Company Limited 2 LankaBangla Finance Ltd. 3 Shahjibazar Power Co. Ltd. 4 Ratanpur Steel Re-Rolling Mills Limited 5 Bangladesh Finance and Investment Co. Ltd. 6 One Bank Limited 7 Argon Denims Limited 8 SAIF Powertec Limited 9 Mercantile Bank Ltd. 10

Category A A A A A A A A A A

Total Turnover in shares 18,589,545 12,374,662 39,755,827 10,875,914 15,961,238 61,771,770 57,480,908 32,533,560 23,199,569 55,589,738

Total Turnover Tk. in mn 2,377.74 2,085.34 2,076.55 1,627.90 1,396.01 1,351.99 1,255.02 1,172.64 1,019.46 1,013.11

Total Turnover Tk. in mn

Total Turnover in shares

Top 10 securities by turnover in shares Sl. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Name of securities

Category

Bangladesh Finance and Investment Co. Ltd. One Bank Limited Mercantile Bank Ltd. National Bank Ltd. Prime Bank Ltd. Export Import (Exim) Bank of Bangladesh Ltd. Premier Leasing & Finance Limited. International Leasing and Financial Services Ltd. LankaBangla Finance Ltd. FAS Finance & Investment Limited

A A A A A A B B A A

Top 10 gainer securities (based on closing price) Sl. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Name of securities FAS Finance & Investment Limited Northern Jute Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Intech Limited Malek Spinning Mills Ltd. GQ Ball Pen Industries Ltd. National Feed Mill Limited Rupali Bank Ltd. Doreen Power Generations and Systems Limited Ambee Pharma Ltd. Tosrifa Industries Limited

A B A A A A A A

Current Fortnight Closing Price 17.80 458.80 16.50 23.20 91.40 27.70 29.80 130.10

A A

415.20 26.10

Category

Top 10 loser securities (based on closing price) Sl. No.

Name of securities

Category

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Export Import (Exim) Bank of Bangladesh Ltd. Janata Insurance Company Ltd. Asia Pacific General Insurance Co. Ltd. Phoenix Finance and Investments Ltd. Nitol Insurance Co. Ltd. MIDAS Financing Ltd. IFIC Bank Ltd. Islamic Finance & Investment Ltd. Fareast Finance & Investment Limited Uttara Bank Ltd.

A Z A A A Z A A A A

Source: Dhaka Stock Exchange

Current Fortnight Closing Price 11.20 10.50 18.60 25.10 21.80 27.40 16.40 23.80 11.20 22.70

1,351.99 1,255.02 1,013.11 733.81 969.31 573.38 838.94 640.90 2,076.55 714.11

61,771,770 57,480,908 55,589,738 51,701,528 42,765,111 42,501,185 42,282,799 40,162,752 39,755,827 39,681,833

% of Total Turnover Tk. 3.87 3.39 3.38 2.65 2.27 2.20 2.04 1.91 1.66 1.65 % of Total Turnover shares 3.21 2.99 2.89 2.69 2.22 2.21 2.20 2.09 2.07 2.06

last Fortnight Closing Price

change %

Turnover Tk. in mn

13.40 370.10 14.10 20.20 79.80 24.30 26.50 115.90

32.84 23.97 17.02 14.85 14.54 13.99 12.45 12.25

714.11 64.30 272.53 153.38 143.99 976.47 36.34 2,377.74

Daily Avg. Turnover Tk.in mn 79.35 7.14 30.28 17.04 16.00 108.50 4.04 264.19

373.50 23.50

11.16 11.06

28.79 229.42

3.20 25.49

change %

Turnover Tk. in mn

Daily Avg. Turnover Tk.in mn

(19.42) (19.23) (13.49) (13.45) (13.15) (13.02) (11.83) (11.52) (10.40) (10.28)

573.38 6.25 1.19 87.74 3.12 62.10 278.67 894.20 337.76 64.05

63.71 0.69 0.13 9.75 0.35 6.90 30.96 99.36 37.53 7.12

last Fortnight Closing Price 13.90 13.00 21.50 29.00 25.10 31.50 18.60 26.90 12.50 25.30